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“Despite the decision, we believe our patents were infringed,” Verizon said in a statement. “We will continue to innovate and protect our intellectual property.”

But with this latest court decision, it looks as if Verizon may have to rethink its legal strategy. The company recently reached a deal with Comcast in which both companies agreed not to sue each other for a period of five years for any patent infringement. But there had been speculation that Verizon might target Time Warner Cable and Cablevision.

Verizon Communications suffered a major blow in its patent battles on Monday, when a federal court ruled that cable company Cox Communications had not infringed on its patents.

Verizon settled a similar suit against digital-phone service provider Vonage last year, squeezing about $117.5 million from the troubled provider of voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. Against Cox, it had been seeking past damages of $404 million.

The telecommunications giant has accused Cox of violating six of its patents related to Internet telephony. But a jury for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided against Verizon on all six patents.

Many analysts and experts believed that Verizon had been emboldened by its Vonage patent battle and was looking to go after bigger players, such as cable providers. Companies such as Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable have been offering VoIP services for the past few years. And they’ve been very successful in converting millions of Verizon customers to their service.

The company also told The Wall Street Journal that it hasn’t decided whether to appeal the decision.

From what I’ve heard, most organizations settle in at approximately 95 percent PCs, and 5 percent Macs. Seems like a small and manageable percentage, but here’s the rub. According to some services vendors and PC administrators I’ve talked to, a large portion of the
Mac users are executives–CEOs, COOs, chief legal counsel, etc. These folks get top priority and can be very demanding, so network and endpoint administrators have to be on their toes and establish strong Macintosh “chops” quickly. As a result, some IT professionals claim that 5 percent of Macs may as well be 20 percent of the total PC population. Thus 5 percent equals 20 percent.

Do Macs make these folks more productive, creative, or engaged? I don’t have any data suggesting that they do, but this would be a worthwhile study. In any case, if Macs make the mucky-mucks happy and a happy worker is a productive worker, those excess PC support costs may be well worth it.

A lot of companies have torn down the PC Berlin Wall and now allow employees to use Macintosh computers as well as PCs. Apparently, this creates some interesting dynamics for PC support people.

Historically, IT pundits would point to this inefficiency as a reason why organizations should not allow employees to use Macs. Heck, maybe some analysts still do. There is more in play than just labor cost and accounting here however. “C-level” people tend to get what they want and, obviously, they want Macs.

The briefing is meant to form the basis of a more strategic and comprehensive energy policy, which the Institute for 21st Century Energy argues can improve national security and economic competitiveness.

The policy recommendations cover a broad swath, including support for clean technologies, such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as further investments in climate science.

Since being elected, Obama has said that energy and environmental policy will be one of the top priorities when his administration comes into office.

James Jones, incoming national security adviser

“What is needed instead is a more strategic and comprehensive approach to address the broad underlying trends in energy markets–some long standing, some only recently emerging–that are and will remain significant challenges unless we muster the will to adopt a sound enduring energy policy. A sluggish economy teetering on, if not in, a recession and the recent crisis in the
financial markets makes tackling these challenges all the more pressing, not less so, because at its most fundamental level, energy security is a critical underpinning of a healthy economy.”

In the transition paper, Jones says “our country urgently requires a balanced and enduring strategy to meet our growing needs. America stands at a defining moment where the decisions made today
will influence the economic prosperity, global competitiveness, and national security of future generations.”

From the memo:

The group last month published a detailed set of recommendations on energy policy, written as a memorandum to Obama. (Click here for PDF.)

President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of James Jones as national security adviser brings a retired Marine general who advocates a comprehensive overhaul to U.S. energy policy in the name of national defense.

(Credit:
Institute for 21st Century Energy)

The plan argues for increased domestic oil and gas drilling, a commitment to so-called clean-coal technology, and increased use of nuclear energy. It also calls for an upgrade to the U.S. power grid electricity distribution network.

Jones was announced on Monday as part of the Obama administration’s national security team. He has been president and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Tempering expectations over bold clean-energy initiatives is the poor state of the economy.

Finetune is one of the increasing number of sites that lets you hear songs you don’t own, for free. It’s got about 2 million songs from all four major labels and many indies. How does it stay out of the legal crosshairs of the recording industry? By restricting you to building playlists with a minimum length of 45 songs (although there’s an “I’m Lazy” button that fills in a partially completed playlist with similar selections–mostly songs from the artists you’ve already picked). The playlists can have no more than three songs from the same artist, you can’t have the same song on two playlists, and they play in random order.

Finetune let me pick out three songs from the new Spiritualized album, even though I've never paid a dime for them.

For example…this morning, I started with some ’80s music that’s in or around the edges of goth–stuff like Love and Rockets (owned and ripped), Siouxsie (ditto), Sisters of Mercy (owned and ripped but not on my iPhone because of space constraints), Bauhaus (can’t find the LPs and refuse to buy them on CD), Dead Can Dance (ooh, forgot about them). That led me into all this ’80s and ’90s psychedelia that I’ve often heard or borrowed but never owned or ripped, like Primal Scream, Lush, Swervedriver, The Verve, Mojave 3, Spacemen 3 (which reminded me that there’s a new Spiritualized album out that I haven’t heard), which somehow led me into Galaxie 500 and Luna….You get the idea. And now I’ve got a really cool playlist for the next few times I take a drive, and I might get some album buying ideas for the next time I’m at Amoeba Records.

I signed up for Finetune back in 2007 when it was relatively new, but hardly ever used it. That’s because there are now far less restrictive (but legal) ways to hear songs on demand, including Last.fm (owned by CBS, which also owns CNET) and Imeem, as well as quasi-legal sites like Songerize. On these sites, you just run a search for the song you want to hear, and if it’s available, you can play it right then and there. Simple.

(Credit:
Screenshot)

But the magic happens when you log on to the Web site and create a custom playlist. Then, when you log on to Finetune on your iPhone, it’s there for you. The playback order is still randomized, and the same restrictions apply. But overall, it’s a great way to create playlists from lots of music that you don’t own, or that you might own but have never gotten around to ripping. I particularly found the “related artists” to be useful–it’s very helpful if you want to explore a particular genre or era of music that you never got around to collecting.

It had been so long since I checked out Finetune, I scratched my head when I received an e-mail in my in-box this morning imploring me to check out its new
iPhone application. (It’s not actually new, but went live in October.) If you don’t have an account, the iPhone version resembles Pandora–you pick a favorite artist, and it constructs a playlist based around songs from that artist and other songs it thinks you’d like. Nothing particularly innovative there.

As for Open Invention Network, the effort was founded in 2005 by Red Hat, IBM, and others. Companies such as Oracle and Google have since joined.

Keith Bergelt, OIN’s chief executive, has been critical of Microsoft’s patent actions against TomTom and Linux.

TomTom, the GPS maker being sued by Microsoft, has joined a collective of companies that have pooled their patents in an effort to help defend open-source software against legal threats.

“Linux plays an important role at TomTom as the core of all our portable navigation devices,” Peter Spours, director of IP at TomTom, said in a statement. “We believe that by becoming an Open Invention Network licensee, we encourage Linux development and foster innovation in a technical community that benefits everyone.”

In a press release on Monday, the Open Invention Network said that TomTom had joined its ranks. The collective aims to create a “supportive and shielded ecosystem to ensure the growth and adoption of Linux” and has amassed a pool of 275 pending and issued patents.

Last week TomTom countersued Microsoft, saying the software maker violates some of TomTom’s patents.

“This indicates that they don’t understand how to actually participate as a responsible member of the open-source or Linux community,” he said of Microsoft, following its suit. “And their behavior is clearly antagonistic to Linux. It’s unfortunate they decided to adopt this tact.”

Microsoft announced late last month that it was suing TomTom over a number of patents, including several related to TomTom’s use of the Linux kernel. The suit marked the first time Microsoft has turned to the courts to enforce its long-held assertion that Linux infringes on Microsoft’s patents.

I haven’t raised this particular issue with people at Microsoft, but a couple of years ago- when I was researching a story for The New York Times on technology energy hogs, the standard response from folks in Redmond was to blame third party applications and drivers for the fact that Windows machines often fail to properly go to or wake up from from sleep mode. Third party applications may very well be to blame, but it’s no excuse. One of Windows strongest selling points is its ability to work with software and hardware from thousands of sources so it seems to me that a company with the resources and experience of Microsoft should have by now figured out how to handle errant programs and drivers.

And by the way, I’m not just talking about Windows XP and Vista. I’m having the same problem with
Windows 7, though, to be fair, the new operating system is still in beta so it’s possible that Microsoft could amaze and delight me by fixing this in the final version.

I can understand why it takes at least some time for a PC to boot from a power-off situation because the operating system and some software and drivers have to be copied from storage into memory. But I can’t understand why it takes more than a few seconds for the computer or one of its applications to shut down. I realize that sometimes there is a bit of housekeeping to do in the form of closing files but–give me a break–should that really have to take up to five minutes? And there have been countless times in my experience when it simply never shuts down, forcing me to hold the power button for several seconds. I’ve even had laptops that were so stubborn that I had to remove the battery to turn them off.

I do like many of the improvements in Windows 7 and appreciate that it boots a little faster and–at least on my machine–seems better at going to sleep and waking up. Now all I want is the ability to turn off the darn machine and terminate a misbehaving program without having to dedicate my entire afternoon to the task.

I’m particularly annoyed at how Windows often fails to terminate programs that have crashed. In theory, pressing Ctrl Alt and Delete to bring up the Task Manager followed by clicking End Task should simply stop the program and return you to the operating system. But that doesn’t always work. Sometimes the program just hangs there forever, sometimes it quits after a random period of time and sometimes the entire computer just crashes. Imagine if you had a lamp in your house that was malfunctioning and the only way to turn it off was to turn off all the power to your house from the main breaker.

Back in the old days when TVs and radios had tubes, it took a couple of minutes for a set to warm up before you could watch or listen. But even then, you could turn it off instantly. That’s not true with Windows PCs. Not only does it sometimes take seemingly forever for them to boot, but it can take several minutes for one to shut down. Even worse, if a program stops responding, you may or may not be able to shut it down. And even if it does terminate, it may take awhile.

The economic situation, which has made borrowing more difficult and lowered commodity prices, has made it harder for these firms to test their technologies at commercial scale. Some corn ethanol plants have been idled, while some new construction has been delayed.

The plant, which will use wood chips from neighborhood pine forests as feedstock, is on track to begin producing next year.

The plant, which is expected to be operating in 2011, will make 36 million gallons of ethanol a year from grasses grown nearby. Verenium has a process that uses specially designed enzymes to convert biomass into ethanol. The project received a $7 million grant as part of Florida’s “Farm to Fuels” initiative.

There are several companies trying to find commercially viable methods for making ethanol from non-food feedstocks but there are still only a handful of cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants in the U.S.

Two companies trying to lay claim to having the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S. have secured financing to get closer to that goal.

Another firm, Verenium, said last week that it plans to break ground on a facility in Florida later this year which will produce ethanol fuel from grasses.

Range Fuels on Monday said that it expects to receive an $80 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build an ethanol plant in Soperton, Ga.

Range Fuels uses a thermo-chemical process called gasification where chips are converted into a synthetic gas and then made into ethanol.

Pricing information was not immediately available. Generally speaking, Ion-based desktops are expected to be priced under $300.

Ability to run Windows Vista Home Premium
1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 audio
Popular games including Spore, Call of Duty 4, and Sim City 4 *
DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
Accelerated video enhancement and transcoding using Nvidia CUDA technology

Acer launched a PC Tuesday that attempts to bring PC-class performance to Atom-processor-based PCs.

By design, Atom is a more power frugal and, concomitantly, slower processor than Intel’s mainstream Core 2 chip architecture.

Nvidia listed the following capabilities for the Ion-based AspireRevo:

The Acer AspireRevo, about the size of a hardcover book, combines Nvidia graphics with the Intel Atom processor.

(Credit:
Acer)

The Acer AspireRevo is the first Atom-based PC from a major PC supplier to use Nvidia’s Ion chipset that packs GeForce 9400M graphics, the same graphics used in the Apple 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Air.

Updated at 3:50 p.m. PST: correcting for Intel GN40 graphics support and adding pricing information for target market.

This won’t be quite the slam dunk that it was before, however. Intel recently started shipping the Atom N280 and the accompanying GN40 chipset, which for the first time on an Intel Netbook platform delivers 1080p HD playback.

“The AspireRevo…is perfectly suited for the living room, because Nvidia Ion provides a brilliant graphics experience with digital photos, watching video, and playing family-friendly games,” said Gianpiero Morbello, corporate vice president of marketing for Acer, in a statement.

(* Correction: originally listed as “Sim City 5″ )

The AspireRevo’s marquee external feature is the diminutive size: the desktop is comparable in size to a laptop (though slightly thicker, about the size of a typical hardcover book). Internally, the device will test Nvidia’s thesis that devices, such as Netbooks, that pair the Atom processor with Nvidia graphics offer much better performance than Intel-only (i.e., Atom-with-Intel-chipset) platforms.

“In 2009, we expect both both post-paid and total subscriber losses to improve,” he said. “And we will continue to generate free cash flow. I still believe the wireless industry is relatively well positioned in this weak economy.”

“Subscriber losses and revenue declines are still unacceptably high,” he said. “But it takes time for perceptions about our customer care and financial stability to catch up to the reality.”

UPDATE at 5:17 a.m. PST: Comments added from the company’s conference call.

Sprint has steadily been losing customers for the past several quarters as many former customers complain of poor customer service. Dan Hesse, who took over as CEO in 2007, has made big efforts to improve the company’s image. He has even appeared in several of the company’s TV commercials and in marketing materials. But the efforts seem to be making little difference as the company continues to shed subscribers.

First, the good news: Sprint narrowed its losses considerably, compared with a year earlier. For the fourth quarter, Sprint lost $1.62 billion, or 57 cents a share. This is certainly better than the $29.45 billion, or a whopping $10.36 a share, it lost during the fourth quarter of 2007. The previous year’s losses were due to some large write-downs the company was forced to take related to its merger with Nextel. This time around, Sprint only had about $1 billion in write-downs.

Now for the bad news: Sprint is still losing customers. And as a result, its quarterly revenue declined about 14 percent to $8.43 billion.

The company’s prepaid brand, Boost Mobile, has also been trying to win over customers who are looking to lower their cell phone bills. It recently started offering a $50 a month flat rate plan.

And with the U.S. recession, there is even more pressure on Sprint to maintain its current customers and grow its base. The company’s strategy right now seems to be to compete on value. Last year, it started offering a $99 Simply Everything plan that includes national calling, unlimited SMS/MMS, data, text, e-mail, and Web surfing. This week, it announced it is adding laptop 3G data service to the plan for an extra $50 a month.

Overall, Hesse said he is pleased with the company’s progress as he and his team work toward improving the company’s financial fundamentals and subscriber losses. He added that the economic downturn hasn’t made his job of turning around Sprint any easier, but said the company is in a good position to weather the storm.

Sprint’s continued customer loss comes as bigger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless add customers. AT&T reported last month that it added 2.1 million subscribers during the fourth quarter, while Verizon Wireless added 1.4 million.

Sprint, the third-largest wireless operator in the U.S., said it lost about 1.3 million subscribers during the fourth quarter. It now has about 49.3 million subscribers. The majority of the losses came from the highly coveted contract-customers, of which Sprint lost about 1.1 million.

While AT&T and Verizon Wireless appear to be weathering the economic storm rather well, Sprint and T-Mobile USA, are struggling to win new customers and keep old ones from leaving.

Hesse said during the company’s conference call with analysts and investors that the company’s messages will take time to resonate with customers.

It should come as little surprise that Sprint’s churn rate, or the rate at which customers ditch its service, was up slightly to 2.16 percent. The previous quarter it had been about 2.15 percent, much higher than its competitors.

Sprint has already said it will cut about 8,000 jobs. But the CEO has said the company will not lose workers who deal directly with customers since he is determined to improve the company’s customer service.

There was good news and bad news in Sprint Nextel’s fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday. But mostly it was bad.