Sony is facing another patent infringement suit, this time involving its Blu-ray high definition disc technology.

According to court documents, the electronics maker was sued earlier this month by Target Technology, saying Blu-ray infringes on patents held on reflective-layer materials on optical discs. The patent was filed in April 2004 and granted in March 2006.

Continue reading →

There are a myriad of both subtle and fundamental differences in the basic architecture of Windows Server 2008, which could dramatically change not only the way it's used in the enterprise, but also the logical and physical structure of networks where it's the dominant OS.

The abilities to consolidate servers, to manage hardware more effectively, to remotely manage hardware without the graphical traffic, and to radically alter the system security model, could present a more compelling argument for customers to plan their WS2K8 migrations now, than the arguments for moving from Windows 2000 to Server 2003.

Continue reading →

Dell began offering three systems with Ubuntu Linux installed on Thursday, in response to wide customer demand for such systems. The original plan to offer Linux surfaced in March, after 100,000 customers told the company through its IdeaStorm, a Web site designed to gauge customer's wants and needs from its systems. The three systems are: the XPS 410n and Dimension E520n desktops, as well as the E1505n notebook.

Starting prices for the E520n and E1505n notebook is $599, while the XPS system retails for $849. Hardware support will be provided by Dell, although it said it would refer software support questions to the Dell Community Forum. Fee-based software support will be offered, however. "To the worldwide Linux community, I wanted to thank you for all your support," Digital Media Manager Lionel Menchaca said.

Continue reading →

Electronics retailer Best Buy is facing a lawsuit over deceiving customers into paying higher prices once in store by having two Web sites, one accessed by employees and another available on the Internet.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal accused Best Buy of "bait and switch" tactics and sent a complaint to the company on May 18. If no response is received by June 13, Blumenthal said he intends to file suit against the company.

Continue reading →

Though some may find it hard to believe, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told investors at the annual meeting of shareholders in New York Thursday that while he is very unhappy over the poor performance of the company's stock price, as a whole Sirius "sucks less" than XM. The company has posted only an 8 percent increase in stock price since September 2004, yet it is much better than the 61 percent decline XM has posted in the same period.

Karmazin said that Wall Street has a negative view of satellite radio in general, and that was holding investors back from buying stocks in either company. He noted that both have made progress in moving towards profitability and attracting new customers. In other comments, he acknowledged it will be an "uphill battle" to get the merger approved, and that he still approved of Howard Stern's $500 million contract.

Continue reading →

Beginning later this year, Intel will no longer include any lead in its processors and chipsets - meaning it will have eliminated all of the toxic substance in just three years.

95 percent of the lead that was in its chips is already gone, and the remaining .02 grams will be removed with its next line of chips, according to Intel. The company said it is making the move to alleviate environmental concerns over its production practices.

Continue reading →

Political opposition to the merger of satellite radio providers XM and Sirius increased on Wednesday, as the chair of the Senate antitrust committee sent a letter to both the FCC and Justice Department opposing the deal.

Saying it would cause "substantial harm to competition and consumers," Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said the deal was unacceptable under antitrust law. He also said current communications policy forbids the merger as well.

Continue reading →

Dell has entered into an agreement with Wal-Mart that will put its desktops in 3,400 of the chain's stores beginning June 10, retailing for under $700.

Although exact details of the PCs have not been released, the companies said the desktops will be built exclusively for sale at the world's largest retailers.

Continue reading →

Novell will give more details of its patent deal with Microsoft, although the full story wouldn't be revealed as the company plans to redact some of the more sensitive details.

The release of the information had been delayed due to the company's troubles surrounding a stock option scandal. The document is set be released along with Novell's annual 10-K filing.

Continue reading →

After Qualcomm rejected a $20 million payment from Nokia made with the intention of extending a license to use the network chipset provider's WCDMA technologies, Nokia responded this morning by countersuing Qualcomm. It claims some of the underlying technology in Qualcomm's chipsets actually belongs to Nokia.

Last month, following Qualcomm's extension of its August 2006 patent suit against Nokia, the cell phone maker publicly argued that Qualcomm may be using technology covered by as many as 100 Nokia patents, in its GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets.

Continue reading →

Russian music store AllofMP3, which has long been under scrutiny by U.S. and European regulators for selling music without paying any royalties to artists, called out European music industry group IFPI Thursday, claiming the service is legal and a recently publicized raid was made up "sensational news."

The response followed news that the IFPI and British police raided the home of a 25-year-old London man who was selling vouchers to use on AllofMP3 as payment, and then transferring money to the Russian company's off shore bank accounts.

Continue reading →

Microsoft may have found a way to better compete with Apple's ubiquitous iPod: the color pink. Since introducing the limited edition pink Zune before Mother's Day, the color has become the second most popular, only trailing black in sales, the company said Thursday.

The Zune is still struggling to gain market share, however, with the device holding steady at 9.2 percent of the retail market in April, according to data release from NPD Group. Microsoft has long said its music player strategy is long-term, and the company is rumored to be working on a second-generation Zune in response to feedback and gripes from customers.

Continue reading →

A full three years after the idea for it was first raised, and well over a year since the first generation of high-definition DVD players was supposed to have included it, the debate over both the meaning and implementation of mandatory managed copy (MMC) for the final 1.0 version of the AACS copy protection scheme has been re-ignited.

As IDG correspondent Jeremy Kirk first reported for InfoWorld early this morning, representatives of the AACS Licensing Authority and essentially all the major US movie studios may be finally close to an agreement on MMC, though AACS LA Chairman Michael Ayers did not reveal what that agreement may entail, and which side may have compromised the most.

Continue reading →

The company that last year notoriously partnered with Microsoft to form a covenant that protects its customers from being sued for copyright violations, today announced it's partnering with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a three-year-old effort to challenge the validity of patents for relatively ubiquitous technologies.

Novell said today it will contribute humanpower and resources to the EFF's lobbying efforts for legislative reform, though it did not specifically tie itself to the Patent Reform Act currently being debated in both houses of the US Congress.

Continue reading →

In a published version of his 2006 presentation to a US government system administrators' conference, Jet Propulsion Laboratory software engineer D. J. Byrne writes for CIO Magazine that the cultural synergies between open source software developers and space technology engineers have made it possible for JPL to execute complex software projects that would have consumed considerable engineering time and taxpayer expense if it had to be procured from a manufacturer.

"Planets move; launch windows don't," Byrne writes. "The Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers had to go in the summer of 2003 or never. They are simply too massive to throw that far, for that budget, unless the planets aligned just so. (Mars and Earth line up every 26 months or so, but in 2003 they were unusually close together.) Procurement cycles for spending lots of government money can be months long, and they can dominate critical paths...Quickly obtainable FOSS relieves that pressure and gives us some elbow room. Bug fix turnaround times can be critical. If we can fix the source code ourselves, we can keep a whole team moving forward."

Continue reading →