Business, Financial & Legal - Page 145

It was only a matter of time, and with Apple not slowing down with their growing list of patent targets, Google are now looking to attack the iPhone maker, reports AndroidPIT. Apple are currently looking to ban as many Android-based products as possible, with lawsuits against Samsung, HTC and Motorola, and that's just recently.

Google only recently acquired Motorola, and will now defend their acquisition against Apple. The Mountain View-based company are now seeking a sales ban on not just the iPhone, but the iPad and Mac computers across the United States. Google have pledged support for Android device makers in the past, but this is different, this is now Google, telling Apple, this is it, we've had enough, back down or feel the wrath of Google.

Apple's lawsuit against Samsung that was victorious earlier this week targeted relatively small things, like rectangles and other shape-related patent infringements. Google aren't being so petty, and are claiming patent infringement for non-standard essential patents. This means that Google and their recently acquired Motorola, have filed a case for a patent that courts cannot legally force companies to license, meaning that if Google win this case, Apple could be forced to completely halt the use of this technology in their devices.

Apple may have initially won the court case, but it's not over yet. Samsung have said on Tuesday that they are willing to modify their smartphones if they can't successfully fight the Cupertino-based company's request to have them banned across the US.

Apple made an initial request to ban eight of the South Korean company's smartphones, including one of the most popular, the Galaxy S II. Samsung does plan to fight the request, and would be willing to modify the devices to avoid the ban. How could they do this exactly? Removing their TouchWiz UI and replacing it with the stock Android ROM, be it Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, or Android 4.1 Jelly Bean would do the trick.

Users have been begging smartphone makers to release stock Android ROMs, and it looks like this time is upon us. If Samsung were to begin offering flagship devices with stock Google Android OS's, things could get very interesting, very fast. Could Apple have inadvertently started a new, wonderful trend of smartphone makers pushing devices out with stock, or at least close to stock, Android operating systems?

AMD has hired a new Chief Graphics Product Architect for the Graphics Business Unit. This means that the visionary behind Gustafson's Law will be working on the AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro line of products. With fresh blood comes fresh ideas, so here's to hoping he can come up with something that really pushes graphics technology forward.

"Our industry-leading graphics technology predicates that we consistently deliver the most differentiated and superior graphics processor unit (GPU) architectures and products -- without compromise," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics. "With the growing importance of parallel compute in defining the computing experience, John brings the full package of industry experience and knowledge needed to help us expand and execute our AMD Radeon and AMD FirePro graphics technology programs, and will help forge an aggressive long-term roadmap that allows AMD to continue to lead and win with our gaming and virtualization technologies."

John Gustafson's resume is impressive and he will surely be an asset to the company. He joins AMD from Intel, where he "headed the company's eXtreme Technologies Lab, conducting cutting-edge research on energy-efficient computing and memory, as well as optical, energy and storage technologies."

The FCC has issued a statement today saying they are forming a group to study the use of portable electronic devices (PEDs) on aircraft. The current policy is quite cumbersome and requires lots of time and effort to get a device authorized for use during flight. The FCC recognizes this is an issue of consumer interest and this is the reason they have formed the group.

"With so many different types of devices available, we recognize that this is an issue of consumer interest," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "Safety is our highest priority, and we must set appropriate standards as we help the industry consider when passengers can use the latest technologies safely during a flight."

The group will examine the methods used for certification along with a variety of other issues and then present the findings to the FCC. Unfortunately, they will not be investigating the use of cell phones for voice communications. A reason for this was not provided and it seems like a massive miss on the group's priority list.

Store shelves could soon be bare of Samsung products, if Judge Koh accepts Apple's preliminary injunction request. We knew that Apple would go after sales bans after winning by so much over Samsung, we just didn't know which products. Now, Apple has filed with the court listing the models that they would like banned.

Apple is going after the eight devices listed in the chart above. Why wouldn't they go after all 24 of them? Well, a large majority of them are no longer being sold and Judge Koh doesn't like having her time wasted, as Apple and Samsung found out, so they've narrowed the list down to a more reasonable amount.

The devices included in the list are the Galaxy S 4G, the Galaxy S II ATT, the Galaxy S II Skyrocket, the Galaxy S II T-Mobile, the Galaxy S II Epic 4G, the Galaxy S Showcase, the Droid Charge, and the Galaxy Prevail.

Waiting for the next Samsung smartphone or tablet? Well, you could be waiting just a bit longer than expected due to Apple's decisive win over Samsung on Friday. Since Samsung was found to be infringing on basically every single patent Apple asserted, Samsung will likely redesign phones and tablets that are currently in the works to avoid being sued again.

"The verdict is worse for Samsung than what many had anticipated, and it will have to change some products in its pipeline," Chang In Whan, president of Seoul-based KTB Asset Management Co., said. "There could be delays in developing and releasing new models, which together with a potential sales ban could weigh on corporate value."

However, a spokesman for Samsung has said that the verdict won't affect the current product launch schedule. Being forced to do things that are radically different from Apple could, in the end, wind up better for Samsung and the consumer market as a whole. If they have to reinvent the UI or physical design of the phone, they may come up with something far superior.

Your broadband Internet connection may get a little bit more expensive if the FCC goes ahead with a plan to tax it. Right now, the FCC has asked for comment on several different proposals designed to raise money for the Connect America Fund, a fund used to bring broadband access to rural Americans, and a tax is among the proposals.

AT&T, Sprint, and Google have all supported the tax, likely because it would increase their revenues. The tax would be similar to the fee already paid on landlines and cellular phones. This fee goes to the Universal Service Fund, a fund that was designed to ensure every person in America had access to phone service.

"Today we propose three goals for contribution reform: efficiency, fairness, and sustainability," Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, said. "And we underscore that any reforms to the contribution system must safeguard core Commission objectives, including the promotion of broadband innovation, investment, and adoption."

I'm sure most of our readers have been following the legal proceedings in the Apple v Samsung lawsuit. Yesterday, Apple was awarded just over $1 billion in damages for Samsung willfully infringing on their patents. However, Apple's Tim Cook says in a memo to employees that it wasn't about the money, it was "about values."

The memo, sent to Apple corporate employees, is an interesting read:

Apparently, at least according to this memo, Apple didn't want to get into a legal battle with Samsung, but was forced to after Samsung refused to stop actions Apple felt were infringing. He then signs off by telling his employees that he is "very proud of the work" they do.

I woke up this morning to my wife sitting across from me asking "did you hear about the Apple vs. Samsung case? Apple won". I immediately grabbed my Galaxy Note (wink) and read up on it. Today is a dark day for technology, my dear readers.

The jury on the case found that Samsung were guilty on infringing six out of the seven Apple patents, with the results of this pushing Samsung to pay just over $1 billion in damages to Apple. On Samsung's side, the jury ruled that Apple did not infringe on Samsung's patents with their iPhone 3G and 3GS phones, and have awarded Samsung absolutely nothing in damages.

The jury ruled that Samsung infringed on Apple's '381 bounceback patent, with all of their products in question, all 21 of them. In regards to the '915 patent on pinch-to-zoom, the jury ruled that all but three of Samsung's device infringed on the patent, and even worse, found that Samsung's executives either knew, or should have known their products were indeed infringing on the said patents.

We may just have a piece of good news here for users of the Android Facebook app. As most of you know, the thing sucks. I'm not going to use pretty language like "subpar" or other sanitized language when describing it. Facebook updated the iOS version of the app with a completely rewritten version that is faster, more stable, and generally better than the previous iteration--and the previous iteration was still better than the current Android app.

Facebook management has come to realize just how bad the Android app is and is working on getting their employees to fix it. But, if they don't use it, they won't really know just how bad it is or where the problems are. This is where Facebook's new "policy" comes into play. I say "policy" as it's not an official policy, rather a suggestion (with some coercion).

Facebook is suggesting employees, and has even ordered a few, to give up their iPhone and use an Android phone and the Facebook app all day, every day. Hopefully if they are stuck with the terrible app, they will become more interested in fixing it up to where it is at least competitive with the iOS version.

Apple and Samsung may be at each others throats in the US courts, but in South Korea, a court has ruled that Samsung didn't violate on Apple's iPhone design. A judge at the Seoul Central District Court said:

The judge also cited that it is difficult to say that consumers would confuse the iPhone with the Galaxy, considering they both sport completely different logos on the back of each model. Consumers also factor in operating systems, brand, applications, price and services when buying a smartphone.

The court also ruled that Apple infringed on two of Samsung's wireless technology patents, and the Cupertino-based company were required to whip out their credit card and pay a $35,400 fine. Samsung was fined slightly less for violating one patent in relation to a so-called bouncing-back function that is used when scrolling electronic documents. The judge ordered Samsung to immediately halt the sale of 10 products, including the Galaxy S II, and they also banned four of Apple's products, including the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

This week, Galaxy device maker, Samsung, opened their first retail "experience" store in Sydney, Australia. The design of the store is quite swish, featuring the company's blue look, right down to the t-shirts on its employees backs.

There's a dedicated customer support desk that is run by "Samsung Smart Tutors", that mimics Apple's Genius Bar. There's also a group demonstration bar, displays, and more products than you can find stars in a... galaxy.

Some have said that Samsung's new store looks too much like an Apple Store, but Samsung's corporate color is blue. Last time I checked, Apple haven't got the patent on the color blue. As for the design of the store itself, there's only so many ways a store can be laid out when showing off smart devices, too.

Everyone mostly hears about movie and music piracy, thanks in part to the efforts of the RIAA and MPAA to spread awareness. There's not a group of app developers, at least not yet, lobbying the government to attack this problem, so it's rather interesting that the government has taken the initiative to attack app piracy.

The US government, through the use of the FBI and seizure warrants, has smacked down three different app piracy sites in one swoop. The sites in question are applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com and now visiting any of these three sites gives you the message above. It likely also logs your IP address as a potential pirate.

As per the standard operating procedure for sites such as these, the servers were located overseas so this take down required cooperation between the FBI and foreign law enforcement. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breur explains just why this is such a growing problem for the United States:

A logo, not that big of a deal, right? Just come up with something creative at the start of your company and continue using it. Well, that wasn't good enough for Microsoft. No, for the first time in 25 years, they've decided to change their logo and the new logo makes much more sense than the old one. Take a look:

The whole push with Windows 8 is to maintain a similar UI that features a common look and feel across desktops, tablets, and smartphones and this logo extends this idea. It appears to draw heavily from the updated UI that is being used in Windows 8: that UI that Microsoft no longer calls "Metro."

The four different colors represent Microsoft's portability of products: blue represents Windows, orange represents office, green represents Xbox, and yellow likely represents its enterprise products. The change came about, in part, because someone asked why it was Microsoft "Windows" and they had a flag as a logo. They clearly took this to heart with the new design.

I got a chance to run around the Flash Memory Summit 2012 today and managed to find this gem among the rest of the rather non-interesting happenings. Western Digital has decided that they don't want to be left behind the times and are now looking to hire a team of solid-state drive engineers to build them a product.

I went in for a chat and managed to snag the person in charge of staffing the new solid-state department. We chatted for a little while about why they are out hiring engineers when they had already acquired a company. The response actually makes really good sense.

The reasoning behind Western Digital hiring a new team of engineers is rather simple in design, but not always the way things are done as it can be tough on the bottom line. The basic reasoning behind it is so that the engineers can make their own mistakes rather than cleaning up the ones made by another team.

It looks like Megaupload founder, Kim Dotcom, won't be extradited to the United States anytime soon, with the New Zealand high court ruling that the US must now hand over all evidence in its case against Dotcom before any extradition can happen.

New Zealand Justice Helen Winkelmann ruled without a review of the evidence against him, Dotcom would be "significantly constrained" defending himself, while giving the US Department of Justice a large advantage prosecuting him. Ira Rothken, Megaupload's lawyer, told Wired:

Dotcom's legal team also haven't received any payment since he was arrested, and up until now, the Megaupload founder has amassed $2 million in legal fees. Dotcom's lawyers are asking for that amount to be released, with a further $2 million to cover legal fees in the future. Dotcom has also asked the court to release an $8 million government bond so that he can borrow against it, as well as asking permission to sell his luxury cars.

We know HTC are struggling, as the competition from Samsung and Apple not slowing down, it seems that HTC can't release a product that really sticks with consumers. My first Android-based product was a HTC Desire, so I'm fond of the company.

But, we've seen the phone maker go from one bad report to another, with recent financial reports showing extremely low profit margins across more than one sector, where they were forced to sell off 50% of their share in Beats Audio just so they could meet some financial obligations. The company also took a $40 million arrow to the knee from the OnLive restructuring, where they invested the money in February of last year.

The big news here is that Taiwan Central Bank have proposed a bailout in an effort to save the struggling company, and we know that when the word "bank" and "bailout" are used, there's trouble brewing. HTC is still profitable, but we're not seeing anywhere near the numbers that rival Samsung are making, and I think right now HTC could all but dream of the numbers Apple are pulling off. What do you think? Are we looking at the beginning of the end of HTC?

Nokia is doing its best to hang in the smartphone market and has placed a large bet on Windows Phone. Instead of investing in Android like many of Nokia's competitor's did, they opted to stick with Microsoft's Windows Phone. And while they have the largest market share of Windows Phone phones, their overall market share is still really low.

As you can see in the graph above, total Windows Phone sales increased for nearly every manufacturer as the market grew, but Nokia managed to pull way away from the competition with their Nokia Lumia line of Windows Phone. This resulted in lower market shares for the other companies, such as Samsung dropping from 23 to 13 percent or HTC dropping from 44 to 21 percent.

However, in the US market, HTC is still the leader with 36 percent of the market. Nokia holds a close second at 32 percent and Samsung is in third with 26 percent. Nokia didn't launch a phone in the United States until January and you can see how much their sales took off between then and July. Localytics explains how Microsoft has a partner in Nokia:

Peter Thiel is a lot of things, a billionaire, an early Facebook investor, and board member of the social network, and to add to that, he's a little richer thanks to dumping a tonne of his shares in Facebook. Forbes is reporting that Thiel sold the majority of the shares in Facebook under his name last week, citing a financial document filed on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Thiel, with his venture capital firm, Founders Fund, sold close to 20.1 million shares late last week, which represent 72% of the shares voted by Thiel. Thiel is the first investor in Facebook who has dumped this amount of shares, and it should put shivers down the spines of any investors in the social network. Facebook shares have absolutely tanked since they first went public, dipping below $19, or under half their initial opening price of $38 per share.

It was rumored that Thiel would dump his shares after the expiration of a lock-up agreement ended, covering around 271 million shares that were held by early investors and employees of Facebook. Thiel still has a personal stake in Facebook, as well as maintaining voting control over the shares that are held by Founders Fund. After dumping his shares in the social network, Thiel netted around $285 million after taxes. Obviously much less than what he would've made had he gotten rid of them at the launch of the IPO, but that's what the lock-up agreement stopped.

PayPal has enjoyed its side of the mobile payments deal lately, but landing a client like McDonald's would definitely be a great move. Reuters is reporting that PayPal are in the early stages of a mobile payments deal with McDonald's Corp, the world's biggest hamburger chain.

McDonald's have been testing out PayPal at 30 of their restaurants in France, and also used the service earlier this year at their franchisee conference in Orlando, Florida. A McDonalds spokeswoman has confirmed the France tests, and said that the PayPal-based demonstration at their conference was part of a booth that features "technology coming within the next 24 months or so".

McDonald's France test included being able to order food on smart devices through a McDonald's mobile application, or online, where you'd pay with PayPal. PayPal with McDonald's would make it even easier to place your order, and pick it up, as you'd be able to cut lines in the restaurant itself. Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities has said that "if they can shave 10 seconds off wait times, same-store sales could go up a lot".