The European Commission has informed Motorola Mobility of its preliminary view that the company's seeking and enforcing of an injunction against Apple in Germany on the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents ("SEPs") amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.

While recourse to injunctions is a possible remedy for patent infringements, such conduct may be abusive where SEPs are concerned and the potential licensee is willing to enter into a license on Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (so-called "FRAND") terms. In such a situation, the Commission considers at this stage that dominant SEP holders should not have recourse to injunctions, which generally involve a prohibition to sell the product infringing the patent, in order to distort licensing negotiations and impose unjustified licensing terms on patent licensees.

Such misuse of SEPs could ultimately harm consumers, according to the Commission. Read more at...

Ken Winograd and Space-Time Associates (http://www.winograd.com) has updated TinyBooks Pro, its Mac accounting and bookkeeping program, to version 8.0.3. The upgrade includes improvements in the Professional Invoice Printer and the Professional Check Printer windows. It also sports more logical tab-ordering, and new pop-up menus allowing instant access to previously saved invoice or check templates.

TinyBooks Pro is a single-entry bookkeeping and accounting system designed for sole proprietors, home and other small businesses, and family finances. To use you enter your expenses and income, and TinyBooks Pro does the rest. Current and year-to-date on-the-fly totals are continually displayed. Fully automatic bar-charting of all expense and income accounts make the determination of monthly trends intuitively obvious, according to the folks at Space-Time Associates.

TinyBooks Pro 8.0 costs US$79.99 for...

U.S. (uscellular.com) says it will begin carrying Apple products -- namely the iPhone -- later this year. The wireless carrier made the announcement as part of its quarterly earnings update.

U.S. Cellular reported service revenues of US$996.3 million for the first quarter of 2013, versus $1,023.8 million for the comparable period one year ago. Net income attributable to U.S. Cellular shareholders and related diluted earnings per share were $4.9 million and $0.06 respectively, for the first quarter of 2013, compared to $62.5 million and $0.73, respectively, in the comparable period one year ago.

"We have a number of strategies in progress to increase loyalty and attract more customers, including our announcement today that we will begin offering Apple products later this year," Mary N. Dillon, U.S. Cellular president and CEO, said in a press release. "By further strengthening our device portfolio, we'll give consumers another great reason to switch to U.S. Cellular,...

On Thursday the Pentagon cleared BlackBerry and Samsung mobile devices for use on Defense Department networks, reports "Reuters" (http://tinyurl.com/csxzmrk). Apple mobile devices using iOS 6 are expected to receive clearance sometime this month.

"This is a significant step towards establishing a multi-vendor environment that supports a variety of state-of-the-art devices and operating systems," Lieutenant Colonel Damien Pickart, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

The move to open up Defense Department networks is expected to set the stage for an intensified struggle for Pentagon customers among BlackBerry devices, Apple's iPhones or iPads and units using Google's Android platform such as Samsung Electronics' phones, according to "Reuters." The Pentagon currently has some 600,000 users of smart phones, computer tablets and other mobile devices. The department has 470,000 BlackBerry...

Acapela Group and AssistiveWare say that Australian children's voices are now available in Proloquo2Go, a text-to-speech app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad designed to provide a voice for children who can't speak.

The companies also announced, Lisa, a new adult Australian female voice to complete the Australian voice family. Version 3.0 of Proloquo2Go for iOS also adds a number of other features, including ExpressivePower and much more.

The Proloquo2Go text-to-speech application is available for US$199.99 from the Apple App Store. For more info go to http://www.assistiveware.com .

Build-to-order iMac options from Apple's official online store now include either 256GB or 512GB of flash storage for both the 21.5- and 27-inch iMac models, reports "AppleInsider" (www.appleinsider.com).

Until now the 21.5-inch iMac hasn't been offered with dedicated flash storage options. Your choice was the standard 1TB traditional hard drive and a $250 Fusion Drive option. As for the 27-inch iMac, the only flash drive available previously was a 768GB option that cost an additional $900. All iMacs in default configurations are advertised to ship within 24 hours from Apple's online store.

Paradigma Software has released database and reports tool, Valentina Studio 5.2 and the enterprise reports and database server, Valentina Server 5.2, for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.

Valentina Studio 5.2 lets you manage, query and administer databases including MySQL, Postgre, SQLite and Valentina DB. Valentina DB 5.2 ADK allows developers to build applications with XCode /Cocoa, LiveCode, C/C++ and all major development environments and more. Version 5.2 offers:

° New JSON format text-based dump of Database, Table and SQL results, as a simple dump or as an export;

° The ability to execute in the SQL Editor several SELECT queries at once and have the results appear in separate tabs;

° The capability to show a list of all supported SQLite Extensions;

° Improved Favorites so now you can more easily modify, order and change saved Favorite SQL Queries;

° MariaDB support, which has been added to existing MySQL support;

° Utilization of...

According to "The Wall Street Journal" (http://tinyurl.com/ccg3yns), Apple and Samsung are bringing their smartphone war to the Pentagon. The Department of Defense is expected in coming weeks to grant two separate, security approvals for Samsung's Galaxy smartphones, along with iPhones and iPads running Apple's latest operating system, the article says quoting unnamed "people familiar with the matter."

These moves would boost the number of U.S. government agencies allowed to use those devices. Both companies have been pushing hard to win over U.S. defense agencies, some of the government's most security-conscious customers, notes the "WSJ." That market is small and still largely dominated by Research In Motion's BlackBerrys, "so the new security approvals won't likely translate into any immediate, big sales or new customers," the article adds.

Investors have scooped up US$17 billion in Apple bonds, the largest offering in corporate history. The proceeds will be used to help fund the company's ambitious plan to return value to shareholders through share repurchases and dividend payouts, notes "CNET" (http://tinyurl.com/c3wlbpn).

The bond sale comes on the heels of Apple's plans to double its capital return program, which involves spending an additional $55 billion in dividend payments to investors. Apple also said it would be spending an extra $50 billion in repurchasing company stock along with increasing its quarterly dividend.

The bond offering was split up into six parts with varying maturity dates. Apple benefited from historically low interest rates, which are set by the U.S. Treasury, notes "CNET."

Monotype Imaging Holdings -- a provider of typefaces, technology and expertise for creative applications and consumer devices -- has enhanced its Fonts.com Web Fonts service to provide greater flexibility and choice to creative professionals. The new Master subscription plan brings together the company’s Web font solution with unlimited access to more than 7,000 desktop fonts.

Combined with Monotype’s Typecast application for designing with Web fonts in the browser, the master subscription is an industry first that provides a comprehensive solution for working with type throughout the digital and print design processes, bringing unparalleled value to customers, says Chris Roberts, vice president and general manager of Monotype’s e-commerce group. The Fonts.com master subscription liberates designers to put type first, and to experiment with, and benefit from, the widest possible typographic palette, he adds.

The Fonts.com Master subscription plan, which Monotype...

Other World Computing (OWC) has announced the OWC Envoy Pro EX solid state drive solution. Designed in anodized aluminum to match modern Macs and PCs, the Envoy Pro EX easily into a coat pocket, backpack, or briefcase for high performance storage and/or backup capacity.

Inside the Envoy Pro EX is a SandForce Driven OWC Aura Pro 6G SSD that offers real world sustained reads up to 436MB/s and writes up to 429MB/s. The USB 3.0 interface can bus-power the drive so an AC power adapter isn’t required.

The OWC Envoy Pro EX is available immediately in two configurations: the 240GB Envoy Pro EX for US$319.99 and the 480GB Envoy Pro EX for $599.99. For more info go to http://www.macsales.com .

Wacom has announced the Cintiq 22HD touch, a new addition to its expanding interactive pen display portfolio, now featuring multi-touch. It's due in May for US$2,499. You can order it at select reseller locations and Wacom's eStore (https://store.wacom.com/us/).

Combining multi-touch with Wacom's pen technology, the new Cintiq 22HD touch offers an immersive on-screen experience and a more intuitive and natural way to work, according to the folks at Wacom. Additional features including a 21.5-inch, full HD display, an ergonomic rotating stand and 16 customizable ExpressKeys.

The Cintiq 22HD touch is Mac compatible and works with touch savvy applications such as Corel's latest Painter 12.2 update and Autodesk's Mudbox and Sketchbook Pro. It offers a wide-format, full HD LCD with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and 16.7 million colors.

The adjustable stand allows for real display rotation,...