Apple, AT&T pay up

Klausner Technology has settled its patent lawsuits against Apple and AT&T over the iPhone's Visual Voicemail feature, reports Arstechnica.

Both Apple and AT&T have agreed to pay Klausner an undisclosed sum to license the technology described in its patents.

The patents in question, 5 572 576 and 5 283 818, had been successfully defended in the past, most recently against Vonage. Both cover a "Telephone answering device linking displayed data with recorded audio message".

Language social network Voxswap claims it, unlike others, actually has a higher purpose: its users will be able to see and hear each other swear in foreign languages, says The Inquirer.

Voxswap.com was established by Sean and Nicole Hargrave at the beginning of this year, as a social network for people interested in learning new languages. It has just announced that its users will now be able to avail themselves of the site's newly integrated Skype chatting tool.

This means users will be able to summon up their Dutch courage and exchange Chinese whispers by means of audio and visual chat, as well as by text.

Philips, Samsung, Sony and Matsushita have reached an agreement on the development of a standard RF remote control technology for audio-visual equipment, says Techon.

In addition, the four companies will cooperate with Freescale Semiconductor, Oki and Texas Instruments, and will form the RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics) Consortium to formulate a new platform that enables to develop superior RF remote controls, they said.

In recent years, some manufacturers have started developing RF remote control technologies to meet increasing requirements for capabilities that infrared-based remote controllers cannot support. However, each manufacturer has been developing its own technology and there is no standard platform for the wireless remote control of audio-visual equipment.