Latest Technology News

With half of 2008 having already gone by, Microsoft's online services situation today is pretty much the same: Without a Yahoo partnership, the division is still bleeding. It's a good thing Microsoft's also a software company.

If the recent economic downturn can be characterized as a "storm" for those industries in which America has a major stake, the PC industry is certainly weathering this storm very well. Analysts had expected shipment growth to rise to only 12% annually; but from Microsoft's perspective, the number is more like 15%.

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Tired of watching major players such as AT&T and Verizon encroach on their territory, a group of smaller providers are petitioning the FCC to bring back limits on the amount of spectrum a carrier can hold.

The complaint was brought by the Rural Telecommunications Group, which represents the interest of regional wireless operators with less than 100,000 subscribers. Its members include carriers serving so-called secondary and tertiary markets -- representing both independent carriers and those associated with rural telephone companies.

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Sony's upcoming Graphic Splash notebooks will be based on the Vaio FW multimedia PC introduced this week, and they'll be available for sale online for a limited time this fall, BetaNews has learned.

In announcing a "new line-up" of Graphic Splash notebooks on Wednesday -- plus a related contest -- Sony didn't specify whether the decoratively cased PCs will use any of the four Vaio models unveiled on Wednesday as its underpinnings, or whether they'll constitute a separate model. Photos accompanying the announcement appeared to show the new designs on the company's existing FZ series notebooks.

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Whenever video game consoles' sales data is released, we often depict the comparison as some kind of war. But with E3 having ended and the holiday season approaching, NPD suggests the battle may be entirely in our minds.

June's total video game sales for the US were $680 million dollars higher than last year, with revenues from consoles and portables combined rising 54% over last year, and revenue from game software 61% higher. One NPD analyst expects total industry sales to be $22 billion this year, making video gaming the single highest-grossing form of entertainment today.

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While they may have no intention of ever signing up for the service, Windows users are finding an unexpected addition to their Control Panels.

A link for "MobileMe Preferences" has begun appearing at the bottom of the Control Panel screens of those who have installed the latest Apple iTunes software -- according to one user, without any notification at all.

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Scientists from the University of Tokyo and Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) claim they have successfully created a new flash NAND memory that can operate for hundreds of years.

In an e-mail correspondence with BetaNews, AIST confirmed it had created the new NAND memory, and said it hopes to have it out the door soon.

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12:03 pm EDT July 18, 2008 - Apparently after having read and assessed the text of Yahoo's new anti-Icahn Web site, as well as its latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (detailed below), Yahoo's third largest shareholder, capital management firm Legg Mason, announced this morning that it would be backing Yahoo's current management in its efforts to retain its existing board structure and management.

"After consideration of the relevant facts and circumstances and our fiduciary duty to our clients, it is our intention to vote in favor of the slate of directors proposed by the current Board," reads this morning's statement from Legg Mason's chief investment officer, Bill Miller. "We have met with representatives of the current Board and management, including founder Jerry Yang, several times. We believe the current Board acted with care and diligence when evaluating Microsoft's offers. We believe the Board is independent and focused on value creation for long-term shareholders."

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While SK Telecom has officially denied it would take a controlling stake in any US mobile carrier, it is still looking at business opportunities here.

The Korean telecommunications firm made the comments in a filing with the Korean stock exchange on Thursday. Reports had earlier suggested that it was considering buying out Sprint Nextel.

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As a part of the v9.4 update to TiVo HD and Series 3 set-top boxes, support was added for YouTube H.264 videos -- a feature TiVo was announced in the spring.

The "summer update" that TiVo announced yesterday will be rolling out over the course of the next few weeks, and will grant native H.264 decoding to S3 and HD DVRs. It has been added under TiVo Central "Find Programs and Downloads" under the "Download TV, Movies & Web Video" icon. While the only option is currently to "Watch YouTube Videos," the result is a YouTube experience unique to TiVo.

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It's only July, but consumer electronics companies are already finalizing their HDTV sales plans for the holiday season. This week, Sony already began showing off the high-def components it anticipates consumers will want come December.

NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - Sony this week talked up its two newest entries in the HDTV field -- the Bravia KDL-55XBR8 and KDL-40XBR7 -- both targeted at release this fall, at a press event here Wednesday evening.

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With an ever-increasing number of sites on the web offering ringtones, wallpapers, and games, there is also an increasing number scamming consumers. The European Commission is attempting to address that.

The government has launched a bloc-wide "sweep," where the member states simultaneously check Web pages for breaches of consumer law. The mobile services sweep took place between June 2 and 6.

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This afternoon, the European Commission sent what it's calling a Supplementary Statement of Objections to Intel, reiterating its three-count claim of anti-competitive conduct in the European market against rival AMD.

The latest Statement from the EC, according to the Commission, adds supplemental material to its charges almost exactly one year ago, that Intel violated three counts of Article 82 of the EC Treaty. That law states that no entity that holds a dominant market position may use its influence to alter market conditions in such a way as to negatively impact trade among member states.

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At a press event in New York this week, Sony presented a prototype of a new "Blu-ray player for audiophiles" -- the BDP-S550 -- slated for release next fall.

NEW YORK (BetaNews) -- "The S550 will provide features like some additional decoding of high definition audio streams," said Christopher Fawcett, Sony's VP of home video product management, in a meeting with BetaNews at a Sony press event here on Wednesday.

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Soon, Lionsgate will be joining the ranks of major content providers to partner with YouTube in advertisement and hosting.

YouTube has already partnered with CBS and the BBC, as well as Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group. The now three-year old video service's system for monetization and content identification appears to be mature enough to sustain major studios, and the inclusion of Lionsgate could foretoken many more.

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One of the fastest-growing new BitTorrent sites said late Wednesday that it had relaunched its search engine, indexing nearly six terabytes of legal content.

In April, the site made the decision to go legal and stop indexing sites such as The Pirate Bay and isoHunt, which do not prune their databases of pirated content. YouTube has only been online since January, but the company said at the switch it averaged over 10 million unique users a month.

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