A jury has award Alcatel-Lucent $367.4 million in damages, after finding Redmond software giant Microsoft violated two of the company’s patents related to date entry and handwriting recognition in tablet computers.
The suit is the latest chapter in several long-standing patent dispute between the two companies; in February of last year, a San Diego jury ordered Microsoft to pay Alcatel $1.52 billion for infringing two patents related to converting audio to the popular MP3 format. However, U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster overturned the jury’s damage ruling, and Microsoft seems confident the same thing will happen this time.
“We will move immediately to have the two verdicts against Microsoft overturned,” said Microsoft deputy counsel Tom Burt, in a statement. “We feel confident the verdicts will be overturned, just as the court overturned a verdict last year by a San Diego jury.”
The patents in this suit concern a method for entering dates into calendars, and another covering handwriting pattern recognition that’s used in tablet computers.
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.