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AT&T will begin selling Amazon’s Kindle 3G March 6 as it looks toward other gadgets to increase its customer base outside of cell phones.
The Kindle 3G will sell for $189 at AT&T’s retail stores, the same price at which Amazon sells the e-reader online. Amazon has said that the Kindle is the most popular item sold on its gigantic retail Web site — though the company has never said how many it has sold.
Libertyville-based Motorola Mobility is suing TiVo Inc., saying that the technology company is infringing on several of its patents for digital video recorders.
Motorola Mobility was split off from Motorola Inc. at the beginning of the year and comprises mobile devices and TV set-top boxes. Motorola entered the cable business in 2000 with its $17 billion buyout of Horsham, Pa.-based General Instrument Corp. General Instrument’s DVR technology is at the heart of the lawsuit Motorola filed Friday against TiVo in federal court in Texarkana, Tex. Get the full story »
The Sync Technology Center, a West Loop office aimed at becoming a hub for Chicago’s high-tech scene, is closing its current location on Tuesday after just four months in the space.
Mike Rhodes, a Chicago entrepreneur, had opened the center in November to provide office space to startups, as well as other firms specializing in services such as marketing or search engine optimization. Rhodes was also overseeing a new $5 million early-stage investment fund, and the center played host to many local tech events. Get the full story »
Google Inc. announced a major change to its powerful search engine to reduce the appearance of what it calls “low-quality” Web sites in results.
The move comes after months of criticism from a few technology-industry insiders and an acknowledgement by Google last month that it “can and should do better” to beat back sites that game its system to rise up in search results but offer users little value. Get the full story »
The venture capital arm of Libertyville-based Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. has made its first investment since splitting from Motorola Inc., putting an undisclosed sum into a California technology company that makes a “digital locker” for multimedia content.
Like its predecessor, Motorola Ventures, Motorola Mobility Ventures’ typical investment ranges between $3 million and $5 million. Motorola split into two independent companies in January, with Motorola Mobility housing the mobile devices and television set-top box units. Motorola Solutions, the other company that focuses on communications gear for government and industrial customers, has its own investment arm called Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. Get the full story »
Google Inc., taking aim at Microsoft Corp.’s lucrative Office franchise, plans to release a free tool allowing users to transfer files from the widely used software suite to the Web so that multiple people can edit and collaborate on them.
The long-anticipated move is intended to bolster one of Google’s fastest-growing businesses not related to its popular search engine — selling online software to companies. The company’s Google Apps offering includes online word-processing, spreadsheet and collaboration tools used through a Web browser that are part of a service called Google Docs. They compete with Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Get the full story »
A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits Motorola Solutions Inc. from transferring confidential information by Chinese company Huawei Technologies to Nokia Siemens Networks, which is planning to buy Motorola’s networks business in a $1.2 billion transaction.
Huawei sued Motorola last month, arguing that the deal with NSN would represent a misappropriation of Huawei trade secrets. Motorola and Huawei have commercial agreements dating back a decade, during which Motorola bought Huawei network technologies and resold the equipment under its own brand. Get the full story »
(Motorola)
Motorola Mobility Inc.’s Xoom tablet, which debuted to positive buzz when it was introduced earlier this year, will go on sale at Verizon Wireless on Thursday at a subsidized price of $599.99 or $799.99 without a contract, the companies said Tuesday.
The pricing confirms remarks made by Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Sanjay Jha on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress show in Spain. Reuters had also quoted Jha as saying, “Competing with Apple, you have to deliver premium products.”
Motorola introduced the Xoom in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device is the first to run Honeycomb, a version of Google’s Android operating system that is specifically designed for tablets. Get the full story »
In this photo taken April 3, 2010, a customer uses an Apple iPad on the first day of Apple iPad sales at an Apple store in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
Apple is expected to launch its new iPad on March 2, contrary to speculation of a delay of the latest version of the popular tablet computer.
One person familiar with the matter said recent speculation about a delay until June was “simply not true” as Apple is planning a launch in the same seasonal schedule as the first iPad, which went on sale in April 2010.
Apple will host an event on Mar. 2, where the company is expected to take the wraps off the newest iPad model, an individual with knowledge of the situation said. Apple declined to comment. Get the full story »
CBS Corp. struck a partnership with Netflix Inc. allowing the online video company to stream CBS library content, including television shows “Cheers,” “Frasier,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Twilight Zone” to Netflix subscribers. Get the full story »
Verizon Wireless said Tuesday it spent more than $179.7 million on its Illinois network last year, more than the roughly $166 million investment the carrier made in the state in 2009.
In 2010, Verizon built 57 new cell sites and installed equipment at more than 560 cell sites in the state to boost capacity. The company said it also put in new equipment for the launch of its 4G network, which went live in Chicago in December as part of a broader launch in 38 U.S. cities. Get the full story »
Standing in front of a fast-charging station at the Chicago Auto Show, Gov. Pat Quinn called on automakers to bring electric vehicles to the state in light of charging infrastructure planned for the Chicago area.
“We’re going to have electric vehicles galore in the state of Illinois,” he said. “We want to be the nation’s capital for electric vehicles.”
In announcing that Chicago has signed a contract to have 280 charging stations installed in the area, Quinn said the infrastructure will go a long way toward making the state’s environmental goals a reality. Get the full story »
IBM supercomputer Watson takes on "Jeopardy!" champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. (IBM photo)
IBM’s supercomputer, Watson, may have trounced the last hope for humanity when it beat two “Jeopardy!” champions in a three-night contest this week, but it has also extended a philanthropic helping hand to mere mortals.
IBM is allocating $500,000 of Watson’s $1 million winnings to World Community Grid, a project where volunteer PCs users make up a “virtual supercomputer” that helps scientists with research projects. The grid harnesses the spare computational power of 1.7 million PCs from 535,000 volunteers in 80 countries, putting this combined capability to work on complicated problems. Get the full story »
Regulators have begun an inquiry into Apple Inc.’s plans to take a cut of the revenue generated by the sale of online subscriptions through its App Store, according to a person familiar with the plans. Get the full story »
