Software developer Symantec, known for its security and utility software as well as swallowing up worthy businesses and software products, has filed suit against Microsoft in an effort to stop development and eventual sale of Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.
According to Symantec, Microsoft has misappropriated intellectual property which became Symantec’s when it bought security developer Veritas in 2004. The suit seeks financial damages and an injunction against the further development and eventual sale of Windows Vista until all Symantec intellectual property is removed from the operating system.
Symantec’s VolumeManager server management product is at the heart of the dispute: it enables server administrators to remotely monitor server status, as well as automate maintenance tasks and partition volumes. Microsoft licensed VolumeManager from Veritas in 1996 for eventual use in Windows 2000.
Symantec claims Microsoft never acquired a license to use the product in Windows Server 2003, and is therefore illegally competing with Symantec’s own Storage Foundation for Windows. Symantec says Microsoft is incorporating Symantec’s intellectual property into Windows Vista client and server products.
For its part, Microsoft characterizes the dispute as a "very narrow disagreement" over the terms of the 1996 contract, and claims it purchased the rights to Veritas’s code and intellectual property in 2004, prior to the company’s acquisition by Symantec.
One has to believe the companies tried to settle this issue before taking the matter to court; the open question is whether litigation might (further) delay the release of Windows Vista.
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.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.