Wi-Lan settles with Infineon, gains hundreds of patents
More than a year and a half after suing 22 companies for infringement of three of its Wi-Fi/ODFM patents, Ottawa, Canada-based Wi-Lan Technologies has just settled with one of the defendants, Infineon Technologies, who has agreed to a licensing deal.
As a part of the settlement, Infineon will license several Wi-Lan patents in wireless and wireline technology, including xDSL and Wireless LAN. While most terms of the deal are confidential, a separate transaction occurred between the two companies this week, in which Wi-Lan purchased a number of patents from Infineon.
Lenovo abruptly drops ThinkVantage 'big blue button' support
It was announced in late March, but only as Lenovo owners get around to updating their systems are they becoming aware that ThinkVantage System Update (TVSU), the power behind the "big blue button," has been discontinued, eliminating the line's beloved automatic-update capability.
One-click driver update capability has been a longtime feature of the ThinkPad line, which include a large programmable button (labeled "Access IBM" on IBM-era machines and "ThinkVantage" on the later Lenovo models) set up for that purpose. Clicking the button after boot-up fired up the TVSU process, which downloaded many if not all of the driver updates required for that particular machine.
Usage share for both Windows and IE sink ever so slowly
In Web usage statistics now expanded to include mobile platforms, Windows is slipping against not just Macintosh and Linux, but also against iPhone, iPod Touch, and Java ME. This according to the latest live statistics from Net Applications, which samples global Web traffic from its clients.
Among visitors to all of Web sites tracked by Net Applications, Windows has dropped nearly 3 full percentage points in under a year, falling from 94.8% to 87.9% between June 2008 and April 2009. Apple's Mac OS rose from 7.94% to 9.73% over the same time frame, while Linux clients broke the one percent hurdle for the first time ever, stepping from 0.80% to 1.02%.
Dish Network adds remote DVR access
Following in the footsteps of TiVo and DirecTV, Dish Network today launched Dish Remote Access, which lets customers access and program their home DVRs from any Internet connected device.
Users can search for, and schedule to record, content on multiple receivers up to nine days in advance. Searches can be filtered by genre, channel, content rating, language, and more. There are currently a few limitations to the service, which include a lack of control over external hard drives, no ability to switch between Tuner 1 and Tuner 2, and over-the-air listings that are subject to irregular availability.
No clear decision on Microsoft .NET Micro Framework's new business status
Granted, Microsoft's not accustomed to scaling back operations as drastically as it has had to this year, so it's understandable when a company gets the first-time jitters. But as of this morning, not even the people who direct the development of .NET Micro Framework -- Microsoft's innovative development platform for small devices -- can give a definitive answer with regard to what's happening to the project, shedding only selective rays of light on already fuzzy explanations.
On Wednesday, ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley was first with a story saying Microsoft had made the decision to release the .NET MF project to "the community," though the company left the true definition of that term to the rest of the world to ponder. Foley's original source for her story -- as is typical for the veteran journalist -- was Microsoft itself, whose spokesperson had told her and others in the press, "Microsoft also intends to give customers and the community access to the source code," She also quoted portions of the statement saying the business model for .NET MF was changing to "the community model."
EA invites beta testers for Ultima Online expansion pack
Electronic Arts' MMORPG-centric studio Mythic Entertainment, is now accepting applications for the closed beta of Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss, which will begin later this month.
Ultima Online is one of the most popular and longest-running massively multiplayer games in existence, which according to EA was the first of its kind to reach a subscriber base of more than 100,000 active users. Stygian Abyss focuses on Gargoyles, characters that have been central to the Ultima series since Ultima VI was released nearly 20 years ago for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64.
Wakoopa survey reveals the software geeks use most
Ever wondered who the heck uses AOL's proprietary software in 2009, or if anyone's seriously still on Yahoo? A first-ever survey from Wakoopa holds the intriguing promise of looking primarily at the computer habits of People Like Us. For now, anyway.
Wakoopa, which provides a social-networking and application-search space for software users, garners its data through a (voluntary) desktop tracking program that clocks which apps users use and for how long, along with apps users recommend and share with each other. So far, over 75,000 users have installed the tracker.
RealNetworks lets Facet glitter, briefly
One day before closing arguments are scheduled in the Hollywood suit against RealNetworks and its RealDVD product, RealNetworks' CEO gave out some tantalizing information about its Facet set-top box -- both confirmation of what it is and financial numbers that indicate how much it means to the company.
Glaser described Facet to analysts on the company's quarterly earnings call as Linux-based hardware running a software stack "designed to be the successor to the consumer DVD player." We knew that. In fact, it's generally thought that Facet represents a consumer-ready DVD jukebox -- rip once, watch forever, and with control equivalent to a decent DVR (at least).
The legacy of Khan: Star Trek's first collision course with the mainstream
My best friend Jeff saved me a copy, because he knew I'd not only want to see it but dissect it, the way a hungry crow goes after a freshly slammed armadillo in the middle of I-35. I was a Star Trek fan the way a New Yorker is a fan of John McEnroe or an Oklahoman is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, loving to see them in the spotlight but always critiquing their style. Jeff was the assistant manager of a movie theater with four (four!) screens, so he got the advance promotional kit for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Jeff saved me the first promo poster with stills from the movie. Between the premiere and my high school graduation, the premiere was -- at least at the time -- the more exciting event.
I can't think of Star Trek movies today without picturing the gang of us seated around the linoleum tables at Big Ed's, chomping down a heap of fresh-cut fries and taking apart the pictures from the promotional kit for clues. What was the meaning, for example, of Uhura's and Chekov's sweater collars being blue-gray, while Sulu's and Scotty's were mustard yellow?
Canada's Rogers to get both 'Google phones'
Canada's largest mobile carrier Rogers Wireless announced today that in addition to carrying the iPhone, it will soon have both "Google phones" from HTC, the Dream (also known as the G1) and the Magic.
Rogers has a countdown timer on its site, which promises that the "revolution" will occur on June second, but details of subscription packages and subsidiaries have not yet been mentioned.
Here comes WiGig, another shot at wireless HD
With support from more than fifteen major companies including Microsoft, Intel, Marvell, Nokia, and NEC announced today, the new Wireless Gigabit Alliance is pushing for yet another brand name wireless standard in the already overcrowded wireless spectrum. WiGig works on the 60 GHz frequency band and promises a 6 Gbps data transmission speed.
The 60 GHz band is an unlicensed portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that has typically been used by the intelligence community for point-to-point data links. It's best suited only for very short distance communication (under 2 kilometers) because it falls within the "absorption band" for oxygen. In other words, oxygen molecules readily absorb a 60 GHz wave's energy and weaken the signal. In satellite-to-satellite communication, the vacuum of space allows these types of waves to travel greater distances while the Earth's atmosphere acts as a huge shield against terrestrial signal interception.
Top 10 Windows 7 Features #7: 'Play To' streaming media, courtesy of DLNA
Perhaps you've noticed this already: Getting media to play in a Windows-based network is a lot like siphoning water from a pond using a hose running uphill. If you can get enough suction, enough momentum going, you can get a decent stream, but there are way too many factors working against you. Foremost among these is the fact that you're at the top of the hill sucking through a hose, rather than at the bottom pushing with a pump.
So home media networking is, at least for most users today, precisely nothing like broadcasting whatsoever. That fact doesn't sit well with very small networked devices like PMPs, digital photo frames, and the new and burgeoning field of portable Wi-Fi radios like Roku's SoundBridge. Devices like these don't want or even need to be "Windows devices;" and what's more, they don't want to be the ones negotiating their way through the network, begging for media to be streamed uphill in their general direction. They want to be plugged in, shown the loot, and told, "Go." Back in 2004, a group of networked device manufacturers -- the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA, and yes, it's another network association) -- coalesced with the idea of promoting a single standard for being told "Go." But up until today, there hasn't been a singular, driving force uniting the standards together, something to look up to and follow the way Web developers followed Internet Explorer.
Blu-ray sales skyrocket, provided you lower the sky
Market data from the NPD Group released this week shows that in the first quarter of 2009, more than 400,000 standalone Blu-ray players were sold, constituting a year-over-year increase of 72%. Dollar sales likewise increased by 14% and hit $107.2 million.
Last month, Futuresource Consulting predicted that 2009 will be the year that Blu-ray breaks, estimating shipments of more than 12 million standalone Blu-ray players for the total year. Futuresource's Jack Wetherill said his group anticipated 1.2 million units would ship in Q1 2009, some three times more than NPD says were sold to consumers.
Xerox rolls out pioneering ColorQube printer with crayon-like ink
Formerly codenamed Jupiter, the ColorQube 9200 series printers unveiled today will bring groundbreaking cost efficiencies to color printing through a combination of solid ink technology and per-click pricing plans, Xerox officials contended, in a series of press launches.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to announce that, for the first time, you can release your 'true colors' in the office," declared Xerox Corp. President Ursula Burns, touting ColorQube as the "most significant change in office printing in the past 30 years."
Even more fusion after the latest AMD reorganization
In the business press and in business marketing, the term "merger" is often used quite loosely, sometimes to mean the incorporation of another company as a division of the acquirer. When AMD acquired ATI in July 2006, the merger was touted as a pairing of equals, and the forging of a permanent fraternity between two giants in their respective fields. But almost immediately afterward, talk of ways to build processors that used AMD cores and ATI pipelines together led to discussion about truly fusing the two divisions' business units; and the first sign of the fallout from that discussion was former ATI CEO Dave Orton's departure from the AMD executive ranks in July 2007.
Almost precisely one year ago, the actual fusion of the two divisions began, with the creation of a Central Engineering group that would conduct research and development for all the company's processors. Freescale Semiconductor veteran Chekib Akrout was brought in to lead that department, but in a partnership arrangement with AMD veteran Jeff VerHeul. Yesterday afternoon, AMD announced the remainder of its fusion is complete: As AMD spokesperson Drew Prairie explained to Betanews this morning, there is now one marketing department and one product management department as well, while some of the functionality of Akrout's department is being shifted.
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