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CNET News.com feature: Judge unimpressed by case against Facebook

BOSTON--The judge's message Wednesday to ConnectU over its intellectual property lawsuit against fellow social-networking site Facebook was clear: show us the evidence.

ConnectU, which accuses Facebook of stealing its ideas, has been in legal pursuit of its rival, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and early employees Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum and Christopher Hughes for nearly three years, and there still isn't an end in sight.

Massachusetts Federal Judge Douglas P. Woodlock repeatedly stressed that there was simply not enough evidence to back up allegations that Zuckerberg, who had performed programming work for ConnectU while it … Read more

Judge gives ConnectU founders two weeks to revise Facebook complaint

BOSTON--A federal judge in a Massachusetts district court gave the founders of college-based social networking site ConnectU two weeks to revise the complaint that they have filed against Facebook, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and four other early employees of the fast-growing social network. The ConnectU founders, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their fellow 2004 Harvard graduating classmate Divya Narendra, have accused Zuckerberg and his company of stealing their code and business plan when Zuckerberg was casually employed as a programmer for ConnectU in the 2003-2004 academic year.

Judge Douglas P. Woodlock, during the case's dismissal hearing on Wednesday … Read more

DRM deathwatch

[This entry has been revised: I didn't read the MediaNet release carefully enough...they are offering DRM-less MP3s, not WMA files. Apologies to anybody whom I misled. My bad.]

Back in May, EMI--one of the big four record labels--agreed to sell its songs through Apple's iTunes without digital rights management (DRM) protection.

Before this move, iTunes and the iPod were technically linked: if you bought a song from iTunes, you could only play it on an iPod (unless you burned it to CD then re-ripped it into an unprotected format). Offering DRM-less downloads severed this link, allowing … Read more

I love that dirty water--and that Facebook lawsuit

Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading from New York to Boston to sit in on the dismissal hearing for the lawsuit that social networking site ConnectU has filed against current Silicon Valley darling Facebook. It's a long-running drama that goes back to when the founders of both sites were students at Harvard, and no one's entirely sure how it's going to turn out.

I'll have a story on the subject on News.com very soon. In the meantime, here's what some other news outlets have been saying in the weeks leading up to the case: … Read more

Slingbox makes it easier to upgrade channels, connection speed

Talking to the cable or phone company isn't anyone's idea of a good time. A new partnership between Sling Media and GetConnected Inc. (GCi) will help Slingbox users bypass both while upgrading cable or satellite services and connection speeds.

GCi is a behind-the-scenes service whose business is managing transactions between service providers--like Verizon, Comcast, AT&T--and other companies' end users. Dell customers can, for instance, use GCi, probably unbeknownst to them, to set up broadband services on a new PC.

Customers can use the SlingPlayer interface, and GCi's software will be able to tell in real … Read more

SanDisk Sansa Connect

Everybody knows that I am a sucker for the new crop of MP3 players featuring the ability to connect via WiFi in order to obtain music while on the go. The just released SanDisk Sansa Connect is an amazing step in the direction of my love. It has an amazing user-friendly interface and is set up to allow for access to internet radio at a cost of nothing. Even better for early adopters, is the ability to access the entire Yahoo music catalog with a subscription. All this for $250.00 makes this a compelling device for anybody looking for … Read more

Picture Dots: You know, for kids

File this one under "cute, but not there yet." One of the new Web sites that was showcased at Tuesday's New York New Tech Meetup was PictureDots, which falls under one of my favorite categories of Web 2.0: borderline useless time-wasters. Basically, with PictureDots you can create your own connect-the-dots puzzles, share them with your friends online, or print them out for your favorite kids (of any age). Kind of a cool idea, especially when you think of the procrastination opportunities.

But there's a downside. It's cute, but it's not particularly efficient. You … Read more

Talk the talk without buying a Lexus

Like the integrated Bluetooth hands-free calling interface in a Lexus, but don't have a Lexus? Johnson Controls, the company that supplies Toyota Motor Corporation with its fancy Bluetooth technology, is making the same system available as an aftermarket install. The BlueConnect module fits in the hole that you (or professional installers) will have to cut out of your car's roof, and it enables drivers to make and receive calls via their paired-up Bluetooth phones with the push of a button. The device supports voice dialing, can store more than 1,000 phone book entries, and is yours for $… Read more