Google has added a new feature to Gmail that lets users select the recipient(s) from a list of contacts when composing a new message. The feature, though barely significant, is a useful addition. Gmail already possesses an auto-complete feature that automatically suggests recipients.

A federal court in Northern California had ordered a cybersquatter, OnlineNIC, to pay $33.15 million in damages to Verizon in December, 2008. The award was made in a default judgment after OnlineNIC employees eluded all attempts to summon them to court. OnlineNIC had registered more than 600 domains that contained Verizon's name and trademarks. It earned money through ads hosted on these domains, which appeared to be associated with Verizon.

The cybersquatter finally appeared before the court in February 2009. It filed a motion to set aside the default judgment. The burden of OnlineNIC’s argument was that the damages awarded by the court gave an exaggerated account of the harm its activities had caused to Verizon. It claimed to have only earned a trivial sum of $1,468.60 in profit from the 663 Verizon-related domains at issue. On August 25, the court upheld the default order while dismissing OnlineNIC’s arguments.

"OnlineNIC's reference to its alleged profit fails to take any account of the damages suffered by Verizon in the form of a likelihood of confusion surrounding Verizon's marks and the diversion of internet traffic to websites selling rival products," Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote in his verdict, making it clear that harm caused to Verizon should not be confused with OnlineNIC’s profit.

Microsoft wants to pioneer a new form of online advertising by using human interactive proofs, popularly known as CAPTCHAs, to deliver ads. The idea was revealed in a patent application that Microsoft had filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office way back in February 2008.

According to the patent application, made public on August 13, the Redmond-based goliath intends to replace ordinary CAPTCHAs with images, slogans, musical jingles, or other information related to a particular product. In order to gain access to content on the other side of the sponsored CAPTCHA, the user will have to type in the name of the featured product or other related text.

“Unlike so much web-based advertising that accompanies popular web portals such as search and news sites that users can easily ignore, here the user must actively engage in reading and understanding the content in the advertisement in the HIP (human interactive proof) challenge in order to identify the solution to the challenge," the patent filing reads.

Asustek may have put its plans to develop an Android-based smartbook on the back burner but that is unlikely to deter other companies from dabbling in smartbooks. According to Digitimes, Taiwan’s leading technology rumormonger, Nokia is said to be working on an ARM-based smartbook. The news comes from Digitimes’ sources at Taiwanese handset makers.

The handset makers expect Nokia to launch the smartbook only after its maiden netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, hits the market sometime in early 2010. The smartbook, if it does materialize, would most likely run Symbian or Maemo QS. Windows does not currently support ARM processors and Microsoft has categorically vetoed any plans to make the two compatible.

Sony today further bolstered its lineup of e-readers by announcing the Sony Reader Daily Edition - first in its stable to feature wireless connectivity (Wi-Fi and 3G). The Reader Daily Edition also features a 7-inch touch screen. In fact, wireless connectivity and a larger screen are the only notable features that separate it from the Reader Touch Edition.

Sony had announced the $299 Reader Touch Edition and $199 Pocket Edition earlier this month. The Daily Edition, which was announced at a launch event at the New York Public Library, will retail for $399 and debut in December.

Steve Haber, president of the Digital Reading Business Division at Sony, also announced that users will be able to borrow ebooks from the local library, with the borrowed books having an expiration period of 21 days. The new version of Sony’s online book store will let users search for libraries that loan electronic versions of their books.

Feature phones still lead smartphones by a country light-year in the global cell phone market. Their preponderance comes form their popularity in emerging markets. While a lot of the modern feature phones possess decent internet capabilities, they lack dedicated online application marketplaces.

Microsoft has launched OneApp, a cross platform app store, to deliver apps to the wide gamut of feature phones in emerging markets. Considering the limited hardware resources associated with most feature phones, the apps will be built using web development technologies like Javascript and XML, allowing them to be compatible with “70-80 percent” of all feature phones on the market.

The OneApp executable is very light (only 150 kilobytes) as it uses cloud-based resources.  It has already been rolled out to Blue Label Telecoms subscribers in South Africa. Microsoft plans to launch OneApp in other parts of the world next year, along with the official SDK.

Taking cognizance of a complaint filed by Pennsylvania-based BTG International in July, the U.S. International Trade Commission has announced it will launch a probe into the use of Samsung Nand flash-memory chips in gadgets from Apple, RIM, Sony, etc. BTG International claims that certain Samsung Nand flash-memory chips found in a host of consumer electronics devices, including the iPhone, iPod, MacBook Air, Blackberry Storm, and various Sony camcorders, infringe on five out of its patents. The said patents relate to the storage of multiple bits of information per cell, which appreciably increases the storage capacity of flash memory while keeping it inexpensive. BTG is praying for a ban on the import of all devices containing the Samsung chips at issue.

As the upgrade version of Windows 7 is unavailable in Europe, Microsoft is offering the full version for the price one expects to pay for the upgrade version.  The price at which the full version is currently available in Europe has had everyone wondering how long it will last. Last week, an Amazon spokesperson told Cnet.co.uk to “treat this pricing as indefinite.” But when it comes to Windows 7 pricing, what Amazon says is of very little import compared to official word from Microsoft.

Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc today made some key announcements concerning Windows 7 versions and pricing for Europe. According to his post on the Windows Team Blog, an upgrade version of Windows 7 will finally be available in Europe beginning September 1. The availability of an upgrade version in Europe will have a bearing on the price of the full version, with the latter’s price to be hiked when the upgrade version arrives. Till then, however, European consumers can continue to make the most of current Windows 7 pricing.

Microsoft has also announced that the Windows 7 Family Pack will also be available in eight European countries – apart from US and Canada- for a limited span of time. The eight European countries to have been promised a family pack option are UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden.

CEOs have drawn a lot of flak in recent times for their fat paychecks, forcing some CEOs to accept pay cuts. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is the latest tech honcho to have his base salary trimmed down dramatically to $1. According to a regulatory document filed by his company on Friday, Larry Ellison will receive only $1 as his base salary during fiscal 2010, which began on June 1. The erstwhile richest man in the world is currently fourth on Forbes’ list of world’s most affluent people. Last year, he received a base salary $1 million, which only amounted to 1.2 percent of his total annual income. Ellison, who founded Oracle in 1977, owns a 22.7 stake in Oracle.

HP is way ahead of its competitors in the global PC market. The lack of competition – for the time being – has given HP ample time to concentrate on such trivial matters as product packaging.

An Australian resident was mighty surprised when a “10ft AC cord from HP for use with my power adaptor,” which he had ordered, arrived in a gargantuan package fixed to a wooden pallet. According to him, the entire package weighed around 22 pounds.

HP has experimented with prodigal packaging before. Last year, it raised the profligate packaging bar to unprecedented heights when it shipped 32 pages (A4 size) in an enormous box that held 16 smaller boxes – a dedicated box for a couple of papers.

Ford’s quest for contour-hugging brake lights has led to a major breakthrough in the development of flexible LEDs. A group of international scientists has developed a new process for manufacturing ultrathin, flexible LEDs. The inorganic LEDs developed using this technique are not only slender and flexible like their organic counterparts, but just as durable and bright as inorganic LEDs are expected to be. Ford, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy jointly provided funds for this project.

The team behind this project consists of researchers from institutions in the US, Singapore and China. The new LEDs, though fully inorganic, possess qualities associated with both organic and inorganic LEDs. "We wanted to see if we could use inorganic LEDs in ways that exploit some of the processing advantages of organic LEDs,” John Rogers, a materials scientist at the University of Illinois, told the journal Science.

LEDs can be made to be almost transparent using the new technique in which LEDs are placed at a considerable distance from each other. The technique can be used to make figure-hugging LEDs to be fitted onto buses. It could also make it possible to weave optical electronics into textiles.

 

Zune zealots, skeptics, and all the people that lie in between and outside the two groups can get up close and personal with the Zune HD at select Best Buys over the weekend. The preview has been organized by Nvidia and Best Buy. The GPU maker’s ebullience for the Zune HD stems from the fact that it has lent its Tegra chip to the PMP. The portable media player is scheduled for release on September 15. Nvidia has released a PDF document that lists all the Best Buys where the Zune HD will be available for preview. 

Seeing touch screens get daubed with finger marks and other blemishes can be a heart-wrenching experience. Although screen overlays that help protect touch screen devices are easily available, scientists are trying to figure out ways to make touch screens more smudge resistant. They have developed a test for ascertaining the efficacy of anti-smudge – and reflection – coatings found on touch screens.

"Surfaces are particularly important in consumer products. This work investigates how products can be modified to reduce smudging and reflections. These modifications can offer improved resistance to fingerprints, anti-reflection properties or enhanced physical resistance,” Dr Stephen Carlo said while describing the test at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Dr Carlo’s team used depth profile X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to compare the chemistry of anti-smudge and anti-reflective coatings. Their findings could lead to touch screens that are clearer and more immune to smudge. 

Upholding i4i’s patent infringement claim against Microsoft, a US Federal court judge placed an injunction on Microsoft Word on August 11, 2009. Judge Leonard Davis ordered that Microsoft pay the Canadian company i4i $290 million in damages and stop the sale of Word in the US, within 60 days of the pronouncement of the order, until the dispute is fully resolved. Microsoft Word’s default file format Office Open XML is at the epicenter of Microsoft’s dispute with i4i. The XML-based file format infringes i4i’s US patent number 5787449.

On Tuesday, Microsoft filed an appeal against the injunction. It is seeking a stay on the injunction, which it believes could cause "irreparable harm.” It has warned that the ban could force it to stop the sale of Microsoft Office for many months to come.

“Microsoft and its distributors face the imminent possibility of a massive disruption in their sales. If left undisturbed, the district court’s injunction will inflict irreparable harm on Microsoft by potentially keeping the centerpiece of its product line out of the market for months. The injunction would block not only the distribution of Word, but also of the entire Office suite, which contains Word and other popular programs," the company’s filing reads. Although Microsoft can take corrective steps by disabling the XML feature, it will have to cough up a lot of money for that exercise.

Symantec has published a list of the dirtiest 100 websites. The websites are said to contain around 18,000 threats apiece on an average. However, the average number of threats shoots up to 20,000 for the top 40 websites on the list, which has been compiled by Symantec’s Norton Safe Web service. Aladel.net, a US-based websites, alone houses 56,371 threats.

Although almost half of the websites are expectedly based around mature content, the remaining sites deal with a wide variety of subjects. Viruses dominate the list of threats found on these sites. Security risks and browser exploits are the other common threats found on them.  The owners of the websites that figure on the list must be feeling a sense of elation and achievement. As for the rest of us, we now know which sites not to visit.

Pepsi and CBS have enlisted the help of a Los Angeles-based company, Americhip, to deliver video ads in the print edition of Entertainment Weekly. Beginning with the September 18 issue of the magazine, video ads promoting CBS shows and Pepsi’s new drink, Pepsi Max, will be delivered to Entertainment Weekly readers in Los Angeles and New York using Americhip’s patented Video-in-Print technology. The ads will appear on a slender TFT LCD screen, all of 2.7 mm thick, with a 320x240 resolution. Video-in-print, which will be embedded into the magazine, can hold up to 40 minutes of video content. It runs on batteries that can be charged via a USB cable.

Apart from the eight uncanny people who bought the $999.99 “I Am Rich” app – an underwhelming screensaver - from the iTunes App Store last year, a vast majority happily devours the free and 99-cent apps. But the preponderance of 99-cent apps has made the App Store a cluttered warehouse, banished many quality apps to oblivion, and increased redundancy.  Furthermore, many top-notch developers are finding it difficult to set an honest price on premium apps, for they fear their honesty might render these apps unattractive. 

Microsoft plans to roll out Windows Marketplace for Mobile in October, 2009. The Redmond-based giant doesn’t want developers to lose out on revenue in a bid to maximize application downloads. According to a Tech Flash report, Loke Uei of Microsoft's mobile developer team feels the popularity of 99-cent apps doesn’t imply that 99 cents is a fair price. "I know, 99 cents is interesting -- yes, consumers like to pay 99 cents for applications. But 99 cents, come on, I think your app is worth more than that," Uei told developers at the inaugural WinMoDevCamp in Redmond.

Microsoft’s share of the mobile OS market has plummeted sharply in the last few years. It needs to  quickly mount a counter-offensive against its more dapper rivals in the smartphone market, if it is to prevent itself from being marginalized even further. According to Taiwanese rumor mill Digitimes, Microsoft does have a strategy to counter its rivals in the smartphone market.

A Digitimes report, based on insider information from sources at Taiwan handset makers, suggests that Microsoft has readied a dual-platform strategy to take on the Android platform and Apple's iPhone. Under this strategy, Microsoft will not withdraw Windows Mobile 6.5 from the market even after Windows 7 Mobile is released during the fourth quarter of 2010.  Instead, it will keep Windows Mobile 6.5 – a minor upgrade – on the market, albeit at a lower price point.

According to the sources, Microsoft plans to pit Windows Mobile 6.5 against Android, while reserving Windows Mobile 7 for the Apple iPhone.