Corporate and legal

New Palm brand design chief hails from Apple

When Jeff Zwerner joined Palm recently, he was in familiar company.

The man hired as senior vice president of brand design at Palm is, like three other top executives and a board member of the company, a former employee of Apple. Zwerner has been selected by Palm to shape the company's brand, with responsibility for public relations, marketing, advertising, events, and design.

Zwerner comes to Palm most recently from Factor Design in San Francisco, where, as principal, he consulted on strategic design for companies as varied as Hewlett-Packard, Coca-Cola, Gap, Disney, General Electric, and Apple. But before that, he spent two different stints in Cupertino, … Read more

Google buys video compression outfit On2

This was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Google on Wednesday said it will acquire On2 Technologies, a video compression company, for $106.5 million.

Under the terms of the stock swap, each share of On2 will be exchanged for 60 cents' worth of Google common stock.

Google just made a few penny stock investors very happy. On2 shares closed at 38 cents a share on Tuesday.

In a statement, Google said that it will take On2's technology and make it part of the Web platform. On2's interim CEO Matt Frost said he was thrilled with … Read more

Reflecting on the DTV transition

In the aftermath of the U.S. switchover to a new digital television standard, which became official on June 12, the man who saw it through a 25-year transition, Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro, likened the effort recently to "putting a man on the moon."

Speaking with CNET News by telephone from his Washington, D.C. office this week, Shapiro reflected on the cooperative effort undertaken by consumer electronics companies worldwide, the U.S. government, and broadcast, cable, and satellite providers. He says the transition was completely smooth but reflects on the bumpy road behind the scenes … Read more

New York rolls dice on semiconductors

When people think of Saratoga Springs, they normally think of the ponies.

But now this area in upstate New York is going from horses to high-tech. Here in the small town of Malta, just south of Saratoga Springs, a new $4.2 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant has just broken ground.

"I think it's going to have a huge benefit in terms of returning to the region the status that was here long ago in manufacturing," said Doug Grose, the CEO of Global Foundries, which is a collaboration between the chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices and an Abu Dhabi … Read more

North Korea pardons Current TV journalists

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued a "special pardon" to two Current TV journalists who were recently charged for perpetrating "hostile acts" against the communist state, according to various news reports.

We "are overjoyed by the news of their pardon," the journalists' families said in a statement.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton reportedly arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Tuesday in a publicly unannounced visit to meet with Kim. During this meeting, the North Korean leader ordered the two prisoners released, according to the Associated Press.

"While this solely private mission … Read more

Ancestry.com files for IPO

Popular genealogy site Ancestry.com is going public, hoping to raise around $75 million, according to its SEC filing for an initial public offering submitted Monday.

As a genealogy site, Ancestry.com enables people to research their family history to find out who their ancestors were and how their family tree blossomed. The company started life in 1983 as a book publisher and then jumped online in 1997.

Ancestry.com is run by a firm previously known as The Generations Network, which changed its own name in early July to Ancestry.com to capitalize on the brand name. The majority … Read more

With latest ruling, TiVo-EchoStar battle slogs on

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued an "office action" Monday rejecting two claims in TiVo's Multimedia Timewarping System (better known as the DVR) patent, the centerpiece of its legal battle with EchoStar.

According to the PTO, its preliminary finding rejects TiVo's patent Claims 31 and 61.

Claim 31 describes "a process for the simultaneous storage and play back of multimedia data." The claim discusses how TiVo's DVR captures video from a broadcast source, stores it in its hard drive, and allows users to play it back at their convenience.

Claim 61 is similar to Claim 31. It describes "an apparatus for the simultaneous storage and play back of multimedia data." The claim discusses how the TiVo handles stored shows and gives users the ability to control them on the device.

The patent itself, which features more than 60 claims, is a blueprint for how TiVo's DVR works. It discusses an "invention (that) allows the user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program. A preferred embodiment of the invention accepts television (TV) input streams in a multitude of forms, for example, National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) or PAL broadcast, and digital forms such as Digital Satellite System (DSS), Digital Broadcast Services (DBS), or Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC)."

The patent goes on to explain how TiVo streams content through MPEG video. It gives users the option to put the video into "reverse, fast forward, play, pause, index, fast/slow reverse play, and fast/slow play."

The PTO's preliminary finding is important for EchoStar. It gives it some breathing room as it moves forward after a series of missteps.… Read more

Military to get priority Google Voice accounts

Staying in touch with family and friends can be a challenge for military staffers, especially those serving overseas. With its latest campaign, Google is trying to help.

Google will now offer priority Google Voice accounts to active members of the service, according to the company's official blog. Military staffers with .mil addresses will receive Google Voice invites within 24 hours after requesting them, says Tuesday's blog, written by U.S. Army Sergeant Dale Sweetnam.

In his guest blog, Sweetnam, who works with Google on the U.S. Army's "Training with Industry" program, explained the problem … Read more

INQ Mobile intros new phones; adds Twitter

Cellphone maker INQ Mobile is launching two new low-cost cellphones optimized for social networking applications to give mobile subscribers alternatives to more expensive smartphones.

INQ, which is owned by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, launched its first low-cost, "smartphone-lite" device earlier this year. And now the company is expanding its portfolio with two new devices, one of which has a full QWERTY keypad.

The phones do not run full browsers and the operating system used on the device is Java-based and not nearly as sophisticated as smartphone operating systems used on devices such as the Apple iPhone or … Read more

FTC continues probe of Google-Apple tie-ups

This was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple's board but that won't be enough to curtail a probe by the Federal Trade Commission.

In a terse statement, FTC bureau of competition director Richard Feinstein said:

We have been investigating the Google/Apple interlocking directorates issue for some time and commend them for recognizing that sharing directors raises competitive issues, as Google and Apple increasingly compete with each other. We will continue to investigate remaining interlocking directorates between the companies.

Reuters reports that Schmidt's resignation would usually close … Read more