THE CONNECTED HOME TECH BLOG
YOUR DAILY DOSE OF HOME-TECHNOLOGY NEWS AND VIEWS PAUL THURROTT
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[4/16/2006]
Lucent Sues Microsoft for Xbox 360-Related Patent Infringement
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
With Sony's PlayStation 3 delayed until November and the Xbox 360 finally shipping in volume, you'd think Microsoft could just sit back and enjoy the next six months without competition. Sadly, that scenario might not come to pass. Last week, Lucent sued Microsoft for violating one of its patents in the Xbox 360. Lucent owns a patent related to MPEG-2 video decoding, and it says the Xbox 360 illegally infringes on it. What's interesting is that Lucent and Microsoft have clashed over patents before, and the companies still have a few unresolved cases on the docket. What's scary is that Lucent might very well try to halt Xbox 360 sales until...
LAST COMMENT
Once again, this is what's wrong with our patent system. 'nuff said....
Jay -April 19, 2006
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[4/16/2006]
Firefox Updated with Universal Binary Support, Security and Stability Fixes
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
If you're running Mozilla Firefox—and let's face it, you should be—you'll want to update to the very latest version, Firefox 1.5.0.2, which shipped late last week. The biggest feature in this version applies only to Macs: It comes in a Universal Binary format on that platform, meaning it will run natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. But Firefox 1.5.0.2 is important for all users, because it includes various security fixes and stability improvements. Seriously, if you're still driving without a seatbelt with Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), check out the Volvo of Web browsers. Firefox is faster, safer, and more...
LAST COMMENT
I tried Firefox but had to give it up when it mangled too many sites. I have reverted to IE6 wih the...
John Perkins -April 19, 2006
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[4/16/2006]
TiVo Wins Patent Infringement Case
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
Last week, DVR pioneer TiVo won a stunning court decision in which the company was awarded $73 million in damages. TiVo had sued Echostar, the company behind the satellite TV service Dish Networks, for infringing on its patents for a "multimedia time warping system," which sounds like something out of Star Trek but is in fact simply a method for recording TV shows and watching them later. Obviously, that's a pretty broad patent. Assuming TiVo survives Echostar's inevitable appeal, the company could very well start suing other makers of DVR products, including Microsoft, which makes software for...
LAST COMMENT
I don't agree with the court's ruling. I've been time warping since the purchase of my first VCR ba...
mrdrwest -April 18, 2006
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[4/16/2006]
Beatles Getting Ready for Digital Song Downloads
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
The Beatles might be in court battling Apple Computer over the use of an apple logo on the iTunes Music Store, but the one-time pop group's record label confirmed last week that the company was working diligently to remaster the entire Beatles catalog for eventual online digital distribution. Apple Corps spokespeople confirmed that the company was prepping The Beatles catalog for electronic distribution after news of the plans became public during the Apple vs. Apple trial. It's not clear when the music will be available digitally, but my guess is it won't be an iTunes...
LAST COMMENT
The real question is... what took them so long to get with the program? Nice to see it finally happe...
Mark Broge -April 19, 2006
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[4/11/2006]
Microsoft Shoots for 1 Million Xbox 360s per Month
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
Microsoft says that it now plans to ship at least one million Xbox 360 video game consoles to customers each month going forward. The new schedule calls for a doubling of the current output, and the software giant believes it will be able to catch up with demand by the middle of this year as a result. Previously, Microsoft said it expected to ship as many as 5 million Xbox 360 consoles by the end of June 2006. So far this year, the company has shipped 1.5 million consoles worldwide. Microsoft's erstwhile competitor, the Sony PlayStation 3, was recently delayed until November 2006, so Microsoft can use the intervening time to build a healthy...
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[4/11/2006]
Hacker Installs Windows Vista on an iMac
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
An enterprising hacker has managed to install Windows Vista on an Intel-based Apple iMac. However, he didn't use Apple's recently released Boot Camp software, which lets users switch between Windows XP and Mac OS X on Intel-based Macs. Although there's still no official support for Vista running on Intel-based Macs—the system is still in beta, after all—no doubt it's coming. And all of those people who dreamed of a single system that can do it all—myself included, incidentally—can...
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[4/11/2006]
DAPReview Refutes CNET Battery Test
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
Last month, I reported on a CNET test that claimed that using digital rights management (DRM)-encoded digital audio tracks would reduce the battery life of portable MP3 players by as much as 25 percent. There was just one problem: CNET compared non-DRM-encoded MP3 files with DRM-encoded WMA and Protected AAC files, causing some music fans to cry foul. A Web site called DAPReview thought the results sounded fishy, so the site performed its own tests, this time testing both non-DRM-encoded and DRM-encoded WMA files to be sure the test was fair. According to DAPReview, a small difference in battery life is noticeable. Playing non-DRM-encoded...
LAST COMMENT
If CNET's numbers are to be believed, then it sounds like they just got the conclusion wrong. If DR...
KARL -April 12, 2006
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[4/11/2006]
Air France Says 'Oui' to In-Flight Cell Phone Use ... Sort Of
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
Air France recently announced that it will test an airborne cellular service next year. However, contrary to what you might take away from that announcement, Air France won't be letting passengers on its planes make cell phone calls. Instead, the company will be allowing only cell phone-based text messages and email. Phone service might be added in the future, depending on how things go. I've gone on record about this in the past, and I'd like to reiterate this now: People shouldn't be allowed to annoy other passengers on a plane, and most people who talk on cell phones are annoying. If Air France is serious about passenger safety, it will...
LAST COMMENT
I agree, if they allow this, they should have a designated separate area of the plane for chatting, ...
Josh S -April 12, 2006
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[4/4/2006]
Record Companies Square Off Against Apple
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
This week, Apple Computer is still fighting Apple Corps. over the use of its logo in the iTunes Music Store, but Apple Computer will soon have a bigger fight on its hands. This year, each of the major record companies is set to renegotiate the terms of its contract with Apple, and most of them seem inclined to make Apple change its pricing structure. The problem, according to the record companies, is that fixed pricing doesn't make sense because it could charge a lot more than 99 cents per track for new songs, and would like to charge less for classic tracks. Apple, of course, insists that consistency is the key and has accused the recording...
LAST COMMENT
cool...
mommy -April 14, 2006
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[4/4/2006]
Microsoft Says that Malware Is Often Unbeatable
- Posted by: Paul Thurrott
In a bizarre admission, a security expert at Microsoft this week said that some malware simply can't be beaten and that sometimes the only way to fix an infected PC system is to wipe it out and start over. "When you're dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch," said Mike Danseglio, a program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft. "In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit." That last bit, of course, is a reference to the movie Aliens, and the phrase has entered the popular lexicon as a reference to wiping out and...
LAST COMMENT
You here alot about root kits lately, but there sure seems to be a lack of straight forward answers....
Ric -April 05, 2006
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