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NASA

Submission + - Nasa unveils Hubble's successor

Submitted by
dalutong
dalutong writes: "BBC News has an article detailing NASA's replacement for the much-loved Hubble telescope. The $4.5 billion telescope will be placed in orbit 1.5 million km from Earth and will be almost three times the size of the Hubble. It is set to launch in 2013. They plan to service the Hubble in 2008."

Feed Ticketmaster Sues Competitors For... Well, Being Competitors (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
Last year, we noted that Ticketmaster, who for years has based its business model on being a monopoly provider of event tickets, was so upset at the growing number of web-based competitors for reselling tickets that it was pushing for laws to make selling tickets above face value illegal in an effort to stop sites (or users of sites) like StubHub (an eBay subsidiary) and Craigslist from selling tickets. Apparently, the company also has a second plan: sue the competition. The company has sued StubHub for selling tickets to concerts where Ticketmaster claims it was supposed to be the "exclusive" ticket provider. The company claims it had signed contracts with certain venues to guarantee exclusivity. However, StubHub was (according to Ticketmaster) still able to get tickets to these venues by threatening that they "might not be considered as venues for future live-entertainment events." It's not clear why Ticketmaster is suing StubHub, however. If the venues broke a contract, why isn't Ticketmaster suing the venue? StubHub never signed an exclusivity contract with Ticketmaster. Also, StubHub seems to be selling the tickets at three to four times as much as Ticketmaster is selling the tickets, so it's not like people are likely to go to StubHub instead of Ticketmaster for those tickets.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Vonage vs. Verizon = AARGH!

Journal by sweatyboatman

I really never thought Vonage would lose this Verizon case. I mean, I recognize that Verizon had patents and that maybe Vonage was violating them. But I just thought that Vonage's lawyers would be able to convince a jury that the patents were invalid. (This post describes the patents. I would add to that list is that once you have a VoIP netwo
The Courts

SCOTUS Case May End Sale Prices 527

Posted by kdawson from the through-the-floor dept.
An anonymous reader writes "If you own a mom & pop store and can't get rid of some of your inventory, you can always clear out some shelf space by holding a sale. If the Supreme Court sides with business interests in a case they heard today, however, such sales may no longer be possible. Since 1911 it has been illegal for manufacturers to force retailers into setting a price floor for products — individual retailers get to decide how much they sell products for. But today the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case seeking to overturn this longstanding rule. Should the Court do so, it would drive up consumer prices across the board. This case is particularly salient in the era of Internet shopping: consumers are now easily able to shop around to multiple retailers to find the best price. The Court could wipe out this advantage." From the article: "Should the Court abandon the... rule against minimum resale price maintenance... it would send a signal that the Roberts Court will continue to narrow the application of the antitrust laws and that the Court may disregard settled precedent and Congressional will in other areas of the law as well."
Sony

Why the PS3's February Sales May Be Misleading 127

Posted by Zonk from the look-at-the-big-picture dept.
1up's Luke Smith takes a look at February's NPD numbers, and has an observation to make about what they might mean for Sony. Though the company is almost certainly not selling as many PS3s as they'd like, the console still sold more units between November and February than a supply-constrained Xbox 360 did last year ... and despite a $200 more expensive pricetag. Though the console is certainly getting off to a slow start (and really needs great software, fast), it's still keeping pace with Microsoft's console from a year ago. "What does this mean for Sony? Considering the system's higher price point, if the platform can keep pace with the Xbox 360 through the first year (while the software matures), regardless of the installed base, the system has to be considered semi-successful. A concerning statistic between the two platforms' first January and February months is the drop-off in sales for those two months. From January 2006 to February 2006 the Xbox 360 sales trailed off 36% (250K units down to 161k units). At the same point in its lifespan, Sony's PlayStation 3 experienced a drop-off of 48% (244K units down to 127K units). That drop in sales, considering the units are available at retail, is cause for concern. Yet, despite trailing off by 25% more than its supply-constrained predecessor, the system does still cost $200 more."

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