Although neither company has revealed the specific terms of the settlement, software giant Microsoft and mobile email developer Visto have announced a settlement to a patent dispute between the companies that has been running for two years. The settlement involves Microsoft getting a license to the Visto patents for “cash and non-cash consideration,” and both companies dismissing all legal claims.
“This settlement is yet another validation of Visto’s strong and important patent portfolio,” said Visto’s co-founder and CTO Daniel Mendez, in a statement. “We are pleased that Microsoft agreed to this arrangement which we believe reinforces our ownership of these crucial inventions and technology.”
Visto sued Microsoft back in December 2005, accusing the company of violating three of its patents related to mobile email and data synchronization. At the time, Microsoft was rolling out its first push-email capability for mobile users in Windows Mobile 5.0; the feature was designed to give Windows Mobile devices a feature to help them compete with RIM’s BlackBerry mobile devices, but essentially bypassed middleware from companies like Visto that provided similar functionality.
As part of its strategy, Visto let NTP acquire an equity stake in Visto in exchange for licensing NTP mobile email patents. NTP famously sued BlackBerry maker RIM over mobile messaging capabilities, pushing the BlackBerry service to the brink of shutdown in 2006, and wringing a $612.5 million settlement from RIM.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
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.