Apple and HTC settle patent disputes

Apple and Taiwanese phonemaker HTC have settled all their outstanding disputes over patents, ending a fight that began in March 2010. The two firms also signed a 10-year licence agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one another. HTC competes with Apple, Samsung and others in phones and tablets

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Apple has been embroiled in a series of "patent wars" with phone makers and with arch-rival Google. Unlike its rivals, HTC's sales have been in decline since the second half of 2011, despite having become a major global phone company by aligning itself to Google's Android platform. The firm has upgraded its HTC One flagship phone and introduced two new models running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software.

"HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation," said Peter Chou, the head of HTC. The firm said recently it expects sales will be lower than had been expected at the end of the year as the Taiwanese smartphone maker has been finding it hard to emulate the success of its rivals. HTC and Apple were fighting more than 20 cases in the world, according to the AFP news agency.

Apple won an order almost a year ago from the US International Trade Commission, which issued a "limited exclusion order" directing that HTC stop bringing offending smartphones into the US from April. And in May, the US mobile carrier Sprint had to delay the introduction of a smartphone using Google's Android operating system after the devices were blocked by US customs due to an Apple complaint.

Ongoing cases

Apple and its rivals have been suing and countersuing for the past several years, accusing each other of copying designs and ideas in the lucrative smartphone space. Apple and Samsung, for example, have filed legal cases against each other in more than 10 countries, each accusing the other of violating its patents.

A California court earlier this year awarded Apple $1.05bn (£652m) in damages against Samsung, after ruling several of its software and design technologies had been infringed, but the Korean firm is calling for a retrial. And last week, a US judge dismissed Apple's case in which it alleged that Google's Motorola unit was seeking excessive royalty payments for patents.

Samsung challenges Apple's $1bn patent award verdict

Samsung's filing highlights that it is the biggest direct shareholder in Seagate, following a $1.4bn deal in 2011. "Mr Hogan's failure to disclose the Seagate suit raises issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to explore in questioning," its lawyers wrote. Mr Hogan did mention that he had worked for Seagate in court. When questioned about the issue by Reuters, he added that he had never been asked to list every lawsuit he had been involved in.

'Sending a message'

Samsung has called for a retrial of a recent patent dispute case, claiming the jury foreman had "failed to answer [questions] truthfully" and might have been biased. A California court awarded Apple $1.05bn (£652m) in damages, after ruling several of its software and design technologies had been infringed.

Samsung has also alleged that several of the judge's decisions were "unfair". Apple is seeking to increase the size of the award by about $700m. The South Korean firm's accusations were made in paperwork filed on 21 September that had been sealed until now.

Work history

Samsung said foreman Velvin Hogan had provided an incomplete answer during jury selection. It said he had revealed he had been involved in a single previous lawsuit, but had failed to disclose two others. It noted that Mr Hogan had been sued by his former employer - hard disk maker Seagate - for breach of contract, and had subsequently filed for personal bankruptcy.

Judge Koh also imposed limits on Apple during the case, notably rebuffing its lawyer's attempt to submit a long list of potential rebuttal witnesses saying: "Unless you're smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren't going to be called."

When the BBC questioned Mr Hogan about his comments, in August, he acknowledged that jurors had wanted to "send a message" to discourage wilful patent infringement, but added "it wasn't necessarily focused at Samsung - that is where it had been taken out of context".

The filing goes on to suggest Mr Hogan had overstepped the mark during the jury's deliberations. It said several pieces of advice he had given had been "incorrect and extraneous legal standards [that] had no place in the jury room". In addition the Galaxy-device maker took issue with post-verdict interviews Mr Hogan gave, in which he said he wanted "to send a message to the industry at large that patent infringing is not the right thing to do" and "make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the wrist". It highlighted the fact Mr Hogan had previously remained silent when asked if he had had strong feelings about intellectual property laws.

Courtroom limitations

Samsung also alleges that a new trial should be granted because the time, witness and exhibit restrictions imposed by Judge Lucy Koh were unfair. "The constraints... were unprecedented for a patent case of this complexity and magnitude, and prevented Samsung from presenting a full and fair case in response to Apple's many claims," its lawyer wrote.

Apple declined to comment on Samsung's filing. Its lawyers have called on the judge to increase damages to about $1.75bn on the grounds that the jury found Samsung's infringements of its patents to have been a "wilful" act. It is also wants the judge to impose a sales ban on several of Samsung's handsets and tablets.

Both sides' claims will be considered at a hearing on 6 December.

Courtesy of BBC Click.

Donkeys in Israel get equiped with Wi-Fi

The Hotspot Donkey

It's WiFi for your ass -- the animal kind -- and it's only available in Israel. Yes, as unreal and inappropriate as that proposition may seem, an historical amusement park located in the Middle Eastern country will offer tourists the opportunity to tweet, email and upload photos on-the-fly from the back of a burro. Known as Kfar Kedem, or Village of Yore (sounds exciting!), the unique attraction attempts to reenact life from the Common Era's First and Second centuries, albeit with a healthy dose of wireless internet. So far, only five of the village's 30 available donkeys are currently outfitted with routers, but park manager Menachem Goldberg's toying with an expansion to the rest of his "fleet." Sure, a biblical ren faire might not be your number one vacation destination, but if you're in the area, there's no way you can pass up this low-tech ride back in time.

Content by:  Joseph Volpe - Times Of Israel.

The Shoking story behind microsoft's Downfall

 

Once-mighty Microsoft may be on the verge of joining corporate dinosaurs like Pan Am, Sears, Sharper Image, Circuit City, and Kodak

 After 26 years of redefining how we live, work, play, and think, the first shoe has finally dropped for the company that ushered in the PC age.

The once wildly profitable Microsoft just posted its first-ever quarterly loss as a public company -- to the tune of $492 million. Granted, this was due in large part to taking a $6.2 billion write-down on its failed online ad business, aQuantive... But whether the company's top brass is willing to admit it or not, the writing is most definitely on the wall... in the papers... and even in magazines.

Take Vanity Fair, for example. Its brand-new August issue contains a 7,734-word exposé that delves into exactly "how Microsoft lost its mojo," a recent overly hyped company event that turned out to be nothing more than a "low-octane swan song," and what's behind what the author dubbed..."Corporate America's Most Spectacular Decline"

Of course, one of the things the article points to is the meteoric rise of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, as well as the fact that Microsoft is always at least a full step behind Apple when it comes to innovation and new products. For instance, Microsoft didn't get around to releasing its own digital music player, called Zune, until November 14, 2006. That's five years after Apple released its game-changing iPod -- and just 54 days before Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. 

Today, the iPhone alone brings in more money than every single product Microsoft has created since 1975 -- $5.3 billion more, to be exact. But as a handful of insiders --including Bill Gates himself -- know, it isn't any one iProduct that will ultimately bring down Microsoft...Instead it's an awe-inspiring 119-year-old development lurking inside the walls of two mysterious warehouses on the Columbia River...

Bill Gates first learned of these massive windowless buildings on October 30, 2005. Shortly thereafter, he sent an urgent memo to Microsoft's top people -- and then quietly retired. And the incredible story behind the secret that could so easily bring down the world's most powerful and profitable company is so compelling that the former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review dropped everything to pen an entire book on the subject.

Yet few investors have read it -- and even fewer have been clued into the three easiest ways to profit from Microsoft's dizzying fall from grace. 

 Content courtesy of The Motley Fool. (fool.com)

Windows 8 on The New RT Version of Tablets.

Image Courtesy of ASUSTek Computer inc.

Toshiba will join Hewlett-Packard in passing on the first round of tablets based on the RT versions of Windows 8. This follows the confirmation Monday from Microsoft that Dell, Samsung, and Lenovo will debut tablets and/or convertibles (Asus has already announced its) based on the version of the Windows 8 that runs on ARM chips. That RT version cannot run the vast library of software written for Intel-based "x86" PCs, though it will have a version of Microsoft Office.

"Toshiba has decided not to introduce Windows RT models due to delayed components that would make a timely launch impossible," Toshiba said in a statement provided to CNET. "For the time being, Toshiba will focus on bringing Windows 8 products to market. We will continue to look into the possibility of Windows RT products in the future while monitoring market conditions."It's not clear if the "delayed components" is the Texas Instruments processor that Toshiba was slated to use. Toshiba would not confirm this when asked.
And Hewlett-Packard has been a no-show in the list of planned RT devices for months now. Though, like Toshiba, HP is expected to go ahead with an Intel-based tablet.  Most Intel-based tablets are expected to use the chipmaker's "Clover Trail" system-on-a-chip (SoC), which is a power-efficient family of x86 processors.
According to Microsoft, Microsoft's Surface tablets will come in both RT and Intel versions. RT Surface will be introduced on October 26, while the Intel-based Surface will be rolled out in early 2013 -- that will use a more powerful Intel i series chip, the same kind used in ultrabooks. 

Video courtesy of YouTube.

Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone unveiled

wazolako-wewe.blogspot.com 

Samsung has opted to launch the new handset in Europe ahead of other markets

Samsung has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone - the Galaxy S3.
The handset has a 4.8 inch (12.2cm) screen, an increase on the 4.3 inch screen of its predecessor. The device is perceived to be critical to how people view both Samsung's brand and the Android system it runs.
Analysts say the popularity of the previous Galaxy - the S2 - was a major factor in the firm overtaking Nokia to become the world's best-selling mobile phone maker. Samsung said that the new Super Amoled (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) display was 22% larger than its predecessor, but the actual device was not much wider since it had shrunk the size of the bezel.
The development allows Samsung to boast it has a slightly larger screen than the 4.7 inch dimensions of the HTC One X, the top of the range model from its Taiwanese rival. It is also significantly bigger than the 3.5 inch display of Apple's iPhone 4S and the 4.3 inch screen of Nokia's Lumia 900.
Samsung may have been influenced by the popularity of its phone/tablet hybrid, the Galaxy Note, which has an even bigger screen and has proved to be more popular than many industry watchers had forecast.
Eye recognition
The South Korean firm said that a mix of "intelligent camera features" and face recognition technology should also offer owners a more natural experience. For example, it said that the front camera would identify the user's eyes and would not go dark or lock so long as they were looking at it. Other features on the S3 include an 8 megapixel camera on the rear, and a 1.9 megapixel front camera for video calls.
The phone also uses what is described as a "natural language user interface" dubbed S Voice. The South Korean company said it was a major improvement on the voice control features it included on earlier models.

The phone offers up to 64GB of internal memory and an SD slot to add more
See how mobile phones evolved
"It is more like a good friend and listens intently and responds effectively to you," a spokesman said at the launch event in London. The facility can be used to command the phone to play songs, adjust the volume, send texts or emails and take photographs. The function is likely to be compared to Apple's Siri software.
Europe first 
 
One expert attending the launch event said that the advances Samsung had made should help Google's Android continue to be the most used smartphone operating system. "The importance of the Galaxy S3 to Samsung cannot be underestimated," said Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum. "The company has built its reputation on producing the 'must-have' Android smartphone and in the process has become the poster child for the Android platform.
"However, Samsung's Galaxy S3 not only needs to stand out amongst a plethora of other Android-based smartphones, it will also go head-to-head with the next iteration of Apple's flagship smartphone, the iPhone." Mr Leach added that Apple was not expected to release its new handset until much closer to the end of the year.
The S3 will be available in two colours, pebble blue and marble white, and the firm says that other options will be available at a later date.
The Galaxy S3 can wirelessly connect to Samsung television screens
Not everyone at the launch was convinced by the design.
"It is not an eye-catching device that will overwhelm consumers," said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager for IDC.
"It is a bit of a facelift of the Galaxy Nexus. It feels less 'plasticky' though." The new handsets will be available from the end of May in Europe. Launches in Asia, the Middle East and Africa will follow. A 4G version will go on sale in the US and South Korea in the summer.