Hasta La Gadget!

As the US Supreme Court prepares to hear yet another appeal in the seemingly unending patent dispute between Microsoft and XML specialists i4i next month, some pretty influential folks are starting to take sides — officially. Perhaps most notably, Acting Solicitor General Neal Kumar Katyal filed an amicus brief backing i4i and a previous US Court of Appeals decision to uphold the $290 million judgement against the software giant. Other big guns backing i4i with amicus briefs include DuPont, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and GE. Of course, Microsoft’s getting a little help from its friends with official I-got-you-bro statements coming from Google, Apple, Toyota, and Walmart. The appeal is expected to hit the Supreme Court in April and has big implications for patent litigation — specifically, it could give tech giants like Microsoft more guts to go after patents held by little guys like i4i.

Government says it’s got i4i’s back in Word patent dispute originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our man Ben Heck has done it again — this time, he’s taken modding to a new, retro level. Atari requested that Heck create a modded system as a promo for its new games, so our man teamed up with element14 and did what he does best. The master of mods has gutted an Xbox 360 and shoved it into a one-of-a-kind Atari 2600-esque case that he calls ‘Xbox 360 1977 Edition.’ The system’s got switches from old Atari systems had that control disc-ejection and controller synchronization. Just like the classic Ataris, Heck’s portable gaming laptop’s got wood panels and a black finish — and it’s huge. The best part of this mod? Well, playing Street Fighter on Xbox 360 hidden inside of what would be a modern version of a classic like Atari is pretty cool, in our opinion. As cool a classic like the Virtual Boy though? We’ll leave that for you to decide. Oh, and be sure to hit the source link to watch the mod get formed in 23 glorious minutes.

Ben Heck crafts Atari-styled Xbox-360, takes us back to the ’70s originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From small organizations to the World Bank, one Android app, called FLOW, is changing the way vital water-related information flows in the developing world.

Homefront tells the story of a future in which a united Korea has become mad with power and is in the process of invading a crumbling and vulnerable United States. We interviewed the game’s design director, David Votypka.

Don’t mind that ruckus over in the corner — that’s just millions of Windows Phone 7 users jumping around in boundless celebration. After hearing that the so-called NoDo update would be splashing down on WP7 phones in early February, it seems as if the coders at Microsoft took a few extra weeks to get things just right. Today, the company updated their Windows Phone update history to describe the new features that are rolling out in staggered fashion to phones around the globe, and the standout addition is the copy and paste functionality that AT&T’s HD7S will ship with later in the year. You’ll also see your apps and games load faster, your marketplace searches refined and your WiFi performance improved. There’s also a host of Outlook, messaging, Facebook, audio and camera improvements, though it remains unclear if said video camera now retains your shooting preferences even after you exit the app. Hang tight if you haven’t seen your update notification just yet, and be sure to let us know how the new build is treating you down in comments below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 ‘NoDo’ update starts rolling out, brings copy / paste and other fun additions originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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