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Both Intel Corp. and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed motions on Monday to temporarily suspend trial proceedings while the two take time to discuss settlement of a lawsuit brought against the chip-maker for alleged anti-competitive practices.

The government accused Intel of stifling competition in a lawsuit back in December and said it aimed to halt the illegal practices that contributed to Intel keeping its status as the top chip-maker. The FTC said Intel had been trying to stifle competition with illegal tactics dating back to 1999.

Both NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) made similar allegations against Intel in the past, and in November, Intel agreed to pay $1.25 billion to AMD to settle litigation. The motions filed today will give Intel and the FTC until July 22 to discuss a proposed settlement.

No details of any proposed settlement were disclosed by either party today. Intel spokesman Tom Beermann said it was possible that the commission would proceed with the case, should both sides fail to reach an agreement.

The Black Eyed Peas' feel-good track "I Gotta Feeling" is the first song to ever be legally downloaded more than one million times in the United Kingdom. The song was released over a year ago, in June 2009, and spent two weeks at the top of the chart, 33 weeks in top 40.

"It's exhilarating to know we are so connected to our Peabodies," Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie said. "Hopefully the good vibes from that song will continue to brighten people's lives." Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot said it was a very significant step for the download market.

Downloads were first counted as part of the singles chart in the UK in April 2005, but only if the track was also available in stores. A year later, digital downloads were counted regardless of whether the singles were sold as a physical product, and Gnarls Barkley's Crazy became the first to top the charts without selling any copies on CD.

"It's been with us for five years but this really marks a coming of age," Talbot commented about the Black Eyed Peas million-milestone in the country. Fast forward four years from Gnarles Barkley's Crazy and now 98 percent of all single sales in the UK are from downloads.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google Inc. is to launch a music download service tied to its search engine later this year, citing sources familiar with Google's negotiations with music companies Additionally, Google will roll out a cloud-based music subscription service in 2011.

The news comes as Google is attempting to get more involved with entertainment content distribution. It is currently moving to add professional content on its YouTube video site and is to roll out a digital bookstore this year.

Google's move into music downloads would further muddy ties with Apple Inc., which has witnessed relations with Google sour increasingly since the unveiling of Google's mobile Android software seen as a direct rival to the iPhone by Apple.

Record companies would probably welcome such a service as they have become increasingly worried about Apple's stranglehold on digital music sale. Apple services accounted for 28% of all music purchased by U.S. consumers in the first quarter, leaving Wal-Mart and Amazon far behind at 12% each.

Verizon Communications is to let customers trial its FiOS Internet and television service for a month, and will not charge any fees if a customer chooses to switch the service off after. The offer also includes the option of paying month-by-month, eliminating a long-term contract, with the assurance that the price would not go up for a year.

The offer might be risky to Verizon, which reportedly spends around $1,350 to install FiOS at a new customer's home. if most customers chose to keep the service however, it could put pressure on cable and satellite rivals to adjust their own terms. Termination fees usually still apply for U.S. wireless providers even if try-out periods are offered to customers.

Larry Hettick, an analyst for Current Analysis, predicts that Verizon will keep a substantially large number of customers who sign up under the new rules. "There's so much tit-for-tat in the cable TV business, anything that changes for one provider may bring pressure on the others," Hettick said.

Verizon's FiOS coverage region has a potential 12 million customers for television services, and 12.6 million for Internet services. The company has been offering FiOS Internet services since 2004, and television services since 2005. In areas where it operates, it has roughly 25 percent market share for TV and 29 percent for Internet.

Microsoft's new slim Xbox 360 console will not display a red ring of death (RROD) as we reported already, but the system does take some measures to protect itself against heat-related damage that the older units don't. It was reported recently that the three blinking red lights had been replaced with a single "red dot of death", but the red dot may not indicate that the console is broken.

Pictures posted on the NeoGaf forums by "Giant Robot" show an Xbox 360 250GB model displaying the red dot of death, and also an on-screen message alerting the user: "The Xbox 360 is shutting down to protect the console from insufficient ventilation. You can turn the console back on after the power light stops flashing."

Source: NeoGaf

Amazon has announced that the Kindle e-reader will now sell for $189, following news that Barnes & Noble reduced the price of its Nook e-reader, released last year, to $199. Both companies are attempting to brush off increasing competition, particularly from Borders Group Inc., which sells e-readers for between $119 and $149.

Other new devices, such as Apple's iPad, are also being touted as solutions for e-book reading, and the Cupertino-based company is only too keen to bite a chunk out of the emerging market. "The Kindle Store includes over 600,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including 109 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases from $9.99," a statement from Amazon reads.

"In addition, over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are available to read on Kindle. Since its release, Kindle has been the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon."

Sales of e-book reading devices in the United States reached 2.2 million in 2009, and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) expects that figure to rise to 5 million for 2010. Digital e-book sales also doubled to $27.4 million in April, compared to a year earlier.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal revealed on Monday that more than 30 U.S. states participated in a conference call over the Google Wi-Fi snooping incident. Google had to admit recently that its Street View cars had intercepted and stored payload data from unencrypted wireless networks in countries all over the world. The data grab was unintentional.

Blumenthal is now to lead a multi-state probe into the situation to determine what laws Google may have broken, and to discover whether U.S. states need to alter procedures in order to avoid such data leaks. "My office will lead a multi-state investigation -- expected to involve a significant number of states -- into Google's deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy," Blumenthal said in a statement.

"Consumers have a right and a need to know what personal information -- which could include emails, Web browsing and passwords -- Google may have collected, how and why." Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan also revealed last week that she had opened an investigation into whether Google collected personal information from Illinois residents' networks, while Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox requested more information from Google.

Dell Inc. has confirmed that it is in talks with search engine-giant Google Inc. over possibly using the upcoming Chrome operating system in some of its products, according to a top company executive. "We have to have a point of view on the industry and technology direction two years, three years down the road, so we continuously work with Google on this," Amit Midha, Dell's president for Greater China and South Asia told Reuters.

"There are going to be unique innovations coming up in the marketplace in two, three years, with a new form of computing, we want to be on that forefront ... So with Chrome or Android or anything like that we want to be one of the leaders," Midha said

Midha said there were no firm announcements to be made for the time being, but that talks will continue between both companies.

The Chrome operating system is expected to be released by Google later this year, and when it comes to products like netbooks, it represents a direct challenge to Microsoft's Windows line of operating systems.

Apple Inc. has delivered the latest OS update for its iPhone range; iOS 4. The software update boasts 100 new features, but it is not fully compatible with all iPhone models. iOS 4 works with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G. Not all features are compatible with all devices. For example, multitasking is available only with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

iOS 4 brings Multitasking to the iPhone, running third-party apps (developed for iOS 4) and switching between them simultaneously without killing the performance of the foreground app or draining the handset's battery. Folders let a user organize their app collection into folders by simple drag-and-drop controls. A Unified Inbox shows all messages from all the user's accounts in one source.

Other notable changes are more playlist creation options, 5x digital zoom, iBooks, tapping on a recording video to change focus, viewing photos based on who is in them or where they were taken, home screen wallpaper options, sending apps as gifts to friends and family, a spell checker that works with apps and support for pairing a bluetooth wireless keyboard.

Toshiba has unveiled the libretto W100 notebook which features two 7-inch multi-touch screens in the familiar clamshell design. The little laptop celebrates the marking of 25 years since Toshiba released the first Intel 286-based clamshell laptop. Unlike netbooks or slate devices, the Toshiba laptop provides a full Windows 7 experience that can be expanded across both screens.

It is powered by an Intel Pentium U5400 processor, 2GB DDR3 memory and a 62GB Solid State Drive. It runs full Windows 7 Home Premium, either on one or two screens. The lower screen can be changed into a 6-mode virtual keyboard with haptic response. Additionally, it features a 1 megapixel HD Webcam, 802.11 b/g/n wireless connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a MicroSD slt, one USB 2.0 port and an 8 cell battery.

According to Gartner research firm, the number of people worldwide using mobile phones to make payments will rise by about 50 percent by the end of the year, with Asian users leading the way. In 2009, there were 70.2 million mobile payment users worldwide. Gartner expects this number to grow to 108.6 million people by the end of 2010.

Mobile phone users that make payments using their handsets will represent about 2.1 percent of all users in 2010. The number of users making mobile payments in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to rise form 2009's 41.8 million to 62.8 million this year.

While the number of such users in North America is expected to rise from just 1.9 million to 3.5 million this year, the numbers are much higher for Eastern Europe, the Middle East and African countries, expected to rise from 16.8 million to 27.1 million.

"We continue to see strong growth in developing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa for mobile payment, while adoption in North America and Western Europe lags behind due to the plentiful choices of payment instruments that consumers have," Gartner research director Sandy Shen said.

A Morgan Stanley analyst has made a startling prediction about Apple's smartphone. Katy Huberty has predicted that about 42 million iPhones will be sold by the end of 2010, and the number could even reach 48 million. Apple recently announced that it sold 600,000 iPhone 4 units (pre-orders) in the first 24 hours of availability.

Huberty believes that more than half of current iPhone owners will upgrade to the new iPhone 4. She points out that the original iPhone isn't eligible for an upgrade to iOS 4 and the iPhone 3G won't be able to use all of its features. Additionally, there are also tiered data plans from AT&T which can drop the overall cost of an iPhone by about $400.

Tripling its user base within 18 months would be a dramatic expansion for the iPhone, but it already has gotten rapid growth before.

Gartner Research reported in early 2009 that the iPhone had more than doubled market share in just one year from 5.4 percent to 10.8 percent. Apple now holds an estimated 28 percent of the smartphone market in the United States.

Google Inc. is integrating a PDF reader with its Chrome browser. The move comes not long after the company revealed it would do the same for the Adobe Flash player, showing growing support from the search giant for Adobe's products.

The company rolled out developer builds of its browser for Windows and Mac that include a PDF reader on Friday. "As we’ve previously mentioned, the traditional browser plug-in model, though powerful, presents challenges in compatibility, performance, and security. To overcome this, we’ve been working with the web community to help define a next generation browser plug-in API," Google engineering director Marc Pawlige said.

"We have begun using this API to improve the experience of viewing and interacting with PDF files in Google Chrome. This mirrors our efforts to optimize the Adobe Flash Player experience in Chrome."

The PDF viewer will not be on by default, and has to be activated by visiting "chrome://plugins", but Google will eventually change the default settings to have the PDF reader active.

Major providers of landline telephone services in the UK will be cutting fees charged to customers who break contracts early following pressure from the telecommunications regulator, Ofcom. The providers will cut "early termination" charges by up to 85 percent.

The one-off fees will reportedly fall from as much as £33 to just £2 in cases. The major providers have made the commitment to the cuts, while Ofcom has warned smaller providers to follow suit, or face the consequences. "We very much welcome the reductions made by BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media which mean that consumers will face much lower charges if they wish to end their contracts early," Ofcom said in a statement.

The regulator has been investigating the fees for 18 months. Customers that ended deals early had to pay charges supposedly based on the money they would have had to pay under the remaining term of the contact, but Ofcom argued that firms weren't taking into account that they would no longer need to bear the cost of supplying service to a household that leaves early.

BT doesn't see it that way. "If a customer leaves within the minimum contract period that they signed up to, they are charged the amount we expected to receive from them, less the costs we save as a result of them leaving early, as this is what we are legally entitled to," said a BT spokesman.

Google announced a new command line tool for some of its services on its Open Source Blog on Friday. GoogleCL is a command-line utility that provides access to various Google services. It streamlines tasks such as posting to a Blogger blog, adding events to Calendar, or editing documents on Google Docs.

GoogleCL is a pure Python application that uses the Python gdata libraries to make Google Data API calls from the command line. An example use of a Google service this way looks like this...

$ google blogger post --blog "My blog" --tags "python, googlecl, development" my_post.html
$ google calendar add "Lunch with Jason tomorrow at noon"
$ google docs edit --title "Shopping list" --editor vim