Latest Technology News

Although Apple isn't clear on the identities of the accused perpetrators yet, the company went to court this week claiming that Mac clone-maker Psystar isn't working alone in its alleged violations of Apple's IP rights.

After convincing a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Apple of monopolistic practices, Apple went back to court this week to file an amended complaint charging that "persons other than" Apple's nemesis Psystar are also involved in the clone-maker's alleged trade infringement against Apple.

Microsoft's Live Team has apologized for the bumpy rollout of the new Windows Live services that began yesterday, and acknowledged a number of problems that need to be fixed.

Yesterday, Microsoft began the rollout of the new Windows Live, which joins Microsoft's Home, Spaces, Events, Groups, and other services into a single, more Friendfeed-style social portal. However, the initial updates proved to be buggy and problematic for users.

Today, Adobe is joining the passing parade of corporations everywhere -- not just in technology -- shedding headcount to save expenses. But a check of its numbers may make some ask why so drastic a move.

That Adobe isn't seeing the level of revenue it would have liked to see from its fiscal fourth quarter thus far, should not be a surprise to anyone. So this morning's filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, stating it plans to shed 600 workers, was certainly sad but maybe not shocking.

This morning, the newly-demoted second-largest US phone carrier announced it's getting smaller still, shedding four percent of its workforce in another cost-saving operation for the economic recession.

The layoffs of some 12,000 employees will begin in December and continue throughout 2009, according to the company's statement this morning, however it was not specified which areas would be losing the most employees. AT&T noted that its wireless, video, and broadband sectors continue to add jobs, so wireline services will presumably be hit the hardest.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Will sports best suited for HDTV flat panel displays eventually become obsolete? Execs from NBC and other sports media discussed about how the Web and iPhones are coming into play for airing the Olympics, the Tour de France, and Wimbledon.

If a sport is shown on TV only, and not on the Internet or mobile phones, ultimately it might just fade away, predicted Jamie Davis, president of Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network), which recently extended its US deal to cover the annual Tour de France bicycle through 2013.

If users install their first Internet Explorer 8 updates, and they notice their favorite Web pages look like scrambled egg soup, will they blame the browser? That's the dilemma Microsoft is facing as it cautiously embraces "Web standards."

As testers of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 are already aware, the new default rendering mode for Web pages is one that promises compliance with standards officially set forth by committees such as W3C. But the big problem major Web sites have all experienced (guilty as charged) is that they must support the somewhat standards-skewed rendering mode of previous versions of IE, up to version 6, in order to accommodate a majority of browser users.

This week's agreement between Hitachi and Intel to jointly develop enterprise-class solid-state drives shows the industry's further movement to flash-type storage, but disk-based drives aren't dead tech yet.

Unlike Seagate, which announced last month that it would be setting forth on its SSD path solo, Hitachi and Intel are each doing the thing they do best in this case -- Intel building the SSD (solid-state drive) tech, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (the third largest drive vendor) selling it. The arrangement with Intel is exclusive for SATA and Fiber Channel SSDs.

Struggling with rising music royalty costs, on Wednesday, Yahoo offloaded much of the responsibility for its Internet radio service to CBS, only a few months after Time Warner made a similar move with AOL Radio.

Starting early next year, the 150 stations in Yahoo's Internet radio service will be combined with those of CBS, and that CBS will take on all of the sales duties for the service, which is known as Launchcast.

Folks who are fans of both football and CE gadgets will get to watch the BCS title game while at CES -- and in 3-D, no less. Meanwhile, though, it's unclear whether 3-D will be available on home TVs any time soon.

Fox Sports plans to broadcast the BCS title game in 3-D at both the CES show in Las Vegas and select theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, said David Hill, chairman and CEO, speaking at this week's 3-D Entertainment Summit. Hill's comments were originally reported in Variety Weekly.

Download Songbird 1.0 Player for Windows from FileForum now.

The first complete version of open source desktop media player Songbird was released yesterday, combining the best features of popular players with the best of Web 2.0 content.

Americans who think of the media mogul named "Ted," reference Mr. Turner. In Canada, they reference Mr. Rogers. The senior salesperson, founder and CEO of Rogers Communications, died Tuesday morning in his home in Toronto. He was 75.

For Americans, Rogers could be described as a "Canadian Ted Turner," but the wireless, cable, Internet, media and sports entrepreneur is a story all his own.

Worldwide PC growth will slow to a veritable snail's pace in 2009, according to newly revised numbers from analyst group IDC. But still, the revamped forecast for notebook PCs isn't exactly (or entirely) bleak.

In response to changes in the global economy, IDC has lowered its projections for worldwide PC growth over the next few years. Although shipments of portable PCs will step up 13.8% in 2009 to 145.9 million notebooks, overall PC shipment growth will slow to only 3.8%, with overall shipment value falling by 5.5%, according to the analyst firm.

Research in Motion made an out-of-cycle announcement last night that its fiscal Q3 revenue would be 9% below Wall Street projections, citing economic conditions and product-related troubles.

RIM said in its statement that approximately 33% of the difference between expectations and actual revenue comes from the weakening of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar. The rest, it stated, is due to "lower than estimated unit shipments, which RIM believes is a reflection of general economic weakness in the United States and shifts in product launch dates within the quarter."

The new Windows Live profile features that were recently announced have begun to take effect, turning the formerly sterile Windows Live into a more cohesive portal for online content consumption.

New versions of Live Home, Spaces, Events, Skydrive, Groups, and Photos have been pushed out to users, joined by the Windows Live header bar. Since Microsoft is pulling together a number of disparate services, however, there is still a feeling of disconnection throughout the site.

As Microsoft's annual MSDN Developers' Conference nationwide tour begins next week, attendees will be among the first to receive a DVD of Windows 7 Beta 1, according to an online invitation the company posted yesterday.

Every year, Microsoft sends a handful of its most popular conference presenters on a nationwide tour, at special MSDN events that are usually held in small conference arenas or hotels, or sometimes rented movie theaters. Attendance is $99 for the one-day event, and with this tour, attendees are promised a big giveaway package that includes Windows 7 Beta 1.