Gamers beware: Valve Software, the firm behind immensely popular gaming portal Steam, wants you to waive your right to sue before you continue gathering games using its digital distribution platform. The company has amended its subscriber agreement to stipulate that by subscribing to its service, users agree to not file lawsuits against the company. Gaming giants Microsoft (MSFT), Sony (SNE) and Electronic Arts (EA) have similar policies in place, Kotaku notes.
“It’s clear to us that in some situations, class actions have real benefits to customers,” Valve said in a statement. “In far too many cases however, class actions don’t provide any real benefit to users and instead impose unnecessary expense and delay, and are often designed to benefit the class action lawyers who craft and litigate these claims.”
The statement continued, ”Class actions like these do not benefit us or our communities. We think this new dispute resolution process is faster and better for you and Valve while avoiding unnecessary costs, and that it will therefore benefit the community as a whole.”
Source: Yahoo!
Apple, which continues to disrupt the mobile space with its patent litigation, has successfully won a case against rival Motorola, in which a photo management patent was infringed.
Last summer, phone maker HTC raised eyebrows by 
HTC had previously gone to some lengths to lock down bootloaders on its Android devices—partly as a defense against malicious software—but reversed course in the face of strong feedback from technically-inclined customers who feel that the ability to install their own custom operating systems is a key element of Android’s “openness.” (HTC says it was “overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of our fans.”) After all, what’s the point of an operating system being available as open source if programmers can’t download it and install it on devices?
Bad products, horrible software and no cohesive vision have seemingly turned Research In Motion into a company without motion at this point.
The tagline reads “enjoy your Android over the air,” but perhaps more accurate would be “enjoy your Android over your computer.” AirDroid connects your Android device to your desktop, laptop or tablet — really anything that can browse the web — and lets you send messages, browse photos or files, set ringtones, uninstall apps, and many other things that can be done more easily through a larger screen and perhaps a mouse and full-sized keyboard. If you want this type of functionality, don’t hesitate to download this free app.
