Sony Corporation today has announced three new cameras. The full-frame A850, the A550, and the A500 DSLRs have been added to the Alpha line of products. The A850 (pictured above) has a 24.6 megapixel sensor will cost about $2,000. The A550 is 14.2 megapixels and the A500 has 12.3 megapixels. Both the A550 and the A500 have tilt-out LCD screens. The A550 has a retail price of about $950 or $1050 with a kit lens. And the A500 has a price tag of $750 or $850 with the kit lens.
Delaware advertising firm Denizen has filed a lawsuit against JWT and their subsidiary WPP. Denizen claims that WPP stole one of their patented concepts. The patented product-placement concept that Denizen has was used by WPP for an advertisement that they made for Microsoft search engine Bing.com.
Around 2002 Denizen and WPP almost made a partnership. The talks about a partnership fell through late in 2006 but the two companies made a confidentiality agreement. Denizen is now accusing WPP for blending content and characters from the TV show The Philanthropist to promote Bing.com.
JWT was the company that Microsoft hired to handle the $100 million Bing.com marketing campaign. “WPP intends to solicit customers by continuing to use Denizen’s proprietary, trade secret information to solicit customers for WPP and its affiliates,” stated Denizen’s complaint.
In late June, Global Gaming Factory X announced that they plan to acquire The Pirate Bay. The acquisition amount was around $7.7 million. However the acquisition was subject to Global Gaming shareholder approval.
Today the shareholders have approved of the acquisition. Between the time of the acquisition announcement and today, Global Gaming has received a couple of offers for The Pirate Bay. Napster themselves were rumored to have offered Global Gaming $10 million for The Pirate Bay.
The Pirate Bay ownership will be transferred to GGF within the next month. GGF CEO Hans Pandeya confirmed the shareholder approval which was reported by TorrentFreak. However several The Pirate Bay investors decided to pull away from the deal because of all the media controversy.
But GGF shareholders and Pandeya himself will finance the acquisition. The Pirate Bay will shortly start charging users for access to their service. Illegal torrents will be removed from the website too.
Versata Software has won a patent case against SAP. A jury has awarded Versata $138.64 million in damages on SAP’s tab. The jury found that SAP violated 5 of Versata’s patents. The patents awarded to Versata took place between 1998-2006.
The patents were related to system configuration and pricing products. Versata filed the complaint around 2007. The SAP Business Suite was supposedly in violation of the configuration patents. Versata did win the financial goal they were looking for, but now they are also seeking an injunction against SAP.
“Our attorneys are reviewing the legal options and we expect to file an appeal,” stated Andy Kendzie, an SAP spokesman. “We don’t believe this will have any immediate, negative impact on our customers.”
Versata itself started in 2006 when Trilogy acquired the company and took the same name. Versata has been on a company acquisition binge since. The most recent acquisition that Versata made was Everest Software.
The Google U.K. headquarters building caught on fire earlier today. A few hours ago, Jon Swaine of The Telegraph sent a TwitPic to his followers of the building on fire too. The Google U.K. office is based on Buckingham Palace Rd.
The building was evacuated and no one was hurt. The fire is out now. The reason why the fire took place was because a tree caught on fire during a company BBQ.
AOL has a new Chief Financial Officer. His name is Artie Minson and he was a previous EVP and Deputy CFO at Time Warner. Before Time Warner, Minson worked at AOL in a Corporate Finance and Development position.
“Artie’s strong financial acumen, operating experience, and deep understanding of our company and the Internet and content industries make him a perfect fit for AOL,” stated AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. “He’s also a public company veteran who helped handle Time Warner Cable’s transition to a public company. Artie will hit the ground running and be a tremendous asset to AOL as we focus on driving growth, value and innovation.”
Minson has an Accounting B.S. degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has confirmed that they are cutting the prices of the Xbox 360 by about $100 as revealed by the leaked Target circulation ad. This matches the price drop that the Sony PlayStation 3 made last week.
Both the Xbox 360 Elite and the PlayStation 3 costs $299. The price drops apply worldwide, but varies based on currencies. Microsoft currently has 3 versions of the Xbox 360 at three different price points. The Xbox 360 Pro will eventually be phased out but will cost $249 while supply is available.
The Xbox Arcade, which does not have a hard drive currently costs $199. The price cuts will be effective by this Friday. The Nintendo Wii has not announced any price cuts and will stick around the price point of $250.
Over 31.4 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold thus far. The PlayStation 3 has sold about 23.7 million units, and the Nintendo Wii sold about 52.6 million.
The Magellan RoadMate 1700 GPS is now available for pre-order on several retailer websites including Best Buy. The 1700 has a 7″ touchscreen, AAA TourBook feature, text-to-speech, turn-by-turn voice commands, mini USB 2.0, microSD card slot, and 6 million POIs. The 1700 is available for pre-order now for about $300.
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