Hasta La Gadget!

We should’ve known this was coming when Microsoft went after Motorola for Moto’s supposedly patent-infringing Android devices, and now Ballmer & Co. have their sights set on Barnes & Noble, Foxconn, and Inventec for making and selling the Nook Color. Once again, Microsoft has filed in both the ITC and the Western District of Washington Federal Court claiming that the Android OS infringes its patents, though the patents at issue have dwindled in number from nine to five this time around. Allegedly, the Nook Color is riddled with infringing bits from its tab-using web browser and web-document viewing capability to its text selection and book annotation features. Microsoft has resorted to litigation as a new means to get paid for its patents after year-long licensing negotiations with B&N bore little fruit (unlike those with HTC, who got with the licensing program). So count this as another clear message to manufacturers — Android’s open-source, but it ain’t free.

Continue reading Same song, second verse: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble for Android’s patent infringement

Same song, second verse: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble for Android’s patent infringement originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

The latest generation of gaming gadgets do some nifty tricks, and one of the niftiest they might perform is assisting the realm of medicine. Microsoft’s Kinect sounded like a candidate for surgery, and this month real-life surgeons have actually put it to use — Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Canada rigged the Xbox 360 depth camera to its medical imaging computer. Now, doctors don’t have to scrub out to manipulate an MRI scan, or even appoint a peon to the task — rather, they simply raise their bloodied glove, and dive into the digital imagery with a wave of a dextrous hand.

Meanwhile, the American Optometric Association has expanded upon its initial praise of Nintendo’s 3DS, saying the autostereoscopic 3D handheld “could be a godsend for identifying kids under 6 who need vision therapy.” Though Nintendo’s warning labels had originally incited a bit of fear among parents, the organization says that kids who can’t experience the 3DS to its full potential may have amblyopia (or other vision disorders) that can be more easily treated the earlier it’s caught, though one doctor interviewed by the Associated Press contends that kids with amblyopia may not know what they’re missing to begin with — so don’t necessarily expect a panacea, folks.

Kinect keeps surgeons on task, Nintendo 3DS might assist optometrists with diagnoses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Joystiq  |  AP, The Canadian Press  | Email this | Comments

This article was written on December 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Opera issued a press release today announcing an antitrust complaint that they filed with the European Commission. In the complaint they argue that Microsoft should be required to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows, and that the browser should follow the Web standards that many other browsers are already compliant with.

They are “filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them,” according to Jon von Tetzchner, Opera’s CEO. In Opera’s own words they would like to…

1. Obligate Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop.
2. Require Microsoft to follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities.

As a Web developer myself it is always difficult designing websites that work on all browsers, but I do have to say that Internet Explorer 7 is much easier to design for than its predecessors. But still, Opera Watch’s Daniel Goldman makes a good point when he says:

We, as Web users, will greatly benefit when Microsoft will start supporting Web standards, something which the other major Web browsers (Firefox, Opera, and Safari) have been doing for quite some time already.

I’m not sure how this is going to play out, but everyone knows that the European Union (EU) has ruled against Microsoft in the past. Because of them Microsoft has had to offer a version of Windows that does not have Windows Media Player bundled with it, and has also had to pay a $613 million fine.

It does make you wonder how you would download another browser if Windows didn’t come with Internet Explorer, and you only had that one computer?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

IE 8 to Enforce Standards Mode by DefaultIE 8 Passes Acid 2 TestOpera 8.5 Beta Pocket PC Edition Finally ReleasedIE 8 Will Not Follow Standards By DefaultMicrosoft Describes Apple as a “Noisy Competitor”

The very first Nokia phone to run on an operating system that wasn’t built by Nokia is reportedly already in the beginning stages of development. It will use Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform.

The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft was announced earlier this year, baffling some who wondered by Nokia wouldn’t go for Android – the leading mobile OS – to bring itself out of an impending grave. Aside from the fact that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop used to be a Microsoft executive, there are reports that MS paid around $100 million for the deal.

It’s still unclear when the phone will be released, or if the new partnership will save Nokia from its draining market share. We’ll have to wait and see.

&Via ZDNet

Most sane folks will have greeted the arrival of Internet Explorer 9 with a curious click on a download button or a simple update of the browser they were already using, but that’s not enough for everyone. One chap with a taste for the eccentrically geeky decided to take this opportunity to go through a retrospective of every version of IE, going all the way back to Windows 95’s first iteration, and to run the Acid compatibility tests to see how they stand up to modern standards. IE1, the ancient, CSS-deprived beast that it is, choked immediately and failed to even display its homepage without an error, but things improved steadily from there until the triumph of iteration 9. See all that glorious progress happening in the space of just a few minutes in the video after the break.

Continue reading Internet Explorer versions 1 through 9 compared, signs of progress found (video)

Internet Explorer versions 1 through 9 compared, signs of progress found (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Techland  |  Andy’s Tech Experiments Blog  | Email this | Comments