The European Commission today gave its approval to the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle, ending nine months of uncertainty about the $7.4 billion deal.

In a published statement, the commission (which is the regulatory authority for the European Union) wrote that “the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition.”

The acquisition was announced in August 2009 and won approval of U.S. regulators in August, but the EC began investigating the deal in September after complaints from deal opponents that Oracle, a maker of commercial database management software, would stifle the MySQL open source database management software business within Sun.

The EC concluded that while MySQL is the largest open source database software product on the market, it is still small compared to the largest commercial providers ? Oracle, IBM and Microsoft ? which together control 85 percent of the database market, based on revenue. (more…)

For a while, the only way to play the location-based Foursquare was through its iPhone app or the scant mobile website. Then came an Android app, opening the game to a whole new group of users. And now, BlackBerry users are getting the love.

The service is officially launching on the BlackBerry today after several weeks in private beta testing with a few hundred users. Specifically, the app with work on all 8000 and 9000 series devices (any BlackBerry with a trackball), and it will also work with the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm, but Foursquare notes that a special version built for that device is in the works too.

As you can see in the screenshots, the app is pretty similar to the Foursquare apps on the other platforms. While not quite as pretty as the latest iPhone version, it gets the job done. Our own Leena Rao has been one of the beta testers, and speaks glowingly of being able to use the service after months of iPhone-envy. That said, she does note that there were some bugs, but can’t be sure if that’s more of a BlackBerry problem then a Foursquare problem. A number of testers have noted in the forums problems with location-sensing, but with the latest update that got sent out last week (the “release candidate”) version, the service made a number of UX tweaks in an attempt to make it more obvious to find the actual venue you are looking to check in at. (more…)

The latest version of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, Firefox 3.6, is now available for download. While Mozilla isn’t exactly phrasing it this way, it sounds like the two issues that could drive me crazy about version 3.5 — namely, speed and stability — continue to improve.

On the speed side, 3.6 is supposed to be 20 percent faster on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark. In regards to stability, Mozilla’s Director of Firefox Development Mike Beltzner told me that most of the browser’s crashes, as well as its security vulnerabilities, are caused by plugins or other third-party software. So Firefox 3.6 asks checks for out-of-date plugins and asks users to update them. And other changes to the way Firefox works with third-party software should also reduce crashes, Beltzner said. (more…)

Nokia is fighting back against Google Maps and pulling the rug out from under anyone who hopes to charge for map services.

The world’s biggest cell phone maker is making the latest version of its Ovi Maps software available for free. It is a strategic move by Nokia, considering that it paid $8.1 billion for navigation firm Navteq in 2007 and it also acquired map-related firm gate5. This is another example of how free business models are sweeping through industry, but Nokia’s hand was forced by Google’s own free Google Maps service.

Makers of global positioning system (GPS) navigation devices are getting disrupted by free map services. Free maps and navigation are becoming a core part of the cell phone platform, much like digital cameras. Services built on top of free maps could generate money. And things like search become much more interesting and effective if they lead you to something that is just around the corner. That’s why our friend Om Malik at Gigaom says that 2010 is shaping up to be the year of location. (more…)

Paul Lee is close to closing on a $100 million fund for his new venture firm, VanEdge Capital. And one of his possible limited partners is his old company, Electronic Arts.

Lee, the former head of worldwide studios at EA, confirmed in an interview that his fund is in the process of closing a round, but hasn’t yet finalized everything. If the deal closes, his firm will be the only venture firm focused solely on games and digital media, such as social networks.

His potential limited partners are finalizing due diligence and have yet to sign. But peHUB reported that the limited partners will include EA, the Export Development Bank, the Business Development Bank, the British Columbia Investment Management Corp., BC Renaissance Capital Fund, and Nicola Investments. (more…)

Apple has been getting greener every week, it seems. First we reported on Greenpeace’s finding that Apple was moving up the ranks of the cleanest tech companies. Next, it was Apple’s home energy management device.

Now the innovation du jour is Apple’s patent on incorporating transparent solar panels into a portable media device, a.k.a. iPod. As solar panels are becoming the new eco-bling, this can only boost Apple’s credibility as a progressive and ‘green’ company. But will the user experience actually change?

The iPod Classic already has a lithium ion battery with 36 hours of audio playback or 6 hours of video. With the iPod Touch, you get 30 hours audio 6 hours video.For either device, the battery life is pretty long. Personally, I think of it in terms of watching three movies in a row and then taking a short nap before landing on a cross country flight. I might even have power to spare for the cab ride home. (more…)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked China to launch an investigation into the hackers who broke into Google’s network in search of email account data on human rights activists.

The high-level request shows that Google won’t be alone as it tries to deal with its problems in China, where it has said it will no longer censor its search results to screen out matters that are sensitive to the Chinese government.

“Countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of Internet users risk walling themselves off from progress of the next century,” she said.

Google said on Jan. 12 that its network had been breached by cyber attackers who originated from China. The attacks targeted the email accounts of human rights activists, and dozens of other companies were also targeted for similar data. The company said that it was no longer willing the censor the results of its searches in China and might be forced to close its offices in the country. (more…)

Rixty, an alternative online payment platform that can already be found in many popular social games, has closed a $1.24 million venture round. The investment was led by San Francisco based Javelin Venture Partners, with participation from Accelerator Ventures, First Round Capital, Freestyle Capital, Nueva Ventures, SoftTech VC and several angel investors.

The company lets users pay for online purchases, particularly virtual goods in games, with cash. Users go to Coinstar machines and choose to have a credit issued instead of cash, or purchase prepaid cards in convenience stores. In total there are 20,000 locations that sell Rixty prepaid credits/cards. (more…)

When it comes to the mobile Web, increasingly there are only two mobile platforms that matter: Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. According to market share data put out today by AdMob (which is being acquired by Google), the iPhone and Android combined captured 81 percent of U.S. mobile ad impressions on smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from a combined 55 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Most of that growth comes from Android, which nearly doubled its market share from the third quarter to 27 percent. The iPhone OS made up the other 54 percent. (Worldwide, the iPhone had 51 percent share and Android had 16 percent, for a combined total of 67 percent). (more…)

Bing just launched a nifty new feature for any cooks out there. When you search for a food item, Bing will now show recipe results that involve the item. So if I search for macaroni, I’ll see a tab to the left of results that will show me “Macaroni Recipes.”

Recipe results are pulled from a variety of recipe websites including MyRecipes.com and Epicurious.com. Each recipe will result will show the source or name of the site, user ratings, and a measure fat and of calories. You can filter recipes by convenience, type of cuisine, occasion, ratings, course and main ingredient. Unfortunately, the recipe feature doesn’t show up for every query. I typed in macaroni and cheese as well as spaghetti and meatballs, I didn’t get the recipe results for either search term. (more…)