- The recently enacted stimulus bill — the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) — touches almost every aspect of the U.S. economy. Health care is no exception. In fact, the ARRA is historic health care legislation of the type rarely produced by our famously incremental federal government. The law prevents dramatic state cuts in Medicaid, expands funding for preventive health care services and health care research, and helps the unemployed buy health insurance. But perhaps its most profound effect on doctors and patients will result from its unprecedented $19 billion program to promote the adoption and use of health information technology (HIT) and especially electronic health records (EHRs). The HIT components of the stimulus package — collectively labeled HITECH in the law — reflect a shared conviction among the fledgling Obama administration, the Congress, and many health care experts that electronic information systems are essential to improving the health and health care of Americans. However, proponents of HIT expansion face substantial problems. Few U.S. doctors or hospitals — perhaps 17% and 10%, respectively — have even basic EHRs, and there are significant barriers to their adoption and use: their substantial cost, the perceived lack of financial return from investing in them, the technical and logistic challenges involved in installing, maintaining, and updating them, and consumers' and physicians' concerns about the privacy and security of electronic health information. HITECH addresses these obstacles head on, but huge challenges await efforts to implement the law and fulfill President Barack Obama's promise that every American will have the benefit of an EHR by 2014. One of HITECH's most important features is its clarity of purpose. Congress apparently sees HIT — computers, software, Internet connection, telemedicine — not as an end in itself but as a means of improving the quality of health care, the health of populations, and the efficiency of health care systems. Under the pressure to show results, it will be tempting to measure HITECH's payoff from the $787 billion stimulus package in narrow terms — for example, the numbers of computers newly deployed in doctors' offices and hospital nursing stations. But that does not seem to be Congress's intent. It wants improvements in health and health care through the use of HIT. To achieve this goal, the law takes several approaches. It starts by creating a leadership structure to guide federal HIT policy: the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). ONCHIT currently exists under executive authority, but HITECH enshrines it in statute and greatly expands its resources. One of the national coordinator's first responsibilities will be to create a strategic plan for a nationwide interoperable health information system, a plan that must be updated annually. Two statutory committees will advise the coordinator: a Health Information Policy Committee and a Health Information Standards Committee. From the standpoint of physicians, the legislation's most important provision may be $17 billion in financial incentives intended to get doctors and hospitals to adopt and use EHRs. Starting in 2011, physicians can receive extra Medicare payments for the “meaningful use” of a “certified” EHR that can exchange data with other parts of the health care system. These payments can total as much as $18,000 in the first year in the case of physicians who adopt in 2011 or 2012, with at least $15,000 for physicians who adopt in 2013 and a slightly lower amount for those who do so in 2014; incentives are gradually reduced and then ended in 2016. Thus, physicians demonstrating meaningful use starting in 2011 could collect $44,000 over 5 years. Waiting until 2013 would result in a maximum bonus of $27,000 over 3 years. Experts estimate the cost of purchasing, installing, and implementing an electronic-records system in a medical office at about $40,000. For physicians with high volumes of Medicaid patients (30% or higher), the law provides subsidies through the Medicaid program as well. Doctors must choose whether to participate in the Medicaid or Medicare bonus program — they cannot receive awards from both. Hospitals participating in Medicare also stand to benefit. Meaningful use of EHRs in 2011 will earn hospitals a one-time bonus payment of $2 million plus an add-on to the Medicare fee based on the diagnosis-related group (DRG). The add-on, which would phase out over a 4-year period, would apply to every admission up to a (yet-to-be-designated) maximum amount. Children's hospitals and other hospitals with a high volume of Medicaid patients can participate in a Medicaid incentive program instead. HITECH also threatens financial penalties to spur adoption. Physicians who are not using EHRs meaningfully by 2015 will lose 1% of their Medicare fees, then 2% in 2016, and 3% in 2017. Hospitals, too, face penalties for nonadoption as of 2015 — in their case, taking the form of cuts in their annual updates under the DRG system. Spurring the adoption of EHRs and other HIT will probably require more than financial carrots and sticks. Many physicians and hospitals will need technical help to keep their systems working and to update them as technology improves. HITECH provides $2 billion for ONCHIT to begin putting such support systems in place and authorizes a variety of tools for building the requisite infrastructure. It sets aside $300 million to support the development of health information exchange capabilities at the regional and state levels. The law also authorizes grants to create regional technology extension centers to help providers install EHRs, funds to train a workforce to assist with HIT implementation, educational programs for medical students, and grants and loans to states to assist with adoption and interoperability. Mindful of concerns about privacy and the security of electronic-records systems, HITECH strengthens protections of health care information as well. It extends the privacy and security regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to health information vendors not previously covered by the law, including businesses such as Google and Microsoft, when they partner with health care providers to create personal health records for patients. It requires health care organizations to promptly notify patients when personal health data have been compromised, and it limits the commercial use of such information. All this constitutes a substantial down payment on the financial and human resources needed to wire the U.S. health care system. Still, major hurdles remain. First, the DHHS and ONCHIT are operating on a very tight schedule. The infrastructure to support HIT adoption should be in place well before 2011 if physicians and hospitals are to be prepared to benefit from the most generous Medicare and Medicaid bonuses. Meeting this deadline will be challenging. It takes time to develop and implement innovative federal programs, and it will take even more time to create the local institutions needed to support HIT implementation. Second, much will depend on the federal government's skill in defining two critical terms: “certified EHR” and “meaningful use.” ONCHIT currently contracts with a private organization, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, to certify EHRs as having the basic capabilities the federal government believes they need. But many certified EHRs are neither user-friendly nor designed to meet HITECH's ambitious goal of improving quality and efficiency in the health care system. Tightening the certification process is a critical early challenge for ONCHIT. Similarly, if EHRs are to catalyze quality improvement and cost control, physicians and hospitals will have to use them effectively. That means taking advantage of embedded clinical decision supports that help physicians take better care of their patients. By tying Medicare and Medicaid financial incentives to “meaningful use,” Congress has given the administration an important tool for motivating providers to take full advantage of EHRs, but if the requirements are set too high, many physicians and hospitals may rebel — petitioning Congress to change the law or just resigning themselves to forgoing incentives and accepting penalties. Finally, realizing the full potential of HIT depends in no small measure on changing the health care system's overall payment incentives so that providers benefit from improving the quality and efficiency of the services they provide. Only then will they be motivated to take full advantage of the power of EHRs. The nation's economic woes have given birth to an unprecedented federal effort to modernize the information systems of a troubled health care system. It is now up to the government and the nation's health care professionals and facilities to turn this opportunity into real improvements in the health and health care of Americans.Dr. Blumenthal reports receiving grant support from GE Corporate Healthcare, the Macy Foundation, and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the Department of Health and Human Services and speaking fees from the FOJP Service Corporation and serving as an adviser to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. No other potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. This article (10.1056/NEJMp0901592) was published at NEJM.org on March 25, 2009.
Source Information
Dr. Blumenthal is director of the Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital–Partners Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School — both in Boston. He has been named National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
Stimulating the Adoption of Health Information Technology
The Computerization of Society
First published in 1978 as a report to France's president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, The Computerization of Society became a best-seller abroad and the cause of instantaneous and widespread public discussion. When the Industrial Revolution was beginning, few people realized the importance of what was taking place. The singular importance of this report is that it comes to grips with a similar major technological event, showing how a new technology can reshape society and why the political system has to change to meet the new scale of economic life and the new patterns of social life that result.
The authors coined the word télématique (or telematics in English) to describe the growing interconnection between computers and telecommunications. In his introduction, Daniel Bell writes that this term "expresses a new reality, an innovation that has the possibility of transforming society in the way that railroads and electricity did in the nineteenth century."
Bell, who remarks that The Computerization of Society "has the impact of a modern Jules Verne story," outlines the areas where telematics are likely to change patterns of transactions—in data processing networks, information banks and retrieval systems, teletext systems, facsimile systems, and interactive on-line computer networks. He notes, "In a broader political and sociological sense, the Nora/Minc report raises a different question for the United States. In this volume, two astute observers, aided by a team of technical specialists, have surveyed a major technological and social innovation and have proposed a unified national policy to deal with the impending changes. In the United States, where the scale of activities in this field is considerably larger than in France, there is as yet no national policy."
The book includes a summary of the four-volume supporting document and a glossary.
| Endorsements |
| "Written as a report to the President of France, [this book] seeks to show how a new technology, computers, will reshape the social structure and how the economic and political systems must accommodate resulting new patterns of social life. Organized in terms of the challenges presented by advances in computer technology (or 'telematics,' the growing interconnection between computers and telecommunications), the potential points of organizational support, and questions for the future." —Science, Technology, and Human Values "Raises both practical and philosophical problems, and suggests a French national plan. As is to be expected, there are many contrasts with the larger and looser American way of doing things in this domain." —Foreign Affairs |
Computers in education (3° ed )
Sommaire de Computers in education (3° ed ) :
Preface. 1. The Impact of Computers in Education. Example Applications. Writing to Read Computers and Digital Model trains Computer- based Manipulatives Science Simulations The National Geographic Kids Network Montevidisco Music: An Appreciation. Research Results on the Effects of Computer-based Instruction. Types of Educational Applications. Tutor Applications Tool Applications Tutee Applications. Categories of Learning Outcomes. Intellectual Skills Problem Solving Verbal Information Motor Skills Attitudes. Summary. Exercises. References. 2. Computer Hardware. The Computer System. Input Processing Output. Hardware Evaluation. Summary. Exercises. 3. History of Computers in Education. Historical Roots. Who Was First? Later Developments Acceptance by Society Size Categories. Major CBE Efforts. PLATO TICCIT WICAT MECC CONDUIT. Other Computer-based Education Efforts. Patrick Suppes, Stanford University Harold E. Mitzel, Pennsylvania State University Seymour Papert, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Steven Hunka, University of Alberta Alfred Bork, University of California Dartmouth College Chicago Title I Schools Ohio State University The Military. Level of Use in the Schools. Summary. Exercises. References. 4. Drill and Practice and Tutorial Applications. Drill-and-Practice Applications. Simple Drill and Practice Strategy Sophisticated Drill and Practice Strategy Example Drill and Practice Computer Software Using Drill and Practice Programs in the Classroom. Tutorial Applications. Events of Instruction Guidelines for the Development and Selection of Tutorial Applications The TICCIT Learner-Control System Computer- Controlled Adaptive Systems Using Tutorial Programs in the Classroom. Summary. Exercises. References. 5. Problem-Solving, Simulations, and Games. Problem-Solving. Definition Parts and Approaches The Value of Problem-Solving Software Classification of Problem-Solving Software. Simulations. Fidelity Component Parts The Value of Simulations Static and Interactive Simulations Examples of Computer Simulations. Games. Attributes of Games Motivational Attributes. Selecting and Using Applications in the Classroom. Summary. Exercises. References. 6. Software Evaluation. Instructional Criteria. Presentation Criteria. Screen Format Navigation Ease of Use Interaction. The Curriculum Factor. Evaluation Method. Summary. Exercises. References. Software Evaluation Checklist. 7. Tool Applications. Word Processing. Basic Features of a Word Processor Other Word Processing Features Hardware and Software Issues Instructional Applications. Database Management. Special-purpose Database Programs General-purpose Database Programs Instructional, Applications. Spreadsheets. Instructional Applications. Graphics. Charting Graphics Drawing Graphics Painting Graphics. Desktop Publishing. Desktop Presentations. Tool Integration. Summary. Exercises. References. 8. Multimedia. Hypermedia. How Information is Represented by Computers. Types of Media Elements. Text Graphics Sound Animation Motion Video. Hypermedia Hardware. Compact Disc (CD) Videodisc vs. CD-ROM. Multimedia Applications. Videodisc Applications CD-ROM Applications Using Hypermedia Applications in the Classroom. Summary. Exercises. References. 9. Networks and Telecommunication. Classroom or Laboratory Networks. Print Server File Server Application Server Communication Server. Electronic Mail. Remote Networks. Internet. Internet Addressing Internet Resources. Public Information Services. Integrated Learning Systems (ILS). Terminal Emulation. The Location of Computer Resources. The Classroom The Computer Laboratory. Telecommunication in the Classroom of Tomorrow. Exercises. References. 10. Computer-Managed Instruction. Computer Grade Book. Test Scoring. Test Generation. Terminal-based CMI. Sophisticated CMI Systems. Summary. Exercises. References. 11. The Computer as Tutee. Programming Languages. Machine Language Assembly Language High-level Languages. Major Programming Components. Output Input Processing Summary. Multimedi. Hypermedia Authoring Systems. Card-based Authoring Systems Icon-based Authoring Systems Other Authoring Tools. Integrating Computer Programming and Authoring into the Curriculum. Summary. Exercises. References. 12. Curriculum Integration: Reading and the Language Arts. Why Integrate Technology into Classroom Curricula? Use Computers Where They Best Fit. Organizing Resources to Promote Integration. Organizing for Curriculum Integration. Organization of Integration Chapters. Reading and the Language Arts. Enhancing Writing by Using Word Processing Using Other Software to Develop Writing Skills Using Telecommunications to Improve Writing Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation Reading. Summary. Exercises. Reading and Language Arts References. Software References. 13. Curriculum Integration: Social Science, Science and Mathematics. Social Science. Word Processing and Desktop Publishing Databases Spreadsheets Telecommunications Multimedia and Social Studies Social Science Simulations Educational Games Specialized Software Useful in the Social Sciences Summary. Science. Information Collection Information Structuring and Restructuring Tools Information Reporting Tools Simulation Software Conclusions and Summary. Mathematics. Computer-assisted Instruction Computer-based Math Manipulatives Problem Solving Tool Applications Summary. Exercises. Social Science Science. References. Social Science References Social Science Software References Telecommunication References Science References Science Software References Math References Math Software References. 14. Curriculum Integration: Meeting Diverse Needs. General Trends: Technology and Special Education. Inclusion and Technology. Hearing Impaired Students. Visually Impaired. Severely Disabled and Physically Challenged. Learning Disabled. Gifted and Talented. English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Language Development (ELD). Word Processing and English Language Development Multimedia and English Language Development Students Telecommunications and ELD Students. Exercises. References. Software. Assistive Equipment Manufacturers. Augmentative Communication Manufacturers. 15. Issues in Educational Computing. Ethical Issues. Equal Access. Legal Issues. Computer Crime Hackers
How computers work (9th ed )
Résumé de How computers work (9th ed
Ron White is a former executive editor and columnist for PC Computing, where he developed the visual concept behind How Computers Work. Founder of one of the
earliest PC user groups, he has been writing about computers for 25 years and is known for building wildly extreme computers.
Timothy Edward Downs is an award-winning magazine designer, illustrator, and photographer. He has directed and designed several national consumer, business, technology, and
lifestyle magazines, always infusing a sense of 'how it works' into every project.
A full-color, illustrated adventure into the wonders of TECHNOLOOGY
This full-color, fully illustrated guide to the world of technology assumes nothing and explains everything. Only the accomplished Ron White and award-winning Tim Downs have the unique ability to meld descriptive text with one-of-a-kind visuals to fully explain how the electronic gear we depend on every day is made possible. In addition to all the content you've come to expect from prior editions, this newly revised edition includes all-new coverage of topics such as:
* How tablet PCs put the power of a PC quite literally in your hands
* How Windows Vista makes your Windows desktop translucent and makes your PC more secure
* How advances in optical disc technology such as dual-layer DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray discs continue to push the envelope
* How Apple's new iPhone is revolutionizing what cell phones can do
* How BitTorrent technology enables anyone to share information with everyone
For a decade, How Computers Work has helped newbies understand new technology, while at the same time hackers and IT pros have treasured it for the depth of knowledge it contains. This is the perfect book about computing to capture your imagination, delight your eyes, and expand your mind, no matter what your technical level!
Category: General Computing
Covers: PCs/Hardware
User Level: BeginningIntermediate
Sommaire de How computers work (9th ed ) :
Part 1: Boot-Up Process.....2
Chapter 1 Getting to Know the Hardware.....10
Chapter 2 How Circuits Juggle Data.....20
Chapter 3 How a PC Comes Alive.....30
Chapter 4 How an Operating System Controls Hardware.....36
Chapter 5 How Transistors Manipulate Data.....52
Chapter 6 How a Microprocessor Works.....62
Chapter 7 How Programming Languages Work.....94
Chapter 8 How Windows Works.....104
Chapter 9 How Software Applications Do Your Work.....118
Chapter 10 How a Computer's Long-Term Memory Works.....154
Chapter 11 How Disk Drives Save Information.....166
Chapter 12 How Little Things Make Drives Faster and Bigger.....176
Chapter 13 How PCs Use Light to Remember Data.....184
Chapter 14 How Data Gets Into Your PC.....202
Chapter 15 How Scanners Capture Words and Images.....212
Chapter 16 How Computers Use Power.....220
Chapter 17 How Serial Ports Triumph.....228
Chapter 18 How a Computer Display Works.....242
Chapter 19 How Digital Photography Works.....252
Part 6: Games and Multimedia.....260
Chapter 20 How Multimedia Sound Works.....266
Chapter 21 How Multimedia Video Works.....278
Chapter 22 How Game Hardware Puts You In the Action.....286
Chapter 23 How Games Create 3D Worlds.....296
Chapter 24 How Local Area Networks Work.....314
Chapter 25 How PCs Connect to the Internet.....324
Chapter 26 How the Internet Moves Data.....332
Chapter 27 How We Reach Each Other Through the Net.....338
Chapter 28 How Wireless Sets PCs Free.....350
Chapter 29 How the Net Provides Video and Audio on Demand.....360
Chapter 30 How the World Wide Web Works.....366
Chapter 31 How Internet Security Fights Off PC Invaders.....378
Chapter 32 How Black-and-White Printing Works.....404
Chapter 33 How Color Printing Works.....414
Index.....426
An inside look at the testing of Windows Phone 7
REDMOND, Wash.--On a rather sunny August day deep within one of the many nondescript buildings that dot Microsoft's campus, a robot taps away at a prototype Windows Phone 7 to double-check that the screen is accurately reading touch input. Another robot, affectionately dubbed Wally, tests the accelerometer and other sensors built into the new phones. A building over, thousands of phones are going through a variety of stress tests, including both automated and hand-performed tasks.
That's a major shift for Microsoft, which in the past focused on making sure its software was bug-free and left much of the testing of final phones to the partners that make the actual Windows Phone devices.
"We really felt like our product quality ensuring system infrastructure wasn't good enough," said Darren Laybourn, general manager of test for Microsoft's phone unit. Laybourn and his team allowed CNET an exclusive view inside the testing labs as the company was putting the final touches on its software and helping its phone maker partners gain approval from various cell phone carriers. "We spent over $15 million on hardware...we've added hundreds of senior people to the team, we've completely revamped our processes."
Microsoft used its beefed-up testing methods as part of its effort to convince carriers that it was serious about getting back in the phone game.
"That was kind of my story," Laybourn said, showing a slide deck he used in pitches to AT&T and other cell service providers. "Here's why we suck less, basically."
Indeed, Windows Phone 7, which went on sale in the U.S. on Monday, is arguably one of the most heavily tested products to come out of Microsoft, save perhaps a full release of Windows or Office.
Windows Phone 7 gets sent to the rack
With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft felt it needed to do more of the testing work in-house, both to help speed the process of getting phones approved on various cellular networks and to ensure consistent quality. As part of that effort, Microsoft employed more than 4,500 actual phones and tens of thousands of virtual devices running on servers. That's up from about 60 phones that Microsoft used to test the prior generation of phones.
In all, Microsoft ran through more than 10 million hours of automated testing, or about 20,000 phone-hours per day.
Microsoft is of course, not alone in doing this kind of testing. Phone makers and carriers do this all the time. Even its software rival, Google, has been known to go through a similar approach, as the company did with the Nexus One--a process they documented in a video posted to YouTube.
Just in time?
With Windows Phone 7 though, Microsoft was in something of a hurry. After suffering through many delays and a complete "reset" of the project, the company had bet its reputation on delivering an operating system that would be on phones and on sale in time for this year's holiday season.
With Windows Phone 7 though, Microsoft was in something of a hurry. After suffering through many delays and a complete "reset" of the project, the company had bet its reputation on delivering an operating system that would be on phones and on sale in time for this year's holiday season.
"It's taken a relatively long time for Windows Phones to get through trials in the past," Laybourn said. "We were on a fairly tight schedule this time for phones to get out. We would have to beat what most phones have actually ever done to meet our dates."
The company met its deadline, though to do so it did have to delay until next year its support for CDMA networks like Sprint and Verizon.
Despite all of the work and testing, though, it remains to be seen how much progress the company will make in its uphill battle to regain share in the cell phone business. Despite some positive reviews, Microsoft's phones appeared to be met with a mixed reception on their first day of sales at AT&T and T-Mobile stores in the U.S. The first Windows Phone 7 models went on sale in Europe a couple weeks ago, but Microsoft has yet to comment on sales.
Much of the testing is automated, with scripts simulating the kind of work that a person would do on his or her phone, in many cases not even making calls on a real network. Not all of the phone use can be automated, however.
"We actually have people on a real network doing real work," Laybourn said. The human testing came in handy earlier in the year when one model was producing photos that were just a bit too dark.
Microsoft also tapped its processes for testing Windows and created all kinds of automated telemetry that could notice whether, say, the battery was draining too fast and notify Microsoft (that feature has been turned off in the final phones that are going on sale to consumers.)
The company credits all of that testing with the fact that Windows Phone's battery life has gone from abysmal to something that Microsoft now feels is competitive with other phones on the market. Initially, users were getting as little as an hour and a half of battery life on the Samsung Taylor test devices. By the time Microsoft had finished testing and improving the code, battery life had been doubled, doubled again and then doubled yet again.
The physical testing of devices is just one element of what Microsoft did to prep for Windows Phone 7. Even before the company had any real code ready, Microsoft began focus group testing for the radically different look that it planned to employ. It was actually the second time Microsoft had done such work, having nearly completed focus group tests for a very different Windows Mobile 7 before Microsoft opted to scrap that work in favor of something that could better compete with the iPhone.
Windows Phone does the robot
Starting last year, Microsoft began rapidly testing the new approach, initially having users comment on mock-ups and emulated versions of the software. It wasn't until the beginning of this year that they were able to test with actual devices running Windows Phone 7.
The company also did other types of testing on individual components of the product, such as the software-based keyboard, which has an uncanny ability to guess what word a user is typing after just a few letters--in some cases even when a user is off on several of the letters.
The 'fat finger' problem
Microsoft began with the premise that users would have the "fat finger" problem, where they were likely to mistype when entering letters on an onscreen keyboard.
Microsoft began with the premise that users would have the "fat finger" problem, where they were likely to mistype when entering letters on an onscreen keyboard.
"We want to consider that people are going to mistype the keys," said Parthasarathy Sundararajan, a member of the Windows Phone 7 test team. "We want to account for that."
Without changing the appearance of the onscreen keyboard, the Windows Phone software favors the user input that is most likely as a word is being typed. For instance, if someone has typed "accordio" the software could favor the next character being an "n" rather than a "b."
Tom Adams, another member of the testing team, was skeptical that he could get used to a software keyboard, having lived on a BlackJack 2 device, which had a hardware keyboard. Now, he said he doesn't even think of using a hardware keyboard. The real test, he knows, will come if he can convince his wife to go with a touch screen only phone.
"My wife has to have a keyboard," he said. "I'll be intrigued to see if she actually uses the keyboards."
The level of detail into which Microsoft went was surprising, down to researching the impact of the phone's various sounds. For instance, after some research, the company opted to have multiple touches on the software keyboard produce multiple different sounds as opposed to repeating the same tone over and over, a choice it said is both less pleasing and less tactile for the user.
The investment in testing was part of a broader effort by Microsoft to improve the quality of Windows Phone 7 over past company efforts. Another key part of the effort was Microsoft's decision to limit the variations that phone makers could have. To use Windows Phone 7 software, hardware makers agree to use one of a narrow set of specifications with room to modify only certain aspects of the device, such as whether it has a keyboard or not or which type of screen is used. That's a big contrast to past versions of the software where phone makers could change virtually everything from the chips that the phones ran on to the types of components and features included to the screen size and even the user interface.
"We had a wide open platform--unconstrained access to everything--you could change whatever you wanted," Laybourn said.
Microsoft hopes that the decision to narrow the options will make it easier for those who want to write programs, essentially ensuring that software that runs on one Windows Phone 7 device will work on any other Windows Phone 7 device.
"Android is really going down the path we were on which is they really can't promise anything to developers," Laybourn said.
LG, Sony come to terms in patent spat, report says
The bitter patent-infringement battle between LG and Sony has come to an end, Reuters is reporting.
Speaking to Reuters today, an LG spokeswoman said that the two companies have dropped their lawsuits and signed a "cross-licensing deal." The terms of that deal were not disclosed.
The dispute between the companies started late last year when Sony filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, requesting it ban the sale of LG phones in the U.S. Sony alleged that LG violated patents in the company's Lotus Elite, Neon, and Rumor 2 phones, among others.
Related stories:
• Report: PlayStation 3 shipments seized in Europe
• LG attempting to stop the sale of PS3 in U.S.
• Sony wants LG phones out of U.S. market
In February of this year, LG fired back, saying that the Blu-ray player in the PlayStation 3 violated patents it held. One patent referenced the way in which Blu-ray players reproduce data from a disc, while the other covered the "reproduction of multiple data streams" by way of multiple camera angles. LG asked the ITC to ban the sale of the PlayStation 3 in the U.S.
As the complaints spilled over into Europe, LG was able to score a 10-day import ban on the PlayStation 3 in the Netherlands. However, temporary judgements aside, neither company was ever able to secure a standing victory in their complaints.
Although one patent dispute has ended, many more are still being waged. Apple, Samsung, HTC, Google, Oracle, and other big tech companies are embroiled in high-profile patent disputes of one form or another. And it appears none of them will end anytime soon.
Neither Sony nor LG immediately responded to CNET's request for comment on the deal they reportedly struck.
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