The end of an era as AOL officially retires Netscape
As we bid adieu to 2007 and prepare to enter the new year, AOL is also saying goodbye to memories: the company has finally killed off the Netscape Web browser - or what was left of it, anyway.
March 31, 2008 will mark 10 years since the Netscape development team opened up the source code to the browser that ushered in the Internet era. With its acquisition of Netscape in 1999, AOL continued that effort and helped launch the Mozilla Foundation into an organization that has taken on Microsoft and shaped the Web as we know it today.
Evidence Adobe uses analytics to sample CS3 user behavior
Users of Adobe's programs are taking issue with an apparent feature within the company's products that is sending out some type of data to an outside service.
Dan Moren of Uneasy Silence first posted about the apparent data sniffing on Wednesday night. Using a program for Mac OS called Little Snitch, he was able to discover Adobe's hidden practice.
Loss of HP puts end to Wal-Mart's video download store
The retailer decided to silently walk away from its planned video download service after HP ended its participation.
HP was providing the back end to the service, but apparently the company felt it was not getting enough of a return and decided to stop offering it. From there, Wal-Mart just decided to end the service altogether.
Embattled vendor SCO Group dumped by NASDAQ
A lost legal struggle with Linux distributor Novell, an apparently truncated fight with IBM, a bankruptcy filing in September...and now, a NASDAQ delisting. Is there any hope at all left for floundering PC Unix vendor SCO?
The long embattled PC Unix vendor SCO has finally gotten the heave-ho from NASDAQ, some two months after filing for bankruptcy and three months after losing a crucial legal copyright struggle with Novell, a company that's morphed over the years into a major distributor of Linux, a competing breed of Unix software that also runs on PCs.
Apple stock flirted once again with $200 close
4:10 pm EST December 27, 2007 - The assassination of Pakistan's leading challenger to the prime minister's post may be to blame for a late afternoon plummet in Apple's stock value, along with the rest of the tech sector.
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling nearly 200 points by the close of trading Thursday, even a buoyant Apple -- which had traded at $203 per share at about 10:15 this morning -- couldn't help but get weighed down, falling to a half-dollar below yesterday's close at about $198.50.
Samsung to show off lower-profile OLED at CES
Major consumer electronics producer Samsung is expected to show off a prototype 31-inch active matrix OLED, and to begin producing 14-inch displays in 2008.
Samsung's latest prototype active matrix screen will be a 31" 4.3 mm display, slightly larger and lower-profile than Sony's 27" 5 mm prototype that it showed off at last year's CES.
Samsung and Sharp slug it out in global LCD war
With CES 2008 now just around the corner, Samsung today injected more fuel into a legal battle already revving up among some of the top global players in LCDs and other TV and computer display screens.
Although poised to show highly advanced TV display technology at next month's CES 2008 in Las Vegas, Samsung also stands embroiled in legal battles on a couple of fronts in its South Korean homeland and elsewhere. One of these fights -- an LCD patent war -- took on heightened global proportions with Samsung's revelation today that it has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission demanding a probe of industry rival Sharp.
Microsoft's failed case against Google + DoubleClick revealed
A set of policy position documents reportedly authored by Microsoft made the case that Google could use DoubleClick's advertising network to peer into competitors' traffic -- a position the FTC apparently rejected last week.
Last week, The New York Times blogger Louise Story released copies of a series of documents reportedly shared between Microsoft and US Federal Trade Commission members prior to their decision on the Google + DoubleClick merger. The documents reveal that Microsoft was willing to characterize its own competitive position in the Internet advertising market, both before and after a merger took place, as tenuous and perhaps even unsustainable, in order to distinguish itself against what it described to be a larger, perhaps predatory, competitor.
Warner to add catalog to Amazon's MP3 store
The label has announced a deal that allows Amazon to sell DRM-free tracks through its online music store.
The addition of Warner brings the number of DRM-free tracks on Amazon MP3 to 2.9 million, more than any other online music service. Amazon already has deals with many independent labels, as well as majors EMI and Universal.
Sony decides to dump money-losing rear-projection TVs
The technology that spurred the big-screen television phenomenon among consumers took another step towards oblivion on Thursday.
Sony has been losing money on rear-projection televisions for quite a while, as consumers opt for the smaller form factors of LCD and plasma sets. In a statement this morning, the company said it would focus on LCD and OLED televisions from here on out.
Google Toolbar back in court after partial remand
While it looked like Google could walk away from a potentially damaging infringement case against its browser-based Toolbar, a district court judge found the reasoning behind a full Google victory may have been flawed.
On the day after Christmas, a Wisconsin appeals court judge ruled that a portion of a patent infringement decision in favor of defendant Google may be in error. At issue is an interpretation of how the underlying database technology should work when an add-in application enables extra hyperlinks in a Web page other than those already hard-coded into the page.
FT: Fox, Apple sign movie rental deal
In a breakthrough agreement, another major movie studio will add its feature films to the iTunes lineup, but this time under unusual and potentially groundbreaking terms.
According to the Financial Times, sources are indicating that in order to secure 20th Century-Fox's wide range of feature films for Apple's iTunes service, the Cupertino company has apparently agreed to a rental model.
Scotland plans in-game public service ads
The Scottish government recently announced that its anti-drinking and driving campaign will utilize video game ad space.
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in the past have had a very low impact on behavior. An estimate of the size of the audience for the US Ad Council's drunk driving campaign earlier in the decade detailed just how limited the influence was. 902 television ads were shown in 30 markets, and data showed that an average of only 11.2% of households watched even a single PSA.
Russia launches GPS-like satellites on Christmas Day
As an unusual Christmas present to the world, Russia sent the last three of its GPS-compatible GLONASS satellites into space on Tuesday, whose missions range from global military tracking to keeping an eye on civilian-owned pet dogs and cats.
While most nations sat practically still during the traditional late December lull, Russia sent the rest of the world a present on Christmas Day by shooting the last three of its GPS (Global Position System)-compatible GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellites into space.
Vonage and AT&T settled one suit early last month
The two parties in one of the most recent patent lawsuits concerning Vonage's VoIP technology waited almost two months to tell the public they had actually settled their dispute just days after it was filed.
Last November 7, just over three weeks after AT&T jumped on the patent suit bandwagon, filing a claim against voice-over-IP provider Vonage, the two companies settled AT&T's claim for an undisclosed amount. The admission of that settlement came just before Christmas, when fewer folks would have been paying attention.
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.