Sprint is currently Clearwire’s largest shareholder, but the Now Network has been trying a buyout since last year. The only obstacle has been Dish which has been coming out with bigger offers every time Sprint was upping the ante. But now, Sprint is going legal.

It was in December last year that Sprint offered $2.2 billion for buying out Clearwire. This was followed by Dish making an offer of $3.30 a share. Then Sprint increased their offer to $3.40. Dish’s final bid of $6 billion ($4.40 a share) appears to have been too much for Sprint as they have given up the bidding game and have announced a lawsuit, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, against Dish and Clearwire.

According to Sprint, Dish’s tender offer is against their rights as well as those of other stockholders of Clearwire under Clearwire’s charter and Equity Holders Agreement. The offer is also said to be in violation of Delaware law. Dish has allegedly tried to mislead Clearwire’s shareholders to believe that their “proposal was actionable in an effort to acquire Clearwire’s spectrum and to obstruct Sprint’s transaction with Clearwire”.

Head here if you want to check out more points from the lawsuit. It will be interesting to know how this ends. Meanwhile, everything is pointing towards a win for Softbank in the other bidding war. It’s certainly no surprise that Sprint can’t focus on other matters at the moment as they are tied up in these issues.

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Microsoft certainly has not impressed gamers with their rules regarding used games for their Xbox One. Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore was at E3 talking to Polygon on the matter. He says that EA has not pushed in any way to implement the restrictions.

The Xbox One allows publishers to block used games and it will only allow gamers to lend a game disc once to someone who’s been on their Live friends list for at least 30 days. Sony on the other hand announced earlier that there won’t be any restrictions, though there could be a few PS4 games with DRM.

According to Moore, “EA did not aggressively lobby for the platform holders to put some gating function in there to allow or disallow used games. I am on record as being a proponent of used games. I like the ecosystem. I like the fact that it’s kept pricing at a good level for eight years. I like the fact that someone can buy a physical game and see some equity in that game. That keeps GameStop vibrant and they are a great launch and marketing partner for us”.

“EA has never had a conversation, and I have been present at all of them, with all of the manufacturers, saying you must put a system in place that allows us to take a piece of the action or even stop it“.

Regarding EA’s Online Pass system which they ditched last month, Moore said that it was a “mistake” and “wasn’t consumer friendly”. The system had a single use code in place which was available with new games. Those who bought a used game had to purchase an online pass.

What do you think of Microsoft’s Xbox One restrictions? Are they really a big deal, or are folks making things seem worse than they really are? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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In a past quarterly letter to its shareholders, Netflix hinted about their plans to launch a new “profiles” feature that would allow multiple users, all with their own watching preferences. Now it’s official. The feature will launch this summer, according to Vice President of Product Innovation Todd Yellin.

“You and your wife might have very different tastes,” Yellin said. “Why can’t you have a profile, and she has a profile?” The new feature will allow different individuals using a single account to have their own profile. This will allow Netflix to give users recommendations based on what they are viewing. So there won’t be any mix up, and this will also allow Netflix to have a better look at user viewing habits.

At E3, Yellin used an iPad to show that the service will be simple to use. It will be a one touch choice between profiles. And it will be age locked, so profiles for children will get them to Netflix’s kid hub only.

The service is currently being tested and is expected to be available by the end of August. This might not be a huge deal for those with only one or two users in their household, but for families, this could really be a welcome feature. What do you think?

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You may have heard about how SoftBank recently put in a sizable offer to buy Sprint in the United States, but with Dish Networks putting in an even bigger bid for the wireless carrier, SoftBank may be looking elsewhere for more profitable opportunities. More specifically, there is now word that SoftBank is prepared to gobble up T-Mobile USA, buying that division from Deutsche Telekom.

T-Mobile USA has been “on the market” for a good number of years now. We were almost ready to usher in the era of “AT&T-Mobile” before FCC and other federal regulators decided that it wasn’t a good idea to allow AT&T to buy T-Mobile. There may be some other suitors for Old Magenta too and, even as it stands now, it looks like buying T-Mobile is still just a backup plan for SoftBank if they’re not able to get Sprint instead.

In a related but separate story, Sprint recently hired Mike Mullen to be the company’s Security Director. He doesn’t get to start until (and if) the SoftBank deal happens, but he was a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for both the Bush and the Obama administrations. Apparently, there has been some speculation about national security surrounding this deal and hiring the former Admiral should put more Americans at ease about the matter.

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AMD has may be finally ending their Windows OS exclusivity and could eventually design chips to run Google’s Android and Chrome OS in PCs and tablets. The chips will likely be based on x86 and ARM architecture.

We have seen Windows tablets with AMD’s Z-01 and Z-60 tablet chips. But those slates didn’t perform well on the market. Moving to Android is certainly good for the company. Earlier AMD said that they had no interest in Android, but it appears like they have recognized how quickly the tech world is shifting away from Windows.

Lisa Su, AMD senior vice president and general manager of global business units, said “We are very committed to Windows 8; we think it’s a great operating system, but we also see a market for Android and Chrome developing as well“.

There have been no hints regarding when the Android tablets will be launched, but AMD’s latest comments make it clear that they are actively interested in working on such devices. Meanwhile, cheap Windows 8.1 and Android tablets with Bay Trail chips from AMD’s rival Intel will be available sometime in the near future.

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At present, millions of dollars are earned by armed groups in eastern Congo by selling conflict minerals. They use this money for buying more weapons, which are used for brutal violence to continue controlling the mines. The minerals that they trade end up in electronics such as mobile phones and laptops. Dutch firm FairPhone intends to change this situation with their new smartphone made with conflict-free tin and tantalum.

They have met their goal of 5,000 pre-orders for the device which will start to ship within Europe this October. The handset, with dual-SIM support for GSM networks, features a 4.3-inch screen, a quad core CPU, an 8 MP cam, 16GB of internal storage, and an almost stock Jelly Bean, though you can go for any other OS.

Those specs are certainly not the best out there, but their intention is to spread the message for more ethically made electronics. The handset is repairable and they have used materials from artisanal mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are not run by armed groups. Though the device is not 100% conflict-free, due to the complexities of supply chains, this is surely a good start. They might even be able to launch the device with a case made of recycled plastic.

And the company also cares for those who make the device. They have promised a “living wage” and improved overall working conditions for factory workers who assemble the phone.

If interested, you can pre-order the device here. It costs €350 (about $458). For each phone sold, €3 will go to Closing The Loop, a UK-based foundation which aims to maximize electronics recycling.

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Verizon Wireless is currently NFL’s official mobile network streaming partner in the US. Now the two companies have announced that they are extending the deal.

At present, Verizon customers have to pay $5 per month for streaming all Thursday, Sunday and Monday games on their devices. But with the 2014 season they will also have access to local Sunday afternoon games from CBS and Fox, all playoff games and the Super Bowl. The new deal reportedly requires Big Red to pay the NFL $1 billion over four years.

Meanwhile, Verizon’s NFL Mobile app will get an update this season. The new version is bringing new ways for interacting with stats, news, game previews, on-demand video, and more. Verizon hasn’t revealed how many people are using their mobile app, though Google Play shows that there have been over 10 million installations so far.

This new deal is of course great news for NFL fans on Verizon who will be able to watch games on the go, but bad news for those on other carriers. Are you willing to shift to Verizon Wireless for enjoying NFL on your device? Let us know your thoughts below.

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Apple has been long rumored to be planning to launch their Pandora like internet radio service “iRadio”. But reports have suggested that the service was delayed as they have been facing problems making deals. Now it appears like the company is pushing to unveil the service as early as next week.

Apple has reportedly got to a deal with Universal Music Group for recorded music rights, but not the publishing rights. And they are in talks with Sony Music Entertainment and Sony’s publishing arm, Sony/ATV. The music publishers are said to be asking for higher royalty rates and guaranteed minimum payments.

But Apple apparently has signed a deal with Warner Music Group for both recorded music and music publishing. The deal requires Apple to pay 10% of ad revenue to Warner Music Group’s publishing arm. That’s more than twice of what publishers get from Pandora. This could lead to more deals in the coming days and, as being rumored by many, Apple might unveil the service at their annual developers conference beginning on June 10^th in San Francisco. The service is expected to be free with advertisements.

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As suspected by many, Jony Ive is the main man behind the next version of iOS which will be unveiled at WWDC in the coming month. The confirmation has come from Apple CEO Tim Cook who has been talking at the AllThingsD D11 Conference.

In case you don’t know too much about Jony Ive, he has been behind Apple’s famous hardware designs including the MacBook Pro, iMac, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad and iPad Mini. And last year, when Scott Forstall was removed, Ive was given the charge of “human interface”.

According to Cook, the company “recognized that Jony had contributed significantly to the look and feel of Apple over many many years and could do that for our software as well“. The designer is “absolutely incredible“, added Cook.

So what is coming with Ive’s redesign? Ive is famous for his anti-skeuomorphism, and recent rumors have suggested that iOS 7 will remove the glossy realistic effect that the current software has to bring in a “flat” and black and white design. That could very well be what’s coming now that Cook has said that Ive is “really key” to the update.

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Internet is a big phenomenon, but of the 7.1 billion people living in the world just 39% are using it. The lowest usage is from Africa and parts of Asia. So what can Google do if they want more people to access the internet?

In an attempt to connect more people to the internet Google is reportedly working to introduce wireless networks for countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. But the problem with these remote parts is the lack of infrastructure for high-speed wireless networks. Google’s solution: “high-altitude platforms”.

Their plan is to use airborne balloons and blimps for creating wireless networks that could allow roughly a billion more people to access the Internet. The signal from the blimps can apparently reach areas of hundreds of square miles. Google’s Android, running on low-cost smartphones, is expected to play a big part in the campaign. And the search giant is also said to be thinking about a satellite-based wireless system, and testing other wireless frequencies.

Google has been working on such systems for a while, it seems. The above figure is from a Google patent application in the year 2000 called the “High altitude platform control system“. So what do you think about Google’s idea?

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