Huawei, Microsoft in patent talks

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has confirmed it is in talks with Microsoft about its use of Android software, reveals the BBC.

Microsoft claims Google's Android operating system infringes its intellectual property rights. It has already convinced Samsung, HTC and others to pay it patent royalty fees.

Huawei Device's chief marketing officer, Victor Xu, said the discussions are “in progress”.

Mark Zuckerberg has said there's no need for Facebook to fight with other technology companies, but instead it should embrace them all, says The Register.

Zuckerberg and his chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, sat down with veteran US interviewer Charlie Rose to talk technology in an hour-long interview broadcast yesterday, and claimed there was no need for Facebook to fight with Google, Apple, Amazon, or any other competitor.

“I don't think this is the kind of situation where there's one company that wins all the stuff,” Zuckerberg said. “Google is certainly being competitive and trying to build their own little version of Facebook, but when I look at Amazon and Apple, I see companies who are extremely aligned with us.”

The executive chairman of Google has played down concerns the search giant would give preferential treatment to Motorola Mobility Holdings after its planned purchase of the handset maker is completed, writes Reuters.

Asia is home to Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest vendor making mobile devices using Google's free Android software. Google's $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola, announced in August, raised concerns Google may become a key rival of Android licensees.

“In general, with all of our partners, we told them that the Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android... we're not going to change in any material way the way we operate,” Eric Schmidt told reporters on his visit to South Korea.

As if dealing with an imminent euro meltdown isn't enough, some of Britain's high-street banks have also been hit by a seemingly unrelated spate of systems spikes that resulted in customers being unable to access their accounts online or via ATMs, reports Computing.co.uk.

The problems affected HSBC, RBS and NatWest customers over the weekend. “There's no evidence to suggest any of these problems are inter-related,” a source close to one of the affected banks said.

HSBC's online banking systems went dark on Friday afternoon, along with some ATM services, as a result of what was said to be a mainframe problem. Customers also reported having HSBC-issued debit cards rejected by shops' systems.