A federal court on Friday ordered Seven Networks to pay Visto $3.6 million in damages for patent infringement. That same day,Visto attorneys filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against BlackBerry provider Research In Motion.

Research In Motion paid a $612.5 million settlement in March to patent-holding company NTP Inc. Visto is claiming that RIM infringed on four of its patents,three of which are identical to those in Visto’s successful lawsuit against Seven.

Source: InformationWeek

American Express card holders: Beware that pop-up log-in screen, even on the company’s secure Web site.

The credit card and travel services company has issued a warning about what it calls a false “security measures” pop-up screen that appears when users log in to its secure site.

In an alert posted online, the New York-based company included a screenshot of the pop-up, which tries to lure the user into his entering name, Social Security number, mother’s maiden name and date of birth.

“Please note that this fraudulent activity may be the result of a computer virus and is not a part of the American Express website. If you received this pop-up box, your computer may have this virus,” the company warned.

Source: Fox News

Apple Computer and four major record labels have renewed their deals to sell songs on iTunes for 99 cents, an Apple representative said Monday.

“We’ve renewed our agreements with the major music companies and we’re pleased to continue offering iTunes customers music at 99 cents per song from a library of over 3 million songs,” the representative said in a statement.

Source: News.com

The enterprise version of the Java programming language is expected to get a boost this week, with approval of the Java EE (Enterprise Edition) 5 specification anticipated from the Java Community Process, according to a representative at Sun Microsystems.

Release of the actual code for Java EE 5 is due in the same timeframe as the JavaOne technical conference in San Francisco, which begins on May 16.

Source: Yahoo

Technology policy rarely makes for compelling campaign theater — and rarer still moves the body politic — but I can’t help rooting for Pete Ashdown.

In a political mismatch of almost biblical proportions, the tech-savvy Democrat is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch.

Hatch is a popular incumbent who has polled over 62 percent in past elections. Apparently, Utahans couldn’t care less about the Republican senator’s slavish endorsement of entertainment industry-backed bills that would, without understatement, create the equivalent of a copyright police state.

Source: Wired

America Online Instant Messenger users who click on a malicious link could find themselves the victim of a newly discovered bot that uses encryption to increase the range of its targets and make eradication more difficult.

The bot software, which can only infect those who click on a malicious link sent via AIM, may infect upwards of a few tens of thousands of users, said Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the Sans Institute. San’s Internet Storm Center released a report on the issue on Sunday night.

Source: News.com

According to iLounge, the Vacaville School District, located west of Sacramento in Solano County, California, has begun giving away iPod shuffles and iTunes gift cards to push the schools’ attendance higher.

Source: Wired

A German security researcher said this weekend that Oracle products, particularly its flagship database, are vulnerable to 44 bugs, the oldest reported to the Redwood Shores, Calif. developer two-and-a-half years ago, the newest submitted 12 days ago.

Source: InformationWeek

Stung by market share losses in the first quarter, Dell is cutting prices in an effort to woo customers.

The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker is selling an Inspiron E1505 notebook with an Intel T2300 Core Duo processor, 1GB of memory, an 80GB drive, a 15.4-inch screen and a DVD burner for $699 today, down from the usual price of $1,234.

A similar notebook from Toshiba on CompUSA’s site sells for $1,249, while a similar Hewlett-Packard sells for $1,199. Gateway clocks in at $999.

Source: News.com

The New York Times reports that Google is crying foul over a new IE7 search box feature that defaults to MSN Search. Although the feature can be modified to use Google or other search engines, Google asserts that “The best way to handle the search box […] would be to give users a choice when they first start up Internet Explorer 7.”

Source: Slashdot

Samsung brought its Origami tablet to the United States on Monday, announcing that the device would go on sale at Best Buy’s online store next week and will show up in some of the retailer’s outlets this summer.

The Q1 minitablet, with its 7-inch screen, built-in Bluetooth connectivity and Wi-Fi wireless capabilities, will sell for $1,099. Optional add-ons include an extended battery and a travel case with a built-in keyboard.

Source: News.com

America’s smallest state is seeking to become its first to offer a wireless broadband network from border to border.

Backers of Rhode Island’s $20 million project say it would improve services and make the state a testing ground for new business technologies.

The Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks (RI-WINs) should be fully in place by 2007, providing wireless connectivity throughout state, whose land mass of about 1,045 square miles is only slightly more than double the size of metropolitan Los Angeles.

Source: eWeek