Microsoft has sued Salesforce.com this week, claiming the company has been actively infringing on nine of the software giant's patents.
The complaint is significant as it targets patents relating to customer-relationship management (CRM), which is the bread and butter of SalesForce's business.
Microsoft is seeking for an injunction on the features used in SF's software that infringes on the their patents.
Salesforce, which launched in 1999, "sells subscriptions to Internet business software that runs marketing campaigns and tracks sales leads." The company is in direct competition with Microsoft's Dynamics program in the CRM market.
"More and more, we’re seeing Dynamics compete with Salesforce in deals,"adds Ray Wang, an analyst with Altimeter Group. "Long term, Salesforce and Microsoft are on a collision course for all enterprise software."
Salesforce had about $1.3 billion in sales last year.
Responds the CRM company: "The resolution of this claim is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, but it could be material to the net income or cash flows or both of a particular quarter."
According to VG247, Sony will finally reveal its plans for PlayStation Network premium subscriptions at the upcoming E3 event in June.
The site says they have been assured by sources that nothing in the premium subs will impact the current fee aspects of the service, and the subscriptions are completely optional.
The service will cost under "£50 per year," notes the site.
As an added bonus, all users of the premium subscription will receive a fee PSN game each month, from a choice of up to four that change each month. After a few months, if you count the free games as money back to yourself, you break even on the subscription.
One of the expected new features is an unlimited streaming music app similar to Spotify.
Ubisoft, the games publisher behind the new "always on" DRM, has disappointed investors this week, reporting an almost 18 percent slide in revenue for the fiscal year.
For the year, the company posted sales of $1.1 billion, and a net loss of $54 million.
The loss was mainly due to increases in R&D, which rose to $376 million, up 36 percent year-on-year.
Additionally, Ubi saw its market share in North America rise to 6.8 percent from 5.3 percent last fiscal year. Despite the growth, the overall market, which remains in turmoil, has not helped with ongoing sales, concedes CEO Yves Guillemot: "The global economic crisis had a pronounced impact on the video game industry in 2009, which contracted by nearly 10 per cent year-on-year. Ubisoft's sales were hit particularly hard, falling 18 per cent over the full year despite a stabilisation in the second half of the year, when figures came in on a par with the corresponding period of 2008-09. This overall contraction in sales, combined with additional write-downs recorded for games already launched as well as for upcoming releases, led to a €60 million operating loss."
OnStar has announced today that it has teamed with Google to develop new features to be used in Chevy Volt mobile app.
The app will get its first public showcase at the upcoming Google I/O conference tomorrow in California, where OnStar will show off the Android-leveraged application.
Adds OnStar pres Chis Preuss: "While OnStar will never lose sight of our core focus on safety and security, this relationship is an example of how we're evolving our leadership position in connected vehicle technology. What we're talking about today is only the beginning."
The current Chevy Volt app will get a new "navigation" tab, which will pinpoint the car's location via Google Maps. Then, just like on Android smartphones, users can voice search for destinations and have OnStar turn on turn-by-turn directions.
Additionally, the app will have the following features:
* Charge status display – plugged in or not and voltage (120V or 240V)
* Flexibility to "Charge Now" or schedule charge timing
* Display percentage of battery charge level, electric and total ranges
* Ability to manually set grid-friendly charge mode for off-peak times when electricity rates are lowest
* Send text or email notifications for charge reminders, interruptions and full charge
* Display miles per gallon, electric only miles, and odometer readings
* Shows miles per gallon, EV miles and miles driven for last trip and lifetime
* Remotely start the vehicle to pre-condition the interior temperature
The once-extremely-popular site will simplify its own privacy settings over the coming weeks, giving users the "option to select one privacy setting for all information in their profiles, which often include a user's name, birthday, interests and photos."
Profiles can be made public to everyone, MySpace friends only, or MySpace users over 18 only.
Previously, the settings for different sections of their profile were scattered, including the separate controls for privacy on their photos, comments and friend's lists.
Taking a jab at Facebook's recent plights, MySpace Co-President Mike Jones says: "Given all the noise in the industry, we want to get out and state a clear position so that our users understand that we take privacy very seriously."
Spotify, the popular music streaming service available in Europe, has announced today the launch of two new variations of the service, Spotify Open and Spotify Unlimited.
"Unlimited" gives users "round-the-clock," ad-free access to Spotify for €5 a month. Unlike the more expensive "Premium" version, you will not be able to move files to your smartphone or play in offline mode at all. You will need to be connected to the Internet at all times to play the tracks.
Premium is £9.99 per month, however.
"Open" is completely free, but also lacks most of the options of the other variations, including some that are even included in Spotify "Free," which is free but requires an invite to sign up.
Spotify Open lets anyone sign up and receive 20 hours of streaming per month, with no other obligations. You will hear ads, just like in the Free version, however.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has written today in their official blog that the PlayStation 3 will soon be getting the MUBI movie streaming service.
The service has a large range of independent, classic and international films and will be available on the console "this autumn."
MUBI was announced first at the Cannes Film Festival and will include "festival gems, classics, famous independent releases and art-house flicks" from such famous directors like Quentin Tarantino, Gus Van Sant and the Coens.
When it launches later this year in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Iberia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Australia and New Zealand there will be over 300 films available.
"PlayStation is about great entertainment, from games to content, delivered straight to the living room or enjoyed on the go. Today this ranges from VidZone, the free on demand service music service, through to PlayTV where you can watch, record and rewind live TV at your leisure. MUBI offers the perfect independent counterpoise to our box-office blockbuster, hi-def, video delivery service, catering for the tastes of an ever broader customer base. Add in PS3’s DVD and Blu-ray disc player and we have the perfect ticket for film lovers," says SCEE president Andrew House.
Google has announced that it will purchase Global IP Solutions, a company with technology delivering voice and video over IP.
The move has prompted rumors that the company is trying to add video conferencing to the Android operating system.
GIPS is known for their "high-quality, real-time audio and video streaming via IP," and has been licensing the technology over the years to companies as big as Samsung, Yahoo, AOL and Nortel for their video/video chat services.
The Android video chat rumors began last month when GIPS rolled out its first product that was intended to help developers add video chat to Android phones and tablets.
The search giant will pay $68.2 million for the company, which is a large 27.5 percent premium over the company's closing share price. In January the company said it had a possible buyer and shares have surged 60 percent since.
Roku, the company behind the popular streaming set-top boxes of the same name, has struck a deal with the UFC this week, giving users a chance to stream all major UFC events for the foreseeable future.
The set-top makers first hit the market in 2008 with the Netflix Player, which was created, as the name implies, to stream Netflix's "Watch Instantly" movie collection.
Since then, Roku has updated to include Amazon VOD, Major League Baseball and more content.
Roku adds that the UFC deal includes HD streaming, even for the PPV events.
A subscription to UFC Vault is $60 for six months, or each individual fight costs $2. PPV events, which normally cost up to $45 though your cable box, will cost $45 through Roku as well.
The first event available will be the May 29th fight between champions Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans. A 3Mbps Internet connection is suggested.
Google has announced today that YouTube has finally been expanded to Africa, marking the sixth (and likely, last) continent the popular video sharing site is available from, locally.
Of course the site has been available to users in Africa since launch, but the continent has never had any localized content. Until today, 27 different countries have localized content, stretching five continents.
South Africa will now have its own version of YouTube, which will launch full of content from South African providers, including educational content from universities.
"All in all, we are pleased to be officially putting down roots in South Africa and look forward to working with South African users, partners and advertisers to make the YouTube community even bigger, even more diverse and even brighter than it is today," reads the blog.
According to Dallas Business Journal, video rental giant Blockbuster is once again on the brink of bankruptcy, with their latest financial statement saying cash on hand and cash flow will only give the company 12 months at most.
At that point, the company would not be able to pay off its debts, and Chapter 11 bankruptcy would become "an option."
However, the company said it was just using cautionary language when bringing up the option of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that shareholders should not be worried.
At the very least, the company concedes it will need to close more stores as it will not meet the financial goals it hoped for 2010.
"The operating environment continues to be challenging, but we have made significant progress during the past year in reducing costs," adds Jim Keyes, CEO. "We believe we will continue to have adequate liquidity during 2010 through efforts including divesting non-core international assets, significantly improving working capital, continuing to reduce operating costs, and improving credit terms. Since there are execution risks related to these objectives, we are simultaneously pursuing a recapitalization and are in discussions with bond holders and other parties to improve our liquidity."
Research In Motion (RIM) has said it will begin selling the BlackBerry Storm via China Telecom, marking the first time the touchscreen device is available in the nation.
The smartphone will be available in 16 of the country's 31 provinces in the near future, although no date or price was revealed.
The move is seen as a way to compete with China Unicom, which is the current exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone in the nation. The iPhone has seen such strong sales in China that Apple says sales have risen to over $1.3 billion.
The Storm was widely criticized when it launched in the U.S. in 2008 for its awful screen design and software glitches, and RIM rushed to release the Storm 2 in 2009.
RIM has made the older BlackBerry 8700 available to corporate customers in China since 2006.
At least one analyst thinks RIM's sales in China will be light at first, as it tries to build brand recognition: "Expectations for the BlackBerry should be kept in check, they’re coming from essentially zero market share. RIM is going to have to work very hard with their carrier partners to build the brand," says Matt Thornton, an analyst with Avian Securities, via BW.
According to a new Digitimes report, Apple plans to ship 24 million iPhone 4G units by the end of the year, with their Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn ready to ship 4.5 million in June alone.
While Apple may have giant expectations, 24 million seems over the top. Since 2007, the company has sold just over 50 million units, with three different iterations of the smartphone.
Cnet proposes that the company may be planning a large price cut on the model, which would certainly help move units. Potentially, Apple is readying a CDMA-version of the phone, which would work on Verizon, the largest phone carrier in the nation.
Confirming what Gizmodorevealed last month, Digitimes says the smartphone will have an ARM Cortex A8 processor and 512MB of memory, which is double that of the 3GS, and should give enough power to handle the multi-tasking functions of the iPhone 0S 4.0.
YouTube launched in May 2005 with a specific goal; to make it possible for users to easily upload and share videos with each other. The type of content wasn't particularly important, as long as the process was easy for the uploader and the viewer. Not long after it launched, YouTube built a multi-million community of users and became a well known brand.
The site now exceeds over two billion views daily, which it points out is double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined. It has hosted all kinds of video content from homemade videos to coverage of social unrest, such as the Iranian election protests in 2009 that showed the power of social media to spread information. The website is currently blocked in China.
More than 24 hours of video footage is currently uploaded to YouTube every single minute.
YouTube has launched the YouTube FiveYear Channel, which includes the "My YouTube Story" project where users from all over the world describe how YouTube affected their lives. Users can submit videos here, and they may be selected for the My YouTube Story project.
Microsoft has sued Salesforce.com this week, claiming the company has been actively infringing on nine of the software giant's patents.
According to 
Ubisoft, the games publisher behind the 
