Filed under: Technology

Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.

 

Microsoft sues Motorola over Xbox patent issue

Microsoft Corp stepped up its legal battle with Motorola Inc on Tuesday, as the software company accused the phone maker of charging excessive royalties on network technology used in Microsoft’s Xbox game system. Get the full story »

VC firm delivers $11 million to GrubHub

A meal from Reza's Restaurant delivered to Tribune food critic Phil Vettel through GrubHub, Jan. 24, 2008. (Abel Uribe/Tribune)

GrubHub, the Chicago-based technology start-up that connects consumers with restaurants that deliver to their neighborhood, has raised $11 million in its third and largest round of venture-capital funding.

The company received the funding from Benchmark Capital, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm that has also backed companies such as restaurant reservation service OpenTable, review site Yelp and real estate site Zillow. GrubHub launched in 2006 and had previously raised $3.1 million in two rounds of funding from Origin Ventures, Leo Capital and Amicus Capital. Origin Ventures and Leo Capital are both based in Northbrook.

Matt Maloney, GrubHub’s co-founder and chief executive, said the company was looking for funding to expand into new cities and develop new products and features in areas such as mobile applications. Get the full story »

Queen Elizabeth II joins Facebook

On Monday, the British monarchy got even more modern, when its page on the popular social networking site went live. The page, called “The British Monarchy,” will provide updates on the royal family’s activities and upcoming schedule. It has 113,000 “likes” so far, and more coming fast.

Windows 7 smartphones hit market

Smartphones running Microsoft Corp.’s new software are now available for AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA customers. Get the full story »

Oracle’s Ellison accuses SAP of $4 billion theft

Larry Ellison, Oracle Corp’s outspoken chief, charged that German arch-rival SAP AG stole billions of dollars of his company’s copyrighted software.

Ellison made the allegation as the the star witness in the U.S. software maker’s software-theft lawsuit, which is captivating Silicon Valley. Get the full story »

Motorola aims new Droid Pro at business execs

(Motorola)

Motorola is launching a new Android-based smart phone for globe-trotting executives later this month at Verizon Wireless.

The Droid Pro, unveiled Monday, is the latest device in Verizon’s Droid line-up, its portfolio of premier Android-based smart phones. Motorola has been an important maker of Android devices for the carrier and its other phones for the Droid line include the Droid, the Droid 2 and the Droid X.

The Droid Pro is designed for business users and comes with QuickOffice, a mobile software suite for editing Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The phone also has a physical keyboard and is global-ready, meaning it is compatible with wireless service in different countries. Motorola said the device can tap into voice service in more than 220 countries and will have data coverage in more than 200 countries. Get the full story »

Google blocks data from Facebook amid rivalry

Google will begin blocking Facebook and other Web services from accessing its users’ information, highlighting an intensifying rivalry between the two Internet giants.

Google will no longer let other services automatically import its users’ email contact data for their own purposes, unless the information flows both ways. It accused Facebook in particular of siphoning up Google contact data, without allowing for the automatic import and export of Facebook users’ information.

Facebook, with more than 500 million users, relies on email services such as Google’s Gmail to help new users find friends already on the network. When a person joins, they are asked to import their Gmail contact list into the social network service. Facebook then tells the user which email contacts are also on the social network. Get the full story »

BlackBerry’s corporate dominance may be eroding

Shares in Research In Motion slipped more than 3 percent on Friday morning as investors fretted the BlackBerry smartphone’s stranglehold on corporate communications was being eroded by rival devices. Get the full story »

Consumer Reports: Kinect not ‘racist’

Looking to debunk a report that Microsoft’s new motion-sensing video game controller might be racist, Consumer Reports says it found no evidence that Kinect has problems recognizing users with darker skin.

GameSpot, a popular video game website, said earlier it found through testing Kinect that its facial recognition camera system did not work properly for some players with darker skin. Get the full story »

Facebook says apps shared user data, promises fix

Facebook said some of its applications violated the social networking company’s policies against sharing user information, and promised to fix the problem.

Most transfers of information to other companies were inadvertent, Facebook Vice President Marne Levine wrote in a letter released on Wednesday and dated October 29.

Levine in the letter said Facebook would fix the problem. Get the full story »

Britain says Google Street View breached law

Web search giant Google broke UK law by harvesting emails, Internet addresses and passwords while collecting data for its Street View maps service, Britain’s Information Commissioner said on Wednesday. Get the full story »

Search engine firm TalentDrive hires Allstate exec

TalentDrive, the Chicago-based online resume search engine company founded by a former Leo Burnett executive, has hired former Allstate Corp. manager Jeff Tomaszewski as its chief technology officer.

TalentDrive’s chief executive is Sean Bisceglia, who in 1998 sold his technology marketing firm to Leo Burnett and later became the ad firm’s technology group CEO.

In May TalentDrive was highlighted in a U.S. News & World Report article on “How to Stand Out from the Crowd.” The company’s search engine is called TalentFilter. Get the full story »

Icahn raises stake in Motorola to 11.3%

Activist investor Carl Icahn has increased his stake in Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. to about 11.3 percent, up from a 10.7-percent holding he disclosed at the end of August.

In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn said he spent about $120.9 million to buy 15.2 million additional shares of Motorola on Tuesday. Get the full story »

Will Microsoft’s game controller connect?

Two boys play the Kinect for Xbox 360 at a Charlotte, N.C. Gamestop store, Oct. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Caryn Bailey, a 32-year-old blogger and mother of two, is impressed with Microsoft’s new Kinect game-control system. But she already owns the Wii from rival Nintendo, and she’s not ready to shell out hundreds of dollars to switch.

That’s the challenge Microsoft Corp. faces as it begins selling the long-awaited system on Thursday ahead of the lucrative holiday season. To succeed, Kinect will need to exude the kind of iPad-like magic that defies frugality and gets people spending to experience something new, even as they cut back elsewhere in the uncertain economy. Get the full story »

YouTube CEO Hurley to step down

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley is stepping down as CEO of the world’s most popular Web site for watching video.

Hurley’s decision to give up the leadership role at the 5-year-old site formalizes a transition that has been in the works for some time as YouTube’s owner, Google Inc., asserted more control. Get the full story »