Microsoft's no stranger to appealing antitrust decisions before the European Commission's Court of the First Instance, and it looks like it's saddling up for another go 'round: the software giant has decided to appeal that $1.3B antitrust fine handed down in February. Saying that it was only filing as part of a "constructive effort to seek clarity from the court," Microsoft has asked that the decision be annulled. Yeah, that seems pretty clear. As always, our suggestions that this be resolved with a GTA IV / CoD4 round-robin deathmatch on Live have gone unheeded in favor of tedious paperwork and months of delay, but we're still holding out hope.

[Thanks, Hosain]

Not even a week after hearing that Air France was forging ahead with an in-flight calling trial, the European Commission has now voiced its approval of using mobiles on planes in European airspace. After six months of deliberating, the decision was finally made to give airlines the choice of offering up services in order for guests to dial loved ones at 3,000-meters or more. The EU telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, went on to warn operators to "keep the cost of calls made on planes at a reasonable level," and of course, not all is clear just yet. For starters, the European Aviation Safety Agency still needs to green-light the whole ordeal by approving any hardware that would be used, and we won't be seeing any 3G action up high just yet. Still, at least one less hurdle stands in the way of you phoning home from over Europe (and simultaneously making enemies out of all your neighbors trying to get a few decent minutes of shuteye).

It may have won approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and NAVTEQ shareholders alike, but it looks like the EU's European Commission needs a bit more time to think over Nokia's acquisition of the company, and it's now launched an "in-depth" probe into the matter. According to Reuters, the Commission said that the "proposed merger raises serious doubts with regards to ... competition concerns," although it was quick to add that the decision to open the inquiry does not prejudge the result of the probe. Among other things, the probe will apparently attempt to asses whether the purchase would affect the cost of maps for other companies providing navigation services on cellphones. If all of this has a familiar ring, it should, because it wasn't all that long ago that the EU launched a similar probe into TomTom's similar acquisition of map-maker Tele Atlas.

The robot uprising, it inches ever closer -- researchers working on the EU-funded COSPAL project have developed a new robotic AI that they say is the most advanced of its type ever created. Using both learning neural AI techniques and traditional rules-based AI as a control mechanism, the robot can be trained "like a child or a puppy," and has managed to figure out simple sorting tasks on its own. The next step is to try and integrate the system into a car that can adjust to unforeseen driving conditions, but the researchers in charge aren't worried about creating an army of KARRs set to mow us all down -- according to researcher Michael Felsberg, adult-level AI based on this system probably won't happen in our lifetimes. On the other hand, we've heard machines will match us by 2029 -- that'll be a fun debate to have when we're all slaving away in the robo-mines.

[Apologies for the terrible photo -- sure, COSPAL can develop puppy-level AI, but they're apparently still rocking a QuickTake 100.]

Read - Physorg article on the COSPAL robot
Read - COSPAL site

As expected, the European Commission just did the obvious and made the EU's de facto DVB-H standard, standard. The move is expected to accelerate the deployment of mobile television services across Europe in the same way that GSM standardization in the early 90s gave Europe a head-start on backwater cellular locations like North America. So get outta Dodge Qualcomm and South Korea with your MediaFLO and DMB mobile television technologies, you aren't welcome around Brussels anymore.

Seeing how long it took the Zune to make it over the northern border and into Canada, it shouldn't be any surprise that it's going to take even longer to get to Europe -- not until late next year, according to the director of Microsoft France. The wait should be worth it, though: that's when the third generation of Zunes will be released, as well as a Europe-friendly version of the Zune Marketplace. There are also some sketchy rumors that Windows Mobile 7 devices will be able to take advantage of Zune content and services, but it doesn't look like Microsoft has anything to say about that yet -- but if that goes down you know a Zune phone is right around the corner.

[Via Anything But iPod]

Reuters is reporting that the European Commission, apparently having completed is inquiry into the $4.2b acquisition offer TomTom made Tele Atlas last year, is issuing a "statement of objections." It's not a flat-out rejection / do not pass go / do not collect $200, but now TomTom supposedly has until May 5th to work on resolving the issues the EU's presented before it can get the thumbs up to make its big buy.

It's a good thing Microsoft has tons and tons of money, because they keep finding themselves in a position where they've got to pay out -- big time. Such is the case today, where the European Commission has fined the monolithic company €899 million (or $1.35 billion) due to failure to comply with a 2004 ruling on monopolistic business practices. The Commission found that the folks in Redmond had been guilty of -- gasp! -- freezing out competition by not providing "vital information" to rival software companies. This isn't the first time it's had to pay, as the company already dropped $357 million on the case back in 2006. "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Perhaps Ballmer and co. saw this one coming when they went "open" last week, though we're fairly confident this kind of fine carries only the slightest sting for the software giant.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Echoing the reactions of many to Microsoft's decision to open things up this morning, the European Commission issued a statement this morning saying that while it welcomes any moves towards "genuine interoperability," it's not going to believe it until it sees it -- it's counted four similar announcements by Redmond in the past, with nothing to show for it. Of course, Microsoft is currently being investigated for antitrust violations in Europe, so there's a whispered belief that the new steps are a ploy to derail that process, but that's pretty doubtful -- and the EU's not having it anyway, saying that "Today's announcement by Microsoft does not address the tying allegations." For its part, Microsoft actually agrees, saying that it's opening things up on its own -- the move reflects both "the reality of our unique legal situation" as well as "new opportunities and risks in the connected world." That's certainly an interesting approach -- but we'll see how the EU reacts if and when Microsoft follows through on these promises.

As part of their investigation into the company's alleged abuse of its market position at the expense of rival AMD, EU competition regulators have raided chip giant Intel's offices in Munich, Germany, along with those of Metro AG-owned Media Markt and other unnamed PC retailers. The European Commission has been keeping a close eye on Intel since last summer, when the company was formally accused of offering rebates and making payoffs to customers and retailers in exchange for preferential treatment -- charges that Intel has repeatedly, although somewhat obtusely, denied. It's not clear at this point what material, if anything, was confiscated in these latest raids, which come exactly a month prior to a closed hearing the megacorp faces on this matter in Brussels.

[Via BBC]

It may be exceptionally easy to use, but rolling out Apple's iTunes movie rental service to Europe will be no easy task. This according to a piece just published by the The New York Times. Despite known collectively as Europe, the EU's 27 member countries remain a patchwork of convoluted regulatory fragments related to digital media. For example, in The Netherlands, it remains uniquely and ambiguously legal to download, but not upload, copyrighted material. Release schedules also vary widely across Europe -- sometimes releasing the same day as in the US or months later. Notably for Apple, a distributor of content must secure individual licenses to films in every country they wish to do business. No easy task given Apple's rental agreements cover all the major and many smaller studios. This lack of coherence makes a pan-European iTunes rental agreement daunting, to say the least. Fortunately, commissioner Vivian Reding of the European Commission, plans to make a proposal mid-year that would streamline digital commerce efforts across European borders. Remember, Viv is the force responsible for stomping out the EU's ridiculous roaming rates. In other words, we can expect more than just lip-service in the months ahead. Unfortunately, given Apple's history of trouble with the EU over pan-European iTunes pricing and DRM, you can bet they'll tread the EU waters carefully (read: slowly) as they attempt to go live.

Microsoft, the ever-present target of scorn from the little guy, has once again been hit with antitrust charges in the EU, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal today. This time it's charges related to the company's refusal to disclose "interoperability information" for a variety of products, including Office, which is keeping competitors from marketing compatible software (we've heard complaints of this type from Open Office users for some time). Additionally -- just as we reported in December -- Norwegian web browser outfit Opera is stepping up to the plate, alleging that Redmond's inclusion of Internet Explorer with its ubiquitous operating system leaves little room for rival companies to enter the game. Considering how Microsoft's last antitrust case went in the EU, this may bode poorly for the giant, though a ruling in favor of reforms could benefit the end user. Stay tuned to this space for more information as we get it.

Just as we heard yesterday, Apple has reached an agreement to standardize pricing across Europe. This in response to EU (and UK) concerns over Apple (and the record labels) engaging in anti-competitive pricing for music offered over iTunes. The move brings UK prices down to match the already standardized pricing found in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. A savings of about 10%. The rub? We'll have to wait up to 6 months for the change to go into effect.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

This is all pretty standard procedure, and totally expected after the company's rebuttal this summer, but Intel is responding to EU's antitrust charges against them and will seek a hearing. The specific charges and Intel's response are still confidential, which means there aren't a lot of specifics about the mud slinging between these two, but the general thrust is that the EU thinks Intel is hurting competition and therefore consumers by offering chips below cost, and semi-bribing manufacturers to sell Intel exclusively. Obviously, Intel's saying it stuck to the law in this situation. Stakes are high, since the EU can fine companies up to 10% of global revenues, and it certainly looks like we're in for a protracted fight on this one.