Microsoft has recently filed a patent relating to the upcoming Windows Explorer 9 web browser that will enhance the functionality of tabbed browsing and tab management.

Neowin says the patents (pictures at end of article) describe "a system and method for selecting a tab within a tabbed browser."

The patent was filed in September of last year, and shows that IE8's "quick tabs" feature will be upgraded substantially. In addition to thumbnails of all open tabs, users will be able to drag and move the tabs from within the Quick Tabs page. Thumbnails will enlarge when you hover over them with the mouse, allowing for an easier preview of the page.

Check the patent pictures here, via Neo:

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The Justice Department has vocally supported the awarding of $675,000 in damages to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from a Massachusetts student for sharing 30 songs illegally on the Internet. The department said that copyright infringement, "creates a public harm that Congress determined must be deterred."

The comments aren't very surprising, since several former RIAA lawyers do serve in high positions. The student in question is Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University graduate student, who is only the second person to go to trial against the RIAA following a P2P lawsuit. Over 30,000 such claims were made, almost all of which have resulted in settlements for a few thousand dollars.

The Copyright Act allows for fines ranging from $750 to $150,000 per infringement. After the Jury verdict in Tenenbaum's case, his defense team mounted a legal challenge against the damages, claiming they were unconstitutional on the grounds that they were disproportionate to the harm done to the industry by the crime.

"The current damages range provides compensation for copyright owners because, inter alia, there exist situations in which actual damages are hard to quantify," the Justice Department wrote. "Furthermore, in establishing the range, Congress took into account the need to deter the millions of users of new media from infringing copyrights in an environment where many violators believe they will go unnoticed."

Tenenbaum's legal team is attempting to bring the damages down to $750 per infringement.

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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved Arabic domain names, giving the countries of Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates a chance to begin creating web addresses in their native languages.

"This marks a pivotal moment in the history of Internet domain names," says ICANN CEO and president Rod Beckstrom. "These international names will now allow people to type entire domain names in their own language."

By June, the four approved countries can request that local language addresses be included in domain names root systems that can be accessed by all Internet users.

The ICANN calls the move the biggest in over 40 years for the foundations of the Internet.

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Data acquired by Valve's Steam gaming delivery service shows that a large portion of its users have already decided to switch to Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7. Although it can be installed on Windows Vista, Microsoft has essentially tied DirectX 11 to the new operating system by working with Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to maximize its potential for more realistic graphics, improved multimedia performance and other features in Windows 7.

Microsoft sees the potential in Windows 7 offloading tasks to graphics hardware to take the load off of the CPU; certainly not a new concept at all, but one that the Redmond-giant wants to give a bigger role to for even common tasks. Valve data gotten directly from users' computers show that around 23 percent of its users have moved to Windows 7.

Combined with Vista users, about half of all Valve users are capable of installing DirectX 11 on the software side, although Steam is not keeping track of users with DirectX 11 hardware installed yet.

The data also shows that users are installing the 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as opposed to the 32-bit versions. Over 80 percent of Steam users are using multi-core system, with 24 percent running quad-core chips. This data guides Steam in making programming decisions, and is useful for game developers to have in hand. DirectX 11-capable cards haven't been on the market for too long, but ATI claims to have sold over 2 million already.

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Verizon has announced that all calling fees for wireless and home users making calls to Haiti from the U.S. have been waived from now until the end of the month.

Any calls made since the time of the disaster on January 12th will also be credited back on your next statement, says the company.

"Communicating and connecting families is essential to what our business stands for, and who we are. During this major relief effort as communication systems are starting to come back on line, we understand the importance of being in touch with the people who matter most," added Dan Mead, COO at Verizon Wireless.

As reported earlier, anyone with a cell phone can help the relief efforts by texting "HAITI" to 90999, which donates $10 to the American Red Cross.

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Epic Games, the publisher behind the extremely popular Gears of War series, regrets their exclusivity pact with Microsoft, says top video game analyst Michael Pachter, who adds that "I think the Epic guys can't wait until they can start doing multiplatform games."

When asked if he means the new GOW will hit the PS3, Pachter explains: "I don't, I think Microsoft has a contract to make sure they get that sequel. But I think Epic regrets signing that contract. You're up to 11 million PS3s in the U.S. and probably similar number in Europe, you got a 20 million addressable market with a game like Gears of War. I mean, that thing would easily sell 3 or 4 million on the PS3, that's a lot of profit. No way is it worth it."

Of course, this is just words from an analyst, in which he is speculating and not quoting any sources from within Epic, however, it is an interesting rumor.

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President Barack Obama is looking for answers from China this week over the cyberattacks that hit Google earlier this month, coming from Chinese hackers looking to steal info on human rights activists.

"We are having high-level meetings and we will continue to have meetings and we will continue to press this issue aggressively," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. "We will continue to seek an explanation from China. A blanket denial that nothing happened we don't think is particularly helpful."

The administration is looking for at least some answers on the cyberattacks, which China has yet to give.

"As the president has said, he continues to be troubled by the cybersecurity breach that Google attributes to China," White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton noted. "As Secretary (Hillary) Clinton said yesterday, all we are looking for from China are some answers."

Clinton called on China to stop restricting the "free flow of information," and received a response from foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu: "We firmly oppose such words and deeds, which go against the facts and are harmful to China-US relations. We urge the United States to respect facts and stop using the so-called Internet freedom issue to criticize China unreasonably."

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The UK ISP BT has announced the launched of its BT Infinity fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) connection this week, which will include bandwidth caps, much to the dismay of those hoping restrictions on P2P downloading would subside with the new rollout.

The £19.99 package, which offers up to 40Mbit/s download speeds, has a tiny 20GB per month bandwidth cap.

BT also says that that they implemented traffic management equipment that will throttle P2P traffic during peak hours, the same way it does with ADSL lines. The 5 percent heaviest users will also be monitored and have their bandwidth throttled.

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Rob Wells, the senior vice-president Digital for Universal Music Group International, talked to the Telegraph this week about his label's relationship with the popular streaming service Spotify, which is apparently one of the first ever sustainable business models for digital licensing.

In the UK and Spain, Spotify pays UMG a royalty per user, and in Sweden, Norway, Finland and France, Spotify pays the label from money generated by subscriptions and advertising.

"In all its territories bar two, Spotify pays the labels from a mixture of the money it generates from advertising revenues and subscriptions. That to me equates to a sustainable business model," says Wells.

Wells adds that only 10 to 12 percent of all users in any given territory need to have subscriptions for the record labels to make money, and that it is doing so in everywhere but Spain, where there is a ton of free users, and the 10 percent is such a large number. In the UK, Spotify has turned back to "invite only" membership, as a way to limit new users.

The senior VP also said Spotify was the group's fourth largest digital partner in terms of revenue, behind iTunes, YouTube and an unknown third.

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The Archos 5 media player has finally seen its firmware updated to Android 1.6, giving a long anticipated update for their now aging 1.5 players.

Unfortunately, the update will still not give access to the Android Market, but built-in applications are now optimized for the device's higher resolution screen. 1.6 also adds "quick search" for easy location of much, contacts, and applications.

However, you may want to hold off on downloading, as early reports call the update the "very unstable."

Full change log:

Version 1.7.33

Since this firmware is based on a new version of Android, after the update, you will be prompted to reset your device configuration. It is highly recommended to do so. The extra applications that you may have installed will need to be re-installed, but your multimedia files will not be affected.

* Android 1.6 "Donut": quick search box, power control widget, battery usage indicator screen, WVGA screen native support, VPN
* ThinkFree Mobile 1.2: double-tap zoom in PDF, miscellaneous bug fixes and speed improvements
* Video: add automatic gain control option for sound in Video Player
* Video: fix support for MJPG files
* Video: improve youtube playback support
* Music: add support for .mp2 files
* Music: allow to play shoutcast .PLS files from the web browser
* TV: improve image centering in Video Player when using DVR Snap-on
* Android: fix touch screen offset experienced in some applications due to presence of Archos status bar
* Keyboard: add up and down arrow keys in Android keyboard (press "?123" to get it)
* Keyboard: add "OK" key in Android keyboard (long press on "Return" key to get it)
* GUI: improved Archos Widget layout on TV
* Storage: correct random hard disk disconnection while playing music or video
* Network: fix UPnP and network sharing not working on Wi-Fi access point not complying with Wi-Fi power saving standard specification
* Network: add an option to disable power saving at the expense of battery life for a specific access point at first association to cope with some buggy Wi-Fi access points
* Network: fix archos multimedia application sometimes failed to access the network
* Alarm Clock: fix alarm could not be set when android multimedia library was off
* System: use Android default notification sound when android multimedia library is off
* System: add accelerometer calibration in Startup Wizard

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A U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has dealt a setback to Nvidia Corp. in a legal patent dispute with chip-maker Rambus. Judge Theodore Essex said that Nvidia is violating three patents owned by Rambus, while dismissing two other patents as invalid. Rambus Inc. is attempting to force Nvidia to patent royalties over technology in use in Nvidia graphics chips.

Nvidia is just one of many companies that Rambus is pursuing with the goal of gaining lucrative settlements and royalties. On January 19th, South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to pay $900 million to end a legal dispute with Rambus over computer memory chips. The consumer electronics manufacturer said it will come to a licensing deal with Rambus following the legal dispute.

"We're going to continue to fight this," said David Shannon, Nvidia's general counsel, adding that the company's customers "know we're going to take this as far as we have to take it." Judge Theodore Essex' decision is subject to review by the full commission, but it could potentially result in a ban on imports of Nvidia products that use the patented technology, which could include computers made by Hewlett-Packard.

Rambus General Counsel Tom Lavelle said the company is "very interested in having productive constructive settlement discussions with Nvidia whenever they're ready."

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The disputes over mobile technology patents just keep on coming. Yesterday, Motorola filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that Research in Motion (RIM) has infringed several of the company's held patents.

Motorola is asking the ITC to investigate possible infringements of five patents on early stage innovations such as Wi-Fi access, UI and application management, by the Blackberry-maker.

"In light of RIM's continued unlicensed use of Motorola's patents, RIM's use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation, and RIM's refusal to design out Motorola's proprietary technology, Motorola had no choice but to file a complaint with the ITC to halt RIM's continued infringement." said Jonathan Meyer, senior vice president of intellectual property law at Motorola.

"Motorola will continue to take all necessary steps to protect its R&D and intellectual property, which are critical to the Company's business."

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Rockstar Games has responded to an open letter attributed to "wives of employees" that alleges Rockstar workers suffer poor working conditions at a certain studio. The letter alleged that Rockstar was pushing employees to the brink at its San Diego studio. Employees were expected to work 12 hour days, including Saturdays, and the company had been dishonest about deadlines, according to the letter.

It demanded that Rockstar change its working practices or face legal action over the threat to workers' health at the studio. On Rockstar's official website, the developer made its first public comments on the allegations in response to fan questions. "As for the stories spreading around the internet, yes we have noticed them. Unfortunately, this is a case of people taking the opinions of a few anonymous posters on message boards as fact," the company stated.

"No business is ever perfect, but Rockstar Games is a tight knit team made up of around 900 supremely talented and motivated professionals, many of whom have worked here for a very long time. We're saddened if any former members of any studio did not find their time here enjoyable or creatively fulfilling and wish them well with finding an environment more suitable to their temperaments and needs, but the vast majority of our company are focused solely on delivering cutting edge interactive entertainment."

"We've always cared passionately about the people working here, and have always tried to maintain a supportive creative environment. There is simply no way Rockstar could continue to produce such large scale, high quality games without this. That being said, making great games is very challenging, which is why we have and will continue to try to keep hold of some of the best talent in the industry and support them in every way we can."

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Earlier this week, Nokia responded to Apple's complaints to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), saying it will "defend itself vigorously." Apple filed a complaint with the ITC on January 15th, requesting that Nokia imports to the United States be blocked. The iPod-maker accuses Nokia of infringing several of its patents, having allegedly "copied certain aspects of the iPhone."

The legal dispute between the two companies kicked off in October when Nokia fired the first shot by filing a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringed 10 of its patents. In response, Apple countersued the Finnish mobile handset giant, alleging that its products infringed 13 patents it held. Then, in December 2009, Nokia filed a further claim with the ITC alleging Apple infringed seven of its patents in "virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers."

Following the latest move by Apple in the ongoing dispute, Nokia said it will "study the complaint and defend itself vigorously". "This does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia's innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007," a Nokia spokesperson said.

Apple does not comment on ongoing litigation.

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