Judge rejects Microsoft dismissal motion

An attempt by Microsoft to have the nine states's anti-trust case against them thrown out of court has been rejected by judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. The judge ruled that the fact that the case had been sent to her by the US Court of Appeals last summer precluded her from dismissing it. She also rejected the company's argument that the states' case undermines the federal government, which reached an agreement on the anti-trust penalties to be imposed on Microsoft with the other nine, settling states last year. ...more

RealNetworks opens the Helix

RealNetworks has launched an open-standards-based suite of media-streaming products with support for all major digital media formats, including Windows Media. Under the collective moniker of Helix, the suite is built around the Helix Platform, which is RealNetworks' latest software engine for its server and player products. The millions of lines of code that make up the Helix DNA engine will available to the Helix Community under two licence structures: the RealNetworks Community Source Licence (RCSL), which gains the holder patent rights and access to the complete set of Helix APIs and code for the Helix encoder, server and client; and the RealNetworks Public Source Licence (RPSL), which offers licence holders greater flexibility in the implementation of the code, although this comes with royalty-free patent licences and the condition that products built from it are also open source. ...more

New site ensures New Year Resolutions are kept

Built in the mould established by FriendsReunited.com, a new site promises to get you off the sofa and onto the playing fields. Just the fillip some people will need, it hopes, to fulfil their New Year Resolutions. ...more

UPDATED: BlackBerry shows off its compact Curve

RIM has unveiled the Curve smartphone, the latest addition to its range of BlackBerry handhelds. The model 8300 is the smallest and lightest BlackBerry with a full qwerty keyboard. It is the second model aimed at the consumer market, as oposed to BlackBerry's traditional corporate heartland, following on from the Pearl. ...more

Microsoft and HP settle over misleading ads

Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have settled with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges of making misleading claims for PocketPCs. As we reported, the dispute centred over the HP PocketPC-based Jornada. Adverts ran in major US newspapers proclaiming "built-in wireless access to the Internet and e-mail at any time and from anywhere". ...more