InternetNews Staff

Source: Reuters Should an employee get paid for reading a BlackBerry at the dinner table, sending an office e-mail or posting a job-related blog at home? A spat at ABC News over paying writers to check their BlackBerries on their own time recently raised the issue, and such a dispute marks the leading edge of […]

NEW YORK — Cable television operator Charter Communications is suspending a program that would offer advertisers ways to target pitches at people based on what they search for on the Internet. “As we do with all new service launches or initiatives, we conducted focus groups well in advance, which told us that most broadband consumers […]

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was criticized on Tuesday for being slow to resolve problems in the technical documentation it was required to provide to rival software makers as part of its 2001 antitrust settlement. The problems were a major part of discussions at a hearing held to review Microsoft’s compliance with the pact that settled findings […]

AT&T (NYSE: T) said on Tuesday it is creating a new business unit focused on content delivery and named executive Cathy Martine as the leader of that section. The company said it wants to expand its business of delivering online media, moving into more direct competition with specialized content delivery companies such as Akamai Technologies […]

Source: Reuters Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) was named on Monday in a trade secrets lawsuit alleging that the company’s business software unit copied a tiny startup’s tool for moving customers off of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) software onto Google’s. LimitNone filed a complaint in an Illinois circuit court alleging that Google at first began promoting the smaller […]

HELSINKI — Nokia will pay $410 million to buy out UK-based mobile phone OS maker Symbian and plans to make its software available, royalty-free, to boost phone sales and respond to new rivals such as Google. Symbian’s software is used in two-thirds of smartphones — handsets with computer-like capabilities — and 6 percent of all […]

Google Android prototype by NEC. Source: Reuters Mobile phones under development by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and its partners face slipping delivery schedules, with the first phones not likely to arrive until late 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Google had said eight months ago that the first phones to be built under the […]

Source: Reuters The world’s top mobile phone maker, Nokia, said on Monday it has agreed to buy social networking start-up Plazes as part of its major push into offering Internet services. Plazes provides location-aware services that people can use to plan, record, and share their social activities. “This acquisition helps Nokia to accelerate its vision […]

Source: Reuters The Federal Communications Commission on Friday said it wants to auction a section of wireless airwaves to buyers willing to provide free broadband Internet service without pornography. The agency asked for public comment on its plan to auction an unused portion of the wireless spectrum with the condition that the winning bidder offer […]

Source: Reuters It seemed unbelievable when bids to buy a heartbroken man’s life in Australia reached A$2.2 million (US$2.1 million) — and it was, with the bemused seller aware his life was only worth a quarter of that amount. Ian Usher, 44, announced in March he was auctioning his life on eBay with the package […]

Google Android prototype by NEC. Source: Reuters New mobile phones being developed by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and more than 30 partners based on software called Android will arrive in the fourth quarter, a schedule that some cellular carriers and program makers are struggling to meet, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Google had said […]

A U.S. judge upheld a jury’s ruling for $368 million in damages against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) for violating patents held by Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU). U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff said in a Thursday ruling that Microsoft owes Alcatel-Lucent a total of $512 million, which includes interest on the original award. After a jury ruled for […]