Jury finds that anti-piracy tools in Windows and Office infringe on technology owned by Uniloc.
By Paul McDougall April 9, 2009
Microsoft has been hit with one of the largest patent awards on record, as a jury on Thursday ordered the software maker to pay $388 million to a security vendor that claims Redmond misappropriated its technology. The jury found that Microsoft violated anti-piracy patents held by Uniloc. Uniloc sued Microsoft in federal court in Rhode Island in 2003, claiming that its products were being used illegally in the Windows operating system and the Office productivity suite. A Microsoft spokesman told news agency Reuters that the company plans to appeal the verdict. "We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid, and that this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported," the spokesman said. Microsoft, along with a number of other tech vendors, has called for an overhaul of patent regulations it claims enable frivolous suits and excessive awards and supports the Patent Reform Act of 2009. Among other things, the bill calls for damages in patent cases to be awarded only on the basis of the inventor's specific improvements over prior works, and not on the whole value of the invention itself.
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Thursday, April 9, 2009
AMD Releases Beta of New 3D Multimedia Browser
By Agam Shah, Apr 9, 2009
Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices has released a beta of a new 3D browser, which is designed to let users easily share multimedia files stored on their PCs with their social networks.
The browser, called Fusion Media Explorer, allows users to browse music and video albums stored on a PC, and share those files with social networks, said Casey Gotcher, director of product marketing at AMD, in a blog entry on Wednesday. The software is available for download from AMD's Web site. AMD has integrated social-networking sites like Facebook and YouTube into the software to easily upload and share multimedia files. Users can simply select video or music files while browsing albums in a rotating 3D interface and drag and drop to upload those directly to Facebook or YouTube. Similarly, multimedia files can also be downloaded from Facebook to a PC through drag and drop, Gotcher wrote.
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Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices has released a beta of a new 3D browser, which is designed to let users easily share multimedia files stored on their PCs with their social networks.
The browser, called Fusion Media Explorer, allows users to browse music and video albums stored on a PC, and share those files with social networks, said Casey Gotcher, director of product marketing at AMD, in a blog entry on Wednesday. The software is available for download from AMD's Web site. AMD has integrated social-networking sites like Facebook and YouTube into the software to easily upload and share multimedia files. Users can simply select video or music files while browsing albums in a rotating 3D interface and drag and drop to upload those directly to Facebook or YouTube. Similarly, multimedia files can also be downloaded from Facebook to a PC through drag and drop, Gotcher wrote.
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YouTube in Music Video Deal With Universal
By Miguel Helft April 9, 2009
YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, said on Thursday that they had reached an agreement to create a new online hub for music videos called Vevo. The agreement, which also includes the licensing of Universal recordings for use in user generated videos on YouTube, is the latest of many efforts by YouTube, which is owned by Google, to place more professionally produced content in front of its huge audience, and in turn earn more money from advertising. Google and Universal said that they would share revenue from advertising on both sites, but declined to discuss specific terms of the agreement. The companies said they expected Vevo to be ready later this year, and they said they were in negotiations with other major labels to join Vevo.
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YouTube and Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, said on Thursday that they had reached an agreement to create a new online hub for music videos called Vevo. The agreement, which also includes the licensing of Universal recordings for use in user generated videos on YouTube, is the latest of many efforts by YouTube, which is owned by Google, to place more professionally produced content in front of its huge audience, and in turn earn more money from advertising. Google and Universal said that they would share revenue from advertising on both sites, but declined to discuss specific terms of the agreement. The companies said they expected Vevo to be ready later this year, and they said they were in negotiations with other major labels to join Vevo.
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Bluetooth 3.0 Standard Launches This Month
by Glenn Fleishman April 9, 2009
The Bluetooth SIG has approved its 3.0 spec with a 21 April launch date: I've written before about Bluetooth 3.0, which pairs the 3 Mbps low-power frequency hopping radio system of 2.1+EDR with high-speed transfers via 802.11 standards. The idea is that a properly integrated Bluetooth 3.0 system will have a bulk-transfer mode that two devices can swap into. (Note that the SIG is referencing 802.11, the generic standard, as it doesn't have a specific program in place with the Wi-Fi Alliance--yet?--for cross-certifiation.) For instance, if you had one of those ubiquitous BlackBerry or iPhone smartphones with Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi inside, you could start a sync session with your PC. For normal calendar data and other matter, the sync would use the Bluetooth radio system. To sync a large music or video file, the handset's BT gear would talk with the computer's, agree to switch to 802.11, and then make the bulk transfer. At the end, communication would return to the other radio. This mode works in a quasi ad-hoc fashion, without requiring that a device join a Wi-Fi network, which is part of why the 802.11 label is being used.
Read more here -->Link
The Bluetooth SIG has approved its 3.0 spec with a 21 April launch date: I've written before about Bluetooth 3.0, which pairs the 3 Mbps low-power frequency hopping radio system of 2.1+EDR with high-speed transfers via 802.11 standards. The idea is that a properly integrated Bluetooth 3.0 system will have a bulk-transfer mode that two devices can swap into. (Note that the SIG is referencing 802.11, the generic standard, as it doesn't have a specific program in place with the Wi-Fi Alliance--yet?--for cross-certifiation.) For instance, if you had one of those ubiquitous BlackBerry or iPhone smartphones with Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi inside, you could start a sync session with your PC. For normal calendar data and other matter, the sync would use the Bluetooth radio system. To sync a large music or video file, the handset's BT gear would talk with the computer's, agree to switch to 802.11, and then make the bulk transfer. At the end, communication would return to the other radio. This mode works in a quasi ad-hoc fashion, without requiring that a device join a Wi-Fi network, which is part of why the 802.11 label is being used.
Read more here -->Link
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