Lawyers for several California municipalities said Tuesday that Microsoft has agreed to pay $70 million in vouchers to settle an antitrust claim, pending court approval. The suit, filed in August 2004, claimed that the Redmond company had overcharged government customers. While denying the charges, Microsoft said that it settled the case out of a desire to focus on the future. The company argued that its prices for software were fair.

The vouchers, which can be used for either new hardware or software, will be divided among California state and local government agencies. Microsoft would reimburse purchases with cash refunds, according to the settlement. The agreement is the second for Microsoft in California. Another, settled in 2003, forced Microsoft to reimburse state residents for overcharging for its Windows operating system.

Continue reading →

Creative's losses widened in the third quarter as the company's digital music player business continued to struggle in the face of price pressures and fierce competition from the Apple iPod. But Creative showed no signs of a willingness to abandon the effort that has been spearheaded by its vociferous chairman.

Sim Wong Hoo made digital media players Creative's premier business two years ago in a bid to take on the iconic iPod. However, while vehemently defending his decision and products since then, none of the company's players have caught on with consumers.

Continue reading →

With Google's dominance in the search market continuing to grow, Microsoft has turned to an unlikely ally with an olive branch in hand: Yahoo. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Redmond company has held discussion about acquiring a stake in Yahoo, although the talks are not currently active.

Microsoft is currently reorganizing its search business, bringing in former Ask.com CEO Steve Berkowitz to head MSN. However, sources say the two companies have discussed possible options over the past year, including a minority investment in Yahoo and even a full buyout. Microsoft had previously considered buying a stake in Time Warner's AOL division before Google offered $1 billion.

Continue reading →

Samsung on Monday announced the U.S. availability of the Q1, the company's first device to fall under the Ultra Mobile PC platform. The unit would retail for $1,099 USD, just above Microsoft's target of $599 to $999 for the "Origami" line of devices. UMPCs largely resemble a small Tablet PC with 7-inch touch screen, and run a full version of Windows XP with special software.

However, the high price limits the appeal to a small segment, say analysts. "Clearly, the goal is a toy for boys," says Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox. "With Q1 the S isn't just for Samsung, it's for "status symbol." Everything about the Samsung Q1 is uptown." Another company, Founder, will release a UMPC model later this quarter, with a device by ASUS expected over the summer.

Continue reading →

Research firm Gartner said Tuesday that it believed Microsoft would miss its targets and release Windows Vista another three or so months after its current November-January timeframe. The firm claims Vista's features are too complex to be finished that quickly.

Windows Vista was originally scheduled for a 2005 release, but has been repeatedly delayed as the Redmond company struggled to finish upgrades and ensure a quality release. Vista is the first major upgrade of the Windows platform in five years.

Continue reading →

A revised class-action settlement involving online DVD rental service Netflix has been approved six months after an original settlement was proposed. Netflix had been sued for promising "one day delivery" and "unlimited" rentals after it disclosed it delayed DVDs to frequent renters.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Thomas Mellon Jr. had taken issue with a number of points in the initial settlement, including a payout of $2.5 million to lawyers involved in the case. The FTC voiced its opposition in January saying, "the settlement would serve more as a promotional vehicle for Netflix."

Continue reading →

For the first time since its "switcher" campaign in 2002, Apple has turned to commercials to advertise the superiority of its Macs overs PCs. The six television segments feature an older corporate suit representing a PC and a trendier 20-something as a Mac.

Each "Get a Mac" commercial discusses one aspect of why Macs are better than PCs, from being less prone to viruses and crashes, to including applications that handle music, photos and movies. The ads began airing Monday evening during primetime shows on Fox and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Continue reading →

Google has raised objections over Microsoft's plans to integrate its new search engine into Internet Explorer 7, press reports indicate. The company's concerns have even led Google to speak with the Justice Department and the European Commission.

Much like Firefox does with Google, the new version of Internet Explorer will be set up by default to send search queries to MSN Search. Google contends that this gives Microsoft an unfair advantage over its competitors.

Continue reading →

Intel on Tuesday pledged to invest more than $1 billion over the next five years to help bridge the digital divide and bring technology to developing nations. The program, dubbed Intel World Ahead, combines and extends the chipmaker's current initiatives within emerging markets.

The World Ahead Program will focus on three areas: accessibility, connectivity and education. Unlike efforts such as the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation, which rival AMD is supporting, Intel says full-featured PCs are needed. Those computers would be tailored to a specific region.

Continue reading →

A new flaw has been found in Internet Explorer by security firm Secunia through research into another vulnerability present in the browser. The issue was initially believed to be a successful exploit of a problem discovered last week, however Microsoft said it was actually a new flaw.

Researcher Anreas Sandblad discovered the vulnerability, which Secunia has issued an advisory for and rates as "highly critical." Like the previous problem, the bug is in the handling of the OBJECT HTML tag. In this flaw, memory can be corrupted to compromise the user's system.

Continue reading →

Sirius Satellite Radio said on Tuesday that its quarterly loss doubled, mainly due to a $225 million stock payment to shock jock Howard Stern. For the quarter ending March 30, the satellite radio operator posted a $458.5 million loss, compared with $193.6 million a year ago.

Stock compensation charges were nearly $285 million of that loss. This compares with a $38.7 million charge a year ago. However, revenue tripled from $43.2 million a year ago to $126.7 million, and the company showed strong subscriber growth.

Continue reading →

McAfee said Monday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had awarded it a patent regarding methods to update computer files on mobile devices. The company says that the technology could be used to update a file on a mobile device with a newer versions that exists on another device.

For example, a communication link is established between two devices with the file. The wireless device first determines whether the file stored is updated. If there is an up-to-date version on the other device, the file is downloaded. Once the file is fully downloaded, it can then replace the older file.

Continue reading →

Helio, the joint venture between Korea's SK Telecom and EarthLink targeted towards young consumers, officially launched on Tuesday. The company is leasing bandwidth from CDMA provider Sprint Nextel, however it has added features on top of what Sprint's towers can already provide.

The MVNO, or Mobile Virtual Network Operator, is focusing on Internet features. Helio's phones provide easy access to content such as games, music and video. Additionally, functionality from Yahoo and MySpace.com are built into the phones.

Continue reading →

Apple confirmed on Monday that it had reached deals with the four major labels -- EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner -- to keep prices for digital downloads at 99 cents per song. The news is a major blow for the record labels, which were attempting to force Apple to allow variable pricing in its iTunes Music Store. Apple controls nearly 80 percent of music sales online, according to recent surveys.

Analysts say some of the reason why the record labels may have backed off the variable pricing plans could be due to the ongoing investigation over price fixing by the New York Attorney General's office. Officials have accused record companies of colluding in order to keep prices artificially high. Neither Apple nor the labels have revealed the terms of the deals.

Continue reading →

Wireless e-mail firm Visto said Monday that it had won a patent infringement case against Seven Networks, and upon receipt of the verdict it filed another lawsuit against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. Monday's victory could also give Visto leverage in its ongoing suits against Microsoft and Good Technology.

A federal jury said Seven had infringed on three patents regarding Visto's mobile e-mail system, and awarded the company $3.6 million in damages. However, Seven says it plans to appeal the verdict and is still pursuing attempts to have Visto's patents thrown out.

Continue reading →