billso.com

Nokia is buying the 52% of Symbian that it didn’t own, and spinning off the mobile software company into a new entity called the Symbian Foundation. Sony Ericcson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo are the other partners in a long-needed effort to reunite the various forks of the world’s most popular mobile phone operating system. AT&T, LG, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments. and Vodafone have commited themselves to the new effort. Samsung is also expected to join the foundation. See this article from the Associated Press for more information.

Related articles and pages on billso.com

• iPhone
• 20 April 2008: Mobile phones - the cure for global poverty?
• 21 February 2008: Nokia brings back N-GAGE
• 20 February 2008: Mobile phone platform wars
• 25 January 2008: Nokia claims 40 percent market share
• 20 January 2008: Nokia, Sprint announce layoffs

Microsoft is pulling Windows XP off the market, as the company continues to push Windows Vista as its core operating system.

On 30 June 2008, computer manufacturers are supposed to stop offering Windows XP as an operating system for new computers. There are loopholes, of course, Until January 2009, some manufacturers can sell users a copy of WIndows XP, as long the user purchases a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate or Business edition.

Brent Evans article, Days of Windows XP Running Out, has more information.

I write technology articles for BrightHub.

• billso’s BrightHub profile
• RSS feed for my BrightHub articles and activities

Home office technology

• 19 June 2008: The Best 3 Extensions to Install on Firefox 3 - and the Best Extension for Firefox 2
• 6 June 2008: Using a Web Based RSS Reader - Look For the Orange Icon

The Mac platform

• 1 July 2008: Mailplane - A Mac Browser for Gmail
• 23 June 2008: How to Erase Your History and Cache from Safari - A Detailed Guide
• 20 June 2008: MobileMe - A Guide for iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac Users
• 12 June 2008: Hiding the Dock in Mac OS X - A Quick Guide

Small business security

• 23 June 2008: Recovering from Ransomware - How to Foil and Stop a Gpcode.ak attack
• 17 June 2008: Upgrading to Windows Vista - Better Security for Small Businesses?

Related posts and pages on billso.com

• 26 June 2008: I’m writing for BrightHub

Firefox, my favorite web browser, will finally release version 3 on Tuesday, 17 June 2008.

If you already use Firefox, this new version should fix the memory leak issue that happens when you open up too many tabs. Add-ons are much easier to find, install and manage, too. 

If you don’t use Firefox, try it! It’s a free web browser that is faster and safer than Safari or Internet Explorer.

See these pages for more details:

• Spread Firefox
• Mozilla Party Central
• LifeHacker’s top 10 new features in Firefox 3.0

Sunday, 1 June 2008, was the 100th anniversary of the first sale doctrine in the US.

As I’ve mentioned before in this billso.com article on 24 March 2008, the first sale doctrine allows someone who buys a book to resell it or pass it along as they see fit.

This important principle of US copyright law applies to other media, too. Last month, a Federal court upheld the rights of eBay sellers to vend software, according to this Ars Technia article. First sale allows people to resell or give away CDs, DVDs and other works that they purchased.

Creative Commons licenses allow users to share and adapt applicable works, which is an excellent extension of the first sale doctrine.

See this article in Everybody’s Libraries for more details

Related pages on billso.com

• Copyright and fair use
• Creative Commons