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Intel pays AMD $1.25 billion to end dispute
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Thursday announced that they have settled all antitrust litigation and patent cross-license disputes between the companies. Under terms of the deal, Intel will pay AMD US$1.25 billion, and has agreed to a set of business practice provisions. AMD and Intel also said they have agreed to a new five-year cross-license agreement, and have given up claims of breach of contract from the previous license agreement. On its part, AMD has agreed to drop all regulatory complaints worldwide and all pending legal disputes, including a case in U.S. District Court in Delaware and two cases in Japan. The agreement will be made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Fujitsu cell phone can split into two parts
Fujitsu is breaking new ground in the cell phone market with the imminent introduction of a cell phone that splits into two parts. The F-04B was announced this week as part of NTT DoCoMo’s new line-up and is scheduled to hit Japanese shelves in March or April next year. At first glance it looks like a conventional slider cell phone: grab onto the bottom of the phone and a numeric keypad slides out. But decouple a catch and the entire back half of the phone can be pulled off. The top half contains a 3.4-inch touchscreen display and most of the electronics needed for the handset to function. The radio module and antenna is also in this part. The back half has a QWERTY keyboard and the slide-out numeric keypad. The two halves stay in contact via Bluetooth up to a distance of about 10 meters
Qualcomm combines smartphone and netbook for “smartbook”
Qualcomm put the spotlight on the smartbook concept at an analyst meeting in New York on Thursday, showing off a Lenovo-made device based on the Snapdragon chipset that company CEO Paul Jacobs said would be formally launched at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in January. The Lenovo smartbook has already secured operator backing from AT&T, which will sell the device. A smartbook is what you get when you marry a smartphone and a netbook, according to Qualcomm. It’s about the size of a netbook. Jacobs did not say what the Lenovo product would be called or when it would show up in stores. But the Lenovo machine sported a Linux-based user interface that consisted of six large widgets, including ones for e-mail and Facebook.
Microsoft mobile updates create confusion
Microsoft introduced some updates to its Windows Mobile Marketplace, including a new online store accessible from computers and improvements to anti-piracy technology, but there is confusion about how the improvements work. The anti-piracy updates respond to developer concerns about the potential for customers to share their applications with others. The same day the Marketplace launched in early October, a developer reported that he quickly found a simple way to circumvent the basic security mechanism that Microsoft implemented so he could share applications with anyone.