Business, Financial & Legal - Page 251
All the latest Business, Financial & Legal news as it relates to tech, gaming, and science - Page 251.
PC sales may decline "for years to come", analysts begin to worry
This should really come as a surprise to, well, no one. The consumer tech world has changed, and gone are the requirement for desktops for productivity work or surfing the web - you can do all of this on a smartphone, or a notebook. Recent figures have pointed toward a decline for this year in relation to PC sales, a first in 11 years.
More and more consumers are grabbing smart devices, and while some analysts have hopes for Windows 8, Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, isn't so sure on PC sales. Reitzes says that PC sales could decline "for years to come" and has now reduced his estimates for 2012, all the way up until 2016. Reitzes wrote in a research note that Forbes reported on:
Continue reading: PC sales may decline "for years to come", analysts begin to worry (full post)
PayPal to launch facial recognition for in-store payments, smile for the... PayPal?
PayPal is about to get to know your face a whole lot better, with the company looking to use facial recognition technology in a trial in Australia for in-store payments. All you'll need to do is finish your shopping, "check-in" at a store on your smartphone, place an order, and have the sales assistant check your photo ID when it pops up on their terminal.
The facial recognition-based tech is said to ramp up over the next three years, as Australians become more and more technology dependant. They're becoming much more comfortable using them to shop, and online payment provider PayPal is jumping at the chance.
Nielsen's latest figures have shown that an estimate of annual purchases of goods and services using smartphones was just $155 million two years ago, that figure has now rocketed up to $5.6 billion. To say that this is a large jump would be a severe understatement. At the end of this week, PayPal's new technology will be unveiled at Sydney fashion outlet Glue Store's Pitt St flagship site, after which it will begin its rollout at other locations across Victoria, NSW and Queensland before the end of the year.
Samsung flips Apple off, increases the price of iPad and iPhone processors by one-fifth
Apple must really be regretting some decisions made in the past, their stock prices are looking like they've been a stock market piñata and now main competitor and the receiving end of their nasty patent lawsuit, Samsung, are increasing the prices on the components that get baked into Apple's bread and butter, the iPad and iPhone.
Chosun Ilbo has said that Samsung have just increased the price of manufacturing Apple's application processors by close to 20%, where they also note that this is the first time that the South Korean Galaxy device maker has increased the pricing on processors to Apple, but with a lack of alternative options, Apple has had to agree.
Apple's A-series of processors are custom-designed by Apple, but they are actually built by Samsung. This relationship, as you can imagine, is beginning to really whither away. Apple have slowly been diversifying away from their reliance on Samsung, but unfortunately no one can match the production volume that Samsung has to offer - leaving Apple stuck for the time being.
Google forced to pay Australian man $208,000 over claims of defamation
A court in Australia has ruled that Google published defamatory content linking Milorad Trkulja with gangsters in Melbourne. The issue in question is whether or not Google publishing links to other sites constitutes publishing defamatory content, if the links point to sites where possibly defamatory content is posted.
In this case, the top links pointed to sites which linked Trkulja with references to Melbourne's gangs. Google of course denied that they published any material--after all, they didn't write these other websites. Google also argued that the material in question did not convey the defamatory implications that Trkulja said they did.
"What the court's said here is that this isn't just innocent architecture, what this is is human-designed software to showcase information in a certain way," Bond University media law expert Mark Pearson told AFP. "The judge has said that because you (Google) have designed (the search results) to appear in this way, you are the publisher of the material."
Continue reading: Google forced to pay Australian man $208,000 over claims of defamation (full post)
SEAL Team Six members reveal secrets with EA for the new Medal of Honor: Warfighter, have been disciplined
Uh oh, a group of US Navy SEALs have been disciplined over leaking out secret practices to Electronic Arts earlier this year. At least seven members of SEAL Team Six, an elite special forces group, have reportedly worked as paid consultants for EA over a two-day period this past spring and summer.
Four members have since left the unit, and are also under investigation. The soldiers reportedly talked to EA and their work in special missions, all as data for Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The report states that the SEAL members used classified information that may have been given to them by the Navy and that they voluntarily violated the understanding that SEALs are silent warriors that don't like the public spotlight.
But, given that SEAL Team Six were involved in the raid that assassinated Osama bin Laden last year, that whole "we don't like the public spotlight" thing, has been kinda hard. Hollywood have two movies locked and loaded, one regarding the rescue of the captain of a container ship that had been kidnapped by Somali pirates, and the other centered on the raid itself on bin Laden.
UK court orders Apple to pay Samsung's legal fees in full - ouch
It looks as though Apple aren't having much luck in court rooms outside the United States, as the Court of Appeal of England and Wales has ordered the Cupertino-based company to pay the legal fees of Samsung on an 'indemnity basis' after the company published a "false and misleading" notice in the aftermath of a patent lawsuit over the iPad.
The judgement looks to embarrass Apple, requires the iPad maker to pay for all expenses associated with Samsung's legal defense, with any disputes over the exact amount likely be to resolved in Samsung's favor - ouch.
After losing an appeal in October, Apple were ordered to publish a notice on their front page of their UK website which has been deemed inaccurate. Apple complied with the court's wishes, but were sly and added some statements which according to the court were "calculated to product huge confusion". Included in these statements were a reference to a separate US verdict that saw Apple awarded more than $1 billion in damages.
Continue reading: UK court orders Apple to pay Samsung's legal fees in full - ouch (full post)
Apple and HTC settle all patent litigation, includes 10 year license agreement
Well, what's going on here you ask? Apple and HTC have come out over the weekend announcing that there's been a settlement agreed to, that resolves all of their existing patent disputes - yes, Apple have settled a patent agreement nicely for once.
The agreement is a "global settlement", dismissing all currently Apple and HTC complaints under a new ten-year license agreement, covering current and future patents held by each company. Both companies have said through a press release that the terms of the settlement are confidential.
HTC rep Jeff Gordon told The Verge that the company "does not expect this license agreement to have any adverse material impact on the financials of the company", this means that it won't cost HTC an arm and a leg. We're seeing HTC have some wins here, as they can now use some features that Samsung can't, such as slide-to-unlock, universal search and other disputed features.
Lenovo announces plans to share its battery technology with the PC industry
Lenovo has announced today that they are planning on sharing their proprietary battery design technology with the PC industry "in the interests of public safety and improving the level of engineering in notebook personal computer designs worldwide." This is more likely a ploy to get good will, but it will surely be appreciated by end-consumers who should receive better products.
"Battery design is an issue of crucial importance to business and computing," said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Lenovo notebook business unit. "As the personal computer business examines standards and design criteria for the best use of lithium ion batteries, Lenovo is contributing its engineering and design leadership. No make of battery is 100 percent immune from failure, but Lenovo strongly believes in safety first. These engineering specifications show our approach to battery management, and we believe they will move the PC industry as a whole toward safer battery standards."
The shared information will include redundant protections, failure detection, thermal conditions and protection, charging methodology, voltage protection, and mechanical design. The information will be shared with industry standards organizations so that other manufacturers may take advantage of advancements that Lenovo has made.
Apple getting sued by VirnetX again after the latter won $368 million
Apple is at the receiving end of another lawsuit. This lawsuit is another brought by VirnetX, who recently won $368 million from Apple after a jury ruled that Apple was infringing on patents owned by the company. The new lawsuit is a very similar lawsuit to the last, in that it is dealing with the same patents.
The new lawsuit is suing over the iPhone 5 and iPad mini, which were not released during the last lawsuit's time period. This means that VirnetX did not get any sort of award for these devices, and they feel they should. "Due to their release dates, these products were not included in the previous lawsuit that concluded with a Jury verdict on November 6, 2012," VirnetX said in a statement.
With the first case hardly settled, Apple has not issued a formal response to the latest lawsuit. Apple is widely expected to appeal the former lawsuit, and fight this one tooth and nail. Since the lawsuit is basically the same, at least in terms of patents and how Apple is infringing, one would expect Apple to lose this case as well. But with a new jury, the results could be widely different. It will be an interesting case to watch.
Continue reading: Apple getting sued by VirnetX again after the latter won $368 million (full post)
Australian government to drop mandatory ISP filtering, doesn't mean they still don't want it
I'm based in Australia and I'm completely against mandatory filtering by my ISP - sure, they probably already do it (I could place bets on this), but the Australian government have stepped up and announced they're dropping their plans of a mandatory ISP filter:
But - come on, you knew there'd be a but - they still want Australian Net feeds to be filtered: