TechFast: Microsoft Sues Everybody, Nintendo 3DS Reviews

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Good morning. Here’s what’s been breaking in tech news while you’ve been sleeping and enjoying your breakfast.

Microsoft sues just about everybody

The lawyers will be opening another crate of champagne today, as Microsoft announces lawsuits against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec for patent infringement. What patents, exactly? Microsoft says:

“The patents at issue cover a range of functionality embodied in Android devices that are essential to the user experience, including: natural ways of interacting with devices by tabbing through various screens to find the information they need; surfing the Web more quickly, and interacting with documents and e-books.”

… which hardly narrows it down much. Intellectual property expert Florian Mueller has a more detailed breakdown on his blog.

Link: Macworld

Free image stabilization in YouTube

Notwithstanding its purchase just a few days ago of Irish video technology company Green Parrot, YouTube has just launched a free video smoothing feature inside its YouTube Editor toolkit for editing and adjusting video uploaded footage. The New York Times says this is the result of seven Google engineers spending their 20 per cent time on the project.

Link: New York Times

China: Oh no we didn’t

On Monday, Google accused China of messing with people’s Gmail accounts. Today, China called that “an unacceptable accusation” during a regular news conference. Your turn, Google.

Link: Reuters

Galaxy specs revealed

Pocket Now has the scoop on specs for the latest in Samsung’s range of Android tablets, the Galaxy 8.9. It’s just 8.6mm thin, weighs 470 grams, and the screen resolution is a decent 1280×800.

Link: Pocket Now

The Nintendo 3DS reviews are in

Nintendo’s 3DS. Is it any good? Does the 3D bit actually work? Can it withstand Apple’s assault of iThings? Engadget likes what it sees and thinks the Augmented Reality games are cool, but thinks the three hour battery life is disappointing. PC Mag says that although the 3D element in some games is somewhat hit-and-miss, overall the device is “a top-notch upgrade” and “well worth” $250.

Link: PC Mag