Viacom won a significant victory in their $1 billion copyright infringement case against Google/YouTube.  Google has been ordered to hand over terabytes of video search information that shows the details of every video ever played on YouTube.  However Google did dodge a huge bullet as Judge Louis Stanton denied Viacom’s request for source code to Google’s search engine.

Analyst Opinion - When I was briefed on Microsoft Equipt a few days ago, I couldn’t help but take this in context with Bill Gates’ departure and reflect on the post-Gates Microsoft. For much of Microsoft’s history, the company has been known primarily for two very successful products - Windows and Office.    Sometimes this connection has been less than positive.  Back in 2000, I had a conversation with back then new Microsoft president Steve Ballmer and was fascinated that he believed that the market would eventually move to a subscription model.  With Equipt, Microsoft takes its biggest step in this direction and it makes me wonder whether Windows will, or should, someday follow.

In a move that is believed to help Apple to secure low NAND flash memory prices as well as create artificial shortages for competitors, Apple has ordered 50 million flash memory chips for its iPhones and iPods from Samsung Electronics.

Despite Nvidia's admission of faulty notebook chips and the subsequent stock plunge, several semiconductor analysts are maintaining ‘BUY’ ratings on the stock.  Big shots at JPMorgan and Thompson Financial showed traditional conservatism on this negative news, but analyst firms like Wedbush Morgan and Oppenheimer & Co. did exactly the opposite.  In essence, the analysts believe the chip/chipset problems are easily surmountable near-term issues.

Nvidia so far declined to provide any information if and when the company will consider support the DirectX 10.1 API in its GPUs, a technology that is integrated AMD’s Radeon cards for some time now. Roadmap information we stumbled across today offers a bit more clarity and suggests that the company’s next-generation desktop and notebook chips will support DirectX 10.1.

Just in time for next week’s G8 summit in Japan, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has released a new report examining the progress of each of the G8 countries toward addressing climate change, a main focus of this year’s meeting. The ranking lists energy efficiency progress made in each of the G8 nations. There are very few surprises – especially the fact that the U.S. once again trails the pack.

It appears that AMD’s ATI Radeon 4800 GPU has turned out to be a much better chip than initially expected and AMD’s aggressive pricing puts enough pressure on Nvidia to make price adjustments. If you are planning on purchasing a GTX 260 or 280 card, you may want to delay until next Monday. Price cuts are on the way.

Tired of the plain virtual keyboard on your iPhone? Here is an alternative for you: A carbon copy of the elegant black keys and glowing letters of the MacBook Air.

Nvidia is admitting that some of its notebook chips are failing at “higher than normal rates” in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The chip failures will cause Nvidia to take a $150 to $200 million charge this quarter to cover what it calls “warranty, repair and return and replacement” for laptop with unspecified Nvidia graphics chips and chipsets.  In after hours NASDAQ trading, Nvidia (stock symbol NVDA) plunged 21.94% or $3.95 to $14.08 a share.  The stock had been down as much as 25% after the close of regular trading on Wednesday July 2nd 2008.

Microsoft is beefing up its upcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser with several security improvements against hackers and phishers.  Eric Lawrence, Microsoft’s program manager of Internet Explorer security, says IE 8 Beta 1 will have more defenses against cross-site scripting, malware protection and URL highlighting.  File upload paths will also be changed to read only.  This will prevent hackers from reading direct paths to important files.

A new study released by Net Applications indicates that a decreasing percentage of the Internet population is using Windows as their operating system. It appears that Mac OS X could soon be listed in the double digit-range, while Windows could fall below the 90% mark.

Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile has announced that it will raise text messaging rates from 15 to 20 cents each.  Consumers will be charged for both sent and received messages and the new price puts T-Mobile in line with other mobile phone service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.  Those companies have been charging 20 cents a message for at least a few months.

We still remember Steve Ballmer’s initial reaction to the iPhone laughing at the fact that it does not have a keyboard. The success of the device aside, it is clear that the lack of a keyboard is a problem for the iPhone and business customers. And what seemed impossible so far could become a reality next year - an iPhone with a physical keyboard that slides out from behind the screen.

If we believe the public statements of AMD executives, then the company’s market strategy has always been based on maintaining and growing market share at virtually any expense. So far, this game cost AMD more than $4.3 billion, but according to iSuppli, AMD may have reached a point where it may have stabilized its market share and could have a foundation for growth in the future. However, iSuppli’s numbers indicate that AMD is walking on very thin ice.

‘Careful’ is probably the most appropriate term to use when describing Microsoft’s introduction of a software subscription model to consumers. Transitioning users from a purchase-to-own to a rental model of its software has been discussed for many years and now such a product is officially available. To sweeten the deal, Microsoft throws in a subscription to its Windows Live One Care service.