iPhone News Updated

Developers swarm to iPhone: Less than a week after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs offered outsiders a chance to make games and other business applications for the iPhone, the response has been remarkable.

More than 100,000 program developers have downloaded an iPhone software kit Apple made publicly available to them on March 6, the Cupertino company announced today.

By adding game and business applications to its phone, the company hopes to broaden the device's appeal and better compete with the Blackberry. AOL, Electronic Arts, Epocrates,salesforce.com and Sega already have used the kit to create iPhone applications.

View YouTube via TiVo: Eager to give its customers access to multiple home-entertainment sources, San Jose-based TiVo said today it will let subscribers view online videos via Google's YouTube.

TiVo, the pioneer of DVRs that let viewers skip commercials, will let subscribers log into their accounts with YouTube video-sharing site through their set-top boxes. The service will be available this year to customers with TiVo Series3 DVRs.

Seagate eyes broader market: Seeking to boost sales of its storage devices beyond personal computers, Seagate Technology - which is based in the Cayman Islands, but operates out of Scotts Valley - said today it is creating a division to focus on consumer electronics.

The unit will serve clients who design video-game consoles, digital video recorders and media players.

"The home storage market is expected to grow tenfold in the next five years and represents an increasingly significant opportunity for Seagate," said the company's Chief Executive, Bill Watkins.

IBM gobbles local software firm: Redwood City-based Encentuate, which makes software that lets people access various applications and documents with one password, has been bought by International Business Machines, IBM announced today. The deal - the terms of which weren't disclosed - is part of an ongoing effort by IBM to snap up software companies so it can better compete with Microsoft.

Speaking of Microsoft: That company's founder Bill Gates urged Congress today to lift caps on visas for skilled foreign workers in order to spur technological innovation in this country.

"We live in an economy that depends on the ability of innovative companies to attract and retain the very best talent, regardless of nationality or citizenship," Gates said in testimony submitted to the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology today.

"The U.S. immigration system makes attracting and retaining high-skilled immigrants exceptionally challenging for U.S. firms."

Gates also repeated calls for the federal government to spend more on basic scientific research and improve math and science achievement in high school. He and several committee members said they were concerned about the lack of interest of U.S. students in technical fields.

Silicon Valley tech stocks:

Up: Applied Materials, EBay, Electronic Arts, Google, Oracle, Sun Microsystems. Down: AMD, Apple, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Intel Intuit.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Down 11.89 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,243.87.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average: Down 46.57 points, or 0.38 percent, to 12,110.24.

And the Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 11.88 points, or 0.90 percent, to 1,308.77.