Symantec and Microsoft settle suit over Vista storage technology
Symantec sued Microsoft almost 2 years ago for violating licensing terms on its patented technology in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The suit has finally come to an apparently amicable settlement.
Financial terms were not disclosed by either party, both of whom requested to dismiss the case from the Seattle U.S. District Court "without an award of costs or fees to either party."
Sony introduces world's smallest HD camcorder
Nokia's N-Gage game system finally ready for smartphones
Although the announcement won't go out until next week, Nokia's retooled N-Gage mobile gaming system for smartphones has finally reached its full release.
"There will be an official announcement on Monday, but for you, the N-Gage faithful, we wanted to let you know we're up and running," according to a posting on Nokia's N-Gage blog site.
AT&T to begin prorating early termination fees for new contracts
AT&T Wireless announced Thursday it will prorate early termination fees (ETFs), giving consumers "greater flexibility" to opt out of their contracts without paying the full $175 penalty.
Beginning May 25, customers who are under a one- or two-year phone contract will have $5 taken off the termination fee per month for the length of the contract. AT&T customers who agree to a one- or two-year service agreement before May 25, however, will still have to pay the entire $175 fee.
Apple: iTunes now the biggest music retailer in US
Thanks to a spike in post-holiday sales, Apple's iTunes online store outsold long-time top music retailer Wal-Mart in the United States during both January and February, the company said Thursday.
Research firm NPD has been tracking the meteoric rise of iTunes among music retailers since it broke the top ten sellers in the third quarter 2005. It entered the rankings at number seven behind Circuit City, FYE, Amazon.com, Target, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart.
Dell plans pay reductions, product feature removal, and over 8,800 job cuts
Dell, Inc. now plans to cut more jobs than the 8,800 headcount reduction predicted earlier, said CEO Michael Dell, speaking today at a meeting with financial analysts.
Dell's profitability plans also include pay reductions, removal of product features that are "not valued by customers," and "optimization" of the company's global manufacturing network, maintained Donald J. Carty, Dell's vice president and CFO, during the same meeting today.
Windows XP's final day still June 30, but low-cost PCs get two more years
Confirming the rumors that devices such as Asus' Eee PC are prolonging the life of XP, Microsoft today announced that the previously-established June 30, 2008 cutoff date for OEM and retail Windows XP sales was final, except for the new class of what the company has termed ULCPCs: Ultra Low-Cost PCs.
The nebulously-named class of computers including UMPCs, MIDs, Origami devices, subnotebooks and even desktops that offer lower power have received the official Ultra Low Cost PC (ULCPC) moniker from Microsoft.
Opera releases beta of new mobile browser, now less annoying
Opera on Thursday released a beta version of Opera Mini 4.1, the company's free Web browser for mobile phones that runs on Java. Most notably, the new release is now signed, which means the phone will not prompt users every time they run the software.
Aside from eliminating the annoying Java security pop-ups, version 4.1 noticeably speeds up Web surfing by up to 50% thanks to improvements to Opera Mini's rendering engine. Accessing sites will be quicker, too, as the browser saves previously entered URLs and auto-completes them for users.
Comcast offers 50 Mbps Internet, but it won't come cheap
Comcast will begin offering a new "extreme high-speed" Internet connection in the Minnesota Twin Cities region today, with nationwide rollout expected by 2010. The new Internet service will cost $150 per month and will offer 50 Mbps download and 5 Mbps in upload speeds.
The new high-speed Internet is part of Comcast's rollout of the DOCSIS 3.0 (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications) cable broadband standard, which was first introduced during the Consumers Electronics Show last January.
MySpace adds big-label music to free downloads, will sell tickets and merch
While a lot of music sites on the Web only offer tunes from big name labels, a new joint venture unveiled today will eventually bring together music from Sony, Warner, and Universal recording artists with that of lesser known talents on MySpace.
Participants in the MySpace social networking community will continue to be able to download and stream DRM-free music without cost on MySpace Music, officials said in a teleconference today. The addition of three of the four major labels, however, will make the service more appealing to users.
Intel unveils next-generation low-cost 'Netbooks'
The Classmate PC, Intel's answer to OLPC's so-called XO-1 "$100 Laptop" (powered by AMD), is now in its second generation, with Intel already looking toward future models based upon the Atom architecture.
The new Classmate PC's debut took place today at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai. Built upon Intel's Celeron M processor and supporting Windows XP and Linux variants, the low-cost portable computers the company has termed "netbooks" offer 802.11b/g and MESH network capabilities, two USB 2.0 ports and one SD slot standard.
Head of Yahoo Music Ian Rogers departs for music startup
Ian Rogers, who pushed the music industry to drop DRM, is resigning as general manager for Yahoo Music to take the helm at a new startup called Topspin Media, which calls itself "the future of digital artist services."
Rogers, though his appearance will fool you, is a long-time veteran of the music business. He helped start the Internet Underground Music Archive, and worked with the Beastie Boys on Grand Royal Records. Rogers also worked on Winamp in the early days with creator Justin Frankel and built a streaming music service called Muse.Net before joining Yahoo over four years ago.
TiVo 9.3 software update to speed up the DVR's interface
TiVo will roll out a new software update to all subscribers in the next few weeks, which promises to remedy a common complaint among TiVo users since the service launched over eight years ago: speed.
TiVo software version 9.3 will significantly speed up nearly all of the common tasks that customers do with a TiVo. No longer will the DVR pause for nearly a minute while it reorders Season Pass priorities or stall for half a minute when a Season Pass is created. Users will see between 10 and 30 second speed improvements in these areas.
Now an official ISO standard, Microsoft's OOXML invites controversy
Although ISO approval was not entirely unanimous, the Microsoft-originated Open Office XML (OOXML) protocol has finally become an international standard as of April 2.
Still, though, with OOXML foes accusing Microsoft of playing politics -- and OOXML fans accusing IBM of doing likewise -- the European Commission (EC) continues to investigate whether Microsoft might have used market dominance to unfair advantage in clearing passage for the controversial document protocol.
WiMAX finally gains some ground in upcoming portables
Consumers are finally seeing WiMAX adoption across a small range of ultraportables and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), with plenty more reported to be coming. But the question is still "When?"
WiMAX, or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, and can be simply classified as the next generation of Wi-Fi for wide-area deployments. WiMAX is considered a "4G" technology and has broad industry support, but it's run into numerous hurdles along the way.
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