German court favours T-Mobile
A Hamburg court decided T-Mobile could lock its iPhone customers into an exclusive, two-year contract in Germany, says Market Watch.
The court reversed an injunction issued at the request of Vodafone Deutschland GmbH, in mid-November. This barred T-Mobile - which has an exclusive deal with Apple to sell the phone in Germany - from marketing it in the country with only a 24-month contract and a SIM lock that prevents users from switching to any other operator`s network.
T-Mobile successfully appealed that injunction and said it reserves the right to consider seeking damages.
Microsoft removes Vista `kill switch`
Microsoft will cease hobbling Windows Vista installations that fail the company`s validation processes in its forthcoming Service Pack 1 update, scheduled for next year, reports Information Week.
Microsoft penalises Vista users that fail to activate their operating system software within 30 days, or three days after a major hardware configuration change, by restricting Vista to running in "out-of-grace reduced functionality mode".
This denies access to games included in Window Vista and to premium features like Aero Glass, ReadyBoost and BitLocker. It also limits the amount of time the user can remain logged in to one hour.
Girls dominate Siemens competition
In a first for the Siemens competition in math, science and technology for US high school students, girls walked away with top honours in both the individual and team categories, reports Business Week.
The individual grand prize of a $100 000 scholarship went to Isha Jain, a senior at Freedom High School, in Bethlehem, for research into bone growth. Results of the nine-year-old competition were announced on 3 December.
As winners of the team grand prize, Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, seniors at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F Kennedy High School, will split a $100 000 scholarship awarded for their research on tuberculosis.
Apple slapped with iPhone patent suit
New York-based patent-holding company Klausner Technologies has become the latest plaintiff suing Apple and AT&T, this time for alleged patent infringements related to the iPhone, says CRN.
Klausner is seeking $360 million in damages and future royalties from the companies, alleging that Apple infringed on two patents it holds with its "visual voicemail" feature on the iPhone.
Visual voicemail allows users to see who left voicemail messages and to listen to them in any order they choose. AT&T is being sued for selling the iPhone and visual voicemail.
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