YAHOO! CHINA SUED BY 11 MUSIC GIANTS FOR RMB 5.5 M

Music industry giants are suing Yahoo! China for alleged copyright infringement. According to the suit, Yahoo! China was helping users download music illegally by providing links to unlicensed music in its search results.
The lawsuit filed by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), represents music piracy complaints from eleven companies including Warner Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group PLC and Universal Music Group, the China Daily said.

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Intel Officials Delete Antitrust Memos

AMD had accused Intel of destroying evidence in relation to the antitrust suit. AMD stated, "Through what appears to be a combination of gross communication failures, an ill-conceived plan of document retention and lacklustre oversight by outside counsel, Intel has apparently allowed evidence to be destroyed."

Intel will have to explain what happened to e-mail messages the company acknowledged it lost. And it will demand that its rival create a plan to ensure that no other documents disappear during the course of an antitrust suit that dates back to June 2005.

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EU Tragets Apple Over iTunes

EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva has spoken out against the tie-in between the iPod and Apple's iTunes Store.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs had plans to boycott the Digital Rights Management (DRM). DRM are technologies used by record companies to control and restrict the use of copyrighted material usually associated with music and movies. Jobs is against these regulations as they might have a curtailing effect.
He said, "only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3 per cent of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97 per cent of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats."

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AT&T, Yahoo May Backtrack on Co-branding Deal

Yahoo and AT&T are in talks to get back their alliance. The tussle in the partnership could result serious repercussions to Yahoo as it makes an estimated USD 200 million in annual revenue from AT&T.

AT&T declined to comment on the substance of the Wall Street Journal's report, but said it "is rooted in the open and ongoing dialogue we maintain."

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Software Export in India to Plunge in The Long Run: Karnik

Indian IT trade body National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has said that the software industry will reach the export target of USD 60 billion by 2010 but the long-term growth rate and profitability will fall on account of less government support and imposition of taxes.
"The present momentum should enable us to reach the target of USD 60 billion of exports in 2010. The software export industry will be able to meet the indicated export revenue of USD 31.6 billion this fiscal. But in the long run, with such discouraging policies, we expect a fall in growth rates and bottom lines, since the small and medium players in particular will be seriously impacted by these changes," Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said.

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SECUDE, a provider of authorization, encryption, data integrity and the management of digital identities, and Siemens have agreed to enter into a part

SECUDE, a provider of authorization, encryption, data integrity and the management of digital identities, and Siemens have agreed to enter into a partnership with an intention to capitalise on each others complementary technologies and coordinate marketing and sales efforts on a global scale to service and support the market. “The driver for this partnership is that the whole is more than the sum of its parts”, states Doris Hermann, VP and General Manager Security and Identity management, Siemens AG.

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WINDOWS LIVE SEARCH HEAD TO LEAVE MICROSOFT

Christopher Payne, the head of Windows Live Search, the Microsoft search engine is quitting the firm to start his own business.
Microsoft has also said that the other person in charge of the Windows search project Blake Irvingtoo is leaving the company.

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Indian IT Services Companies Hired Over A Lakh People

India is seeing a huge surge when it comes to hiring in the IT industry. Analysts say this demand is escalating the wages in India. In a quarterly report released, Wipro has said its workforce rose by nearly 18 per cent, adding 5,546 employees in the three-month quarter that ended September 30, to bring its total to 37,063. For the same period one year earlier, the company reported 24,500 employees.

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Six Indian Techies in Forbes Billionaires List

The Forbes Billionaire list has six IT bigwigs enlisted on it. The richest Indian in the technology arena is Azim Premji of Wipro in the 21st place on the list with a net income of USD 17.1 billion.

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Former Gateway Officials Liable in SEC Fraud Case

Two former Gateway officials were accused of manipulating earnings four years ago. The officials were found guilty for breaching fraud and record-keeping laws and making false statements, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
"The desire to meet Wall Street analysts‘ expectations is no excuse for accounting tricks and other deceptive practices," said Randall R. Lee, director of the SEC’s Pacific Regional Office in Los Angeles.

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Friendster Hooks Up with Google for Ads

Social networking site Friendster has inked a multi-year search and keyword-targeted advertising agreement with Google. The financial details of the contract have not been published.
Google has been giving the social networking sites ads that are relevant to the content shown on a Web page. Under the terms of the deal, Friendster will exhibit ads from Google founded on Web search requests.

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Mark Cuban Tangles With Google Regarding Illegal Movie Clips

Magnolia Pictures, the film company owned by Mark Cuban, has sued Google for the illegal movie clips uploaded to Google’s Video web site. He wants the names of the people behind this act.
"We don't expect to get valid user information," Cuban said. "If we do, we will contact them and ask them what induced them to upload content they don't own."
"We cannot confirm that we have received a subpoena at this time, however Google complies with valid US legal process, such as a valid court order or subpoena," a Google spokesman said in a statement. "As a matter of policy we do not publicly discuss legal matters."

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NETAPP WINS GOLDEN SOFTWARE AWARD IN CHINA

Network Appliance, a provider of network storage solutions, has said that the NetApp NearStore Virtual Tape Library (VTL) received a Golden Software award in the Storage category from Software World. Given by the China Software Association.

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Accenture Gives USD 1.5 Million to Aidmatrix to Support Global Relief Network

Accenture has given USD 1.5 million grant from the Accenture Foundations to Aidmatrix to further the non-profit organisation's Global Relief Network. Aidmatrix leverages the power of technology and relationships with more than 35,000 charitable organisations to deliver critical aid—food, clothing, building supplies, medical and educational supplies to people in need more quickly, the company said.

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Qimonda Set Up the New Global Distribution Centre in Singapore

Qimonda has opened a new global Distribution Centre in Singapore to streamline the supply chain management processes, and consequently shorten delivery time to its worldwide customers.

The new global Distribution Centre is a 25,000-sq-ft facility located at Changi South and will be able to meet Qimonda storage needs up to 2010. Qimonda expects that the warehouse will be able to handle about 3 times of the existing capacity for worldwide distribution, the company said.

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INTEL'S LOWER REVENUES, COST CUTS

Intel has recorded Q4 revenue of USD 9.7 billion representing a gross margin of 49.6 per cent, up from Q3's 49.1 per cent. "Intel's product and technology leadership yielded a strong fourth quarter with higher selling prices and record unit shipments in the fastest growing segments of the market," said Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini.

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Windows Vista Available Online

Microsoft is making its new Windows Vista operating system available for sale and download online marking a new strategy than its usual method of selling Windows only on packaged discs or pre-loaded on computers.

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Former HP Chairman Offered Plea Deal

California’s Attorney General has offered a plea deal to the former Hewlett-Packard Chairman, Patricia Dunn and four others accused in the HP spying scandal. Stephen Naratil, an attorney for data broker Bryan Wagner who is one of the defendants in the case, told the Associated Press that the plea agreement tendered by state prosecutors would allow all five defendants to avoid four felony charges stemming from an investigation launched last year by HP to find the source of a news leak.

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Apple in Profit with iPhone

ISuppli, a research firm has established that Apple stands to make fifty per cent profit on each iPhone sold. But the figure is preliminary, as no actual production models have been made available to the public. This high profit margin is not new to Apple as the company regularly has a margin of forty-five per cent or more in its Mac and iPod products.

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Hewlett-Packard Leads Over Dell in PC Sales

The US computer maker Hewlett –Packard (HP) is basking in glory of taking the lead as the world’s top personal computer vendor late last year, giving stiff competition to its rival Dell.

According to the reports of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, HP had an annual sales growth of 24 per cent and took ‘a clear lead in global shipment volume’ from October-December last year. Meanwhile, Dell stumbled with the beginning quarter of 2006 but it sales nose-dived in the end of the year with international growth dropping to 1.5 per cent as the IDC reported.


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INTEL'S LOWER REVENUES, COST CUTS

Intel has recorded Q4 revenue of USD 9.7 billion representing a gross margin of 49.6 per cent, up from Q3's 49.1 per cent. "Intel's product and technology leadership yielded a strong fourth quarter with higher selling prices and record unit shipments in the fastest growing segments of the market," said Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini.

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Calling all PHPers to the 2007 International PHP Conference (Spring Edition)

The Spring Edition of the International PHP Conference (IPC) is back after a year's hiatus. This year the annual premium event for the International PHP community will be held in Stuttgart from 21–23 May, in parallel to Webinale 07. Webinale is a brand new conference covering the next generation web technologies, providing a platform for networking and knowledge exchange about Web 2.0.

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Intel Prepares to Fight Two-front Antitrust Battle

The European Union is planning to file formal antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel regarding the complaint filed in 2000 by rival AMD. The spat between the two companies is about whether Intel would share information from operations outside the United States. AMD alleges Intel used its dominant position in the microprocessor business to pressure system makers not to use AMD chips in their products.

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Ascom Appoints Bernie Hydock as Vice President of Sales

Ascom has appointed Bernie Hydock as Vice President of Sales. In his new role, Hydock will be responsible for driving Ascom's North American sales team, serving as a key member of the management team, and working closely with existing and future Ascom channel partners and system end users.

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Sony Ericsson 4Q Net Profit Triples

Japanese-Swedish mobile phone company Sony Ericsson has posted record fourth-quarter earnings. It believes the market for mobile phones is steadily escalating.

The company’s 2006 pretax profit was euro 1.3 billion (USD 2.15 billion), more than double the euro 512 million (USD 846.4 million) of 2005.

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MICROSOFT, HP, FIRST DATA PARTNER ON POINT-OF-SALE SYSTEM

First Data, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have come together to create a point-of-sale solution for smaller retailers. According to the companies, the First Data POS Value Exchange replaces a cash register and traditional POS terminal with a computer-based system that delivers a complete store-management solution with greater information security, speed of transactions and more flexible payment options for customers.

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Apple Shows USD 1 Billion Holiday Profit

Apple has reported a staggering profit in its fiscal first quarter. The reasons that drove profit margins are the holiday sales of iPod music players and Mac computers. The company announced that their profits increased by 78 per cent. This is close to an earning of USD 1 billion or USD 1.14 per share.

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Dell Sued in Canada Over Defective Batteries

Dell seems to be getting into hot soup over the exploding batteries yet again. In October 2006, Dell had recalled 4.2 million Sony battery packs used in its systems. The batteries were said to short-circuit and have been blamed for causing some computers in which they used to overheat. Separately, Toshiba said that it is recalling 830,000 batteries made by Sony for its laptops at Sony's request. It was the latest in a growing global recall involving Sony batteries, bringing the tally of recalled batteries to about 7 million worldwide. Now, Dell is still being plagued by the faulty batteries as the company is being sued in Cannada.

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Microsoft Software to Power Nortel Telecom Servers

Nortel and Microsoft have come together to launch a slew of products and services. Theses new releases aim to disribute business communications over software and Internet networks. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies aim to provide cheaper Internet-based communications.

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GOOGLE, YAHOO GAIN SHARE IN US WEB SEARCH MARKET

According to the report, Google retains all advertising revenue from its own web sites, and around 22 per cent from its partner sites. Yahoo! may be in second place to Google, but it is also growing substantially, with around 42 per cent growth in net advertising revenue in 2005. User Generated Content (UGC) web sites, such as Flickr and Wikipedia were among the fastest growing websites between 2005 and 2006. An annual report has been issued on Internet, e-mail, permission based marketing, B2B, B2C, e-retailing, e-commerce, triple play, Spam, Cybercrime, web sites, web hosting, and search engines, by Paul Budde Communication, through MarketResearch.com.

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HP Appoints Two New Leaders to HP Services Executive Team

HP has named two industry leaders to join HP Services. Onagh Ash will serve as senior vice president of HP Services’ Consulting and Integration unit, and Bob Pryor has been named senior vice president of Global Business Development. Both will report to John McCain, senior vice president and general manager of HP Services.

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LUXPRO LEVELS USD 100M SUIT AGAINST APPLE

Luxpro, a manufacturer of music players and other mobile products, has won the lawsuit that it had filed against Apple. The battle goes a long way, Apple in July 2005, had sued the Taiwanese company from making its line of Tangent music players, alleging that they too closely resembled the iPod Shuffle. A Taiwan court agreed, but the decision was reversed on appeal. Luxpro, now sued Apple Computer for USD 100 million after a court ruled it could continue producing a portable music player resembling Apple's iPod Shuffle.

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Cisco Beats Apple to Releasing iPhone

Apple launched the iPod, and was in the process of launching mobile phones called iPhones. There were reports in November 2006 that Apple had hired a Taiwan based contract manufacturer HonHai Precision to build 12 million Apple branded mobile phones. Given that this is a product untested in the market, it would certainly demonstrate how serious Apple is in attacking the phone market.

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EMC to Cut 1350 Jobs with Restructuring

EMC, a provider of data systems, is loaded with many a one acquisitions in its wake, is cutting more jobs as it consolidates its operations. The company plans to slash 1,350 jobs by the end of 2007, 100 more than the company originally announced in October.

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Yahoo Optimises Messenger for Vista

Yahoo is all set to join hands with Micvrosoft. The company plans on giving a sneak preview on the usage of Yahoo Messenger on Microsoft's Windows Vista at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Yahoo will display a beta version of Yahoo Messenger optimised for Vista. The new messanger boasts of new features that will be in sync with the user interface enhancements Microsoft has added to the OS.

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Who Needs Google? With Amazon’s , Askville Service

Google Answers saw a shut down a month back, but Amazon sees a lot of potential in a service of this kind. It is launching a similar answering service, the only rival it has as of now is Yahoo's answering service. The service is dubbed Askville.

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