Miscellaneous

Things were looking promising for Yahoo's mobile repositioning. By April 1, Yahoo had a redesigned mobile Web site, a richer but similarly-featured iPhone app, and plans for a Java phone edition, of which we got to take a sneak peek. However, that final Java app is no longer going to materialize, at least not in its originally planned form. Yahoo recently released a message to beta testers explaining that the company "has decided to cease development of the Yahoo Mobile smartphone app effective Wednesday, May 20th. So you will not be provided access to the beta program for … Read more

TV makers worldwide saw their revenues slide 12 percent in the last year, according to a report set to be released Tuesday by DisplaySearch.

A total of 43.3 million TVs were sold worldwide in the first quarter of this year, a 6 percent drop compared to the same quarter a year ago, and prices dropped 6 percent, too, according to the Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report.

Even Samsung, which collects more money in its coffers for TVs than any company in the world for the past 13 straight quarters, saw its revenues drop 8 percent since the … Read more

In open source or in product development generally, one of the biggest mistakes is to take on a deeply entrenched incumbent on its own turf. Almost inevitably, if you play someone else's game, even if you're a little cheaper/faster/better, you're going to lose. Inertia favors the incumbent, and there's a whole lot of inertia involved in switching vendors.

For this reason, I agree wholeheartedly with Bill Weinberg's suggestion that Linux's opportunity in Netbooks is to focus on the mobile side of the market, rather than bringing a traditional, personal computer bent to … Read more

For months, Mozilla's mobile version of its Firefox browser has been in first alpha, then beta modes on two Maemo-run Nokia Internet Tablets that few possessed. On Friday, Fennec (as it's been code-named) has arrived on a platform that many more testers will be able to sink their fingers into: Windows Mobile 6.

As with Fennec beta 1 for the Nokia N810 and N800, Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile 6 (download the CAB file) has been tailor-made for the HTC Touch Pro, with an intention to expand to more handsets in future releases. The flashiest feature to … Read more

Correction, 10:27 a.m. PDT: This story incorrectly described Google as a private company. It is public.

As far as I know, nothing tragic happened as a result of Thursday's Google outage but it does remind us how important Google has become to many people's lives and livelihoods.

In addition to search, millions of people rely on Google for their e-mail, calendar, and other Web-based applications including word processing and spreadsheet. With its Google Health service, the company has also branched into health care record keeping, making me worry that someday an outage could literally be life … Read more

Intel was fined more than 1 billion euros by the European Commission for violating antitrust legislation, following a lengthy investigation prompted by complaints made by chipmaking rival Advanced Micro Devices.

The world's chip giant was fined 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) for engaging in illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude competitors from the market for computer chips called x86 central processing units (CPUs), the Commission said.

Between October 2002 and December 2007, Intel held more than 70 percent of the worldwide x86 CPU market. The Commission found that during the period in question, Intel engaged in two illegal … Read more

I'll say this for celebrity Twitter accounts: they sure can stir up some news.

Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor used it to good effect on Wednesday when he tweeted that a version of his band's iPhone application is in the works for BlackBerry. Reznor's camp hasn't yet let slip a release date, except the vague and taunting promise of "soon."

Presumably, Reznor and NIN fans won't have to worry about the delays to the software's release that dogged an update to the rock band's iPhone application initially deemed "… Read more

Update at 10:05 a.m. PDT: On Wednesday, France's Senate also passed the bill, according to the Associated Press.

The French National Assembly has passed an antipiracy bill that sets a very dangerous precedent.

The "Creation et Internet" bill which passed the lower house of France's parliament by a vote of 296 to 233, is a "three-strikes-you're-out" act that could suspend Internet access for up to a year to anyone caught three times downloading or sharing copyrighted files. The law would not need a trial or court order to be enforced.

The … Read more

Intel said Tuesday that it is investing $12 million in a visual-computing research center in Europe. This comes as Intel prepares to bring out its first graphics chip in more than a decade by early next year.

Opening Tuesday, the Intel Visual Computing Institute is located at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany. The company says the center "will explore advanced graphics and visual computing technologies."

The investment, to be made over five years, represents Intel's largest European university collaboration, the company said.

"Intel's visual computing vision is to realize computer applications that look … Read more