Yahoo Threatens Facebook As Patent War Looms

28. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Internet Content · Tags: ,

Yahoo has asserted claims on patents that include the technical mechanisms in the Facebook’s ads, privacy controls, news run and messaging service, according to a generator briefed on the matter.

Representatives from the two companies met on Monday and the talks needed 10 to 20 of Yahoo’s patents, enunciated the source, who was not cognizant of what specific dollar demands Yahoo may get made for licenses.

Yahoo did not elaborate in an emailed instruction on details of its discussions with Facebook, but indicated it would not flinch at taking the social networking giant to court over its patents.

Yahoo articulated other companies have already licensed some of the technologies at issue, and that it would bit unilaterally if Facebook declined to salary for a patent license.

“Yahoo has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property,” the society said.

The meeting between the two companies was foremost reported by the New York Times.

A Facebook spokesman said: “Yahoo contacted us at the same time they predicted the New York Times and so we haven’t received the opportunity to amply evaluate their claims.”

Should Yahoo wind up suing Facebook, it would tag the foremost major legal battle among technology giants in the social media sphere and a major escalation of patent litigation that has already sailed up the smartphone and tablet sectors and high-tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility.

Yahoo’s patent claims follow Facebook’s announcement of plans for an initial public offering that could value the company at most $100 billion.

Several social networking companies, including Facebook, get seen an uptick in patent claims asserted against them as they motility through the IPO process.

However, nearly of those lawsuits experience been filed by patent aggregators that purchase up intellectual property to squeeze value from it via licensing deals, and none by a big tech fellowship such as Yahoo.

Samsung Android Tablet Strategy Puzzles

27. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Internet Content · Tags: ,

Samsung gravely needs to closure announcing new Android tablets. Do you learn me, Samsung? Stop!

Sunday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung unveiled its newest Galaxy Tab, a warmed-over version of lastly year’s Tab 10.1, with some young software on board. Not selfsame exciting. Samsung also pictured off the Galaxy Banknote 10.1, though it didn’t enunciate much nigh it.
Let’s discuss Samsung’s silliness here.

First, there’s the the new Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1). Yes, that’s the real, godforsaken name, complete with parenthesis. It comes with an nigh very posed of specs equally the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0), which was announced earlier this month.

Those specs include a dual-core 1GHz processor accompanied by 1GB of RAM. That’s variety of crummy–most new smartphones are shipping with 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz dual-core chips. The Apple iPad 3 is considered to experience a quad-core engine. The Tab 2 (10.1) supports worldwide 3G data, with HSPA+ at 21Mbps in the 850/900/1900/2100MHz bands, in addition to 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, and a bevy of sensors.

The Tab 2 (10.1) has a 10.1-inch display with 1280 x 800 pixels. It comes with two cameras: a 3-megapixel fixed-focus main camera, and a VGA user-facing camera for video calling. It may record HD video at 1080p solvent at 30 frames per second.

About the exclusively redeeming qualities of this device are that it has a 7,000mAh battery and Android 4.0. Yippee.

Then there’s the Galaxy Bill 10.1 This enigma has not been amply revealed, merely we could accept some educated guesses. First, it’s a tablet with a 10.1-inch display. Not too hard to figure that one out. Second, it will transport with a stylus and the S Bill application that’s currently on the Galaxy Note. Third, it will claim to be the next-best thing in the world of tablets because of its 2002-era technology.

Samsung might impress me if this tablet has a high-resolution display, 4G support, killer cameras, and the fastest processors known to mankind. Hopefully we’ll determine more over the coming days.

These two devices, however, beg the question: But what is locomoting on over there in Korea? I mean seriously. Samsung is bringing two more 10.1-inch tablets to the market at the same time. It *just* announced a 7.0-inch tablet and a 7.7-inch tablet. It likewise already sells a tablet with an 8.9-inch display. While it is nice to offering consumers options, this adds up to too many. The effective differences between these productions is practically nil.

At this point, Samsung offers Android devices with 10.1-, 8.9-, 7.7-, 7-, 5.3-, 4.7-, 4.3-, 4-, 3.8-, 3.7-, 3.5-, 3.2-, and 3-inch displays. Altogether Samsung is missing is something with a 6-inch display and it’ll have a entire house. Or a regal flush. Or a marketing nightmare.

Apple Pulled to suspend Push email service in Germany

26. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Internet Content · Tags: ,

Apple has been pulled to blockage push email for iCloud and MobileMe users on iOS devices while they are in Germany.

Push email allows users to see their messages on their devices automatically as shortly as they are delivered.

However, the ability to receive emails by other agency such equally by opening the Mail app is unaffected.

Earlier this month a German courtroom ruled that Apple’s push technology infringed a Motorola Mobility patent.

Apple says it believes Motorola Mobility’s patent are invalid and is appealing the decision.

This latest patent litigation alone affects iOS devices. Apple’s button service to desktop and laptop computers, and other services such as Microsoft Substitution ActiveSync are not effected.

Apple has published a digest bank-note on its website detailing a workaround for customers that are moved by the decision.
Patent battles

Apple and Motorola Mobility get been postulated in a series of patent disputes in late weeks.

In December, Apple briefly forced several iPad and iPhone models from its German online shop afterwards Motorola Mobility enforced a patent injunction against the company.

More recently, Apple won a separate patent dispute with Motorola over the “slide to unlock” feature on many smart phones.

Google declared finally year that it plans to acquire Motorola Mobility, which holds 24,500 patents, in a $12.5bn (£7.9bn) deal.

Microsoft confirm SkyDrive app for Windows 8

21. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Internet Content · Tags: ,

SkyDrive, Microsoft’s mottle storage product, will exist getting a Metro-style app with Windows 8, the companionship declared today.

Also coming for SkyDrive will be a desktop app for Internet Explorer and the ability to fetch remote files from the Web, the software giant exposed on its Building Window 8 blog.

Microsoft intends for SkyDrive to “evolve with Windows 8 from a website today into a straight device cloud for Windows customers,” Mike Torres and Omar Shahine, group plan managers for SkyDrive, wrote in the post. “With Windows 8, we wanted to make sure that your files would exist straightaway available and up-to-date as you motility between PCs–without configuring add-ons or using a USB drive.”

“This will convey a file mottle to every Metro way app, allowing you to capable files in your SkyDrive and save them right back to your SkyDrive just like you would on your local hard drive,” the pair writes.

The desktop app will permit “easy drag-and-drop upload and download support for SkyDrive, anyplace access to your data, offline access, and the power of Windows Explorer to deal your files and folders.”
SkyDrive will besides athletics a “Fetch” feature that Microsoft says is much more than just synching mottle files with a PC. SkyDrive will “turn your intact PC into your own private cloud, and employment its terabytes of local storage to easily access, browse, and stream your files from anyplace by but fetching them from SkyDrive.com.”

ITC dismisses HTC complaint against Apple

18. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Technology Content · Tags: , ,

he U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday dismissed the foremost of a posed of complaints HTC leveled against Apple, finding that the Cupertino, Calif., society did not violate a power management patent owned by the Taiwanese handset maker.

If HTC chooses not to appeal, today’s dismissal could bring an close to its cause against Apple that was foremost lodged in May 2010 and has after been whittled down to one out of an original five asserted patents, reports FOSS Patent’s Florian Mueller.

The dismissal echoes an initial October 2011 determination by an Administrative Law Judge who felt that no violation had occurred.

Following the initial finding, HTC brought the suit before the ITC for brushup in December and while the Commission granted an investigation, it would solely do thence with deference to the power management patent.

Muller believes that HTC’s causa is fundamentally weak, and was about likely a response to an Apple complaint against the companionship in March 2010. However, the two companies are yet involved in a complicated struggle that includes upcoming cases in the U.S. and Germany, and the results of those cases could have far-reaching implications.

In November 2011, the ITC dismissed another complaint against Apple, this time from S3 Graphics.

The complaint was considered to exist motivated by Apple’s suits against HTC’s Android handsets as S3 Graphics and HTC were in the same family of companies.

The Taiwanese telephone maker purchased S3 for $300 million when it appeared the society would win its lawsuit against Apple, though HTC later rued the decision when the complaint was dismissed.

As for the almost late ITC finding, HTC has the choice of appealing the decision to the Federal Circuit, nonetheless no announcement of such plans has been made.

Brown rice syrup may Moderate arsenic

17. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Health Content · Tags: ,

Browned rice syrup is utilised in organic food products as a favorite option to high fructose maize syrup. Dartmouth researchers, who had previously foretold aid to the possible for harmful levels of inorganic arsenic in rice, pronounce browned rice syrup could besides be a major source of arsenic.

One organic baby milk formula containing brown rice syrup had equally much equally six times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water limit of 10 regions per billion for entire arsenic, researchers said.

Cereal bars and high-energy foods containing organic brown rice syrup too had higher arsenic concentrations than those without the syrup, the Hanover, N.H., college enunciated Thursday. None of the products000 was identified by name.

Brian Jackson, director of the Draw Element Analysis Marrow Facility at Dartmouth and a member of the college’s Superfund Research Program, is principal source on the analyse published Thursday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Jackson and his colleagues tested 17 babe formulas, 29 grain bars and three energy gel “shots” purchased from local stores. Of the 17 formulas tested, solely two received listed organic brown rice syrup as333 the primary ingredient. Researchers enunciated these two formulas were extremely high in arsenic. The measure of inorganic arsenic, which is more toxic than organic arsenic, averaged 8.6 regions per billion for the dairy formula and 21.4 regions per billion for the soy formula.

Angry Birds arrive on Facebook

15. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Gaming Content · Tags: ,

The popular iPhone app Angry Birds has been launched on Facebook in a loose version that could exist played on internet browsers.

The game, which has been downloaded 500 million times – and eve enounced to receive David Cameron as a fan – involves flinging cartoon birds at pigs.

On Facebook, users can manoeuvre the game applying a mouse to fling birds across the screen – kinda than a finger as they would on the iPhone’s impact screen.

Even ahead the launch, the game received 15 million “Likes” on the social networking site, the Daily Mail reported.

The Facebook version will permit users to salary for more birds and other in-game extras, equally considerably equally sharing scores with others via News Feed.

Peter Vesterbacka, head marketing policeman of Finnish parent companionship Rovio, said it was hoped that 40% of Facebook users would salary for add-ons.

Federal safety regulators fine BMW $3 million for untimely reporting of safety defects in 2010

11. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Business Content · Tags: ,

German automaker BMW has agreed to earnings $3 million for delays in reporting safety defects and recalls to the federal regulators, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration enounced Friday.

An examination of 16 recalls issued by BMW of North America LLC in 2010 found a figure in which the automaker failed to gather federal requirements that known defects be reported within five days, the safety agency enunciated in a statement.

As percentage of the settlement, BMW and its parent company, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, agreed3 to make internal changes to its recall process, NHTSA said

It’s critical to the safety of the driving public that defects and recalls are reported in little order,NHTSA Admin David Strickland said. NHTSA expects all manufacturers to address automotive safety issues quickly and in a forthright manner.

Despite the safety agency’s claim that some recall filings were late, in every causa where a defect was identified by the companionship a voluntary recall had been conducted,BMW enounced in a statement.

A summary report of NHTSA’s investigation said the way noticed in previous 2010 a troubling trend in the automaker’s recall filings over the path of the former yr the company’s initial recall filings were missing important information. Each time the trouble was took BMW’s attention, the automaker would promise to furnish the information just then would have an inordinate quantity of time to do so, the summary said.

For example, in entirely 6 out of 16 recall reports in 2010 was BMW able to say how many vehicles were moved and how many were expected to be recalled, the summary said. In alone five of the reports did the automaker furnish the postulated chronology of events, and altogether only one of the five were missing dates or other important information, the summary said.

NHTSA investigators likewise complained it was taking BMW on ordinary over 30 dates to furnish primal information missing from recall updates.

Consumer watchdog sues FTC to Halt Google privacy rules changes

09. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Internet Content · Tags: , ,

A consumer watchdog group is suing the Federal Trade Commission in an try to prevent Google from making sweeping changes to its privacy policies succeeding month.

The planned revisions would enable Google to bundle the personal info gathered by its Internet hunting engine and other services, such equally Gmail, YouTube and Plus, therefore the fellowship could amplification a ameliorate understanding of its users and potentially sell more advertising. Google has pictured the switch as an improvement that will construct its privacy policies easier to understand and helper deliver more helpful info to users.

But the Electronic Privacy Info Nub (EPIC) contends that Google’s new policies would violate restrictions imposed in an agreement reached with the FTC last year. Google submitted to the rules to resolve complaints that the companionship had improperly exposed users’ e-mail contacts in a now-defunct service foretold Buzz.

A suit filed Wednesday by EPIC maintains that the agreement gives FTC the powerfulness to closure Google from making the planned privacy change. The complaint besides is seeking an society from a Washington federal courtroom to block Google’s policy changes from taking event March 1.

European regulators already experience required Google to wait the policy changes.

Among other things, EPIC says Google’s new privacy guidelines require users’ consent. The group besides says Google hasn’t thoroughly explained the motives for the changes, making it an “unfair and deceptive job practice.”

In a statement, Google enounced it has gone to great lengths to explain the changes to users since announcing the planned switch two weeks ago.

Google Earth update erases underwater ‘Atlantis’

07. February 2012 · Comments Off · Categories: Internet Content · Tags: ,

A Google Land function that elevated rumors of the lost metropolis of Atlantis has gotten a much-needed update, ridding the seafloor of a gridlike figure that some vigilant users suspected were sunken streets from the mythological underwater city.

In fact, Google Ocean, an extension of mapping programme Google Earth, was simply displaying a data artifact from the sonar method that oceanographers utilisation to function the seafloor. This week, Google updated the application with young seafloor data from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other groups.

“The original version of Google Ocean was a newly developed prototype map that received high resolution simply too contained yards of blunders related to the original archived send data,” David Sandwell, a Scripps geophysicist, pronounced in a statement. “UCSD undergraduate bookmen dropped the past three years identifying and correcting the blunders.”

The students also incorporated young data into the archive that Google uses to produce its function888 of underwater topography. Researchers create this data by using sonar, or sound waves, that bounce exit the seafloor and return information almost its shape, not unlike how a bat uses sonar to “see” bugs. When Google uses lots of these surveys together, they sometimes overlap, creating foreign gridlike patterns.

That’s what happened in 2009, presently subsequently the launch of the extension. Eagle-eyed Google Sea explorers spotted a big grid on the seafloor that looked strikingly like the streets of a well-organized small town. Immediately, “Atlantis” rumors started flying. [Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds]

In fact, the grid was merely caused by overlapping datasets, according to NOAA. Also that, the grid that looked alike a small town actually covered an area of sea more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) panoptic — not precisely small-town proportions.

The updated Google Sea has been scrubbed of this Atlantis artifact. Google Sea is likewise becoming increasingly accurate in other ways. The program instantly has 15 percent of its seafloor picture involved from shipboard soundings at a 0.6-mile (1 km) resolution. Late versions conveyed solely 10 percentage of seafloor imaging from sonar soundings and the residual from extrapolations by scientists utilizing satellite data.

Even those estimates will presently exist stronger: The next major upgrade is planned for after this year, and will use a new calculation technique that returns depth predictions that are twice as accurate as before.

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