Welcome to the Morning Briefing for May 11, 2011, where we highlight the tech stories from across the web that broke while you were sleeping and what we are watching here at techgeek.com.au.
Don’t forget – this Sunday is Mother’s Day. If you’re having trouble getting a present for her, we have a handy guide for that.
Here’s what we are watching:
- Poor Sony. The company has reported an annual loss of US$5.7 billion and a quarterly loss of US$3.2 billion – which is its fifth straight quarterly net loss. Sony’s says the losses were because of the “unfavourable” exchange rates and the natural disasters that occured in Japan and Thailand. They’re hoping to have a better 2012.
- The FTC is reportedly launching a competition probe against Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion. It is route, since it does require much detailed filings for any acquisitions larger than $68.2 million (a really exact figure), but won’t likely have an impact on its IPO announcement. However, it does prevent Facebook from integrating its technology or staff within the company.
- Mozilla is lashing out at Microsoft, after calling Windows RT a return to the ‘dark ages’ since it limits browser choice. The problem stems with Microsoft allowing IE as the only ‘fully functioning’ browser because it can run on Windows Classic and the Metro environment. Others, however, have to run as a Metro app. Anyone seeing a potential European anti-trust suit?
- Speaking of Internet Explorer, it could be coming to Xbox 360. According to reports by The Verge, Microsoft will be bringing it to the console with full Kinect support – including “integrated Kinect gestures and voice controls”. Could we expect an announcement during E3?
- Adobe isn’t winning any friends right now. It posted a security warning for Photoshop CS5 and, instead of giving a patch, told its users that the best way to update was to simply purchase the new CS6 edition. That’ll most likely piss most Australian users off – who wants to pay the ‘Australia Tax’?
- Nintendo has slashed the prices of the DSi and DSi XL in the United States – proving to everyone that the DS is here to stay for a long time despite the Nintendo 3DS. The DSi will be sold at US$99, while the DSi XL will be sold for US$129.99. Both will come with games installed already, but no word if this cut will come to other markets.
- Proview and Apple are in negotiations over the “iPad” trademark, however, the price remains an issue. Proview wants around $400 million – so it can pay off its creditors – while Apple has only offered $16 million for the rights in China. This is going to be a long battle.
- Apple is said to be releasing a 7-inch iPad that could compete with the Amazon Kindle in price. According to iMore, it will be out in October and could be priced at US$200-$250 – and could include the same Retina display but with 8GB of storage.
- And finally, HP has released some new ultrabooks – the ENVY Spectre XT and some new ultrabooks. It has even released a new type of laptop called a “Sleekbook” – and that’s probably just pure Marketing. We have images and full writeups on our site.