Small cap company Microvision has seen their stock price jump today after anonymous sources claimed that the upcoming Apple iPod Touch will include a Pico projector from the company.
The Pico projector, used in some phones and digital cameras, allows for owners to display their pictures on walls and other surfaces right from the device.
Sources claim the the addition of Pico projectors to the next-generation devices has been confirmed by channel checks in Taiwan.
Please be reminded this all speculation for the time being, but Microvision’s stock has jumped 19 percent so far on the rumor.
Apple is holding their annual September Media Event tomorrow.
Result for: generation devices
Apple has announced that they will be settling a pair of class-action lawsuits in Canada stemming from claims that the company misled customers “about the staying power” of the popular iPod MP3 players, especially the gradually dwindling battery life of first and second generation devices.
According to court documents, Apple is offering an online store credit of about $44.75 CAD for those living in Canada that purchased an iPod before June 24, 2004.
To be eligible for the credit, the battery life of your iPod “while continuously playing music — needs to have dropped to five hours or less for the first and second generation of the device and four hours or less for the third generation.”
The lead plaintiffs in the case, two iPod owners, claim that the company misrepresented its product by saying it was capable of 10 hours of continual music playback. It is a well known fact that after even the first recharge, iPod battery lives began declining.
A similar case was settled in the US in 2005 and Apple offered a similar settlement as well. $50 USD in store credit or $25 in cash if the battery life has dwindled to a certain threshold.
Result for: generation devices
Roku, makers of the Netflix by Roku set-top box, have announced that they will be making the player open source, giving developers a chance to create open source software for the device.
Roku CEO Anthony Wood confirmed the announcement and said the company would release an SDK (software development kit) before the end of the year. The new announcement also means that users will not only be limited to Netflix content anymore and will most likely be able to surf the Internet using the first generation devices.
Wood made sure to note that Roku’s relationship with Netflix is still sound and the new move will not hurt it. Roku makes all revenue from hardware sales and the company has always said it will be looking for partnerships with any content provider that wants one.
