Biz

Skype and Joltid settle

eBay's Skype has reached a settlement with Joltid over a breach of license that will now see the sale of the VoIP firm go through without litigation hassles.

Joltid Ltd, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, had claimed peer-to-peer...

Win a TomTom XL Live IQ Routes Europe

First off congratulations to Paul Story who won last month's comments comp for his comment on the story "Amazon Kindle UK import orders begin". For those who didn't win, don't fret, because the kind folk at TomTom have sent a TomTom XL Live IQ Routes Europe unit for us...

Apple's first store in France opens this weekend

Apple's first retail store in France - and its 277th across ten countries - will open in the centre of Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre on Saturday 7 November.

The two-story shop features an entire floor "dedicated to services that have become the hallmark...

Windows 7 retail sales up 234% on Vista

Retail sales of Windows 7 were well over 200% higher than Vista's in the two operating system's first days of being on sale in the States, the NPD Group has revealed.

But although Windows 7 software unit sales were 234% higher than Vista's, it seems revenue...

Rock Band is still not profitable, says Viacom

Viacom has admitted that its Rock Band series is still not making any cash - on the contrary, it's losing the company money. Viacom's chief financial officer, Tom Dooley, admitted in a quarterly earnings report that "Rock Band was a negative contributor to margins in...

The Nokia Foundation award goes to Jimmy Wales

The Nokia Foundation has announced that it has granted its 10,000 euro 2009 award to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

Nokia says Wales was awarded "for his contributions to the evolution of the World Wide Web as a participatory and truly democratic platform"....

Microsoft cuts another 800 jobs

Microsoft has revealed it is cutting an additional 800 jobs across its global operations, further to the previous cuts announced in January.

Reuters quotes a spokesperson for Microsoft stating these latest job cuts are spread out across the company's global...

App Store hits 100,000 apps milestone

Apple has now officially announced that the App Store has hit the 100,000 available apps milestone.

Apple iPhone and iPod touch customers across 77 countries have downloaded well over 2 billion apps, making the App Store not only the largest, but the world's...

5000 iPhones sold in China

A Wi-Fi-less Apple iPhone has gone on sale in China and the first week's figures are described as "slow", thought to be a result of the amount of cheaper, unlocked iPhones available in the region.

Apple's official Chinese iPhone partner, China Unicom - that...

Spring Design sues Barnes & Noble over Nook ebook

Spring Design, the maker of the Alex dual-screen ebook reader is suing Barnes & Noble over claims that the bookseller copied ideas and features in releasing its own ebook, the Nook.

"We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention...

Wistron named as Polymer Vision purchaser

The mysterious, unnamed Asian company that saved Polymer Vision from closing completely after in went bankrupt earlier this year has been named as Taiwanese ODM Wistron.

Polymer Vision was closed down by its Dutch parent company for financial reasons, back in...

TomTom shares plunge on poor Q3 results and Google announcement

TomTom and Garmin saw their share prices plunge on Wednesday, supposedly following the announcement from Google that it was entering the "Real time" navigation sector.

The news coincidently came as TomTom announced poor Q3 results with earnings down over 64 million...

Samsung and Handmark offer $250k for games for next-gen phones

Samsung and Handmark, a mobile apps and service company, have announced the launch of a new Global Venture Fund to invest in companies or individuals with "innovative, market-changing game ideas for next generation Samsung mobile phones".

Unlike rival manufacturer's...

VIDEO: Dell Latitude XT2 XFR rugged tablet PC launches

This Dell infomercial would make a great drinking game if you had to down a shandy every time voice-over man says "XT2 XFR", but for those of you of a more sober frame of mind, it gives you a quick overview of Dell's new rugged tablet PC.

The Dell Latitude XT2...

O2 Techies support service announced for small businesses

O2 has announced the launch of O2 Techies, a new tech support service offering on-site set up, specialised training and helpline support to O2's small business customers across the UK.

The Techies are said to be a "dedicated fleet of specially trained technicians"...

Nokia sues Apple over alleged iPhone patent infringements

Nokia has announced that it has filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN standards.
 
Nokia is naming ten patents in the suit that relate...

HTC Hero "in short supply"

HTC is struggling to meet demand for its flagship Android handset, the HTC Hero, according to the company's VP Asia-Pacific Jack Tong. Sales in Europe and Asia are very strong he said, which is causing production difficulties.

"The tight production will not be...

Twitter and Facebook Status updates coming to Bing

Microsoft is about to sign up both Twitter and Facebook in a non-exclusive deal to help improve the Bing search engine.

The deal, which will see both sites integrate their real-time feed of status updates into the Bing search engine is, if true, expected to give...

Smug Mug adds RFID chip to coffee cup

In the States a college inventor has created an RFID-enabled coffee cup, allowing for wave-and-pay transactions in coffee houses without getting your wallet out.

While here in the UK NFC phones and RFID card systems have and are being trialled by both the...

Apple: Most profitable quarter ever

The world might be struggling following on from the fall out of the economic downturn that then became the worldwide recession, but that hasn't stopped Apple boasting its most "profitable quarter ever" suggesting they are charging customers too much for the latest must...

Plastic Logic announces "Que" ebook reader for January launch

Plastic Logic has announced a new ebook reader, the "Que", that's due to be launched at the CES show in January 2010.

Describing the device as the first "proReader" designed for business professionals, the Que wants to "connect its users with their business...

VIDEO: Google explains "Going Google"

Google has released a preview of its next phase of the "Going Google" campaign that will launch across six new countries.

The campaign, to get businesses to switch over to Google's corporate solutions, has seen bill-board ads across the States.

As...

Spotify and 3 deal confirmed

Spotify and 3 have formally announced the partnership that Pocket-lint detailed last week. As previously reported, 3 will begin selling the HTC Hero with a Premium Spotify subscription bundled in - which normally costs £10 per month.

The tariff costs £35 per month...

Wolfram Alpha announces Webservice API

Computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha has announced the launch of the Wolfram Alpha Webservice API.

The paid-for release will mean that developers can now stick Wolfram Alpha results and data into websites and online publishing, desktop applications,...

Channel 4 content to be available on YouTube

YouTube and Channel 4 have done a "landmark" deal that will see full-length versions of the broadcaster's top TV shows available online, on demand on the Google-owned site.

The agreement, 6 months in the making, is for a 3-year period and will mean programmes...