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Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble with the ITC and the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington over Android-based UI techniques used in the Nook-e-reader claimed to be covered under Microsoft patents. The lawsuit also targets Nook device manufacturing partners Foxconn International and Inventec, says the company.
Intel announced today that Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of its Ultra Mobility Group (UMG), will be leaving the company. While a reason for the resignation was not cited, it could be related to the chip giant's failure to obtain smartphone design wins for its Atom processor.
Sprint's Nexus S 4G Android phone will offer the first pre-installed access to the Google Voice VoIP service — which will soon be available for download onto any CDMA-based Sprint smartphone. Sprint customers can use their existing numbers as Google Voice numbers, and have access to cheap international calls, call screening and routing, and personalized greetings features, says the carrier.
Ibase announced a compact digital signage PC with a dual-core AMD G-Series processor and a DVI-I output. Providing hardware video acceleration, the SI-18 has a 1.6GHz T56N processor, up to 2GB of RAM and 1TB of disk storage, gigabit Ethernet and a serial port, and a Mini PCI slot for optional Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the company says.
Apple has questioned Blaze Software smartphone browser benchmarks claiming that the Google's Android-based Nexus S ran 52 percent faster than the iPhone 4. Meanwhile, Android continued to lead iOS in Millennial Media's February smartphone ad impression stats, but has leveled off to 51 percent, dropping three points.
Google released a new application-status dashboard for Android Market developers that charts program download numbers across various Android versions and devices. Meanwhile, Google released the latest stats from its previously released device dashboard, showing that Android 2.2 now represents 61 percent of all active Android devices.
Korenix is readying the JetBox 9435-w, a Linux-based industrial embedded Layer 3 VPN routing computer with an Intel Xscale IXP435 667MHz RISC processor, eight 10/100 Ethernet ports, and extended temperature support. The company also has begun touting its JetBox 9400- and 9500-series as suitable platforms for network video recording (NVR) applications.
Intel has acquired Silicon Hive, a company that has specialized in developing programmable parallel processor technology for SoCs (systems on chip). The Dutch firm's intellectual property will be used to deliver “more differentiated Atom-processor based SoCs,” the chip giant says.
Portwell announced a COM Express Type II module that supports Intel's latest “Sandy Bridge” quad-core and dual-core Core i7/i5 processors. The PCOM-B217VG supports up to 16GB DDR3 SDRAM via dual sockets, and offers multiple PCIe lanes, four SATA ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, and eight USB ports, says the company.
Officials with both Intel and Qualcomm say they will have no problems getting products out to customers, despite the devastation caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. However, some analysts continue to predict price swings and shortages for flash memory and other computer components.
Motorola's Xoom Wi-Fi will go on sale March 27 for $599 from Amazon.com, as well as from brick-and-mortar retailers such as Best Buy, says the company. Representing a $200 discount from the Wi-Fi and 3G-equipped Xoom, this brings Motorola's tablet to price parity with Apple's iPad 2.
Kiwi PC announced a $500 Linux-based PC for senior citizens, complete with a 19-inch monitor and a color-coded keyboard. The Kiwi PC uses a modified version of Ubuntu 10.10 tailored with simplified menus and large icons and text, and it's powered by a dual-core Intel Atom D510, 2GB of DDR3 memory, and a 250GB hard disk drive.
Google's use of the Linux kernel in Android may violate GPL's “copyleft” provisions, say several open source software legal experts. A successful lawsuit against Google on the issue — specifically related to the Bionic library that links Linux with Android's other components — could require the costly and time-consuming switch to the GPL'd Glibc library, one analyst suggests.
Samsung announced two Android-2.2 based portable media players, destined for the U.S. this spring, while a teaser video suggests an enterprise focus for its 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab. The Samsung Galaxy Player 4″ and 5″ offer four- and five-inch touchscreens respectively, provide a 3.2-megapixel camera and front-facing VGA webcam, and support VoIP and video calls via 802.11b/g/n.
Google is reported to be testing NFC-based mobile payments on payment terminals made by VeriFone in San Francisco and New York this year. Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly backing off of NFC due to the lack of cohesion around a single standard.