Facing a February trial stemming around Microsoft’s Android patent claims, Barnes & Noble alleges that Microsoft is attempting to raise its rivals’ costs by using “trivial and outmoded patents” in order to drive out competition and to deter innovation in mobile devices. The book retailer is now asking U.S. regulators to investigate whether Microsoft is trying to monopolize the mobile sector by demanding Android-related patent royalties.

“Microsoft is embarking on a campaign of asserting trivial and outmoded patents against manufacturers of Android devices,” Barnes & Noble said in an Oct. 17 letter to Gene Kimmelman, the Justice Department’s chief counsel for competition policy.

The upcoming trial slated for February 2012 is based on accusations presented by Microsoft that claim Barnes & Noble infringes on five patents. Microsoft previously filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeking to block imports of the NOOK readers. Microsoft insists that the underlying NOOK OS — naturally Google’s Android — uses its patented inventions. Microsoft has already landed licensing deals with HTC and Samsung.

“All modern operating systems include many patented technologies,” Microsoft said in a statement. “Microsoft has taken licenses to patents for Windows and we make our patents available on reasonable terms for other operating systems, like Android. We would be pleased to extend a license to Barnes & Noble.”

Barnes & Noble said that part of Microsoft’s tactics to to raise rivals’ costs included the participation in a group of companies to buy Novell patents. Microsoft has also reportedly participated in a three-way licensing agreement with Nokia and Mosaid Technologies. These two specific actions are supposedly intended to “prevent Android- based devices from taking away sales of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.”

Although actual figures were not provided, Barnes & Noble said that Microsoft is demanding the same amount in patent fees that the Redmond company charges users of its Windows Phone platform.

A Samsung executive revealed to Korean Newspaper The Chosun Ilbo today that it will drop its plans to pursue Apple for patent violations in Korea, instead focusing efforts on cases overseas. The anonymous exec cited performance in his company’s home country, saying “we concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market, but not in order to gain more market share in Korea.” The move seems logical given the company’s existing share, and will allow Samsung to maintain a positive image at home, where it dominates in categories ranging from televisions to refrigerators. So Apple may be in the clear in Sammyland, but the battle will likely continue beyond Korean shores for some time to come.

SOURCE via The Chosun Ilbo

Is that 2GB of free storage from Dropbox just not enough to house all of your mobile music habits? Don’t fret, as Pogoplug Cloud now offers 5GB of secure space for all your storage, sharing and streaming needs. The service offers Dropbox-esque folder sharing and automatic uploads for all those vacation pictures without time lost to manual syncing. If that’s not enough extra space for your coveted Jericho episodes (and the Season 3 comics), you can spring from the 50GB and 100GB paid plans at $9.95 and $19.95 per month. You’ll also be able to post your cloud activity, should you so desire, to Facebook, Twitter or Google+ via native smartphone apps. All of the aforementioned services are available now via the coverage link below — after you install the free Android or iOS app, of course.

SOURCE via Pogoplug

XFX has added three new power supplies to its ProSeries line, which was first introduced over a year ago. The ProSeries 1050W and 1250W offer an 80Plus Gold rating, while the 1000W is 80Plus Platinum rated.

The ProSeries offers a full modular design, 135mm fan and features XFX’s EasyRail technology. The 1250W is rated at 104A on its 12+V, while the 1050W is rated at 87A and the 1000W comes in at 83A. The ProSeries comes packed with protection sensors, including active Power Factor Correction (PFC), Total Power Protection (OPP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Current Protection (OCP), Short Circuit Protection (SCP), and Over Temperature Protection (OTP).

The new ProSeries power supplies introduce SolidLink Technology. The SolidLink has the pin lag that directly connects to the connector daughter board, where traditional modulars have a bundle of cables that are connected to the connector daughter board. The design reduces lost wattage & heat generated by wires and draws less wall power.

The new ProSeries come with a 5 year warranty. To learn more about the new XFX ProSeries power supplies, visit the product page.

Attention whore at its finest? Much like the city that renamed itself to Google just to have Google’s fiber optic service, here’s a similar story that worships Apple. The founder and former CEO of Apple passed away in early October and tributes have been pouring in ever since. Judging from the reaction alone, it’s easy to see that Jobs had a huge impact on the technology industry. Now, a technical school in Bulgaria is considering renaming itself to honor the late Steve Jobs.

Novinite reports that a technical secondary school in Bulgaria is renaming their school and considering ‘Steve Jobs’ as the new moniker. Currently named after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the technical school, which specializes in education in the field of electronics, is coming up on its 50th birthday and feels a more modern name is in order.

Students and faculty at the school are said to be debating the name change, but Steve Jobs is one of the front runners. Though it is hard to deny the influence he’s had on the consumer electronics industry, some feel it would be more appropriate to name the school after a Bulgarian scientist. According to the Pursuitist, the name “Peter Petroff,” after the Bulgarian-American NASA engineer and inventor of the digital watch, is also under consideration.

Typically laptop users are those who care most about power consumption, as it directly affects battery life, but it’s also a full-on concern for those who are looking at their energy bills – and this includes massive corporations where pennies can multiply into thousands of dollars.

Windows 8 will have a host of new features that make the user experience more productive and enjoyable, but under the hood will be further efforts in efficient and effective power management.

Pat Stemen, a program manager on the Windows Kernel team, detailed on the B8 Blog three innovations in Windows 8 that influence power consumption: the Metro style app model, idle hygiene, and a new runtime device power management framework.

On the Metro style app model:

The Metro style application model is designed from the beginning to be power-friendly. The power management benefit is that the model makes it easy for developers to ensure their application is running only at the right time—applications in the background are suspended such that they do not consume resources and power when not in use.

Of course, we recognize that background activity is a critical component of apps that are always connected and responsive. The Metro style application model and the underlying WinRT support background activity through a new set of capabilities called background tasks. … Background tasks make it easy to perform background activity in a power-friendly fashion. They also enable developers to continue to deliver responsiveness and “freshness” in their applications, but the mechanisms are different than the existing Win32 model because of the desire for a fast-and-fluid interface and the other key attributes of Metro style apps….

On idle hygiene:

Most PC platforms feature processor and chipset idle states that allow the hardware platform to stop the clock or completely turn off power to parts of the silicon when they are unused. These idle states are absolutely critical to enabling long battery life, but they require a minimal residency duration—that is, you have to be idle for long enough to make the transition in and out of the idle state worthwhile in terms of power used. This is because some power is consumed on the way into and out of the idle state. Software most effectively uses these idle states when there are as few exits from the idle state as possible, and the duration of the idle state is as long as possible.

We track the idle efficiency of Windows 8 using built-in ETW Tracing, some additions to the Windows Performance Analyzer, and a basic histogram. Below, you can see the difference in idle durations between Windows 7 and Windows 8. When the screen is on, we’ve already moved the bar significantly from a maximum idle duration of 15.6ms in Windows 7 to 35% of our durations longer than 100ms in Windows 8! With the screen off and during Connected Standby, our idle durations are even longer, currently in the tens of seconds.

On runtime device power management:

For Windows 8, we’ve built a new device power framework that allows all devices to advertise their power management capabilities and integrate them with a special driver called the Power Engine Plug-in or PEP, designed for SoC systems. The PEP is provided by the silicon manufacturer and knows all of the SoC-specific power management requirements. This allows device drivers like our USB host controller or a keyboard driver to be built once, and still deliver optimal power management on all platforms from SoC-based PCs to datacenter servers.

 This year’s Milan International Motorcycle Show is definitely featuring a healthy assortment of battery-powered two wheeled machines, and now Evolve Motorcycles has two more plug-in designs to add to the list. First up is its Xenon, aka the Tron Lightcycle replica, which is a real bike that you can purchase 32-inch hubless rims, OLED light tape and all for $50,000. It’s even claiming a top speed of 100mph with a 100 mile range on its custom lithium ion battery system, so all you have left to do is regret not grabbing one for $35k on eBay last year. The Lithium however, chooses to keep things more conventional as a streetfighter concept built around a 54hp electric motor that is expected to cost around $20,000 when it actually goes on sale. Check after the break for a pic of the Lithium, or head over to Autoblog Green for a gallery full of eyecandy featuring both bikes.

SOURCE via Autoblog