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AP Technology NewsBrief at 11:42 a.m. EDT(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) AT&T looking to introduce family data plansNEW ORLEANS (AP) _ The head of AT&T's wireless business says he's looking to introduce plans that share a data allowance among family members, similar to the way it sells family calling plans. AT&T's Ralph de la Vega says the company is working out the details of such plans, but has no firm launch date. Competitor Verizon Wireless has said it plans to introduce family plans this summer. FTC seeking $52.6M for alleged bogus phone chargesWASHINGTON (AP) _ Federal regulators are seeking $52.6 million from a billing company that they accuse of adding unauthorized charges to consumers' phone bills. The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday it has asked a federal court to issue a civil contempt ruling against Billing Services Group Ltd. and order repayment. WatchESPN comes to Comcast's video customersLOS ANGELES (AP) _ WatchESPN, the online and mobile version of Disney's popular sports TV network, was activated Tuesday for most of Comcast's 22 million video subscribers. It's one of the perks being offered to cable subscribers to convince them to keep paying for TV. Getting online or mobile access to shows you already pay for is known in the industry as "TV Everywhere." DirecTV 1Q profit rises, but US subscribers downEL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) _ DirecTV Inc. said Tuesday that its first-quarter net income rose 8.5 percent, driven by subscriber growth in Latin America. But the number of subscribers added in the U.S. declined. The country's largest satellite broadcaster earned $731 million, or $1.07 per share, for the three months ended March 31. That's up from $674 million, or 85 cents per share, a year ago. Cellphone trade show kicks off in New OrleansNEW ORLEANS (AP) _ CTIA Wireless, the U.S. cellphone phone industry's annual trade show that starts Tuesday, is drawing heavy participation not just from the cellphone industry, but from MasterCard, Visa, and other companies in the business of moving money around. At a pre-show event Monday in New Orleans, MasterCard unveiled a suite of services to enable "mobile wallets," secure applications that run on phones and can hold virtual payment cards, transit tickets, coupons and other valuable. Struggling RIM announces new executive hiresTORONTO (AP) _ BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has hired two new senior executives as it faces its most difficult period in its history. RIM said Monday that Frank Boulben will be the new chief marketing officer, a job RIM's new CEO says is critically important. Boulben served as executive vice president of strategy and marketing at LightSquared, a struggling wireless company. Jury deadlocks on key issue in Google-Oracle trialSAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ A federal jury failed to agree on a pivotal issue in Oracle's copyright-infringement case against Google, blunting the impact of its finding that Google relied on another company's technology to build its popular Android software for mobile devices. The impasse reached Monday in San Francisco hobbles Oracle Corp.'s attempt to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Google on grounds that the Internet search leader pirated parts of Android from Oracle's Java programming system. Summary of verdicts in Oracle case against GoogleA federal jury in San Francisco was asked to decide a number of questions in Oracle Corp.'s copyright-infringement case against Google Inc. Oracle had accused Google of stealing its Java programming language to build Google's Android software for mobile devices. Here's how jurors ruled: T-Mobile picks Ericsson, Nokia Siemens for networkNEW ORLEANS (AP) _ T-Mobile USA on Tuesday said that Nokia Siemens Networks and LM Ericsson AB will supply the network equipment for its new wireless broadband network, a project worth $4 billion. T-Mobile is commissioning a "4G LTE" network, the same technology used by Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. for their high-speed networks. It will use, in part, radio frequencies handed over by AT&T after the bigger company backed off its deal to buy T-Mobile due to opposition from federal regulators. Vacuum robot is trilingual, knows witty dialectTOKYO (AP) _ It looks just like iRobot's Roomba vacuuming machine, except the new circular roaming vacuum cleaner from Sharp Corp. is trilingual, and even knows a hip humorous dialect. Cocorobo, which can also send photos taken from your home to your cell phone, says 36 phrases including "Long time no see" and "Hello," in Japanese, English and Chinese. (c) 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |