M-Edge suit accuses Amazon of corporate bullying, patent infringement over Kindle cases

Case maker M-Edge filed suit with a Maryland court last week accusing Amazon of "unlawful corporate bullying" and patent infringement relating to the company's line of Kindle cases. According to M-Edge, the company signed a three-year agreement with Amazon in November 2009 for a 15-percent sales commission, only to have the retail giant demand a new contract with a 32-percent cut a mere two month later. A lawyer for M-Edge told The Wall Street Journal that Amazon punished the case maker over its refusal to play ball, after threats of burying the company's products on its site. According to the filing, M-Edge finally caved and signed a new contract in July of last year, given the fact that Amazon apparently drives nearly 90-percent of the small company's revenue. The suit also accuses Amazon of "knocking off" its reading light-packing covers with lighted jacket designs for the Kindle 3. Amazon, for its part, has refused to comment on the matter.

Intel starts shipping Atom N2600, N2800 processors for netbooks, ten hours of battery life promised

We've already seen a few benchmarks and other hints that they'd soon be shipping, and Intel has now officially announced that its new Cedar Trail Atom processors are finally available, with the first systems using them set to roll out early next year. The two chips you'll likely be seeing the most of are the Atom N2600 and N2800 -- both dual-core, and both designed for use in netbooks, where they promise to allow for up to ten hours of battery life and "weeks of standby," and offer support for 1080p video playback. Also rolling out today are the D2500 and D2700, which are designed for use in entry-level desktops and all-in-one computers, as well as more commercial systems. As for all those systems themselves, details remain a bit light, but Intel says you can expect to see some from Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba.

Italian anti-trust body fines Apple for misleading customers on product guarantees

Apple Italia has been fined a total of 900,000 euros for failing to inform its customers that products purchased were already covered by two years of free assistance under national law. It appears that Apple employees encouraged the extra purchase of its own AppleCare plans. With the European court's continued investigation of possible e-book price-fixing and ongoing legal jousting with Samsung unlikely to end any time soon, it looks like Apple will be busy in the courts next year too.

DISA gets a spoonful of Froyo, approves Dell Venue for military use

Remember when the DoD approved the Android-powered Dell Streak for military use? Well the DISA's latest list of approved gear now includes Dell's Venue and the custom version of Froyo that it runs. Sadly, there are some limitations: operatives won't have access to the Android market, all surfing has to go via a secure proxy server and there's a ban on all classified information being received on the handset. Now if you'll excuse us, we're gonna imagine a unit of Venues at boot camp all chanting "If I play Angry Birds in a combat zone, box me up and send me home."

RunCore outs new storage solutions for CES, Marvell-based Falcon series included

If you're looking to quell your inner storage enthusiast after the holidays, RunCore may have something to satisfy your appetite. The company announced that it has two products intended for launch at CES. The Falcon series is a Marvell-based storage solution that boasts R / W IOPS speeds that best the outfit'sPro V SATA 6Gb/s SSDs. Speaking of the Pro V series, RunCore is looking to set up shop in Ultrabooks with a 7mm model of its 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s SSD with 540 MB/s read and 500 MB/s write speeds. Looking for a bit more info?

Researcher finds vulnerability in WPS protocol, looks for manufacturers to offer fix

On the plus side, your router's mostly secure. Security researcher Stefan Viehbock has just discovered a major security hole which allowed him to use a brute force technique to access a WPS PIN-protected network in about two hours. According to Viehbock, a design flaw allows the WPS protocol's 8-digit PIN security to fall dramatically as additional attempts are made. With each attempt, the router will send a message stating whether the first four digits are correct while the last digit of the key is used as a checksum and then given out by the router in negotiation. As a result, the 100,000,000 possibilities that the WPS should represent becomes roughly to 11,000.

The US-CERT has picked up on this and advised users to disable WPS on their routers. Viehbock, in turn, claims to have attempted to discuss the vulnerability with hardware vendors such as Buffalo, D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear, but says he has been roundly ignored and that no public acknowledgement of the issue has been released. As a possible final step, Viehbock has promised to release a brute force tool soon, thereby pushing the manufacturers to work to resolve the issue. In other news, that evil supercomputer from the movie War Games just got a few more digits of the nuclear launch codes -- maybe one of Stefan's pals can look into that one.

Xbox Live companion apps now available for Windows Phone and iOS

As expected, Microsoft has made its new and improved Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone available to coincide with the latest Xbox dashboard update -- what's not so expected is the iOS app that also rolled out today. Dubbed My Xbox Live, the iOS app (optimized for both iPhone and iPad) is expectedly a bit more limited than its Windows Phone counterpart, but it will let you read and send messages, edit your profile and update your avatar, manage your friend list, and keep an eye on your achievements (and those of your friends). The new Windows Phone app, on the other hand, brings with it a decidedly more integrated experience, including the ability to search for games, music and movies available through Xbox Live, and view second screen information while you're using your console.

Twitter gets a new look: faster, simpler, cleaner

Are you someone who has yet to jump on the Twitter bandwagon because it's just too darn complicated to use? Well, the time to spread your tweeting wings has come, because the service has just done a redesign of its web portal and mobile apps around four new tabs -- "Home", "Connect", "Discover" and "Me" -- that make for a less complicated and more streamlined experience (sound familiar?). Twitter's new threads will be rolling out universally over the next few weeks, though the Android and iPhone apps have already been refreshed. All you 140-character mavens can head on past the break for a video of the new look or hit the source links to learn more. For those of you in need of an even simpler Twitter interface, well, we hear there's a guy with a rotary phone who can deliver just what you're looking for.

Toshiba's Excite Honeycomb tablet confirmed for Canadian launch in January

We've already heard a fair bit about Toshiba's forthcoming 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet, but the company has only now finally confirmed a name -- Excite, previously seen in a trademark filing -- and a launch date (or month, anyway) for the tablet outside of Europe. You can look for it to roll out for an as yet unspecified price sometime in January -- in Canada, at least (though we'd presume a US launch will be around the same time). It will come in both 16GB and 32GB versions, each of which pack a 1.2GHz dual-core OMAP 4430 processor, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, a 5 megapixel cam 'round back, and a microSD card slot and a micro HDMI port. Toshiba also boasts that it's the "world's thinnest, lightest tablet," with it measuring just 7.7 mm thick and weighing in at 558 grams (or 1.23 pounds).

SPHERE 2 mouse turns the premium dial up to platinum, can hide in perfumeries

You can't have enough premium spherical mice, can you? OreObject is hoping not, trumpeting its "environmentally sensitive" sequel to the SPHEREtouch. Sure, the SPHERE 2 still packs all sorts of curves, but it's now been crafted from "surgical grade" stainless steel, with four-way navigation chops and a detachable, tangle-free USB cord thrown into the mix. It's the curious scroll wheel at the apex of the sphere that now furnishes the orb with four-way scrolling, and the peripheral will be available in three different finishes: titanium ($185), gold ($290) and platinum ($320). The one percent among us can sniff out the preorder form at the source link below. Or get the butler to do it

AT&T's 4G LTE network is live in San Francisco

New York City by the end of 2011? How's about San Francisco by the end of December 8th? We can't say for certain that it's lit up for good ("testing," you know), but at least for now it's absolutely screaming on our LTE-equipped AT&T handsets in downtown SF. Seeing similar? Let us know how it's going for you in comments below, and feel free to stick your tongue out in the general direction of the Big Apple.

Smart to unveil tiny For-US electric pickup at North American International Auto Show

Do you dig the size and efficiency of the Smart Fortwo, but need something a little more manly than that snub-nosed hatchback? Well, it looks like your prayers will be answered at January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Reports have it that will be where the For-US, Smart's plug-in pickup, will have its official unveiling. At about 12 feet long the "truck" is almost 50-percent larger than its sub-compact counterpart, but that extra room is put to good use. The bed in the back is home to a pair docking stations for the company's Ebikes. It's a pretty interesting concept, but we're wondering how lugging two heavy electric cycles will affect the range of 17.7kW/h lithium ion battery. Head on past the break for one more image, and hit up the source for even more sketches of the upcoming mini EV pickup.