Filed under: Displays

Just two months after Hitachi sued LG for PDP patent infringement in the litigious-playgrounds of Texas, LG has countersued Hitachi of course. LG’s suit seeks monetary compensation and an injunction prohibiting Hitachi from violating its seven plasma display panel patents. Exactly the same claim Hitachi made earlier give-or-take a few patents. While we’re fine with the plausible defense of intellectual property, LG’s comment on the maneuver has us worried about a bleak future for consumer electronics litigation, “Japanese firms are filing more and more lawsuits as competition in the global display market has increased dramatically. We will proactively deal with the situation based on our patented and patent-applied-for technologies.” In other words, firms must sue to compensate their dwindling margins. To make matters worse, LG and Hitachi are (or were) close business partners in areas which include consulting and data storage. A partnership with a Vision statement based on “mutual trust.” Riiight.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

An Ubuntu user manages to download Windows Defender and other software using IE4Linux and WINE.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We know Microsoft loves TV, between its UltimateTV and Foundation set-top box businesses, continued commitment to the Media Center platform, impending Xbox 360 IPTV rollout (and current downloadable video content over Live), and its nascent Microsoft TV IPTV biz. In fact, it’s pretty clear that connected television is the direction the company thinks the medium is headed, and it seems ready to make another push on its core IPTV platform (Microsoft TV IPTV Edition) to the masses by rebranding it as Microsoft Mediaroom and expanding its functionality. The new version of the platform, announced today, features picture in picture (with “enhanced MultiView”), networked media sharing, interactive services, and finally supplementary digital terrestrial television support. Will it affect you, the end user? Only if you’re lucky enough to live in one of the select few markets that has IPTV integration — none of us are, and we’re none too bitter about it, too.

[Thanks, Arneh]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

Finally, the fricking Mogul is announced. We’re pretty tired of talking about this phone — now it’s time for the device to stand on its own two feet — er, soft keys. Specs away:

• EV-DO Rev. 0 (Rev. A comes later with a software update. Tres lame.)
• 400MHz Qualcomm CPU
• 64MB RAM, 256MB ROM
• 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
• 2 megapixel camera, microSD, 1500mAh battery
• 4.3 x 2.3 x 0.73-inches
• $399 + two year contract, available in July… or right now

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Thought it was rather clever.