Large computer maker Dell has filed suit against five Asian tech companies this week, alleging that all five colluded as a cartel to overcharge for LCD panels.
The suit is against large manufacturers Sharp, Hitachi, Toshiba, Seiko Epson and HannStar Display and was filed in San Francisco.
The complaint notes that Dell is taking action “on behalf of itself and its affiliates to recover for antitrust and other harms arising from billions of dollars of purchases at artificially inflated prices, over several years, of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display panels, or products containing TFT-LCD panels.”
Dell goes as far as to say that the LCD price fixing has been in effect since 1996.
In the past, Sharp was accused and pleaded guilty to price fixing, agreeing to pay a $120 million fine.
Result for: product
VGChartz has posted an interesting and speculative report this week, implying that Microsoft may be creating an Xbox 360 “Slim,” a redesign that will shrink the size of the original console and mark the first major complete redesign since the console’s launch in 2005.
Microsoft is hiring a new motherboard engineer, one for the 360 development team, with the job ad going up last week.
CEO Steve Ballmer, known for letting speculative comments fly almost every time he speaks, started the rumor mill last week as well, saying new console models would be available in the future with different “form factors.”
Here is the full job ad (and let the speculation begin):
Job Category: Hardware Engineering
Location: United States, CA, Mountain View
Job ID: 714897
Product: Xbox Home
Division: Entertainment & Devices Division
Motherboard Design Engineer
Job Description
The Xbox 360 Console development team is seeking qualified candidates for an Electrical Engineer. The responsibilities of this position are focused on specifying, designing (schematic capture, PCB layout, BOM, cost analysis), implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line. This work includes development of requirements and evaluating different solution for functionality, cost, and risk. The subsystems on the XBOX 360 mother board include (but are not limited to): High speed busses (front side bus, memory bus, PCIe bus, SATA bus, USB bus, I2S, etc.), memory, Ethernet, audio/video, system clocking, power and thermal management, and misc. analog/digital circuitry.
[More]>>
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Just one day after Apple unveiled their first iPad commercial during the Academy Awards, HP is fighting back, releasing a few videos that show off the powerful features of the upcoming Slate tablet.
The Windows 7-based tablet was first shown off at the CES event earlier this year, and should be Apple’s biggest rival when it is released.
“With this Slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand,” says Phil McKinney, vice president and CTO for HP’s personal systems group (PSG). “No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices.”
The Slate runs Flash no problem, unlike the iPad, which is looking like it will never have Flash support.
