Google's Android operating system could face new legal attacks from Microsoft and Apple, now that their “Rockstar Bidco LP” consortium has won court permission to purchase Nortel Networks' patent portfolio. However, the judge presiding over Oracle's lawsuit against Google may soon stay the proceedings pending re-examinations of the patents in question, according to Foss Patents blogger Florian Mueller.

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CERN announced version 1.1 of its Open Hardware License (OHL), a legal framework “designed to facilitate knowledge exchange across the electronic design community. The license is intended to become for hardware what the GPL (General Public License) is for software, the organization says.

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Advanced Digital Logic (ADL) announced it will continue to supply SBCs (single board computers) based on the Intel Pentium M processor and 855 chipset until 2015. The PC/104-based ADL855PC and 3.5-inch ADL855HD are important because they're the last platforms that support the 16-bit ISA bus with DMA (direct memory access), the company claims.

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Google's Android and Apple's iOS will help drive 53.5 million tablet shipments in 2011, according to IDC. But the research firm adds that consumers don't want to be saddled with cellular data plans — and they apparently aren't much interested in tablets running Microsoft Windows, either.

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Cincinnati Bell announced a 4G wireless network touting speeds “twice as fast as other national wireless companies,” as well as a new Android phone to go with it. The Huawei Ascend X 4G includes a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 4.2 inch touchscreen, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of flash storage, GPS, and a five megapixel camera with geotagging, the company says.

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MSI announced what it says is the world's first motherboard to offer PCI Express 3.0 expansion, for bandwidth up to 32GB/sec. The “Z68A-GD80” accepts “Sandy Bridge” Core processors, has seven expansion slots, includes 6Gb/sec. SATA and USB 3.0, and sports a BIOS that has a graphical user interface and supports 3TB drives, the company says.

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McCain says it will supply San Francisco with a new Linux-based traffic controller computer that meets the latest Advanced Transportation Controller (ATC) standards. Built around a Freescale PowerQUICC II Pro processor, the “2070LXN2 NEMA” offers several keypads, an 8×40 display, plus Ethernet, USB, serial, and SDLC connections, says the company.

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Via Technologies announced a Mini-ITX board using its dual-core Nano X2 E-Series processor. The Epia-M900 accepts up to 8GB of RAM, has VGA and HDMI video outputs, includes both PCI and PCI Express x16 expansion slots, and offers both S/PDIF and analog audio outputs, according to the company.

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ClearCenter announced a line of Linux-based hybrid gateway appliances claimed to replace “an entire rack of separate server, network, and gateway equipment.” The ClearBox 100 Hybrid Gateway Appliance products are built around a 1.6GHz, dual-core Intel Atom D510, and comes with 1GB or 2GB of RAM, a 250GB or 500GB HDD, four gigabit Ethernet ports, and optional Wi-Fi.

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IEI announced a pair of Mini-ITX boards featuring Intel's Atom D425 or D525 processors, both clocked at 1.8GHz. The KINO-PV-D4253 and KINO-PV-D5253 support up to 4GB 800MHz DDR3 memory, have triple gigabit Ethernet ports, and have expansion slots including Mini PCI Express, PCI Express x1, and PCI, according to the company.

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New details have emerged about Qualcomm processors that will run the ARM version of Microsoft's Windows 8 — and are also likely to run Android and Windows Phone 7. The MSM8960 will include dual “Krait” cores clocked at up to 1.7GHz; the MSM8930 offers the same but with a 1.2GHz maximum and simpler graphics; and the MSM8974 will have quad cores clocked up to 2.5GHz, according to a MobileTechWorld.com story.

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Axiomtek announced an “industrial-grade” Mini-ITX motherboard equipped with a dual-core Intel Atom D525 or single-core D425, either clocked to 1.8GHz. The Mano825 supports up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, providing dual display capability, PCI and Mini-PCI Express expansion, and I/O including USB 2.0, RS-232, gigabit Ethernet and SATA connections, says the company.

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Scammers are taking advantage of the intense demand for Google+ invites to send users fake invitations to online pharmacies, say security experts. Meanwhile, Google has begun patching a Google+ privacy hole, and analysts debate whether the Android-friendly social networking service can put a dent in Facebook.

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Microsoft has demanded that Samsung pay a $15 patent royalty for every Android handset it produces, and a Windows Phone version of the very successful Galaxy S II Android phone is under consideration, according to two separate reports. Meanwhile, Samsung is preparing a defense against an Apple preliminary injunction that would keep four of the former's Android devices from being sold in the U.S.

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Netflix has launched a certification program for its Netflix HD application, awarding its first seal of approval to Texas Instruments' OMAP 4 processor and WiLink 7.0 chipset running on Android 2.3. TI's dual-core OMAP 4 won the certification thanks to its ability to play 1080p video at 30fps and its on-chip support for DRM (digital rights management).

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