Apple Patent Win to Be Reviewed by U.S. Agency

A U.S. trade agency said it will review a judge’s finding that HTC Corp. (2498) infringed two Apple Inc. (AAPL) patents, a decision that could lead to a ban of HTC’s Android- based phones in the country.

Phone rivalry drives down RIM earnings

Shares of Research In Motion plummeted more than 18 percent after hours after the BlackBerry maker reported its net income and revenue declined sharply in its fiscal second quarter.

Echoing Apple, Microsoft bans Flash from Metro IE10 in Windows 8

Microsoft will not support browser plug-ins, including Adobe's Flash, in one of the two versions of Internet Explorer to be bundled with Windows 8, a company executive said today.

AT&T launching LTE on Sept. 18, at long last

At long last, AT&T is preparing to launch its first five markets to inaugurate its 4G LTE data network.
The second-largest carrier will flip on LTE on Sunday September 18 for Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, according to Fierce Wireless. The nationwide carrier plans to expand to 15 markets by the end of 2011.

Already, AT&T's LTE plans are slightly delayed. The carrier stated a year ago that it would premiere its LTE network in mid-2011, rather than a few months before the year's end.


It's true that AT&T is new to LTE, but it hasn't been idle in marketing its '4G' network prior to the rollout. AT&T's HSPA+ network offers faster speeds than typical 3G, but until the International Telecommunication Union settled the semantic dispute over what does and does not constitute 4G, many regarded AT&T's as HSPA+ claim as a long, technically undeserved leap onto the 4G bandwagon (CNET included).

The long road ahead

Although AT&T has a keen eye on converting its HSPA+ network to true 4G LTE, there are hurdles ahead.

AT&T lags far behind its rival Verizon, which launched its own LTE network in December last year. Since then, Big Red's 4G network has grown by leaps and bounds. It now serves up LTE to over half of the U.S.

Verizon's significant advantage isn't lost on AT&T. The carrier knows its planned takeover of T-Mobile must succeed if it's to gain the spectrum it needs to more rapidly roll out LTE. In fact, the glittering promise of T-Mobile's spectrum was the shiny coin that caught AT&T's interested eye in the first place.

Whether the FCC will allow the merger to continue is yet to be determined. Already, AT&T is fighting against the U.S. Department of Justice's suit to block the merger on the grounds of stifled carrier competition, and Sprint, the carrier with the most to lose, has taken its own legal action in hopes of forestalling the deal.

Without T-Mobile's assets, AT&T is reliant on the FCC's auctions to buy the spectrum it needs to support its urban, data-hungry subscribers, a move that could yet be years in the future. Even with T-Mobile's spectrum safely tucked into its belt, AT&T will need time and money to convert T-Mobile's spectrum to LTE, no small task.

While AT&T's spectrum fate is still up in the air, what is certain is its need to push ahead with LTE or risk losing customers, and access to the data-gulping devices they adore.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20106793-94/at-t-launching-lte-on-sept-18-at-long-last/#ixzz1Y2znpuiE

TechCrunch founder Arrington officially moves on

After a bloody public battle, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington has officially severed ties with the startup blog he founded.

Microsoft Talks Evolution of Windows Server 8

The excitement that Microsoft's Server 8 team generated over the upcoming release of the latest iteration of its OS was infectious. Yet, the man leading the Server 8 effort resonates nothing less than calm, cool confidence.

Verizon’s Prepaid Plan Cut By Nearly Half

Tomorrow Verizon Mobile will begin to offer a new unlimited prepaid plan at almost half the price of the current plan.

Steve Ballmer Admits Lackluster Windows Phone 7 Sales

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer expressed disappointment at Windows Phone 7 sales during Microsoft’s financial analyst meeting Wednesday.

Infamous Anti-iPhone Game Goes To Android

A few months ago Michael Pineschi was struck with a rather subversive idea. He’d been reading news coverage about the spate of suicides by workers at two factories run by Foxconn in China where iPhones and iPads were assembled. “I thought it would be a great idea to make a game, an iPhone game, to stop all these people falling out of the building, and shuffle them back into the factory to keep profits up,” he says matter-of-factly from his home in San Francisco.