A jury in federal court found that Microsoft Corp. infringed on a 1994 patent by a Guatemalan inventor involving technology related to linking its Access and Excel programs and ordered the world’s largest software maker to pay $9.9 million in damages.

A jury in the U.S. District Court of Central California told Microsoft to pay Carlos Armando Amado $9.9 million for software that links Microsoft’s Excel program with its Access database application via a single spreadsheet.

The jury award takes into account Microsoft software sold between March 1997 and July 2003.

Source: CNN

United Airlines, the world’s second-largest carrier, received regulatory approval Monday to install wireless Internet access to its fleet in a partnership with Verizon Communications Inc.

The Federal Aviation Administration gave approval to United-parent UAL Corp. to install the cabin equipment necessary to provide wireless Internet connection to passengers and crew members on U.S. domestic flights. United becomes the first domestic airline to get
FAA approval that allows passengers to surf the Internet while riding through the sky.

United Airlines and Verizon, which already provides airfone capabilities for the carrier, said it must still get approval from the Federal Communications Commission before the new service can officially launch. Both companies expect to have a date within the coming months, following an FCC spectrum auction where service rights and ranges of frequencies will be awarded to one or more onboard Internet access providers.

Source: AP

Apple(R) today delivered a preview release of QuickTime(R) 7 Player and QuickTime 7 Pro for Windows, the industry’s first mainstream H.264 solution for streaming and playback of High Definition (HD) video on the Windows platform. Ratified as part of the MPEG-4 standard, the H.264 video codec delivers pristine quality video across a broad range of bandwidths, from 3G for mobile devices to iChat AV for video conferencing to HD for broadcast and DVD. H.264 has been adopted by both the DVD Forum and Blu-ray Disc Association for the next generation of high definition DVDs.

QuickTime 7 Player for Windows features:

• support for H.264, the state-of-the-art, worldwide video standard;
• support for playing up to 24 channels of audio, including 5.1 and 7.1 audio;
• new and improved playback controls, including jog shuttle and variable speed playback options;
• zero-configuration streaming for easy access to the optimal streaming experience;
• live resizing for smooth playback as a user changes the size of the QuickTime 7 Player window.

QuickTime 7 Pro for Windows features:

• H.264 video encoding for easy creation of pristine video for any use, from 3G to HD and everything in between;
• support for configuring and encoding 5.1 audio;
• new full-screen controls for easy access to player controls in full-screen mode;
• native support for VBScript, enabling QuickTime workflow automation;
• background exporting to allow users to continue working during exports;
• all-new movie settings for simple and efficient movie authoring.

At its Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple® announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh® computers using Intel® microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007. Apple previewed a version of its critically acclaimed operating system, Mac OS® X Tiger, running on an Intel- based Mac® to the over 3,800 developers attending CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address. Apple also announced the availability of a Developer Transition Kit, consisting of an Intel-based Mac development system along with preview versions of Apple’s software, which will allow developers to prepare versions of their applications which will run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

Internet media company Yahoo Inc will quit charging fees for auctions on its U.S. site in an effort to encourage more people to sell their wares, the company said on Sunday.

Rob Solomon, general manager and vice president of Yahoo Shopping, denied the move was a defensive response to top online auctioneer eBay Inc.’s announcement on Wednesday it had agreed to buy Shopping.com , a provider of online comparison shopping and consumer reviews, for $620 million.

Yahoo said it will generate revenue from its U.S. auctions by continuing to have paid search listings by its Yahoo Search Marketing division. Paid search ads are triggered by keywords related to their product or brand.

Source: Reuters

In a bid to get Java developers writing Flash applications, Macromedia is throwing its weight behind the Eclipse programming system.

Eclipse is an open-source “integrated development environment,” or IDE, which provides application developers with programming tools and reusable components. While based on Sun Microsystems’ Java programming language, Eclipse can be used to create applications in formats competitive with Java, including Flash.

Macromedia said it will join the Eclipse Foundation and create a “next-generation rich Internet application development tool,” code-named Zorn, based on Eclipse.

Source: News.com

On its Web site, Amazon.com Inc. is asking publishers for audiobooks for a new download store it says it plans to open. But the Internet retailer is being coy about such key details as a launch date.

The Seattle-based company declined to say Friday when any such sales would start or how it would affect its partnership with Audible Inc., the industry-leader in sales of audio versions of books and other publications.

“We never say if or when we’re going to be launching a store until we launch it,” Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said.

Source: AP