TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

U.S. Urges Judge to OK Microsoft Settlement: The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin in New York to quickly approve its hard-fought antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp. In a legal brief, the department insisted that Sporkin doesn’t have the authority to question the types of competitive practices that federal prosecutors chose to challenge during a years-long investigation of the software industry leader. The brief was submitted in response to Sporkin’s request at a hearing last week for the department’s views about charges that Microsoft engages in a practice known in industry slang as “vaporware.” The term refers to premature or misleading announcements about the virtues of future products, made in an attempt to persuade consumers to hold off on purchases of competing products.