Latest Technology News

Data released by NPD Group Thursday indicates that among a wider slump in the video game industry in June, Microsoft was able to move back into the top spot in console sales for the first time in months. Overall revenues were down six percent year-over-year to $1.1 billion.

Software itself saw a much wider drop, as sales were off some 15 percent to $531 million. It is not exactly clear why sales of video games themselves were much lower, although it could be a lack of blockbuster titles able to buoy the sector as a whole.

In a short-notice press conference today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed the iPhone 4 reception issues that have been at the top of tech news for several weeks.

In short, users complained of a significant drop in wireless signal when they touched a certain area of the iPhone 4 chassis with as little as the tip of the finger. Videos were posted, opinions were aired, and in short, the typical furor around Apple products was whipped up in practically no time at all. But this time it was very negative.

Computer company Dell today issued a statement announcing that it has proposed settlements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission "on terms consistent with the settlement framework described in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for its fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2010."
The company has been under investigation by the SEC for nearly five years for suspicion of negligence, fraud, and misconduct in the company's deals with Intel Corporation.

Dell's 10-Q document (.pdf here) was filed in late June. It says:

There is no shortage of file sharing services out there, and most offer a free tier that lets users upload and download very limited quantities of data, followed by a couple of subscription tiers for users interested in sharing more data. Typically, the first level of these subscription services runs $10 per month and charges work their way up from there.

Gygan, a new file sharing service recently launched in public beta, is challenging services like RapidShare, Megaupload, Dropbox, and YouSendIt by offering fewer limitations on sharing and hosting, and a cheaper point of entry to their subscription tiers.

Discovery Communications intellectual property subsidiary Discovery Patent Holdings filed suit against Amazon Wednesday, claiming Amazon's line of Kindle e-book readers infringe on two patents held by the company. The suit is the second between the two companies over such technologies.

Amazon was originally sued by Discovery Communications in March of last year, accusing the company of violation of a comprehensive patent on e-book readers titled "Electronic Book Security and Copyright Protection System" (#7,298,851). This covered the Kindle and Kindle 2 models.

Download MaxiVista iPad for Windows from Fileforum now!

Windows users can now use the Apple iPad as a wireless display extension with a software package released in beta today called MaxiVista from German software company Bartels Media.

On July 16, Apple is holding an unspecified media event about iPhone. The presumption is that the company will finally address the so-called Death Grip, where bodily contact with the lower left-hand side of iPhone 4 causes the signal indicator to decline. I'm assuming that's the purpose of the event and here offer up five things Apple should do there to handle the public relations problem.

First, I'll offer some brief analysis. Apple should never have let Death Grip get so out of hand. Apple marketing is as good as -- often better than -- its products. The company masterfully generates good perceptions. But Death Grip seems to have squeezed the life out of Apple's PR and marketing staff and CEO Steve Jobs. Apple's lack of assertive action shows that there is some validation to blogger, Consumer Reports, customer and journalist reactions to reported antenna problems. Something is wrong. But is it really all that bad?

Today, Ford announced that its Sync in-car command, navigation, and entertainment system has improved its voice recognition interface by increasing the vocabulary by more than 100x, allowing system commands to be much simpler and more direct.

The Sync system was developed through Ford's partnership with Microsoft, and launched in 2007 on twelve 2008 Ford vehicles. At first, the system was very limited in what it could do, and included the ability to operate USB media players hands-free, connect to mobile phones via bluetooth, and export diagnostic data. The voice interface launched with around 100 commands, which reflected more or less the menu structure of the system.

In a sign that Hewlett Packard is becoming much more serious about WebOS following its acquisition of Palm in April, the company has apparently "tabled" its plans for an Android-powered tablet. The device was originally intended to come to market later this year.

Sources told All Things Digital Thursday that HP has no new timetable for the release of the device. Following a similar fate for the Windows-powered Slate, it certainly seems as if WebOS is the future at the company. It is not known whether the Android project may be restarted.

Today, Motorola's latest Android superphone, the Droid X, is available for purchase through Verizon Wireless for $199 after the $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year service contract.

Billed as the sequel to Motorola's breakthrough Droid smartphone, the Droid X has a much larger 4.3" screen, a 1GHz TI OMAP 3640 processor, 512MB of DRAM, and 8GB of onboard memory with support for microSDHC up to 32 GB.

Today, a select group of PlayStation Plus subscribers got access to the first preview version of Hulu Plus on the PlayStation 3.

Hulu Plus is the new subscription tier for the popular streaming TV website which lets U.S. subscribers watch their favorite programs on connected TVs, Set-top boxes, mobile devices, and now video game consoles for $9.99 per month.

French canadian online news site Cyberpresse said Wednesday that Apple had purchased 3D map making company Poly9, possibly indicating the company has plans to enter the competitive online mapping sector with an entry of its own.

The acquisition is the second mapping-related acquisition. A year ago, Apple silently acquired Placebase, a mapping software company. Together, the technology would enable the Cupertino company to produce a product that could be akin to Google Earth.

US consumers and small businesses aren't rushing out to buy Office 2010, which doesn't surprise me. "Units and dollars are down from Office 2007's initial two weeks of sales but are in line, and in fact slightly ahead of, sales trends of Office 2007 so far this year," Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, blogged yesterday. "Even so, sales of Office 2010 in general have to be characterized as a bit disappointing during the first two weeks."

The sales sentiment contrasts starkly with the Office 2007 retail launch, when during the first week "sales jumped 108.6 percent in terms of units and 106.3 percent measured in revenue compared to Office 2003." NPD data reflects US online and brick-and-mortar retail sales.

According to tax documents submitted for the years 2006 through 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has recovered only a tiny fraction of its total legal expenses through "Anti-Piracy Restitution."

The documents, hosted here, here and here by p2pnet and highlighted by New York attorney Ray Beckerman, show the RIAA's top five most highly compensated independent contractors for these three years. This included the law firms Holme, Roberts, and Owen, LLP, Jenner & Block, and Cravath, Swaine and Moore, who received a total of $17,614,901 in 2008 alone.

Connecticut-based XPRT Ventures said Wednesday that it had sued eBay and its subsidiaries for infringing on six patents related to e-commerce. The company said it shared the technologies "in confidence" with the auction site, but eBay apparently used those technologies for financial gain.

Specifically, the suit alleges Paypal's Pay Later, Buyer Credit, Balance Manager, and the checkout system infringe upon XPRT's technologies. The company is asking for $3.8 billion in damages, and was filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del.