Qualcomm Rejects Nokia Licensing Payment
Qualcomm and Nokia's battle over patent royalty payments intensified Thursday, with Qualcomm rejecting Nokia's $20 million USD payment for licensing WCDMA-based technologies for the second quarter of 2007.
The payment is said to be a fraction of the agreed-upon licensing fees in the 2001 agreement, and Qualcomm continues to assert that it amounts to an extension of previous agreements. It also noted the amount was far less than what Nokia is asking in return for licensing its own patents.
CBS Announces Broad Online Distribution
UPDATED Deals have been announced with AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh. These would build upon deals already announced with Amazon, Apple, and Yahoo, among others.
Previously aired episodes of Survivor, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and the CBS Evening News along with other programs will be made available through these services. Content would be provided at no cost to the consumer, and would be advertiser supported.
Report: Shareholder Unrest Building at Sprint
Recently, a shareholder revolt caused major changes at gaming company Take-Two. Could momentum for a similar change be building at telecom Sprint Nextel?
'Activist' investor firm Relational Investors has quietly been building a 1 percent stake in the company, and has demanded in meetings that the Sprint rein in spending and shed certain subsidiaries in an effort to become profitable, news sources report.
Vonage Loses CEO, Plans to Restructure
As Vonage faces increasing uncertainty over its future, it now must look elsewhere for a new chief executive as Michael Snyder abruptly announced his resignation from the company.
No reasoning was given, and the company will immediately begin the search for his successor. In the meantime, Chairman Jeffrey Citron will serve as interim CEO until a replacement could be named.
Comcast Snags Fandango, Debuts New Video Site
Comcast said Wednesday it will acquire movie site Fandango, as well as launch a new entertainment site aimed and helping manage its entertainment experience across different devices and channels.
The Fandango acquisition will play a large part in the new site, called Fancast.com. The site will also continue operating as it had before the acquisition, as well as continuing its exclusive relationships with several major theater chains.
Verizon Wireless Offers EV-DO as Backup
Verizon Wireless said Wednesday it has begun offering a service which allows businesses to use its high-speed data network as a backup to standard Internet connections or when more bandwidth is needed.
The company has announced the BroadbandAccess Wireless Router Service, as well as announcing an interface cart select Cisco service routers that will allow networks to connect to the service.
Google Earth Used to Highlight Darfur Crisis
Google is attempting to draw more attention to a tragedy some claim is ignored by both politicians and the media -- the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum has joined with the search giant to offer an online mapping project to further the case for action. The maps are said to provide evidence of crimes against humanity throughout Darfur.
Google Nearing TV Ad Deal With DirecTV
Google may be close to snagging a second distributor for ads sold through its recently-announced television advertising program, with blog VentureBeat reporting that it may be about to sign a deal with satellite provider DirecTV.
Such a deal would give the Mountain View, Calif. a decent base from which to build on. Along with DISH Network, which it signed a deal with last week, Google would be able to offer its customers a potential reach of nearly 29 million television viewers.
.eu Storms into Top 10 Web Domains
The .eu domain has become one of the most popular in the world only a year after its launch, ranking third most common in the European Union.
About 2.6 million domain names have already been registered, the European Commission reported on Wednesday. One survey indicates that as many as one out of every five Europeans owns a .eu name.
Toshiba Sues 17 Companies Over DVD Patents
Toshiba filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission and sued 17 companies in U.S. District Court, alleging that the companies are infringing on patents related to DVD technologies.
The actions were filed mainly against Chinese and Korean based manufacturers. Toshiba asks that the court halt the imports of DVD players, recorders, and other DVD related products into the United States.
Microsoft Patches Vista Flaw, 4 Others
As part of April's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft corrected an issue within Windows Vista that could allow for a variety of attack vectors, along with issuing patches for three other Windows flaws and one in Content Management Server.
The Vista related flaw resides in Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem (CSRSS) process, Microsoft said in an advisory. Three separate flaws are fixed by the patch, including a critical code-execution problem and two less serious denial-of-service and privledge escalation risks.
Viacom Signs Yahoo for Search, Ads
Aiming to put its search product in front of more Web users, Yahoo on Tuesday said it had signed a multi-year partnership with Viacom that would place its search on 33 sites initially, possibly expanding to 140 additional sites worldwide at a later date.
In addition, the deal includes an agreement to use "Panama," a contextual ad service now under development at Yahoo. The moves show a willingness by the Sunnyvale, Calif. based company to compete with Microsoft and especially Google on all fronts.
Cablevision to Appeal Remote DVR Ruling
Cablevision is set to appeal a March ruling which found that its plans to offer a remote DVR service infringed on the copyrights of the broadcast networks, it said Tuesday.
The cable operator initially announced its plans in March of last year, which called for the storage of programming on the company's own servers rather than on the set-top box itself. Several networks objected to the plans.
Microsoft, US Disagree on China Piracy
While Microsoft is confident that sales in China will increase as a result of a crackdown on piracy in 2007, the United States government is not. It filed complaints with the World Trade Organization on Tuesday.
Microsoft says sales during the year will increase some 20 percent in China, due to an overall decrease in piracy of its software. For example, 90 percent of Lenovo computers had pirated copies of Windows installed in 2006. This year, that percentage has decreased to 30 percent.
Halo 3 Beta Set to Start May 16
The highly-anticipated Halo 3 multiplayer beta will be made available across Xbox Live starting May 16, the company said on Tuesday.
Beginning 5:00am PT on May 16 and running through June 6 at 11:59pm PT, the download will be offered through the Xbox Live Marketplace. Access to the beta will only be provided to those who registered either through the "Rule of Three" promotion or by purchasing specially marked copies of the game Crackdown.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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