Three New Toshiba Satellites to Feature AMD Turion 64 X2 CPUs
Late yesterday, AMD was finally able to confirm what a Toshiba spokesperson leaked two days ago to the Japanese business press: Toshiba will indeed ship notebook computers that include AMD processors.
Today, we can absolutely refute reports that Toshiba selected AMD's low-end line: The world's #4 notebook manufacturer will go with AMD's media-savvy M690 chipset announced last March, and the latest Turion 64 X2 dual-core models announced earlier this month.
No Conspiracies Revealed by Novell 10-K Filing About Microsoft Pact
If anyone still believed that Novell would be compelled by law to reveal the shape, size, and caliber of the gun held to its head when it made its still-controversial patent covenant agreement with Microsoft, he was disappointed by the details in Novell's annual 10-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday. Novell's description of the deal matches almost verbatim a similar description from its last 10-Q filing in February.
In other words, there was no "Ah-ha!" moment, so reporters scavenged the filing to locate a juicy tidbit.
Certicom Patent Suit Against Sony Threatens to Unravel AACS
In a move whose repercussions could seriously impact the future development of the AACS content protection system, and even endanger the production plans of high-definition disc console manufacturers worldwide, cryptography software provider Certicom this morning filed suit in Marshall, Texas, against Sony Corporation.
Its claim is that Sony's use of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) in two of its implemented technologies - AACS and Digital Transmission Content Protection - conceptually violate Certicom's patents for that cryptographic method.
Where is Microsoft Going Today with Its Touch-Table 'Surface?'
This morning's announcement by Microsoft of a new specification for table-top touch-sensitive computers - highlighted by a demonstration package produced for NBC's "Today" program - came as no surprise to BetaNews readers who read about an early demonstration of what's now being called "Microsoft Surface" technology, at the company's WinHEC conference in Los Angeles two weeks ago. But judging by its reception, the early demo may have gone off less splendidly than the NBC package.
The concept has been in Microsoft's labs for quite some time, and it's certainly not the only company that has ever worked on this idea: multi-point touch-sensitive horizontal displays that enable information to appear on a table, and that let users "grab" it as though it were objects movable beneath a transparent surface.
Broadcom Wins $19.64 M: Qualcomm Infringed on Three Patents, Says Jury
Just as it appeared the warring factions in the long-running Qualcomm v. Broadcom battle may have been winding down their disagreements to a precious few, a jury in Santa Ana ruled this afternoon that among the few remaining items of dispute between them, Qualcomm did indeed willfully infringe upon three of four.
But the "willfulness" portion of the jury's ruling was important, because it enables a federal judge under current US patent law to impose treble damages: up to three times the ascertained value of the infringing technology's impact on the market, which is the $19.64 million number. Thus US District Judge James Selna is within his rights to triple the damages to just under $59 million.
Burst Media CEO: Will Google + DoubleClick Fit?
Now that the pairing of online advertising industry giants DoubleClick and Google is receiving extra regulatory attention, both in the US and abroad, the question arises once again: Does a merger of two giants lead to the creation of a single behemoth that can carve out a lion's share of the Web audience for itself? One of DoubleClick's long-time competitors - Burst Media CEO Jarvis Coffin - believes it won't.
In an interview for BetaNews a few weeks ago, Coffin espoused the merger, as well as the Yahoo + Right Media deal reached later, as smart and sensible, creating new efficiencies rather than lumping together databases or audiences.
FTC Will Investigate Google + DoubleClick: Did Microsoft Make the Call?
Early this morning, The New York Times reported that the US Federal Trade Commission would be expanding its otherwise normal investigation into the prospective merger deal between contextual advertising giant Google and display advertising giant DoubleClick, by issuing Google a "second request" for more information late last week.
The FTC has issued no statement on the affair, and has declined to answer questions, though the Times report and other subsequent news items are raising the question of whether the FTC is acting on its own accord, or at the behest of others - as one theory has it, Microsoft.
Toshiba to Roll Out AMD Turion-based Notebooks
A report from Reuters early this morning states that a Toshiba spokesperson stated it will end its exclusivity with Intel, with a deal that would deploy AMD processors in 20% of the company's laptop computers. The report cites Nikkei Business Daily as the source, but provides few details.
One detail which Reuters apparently corrected from an earlier report is that Toshiba plans to include AMD CPUs in mid-range laptops for both consumer and corporate markets in the US and Europe, not entry-level, value systems as has already been widely disseminated. We can assume this means Toshiba will be using AMD Turions, not mobile Semprons, or at least not yet.
Linux Foundation: We Have Our Own Patent 'Arsenal'
In an op-ed piece published by BusinessWeek today, Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin stated his organization will be ready to fund the legal efforts of anyone who produces Linux software who's threatened with - or sued on account of - patent infringement. If necessary, Zemlin writes, the foundation will use its own patent portfolio to mount countersuits.
"Touch one member of the Linux community, and you will have to deal with all of us," reads Zemlin's article. "Microsoft is not the only - perhaps not even the largest - owner of patents in this area. Individual members of the Linux ecosystem have significant patent portfolios. Industry groups, such as the Open Innovation Network and our own legal programs at the Linux Foundation, aggregate our membership's patents into an arsenal with which to deter predatory patent attacks. With our members' backing, the Linux Foundation also has created a legal fund to defend developers and users of open-source software against malicious attack. We don't expect to but, if needed, we will use this fund to defend Linux."
Windows Server for Consumers: Is There a Place in the Home?
With the near-ubiquity of network architecture as a fundamental part of nearly all computing and digital communications, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft would develop a SKU of Windows Server directed toward the consumer. Windows Home Server may have a substantive impact in the home computing environment, opening up new avenues for connectivity and functionality that home distros of Linux, and even the more media-savvy Mac OS, thus far haven’t considered.
Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg has often said that Microsoft is in a unique position among the world’s corporations: It must find a way to market essentially the same product to a business systems architect as well as a cola-drinking, detergent-using consumer.
Facebook Becomes a Software Company with Platform Rollout
While Web platforms and tools providers over the past decade have been opining at length over the potential ubiquity of Web services that perform simple and specialized data-fetching tasks for individual customers, Facebook today tried a completely new spin on the old message: actually doing it.
In a surprisingly well-controlled and planned rollout, the social networking site that advertisers were beginning to see as yesterday's news, or so-o 2006, unveiled the next wave of its strategy to take on MySpace and its other competitors in the social space: It has engineered a Web services interface, based on an extension of HTML and well-used scripting languages such as PHP, to enable both individual customers and corporations to provide information services through the Facebook system using little pieces of software.
Top 10 New Features in Windows Server 2008
There are a myriad of both subtle and fundamental differences in the basic architecture of Windows Server 2008, which could dramatically change not only the way it's used in the enterprise, but also the logical and physical structure of networks where it's the dominant OS.
The abilities to consolidate servers, to manage hardware more effectively, to remotely manage hardware without the graphical traffic, and to radically alter the system security model, could present a more compelling argument for customers to plan their WS2K8 migrations now, than the arguments for moving from Windows 2000 to Server 2003.
Nokia Makes Good on Threat, Countersues Qualcomm
After Qualcomm rejected a $20 million payment from Nokia made with the intention of extending a license to use the network chipset provider's WCDMA technologies, Nokia responded this morning by countersuing Qualcomm. It claims some of the underlying technology in Qualcomm's chipsets actually belongs to Nokia.
Last month, following Qualcomm's extension of its August 2006 patent suit against Nokia, the cell phone maker publicly argued that Qualcomm may be using technology covered by as many as 100 Nokia patents, in its GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets.
DRM Debate Resumes Over 'Managed Copy' for Blu-Ray, HD DVD
A full three years after the idea for it was first raised, and well over a year since the first generation of high-definition DVD players was supposed to have included it, the debate over both the meaning and implementation of mandatory managed copy (MMC) for the final 1.0 version of the AACS copy protection scheme has been re-ignited.
As IDG correspondent Jeremy Kirk first reported for InfoWorld early this morning, representatives of the AACS Licensing Authority and essentially all the major US movie studios may be finally close to an agreement on MMC, though AACS LA Chairman Michael Ayers did not reveal what that agreement may entail, and which side may have compromised the most.
Novell CTO: Let's 'Make Patents a Non-Issue'
The company that last year notoriously partnered with Microsoft to form a covenant that protects its customers from being sued for copyright violations, today announced it's partnering with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a three-year-old effort to challenge the validity of patents for relatively ubiquitous technologies.
Novell said today it will contribute humanpower and resources to the EFF's lobbying efforts for legislative reform, though it did not specifically tie itself to the Patent Reform Act currently being debated in both houses of the US Congress.
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