By Tim Conneally, BetanewsSony Electronics and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of about 233,000 Sony Vaio notebook computers in the U.S. as part of a wider-flung recall that the Wall Street Journal today said could include about 535,000 units in total.Mike Lucas, Senio...
Telstra Corporation Ltd, the Australian telecoms giant, has defended its intentions of offering exclusive content via Foxtel, provider of pay television, asserting that the deal was done at “arm’s length” and rejecting claims of non-competition reported by Fairfax.
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsThis month, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders have been engaged in some serious e-reader competition. Following the introduction of Borders' bargain-priced Kobo e-paper reader, both Barnes and Noble and Amazon cut the prices of their Nook and Kindle products to put all ...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsTrue to last week's rumors, Hulu today unveiled a new subscription tier called Hulu Plus which allows users access to Hulu across a broader spectrum of devices, not just limiting consumption to PC screens.Select Samsung Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players can downloa...
By Ed Oswald, BetanewsDocuments recently unsealed in a three-year old court case against Dell Computer indicated that the company sold millions of computers with faulty parts, knowing full well that the components inside were faulty.First reported by the New York Times, the computers were sold in a ...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsXStreamHD has always looked exciting on paper, but has had difficulties existing in the real world. Since we first started watching the company in 2008, there have been some serious delays in its 1080p high def TV over fixed satellite (FSS) service, but it is finally beginn...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsWith the 3.40 software update to the Sony PlayStation 3 on Tuesday, Sony's new subscription-based gaming service called PlayStation Plus has gone live in several international markets.Through the PlayStation Store, users can pay $49.99 for a year subscription to PlayStation...
By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsBetanews readers have responded to my earlier-in-the day question -- "Are you caught in the iPhone 4 Death Grip?" -- with surprising answers. Some of you are having reception problems, and many others are not. Granted this is an unscientific survey, but several trends are stil...
A mobile digital television service test underway in Washington, D.C. is going well, signaling that a more widespread launch of the technology is not too far off. The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) started the test in May with 23 channels, and so far has received about 2,80...
By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsI am. But are you? I'd like to hear from iPhone 4 users about their calling experiences with the so-called "death grip." Please share your experiences in comments or by e-mail (joewilcox at gmail dot com). I'll collect reactions into a separate post. Do yourself a favor and re...
Vodaphone Hutchison Australia has started on a multi-million-dollar exercise that will see all 93 of VHA's 3 mobile stores revamped as multi-branded Vodafone and 3 stores.
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsSprint and Samsung today have unveiled the next 4G WiMAX-capable smartphone, the Samsung Epic 4G. The device follows the impressive (and perpetually sold out) HTC Evo 4G in Sprint's roster of 4G devices, and is immediately differentiated by having a slide-out QWERTY keyboar...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsLast month, Microsoft sued Customer relationship management (CRM) software company Salesforce for nine counts of patent infringement in the District Court in the Western District of Washington.The complaint appeared to be a defensive maneuver after Salesforce purchased clou...
By Ed Oswald, BetanewsIntel has announced a partnership with Best Buy to bring its line of solid state drives (SSDs) to the consumer market. The drives will be sold at retail in about 800 stores as well as online.Two drives will be initially available for brick and mortar customers -- a 40GB model w...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsWhile it is no secret that Sony will launch PlayStation Plus next Tuesday --a for-pay tier for the formerly 100% free PlayStation Network online service-- a Bloomerg report yesterday revealed a heretofore unknown partnership between Sony and Hulu may result in a new Hulu vi...
By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsPeople wait for the opening of the fourth Microsoft Store in San DiegoMove over Best Buy and Fry's. Smaller, specialized, tech company shops are the future -- not that this is news to retail experts. It "always has been," said Stephen Baker, "once consumers started driving tec...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsFor more than five years, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) avoided the establishment of a top-level domain specifically for pornographic websites. In late 2005, ICANN approved the proposal from Florida-based ICM Registry LLC to create the ".xx...
Alcatel-Lucent has been granted a profitable contract to provide critical fibre optic equipment for the $43 billion national broadband network.
By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsThousands of people swarm San Diego's Fashion Valley Mall Apple Store for iPhone 4Apple and Microsoft faced off in the same San Diego mall today. Microsoft opened its fourth retail store. Apple launched iPhone 4. Both events drew long lines of fans. But the Apple line was gino...
News Corp-owned subsidiary Fox Mobile Group launched its fee-based Bitbop mobile entertainment service, aiming to compete with the likes of Sling and FloTV in offering entertainment on the go.
By Ed Oswald, BetanewsNews Corp-owned subsidiary Fox Mobile Group launched late Wednesday its fee-based Bitbop mobile entertainment service, aiming to compete with the likes of Sling and FloTV in offering entertainment on the go.Bitbop has launched exclusively on the BlackBerry platform, although co...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsThe ability to record 720p HD video has become a standard feature in the big flagship smartphones this year. The Google Nexus One, Apple iPhone 4, Motorola Droid X, HTC EVO 4G, and Nokia N8, for example, can all capture HD video.For companies involved in the pocket camcorde...
Telstra chief information officer John McInerney has stepped down effective immediately, as the company plans to merge two IT divisions.
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsAmerican consumer electronics company Koss, famous for its stereo headphones, has filed a lawsuit against its former Vice President of Finance, Sujata Sachdeva, and against Grant Thornton, LLP, one of the nation's largest accounting firms, alleging fraud and deceit, profess...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsEntertainment hardware company Roku and Web-based TV platform maker Clearleap today announced an interesting partnership which could result in cable companies offering their own video on demand station on Roku's popular streaming set top box.The two companies will begin off...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsCopyrighted content uploaded to YouTube has been a problem ever since the site launched in 2005. In fact, "Me at the zoo," the first video ever uploaded to YouTube, is dated April 23, 2005. The first time Viacom took legal action against YouTube was exactly one month later,...
Ciena is using its acquisition of Nortel's Metro Ethernet division to set up shops in Australia and New Zealand.
By Joe Wilcox, BetanewsThe rumors are true: iPhone 4 signal strength wavers when the device is held in the hand. Isn't that like the typical position for holding a cell phone? I can confirm the behavior with the unit FedEx delivered about 3 hours ago. When the phone is flat down, I see four to five ...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsVerizon and Motorola weren't the only companies making big announcements at the Droid X debut today. Google's CEO and President Eric Schmidt and Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin were both present. Following the introduction of the Droid X, Rubin officially announced...
By Tim Conneally, BetanewsThe Android community was looking forward to today like it was Christmas, and Verizon and Motorola delivered exactly what the community was expecting: the "sequel" to the popular Motorola Droid, the Droid X. Droid X features:4.3" screen WVGA (854 x 480)1GHz Texas Instrument...
