Motorola refuses Microsoft bond to keep Windows 7 in German market
By Loek Essers | IDG News Service Motorola refused Microsoft’s offer of a $300 million bond to postpone enforcement of potential German injunctions against Microsoft products that use the H.264 video codec, which if granted could exclude Microsoft from the German market, according to court documents filed on Wednesday. Microsoft could lose its rights to distribute in Germany products that use the H.264 video standard and the 802.11 WiFi standard, pending a court ruling on April 17.
HP offers contractors a choice: 5 per cent pay cut … or 100 per cent
HP has told some IT contractors to anticipate at least a five per cent pay cut as it looks to eke out cost savings across the organisation. A letter sent out by IT employment bureau Advanced Resource Managers (ARM) IT Ltd last week to the behemoth’s field of techies confirmed HP’s intent to end-of-life its existing Enterprise Security Services (ESS) contracts on 1 April. “The economy has been experiencing unprecedented and extreme market conditions. As a result of this, our ...
Sony announces Xperia neo L for the Chinese market
Today Sony Mobile announced a new addition to its Xperia smartphone line-up. The Sony neo L is a mid-range device that is based on the neo V and is destined for the Chinese market. The Xperia neo L will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich at launch (a first for Sony) and can easily be confused with the neo V as they share similar looks and specifications. However, the neo L also borrows a few design elements from the Xperia ...
Spotify marks Australian launch
The long anticipated Australian launch details for music streaming service Spotify are poised to be unveiled as soon as next week as high profile digital executives start to reveal their involvement. As revealed by El Reg in November, Spotify was entering the market imminently as confirmed by DMG CEO Cathy O’Connor . The company is hiring staff for offices across APAC which include Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney since November with local Australian office quietly operating over summer.
Google Play combines Market, Books, Music and Videos
Android took a major step this day as Google unified it’s Google Music, Google Videos, Google Books and Android Market services into one. The new one-stop store goes by Google Play. Google Play is Google’s effort to put all of its downloadable content, be it apps, movies, music or eBooks and make it easily accessible using Cloud syncing. This would grant you to easily get any music tracks, videos and eBooks you buy to all of your Android devices, just ...
Internet Explorer takes unexpected jump in market share
Just when you thought Internet Explorer was on a years-long losing streak, about to drop below 50 percent of all browsing activity worldwide, the January figures from Net Applications showed a substantial, remarkable 1.19 percent jump in IE use in January. Just as surprisingly, there are concomitant decreases in market share for all three of IE’s primary competitors: Firefox (down nearly 1 percent from December), Chrome (down nearly 0.2 percent) and Safari (down nearly 0.1 percent).
LG X3 revealed: quad-core Ice Cream Sandwich
Perhaps a taste of what we can anticipate at MWC next month, the X3 looks to be one of the early challengers to HTC in the quad-core market. The robust processor comes courtesy of the Tegra 3 chipset by Nvidia, and while the 720p screen measures in at a quite massive 4.7 inches, it supposedly manages to retain a slim 9mm waistline. LG plans to stick in a 2000mAh battery to power it all. Other highlights include 16GB of internal ...
Nielsen sums up Q4: iOS leaps forward, but Android still leads
The analysts from Nielsen just published their report on the US smartphone market in the last quarter of 2011 and the numbers that it contains are hardly shocking. The iPhone 4S launch helped iOS gain a lot of ground and close the gap on Android. The two leading platforms were neck and neck in December, when most of the sales were generated. Windows Phone was the only other platform to improve its market position, but the Microsoft OS is still ...
Windows Phone: Is any relief coming?
The latest Mobile Subscriber Market Share report from ComScore shows Microsoft’s average share of smartphone subscribers in the U.S. has fallen yet again, from 5.7 percent in the three months ending August 2011, to 5.2 percent in the period ending November 2011. It’s a significant hit, specifically because ComScore measures the total number of subscribers, not the number of new smartphones purchased, and the number of Windows Phones bought in the U.S.
Intel gets Atoms out ahead of CES
Intel states shipments have started on its latest lines of dual-core Atom processors, formerly known as Cedar Trail, and that it’s aiming them at the netbook and health-care markets. The new processors – announced ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month – are fused with Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 3600/3650 to give twice the performance of current designs, enough for full 1080p high-definition video. This comes with a 20 per cent reduction in power and ...
