EU: Microsoft again accused of flouting antitrust ruling

The European Commission has again accused Microsoft of flouting a 2004 antitrust ruling, with an independent monitor calling the company's responses "incomplete, inaccurate and unusable."

The New York Times reports (11 March) that in a letter sent to Microsoft, the commission said its experts had again found that the company had not met the terms of the ruling, which imposed a fine of 497 million euros (US$591.7 million) on the company two years ago.

Neil Barrett, the commission's independent monitor of Microsoft's compliance, criticised the company's responses. After reviewing Microsoft's latest submission, Mr. Barrett said in his statement, "Nothing substantial was added to the technical documentation," reports the NYT.

According to the newspaper, Microsoft responded by repeating that it was not only in compliance with the 2004 ruling, but had exceeded it. "That documentation meets and surpasses the requirements of the commission's 2004 decision," it said in a statement. The company argued that the commission's reiteration of its negative conclusions shows that the formal statement of objections in December "is fundamentally flawed and should be withdrawn," the NYT reports.

{mospagebreaktitle=Google's latest acquisition}Google's latest acquisition 

Google has said that it has bought the Silicon Valley start-up Upstartle, gaining its Writely Internet word processing software. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The New York Times reports (10 March) that Writely lets users compose documents on the web and share them with others, according to notes on Google's web site.

Upstartle released a test version of Writely software last August.

According to the newspaper, the acquisition puts Google in direct competition with Word software from Microsoft and signals the intention of Google to expand its reach into Microsoft products.

{mospagebreaktitle=Nokia CEO: US market trendsetter}Nokia CEO: US market trendsetter

Mobile handset giant Nokia sees the United States market as having importance out of proportion to its size in setting industry trends, its incoming chief executive said in remarks just published.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (10 March) that success in the United States is more important than just the resulting revenues, said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who takes over from CEO Jorma Ollila in June, in an interview with Finnish weekly magazine Suomen Kuvalehti.

According to Reuters, Nokia grew its unit sales in North America by 22 percent in the fourth quarter compared to a year earlier, with the region now accounting for about 12 percent of its global volumes.

But researchers Gartner say the Finnish company only has about 21 percent of the North American market, running second to U.S. rival Motorola, and much lower than Nokia's global 35 percent share, says Reuters.

{mospagebreaktitle=France Telecom notches up 1m VoIP users}France Telecom notches up 1m VoIP users

France Telecom (FT) has chalked up more than a million residential internet telephony lines across Europe, according to VoIP partner Netcentrex.

The Register reports (10 March) that FT's VoIP service has been up and running for 18 months. The latest stats show that at the end of 2005 it had a million VoIP lines with some 150,000 new subscribers being added each month across France, UK, The Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

In November, France Telecom-owned Wanadoo reported that it had some 80,000 VoIP lines in the UK, making it the UK's leading VoIP outfit - their claim, not ours, comments The Register.

The Register says that the ISP has yet to update these figures, but it seems likely that it now has well over 100,000 VoIP users in the UK.

According to The Register, last month BT bragged that it had some 300,000 VoIP UK punters.

{mospagebreaktitle=Amazon looking at downloads}Amazon looking at downloads

Amazon.com is in talks with three Hollywood studios about starting a service that would allow consumers to download movies and TV shows for a fee and burn them onto DVD's, according to three people briefed on the discussions.

The New York Times reports (10 March) that if the advanced negotiations are successfully concluded, Amazon's service would position itself in the media world alongside rivals like Apple Computer's iTunes as a place where people go not just to order goods to be sent by mail, but to instantly enjoy digital wares as well.

The newspaper reports that, so far, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers are engaged in the talks, said one person close to the talks who, like the others, asked not to be identified because the negotiations are continuing.

{mospagebreaktitle=Canon: No intention of giving up on SED tvs}Canon: No intention of giving up on SED tvs

Japan's Canon has said it plans to press ahead with the development and production of a new type of flat TVs despite a delay of more than one year in the commercial launch, believing that there will still be room for the product in the fast-growing market.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (10 March) that Canon and Toshiba have said they would delay the launch of surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) TVs to the fourth quarter of 2007 to improve cost competitiveness, casting a shadow over the product's commercial feasibility.

According to the Reuters report,Toshiba and Canon formed a joint venture in 2004 to develop and make SED panels, which are thinner and consume less energy than liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panels, currently the main technologies used for flat panel TVs.

Analysts are concerned that incessant price erosion in existing flat TVs and ballooning output capacity for LCD and plasma panels, which helps TV makers cut per-unit costs, may dim the chances of SED TVs' commercial success, says Reuters.

Reuters reports that the global market for LCD and plasma TVs grew 73 percent to US$40.5 billion in 2005, according to research firm DisplaySearch, as people trade in bulky cathode-ray tube models for sleek flat TVs.

{mospagebreaktitle=Cingular, T-mobile halt Razr sales due to glitch}Cingular, T-mobile halt Razr sales due to glitch

IN the US., Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA have temporarily stopped selling the Razr, Motorola's flagship cell phone, due to a technical glitch that causes the phone to drop calls or shut down, the companies have said.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (10 March) that Motorola said only a limited number of phones were affected and the problem would have no impact on its financial results. The Razr, lauded for its thin design, was first sold in late 2004 and is still a key product for Motorola.

According to Reuters, one analyst, Ed Snyder of Charter Equity Research, said he did not expect a material impact from the problem but expressed concerns about how Motorola manages its suppliers. Another analyst said the halted sales may hurt the phone companies' market shares.

The Reuiters report says that Motorola spokesman Alan Buddendeck said the faulty phones were sold to operators between 16 January and 28 February, with the first of the US shipments on 1 February. He did not say where else the phones were sold.

Motorola is still selling new Razrs and expects availability to return to normal by next week.

{mospagebreaktitle=Carnegie Mellon to Use 'Sims' in software}Carnegie Mellon to Use 'Sims' in software

In the US., Carnegie Mellon University plans to incorporate characters and animation from the popular video game ''The Sims'' in its free educational software that strives to make computer programming more appealing to students.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (10 March) that the university will use the animation to enliven the next version of Alice, a teaching program developed over the past decade and used at more than 60 colleges and universities and about 100 high schools, said Randy Pausch, a computer science professor and director of the Alice Project.

According to AP., the Alice programming language is designed to make abstract concepts concrete for first-time programmers, using three-dimensional images of things such as people or animals that can be controlled by clicking and dragging words with a computer mouse. Those words form a program.