Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 233

All the latest Business, Financial & Legal news as it relates to tech, gaming, and science - Page 233.

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Wikipedia founder will encrypt the site if the UK passes their Communications Data Bill

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 7, 2012 5:32 AM CDT

The UK government proposed their controversial Communications Data Bill earlier this year, which would see British ISPs made to keep records of every website that their customers visit for 12 months. Of course, you can see where civil rights groups, and others, would have problems with this.

Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, has stepped up to the debate and joined the opposition to the proposed bill, saying:

If we find that UK ISPs are mandated to keep track of every single webpage that you read at Wikipedia, I am almost certain we would immediately move to a default of encrypting all communication to the UK, so that the local ISP would only be able to see that you are speaking to Wikipedia, not what you are reading.

Continue reading: Wikipedia founder will encrypt the site if the UK passes their Communications Data Bill (full post)

Foxconn forcing university students to work on the new iPhone

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 7, 2012 2:42 AM CDT

The new iPhone looks to be announced next week at Apple's September 12 event, and one analyst estimates the new iPhone could sell as many as 10 million in its first week. The question is, how do Apple amass 10 million (or so) new iPhone's in a short amount of time?

Simple. Force university students to work 12 hours per day, six days per week for around $243 per month on the new iPhone. This is what Foxconn is doing, reports the Shanghai Daily. Foxconn reportedly couldn't get their soul machine to work normally, so they secured more workers from universities, as classes were suspended at the start of the new semester.

Students began working on the new iPhone last Thursday, and are being "compensated" by the $243 per month wage. One student who wished to remain anonymous, claims that the authorities had ordered the schools to round up students to help Foxconn, with the company not informing parents, or signing agreements with students. Another anonymous student said that some universities would go as far as punishing students if they tried to leave the factory.

Continue reading: Foxconn forcing university students to work on the new iPhone (full post)

Micron, SanDisk shares jump on warning of NAND chip shortage

Trace Hagan | Sep 6, 2012 7:34 PM CDT

OCZ lowered their forecast for second quarter earnings due to a shortage of NAND chips that it uses in the production of its solid state drives. This was seen as a good thing on Wall Street and both Micron's and SanDisk's shares jumped. This is because a shortage in NAND chips would stop the sliding price of flash memory that has been dropping lower in recent days due to overproduction.

Micron increased by 5.97 percent to $6.55 and SanDisk managed an 8.0 percent increase to $43.85. "Supply and demand is coming into balance with the cuts and the industry rationalizing its capacity," said Kevin Cassidy, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. Supply had previously been increased to meet the demand for Apple's iPad and other devices.

Decreased sales had created an overabundance of NAND chips which lead to decreased prices. Toshiba announced back in July that they would be decreasing their output by 30 percent in order to help stabilize prices. Citi analyst Glen Yeung said that the effects have yet to be fully felt across the industry.

Continue reading: Micron, SanDisk shares jump on warning of NAND chip shortage (full post)

Google: 1.3 million Android activations each day, 480 million Android-based devices now in the wild

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 5, 2012 9:06 PM CDT

During Motorola's event in New York, Google chairman Eric Schmidt took to the stage announcing some stellar numbers for the Mountain View-based company. Schmidt said that there are now 1.3 million Android activations every day, with 70,000 of them tablets.

How many Android devices in total? An amazing 480 million, that's just a shave under half a billion Android devices - insane. Schmidt continued, talking of how much the Android ecosystem had grown in the years gone by, where he quoted Comscore numbers that show Android is ahead at 53% of the market, and Apple's iOS with just 33%.

Schmidt did step back and say that people do question these numbers, as we don't really know how those numbers are gathered. Google's Dennis Woodside took to the stage announcing that "the new Motorola begins today", also stating "Motorola invented the technology that underpins the mobile industry". Of course he'd say that, considering Motorola is now part of the behemoth that is Google.

Continue reading: Google: 1.3 million Android activations each day, 480 million Android-based devices now in the wild (full post)

Oracle must pay Google's legal fees after unsuccessful lawsuit

Trace Hagan | Sep 5, 2012 12:30 PM CDT

The judge has smacked Oracle with a $1,130,350 bill payable to Google for its legal expenses incurred during the unsuccessful lawsuit. "Google was the prevailing party in this action. Oracle initially sought six billion dollars in damages and injunctive relief but recovered nothing after nearly two years of litigation and six weeks of trial."

It's not as much as Google would have liked--they asked for over $4,000,000--but a large portion of that was fees for an eDiscovery firm, something found to be not payable. Oracle objected the claim, saying they had brought a matter of great national importance, something that would protect them from the fees:

Oracle initially alleged infringement of seven patents and 132 claims but each claim ultimately was either dismissed with prejudice or found to be non-infringed by the jury. Oracle also lost on its primary copyright claim for Java APIs.... While it is true that a copyright issue presented, copyrightability of APIs, was of great importance to the computer industry, this is not enough to deny costs. The media attention following this case was due in large part because Oracle crafted broad, and ultimately overreaching, claims of copyright infringement. A close follower of this case will know that Oracle did not place great importance on its copyright claims until after its asserted patents started disappearing upon PTO reexamination (indeed, Oracle's first damages report barely mentioned copyright claims). Oracle did not bring its API copyright claim for the benefit of addressing "a landmark issue of national importance," but instead fell back on an overreaching (albeit somewhat novel) theory of copyright infringement for its own financial interests late in litigation. On these facts, Oracle has failed to overcome the presumption of awarding costs to Google.

Continue reading: Oracle must pay Google's legal fees after unsuccessful lawsuit (full post)

iPhone 5 clone could give Apple legal trouble in China

Trace Hagan | Sep 5, 2012 10:28 AM CDT

Finally someone is trolling Apple instead of Apple patent trolling everybody else. In China, a phone clone maker has produced an Android phone that was designed around iPhone 5 leaks. But they didn't stop there. No, they took the design to the patent office in China and received patents for the design.

The better part? They've threatened legal action if Apple tries to release the new iPhone in China as they basically own the patents for the new device, if it looks like all the leaks say it does. This is from GooPhone, a company that already has a cloned Samsung Galaxy S III on sale in China.

This easily could prevent Apple from selling the phone in China, which would be bad for Apple's bottom line. China is the fastest growing mobile market and is expected to soon be the biggest consumer of smartphones, lucrative for a company that makes smartphones. The iPhone 5 is widely expected to be unveiled on September 12 in San Francisco.

Continue reading: iPhone 5 clone could give Apple legal trouble in China (full post)

Samsung experiences severe PR backfire, tries to turn two Indian bloggers into paid shills

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 4, 2012 3:21 AM CDT

Over the weekend, Samsung were caught in a web of their own crap as it was revealed they were trying to turn two Indian tech bloggers into paid shills. Clinton Jeff and a second blogger were allegedly pressured into promoting Samsung products at the IFA event in Berlin.

It was meant to be part of Samsung's Mob!lers marketing programme, but news came out from the bloggers, who have painted quite the picture of Samsung. The original story from The Next Web shows that the two bloggers were independent bloggers, not there for any particular company, but for all the companies, to report on all products. Samsung had offered to fly them over to Berlin from India, and put them up in a hotel, how can you turn down that offer?

It turns out that Samsung had other plans for the bloggers, where once they touched down in Berlin, were asked to sign an NDA at the IFA event. They declined, and were threatened with their flights home being cancelled, and their hotel room stay finished. This would've left them stranded in a foreign country, with no way home, with the only option left to spend their own money, unexpectedly.

Continue reading: Samsung experiences severe PR backfire, tries to turn two Indian bloggers into paid shills (full post)

Valve are 'frustrated by lack of innovation' in PC hardware, so they're 'jumping in'

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 4, 2012 12:29 AM CDT

If you're a long-term reader of TweakTown, you'll know that I'm quite passionate in the stagnation of the PC hardware scene. I've even touted Valve as the savior to all of this, and it seems I'm being proven right more and more with each day passing.

CVG reports that they've noticed a job listing on Valve's site, where the company is looking for an 'Industrial Designer'. The post says:

Valve is traditionally a software company. Open platforms like the PC and Mac are important to us, as they enable us and our partners to have a robust and direct relationship with customers. We're frustrated by the lack of innovation in the computer hardware space though, so we're jumping in. Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven't really changed in any meaningful way over the years. There's a real void in the marketplace, and opportunities to create compelling user experiences are being overlooked.

Continue reading: Valve are 'frustrated by lack of innovation' in PC hardware, so they're 'jumping in' (full post)

Bruce Willis vs. Apple, actor to fight the company over his right to leave his iTunes library in his will

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 3, 2012 6:30 AM CDT

Our music collections are all precious to us, and now that they're going mostly digital, these tracks can't be passed to a friend, or family member in the case of your death. DRM, is hell, after all.

Die Hard actor, Bruce Willis, is worried that his extensive music collection on iTunes will revert its ownership back to Apple in the case of his death. Willis wants to leave his iTunes library to his three daughters, Rumer, Scout and Tallulah. Willis' lawyers are reportedly looking into the possibility of setting up "family trusts" to act as legal holders of the downloaded music, but Willis is also prepared to consider taking Apple to court over his iTunes library.

Solicitor Chris Walton, told the Daily Mail:

Continue reading: Bruce Willis vs. Apple, actor to fight the company over his right to leave his iTunes library in his will (full post)

Australian billionaire Clive Palmer set to built full-sized Titanic replica, doesn't involve Leo

Anthony Garreffa | Sep 3, 2012 2:29 AM CDT

Clive Palmer, an Australian billionaire, is set to spend quite a bunch of cash on building a full-sized replica of the Titanic. Now, you're probably thinking a replica, would be a 1/100, or 1/1000 scale model, but this is the real deal, the real size of the original Titanic.

The design of the replica is being completed in Europe, with the construction of the ship to begin toward the end of this year in China. Palmer has said that the Titanic 2 will keep 98% of the original Titanic design, with the 2% in changes reserved for building in modern standards and regulatory requirements. Palmer says:

You'll have the exact same cabins as the original Titanic. If you want to go in third class, eat potatoes...dance around in circles with an Irish band, you'll be able to do it.

Continue reading: Australian billionaire Clive Palmer set to built full-sized Titanic replica, doesn't involve Leo (full post)