Microsoft has won its lawsuit defending their stance against the company Alcatel-Lucent over the licensing of MP3 technology. Microsoft were in line to pay a fine to Alcatel-Lucent in the region of $1.53 million, which would have stretched even the bank balance of Bill Gates.

The win came in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The claim was surrounding the MP3 software that Microsoft used in their Windows Media Player. They used an MP3 compression codec that was developed by Fraunhofer Labs, and Microsoft uphold that the German firm rightfully held the patent.

In 2003 Microsoft paid Fraunhofer Labs $16 to licence their MP3 player codec, which the German company had developed along with Bell Labs and Thomson. Alcatel-Lucent own Bell Labs as of a merger in 2006, but they claim the patents held were on board before Fraunhofer got hold of them.

In an attempt to gain the remuneration they believed they deserved, Alcatel went after the hardware manufactures such as Dell, and then Microsoft.

Microsoft were fined $1.53 billion on 2007, a fine which has now been overturned.

Video games were so much cooler in the Eighties than they are now. Yeah, the graphics were a little blocky and the sounds were more techno than audio, but the games themselves had a playability factor that you just don’t get anymore. A simplistic style to them that makes people of a certain age hark back to a better, brighter time.

Now you no longer need to think about the old games, you can play them. Better yet, you can play them on your iPod, the way they were meant to be played!

Well, maybe not. But you get the point. One such Eighties classic is the 1982 racing game Pole Position, that was played by all budding Lewis Hamilton wannabes when Lewis Hamilton was a Lewis Hamilton Wannabe.

Namco, the developers behind the game, have released it for the iPod Touch and the iPhone, and it even contains special hidden games for you to find and master. These games include the Namco legend that is Pac-Man!

The game features different tracks from the F1 season, way back when the cars were more ‘edgy’ and racing was a real sport.

Playing the game offers you several choices on car control, such as ‘tilt to steer’ or by using the touch screen steering wheel; whatever suits your driving style.

The best bit is you can download the game from the Apple store for just $5. What a bargain!

Only in Japan could something like this happen! The maid costume company ‘Candy Fruits’ has unveiled an establishment in Tokyo where Japanese business men who are looking to release some of that pent up stress, can come and relax playing on the Wii-Fit while they are attended to by a pretty girl dressed as a French maid.

The new product, including the Wii-Fit and a maid, is called the ‘Refresh Club’. The company is pitching the whole concept as the opportunity for stressed businessmen to relax their body and their mind at the same time. The concept of refreshing the body and mind is called ‘Iyashikei’ in Japan, and is very popular.

In the Refresh Club, people can take part in Iyashikei by playing on the Wii-Fit and participating in games such as yoga, and have their ears cleaned by the maid, which apparently is very popular at the moment.

Patrons are also able to just watch DVDs with the maids, if the option of playing on the Nintendo Wii proves too energetic. The owner of the establishment commented:

We especially selected maids that are able to provide a certain sense of hospitality.

So if you’re every in Tokyo and wouldn’t mind playing on a Wii while a maid cleans your ears, you know where to go.

Nintendo have again played down speculation about the rumoured new DS Lite. One of the rumours of the new DS are that it will contain MP3 player technology, but Nintendo UK has moved to quash these rumours as mere speculation. They say when an announcement is ready, they will make it.

Nintendo UK spoke to the website CVG.co.uk following details that were coming out of Japan about the supposed new DS model. The rumours were that the new DS would contain a large screen and have MP3 functionality.

Nintendo stated:

Nintendo has made no such announcement and will not comment on rumour and speculation.

Nintendo Japan also stated that the rumours were false, when they stated:

We are always developing new products. However, since nothing has been announced officially, we are unable to comment at this time.

This was all following an announcement from a Japanese newspaper called Nikkei that Nintendo would release a new model DS later this year, before Christmas, and it would have features such as MP3, camera, better wi-fi functionality and a larger screen.

Of course, even though Nintendo fervently deny these rumours, the games industry is convinced that there’s no smoke without fire, and the rumours are true. It’s just a matter of time before Nintendo unveils the worst kept secret in gaming.

Nintendo do have a Japanese press conference called for October 2nd, which should, if these rumours are true, see the future of the DS announced.

Apple are in trouble in Norway over the way their iTunes store is only compatible with the iPod, rather than being accessible with other brands of MP3 players. The consumer mediator in Norway is threatening to haul Apple before a government agency in Norway over the complaint about the way iTunes only works with iPods.

Bjoern Erik Thon, the ombudsman in Norway, stated:

A large part of the music in the iTunes store can still not be used by devices other than the iPod.

iTunes has therefore not met the mediator’s demands.

Apple have been given until November 3rd to reply to the accusation. If they fail to do so by then, Thon says he will take the matter before Norway’s market council. Norway insisted Apple sever the link between iTunes and the iPod in 2006.

iTunes has had enough time to find satisfactory solutions that would make it possible for the music in iTunes to be available to all music players, but this has not been done.

All Apple has done in that time is to offer instructions for users to download music and burn CDs with it, so that they can then be transferred to MP3 players. Thon claims this isn’t sufficient from Apple.

It’s always the same story, you get your tracksuit and your trainers on and go for a jog, then when you’re just a few minutes in you need a Wii. Well that won’t be a problem anymore, if the rumours are true from Nintendo. Because now you’ll be able to jog while you use your Wii, so effectively you’ll have your Wii with you anyway.

It appears that Nintendo are planning to release a Wii pedometer that will work with your Wii, and enable you to jog from the comfort of your own home. The European trademark registry shows an entry by Nintendo that is for an official Wii jog styled device, though Nintendo haven’t released any details about the device or how it will work.

If you can’t wait for Nintendo’s effort, you don’t need to, because New Concept have a Wii Jog device due out later next month. The Wii Jog will measure your footsteps when you wear it, and will translate them into the Wii games. You’ll be able to plug the Wii Jog into the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck, and jog on the spot. This will cause your in-game character to also jog along with you.

We announced a while back that the company Hillcrest Labs are suing Nintendo for alleged patent infringement on their motion sensing technology. However what wasn’t know before was that some of the patents that Hillcrest claim Nintendo have infringed weren’t granted until August this year, despite the fact that the Nintendo Wii has been on sale since 2006.

Incredibly, because of a loophole in the law, the patent still stands even though it was only granted one day before they filed the patent case. Under United States law, the person who first invents an item is the legal owner rather than the person who patents it.

Now Hillcrest Labs have 45 days in which to prove that invented the motion sensing technology used in the Nintendo Wii.

Something that could bode in Nintendo’s favour however is a change to the way patents are considered in US law. The Patent Reform Act that hasn’t been passed yet would reward the first to file, rather than the first to invent. Had this bill been passed already Hillcrest’s case wouldn’t hold any water.

Video games players have long since carried the stereotypical image of being fat nerds living in dark rooms and suffering from a serious case of poor hygiene and a lack of the sun. That image however isn’t valid anymore, as researchers in the US found out when they asked 7,000 gamers to take part in a series of tests to assess their mental and physical health.

In the course of the tests, they discovered that adult video gamers actually had a lower BMI (body mass index) than the average in the population. They also found that gamers would participate in exercise once or twice per week, which was far more than most of the population.

One such gamer, Aaron Scott, claims that the findings show that gamers aren’t unhealthy, and says that the Nintendo Wii has helped his fellow gamers become far more health aware.

I’ve battled that stereotype for the past five years.

He says that the Wii has enabled video game fans to stretch their limbs as well as improving their mind, and of course their gaming ability. Scott says he’s as keen on his exercise as he is on his game playing, doing the two in equal measures each week.

The idea a gamer has to be a 14-year-old kid who plays for 10 hours a day while eating pizza seems to be vanishing.

Apple, in a bid to make their iPod and iTunes more accessible to more people, is making steps to open up their technology so that it’s accessible to the blind. Apple will be using the VoiceOver technology that was developed as part of the Mac OS X and using with their newest version of iTunes, iTunes 8, and also their iPod range so that the two can be used by the blind.

Apple has already tried hard to make its products usable by the blind with their VoiceOver and Braille applications on the Mac OS X. They also have closed captioning on the iPod and on Apple TV.

Not satisfied however, Apple are going even further with it.

In the new 4GB iPod nano, there is a spoken interface option that features audio navigation. Also, if you wondering what the shake to shuffle feature was all about, it’s been created as another aid for the blind!

Also Apple have created a new mic-integrated headphones set that receives vocal commands, so that you can control the iPod with your voice.

Finally Apple has stated that they’ll iTunes 8 and iTunes U accessible for the blind by 2009.

Hot on the heels of the Nintendo Wii advert that wasn’t (that showed a guy filming his underwear clad girlfriend bouncing around on her Wii Fit) Nintendo has released a real YouTube video for their latest game ‘Wario Land: Shake It’. This video advert has proved somewhat successfully for games manufacturer.

Just like a normal YouTube video, the video can be watched on YouTube on the main website, however as the video plays you’ll notice things start to happen to the website that don’t normally happen. For example, parts of the video come out and fly across the screen, and sections of the website crack, break and fall down.

The game is played by shaking the Wii Remote, and as the Wii Remote in the video is shook, so is the YouTube page.

The video has become a huge viral hit for Nintendo, racking up over 2 million views in just over a week.

You can watch the video for the game here on YouTube, but be careful it doesn’t break your YouTube screen entirely!