Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept

[NYT] The top antitrust official at the Justice Department last month urged state prosecutors to reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by Google that is tied to a consent decree that monitors Microsoft’s behavior. Google has accused Microsoft of designing its latest operating system, Vista, to discourage the use of Google’s desktop search program. The official, Thomas O. Barnett, an assistant attorney general, had until 2004 been a top antitrust partner at the law firm that has represented Microsoft in several antitrust disputes.

Patent ruling strikes blow at Qualcomm


[NYT] Tens of millions of new mobile phones containing certain Qualcomm semiconductors could be barred from import into the US under a ruling issued Thursday by International Trade Commission.

Power advance heralds future of wirelessly charged devices

[AP] MIT researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly - from a device 7 feet away - potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get their juice without having to be plugged in.

YouTube's Steve Chen says site will go mobile next year

[AP] Chen said on Saturday consumers in many parts of the world will have access to the popular video-sharing Web site on their mobile phones by next year.

Watchdog group pans Google's privacy policies as worst on the Web

[AP] n a report released Saturday, London-based Privacy International assigned Google its lowest possible grade. The category is reserved for companies with "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy."

Yahoo condemns lack of free speech in China, but says it must follow nation's law

[AP] "Yahoo is dismayed that citizens in China have been imprisoned for expressing their political views on the Internet," the company said in a statement. However, Yahoo added that companies operating in China must comply with Chinese law or risk having their employees face civil or criminal penalties.

Apple offers Safari on Windows, open iPhone to devs

[News.com] Wow, Windows users are so lucky. They not only have Firefox and IE 7 but Apple's crappy browser is now cross-platform.

GOOG complains about Vista search

[Infoworld] Google spokes: ""The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft's own desktop search product, with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points. Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft's search index."

Hollywood balks at Apple online movie rentals

[Reuters] Apple's plans to enter the nascent online movie rental business drew skepticism on Monday from Hollywood executives who questioned pricing, copy protection and the timing of a possible launch.

China's e-waste capital chokes on old PCs

[Reuters] Guiyu is a modern day gold rush town. But instead of panning for gold in babbling streams, workers shift through piles of broken old computer parts in acrid smelling shacks, smelting down parts with crude equipment to extract valuable metals like gold and copper.

Adobe offers new tools to run apps online

[Reuters] "Apollo is for when developers want to take online applications and make them work offline on a computer," Michele Turner, Adobe's vice president of platforms, said in a phone interview. "We don't think the browser is going to go away."