Qualcomm confirms it will pay $975 million to settle antitrust dispute with China

Qualcomm has now confirmed a previous report from this morning that it has entered into a settlement with the government of China's National Development and Reform Commission to settle an antitrust dispute. The amount of the settlement will be 6.088 billion Chinese Yuan Renminbi, or about $975 million.

China claimed that after a 14-month investigation, it found that Qualcomm engaged in anti-competitive practices. In addition to the fine, Qualcomm states it will change "certain of its business practices in China". It added, "Although Qualcomm is disappointed with the results of the investigation, it is pleased that the NDRC has reviewed and approved the Company's rectification plan."

Here are the details of Qualcomm's settlement plan with China:

• Qualcomm will offer licenses to its current 3G and 4G essential Chinese patents separately from licenses to its other patents and it will provide patent lists during the negotiation process. If Qualcomm seeks a cross license from a Chinese licensee as part of such offer, it will negotiate with the licensee in good faith and provide fair consideration for such rights.
• For licenses of Qualcomm's 3G and 4G essential Chinese patents for branded devices sold for use in China, Qualcomm will charge royalties of 5% for 3G devices (including multimode 3G/4G devices) and 3.5% for 4G devices (including 3-mode LTE-TDD devices) that do not implement CDMA or WCDMA, in each case using a royalty base of 65% of the net selling price of the device.
• Qualcomm will give its existing licensees an opportunity to elect to take the new terms for sales of branded devices for use in China as of January 1, 2015.
• Qualcomm will not condition the sale of baseband chips on the chip customer signing a license agreement with terms that the NDRC found to be unreasonable or on the chip customer not challenging unreasonable terms in its license agreement. However, this does not require Qualcomm to sell chips to any entity that is not a Qualcomm licensee, and does not apply to a chip customer that refuses to report its sales of licensed devices as required by its patent license agreement.

Qualcomm adds that it will revise its revenue predictions for its fiscal year that ends on Sept. 27, 2015, stating that it now expects to see revenues between $26.3 billion to $28.0 billion compared to its previous guidence of between $26.0 billion to $28.0 billion

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Microsoft updates Photos app for Windows 10 Preview with requested changes

Microsoft has quietly pushed out an update for their new Photos app on Windows 10 Technical Preview. The update actually went out on Friday, meaning most of you likely already have it installed. The difference is now the app's improvements have been detailed via the Insider Hub app, which keeps users updated on OS happenings.

Version 15.130.1615.0 of Photos should either be already on your system or the update ready in the Store (beta). As to what's new, Microsoft has given some detail.

Photos Version 15.130.1615.0

• One of the top 3 suggestions for us was improving AutoEnhance, with specific comments around some photos turning out a little grainy.  We've fine tuned the noise removal algorithm and it is ready for you to try!  (your collection will automatically get the new version of AutoEnhancements, to see the noise reduction you should zoom in on a photo). 
• We've been working hard on perf, specifically around drawing thumbnails in list view.  Most people should see significant improvements in how fast their page of thumbnails is drawn. 
• And we've collected some data that some customers were experiencing crashes, we've been through those reports and have fixes that should greatly improve stability for the customers that hit them. 

Although these are not earth shattering changes, it is a larger demonstration of how quickly Microsoft can react – and fix – core OS apps like Photos through backend app updates. This ability to update various aspects of the OS should make Windows 10 a much more dynamic operating system going forward.

To see if you have the latest version, open up Photos and select Settings and scroll down until you see 'About this app'. There you should see 15.130.1615.0 as the version number.

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Microsoft and Samsung reach settlement over royalties dispute

Microsoft has announced that it has settled a contract dispute it has been having Samsung, which could signal an eventual arrival of new Windows Phone handsets from the Korean manufacturer in the future.

From Microsoft:

"Samsung and Microsoft are pleased to announce that they have ended their contract dispute in U.S. court as well as the ICC arbitration. Terms of the agreement are confidential."

For some background, last year, Microsoft filed legal action against Samsung after it refused to pay royalties it owed to the tech giant over patent licensing fees for its Android devices. Under the terms of their contract, Samsung would be required to share sensitive data with Microsoft, something the Korean manufacturer argued could violate U.S. antitrust laws after Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia.

As far as future Windows Phone handsets from Samsung are concerned, the company stated in early January of this year that it would consider building more of the devices if it could reach a settlement with Microsoft over the aforementioned licensing scuffle. Since the two companies appear to have agreed on settlement terms, the door is now open to more Windows Phone handsets from Samsung — something that could be pretty big since we haven't seen anything new from Samsung since the ATIV SE which was based on its Galaxy S4 Android handset.

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Facebook's Internet.org lets Indian residents access basic internet services for free

At a media event in Mumbai, Facebook announced that it is teaming up with Indian carrier Reliance in launching the Internet.org initiative in the country. The project, which aims to provide free access to basic internet services on mobile, will be available exclusively to Reliance subscribers in six Indian states, with more being added at a later stage.

The service is now available in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, with Facebook stating that the launch of Internet.org in India ties in with the social network's efforts to "connect everyone to the internet, and to help people share their ideas and creativity with the entire world." You need to be a Reliance subscriber in the aforementioned states to access the website, and have mobile data enabled, although access to the service itself will not count toward your data plan.

Currently, Internet.org allows residents in the country to access over three dozen services for free, ranging from news publications like BBC News, maternal health, travel, local jobs, sports via ESPN Cricinfo, communication, and local government information. Facebook and Facebook Messenger access is also included. For a full list of available services, head here. The services are available in English as well as local languages including Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.

While there's a dedicated app for Internet.org on Android, you can access the website itself from your Windows Phone to avail the services on offer.

Image & News Courtesy Windows Central