A Federal Communications Commission engineering report released late Friday essentially backs a plan to create a free wireless Internet service by dismissing concerns about interference for existing providers.

The FCC has been considering auctioning 25 megahertz of spectrum in the 2155MHz to 2180MHz band. As part of the rules for using the spectrum, the FCC plans to require license holders to offer some free wireless broadband service.

The FCC sees the plan, which is based on a proposal submitted to the FCC by M2Z Networks in 2006, as a way to provide broadband Internet service to millions of Americans who either can't afford or don't want to pay for high-speed Internet access.

But existing providers like T-Mobile USA, which spent $4.2 billion in 2006 acquiring spectrum in an adjacent band, say that opening up this spectrum would cause interference and disrupt service.

Friday's report, however, concludes that spectrum could be used as planned "without a significant risk of harmful interference."

Click here for a PDF of the full FCC report.

It should be noted that this free Internet plan is separate from a proposal to use so called unused TV spectrum, also known as "white space" for wireless broadband services.

Despite the tanking economy, Apple's new MacBooks due to be unveiled Tuesday are creating some buzz (see Techmeme) and propping up Apple's stock price. The latest alleged pictures in the wild are of the new aluminum case (above) of the forthcoming systems posted on MacX.cn.

According to AppleInsider.com, the new higher end MacBook Pro will include a mini-DVI connector and a single FireWire 800 connector.

Overall the changes don't look major other than the shift to aluminum and the rumored substitution of Intel's chip set of Nvidia's graphics chip set, as reported by AppleInsider.

Inotera was founded as a joint venture by Qimonda (formerly the memory products division of Infineon Technologies) and Nanya Technology. Micron said the deal constitutes an expansion of its relationship with Nanya.

In the current Qimonda-Nanya partnership, Inotera operates two 300-millimeter wafer fabrication facilities producing a total of 120,000 wafers per month, Micron said.

Under the agreement, Micron will acquire access to half of the manufacturing capacity of Inotera, with the other half allocated to Nanya. Micron said it will also share its Stack DRAM technology with Inotera for the production of Stack DRAM products for Micron and Nanya.

This agreement follows an October 9 announcement in which Micron said it would reduce its global workforce by approximately 15 percent during the next two years as it scales back flash memory chip production in Boise, Idaho.

MySpace has unveiled "MyAds," an advertising technology focused on small businesses and individuals rather than the huge brand advertisers that the News Corp.-owned social network is best known for. It's a platform in which an advertiser can allocate exactly how much to spend--between $25 ad $10,000--and target its audience using the HyperTargeting system that MySpace debuted just under a year ago.

With HyperTargeting, MySpace says that there are more than 1,100 specific ways to target an ad based on geography, demographics, interests, and other information sourced from public profile data. Advertisers can then keep tabs on performance through online analytics.

MyAds is currently restricted to MySpace in the U.S., where it has about 76 million members.

The "self-service" model is similar to what Facebook has done with its own ad platform--create an ad, choose how much to spend, select a target audience. But MySpace has a more obvious clientele in mind: bands. The MyAds homepage explicitly recommends the service for band promotion, something that gets very close to MySpace's roots as an independent music hub.