“Samsung Gives Up On Efforts To Have Apple Products Banned In EU” plus 10 More Buzzing Tech News Of The Day
- Samsung Gives Up On Efforts To Have Apple Products Banned In EU
- Angry Birds Star Wars Lands On Facebook With Many New Features
- Astronomers Spot A Possibly-Habitable Planet 12 Light-Years Away
- Facebook Plans To Launch Video Ads Inside News Feed
- Apple’s Online Store Is Offering Free Next-Day Shipping On Everything
- Instagram Backed Off From Policy Change, Won’t Sell Your Photos
- Motorola Mobility Loses Patent Case Against Apple At ITC
- Kim Dotcom Provides A Glimpse At New Mega’s Storage Rack
- Google Maps App Triggers Increase In iOS 6 Adoption By 30%
- W3C Has Finalized HTML5 Specification And Ready For Test
- Court Sentences Hacker To 10 Years In Prison For Hacking Email Accounts Of Celebrities
Posted: 19 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST Apple and Samsung have been involved in a frenzied patent battle long enough. Apple recently scored a huge win against Samsung when a jury awarded it $1 billion in damages to be paid by the latter. However, Apple failed to have Samsung products banned in U.S., and Samsung has also given up on its efforts to ban Apple products in EU. Technology litigation has been more of a reciprocal nature. If one company launches a lawsuit against the other, the latter instantly launches a lawsuit of its own against the former. So it has been with Apple and Samsung. Although Apple scored the big win in the California case, bagging the $1 billion verdict, it had continued its battle against Samsung and sought to have 26 Samsung products banned in Europe. However, Judge Lucy Koh denied Apple the injunction it sought. According to Judge Koh, most of the Samsung products in the list Apple provided are no longer for sale in the U.S. As for the remaining products, Samsung has tweaked their software so that they no longer infringe Apple’s patents. Samsung had launched cases against iPad and iPhone in EU, demanding the duo to be banned over alleged patent infringement. Now that Apple has failed to have Samsung products banned in U.S., Samsung also seems to consider its efforts in EU as futile and has decided to quit seeking a sales ban injunction against Apple products. Some have also speculated that the Korean electronics maker has done this to send out a positive message to European regulators so that they may ease up on its products. Either way, that’s one less legal front for the two companies, thus a positive development. Source: WSJ Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 19 Dec 2012 04:00 AM PST Angry Birds Star Wars has already wrecked quite a few records and blown off many sales milestones. Whereas it is already immensely popular among mobile users, Rovio is now bringing the Star Wars release to Facebook, packed with many new features. Of course, anything that arrives on Facebook must have a ‘social’ aspect to it. It is also true about Angry Birds Star Wars arriving on the social network. The game comes with a rich social experience which allows you to pit your scores against those of your friends. Moreover, you and your friends can also participate in many different tournaments. If you win any of these tournaments, you get to have Rovio’s in-game goodies as gifts. Speaking of gifts, you can also send in-game gifts to your friends, making the game all the more exciting. The Facebook version of the game will also pack many new levels. And to perk up the interest of avid followers of the franchise, Rovio will be showing off three new power-ups and one new ability in the Angry Birds Star Wars for Facebook. Playing the game on Facebook is certainly going to be fun since you can see the high scores made by your friends, challenge them, compete against them and interact with them through the game. And there’s no chance of you tiring any time soon, since Rovio promises it will be dishing out more features, and levels, for Facebook users. Courtesy: Slashgear Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 19 Dec 2012 03:00 AM PST Theoretically, if a planet receives nearly the same amount of sunlight as Earth does, and contains water, there is a possibility of life on it. Astronomers are banking on this hope as they study a planet near the Tau Ceti star which nearly fulfills these prerequisites. Nearly one in 25 stars is as bright as our Sun. Tau Ceti is a star which boasts this trait and moreover, is a single star just like Sun, without any other star within close proximity. This has naturally perked up the interest of the astronomers. The star has been studied for many decades and its Sun-like trait has left many hopeful that a planet orbiting it could contain life. Recently, Mikko Tuomi, an astronomer hailing from the University of Hertfordshire, observed Tau Ceti from different locations in a number of countries. The observations were an attempt to somehow discern the motion of the star, the gravitational pull exerted on it and the probable number of planets orbiting it. According to Tuomi’s observations, there are possibly five planets orbiting Tau Ceti of which only one may be getting the right amount of heat to have life-friendly circumstances. The heat emitted by Tau Ceti is far less than that our Sun emits. Considering this as well as the distance of the planets from Tau Ceti, astronomers surmise that the first three planets surrounding it are too hot to bear life. The fifth planet is too far away to be warm enough yet the fourth planet, dubbed planet ‘e’, may be able to sustain life. This planet e is three times as large as Earth. Whereas this discovery is certainly very interesting, many contemporaries remain highly skeptical of it. The chief objection that has been cited by them is that the astronomers have interpreted noisy signals to reach these conclusions and that the astronomical community, at large, won’t be ready to accept such results. One does hope that methods are devised to verify the measurements made by Tuomi and his team. Courtesy: Science Mag Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 19 Dec 2012 02:00 AM PST Facebook has been gradually pushing the envelope on advertisement across its pages. The social network is already criticized widely for its placement of advertisements all over the website, now including within users’ new feeds. But that’s not the end of it, since Facebook plans to launch video ads within the news feeds of the users too. Facebook’s user base has increasingly shifted from desktop to the mobile platform. This possess many challenges for the social network, since the regular ads can’t be run on its mobile version. Rather, the company has to rely on in-feed ads for mobile users, for now. Compared to desktop users, the ads dished out and viewed by Facebook’s mobile users are a lot less. Hence, it is only natural that Facebook is now trying hard to devise new advertisement methods to bolster the overall mobile ads revenue. According to Ad Age, Facebook has plans of rolling out video ads within the users’ news feeds in the near future. This new form of advertisement will be rolled out to both desktop and mobile users. Thankfully, Facebook may be planning on limiting the length of these video ads to a mere 15 seconds, Ad Age speculates, also citing that Facebook will launch them some time during the first half of 2013. Apparently, a number of ad industry executives have already been briefed on this issue by Facebook, so that they can gear up for a new mode advertisement across the largest social media hub on the internet. Source: Reuters Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 19 Dec 2012 01:00 AM PST Every year as we edge on to Christmas, different online retailers come out with the best deals of the year. Apple routinely dishes out a Holiday Gift Guide to mark the occasion, offering free shipping on the items in the guide. This year, though, Apple Store is offering the free next-day shipping perk on all of its items. This means that when choosing an Apple gift this year, you wouldn’t have to confine yourself to the select few that are included in Apple’s Gift Guide. Rather, you get to have free next-day shipping on all the items in Apple’s online store. What is even more exciting is the fact that you can purchase any item on the Online Store and get it right at your doorstep the very next day, no matter where you are located in the U.S. The offer applies not only to Apple’s own products but the products of other retailers offered in the online store. The company didn’t exactly state for how long this special perk will be offered to its customers. But we are quite sure that this is going to last until the Christmas eve at least. Also, an item needs to be available in the store’s stock to be eligible for free next-day shipping. If it is out of stock, you may have to try your luck with some other items. Nonetheless, with the entire online store being eligible for the offer, one has a huge list of gifts to choose from and avail the awesome offer from Apple. Source: Apple Store Courtesy: Slash Gear Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:00 AM PST On December 17, Instagram said it now has the right to sell users’ photos and it can put users’ photos in ads too.This move caused a widespread revolt among the users and few hours ago Instagram backed off from its earlier plight. On December 17, Instagram said it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification. It claimed to have the perpetual right to license all public Instagram photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes, which would effectively transform the Web site into the world’s largest stock photo agency. It was also said that the new intellectual property policy would take effect on January 16. Such a move sparked an outburst among users. Many of the social network’s users threatened Instagram to stop using the service and delete their accounts. But the interesting thing is Instagram had no such plans about selling users photo. The language of the new Terms of Service of Instagram confused the users. The language used in Instagram’s new Terms of Service sounded like the social network could allow users’ photos to be part of advertisements and share photos in social networking sites. This caused a widespread revolt among the users. Hence, on December 18, Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote in a blog post that Instagram has no plans to sell users’ photos and it will remove language from its new terms of service. Added to these, Systrom assured users that Instagram won’t do such things that users don’t want. Besides, it’ll fix any mistakes on the social network’s part. That’s not all. Instagram will never sell people’s photos to others without compensating the photographers. Systrom clearly wrote, “This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear – It is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear.” It is expected that Instagram will update its Terms of Service very soon. Source: Instagram Blog-1, Instagram Blog-2 Thanks To: CNET, Los Angeles Times Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 18 Dec 2012 11:00 PM PST Motorola Mobility owns some of the most precious and significant patents related to wireless communications. Despite that, the company was unable to nab Apple over alleged patent infringement charges. An ITC judge has ruled out any infringement of Motorola’s patents by Apple. Motorola Mobility had launched a lawsuit against Apple claiming that in implementing a sensor which determines the position of a person’s head in relation to the handset, Apple has violated one of the former’s patents. Apple, naturally, retaliated by stating that it didn’t infringe any patent in implementing the said sensor. It was then up to the court to decide whether or not Motorola’s claims were based on truth. As it turns out, the ITC judge Thomas Pender certainly doesn’t seem to side with Motorola on this one. He has ruled that Apple’s iPhone doesn’t infringe the patents cited by Motorola. The ruling that he has given has yet to be reviewed by a full commission which may accept or reject it based on its own evaluation. Motorola Mobility is, naturally, not very happy with the judgement and a spokesperson for the company dished out a statement saying, “We’re disappointed with this outcome and are evaluating our options.” Interestingly, Apple has also recently lost a case against Motorola over alleged patent infringement. Apple has now appealed the decision at the U.S. Court of Appeals. In other words, the legal battle is dragging on and is far from over between Apple and Google owned Motorola Mobility. Source: Bloomberg Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 18 Dec 2012 10:00 PM PST Kim Dotcom recently unveiled Mega, a new service that he plans to launch on January 19, 2013. Ever since MegaUpload was taken down, Dotcom has apparently been involved in the development of the service which he claims will be the first of his kind. Now, he has given us a glimpse of one of the racks of the new Mega. The new ‘Mega’ service is what Dotcom claims is fully protected in the legal sense. We recently registered that the U.S. government was trying to riddle ‘Mega’ with issues even before its launch, but we are hopeful that someone like Dotcom will be able to thwart such futile and illegal attempts. Now, Dotcom has posted a new image on his Twitter account that shows off one of the racks of the new Mega service, which can hold 720 terabytes of data. This is but one of the many racks which, Dotcom says, will be arriving over the coming days. This certainly shows that Dotcom is quite serious about his plans of launching the cloud-based Mega. The founder of the former MegaUpload claims that he and his team have learned a lot over the years, especially from the experience of MegaUpload’s take-down. And that they have poured all this learning into the creation of the new service. One does hope that the new ‘Mega’ service does not run into the kind of troubles that MegaUpload eventually landed in. Although the takedown of MegaUpload was an illegal activity perpetuated by the U.S. authorities in collaboration with the New Zealand government, it made millions of users lose their precious data. Source: Twitter Courtesy: Torrent Freak Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 18 Dec 2012 09:19 PM PST A huge number of iOS users had apparently refused to update to iOS 6 because of a lack of Google Maps. And now that a Google Maps app for iOS is here, these users seem to be making the switch rather rapidly. Ever since the app was released, there has been a 30% increase in unique iOS 6 users. In earlier iOS releases, Google Maps has been a part of the firmware by default. However, in iOS 6, Apple decided to ditch the mapping solution and replaced it with its own Maps app, which eventually turned out to be a disaster. Google waited a while before it launched its own Google Maps for iOS app. The app launched the iOS users into a downloading frenzy and had been downloaded more than 10 million times within 48 hours of release. It seems that the app is also beneficial to Apple in more than one ways. For one, a huge chunk of iOS users who had been waiting until now have finally made the switch to iOS 6. This has been noticed by the mobile ad exchange MoPub. According to the CEO of MoPub, “We observed since the launch of Google Maps for iOS 6 a 30 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users, and we think it’s related to Google Maps. It verifies the hypothesis that people were actually holding back to upgrade until Google Maps was available.” This trend is beneficial to Apple because it reduces the fragmentation in its iOS user base, which is good for both the company and the developers. Moreover, many new users are also gearing up to lay their hands on iPhone 5 now that they know that they can use Google Maps on the new handset without any qualms. Although this is a loss for Apple on the mapping front, the company has certainly gained on many other counts. Source: MoPub Courtesy: TechCrunch Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 18 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3). On December 17, W3C announced that it has finalized specifications for HTML5 and the finalized specifications for HTML5 is ready for testing. Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) joined together to develop HyperText Markup Language (HTML) rapidly. But later the two parties broke up and started to develop HTML individually. WHATWG started to develop HTML5 and evolve it further by integrating newer technologies over time. The upcoming release version will be called a ‘living standard’ for HTML. On the other side, W3C started to create traditional standards for HTML5. WHATWG terms these standards as ‘snapshots’ to their living standard. Be noted, HTML5 hasn’t been given the status of standard yet. However, on Monday, W3C announced that it has finalized specifications for HTML5. Currently, the HTML5 specification has 10 open issues, approximately 300 outstanding bugs, and 11 formal objections. But the good news is the group has already fixed 600 bugs and 28 issues so far this year. However, the finalized specifications for HTML5 is ready for testing too. The W3C said, “HTML5 is the cornerstone of the Open Web Platform. The W3C HTML Working Group will conduct a variety of activities to ensure that the specifications may be implemented compatibly across browsers, authoring tools, email clients, servers, content management systems, and other Web tools.” Though the specification has been finalized, still a lot of work will need to be done before HTML5 reaches the finish line. The W3C has announced that it plans to finish the HTML5 spec by 2014 and the HTML 5.1 spec by 2016. If the plan is approved, W3C hopes to push HTML5 to Candidate Release status by the end of this year. Source: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Thanks To: The Verge Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
Posted: 18 Dec 2012 12:47 PM PST Email accounts get hacked every day and nothing is the big deal about them. However, when a person hacks the account of a celebrity and posts his or her private info online, now that’s a scandal. A hacker who’d been the cause of such a scandal has now been awarded 10 years in prison by a U.S. District Judge. Christopher Chaney was nabbed by the authorities during the ‘Operation Hackerazzi.’ Chaney had been involved in breaking into the email accounts of numerous celebrities and leaking their personal data on the web. Among the celebrities whose email accounts he hacked were Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Simone Harouche, Christina Aguilera and Renee Olstead. In total, he was able to access the personal data of more than 50 celebrities but most of them refused to be a part of any ongoing investigations on the case. Interestingly, Chaney didn’t use any high-profile hacking techniques to break into the email accounts. Rather, he simply used the ‘Forgot Your Password’ option to take an educated guess at the security question of his victims and thus gain access to their accounts. The judge presiding over the case handed our a ten-year term to Chaney for his actions. According to the judge, “It’s hard to fathom the mindset of a person who would accomplish all of this. These types of crimes are as pernicious and serious as physical stalking.” Courtesy: CNET Buy Cheapest Related Product From Amazon.com |
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