Apple accuses HTC of patent theft

Apple is pressing on with its patent offensive against HTC, adding at least one new technology to its list of patents allegedly being infringed by the mobile phone manufacturer, reports The Register.

Apple has accused HTC of infringing patents covering a “system for real-time adaptation to changes in display configuration” and appear to contain identical claim language and involve the same inventors.

In May, HTC struck back with its own patent suit against Apple and it's speculated that the Taiwanese handset maker will strike back again.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), on behalf of seven Amazon customers, has intervened in a lawsuit that Amazon filed in April over an information request from the North Carolina Department of Revenue, states Cnet.

Amazon has provided the agency with product codes that identify the items purchased, as well as seller name and the cities, counties, and ZIP codes to which the items were shipped, according to the ACLU filing.

When Amazon withheld personally identifiable user information that could be linked back to the individual purchases, including names and addresses, the state agency threatened to sue.

San Francisco has become the first city in the US to require mobile phone retailers to post radiation levels next to the handsets they sell, says BBC News.

The mobile phone industry has pointed to studies that it says show mobile phone radiation was not harmful to people. It has fought similar legislation in California and Maine, and defeated the Bills in both states.

However, the US Federal Communications Commission has adopted limits that set out safe exposure to these kinds of emissions, which have been claimed to be linked to cancer and brain tumours. The measurement defines the amount of radio waves that people can safely absorb into their bodies when talking on a mobile phone.

Microsoft is updating its Bing search engine with features centred on entertainment such as music and movies, as it seeks to gain a little more market share from search archrival Google, says eWeek.

Bing's homepage now features an entertainment tab, which leads to a page with separate tabs for music, movies, TV, games and video games.

While previous additions to Bing, such as maps, seemed more intended to establish the search engine as a viable Google competitor, the entertainment tab tilts the site's balance more toward the look and feel of a Yahoo-like Web portal.