Earlier this year, Microsoft sued Barnes & Noble for patent infringement over its use of Android in the Nook Color. (I somehow missed this when it happened, so didn’t know about it when I posted this article more recently about Microsoft’s Android patent licensing deals.) But this week, an interesting new document emerged as evidence in the case: a 29-page slide deck from Barnes & Noble presenting the problems with Microsoft’s patent stance. The site that presented the slides, GeekWire, is down right now (presumably due to the heavy bandwidth demand from all 29 of those pictures being downloaded...

I’m not sure I follow this story, but if it’s true it could be important for the burgeoning Android device market. The blog Paris Lemon points to a story that’s been buried under today’s spate of Kindle news: Microsoft just issued a press release concerning a patent portfolio cross-licensing partnership it just signed with Samsung. Included in the press release is the sentence, “Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will receive royalties for Samsung’s mobile phones and tablets running the Android mobile platform.” Paris Lemon points out that this means that of the three major Android OEMs,...

As Paul posted, I broke my arm yesterday. (And thank you to all those who have already left well wishes there for me.) It was not a pleasant experience—all the more so because it was the elbow of my dominant left hand.  However, I have used it as an excuse to figure out how to get Windows speech recognition up and running, and I am using that to write this post now. I know that some authors, such as David Weber, use speech recognition for most of their writing.  Up to this point, I had been dubious of how...

It’s twofer Tuesday! (Well, okay, it’s Tuesday in the mid-Atlantic and eastward, at least). Microsoft’s lawsuit against Barnes & Noble for patent infringement in Android has been rather neatly bookended by another IP infringement lawsuit emerging on the same day in which Microsoft’s closest competitor sues Barnes & Noble’s closest competitor. That’s right, Apple is suing Amazon because Amazon has the temerity to use the name “App Store” for its new Android application service. Jeremy Hill at our sister blog Gamertell seems to find Apple’s decision justifiable: When we hear the term App Store,...

Various Internet news sources (such as Gizmodo) are reporting on a specific portion of a New York Times interview with Bill Gates’s wife Melinda—the portion focusing on her attitude toward Apple products in her household. It seems that Melinda Gates has very particular attitudes toward what brand of products make it through her front door. Do you own an iPod, which is made by Apple? No, I have a Zune. What if one of your children says, “Mom, I have to have an iPod?”...

I’ve been learning a lot in my new job as a tech support representative so far. It’s kind of funny—before I took this job, I thought I “knew” what tech support was, from my limited exposure to humorous tech support stories, and my work supporting a small web hosting company. But exposure to everyday people with common computer problems has given me a whole new perspective—or at least the start of one. The biggest thing I’m sure of is that I’ve still got a lot left to learn. It’s surprising, though perhaps it shouldn’t be, just how many...

Here’s a weird bit of news. In a patent application filed in January, 2009, Microsoft laid claim to the idea of virtual page-turning, the way iBooks does it—creating a visual facsimile of a turning page, complete with transparency to see through to the words on the back of the page as you turn it. Obviously, Microsoft originally intended to use this with its Courier tablet, which it recently axed. But could Microsoft go after Apple for infringement if this patent is granted? I find it hard to believe that the patent would stand up to challenge,...

Charlie Sorrel at Wired’s “Gadget Lab” blog has a column on “How to make an iPad-beating tablet.” Though by and large, most of the features he describes are exactly the features that the iPad has. For instance: The suggestions that Apple should let users install apps from anywhere ignore this fact: the App store is so successful because it is closed. Don’t agree? How’s the Android Marketplace doing? If you want to beat it, join it? He does point out some areas where competitors could better Apple, such as the contentious issue...

CNet reports that Apple and Microsoft are assembling a patent portfolio to challenge the legality of open-source video codec Ogg Theora. Theora competes against the h.264 video codec that Microsoft and Apple are supporting as part of their HTML5 strategy. "A patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other 'open source' codecs now," Jobs wrote in the e-mail, which Apple did not immediately confirm as authentic. "Unfortunately, just because something is open source, it doesn't mean or guarantee that it doesn't infringe on others' patents." This may not immediately seem...

Here’s a bit of sad news. The beleaguered Palm Inc. has put itself up for sale, working with Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to try to find a buyer, Bloomberg reports. As we previously reported, Palm has been having a hard time lately as its devices simply failed to find a market. Word of the sale comes as no surprise; sooner or later something like this had to happen. In a way, history is repeating itself, because the original Palm ran out of money and had to sell itself to US Robotics shortly after getting started. If...

I certainly looks as if it might be, as the videos on Engadget show. Engadget has an article full of pictures and videos about the new product, As fjtorres, who give me the heads up, points out there are rumors about Amazon and MS getting together to respond to the iPad and hints at CES about an MS/Blio collaboration. Here's one of the videos from the article: ...

Barron's has published speculation that Amazon and Microsoft have teamed up to develop some sort of tablet. Well, Laptop Magazine's blog has come up with the five things they feel it needs to succeed. Their first requirement is that it have a Pixel Qi or Mirasol display that will give the reader color, but not induce eyestrain. For the remaining suggestions take a look here....