SAP loses appeal in long-running $345m patent case
Time to pay the piper
A US federal court has rejected German software maker SAP's bid to overturn a $345m judgment against it, in a move that could finally end a patent-infringement lawsuit that has already dragged on for nearly six years.
Versata, a maker of business rules engine software, first brought suit against SAP in 2007 over allegations that …
Facebook fails to wow Wall Street with slow profit growth
Mobile users keep coming, but will they pay off?
Facebook posted strong revenue for its first quarter of fiscal 2013, beating analyst estimates, but profits only inched ahead slightly as the social network continued to struggle with its transition to a mobile-first company.
Total revenue for the quarter was $1.46bn, up 38 per cent from the previous year's Q1 but down 8 per …
Ultra-hackable Google Glass could be a security nightmare
Easy root access opens spyware floodgates
Google's high-tech Glass headsets might be a gadget enthusiast's dream, but in their current form they're far too vulnerable to malicious hacking, according to one developer who has had access to the devices.
In a lengthy blog post on Tuesday, technology consultant Jay Freeman – who goes by the hacker handle "Saurik" – gave a …
Budweiser's bonkable Buddy Cup brings Facebook to the pub
Toast now, stalk later – no convo required
Are you spending so much time on Facebook that the prospect of actually going out and socializing has become a little unnerving? Don't worry; mega-brewer Budweiser has got you covered, with a new beverage cup that helps merge the physical and online worlds.
"The Buddy Cup brings together the in-bar experience with Facebook, the …
The Chromebooks are coming! New models due late 2013
Will battle head to head with Android notebooks
While sales of Windows PCs and notebooks continue to disappoint, Acer, Asus, and other hardware makers are readying a new volley of Chromebooks to launch in the second half of 2013, sources close to the companies' Asia-based supply chains claim.
According to a report in Taiwanese tech pub DigiTimes, the new push will be …
Google to Glass devs: 'Duh! Go ahead, hack your headset'
'We intentionally left the device unlocked'
Google might not want people selling its Google Glass Explorer Edition high-tech specs, but it has no problem with developers hacking on the hardware and software, if recent developments are any indication.
The Chocolate Factory released the GPL-licensed portions of the source code to the software that powers Glass over the …
Opera sues designer for leaking trade secrets to Mozilla
Simplified browser UIs in the dock
Norwegian browser maker Opera Software has filed suit against Trond Werner Hansen, one of its former developers, alleging that Hansen took trade secrets with him when he went to work with Opera rival Mozilla.
As first reported by The Next Web, Hansen worked at Opera from 1999 through 2006. There he led design and UI development …
New Google Play terms ban non-store app updates
Rug pulled from under Facebook's auto-updates
Google has amended the policies of its Play app store for Android to prohibit third-party app update mechanisms, in a move seemingly designed to put the kibosh on a contentious feature being tested by Facebook.
As of Friday, the "Dangerous Products" section of the Chocolate Factory's Google Play Developer Program Policies - …
What work? Tablet owners prefer to slack off with their slabs
Their kids like to play with them, too
Tablet owners love their fondleslabs, but hardly anybody thinks of them as tools for business, according to a new report from JD Power and Associates.
The study, based on a survey of 1,857 tablet owners that was conducted in February 2013, found that just 20 per cent of them admitted to using their devices for "business …
SkySQL nabs Monty Program to form MariaDB powerhouse
Merger unites veteran MySQL developers, consultants
Open source database consultancy SkySQL has announced a merger with Monty Program Ab, the company that develops the MariaDB database, in a move that reunites key members from the original MySQL development and services teams.
The merged company, which will keep the SkySQL name, will continue to market MariaDB, a drop-in …
Samsung to launch Galaxy S 4 without Knox security layer
Container support now pushed back to summer
After hyping it for months, Samsung has delayed the release of Knox, its new enterprise security framework for its Galaxy line of Android phones, sources claim.
The South Korean mobile maker first touted the new security features at February's Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, claiming they would ship with its forthcoming …
Internet freedom groups urge W3C to keep DRM out of HTML
'Disastrous' proposals said to violate core web principles
A coalition of organizations led by the Free Software Foundation has petitioned the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) to reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), a proposed expansion of the HTML spec that would create a standard digital rights management (DRM) mechanism for the web.
In an open letter addressed to W3C director …
Google's $1 fiber deal will cost Provo, Utah $1.7m
$500,000 just to locate all the cable
Google's sweetheart deal to take over the city of Provo, Utah's loss-making fiber network will come with hidden costs, the city's mayor has revealed.
Last week, The Register reported that the Provo city council was planning to vote on a deal that would allow Google to take ownership of the city's multimillion-dollar municipal …
Another blow for Flash as Unity gaming engine kills support
Says Adobe 'eroded developers' trust'
Unity Technologies has announced that it has dropped support for Adobe Flash from its cross-platform Unity game development toolset, citing the declining popularity of the technology among developers and inconsistent support from Adobe.
"As of today, we will stop selling Flash deployment licenses," Unity founder and CEO David …
Microsoft to unveil new Xbox console on May 21
Redmond promises 'a real taste of the future'
Microsoft has confirmed that it will unveil the next iteration of its Xbox gaming platform next month.
The new console will be revealed at a special press event that will take place at Microsoft's Redmond campus on May 21. The event will also be streamed on Xbox Live and Xbox.com and simulcast on Spike TV in the US and Canada …
First batch of Firefox OS phones sells out in hours
Experimental handsets a hot item among developers
The first batch of phones based on the Mozilla Foundation's open source Firefox OS has sold out, mere hours after they were announced for sale.
As we press the big, red Publish button on this story, Geeksphone, the Spanish startup that designed and built the devices, has shut down its online store, replacing it with a notice …
Human rights groups rally humanity against killer robots
Call for ban on fully autonomous weapons systems
An international coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has formed the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a lobbying organization aimed at securing a worldwide ban on fully autonomous weapons.
"Lethal armed robots that could target and kill without any human intervention should never be built," Steve Goose, director of …
Huawei: 'We're not interested in US market'
Cuts enterprise sales projections by one-third
Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei has revised its enterprise sales projections downward after admitting that it has given up on plans to expand into the US market.
"We are not interested in the U.S. market anymore," Huawei executive vice president Eric Xu told Reuters. "Generally speaking, it's not a market that we pay …
Spies catch Acer's Windows 8-incher before it hides
Smaller unit should be less intimidating to punters
Acer will be the first of Microsoft's hardware partners to release a small-screened tablet running Windows 8, if photos purportedly leaked from the PC maker are any indication.
French technology site Minimachines was the first to reveal photos and specs of the sub-sized device, which it claims will have an 8-inch screen and will …
First Firefox OS developer phones to launch on Tuesday
Spanish-made mobes in basic and advanced models
Developers who are interested in building apps for the Mozilla Foundation's web standards–based Firefox OS will be able to get their hands on the first handsets running the open source platform beginning on Tuesday.
As The Reg has previously reported, the phones will be manufactured by Spanish startup Geeksphone and will be …
Red Hat renames JBoss application server as WildFly
New effort to focus on Java EE 7 certification
After tallying the votes in a naming contest that kicked off in October 2012, leading Linux vendor Red Hat has announced that the product formerly known as the JBoss Application Server (AS) will henceforth be known as WildFly.
"WildFly represents both a brand refresh for the project and a renewal of its vision to drive the next …
jQuery 2.0 kicks old Internet Explorer versions to the curb
Leaner, faster code base for 'the modern web'
Popular JavaScript library jQuery has reached version 2.0, and as expected, the new release drops support for older versions of Internet Explorer, including IE 6, 7, and 8.
Many developers have come to rely on jQuery to ease some of the headaches of developing sophisticated, cross-browser web UIs, particularly where it comes to …
How much will Google pay to bring fiber to Provo, Utah? Try $1
Not a bad price for a $39m network build-out
Choosing the small city of Provo, Utah as the next location to receive Google's high-speed fiber internet service must have been a no-brainer, as the online giant will reportedly pay just $1 to set up shop in the area.
That's in part because, unlike Kansas City and Austin, Texas before it, Google won't actually need to build out …
Notebook makers turn to Android in face of Windows woes
Intel said to be leading push for Googly convertibles
Dissatisfied with sales of Windows 8 notebook and tablets, major PC vendors have reportedly joined Intel in a new push to launch convertible fondleslabs based on Google's Android OS.
So sayeth the supply-chain sleuths at Taiwanese tech news site DigiTimes, which cites anonymous sources inside the notebook vendors.
Chinese …
Bad Microsoft patch trapped you in a boot loop? Here's your fix
Bootable ISO can roll back botched Windows 7 update
Microsoft has thrown a life preserver to customers whose PCs were sunk by a recent botched security patch, in the form of a bootable recovery disk that can automatically uninstall the offending update.
Redmond first owned up to its error on April 12, when it admitted that some customers experienced problems after installing …
Another quarter, another $14bn in revenue for Google
Profits up despite sagging ad rates
Google announced an impressive start for its fiscal 2013 on Thursday, reporting first-quarter revenues of $13.97bn – an eyebrow-raising 31 per cent increase from the same quarter last year.
That growth was perhaps not quite so remarkable, however, when you consider that the online ad giant also pulled in $14.42bn in Q4 of 2012 …
Java 8 release date slips again, now planned for 2014
Oracle engineers too busy battling vulns to add features
Oracle has redoubled its efforts to address the recent spate of vulnerabilities related to Java running in web browsers, but the renewed focus on security has had an unfortunate side effect – namely, that Java 8 will no longer ship by its planned September 2013 release date.
According to Mark Reinhold, chief architect for Oracle …
Study: Most projects on GitHub not open source licensed
Kids these days, they just don't care
Code-sharing website GitHub has grown so popular that it and open source are practically synonymous for many developers. But new research shows that most of the projects now on GitHub are released under license terms that are unclear, inconsistent, or nonexistent, leaving their legal status as open source software uncertain. …
Linux in 2013: 'Freakishly awesome' – and who needs a fork?
LCS2013 Features, performance, security, stability: pick, er, four
If there was a theme for Day One of the Linux Foundation's seventh annual Linux Collaboration Summit, taking place this week in San Francisco, it was that the Linux community has moved way, way past wondering whether the open source OS will be successful and competitive.
"Today I wanted to talk about the state of Linux," Jim …
Netflix plotting move to HTML5 video - but only if DRM works
'We're a major source of funds for Hollywood'
Streaming video leader Netflix says it's eager to move away from using Microsoft's moribund Silverlight technology to support its service on desktop PCs, but it will be a while yet before today's HTML5 browsers support the features it needs to make that happen.
In a blog post on Monday, reps for Netflix – which by some estimates …
FAA: 'No, you CAN'T hijack a plane with an Android app'
A simulator, as it turns out, is just that
Aviation officials have taken a skeptical view of claims that it's possible to hijack a commercial aircraft using a smartphone, with both the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA) issuing statements to the effect that it simply couldn't happen.
On Wednesday, Spanish …
Nearly a quarter of all books sold in US in 2012 were ebooks
Hard times for dead-tree booksellers
Sales of standalone e-readers might be declining, but ebooks make up a growing portion of sales for US book publishers, according to the latest stats from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), a trade association.
The AAP's annual "StatShot" report for 2012, released on Thursday, shows ebook sales accounting for 22.55 …
New York cops testing Big Brother crime-data Android app
'Funny, you don't look like your photo'
Watch out, crooks! The New York Police Department is trying out a new weapon in the war on crime – namely, putting its own intelligence in the hands of patrol officers.
As The New York Times reports, the NYPD has issued around 400 specialized Android smartphones to officers as part of a pilot program begun last summer.
The …
Rotten spam causing more infections than ever – study
Indian and Vietnamese kinds are the worst
Anti-spam tools have evolved to a degree where many of us hardly see much spam anymore. But when we do, the threat posed by those messages is greater than it has ever been, according to a new report from independent security firm AV-Test.
The report, entitled "Spam – More Dangerous than Ever Before," was based on an 18-month …
Google tool lets you share data from BEYOND the GRAVE
'If you're reading this, I must be dead'
Between Google search, GMail, YouTube, and other sites, a vast number of internet users now access Google services every day. So it makes some sense that the Chocolate Factory has implemented a new system that lets you tell it how long you need to have stopped Googling before it assumes you must be dead.
Dubbed the Inactive …
Chemical-dipped TRANSPARENT BRAINS bare all for science
See-through cerebrums leave neural structures exposed
A team of neuroboffins at Stanford University have a developed a chemical process that can render grey matter transparent, a trick they say will fundamentally change our scientific understanding of the brain.
"This feat of chemical engineering promises to transform the way we study the brain's anatomy and how disease changes it …
Foxconn's revenue down on slowing iPad, iPhone sales
More disappointing results ahead for Apple?
Earnings are down at Hon Hai Precision Industry, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant better known as Foxconn, leaving analysts wondering whether the slump bodes bad news for the company's biggest partner, Apple.
Foxconn's revenues for the three months ending March 2013 were 808.97bn Taiwanese dollars ($26.99bn/£17.63bn …
Office for Android, iOS pushed back to late 2014?
New apps for Windows slabs to come first
Post-PC professionals who are hoping for a version of Microsoft Office for their Android or iOS fondleslabs may have to wait another year or more, if new information purportedly leaked from Redmond proves to be correct.
ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reports that a confidential source has shown her what looks to be an authentic roadmap …
Mozilla devs plotting to put a stake in <blink> tag – at last
Firefox last browser to support offending text style
Mozilla developers are considering dropping support for the <blink> tag from future versions of the Firefox browser, in a move that would see the web rid of the scourge of blinking text once and for all.
Firefox's Gecko HTML rendering engine is currently the only one to support the blinking effect, which usability expert Jakob …
Mozilla's Persona beta adds password-free Yahoo! logins
Identity Bridging makes your email addy your only ID
The Mozilla Foundation has shipped a second public beta of its Persona web-login technology featuring a new capability called Identity Bridging, which makes it easier for users to access sites using only their email addresses and no additional passwords.
"The goal of Persona is simple: we want to eliminate passwords on the Web …
Microsoft ships Surface firmware fixes with April patch batch
Wi-Fi, other issues addressed
Along with the usual Patch Tuesday fixes for Windows, Internet Explorer, and other software, Microsoft's April 9 updates also include hardware driver and firmware fixes for its Surface RT and Surface Pro fondleslabs.
The releases mark the fifth time Redmond has issued fixes for hardware issues with Surface RT, which shipped in …
Microsoft's security apps still trip up on Windows 8
Up to 20% of 0-day attacks evade Redmond's defenses, says AV-Test
German independent security firm AV-Test has released evaluations of security software for Windows 8 for the first time, and – not entirely surprisingly – it once again found Microsoft's own products were among the weaker performers.
The firm tested its usual batch of 25 antivirus products for consumers, plus eight aimed at …
US Navy blasts drones with ship-mounted LASER CANNON
Star Wars defense planned for Persian Gulf debut in 2014
The US Navy says it has successfully test-fired a ship-mounted laser weapon, and that it plans to deploy the device to an actual maritime staging area beginning in 2014.
On Monday, the Navy released video and still images showing the somewhat-unimaginatively named Laser Weapon System (LaWS) firing on an unmanned drone, causing …
Tax man to take a bite of tech employees' free meals?
Gratis grub should be counted as income, say experts
The free meals doled out by Silicon Valley titans such as Facebook and Google may soon carry an additional burden for employees: the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly weighing whether to count them as income for tax purposes.
The agency itself is keeping mum on the topic, but The Wall Street Journal cites tax …
Ahoy! Google asks US gov't to help sink patent 'privateers'
New, mutant strain of patent trolling on the rise
Patent trolls are bad enough on their own. But increasingly, companies that otherwise develop technology and sell products have begun outsourcing their patent portfolios to patent trolls as a strategic weapon against their competitors, and that can be even worse.
So say Google, BlackBerry, EarthLink, and Red Hat in comments …
Microsoft: 'Facebook Home just copies Windows Phone'
'Anything Zuck can do, we can do better...'
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg might think his company broke new ground by building its Facebook Home skin for Android around the idea of "people first," but according to Microsoft, all the social network has done is borrow a page from Redmond's playbook.
In a post to the company's official blog on Friday, Microsoft mouthpiece Frank …
Microsoft's developer conference sells out at $2,095 per head
But get on the waitlist and you could still get lucky
Proving that you don't have to be Google to generate frenzied hype around an otherwise staid and – to the layman – obscure tech event, Microsoft has announced that tickets for its annual Build developer conference have sold out.
Microsoft's frenzy didn't quite match Google's, however. This year's Google I/O show sold out in less …
Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 delivers modest improvements
One bright spot: the IDE now comes in blue, too
In keeping with its vow to ship updates for its flagship software development tools in "a regular cadence," Microsoft has delivered Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 just a little over four months after it shipped the last one.
Like that first update package, which arrived around two months after VS2012's September 2012 launch, Update …
WebKit devs on Blink fork: 'Two can play that game'
Purge of Chrome-related code planned
Now that Google has announced that it will migrate its Chrome browser from the WebKit rendering engine to a homegrown fork called Blink, WebKit developers have already begun discussing how to remove Chrome-specific code from the project.
Streamlining the code of its browser engine was one of the top reasons cited by Google for …
Google forks WebKit, promises faster, leaner Chrome engine
Says 'large-scale architectural changes' coming
Google has announced that its Chrome browser is dropping the popular WebKit browser engine in favor of Blink, a new fork of the code that the Chocolate Factory says will make Chrome faster, more powerful, and more secure.
The internet ad giant announced the move on Wednesday via the official blog of the Chromium project, the …
