Ed Oswald

Nokia indicated on Tuesday it might contest a ruling by a court of arbitration over alleged infringement of the patents of U.S. company InterDigital. InterDigital says that the court ruling means that Nokia would need to pay the company as much as $252 million in royalty payments.

These payments would cover technology used within Nokia phones during the period from 2002 to 2006. The actual size of the payment that Nokia is to make to InterDigital was not specified by either company.

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Microsoft on Tuesday said it was preparing a global debut for SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006, which will launch November 7 at an event in San Francisco. The company says that the newest versions of the programs will offer better interoperability, productivity features, and enhanced support.

"These products mark a new generation of platforms for connected systems, and are not only designed to work better together, but will enable customers to better connect with existing systems, trading partners, customers and employees," Andy Lees, vice president of the server division at Microsoft told attendees of Tech Ed 2005 Europe.

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For years, Deutsche Telekom has denied publicly that they would sell the U.S. arm of its worldwide T-Mobile phone operation. However, fund managers have told the press that the company plans to make a decision to sell the unit within the next several months.

At issue is the costs related with an eventual upgrade to 3G. The company is unsure whether or not it wants to spend the $5 to $10 billion that it is expected to cost to bring these data services to customers.

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XM Satellite Radio said on Friday it had gained an additional 640,000 subscribers during the second quarter, bringing its total subscriber base to over 4.4 million. That number is a little over 1 million short of its 5.5 million year-end subscriber target. The increase is 18 percent higher than last quarter, and a 53 percent increase year over year.

"This was the best second quarter in the history of XM. The momentum behind XM's subscriber growth is undeniable," Hugh Panero, CEO of XM said in prepared remarks. "In just one year, XM has more than doubled its subscriber base." Competitor Sirius has not announced quarterly numbers, however it did report 1.4 million customers at the end of the first quarter.

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Hewlett-Packard announced on Friday that it would sell its own branded iPod Shuffle beginning immediately. The addition of the Shuffle now means HP carries the entire line of iPods from Apple under its own iPod+HP brand. The low-cost Flash-based iPods will be available through HP's own sales channels including RadioShack, Sears and Wal-Mart.

HP's iPod pricing will be identical to the current pricing from Apple, with the 512MB Shuffle retailing for $99 USD and the 1GB for $129 USD. HP had announced earlier in the year that it was considering carrying the iPod Photo; however, with the changes in Apple's lineup the company will now carry branded color iPods instead.

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Microsoft settled another of its antitrust cases on Friday, announcing it had reached a settlement with IBM worth some $775 million. The suit was filed in the mid-1990s and said that Microsoft had hurt the sales of its OS/2 operating system as well as its hardware and software business by some of its business practices.

As part of the deal, Microsoft will also credit IBM $75 million for the installation costs of its software on IBM's company machines. The agreement comes after two months of talks, and the group running up against a self-imposed July deadline to come to an agreement.

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Those hoping for Crazy Frog to just go away will not be happy. British independent gaming publisher Digital Jesters announced on Friday that it had won the rights to produce a video game based on the character, which it hopes to have out by the holiday shopping season across Europe.

The game initially will be available on the PlayStation 2 and PC platforms, and initially launch in Europe where it has been most popular since November. Axel F, a ringtone featuring the character, recently made history as the first to make it to the top of the UK pop music charts. It stayed there for four weeks.

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Although they may be rivals in the mobile phone industry, Samsung and Motorola announced a deal on Friday that will allow them to share technology between the two companies. The move is in an effort to prevent legal issues related to each other's intellectual property, or IP.

Samsung, which reported the deal in a filing with the Korea Exchange, said it was barred from releasing terms of the deal. Deals like this are not uncommon - Samsung also has a deal with Sony to share some of its patents, and LG and Matsushita of Japan settled disputes over plasma display technology by sharing theirs. Samsung and Motorola are No. 2 and 3 in terms of mobile phone sales.

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The federal government continued its crackdown on Internet piracy Thursday by announcing a $50 million, 11-nation crackdown on piracy groups. The investigation resulted in four arrests, along with the seizure of hundreds of computers and the closure of at least eight major piracy servers.

Chirayu Patel, 23, William Veyna of California, 34, David Fish of Connecticut, 24, and Nate Lovell of Colorado, 22 were all arrested and charged with copyright violations. The four are accused of being members of "warez" piracy rings.

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Bill Gates hinted to Japanese reporters Thursday that Microsoft might be interested in licensing the Xbox software to third parties. The move could turn the Xbox into a platform, with clones flooding the market and giving Microsoft more leverage to oust Sony's PlayStation as the dominant gaming console.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, "the basic software" for the Xbox system would be offered. However, no formal decision has been made as of yet. The licensing agreement could be similar to the way Microsoft licenses Windows to computer makers, but Gates offered no specifics as to who may use the Xbox software.

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Microsoft is reportedly eyeing yet another acquisition, but this buyout may prove to be a lot more controversial. Redmond is in talks to buy Claria, the company that is behind the adware program Gator, which has been criticized for its actions in serving unwanted pop-ups and tracking Web usage.

According to press reports, the most recent offer by Microsoft was $500 million; however, the negotiations may break off before a deal can be made. There are fears that such a deal may send the wrong message to consumers, as Microsoft's own anti-spyware program detects Claria software as "high risk" and recommends deletion.

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MSN announced on Thursday that it had reached a deal with Vodafone to bring the MSN Messenger service to the European phone operator's 155 million customers. Vodafone users will pay for the service through their monthly bill, and messenger users will pay through packages made available through the service.

Vodafone already has a service known as Vodafone Messenger, which allows customers to talk to one another from either mobile-to-mobile or pc-to-mobile and vice versa. Today's announcement adds the capability to talk to MSN contacts an added option.

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Gateway on Thursday launched a new line of desktop PCs aimed at the back to school market, featuring Intel dual-core processors and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 across the entire line. The new machines are also built on a BTX chassis, which is a modification of the old ATX design.

The BTX chassis claims to provide better air circulation and heat dissipation for today's faster processors that give off more heat. Another positive of the chassis is the limiting effect it has on acoustic noise within the computer, producing a much quieter system overall.

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Just one day after filing suit against Intel for anti-competitive practices, AMD went on a full-court advertising press to urge consumers to take action as well. The full-page ad ran Wednesday in several papers including the New York Times and the Capitol Hill Roll Call.

In the ad, AMD explained its reasons for filing the suit and how Intel's alleged monopolistic practices harm consumers. AMD also claims in the ad that Intel is using its market power to force computer makers to use only Intel processors and threatening retaliation to prevent companies from using AMD.

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T-Mobile's European arm will use Google as the home page for its T-Zones mobile Internet access on its mobile phones, the company announced on Wednesday. The wireless operator hopes the change will promote greater Internet usage on its service.

In a period where phone revenues are falling, companies are hoping compelling data services will offset these losses. T-Mobile says it is moving towards offering easier access to the full Internet rather than just a select group of Web sites as is common today among service providers.

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