trading

If you've ever read user reviews of rugged or waterproof cameras, you probably wouldn't think they could handle having a glass of water spilled on them, let alone a 33-foot dive in the ocean.

The fact is, however "rugged" a manufacturer says a camera is, whether it can survive such treatment has a lot to do with the user. Maybe too much.

For example, the top-rated Olympus Tough TG-1 iHS is marketed with some of the highest durability claims for a compact camera: waterproof down to 40 feet, shockproof up to a 6.6-foot drop, freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and crushproof up to a weight of 220 pounds. That sounds pretty great and it is, but there's a bunch of fine print that goes with that marketing message.… Read more

Fearing a monopoly of the photo upload market, the U.K.'s competition regulatory agency wants to investigate Facebook's $1 billion bid to buy Instagram, the Guardian reported today.

The Office of Fair Trading is afraid the social network might stop picture uploads to other sites from the app, or restrict other apps' ability to upload to Facebook.

When contacted by CNET, Facebook said it's working with the U.K. agency, but didn't offer any other details.

"We'll continue to work closely with the OFT and look forward to answering any questions that arise," … Read more

A former AT&T worker is the latest corporate employee to confess involvement with insider trading, according to Reuters. Alnoor Ebrahim said he sold stock traders information that included AT&T sales numbers for Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry.

Ebrahim pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud. "I provided insider information concerning AT&T's sales of Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry products, as well as other handset set devices sold through AT&T distribution channels," he told … Read more

HTC believes it's free and clear of infringing on a key Apple patent despite allegations to the contrary by the iPhone maker.

This week, Apple filed its third complaint against HTC in the past three years with the U.S. International Trade Commission. The company is alleging that HTC is still violating the same Apple patents that triggered a recent ban on imports of the HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE.

Following the initial complaint, HTC said that it took steps to work past Apple's U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647, also known as the data … Read more

The CHM file extension refers to Microsoft Compiled HTML Help documents. Armjisoft's CHM OwnerGuard is a comprehensive Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution for managing CHM files, encompassing security, licensing, watermarking, and distribution for internal company documents and other access-sensitive information published as CHM files. It's available in several versions to meet both commercial and personal needs.

The Personal edition is free for individual users. It can create and open DRM-protected CHM files, and it supports licensing-rights limitations. The license-generating and transferring features are disabled in the freeware, and its support options are limited compared with commercial licensing. CHM … Read more

We're dropping down from space, getting touchy with Windows 8 and leaping over a new iPhone carrier:

The iPhone has taken a leap into the prepaid, no-contract world. Beginning in late June, the prepaid carrier Leap Wireless will sell Apple's iPhone under the Cricket service. This makes it the first carrier to sell the iPhone without a contract. But don't expect the iPhone to come cheap. The 16 GB iPhone 4s will be priced at $500 dollars.

So that leaves T-Mobile in the corner, just tapping its foot waiting for its turn to dance with Apple. With … Read more

Google could face a rough time in the courtroom if the FTC's antitrust case against it goes to trial.

To determine whether Google violated antitrust laws, the Federal Trade Commission is using the big guns with attorney Beth Wilkinson, an ex-prosecutor for the Department of Justice.

Wilkinson has developed a reputation as a powerful and determined litigator, successfully handling several cases that have put her into the limelight, says Reuters. She was the prosecutor in the trial of Timothy McVeigh, arguing in favor of the death penalty for the Oklahoma City bomber. In private practice, she has defended tobacco … Read more

Nasdaq would have delayed Facebook's IPO to address technical problems had it known the extent they would affect its trading system, a senior official for the exchange told customers today.

Eric Noll, Nasdaq's head of transaction services, said the exchange "by no means would have gone forward" with the much-anticipated offering had it known problems would disrupt a "normal trading day," according to an account of the conference call reported by the Wall Street Journal.

"In retrospect, it was incorrect," Noll said of the decision to proceed with the blockbuster offering after … Read more

A former Yahoo executive and a former mutual fund manager at a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial have agreed to settle insider trading charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced today.

The SEC alleges that Robert W. Kwok, Yahoo's former senior director of business management, and mutual fund manager Reema D. Shah shared confidential information in 2008 and 2009 after a chance meeting in a hallway. The information included a tip about a search engine partnership between Yahoo and the Microsoft.

The allegations resulted in a parallel criminal case also announced today by the U.S. Attorney's … Read more