agreement

In a move to tie their collaboration tighter, Microsoft and Lexmark on Tuesday announced that they have entered into a broad patent cross-licensing agreement.

Under the arrangement, Lexmark will license its patents for its printers and multifunction devices, as well as its other products, to Microsoft. And the Redmond, Wash., based company, in return, will offer access to a wide range of its software.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We believe this agreement will improve the productivity of both our companies and result in enhanced product offerings and increased satisfaction for all our customers," Marty Canning, … Read more

If your business used Gmail and the service went out for two and a half hours, do you think you lost $2.05 per user in productivity?

That's the monetary equivalent of what Google offered to compensate Google Apps Premier Edition customers after Gmail was unavailable for about two and a half hours on Tuesday. And it was being generous: All it had to offer was the equivalent of 41 cents per user.

For customers who pay the $50 per user per year price for the Google Apps service, Google strives to keep it up and running 99.9 … Read more

Corey Vidal is no pirate, but he's been branded one as a result of the licensing spat between Warner Music Group and YouTube.

On YouTube, Vidal posted a humorous video tribute to John Williams, the man who scored the soundtracks for such blockbuster films as Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. In his clip he included some of Williams' music. By now, everybody knows that YouTube removes videos that violate copyright law. What's different about Vidal's work getting pulled is that when he posted it in October, he was permitted to use Warner's music.

Until last month, … Read more

Flickr has quietly made a big change to its tagging system, which from now on will show who added a tag to a photo or video. As Flickr's Community Manager Heather Champ notes, this information was previously available through Flickr's API, but wouldn't show up on Flickr's photo pages. With the new system you simply hover over a tag and you'll get a tool tip that shows you the username of the person who added the tag.

Since Flickr has just turned this feature on, all previous tags will simply get an "added by … Read more

Twitter made the right decision by not accepting the Facebook deal. It's as simple as that.

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If you are a San Francisco resident considering solar panels, now is the time for action, says Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, a start-up that leases panels to homeowners.

Since the city solar-incentive program came into effect in July, it has become financially viable for even small energy consumers to install solar-power systems.

The San Francisco incentive covers between $3,000 to $6,000 for homeowners to install solar panels, as well as $10,000 for businesses and nonprofits, and $30,000 for nonprofit affordable housing. The program runs for a decade.

This initiative, together with a state rebate program … Read more

SunRun, a company that offers solar-electricity financing, announced Tuesday that it has raised $12 million from Foundation Capital.

The San Francisco-based start-up is one of handful of new companies looking to make solar panels an easier purchase for consumers through financing.

Solar electric panels have a hefty up-front cost--between $20,000 and $35,000-- depending on the size, before rebates.

Although buyers will generally recoup the initial outlay in lower electricity bills in about 15 years, the high cost has restricted solar electricity to a niche audience, say solar industry executives.

Rather than buy the panels, SunRun customers buy the … Read more

It comes as no surprise that a healthy percentage of Apple consumers buy the products for the way they look. But for those of you less interested in the sleek white boxes and black rectangles, and more interested in the software, then perhaps the Psystar Open Computer is the way to go.

The Psystar computer (which looks like a pretty generic tower) comes installed with Apple's Mac OS X Leopard and functions exactly how you'd expect an Apple to function, but for hundreds of dollars less. In Monday's Daily Debrief, my first question for CNET News.com … Read more

Qtrax, the legal P2P music start-up, really has signed a licensing agreement with a major label this time.

On Tuesday, the company announced it has inked a deal with Universal Music Group, the largest of the four major record companies. The partnership comes four months after the labels denied the company's claim that they had agreed to supply music for the site.

"Qtrax will now have access to the most extensive digital music catalog of chart-topping artists in the world," Universal Music Group said in a statement.

Qtrax, an ad-supported P2P service, didn't ballyhoo the news … Read more