Sprint and Alcatel-Lucent have announced that they've developed a comprehensive laptop security service called SprintSecure Laptop Guardian. This new service protects laptops via a special Mobile Broadband Connection Card called the OmniAccess 3500 which allows remote monitoring, tracking, and locking.

The OmniAccess 3500 has its own CPU, memory, SD Slot, and power supply that keeps it working even when the laptop is off. When inserted, it hijacks the TCP/IP stack and controls what information users can download. It then works with a gateway appliance which contains management software that IT administrators use to manage the system.

The card acts as a two-factor authentication key which is said to completely secure the laptop. To gain access to the data in the laptop, users will have to have the card inserted into its PCMCIA slot. If the laptop is stolen, it can be remotely controlled by an enterprise IT administrator via the card.

Here's a list of all the features of the SprintSecure Laptop Guardian:

• Access to laptop status regardless of the laptop’s power or online state
• Status of operating system, applications, policy enforcement and usage
• GPS-based capability (within the mobile broadband connection card) for laptop location
• Remote wipe or locking of data, if laptop is compromised
• Enforcement of policies for compliance
• Over-the-air software distribution

If you plan on picking up this product, expect the OmniAccess 3500 cards to be sold for around US$ 350. The extra security features has been tentatively priced at about US$ 10 to US$ 12 per month. If your laptops contain sensitive data you might want to consider this service as a way of protecting your information.

Phones, phones and more phones are being planned to be released by Alcatel this May 2007. From what we hear, the planned release of phones will be dubbed as the fashionable bunch. There are designs dubbed to be of "soft-touch plastics", "leather-like finish", and phones adorned by "dots of liquid metal." There are even floral finishes for the very ladylike phone buyer in everyone of us.

The French multinational company calls this 20-phone model May launch, a "Spring lineup of fashion" phones. Apart from the looks department, though, the phone models are reported to boast techie features such as 1.3-megapixel camera, 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, dedicated music controls, and support for 1GB TransFlash cards.

Sounds yummy. But if you're thinking a unit from such a well-designed selection of phones is going to cost you mucho dinero, fear not. There are such models in the selection of 20 that will surely belong to the budget of any mid-ranged or lower-ranged buyer. Alcatel is also working with GSM handsets approved by the AT&T; the CDMA phones should also be good to go on several "smaller regional carriers".

Interesting and all, but how will this lineup appeal to the Wi-Fi phone-hungry crowd?

Videogame console manufacturers are once again under legal fire, and this time it's not just one company, it's all three of the big boys. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are being sued by Texas-based Fenner Investments for infringing on the company's patent number 6,297,751 for a "low-voltage joystick port interface."

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and seeks damages and an injunction against Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo for each company's willful infringement of the patent.

The patent in question was filed for in 1998 and awarded in 2001. It is described as "a low power port which interfaces a typical 5 Volt joystick peripheral device with a lower power computer port. The low-voltage joystick port interface includes a bidirectional buffer circuit and a pulse generator which, together, generate a digital pulse signal, representing a joystick coordinate position, based on an input analog measurement signal."

Lawsuits are familiar occurrences to all three console manufacturers, with Sony's court battles against Immersion Corporation over rumble technology - which incidentally has yet to be settled - being the most recent similar case. A quick Google search for Fenner Investments meanwhile churned out almost zero info save for two other patent infringement cases brought up by the company - one against Juniper Networks and the other against Alcatel.

Rise of Antares 2, an all-new turn-based space strategy game from HeroCraft, is back and its a very bitchy mood. The game is designed for all gamers with political ambitions bigger than Hillary Clinton's. As head of an interstellar corporation, gamers must take the reigns, set a successful plan and fight elections in order to rule the freaking galaxy. Oh and there's one more thing on the agenda: kick Star League Bureaucrats asses back to where they belong! Which is anywhere but your turf.

Rise of Antares 2 is packed with features to help fight for intergalactic dominance including:

• Full stepwise space strategy
• A diverse array of technologies
• Masses of different ships and buildings
• Easy-to-follow training system and a captivating campaign
• Game graphics to advanced interstellar standards

Rise of Antares 2 is supported by various handsets from Alcatel, BenQ-Siemens, LG, Motorola, Nokia Panasonic, Samsung and more.

The Xbox Live Video Marketplace has only been in existence for a couple of days and Microsoft is already facing a court battle that may affect its continued service. French telecommunications company Alcatel has just filed a lawsuit against Microsoft fro alleged patent infringements.

The patents listed in the complaint are all about digital video processing, communications software and online authentication - stuff that seem pretty tied to the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Here's the list of contested patents so you guys can check 'em out too:

• 6,339,830 and 6,874,090, "Deterministic User Authentication Service for Communication Network"
• 6,661,799, "Method And Apparatus for Facilitating Peer-to-Peer Application Communication"
• 6,823,390, "Method Of Setting Up Data Communication With A Communication Means And Furthermore Program Modules And Means Therefor"
• 6,112,226, "Method And Apparatus For Concurrently Encoding And Tagging Digital Information For Allowing Non-Sequential Access During Playback"
• 5,864,682 and 5,659,539, "Method and Apparatus for Frame Accurate Access of Digital Audio-Visual Information."

Speculations also abound that this lawsuit stems from the court battle between Microsoft and Lucent which started in 2003. That was also recently revitalized due to Xbox 360 video encoding, Microsoft eventually won that case but Lucent was just acquired by Alcatel earlier this year along with the company's whole patent portfolio.