In attempting to fend off Apple and Microsoft’s suits against Motorola Mobility and advancing its own patent litigation against both companies, Google, which is facing a lot of regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad over what some allege is abuse of SEPs, has been arguing that proprietary non-standardized technologies that become ubiquitous due to their popularity with consumers should be considered de facto standards.
So, Let me get this straight. Apple spent billions of dollars researching the best interface for mobile devices and patented their findings. Those methods of interacting with a mobile device became so popular, Google illegally integrated them in its inferior Android operating system.
Now that they’ve been caught, they are arguing that the features are standards and are not Apple’s at all.
You know what else is ubiquitous? Search. Why not hand the code for that over to Apple and let them make a search engine to compete with Google.
Steven D. Jones and Nathalie Tadena for the Wall Street Journal:
Sustained growth of Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) core Office and enterprise software businesses cheered investors even as the software giant swung to a fiscal fourth-quarter loss–its first quarterly loss in at least 20 years–after a write-down and increase in deferred revenue related to a Windows 8 upgrade promotion.
Remember the bad old days when Apple used to lose money and Microsoft was the golden child?
Don’t get cocky. It wasn’t that long ago. This industry can turn on a dime.
US appeals court has denied Samsung’s second try at holding up a ban on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country.
District Judge Lucy Koh already said that the preliminary injunction she ordered wouldn’t wait until Samsung had completed its appeal against it and the Court of Appeals has backed her up.
Back to the drawing board for Samsung, which was prevented from releasing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 after Apple won an injunction over patent infringement.
In the age of fat payouts and lucrative perks for company executives, the CEO of Lenovo is getting attention for how he used his bonus.
Yang Yuanqing distributed $3 million from his bonus among 10,000 junior-level employees, the China-based technology company confirmed Thursday. The employees, such as receptionists, production-line workers and assistants, each received an average bonus of 2,000 yuan, which is $314, in the name of their CEO.
All told, Yang’s payout was about $14 million, so he can afford to be altruistic. But I’ll bet that $314 meant a lot to some of the folks further down the food chain.
Sparrow, which develops an eponymous e-mail client app for OS X and iOS, announced on their Web site Friday that they’ve been acquired by Google and are becoming part of the Gmail team.
The statement from Sparrow CEO Dom Leca said, “Now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.”
He said that the Sparrow development team will be “working on new things at Google,” but Sparrow will remain available and the team will continue to provide support for users.
Qantas has clocked up an Apple trifecta this week, announcing that it will roll out iPads to its 767 fleet to stream its entertainment.
The tablets will be placed in the pocket before each seat.
Most of the planes outfitted with the iPads will be flying routes through eastern Australia. Qantas also announced that it’s phasing out Blackberry devices in favor of iPhones and that it’s offering pilots iPads to replace paperwork and flight manuals they’d otherwise have to carry.
Apple’s latest iPad model went on sale quietly on Friday at a retail location in Beijing where unruly buyers and sullen crowds had marred past releases. Roughly 40 customers quietly lined up Friday morning outside the Apple Store in Beijing’s high-end Sanlitun shopping and restaurant district. They waited within a cordon surrounded security personnel and reporters. Store doors opened at 8 a.m. without disturbances.In May 2011, customers who lined up for new white iPhones scuffled with employees, leading managers to lock the doors.For the launch of the new iPad, Apple instituted a system new to the location in which buyers were required to take reservations beginning on Thursday, the day before the launch. Customers were then given a set time to pick up their devices.
Apple has long been fortunate to have an excited fan base promoting its products and helping lure first-time buyers. But did you know that Apple used to distribute free collateral to help its biggest fans spread the message?
Wednesday, July 18, is the 20th anniversary of our marriage. How can I begin to tell you about Chaz? She fills my horizon, she is the great fact of my life, she has my love, she saved me from the fate of living out my life alone, which is where I seemed to be heading. If my cancer had come, and it would have, and Chaz had not been there with me, I can imagine a descent into lonely decrepitude. I was very sick. I might have vegetated in hopelessness. This woman never lost her love, and when it was necessary she forced me to want to live. She was always there believing I could do it, and her love was like a wind forcing me back from the grave.
Film critic Roger Ebert’s touching love letter to his wife. Excuse me – I’ve got something in my eye.
There’s also no better way to gain a view into the most interesting startups than to start acquiring some, notes economist Paul Kedrosky. “[Mayer] needs to take that fire hose of startups that used to be directed at Google and redirect it at Yahoo. And the way you redirect it is to show that you’re a frequent, active acquirer.”
We all think about it several times a day (it’s not just us, right?…right?) How much would it cost to become Batman? In anticipation of the impending release of The Dark Knight Rises, Centives decided to find out.The total bill? $2.8 million to show the criminal scum that the city doesn’t belong to them.
New York Sen. Charles Schumer reprimanded the Department of Justice today for filing its e-book antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Using strong language in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, he wrote that “the suit could wipe out the publishing industry as we know it.”
Schumer’s fear is that the DoJ will act to restore Amazon’s stranglehold on the e-book industry with its Kindle devices.
“If that happens, consumers will be forced to accept whatever prices Amazon sets,” wrote Schumer.
In a letter released to the Battle.net forums, [Blizzard CEO Mike] Morhaime describes the difficulties in attempting to predict the demand for a game ahead of its launch, and concedes that its preparation for Diablo III, “just wasn’t enough.” He also mentions numerous problems still plaguing the experience for some players, such as latency.
Diablo III has been a rare misstep for a game publisher with the Midas touch: It seems that the company was incapable of making a game that its audience didn’t absolutely adore.
Problems have abounded with Diablo III since launch – from the activation woes that Morhaime mentioned to its need to stay constantly connected to Blizzard’s online servers (party for copy protection and also to cut down on cheating). The game’s auction house is another sore spot with some game players, since it allows players with real-world currency to buy rare in-game items that they’d otherwise have to find on their own.
A U.S. judge on Wednesday approved Apple Inc’s request to bar disparaging statements by Steve Jobs about Google’s Android operating system from an upcoming patent trial against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
At times, Jobs was openly hostile about Android because of his belief that it infringed on iOS. He said he’d go “thermonuclear war” on Google. Samsung claimed these remarks speak to bias on Apple’s part. The judge disagreed, saying that Steve Jobs wasn’t on trial.
While AT&T hasn’t yet decided whether or not it will charge users for using Apple’s FaceTime video-chat service over its cellular network, Sprint says it’s customers can use the service free of charge.
I wonder if that will put any pressure on AT&T. Telcos are famous for flip-flopping on these types of things though, so I’m not convinced this will last.
Whether you have a habit of arriving awkwardly early or annoyingly late for meetings, a new app called Twist is here to help. The location-based app, which launched on Wednesday, is akin to Find My Friends, but adds the useful element of notifying family, friends or colleagues when you’re going to arrive at a specific location.The app offers a clean and simple way to accomplish multiple tasks: Track a person’s location, receive directions, share photos along your route, send messages, and get venue and weather details. It’s not the snazziest-looking app, but the uncluttered experience is actually refreshing in a world where apps are trying to stuff as much as they can into the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen.
I absolutely hate being late and tend to show up 30+ minutes for appointments. Conversely, if someone I’m meeting is 5 minutes late, I worry they’ve been in an accident and are lying dead on the side of the road. This free app might alleviate some of that stress.
Apple’s solution to shaving thickness from the Retina MacBook Pro—gluing its lithium polymer battery cells directly to the aluminum unibody shell—continues to spark debate among proponents of sustainable electronics.Apple submitted the device to the Green Electronics Council for an EPEAT Gold rating last week, prompting critics to argue that the glued-in battery should disqualify it from any rating at all. But it turns out that some recyclers disagree, saying it isn’t dramatically more difficult to safely remove the battery than in other modern devices.Muddying the waters further is Apple itself.
It may sound snoozy, but the patent — which covers graphical user interfaces ranging from email to Camera Roll to menu lists to the multi-touch interface in general — looks like a dangerous weapon for Apple as it battles Android handset makers.
I don’t usually post about patents, but this is a doozy.
Boasting a colorfully angular interface, the promise of smooth transitional animations, and a design pandering toward extreme minimalism, Metro is perhaps the most ill-fitting of titles for such a barren landscape.
With AT&T officially announcing its “Mobile Share” plans and joining Verizon Wireless, there will soon be two options for customers who want to get into a family plan for data services.While these plans aren’t the best deals for individuals, large families or even groups of really, really close friends may want to consider them. That’s because the more people who sign on, the lower the price per gigabyte and user. Of course, if someone is a heavy data user, that person may want to stick with an individual plan, or risk hogging up the total available data for everyone.By and large, the plans are fairly similar.
During the course of the deposition, Ive at one point is shown photos of a three-dimensional mockup of a tablet that Apple produced as part of the discovery process. It’s referred to as the 035 mockup or prototype.
In this week’s jam packed episode, Jim and Dan discuss Yahoo’s new CEO, Office 2013, Apple’s Austin campus expansion, iPhone rumors, guitars, and much more!
Sponsored by Rackspace, Squarespace (coupon code DANSENTME7 for 10% off), and Hover (coupon code DANSENTME or 10% off).
Every time Apple loses one of its Senior VPs, we see stories questioning Apple’s leadership and future, suggesting that there may be significant inner turmoil.Well, Google just lost one of its top people.
It was around this time that Reed saw The Washington Post story with the wrong date of the Titanic collision and brought the story to the class figuring they’d spot it. They did, hence the correction letter.
So smitten were they with this kitten, in fact, that they wrote him in for mayor instead of deciding on one of the two lesser candidates. Mayor Stubbs has held his position ever since.
The cat has been mayor for 15 years. He’s probably better than most politicians.
No longer must Boxer – or anyone – seek out a player to deliver game film. It can be remotely uploaded to a player’s iPad while they are in their own living room through a WiFi signal. No longer must the “drop-off” take place on Wednesdays, either. Players will have their edited material uploaded 2 ½ hours after a game.The iPad revolution is upon us.
