Items tagged with Fine
Have you ever tried to buy a game but found that it was not available in your region for some unknown reason? This may be due to a practice Valve’s game platform Steam does, called “geo-blocking.” This is done to lock out certain countries from getting a particular game or to manage pricing worldwide. The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, took issue with the latter and has now fined the gaming company approximately $1.9 million. According to the European Commission website, “geo-blocking” is how a company “segment[s] markets along national borders and to increase profits to the detriment of foreign customers.” They claim that Valve,...
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The European Union is set to hit Google with the largest fine in history over its Android operating system practices. The EU has been working on the case against Google for quite some time and judgment was looming earlier this week, but there was no word on just how large of a fine Google might face. The EU antitrust case against Google has been building for over a year now. A report has surfaced today that claims that the fine against Google will be 4.3 billion euros or about $5 billion. Such a massive fine would most certainly set a record for antitrust penalties according to a person familiar with the decision the EU is set to hand down. After the fine is levied against Google, the long-running...
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There's being late, and then there's this. Intel has just appealed a record-setting $1.45 billion antitrust fine that it was hit with a little while back. And when we say "little while," we mean "2009." Three years later, the company is fighting back. Over in Europe, the company recently bucked back in a bid to have the fine overturned. The story is this: the European Commission nailed Intel in '09 for "hindering AMD" after an 8-year investigation. It was the biggest fine ever placed on a single company, and now a panel of five judges at the General Court in Luxembourg will hear arguments from both sides. Intel's argument is that the EU "didn't have sufficient evidence of any wrongdoing by Intel...
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Micron, Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Elpida and Nanya. Ten companies, some of which you have definitely heard of before, all of which are being hit with some very bad news this week from the European Union. The European Commission branch this week handed down their first settlement in an ongoing investigation into cartel-like activities between these parties, which purportedly helped to "fix prices" in order to keep DRAM prices artificially high. This isn't completely unusual. We have also seen big-name companies in the LCD world hit with similar fines, and the EU never takes kindly to things of this matter. Micron, it should be noted, is being spared of a fine,...
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We know it's just semantics, but evidently AMD billed Intel with NET30 terms, because just under a month after Intel decided to cough up a whopping $1.25 billion in order to put an end to the lingering (and costly) litigation between the two regarding antitrust claims and IP disputes, Intel has delivered. AMD just received one of the biggest checks that have probably ever arrived at its mailstop, with a cool $1.25 billion moving out of Intel's coffers and into AMD's piggy bank. According to the release, the payment "settles monetary terms regarding an agreement over a number of antitrust patent disputes," and of course this also means that the two are exchanging patent rights at the very beginning...
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Pro-choice advocates and IE haters alike have been pushing to get Microsoft's own Internet browser exempted from instances of Windows for years now. Many argue that it's a violation of anti-trust principles, suggesting that there's really no choice of browser when you buy a copy of Windows. Never mind that Apple does the same thing with its OS X systems by including its own Safari, but we digress. Particularly across the pond, Microsoft has caught an extraordinary amount of flack--so much, in fact, that it seems Microsoft is caving and changing its stance on the matter. European Union regulators have informed the world that Microsoft will give Windows 7 buyers a choice of Web browser when...
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And the fines just keep on coming. Shortly after Intel was dealt a staggering $1.45 billion fine for alleged antitrust practices against the likes of AMD, Microsoft is now facing a slightly less painful $200 million payment to software ware i4i Ltd. This week, a Texas federal jury ordered Microsoft to pay the aforementioned Canadian outfit nearly a quarter-billion dollars for damages for infringing a patent.Those familiar with such matters will recognize that Texas, particularly Marshall, is somewhat of a patent troll haven, but obviously things worked out for the relatively unknown outfit. Of note, Microsoft has more matters than just this to deal with, ensuring that its lawyers stay adequately...
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Boy, those suits in the European Union sure know how to dish out the fines. Just over a year after the EU ordered Microsoft to pay fines totaling $1.3 billion for withholding critical information from developers, the same entity has come forward and slapped Intel with a record-setting fine of $1.45 billion. Talk about unceremonious record breaking!The report states that Intel has been found guilty of "offering improper rebates and other discounts to discourage companies from buying microprocessors from its smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices," and clearly European regulators don't take too kindly to those types of actions. It's suggested that Intel used its dominant position in order to strongarm...
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You know, Mark Cuban has an excellent point: Twitter may not have a business model just yet, but it can no longer say that no one's making money from it. Over the weekend, the eccentric and outspoken Dallas Mavericks owners (not to mention a media mogul in his free time) decided to lash out once more against NBA referees. Not that lashing out is anything new for Cuban, as he's been fined around $1.5 million in total and suspended from three games -- and that was from his 14 previous fines!Shortly after a 103-101 defeat by the Denver Nuggets, Mark fired up Twitter, logged on and penned the following: "How do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground...
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ASUS Redefines Portable Gaming with its new 15.4” G50V Gaming Notebook -- Top-Notch performance and exclusive ASUS features make for an unbeatable mobile gaming platform -- Fremont, California (September 8, 2008) – ASUS, a world leader in notebook design and the fastest growing notebook brand, today announced the latest addition to the coveted Republic of Gamers line of high-performance products – the G50V gaming notebook. Based on Intel’s latest Centrino 2 mobile platform, the G50V is loaded with killer features, the latest NVIDIA discrete graphics, 4GB of RAM and dual hard drives – all for just $1,699. Exclusive Gaming Features In addition to being one of the first notebooks to...
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Microsoft has been ordered to pay a series of fines totaling $1.3 billion for withholding critical information from developers. Because Microsoft controlled the operating system, the EU feels that Microsoft's attempts to charge money for access to information regarding its APIs was tantamount to abuse of their industry leading position.“EU regulators said the company charged "unreasonable prices" until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system.”While Microsoft has been fighting this issue for three years now, the company did make major changes to its policies towards the end of 2007. There is no word yet on...
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You can bet Merriam-Webster wasn't consulted on this redefinition.Up to now, the way any online news publisher got one of its articles publicized through the Digg social service is by hoping enough people were interested in it to vote in favor of moving it up the Digg scale -- of giving it enough "Diggs." Starting today, however, that changes: The secret to a heavy publicity on the Digg service won't be having enough people, but having the right kind of people. And how Digg determines the right kind has already become a subject of controversy among its community. This morning, Digg founder and chief architect Kevin Rose unveiled the key to its new popularity algorithm. Described as involving...
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We just can't get enough of the recent story about the RIAA's recent victory over Janie Thomas of Minnesota, and we know you can't either. It had everything from a defendant that told different and mutually exclusive stories while under oath (albeit she did so at seperate trials) to a rare-as-hen's-teeth guilty verdict in favor of the RIAA resulting a $220,000 fine that Thomas plans to appeal after saying she was going to pay it all by herself without asking for help.Now we're hearing that the $220,000 victory could have been a $3.6 million victory if two jurors had gotten their way. Here's the math:“While some may feel the $9,250 per song fine levied against Thomas was extreme and...
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Asetek Redefines Liquid Cooling with Solution Integrated into HP Blackbird 002 Gaming PC Broenderslev, Denmark, September 6, 2007 – Asetek, the market leader of thermal management solutions for semiconductors, is proud to announce the first ever OEM adopted CPU and GPU integrated liquid cooling solution for the HP Blackbird 002 gaming PC – the ultimate gaming machine designed for extreme performance and upgradeability. Asetek engaged with the HP gaming team at a very early stage in the design process and helped develop the thermal management solution for the HP Blackbird 002. The HP Blackbird 002 exemplifies how utilizing liquid cooling and properly...
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Sweden has convicted its first 'pirate' since the country made the downloading of music and movie files illegal in 2005. 45-year-old Jimmy Sjostrom was charged last October with infringing upon intellectual property rights when he allowed four music files to be shared from his computer. The penalty, a fine of a whopping 20,000 Swedish crowns ($2,843), is being seen by the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) as a victory in their war against file-sharing. The verdict only concerns four songs and it costs the one sentenced about 20,000 crowns in fines -- that is 5,000 crowns per song," IFPI said in a statement. "Illegal file-sharing...
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VIA Defines Pico-ITX Form Factor, the World's Smallest x86 Mainboard Tiny 10cm x 7.2cm complete PC platform fits into palm of hand, more than 75% smaller than the Mini-ITX, embodies VIA's "Small is Beautiful" strategy to inspire x86 system innovation Taipei, Taiwan, 19 April 2007 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the VIA VT6047 Pico-ITX form factor reference design, the smallest full-featured x86 mainboard in the industry designed for a new world of ultra compact embedded PC systems and appliances. The Pico-ITX form factor is the latest...
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The latest victim of the FTC's Spyware crackdown is the well known Zango software. Zango, formally known as 180solutions, has been charged with installing advertising software along with its free games without proper notification to users and will be fined to the tune of $3 million. We're sure most of you recognize the name as it's estimated that the software was installed on over 7 million machines, causing around 6.9 billion pop-up ads. "The FTC also prohibited the company from installing software without a consumer's express consent, which it defined as "clear and prominent disclosure" of the terms of the software installation,...
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Infineon Technologies, best known for their memory products, has recently filed two patents (1, 2) for technology meant to deliberately interfere with voice over IP transmissions. New Scientist Magazine's patent news blog, Invention, reports that the German company has filed a patent application for a method of artificially creating a bottleneck for VoIP transmissions, effectively degrading the signal. "According to the application, a machine on a computer network would analyse passing "packets" of information, distinguishing between data and voice ones. After identifying a series of voice packets, it would add extra "pseudo-packets" to the communications stream. These packets would...
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It seems likely that the European Commission will hit Microsoft with a hefty fine of $383.2 Million, awaiting a decision expected on Wednesday. By not complying with the Commission's standards, as they were ordered to do back in 2004, they risked facing a $2.5 Million a day fine, which seems to have caught up with them. "Sources say that penalty could now rise to 3m euros a day if Microsoft fails to comply with the anti-trust ruling by 31 July. However, Microsoft insists it has complied with the Commission's demands and says it expects to deliver the last bundle of information by 18 July. "...
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Corsair Announces Committed RAM Allocation from Infineon, and Continued Support for AMD Enthusiasts Using exclusively Infineon's Rev. C DDR SDRAM, Corsair's XMS-3500LL PRO 2GB kit ramps up to deliver ultra-low latency performance Fremont, CA (March 1, 2006) – Corsair(R) Memory, Inc., a worldwide leader in high performance memory products, today announced broad availability of Infineon's Rev. C DDR SDRAM-based XMS-3500LL PRO 2GB kits. Known to have the best overclocking characteristics, the XMS 3500LL PRO modules using Infineon's Rev.C DDR SDRAM deliver more overclocking headroom and latency flexibility than any other RAM. Starting today, all of Corsair's XMS-3500LL PRO modules will be built...
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Going along with yesterday's update on Google Maps, some Asian governments have voiced their opinion on the technology... they don't like it. There's still some debate has to how serious of a security risk the satellite images are, as the images are a few years old. Living in New Hampshire, I have no concerns as most of my state lacks detailed images. Area 51 has higher quality pictures... could the government be hiding something in the granite state? Well, time to find my tinfoil hat, later folks! FujiFilm FinePix F10 @ eCoustics "The new 6.3-megapixel FujiFilm FinePix F10 ($399 MSRP) is a rather unassuming digital camera with a silvery metal finish and plain vanilla styling. Yet looks...
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We probably haven't stressed this often enough, whether to you our faithful readers or to our OEM contacts in the PR and Product teams at various companies we work with here at HotHardware. But let it be known unequivocally now, we LOVE board revisions. Don't get us wrong, we're not losing it on you. We'd rather a manufacturer get their product right, out of the gate (and likely, so would they) but when a board revision means taking an already impressive product and making it better, it's sort of like a Tech Editor's nirvana; fewer headaches in testing, more performance, better features and usability. Wait, that's what end users are interested in too, isn't it? ...
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