Stories by Peter Sayer

Dassault Systèmes buys personal analytics site Netvibes

3D design software company Dassault Systèmes has acquired Netvibes, a website that allows the creation of personalized dashboards combining social network updates, news alerts and RSS feeds, the companies announced Thursday.

CSC names Mike Lawrie CEO, ending four-month search

CSC ended four months of speculation about the identity of its next CEO late Tuesday, announcing that Mike Lawrie, currently CEO of British IT service company Misys, will become CEO of CSC by the end of March. He has already taken a seat on CSC's board.

Lenovo ordered to pay €1920 for making French laptop buyer pay for Windows too

A French laptop buyer has won a refund from Lenovo after a four-year legal battle over the cost of a Windows license he didn't want. The judgment could open the way for PC buyers elsewhere in Europe to obtain refunds for bundled software they don't want, French campaign group No More Racketware said Monday.

ST Micro sees 40W LED flash in future smartphones

STMicroelectronics hopes to make blurry low-light images from smartphone cameras a thing of the past with a new chip designed to boost light output from LED-based flashes.

EU launches antitrust investigation of Samsung patent licensing

The European Commission is investigating the way Samsung Electronics licenses its patents on technology essential to mobile communications networks, concerned that it may be in breach of European competition law.

French telecom regulator steps into dispute over Free Mobile's coverage

ARCEP, the French telecommunications regulator, has promised to investigate whether new network operator Free Mobile is still offering the level of coverage required by its license, following complaints by employees of rival networks. But it also warned the company's critics to stop whining, saying that the existing three network operators had all failed to meet their coverage obligations at launch.

French antitrust regulator rejects HP's demand that Oracle continue Itanium support

France's antitrust regulator has declined Hewlett Packard's request for an injunction ordering Oracle to continue supporting its database on HP's Itanium server platform. HP's request that Oracle be ordered to align pricing for its database on Itanium servers with that of versions for other server architectures was similarly rejected by the Autorité de la Concurrence.

French operator Free slashes mobile pricing with 3G network launch

French ISP Free lived up to its name Tuesday with its launch of France's fourth mobile phone network.

Flaw in web app frameworks pushes Microsoft to patch ASP.net promptly

Many web app frameworks are vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack targeting the way they handle hash tables, researchers revealed Wednesday, prompting Microsoft to announce an "out-of-band" patch for its ASP.NET platform just hours later.

Google invests in more renewable energy production capacity

Google has paid US$94 million for a stake in four photovoltaic power generation projects around Sacramento, California, bringing its total investment in renewable energy generation this year to $880 million, it announced Tuesday.

Facebook unfriends coal, friends Greenpeace in clean energy campaign

Greenpeace International has ended a long-running campaign calling on Facebook to "unfriend coal" as a source of energy for its data centers, after Facebook agreed to promote clean and renewable energy, the two said Thursday.

NavX sues Google again, increasing its claim for damages over Adwords rules

French navigation data provider NavX filed another lawsuit against Google last Thursday, renewing its accusations that the company abused its dominant position in online advertising and tripling its claim for damages.

EU seeks to simplify cross-border data protection compliance

To make it simpler for businesses to comply with the multiplicity of data protection regimes across Europe, Viviane Reding envisages letting European Union companies set their own privacy rules -- as long as they agree with one national data protection authority (DPA) to make them legally binding on all business units within the same group, wherever they may be.

HP, Dell overtake Nokia in updated Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics

While some consumer electronics manufacturers have cleaned up their act, making more energy-efficient gadgets with fewer toxic materials, others are continuing to make fine promises but no changes, according to Greenpeace. In response, the environmental pressure group is changing the way it scores companies in its Guide to Greener Electronics, placing more emphasis on their actions than their words, and measuring new aspects of their operations.

Facebook will cool its first European data center for free in Sweden

Facebook has begun building a data center in Lulea, Sweden, where it will benefit from cheap electricity and year-round free air cooling, the company announced Thursday.