Kodak turns digital camera patents against Sony

Kodak has sued Sony over the alleged infringements of 10 patents. The giants of the digital camera market are at loggerheads over patents granted to Kodak between 1987 last year concerning the compression, colour-sensing and storage of digital stills and video. Sony maintains it 'has not violated any Kodak patent related to digital imaging and will fully defend any allegations'. ...more

Yahoo! launches search for shoppers

Yahoo! has launched a product search engine for its US customers that aims to rival Google's Froogle service. The new service is part of Yahoo!'s main search page and offers results listed by relevance down the left, and sponsored links on the right - again ranked by relevance (as opposed to how much an advertiser is prepared to pay). Users can set price ranges and compare products against each other, and there are tools to let you calculate the total cost of products, with tax and shipping thrown in. ...more

Zune lacks iPod polish - US reviewers

Two of the leading technology columnists in the US have given their first impressions of the Zune portable media player and were largely underwhelmed by Microsoft's rival to the iPod. The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg acknowledges that it does have some good points - the user interface and navigation for instance - but on the whole Zune falls short of the standards set by Apple. 'This first Zune has too many compromises and missing features to be as good a choice as the iPod for most users, he wrote. ...more

Internet giant's buying spree goes on

Cisco Systems, with its seemingly unquenchable thirst for acquisitions, has bought Sheer Networks. Under the terms of the deal, Cisco will pay around $97 million in cash and share options. If things go well, the price may go up by another $25 million if development and product targets are reached. ...more

Half of EU economic growth from ICT

Information and communications technologies are behind half of Europe's economic growth, according to a report from the European Commission (EC). The commission's annual ICT i2010 progress report shows that Europe is moving toward a knowledge-based economy, with technology driving innovation and productivity. The ICT sector is outstripping the rest of the economy, and contributed nearly 50 per cent of EU member states' productivity growth between 2000 and 2004. ...more