IT NCM Center

CNET News, Ina Fried

Although still early in the process, newly leaked documents about Windows 8 offer some keen insight into where Microsoft wants to head with the next version of the operating system.

One thing that is made abundantly clear is that Microsoft has been paying attention to Apple. In the documents, which appear to come from an April meeting with computer makers, Microsoft discusses its Cupertino, Calif.-based rival and outlines plans to offer a Windows Store similar to the way Apple distributes software on its iPhone. The documents, which Microsoft has declined to comment on or authenticate, also talk about plans to give Windows a more iPad-like response time through new power management settings. Read more…

By Antone Gonsalves

A Taiwanese maker of LCD panels has become the sixth company to agree to plead guilty in a price-fixing conspiracy that affected some of the largest manufacturers of devices using LCDs, including Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard.

Chi Mei Optoelectronics also agreed in a plea agreement announced Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department to pay $220 million in fines. The company pleaded guilty to a single felony count that said it participated in a conspiracy to fix the prices of TFT-LCD panels sold worldwide from Sept. 14, 2001 to Dec. 1, 2006. Under the agreement, which is subject to approval by a federal court in San Francisco, Chi Mei has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Justice Department’s ongoing antitrust investigation. Read more…