Das US-amerikanische Telekommunikationsunternehmen Verizon Communications mit Hauptsitz in New York hat im Patentstreit mit den beiden Unternehmen Tivo und Activevideo Networks einem Vergleich zugestimmt und zahlt an beide Kläger Vergleichssummen in Millionen-Höhe.
Die EU-Kommission will im Browser-Streit mit Microsoft Strafen gegen den US-Software-Riesen verhängen. Das kündigte EU-Wettbewerbskommissar Joaquin Almunia am Montag in Brüssel in einem Interview mit der Nachrichtenagentur AFP an und bestätigte damit einen Medienbericht.
Die Übernahme des Mobilfunkunternehmens Orange Austria durch den Konkurrenten Hutchison („3“) steht vor dem Aus. Hutchison habe seine Möglichkeiten, die EU-Wettbewerbshüter mit Zugeständnissen von einer Freigabe des Deals zu überzeugen, nahezu ausgeschöpft, sagte der Hutchison-Österreich-Chef, Jan Trionow.
Das neue iPhone 5 ist gefragter als sein Vorgänger. Apple ist an den ersten drei Verkaufstagen von Freitag bis Sonntag mehr als 5 Millionen der Geräte losgeworden, wie der kalifornische Hersteller am Montag mitteilte. Vom iPhone 4S hatte Apple im gleichen Zeitraum vor einem Jahr gut 4 Mio. Stück verkauft.
Telkomriese Swisscom attraktiviert sein Natel-Easy-Angebot. Mit "Natel Easy Smart" soll ab 1. Oktober ein neues Prepaid-Angebot verfügbar sein, das im Vergleich zu den aktuellen Prepaid-Tarifen, die nicht mehr weiter vermarktet werden, ein Kostendach für Gespräche, das Versenden von SMS und das mobile Surfen bietet.
Drei prominente staatskritische Blogger sind in Vietnam heute zu Haftstrafen zwischen vier und zwölf Jahren verurteilt worden. Das berichtete der Anwalt von Nguyen Van Hai alias „Dieu Cay“. Den Dissidenten wurde Propaganda gegen den kommunistischen Staat vorgeworfen.
Die in Rheinach domizilierte Arcondis verstärtk ihren Verwaltungsrat (VR). Ab 1. Oktober soll der 50-jährige Clemens Gütermann als fünftes VR-Mitglied die strategische Leitung bei der auf den Life-Science-Bereich fokussierten Beraterin Arcondis mitbestimmen.
Der serbelnde Netzwerkausrüster Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) kommt mit seinen Umstrukturierungsbemühungen zügiger voran als geplant. Das Joint Venture zwischen der Siemens und Nokia war in den vergangenen Quartalen zusehends in eine finanzielle Schieflage geraten. Mit einer Umstrukturierung soll das Unternehmen wieder auf die Beine kommen.
Vor einigen Tagen gab Google bekannt, seinen Musik-Download-Service in China aufzugeben. Wie Bloomberg berichtet, ist dies ein weiterer Schritt, der den Rückzug Googles aus China symbolisiert. Schon vor zwei Jahren hat der Konzern seine Suchmaschine massiv eingeschränkt, nachdem es zu Diskussionen um Zensur gekommen war.
009 wurde die Internetwährung Bitcoin geschaffen. Sie soll die gleichen Vorteile bieten wie Bargeld. Die neue elektronische Währung gewinnt immer mehr Anhänger. Doch völlig sicher ist sie nicht, wie ETH-Forscher zeigen konnten. Die Wissenschaftler haben aber schon einen Lösungsvorschlag parat.
curtwoodward writes "Intellectual Ventures, the controversial patent middleman company headed by former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, has settled one of the first lawsuits it ever filed. This legal spat was with two Asian firms: South Korea-based Hynix and Japan-based Elpida. It also involved a complaint to the International Trade Commission, which roped in downstream customers including Dell and H-P because they used components from the two manufacturers. The terms weren't disclosed, but it seems quite likely that Intellectual Ventures was able to get the licensing fees it always wanted: The company's head lawyer is quoted praising the two former adversaries, and explaining once again that the company wants to license its patents instead of heading to court."
cylonlover writes "Toyota has unveiled a new assistant robot designed to help the disabled live more independently. Called the Human Support Robot (HSR), it represents the latest initiative in Toyota's Partner Robot program and is intended to help out around the home by fetching things, opening curtains, and picking up objects that have fallen to the floor. The HSR can be controlled using a simple graphical user interface via tablet PC. It can also wear a tablet atop its head, which would allow caregivers and family members to communicate with the robot's owner over Skype or other services. But unlike recent telepresence robots including the recently announced iRobot RP-VITA, the HSR has an arm and gripper for doing the simple tasks we often take for granted."
quax writes "In the wake of the Fukushima disaster the nuclear industry again faces massive opposition. Germany even decided to abandon nuclear energy altogether and the future of the industry is under a cloud of uncertainty in Japan. But one thing seems to be here to stay for a very, very long time: The radioactive waste that has half-lives measured in thousands of years. But there is a technology under development in Belgium that could change all this: A sub-critical reactor design, driven by a particle accelerator that can transmute the nuclear waste into something that goes away within about two hundred years. Could this lead to a revival of the nuclear industry and the reprocessing of spend reactor fuel?"
First time accepted submitter paperclipman writes "I'm on the college student budget and want to make sure that my recent investment in an Acer laptop will last me a good long while. I like to think of myself as a reasonably competent CPU user so I'm no adventurous link-clicker, but I do download some music as a recent SoundCloud devotee. My Kaspersky antivirus will be expiring shortly and I don't particularly care to renew with that steep of a fee — any advice from fellow thrifts?"
benrothke writes "Today's handheld device is the mainframe of years past. An iPhone 5 with 64 GB of storage and the Apple A6 system-on-a-chip processor has more raw computing power entire data centers had some years ago. With billions of handheld devices in use worldwide, it is imperative that digital forensics investigators and others know how to ensure that the information contained in them, can be legally preserved if needed." Read on for the rest of Ben's review.
hlovy writes "Iran moved forward with their previously discussed plans for a domestic version of the Internet over the weekend, as government officials announced that Google would be one of the first websites to be filtered through their state-controlled information network. According to Reuters, officials are claiming that the country's self-contained version of the World Wide Web, which was first announced last week, is part of an initiative to improve cyber security. However, it will reportedly also give the country the ability to better control the type of information that users can access online."
ericjones12398 writes "Every year, around 250,000 women die due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth. New research developing cheap, portable ultrasounds could help reduce that number. From the article: 'Although diagnostic imaging is scarce in much of the developing world (mostly related to cost and portability), ultrasound imaging is a feasible technology for prototyping in low-resource settings such as developing countries. Indeed, many notable technology giants, such as GE and Siemens, are working on low-cost portable ultrasound models. GE’s Vscan is a handheld, pocket-sized visualization tool that allows for non-invasive ultrasounds. Mobisante, a startup in Seattle, takes portable ultrasound technology one step further with the MobiUS SP1 system, an ultrasound that wirelessly connects to the Internet or a smartphone for viewing results at an affordable price tag. By comparison, the large, clunky ultrasound machine most people associate with hospitals can cost anywhere from $32,000-$160,000.'"
judgecorp writes "Microsoft issued an emergency patch for a flaw in the Internet Explorer browser on Friday, but there are hints that the firm may have known about the flaw two months ago. the notes to Microsoft's patch credit the TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative for finding the flaw, instead of Eric Romang, the researcher at Metasploit who made it public. ZDI's listings show its most recent report to Microsoft on 24 J uly, suggesting Microsoft may have known about this one for some time. The possibility raises questions about Microsoft's openness — as well as about the ethics of the zero day exploit market."
Nerval's Lobster writes "The New York Times' latest expose takes on data centers, but the Gray Lady's investigation has prompted its own criticism. While the paper correctly noted that there's a backend cost attached to the storage of photos, cat videos, and old shopping lists, many critics are taking issue with how the Times addresses the issue of those data centers' power consumption. While the Times' contention that the majority of data-center operators prefer secrecy is probably accurate, this industry is public enough that the paper's approach to the article exposes a few puzzling choices. Here are five trouble areas."
An anonymous reader writes "In a blog post responding to the latest controversy over Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth says 'integrating online scope results' are 'not putting ads in Ubuntu' because the shopping results 'are not paid placement', but 'straightforward search results'. He goes on to explain his plans to make the Home Lens of the Dash a place to find 'anything anywhere'. Like a cross between Chrome OS's new app launcher, Siri and Google Now 'it will get smarter and smarter' so you can 'ask for whatever you want' it 'just works'."
Paul Carver writes "Should developers be responsible for installing the software they develop into production environments? What about System Test environments? I'm not a developer and I'm not all that familiar with Agile or DevOps, but it seems unhealthy to me to have software installs done by developers. I think that properly developed software should come complete with installation instructions that can be followed by someone other than the person who wrote the code. I'd like to hear opinions from developers. Do you prefer a workplace where you hand off packaged software to other teams to deploy or do you prefer to personally install your software into System Test and then personally install it into production once the System Testers have certified it? For context, I'm talking about enterprise grade, Internet facing web services sold to end users as well as large companies on either credit card billing or contractual basis with service level agreements and 24x7 Operations support. I'm not talking about little one (wo)man shops and free or Google style years long beta services."
Soultest writes "Toyota has given up on plans to sell any significant number of all-electric vehicles. Citing 'many difficulties' with the project, the company says it will only sell about 100 of the battery-powered eQ cars it has been working on for several years. 'By dropping plans for a second electric vehicle in its line-up, Toyota cast more doubt on an alternative to the combustion engine that has been both lauded for its oil-saving potential and criticized for its heavy reliance on government subsidies in key markets like the United States. 'The current capabilities of electric vehicles do not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge,' said, Uchiyamada, who spearheaded Toyota's development of the Prius hybrid in the 1990s.'"
eldavojohn writes "An article published in Pakistan's Daily Times contains several quotes from Pakistan's Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf indicating his intent to push for international blasphemy laws in both the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (57 countries). These comments came shortly after Pakistan's "Day of Love for the Prophet" turned into riots that left 19 people dead and, of course, this all follows the extended trailers of "Innocence of Muslims" being translated. Questionable circumstances surround who is prosecuted under these 'blasphemy laws' and what kind of fear they instill in Pakistan's minorities. The UN's Human Rights Charter mentions protection from "religious intolerance" but also in the same sentence "freedom of opinion and expression.""
An anonymous reader writes "While there's much talk of Apple asking for more money from Samsung, there's less talk of the likelihood that the verdict will be overturned completely. Based on voir dire, and the foreman's subsequent statements to the press, it seems he failed to follow the law."