Hours after a state judge ruled that a former Microsoft executive may begin doing limited work for rival Google, a top Microsoft lawyer said the software giant was prepared to settle its lawsuit if the restrictions on Kai-Fu Lee remain in effect until next summer.
Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said the company was pleased with the restrictions and would end all litigation if Google and Lee agree to abide by the judge's order until next July, when Lee's noncompete agreement expires.
Lee still cannot work on products, services or projects he worked on at Microsoft, including computer search technology, pending a trial set for January. Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez said that the noncompete agreement Lee signed with Microsoft is valid.
But Gonzalez said recruiting and staffing a Google center in China would not violate that agreement. Although Lee cannot set budget or compensation levels or define the research that Google will do in China, he can hire people to work there.
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Office is watching: The next version of Microsoft's Office software will feature simpler graphics and try to anticipate users' tasks as the company hopes to make the product easier to use.
Microsoft hopes the new features will entice users who have found it unwieldy to wade through the dozens of tool menus and other features packed into Office, the software suite that includes Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel.
With Office 12, Microsoft also plans to focus more on how companies can use the software instead of servers.
Microsoft designers developed the program by tracking -- with permission -- every keystroke of some Office users.
The idea is part of an industrywide trend toward personalizing technology based on user habits. For example, Microsoft rival Google recently updated its desktop search capability to present relevant information based on a user's web-surfing habits.
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Pipe, Jaguar and ... cell phone?: Bang & Olufsen, a Danish up-market electronics firm, will launch a mobile phone this year made jointly with Samsung, with typical B&O design and high-quality sound.
The phones will have basic communications features and little in the way of high-tech extras, Bang & Olufsen's chief executive said, adding they would target the high end of the market in terms of price and quality.
Bang & Olufsen is known for its expensive, sleekly designed, art-house-type televisions and home stereos.
The handsets will be launched in 17 European countries in the fourth quarter, the companies said in a joint statement.
While most mobile-phone makers are focusing on launching third-generation phones with features like video calls and the ability to download music, Sorensen said the joint venture would stick to tried-and-tested technology.
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Frag for cash: Time and demographics, boosters say, argue for video-game tourneys becoming the next big spectator sport in the United States, where more than 108 million Americans now play computer games.
Only about 4,000 spectators showed up at the World Cyber Games in New York last week, but more than 63,000 followed the games live on the web.
In South Korea, where the WCG is based, three cable channels broadcast competitive gaming around the clock and some of the country's approximately 200 professional gamers bask in the type of fame usually reserved for rock stars.
Last week, McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that makes Tylenol, announced it was sponsoring Ouch, a six-man gaming team.
McNeil would not say how much it is paying Ouch, but Gotfrag.com's Trevor Schmidt estimates the average player on a successful team makes $30,000 to $40,000 a year, mostly from sponsorships and excluding prize money.
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Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
