Microsoft ordered to pay Alcatel-Lucent $1.5B ... Open-source guru knocks Fedora

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Jury orders Microsoft to pay Alcatel-Lucent $1.5B
News: SAP to offer hosted midmarket apps later this year
News: Qualcomm, Broadcom drop some patent claims
News: Toshiba secures quantum key distribution
Storage Tip: Putting privileged information on hold
Product Review: Turbolinux Wizpy
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update


NEWS UPDATES

Jury orders Microsoft to pay Alcatel-Lucent $1.5B
Microsoft Corp. must pay $1.5 billion in damages to Alcatel-Lucent SA for infringing on patents for MP3 encoding and decoding technology, a jury said Thursday.

SAP to offer hosted midmarket apps later this year
SAP AG's planned suite of hosted midmarket applications will be available in select markets later this year. The company will offer more details on pricing and functionality after the Cebit trade show in March, according to CEO Henning Kagermann.

Qualcomm, Broadcom drop some patent claims
Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Corp. have settled some of their patent claims against each other, avoiding a jury trial scheduled to begin next month, Qualcomm said on Friday. They remain deadlocked over other patents, however, and still face several potential trials this year.

Toshiba secures quantum key distribution
Researchers at Toshiba Corp. have developed a method that they say makes it possible -- barring a change in the laws of physics -- to absolutely secure distribution of encryption keys across a network.

Samsung speeds up GDDR4 graphics memory
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., one of the world's biggest chip makers, said Friday it has managed to make GDDR4 (graphics double data rate 4) memory chips that work at 4G bps (bits per second). That's two-thirds faster than the current fastest GDDR4 chips generally available, which operate at 2.4G bps.

Gartner: x86 server sales growth slowed in Q4
Sales growth for x86 servers slowed in the fourth quarter of 2006 as buyers adopted virtualization technology and waited for quad-core processors, according to a Gartner Inc. report released Thursday.

News Corp. buys Web ad company to boost online profit
News Corp. aims to increase ad revenue from its online division by completing the acquisition Thursday of Internet ad placement company Strategic Data Corp.

Wall Street Beat: M&A a good sign for tech
While consolidation can be a sign of a mature, slowing market, the M&A activity happening now, especially seen in context of this week's six-year Nasdaq Composite Index high, signals confidence in IT and prospects for growth.

Open-source guru knocks Fedora
In a message distributed to several high-profile Linux mailing lists and news organizations, Eric Raymond, influential developer and co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, said he is switching to the Ubuntu distribution after 13 years as a loyal Red Hat user, citing numerous technical and governance problems around Fedora.

Dell users demand Linux on laptops
The new team of leaders at Dell Inc. is weighing a request to give customers the option to purchase PCs with the Linux OS, instead of the default Windows, after thousands of users voted for that idea on a company blog.

Apple, Cisco settle iPhone dispute
Cisco Systems Inc. and Apple Inc. have settled a dispute over rights to use the iPhone name. Under terms of the agreement, both companies have the right to use the name. In addition, Cisco and Apple have agreed to "explore opportunities for interoperability" in security and communications technologies for consumers and business users.


STORAGE TIP

Putting privileged information on hold
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

As part of the process of putting data on litigation hold in anticipation of or because of an actual lawsuit against your company, you may put privileged information on hold. Privileged information is any of the following: trade secrets, financial information, or other information that has nothing to do with the lawsuit at hand and can be considered confidential to your company. Your problem is to prevent producing (i.e., delivering) privileged information to the requesting party (i.e., whoever is suing your company) or, if you do produce it, getting it back.

Here's what you need to know.

Sign up for Storage Strategies - Tips for effective storage management, technology updates and best practices.


PRODUCT REVIEW

Turbolinux Wizpy
By Martyn Williams

On Friday Japan's Turbolinux Inc. begins dispatching the first batch of its Wizpy handhelds to people who ordered them from its Web site. The flash-based multimedia player contains a version of Linux, so it can be used to boot a PC into the operating system, allowing users to access their files in their own working environment on almost any PC.

The devices have proved hot items on the TurboLinux Web shop since preorders began in late January, but what's it like to use one? We tested a pre-production version of the Wizpy for a week and found it delivers on its promise with some annoyances.

Read the full review here.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft faces $1.5 billion fine from Alcatel-Lucent suit ... India played key role in development of teraflop chip ... Dell considers selling Linux on computers

More podcasts