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INTEREST: "Oh, bother": Samsung sues iPhone 5
by billing 21 Sep '11

21 Sep '11

....from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/19/samsung-moves-to-block-iphone-5-in-korea… Samsung moves to block iPhone 5 in Korea, expands its anti-Apple offensive By Terrence O'Brien posted Sep 19th 2011 12:01PM Well, since Samsung couldn't get an early peek at the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, the company has simply decided to take a page from Apple's playbook. A senior exec told The Korea Times it plans to file a request to block the sale of the upcoming iOS handset in its Korean homeland the moment the device is announced. According to the Times, the anonymous exec said it would leverage its wireless technology patents and demand that Apple either remove the telecommunications features -- turning the iPhone into an iPod touch -- or simply be banished from the Korean market. The knock-down-drag-out war between the two companies has only seemed to escalate in recent weeks, as Sammy has taken a much morecombative and offensive approach. We can only hope the two get tired of divvying up the globe and declare a draw in this game of patent Risk.

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INTEREST: Apple and Google and HTML5 and Android
by billing 21 Sep '11

21 Sep '11

....from: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/16/google_html5_effort_stinks/ Google shamed by Apple in race to HTML5 Now that's embarrassing By Matt Asay • Get more from this author Posted in Mobile, 16th September 2011 04:23 GMT Open...and Shut If ever there were a company made to beat Apple in mobile, it's Google. Apple, with its rigid devotion to a native app experience, is the perfect target for Google, king of the web. After all, the web and its rising standard, HTML5, threaten to cut Apple's estimated operating profit growth by 30 per cent over the next four years, according to Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, as app developers write browser-based apps that span devices. The problem, however, is that Google is showing itself to be a poor standard-bearer for HTML5, given its Janus-faced mobile strategy that Android largely dictates. Google should be the industry's standard bearer for HTML5, given its web DNA and the opportunity to unseat Apple using the disruptive web. But HTML5 isn't going to topple Apple anytime soon, if for no other reason than no Apple competitor supports HTML5 on its devices as well as Apple does. By a considerable margin. Part of the reason HTML5 apps perform much better on Apple devices is because Apple long ago invested in hardware acceleration, whereas Google only got around to it in version 3.0 of Android. And then there's just general browser performance. On the desktop, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or even Microsoft Internet Explorer regularly trounce Apple's Safari in performance tests, as well as extensibility of the browser through plug-ins and extensions. But in mobile, Apple's Safari blows everyone else away, as recent research shows. In other words, even the web is better on Apple devices, despite Apple's preference for native apps. Google should be doing better. Perhaps the reason it isn't comes down to a confused mobile strategy. On the desktop, its strategy is clear: all web, all the time. Google has invested in Google Docs, Picasa, Gmail, YouTube, and a wide array of other services that live on the web. In mobile, however, Google's approach is much less clear, an opacity likely spawned by Android's surprising success. Yes, Google has rolled out several new apps (Google+, Music Beta, etc.) that live in the browser, and have no native app equivalent. But Google also has a stringent devotion to Android, which has often been slow to adopt technology that embraces HTML5 (see hardware acceleration commentary above), and which depends for its success on the same model that Apple does: a native app store. Except that Apple doesn't really rely on the App Store for its revenue. Not directly, anyway. Despite the significant success of Apple's App Store, the revenue it brings in is a rounding error on Apple's income statement. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has estimated that the App Store accounts for a mere 1 per cent of Apple's gross profit since it launched. Even if that number has gone up in the year since Munster first announced his estimate, it still would pale in comparison to the money Apple makes in its core business: hardware. The better Apple's support for native apps, the more devices it sells. The better its support for HTML5, the more devices Apple sells, too. Either way, Apple wins. (And promises to continue to win as it has serious economies of scale compared to its hardware competitors,as John Gruber posits.) Google, meanwhile, has no such clarity in its mobile business. Google wants to play it both ways - native (Android) and HTML5 (Chrome) - but HTML5 is too often the ugly stepchild in a company that should be trumpeting web standards in every single thing it does. Google has for years stated that Android is just a transition OS on the way to a glorious browser-based future, but its actions suggest it may be addicted to Android's success. I'm not suggesting this from some big policy moves that Google has announced, but rather as an employee of a company that works with Apple, Google, and others on HTML5. There are pockets within Google that absolutely love HTML5, but it is the Android team that gets the most airtime. Advertising should be to Google as hardware is to Apple, but in my experience Android obstructs Google's interest in working with the web, rather than accelerating it. Contrast this with Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, and others who have clear strategies around HTML5 and, hence, are able to promote it without being contradicted by their own successes in native. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Android is, after all, flying high in smartphones, even if it has yet to catch fire in tablets. Perhaps Google doesn't really need to embrace the web to win in mobile. I can't see Google beating Apple at its own native app game and, given Google's web DNA, I can't see its employees wanting to. Google needs to get its mobile story straight, and that story is going to sound a lot more consistent coming from Google's lips if it's consistently HTML5. Matt Asay is senior vice president of business development at Strobe, a startup that offers an open source framework for building mobile apps. He was formerly chief operating officer of Ubuntu commercial operation Canonical. With more than a decade spent in open source, Asay served as Alfresco's general manager for the Americas and vice president of business development, and he helped put Novell on its open source track. Asay is an emeritus board member of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). His column, Open...and Shut, appears twice a week on The Register.

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INTEREST: SEC - Google outbid itself by 33 percent in Motorola Mobility acquisition
by billing 14 Sep '11

14 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/14/google-outbid-itself-by-33-percent-in-mo… http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-13/google-bid-for-motorola-mobilit… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576569152330382810.h… http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1495569/000119312511225797/dex21.htm Google outbid itself by 33 percent in Motorola Mobility acquisition, SEC filing reveals By Amar Toor posted Sep 14th 2011 at 4:45AM Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is already starting to lose that new car smell, but a fresh batch of financial details has now emerged, providing deeper insight into how the deal actually went down. According to an SEC filing that Motorola Mobility released yesterday, Google made an initial offer of $30 per share on August 1st, but soon raised that bid to $37 per share on August 9th, after Moto and its advisers asked for $43.50. On that same day, Google again raised its offer to $40 per share, even though Motorola wasn't accepting bids from other firms, for fear that a public auction would jeopardize its sale. This 33 percent increase ultimately added some $3 billion to the pot, bringing the final price tag to $12.5 billion. A Mountain View spokeswoman declined to comment on the negotiations, though its aggressive bidding suggests that the search giant desperately wanted the deal to go through. The documents also reveal that patent-related issues were at the forefront of discussions from the very beginning, when Google's Senior Vice President Andy Rubin met with Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha to talk about their mutual concerns, way back in July. According to the Wall Street Journal, these talks eventually convinced Jha that his company would be better off under Google's stewardship, amid fears that Moto could get swallowed by the stormy seas of patent litigation -- anxieties that the exec made all too apparentjust four days before the merger was announced. You can dig through the full SEC filing at the source link below.

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INTEREST: What Apple did for paper publishing coming to e-pubs...
by billing 12 Sep '11

12 Sep '11

Apple's LaserWriter (released over a quarter of a century ago in March, 1985) delivered text and graphics print quality approaching that of the professional printing press. It was the partnership of Apple's LaserWriter with PageMaker from Aldus coupled with Adobe's PostScript page description language that gave rise to desktop publishing revolutionizing the making of a printed document "for the rest of us". Eventually Adobe took over PageMaker and by 2004 had morphed it into Adobe InDesign. Now Apple and Adobe are pairing up again (despite what you've heard about Apple's take on Adobe's FLASH: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ and http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/04/29/live-blogging-the-journals-interview…) perhaps to make (or remake) e-publishing just as dramatically: ...from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/adobe-updates-publishing-tools-to… iOS: NewsStand: http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#newsstand iOS 5 Newsstand could see influx of content thanks to Adobe tools By Chris Foresman | Published 5 days ago Adobe has decided to embrace the new Newsstand feature coming to iOS devices as part of the iOS 5 update. Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite will be capable of generating applications and subscription content that fully integrates with Newsstand, the company announced on Wednesday, allowing publishers to utilize Adobe's tools when creating subscription content for the iPhone and iPad. Apple Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall briefly demoed Newsstand in June when Apple announced the iOS 5 update. Newsstand essentially functions as a special folder on the home screen that automatically collects apps that offer access to subscription-based content, like magazines and newspapers. The apps' icons are then displayed on a virtual wooden shelf instead of the usual folder view. Apple's NewsstandKit APIs enable publishers to build apps compatible with Newsstand, allowing them to automatically push new content to the apps in the background as it becomes available. Cover art for new issues will automatically update as well, and will be displayed on the virtual shelf. Basically, users can always be sure they have the latest content, and can even get notifications when the latest issue is available to read. Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite is a set of tools that allows publishers to build iOS apps for downloading and viewing content created with InDesign and other Adobe content creation software. When iOS 5 is released—likely sometime in the next few weeks—Digital Publishing Suite will fully support NewsstandKit APIs for automatic content downloads, cover icons, and push notifications. Apps crated with Digital Publishing Suite will also be automatically recognized and added to iOS 5's Newsstand. Adobe noted that Digital Publishing Suite can also generate apps compatible with Android and BlackBerry tablets as well, though Newsstand support is unique to iOS devices. How publishers will react to Apple's subscription payment rules is still unknown, however. The company originally planned to force publishers to offer subscriptions via Apple's in-app purchasing mechanism at prices that matched outside subscription offers. However, many publishers balked at giving Apple a 30 percent cut of subscription revenue. The company later made a compromise, allowing freedom in pricing as long as apps didn't contain outside links to pay-for content. Financial Times decided to kill its iPad app in favor of an HTML5 Web app instead of giving in to Apple's subscription rules. Fashion and design magazine Clear, however, appears to be embracing the native app approach. "Tablet devices are changing publishing forever," Clear publisher and creative director Emin Kadi said in a statement. "Now, with [Adobe Digital Publishing Suite] support for iOS 5 Newsstand subscriptions, we will be able to further monetize our digital editions and make our content more discoverable."

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probably low INTEREST: Google gives HTC patents; HTC sues Apple
by billing 11 Sep '11

11 Sep '11

[NOTE: for a diagram of some of the mess that follows, please see http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2011/08/mobilepatents.jpg although it's not much easier to follow ::-( <deep breath ON> early 2005'ish: Google begins writing Android (the OS they are currently licencing for smart phones and tablets) and Chrome (the OS not the browser) to be used as a stand-alone OS on a computer instead of Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, UNIX, etc. Part of this development is done using the JAVA programming language which was owned by SUN Microsystems. October, 2005: Google's Android "boss" says that Google should use JAVA for Android and seems to imply, use it even without and agreement with SUN Microsystems for the use of JAVA. http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/07/judge-orders-overhaul-of-oracles.ht… ......Google faces the problem that the judge [Judge Alsup] appears increasingly suspicious (if not already convinced) of Google having committed willful infringement because of a problematic attitude toward other companies' intellectual property rights. Judge [Alsup] suspects Google of having preferred "to roll the dice on possible litigation rather than to pay a fair price". In connection with the theories Google presented, the judge refers to one (even in a headline) as "Google's Soviet-style negotiation", defined as "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable". In that context, the judge suspects the following attitude: "Google may have simply been brazen, preferring to roll the dice on possible litigation rather than to pay a fair price." That kind of statement reflects extremely unfavorably on Google. It's exactly the kind of basis on which the judge might consider an injunction [of Android] a highly appropriate remedy, and a tripling of the base damages amount, too. One of the most interesting passages in today's order quotes from an October 2005 email by Google's Android boss Andy Rubin: "If Sun doesn't want to work with us, we have two options: 1) Abandon our work and adopt [Microsoft] CLR VM and C# language - or - 2) Do Java anyway and defend our decision, perhaps making enemies along the way" 2006: Canadian company Wi-Lan wades in by suing Apple, HTC, Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Kyocera, Novatel Wireless, Alcatel-Lucent, Dell, and Sierra Wireless. (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392383,00.asp) [NOTE: you can see their 3 offerings - INVESTOR & COMPANIES, LICENSEES, and INVESTORS - on their web site: http://www.wi-lan.com/ It appears as though they do not manufacture any "products" anymore.] April 20, 2009: "Oracle buys Sun Microsystems" http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018363 After which, Oracle owns JAVA. early 2010'ish: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/oracle-and-google-keep-wrangling-ov… Court documents show that Google was again investigating doing away with the need for JAVA within Android and Chrome. It was determined that could not be done. Licencing JAVA is again discussed. "What we've actually been asked to do (by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin]) is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome. We've been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need." March 10, 2010: (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20079905-94/itc-says-htc-violating-two-of-…) Apple filed complaint alleging that many of the Taiwanese company HTC's Andriod products had violated 10 Apple-owned patents. A loss carries the threat that HTC's products would be banned from coming into the U.S.A. August, 2010: Oracle sues Google for violating Oracle patents and copyrights on JAVA in Android and Chrome. Oracle says Google has been using JAVA without a licence. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-16/oracle-seeking-billions-of-dollars… Oracle is seeking as much as $6.1 billion in damages in a patent- and copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google that claims the search-engine company’s Android software uses technology related to the Java programming language, according to court papers. ... Sun Microsystems Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, got Java when it bought Sun Microsystems in January 2010. The company sued Google [in] August, seeking a court ruling that would ban further use of its intellectual property and force the destruction of all products that violate Java-related copyrights on the code, documentation and specifications. Google, based in Mountain View, California, said in court filings that the patents are invalid and not infringed and that users of the Android platform have a license to any patents in the case. It said Oracle made general copyright-infringement claims with nothing to back them up. August 19, 2010: "Why Oracle was right to sue Google" http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/why-oracle-was-right-sue-google-… The tech industry loves a good vendor slugfest, and the upcoming legal battle between Google and Oracle has all the makings of a truly spectacular one. At issue is Dalvik, the unique, Java-based runtime at the heart of Google's Android smartphone OS. Oracle, which gained stewardship of the Java platform when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2009, claims Dalvik knowingly, willfully, and deliberately infringes on Java intellectual property. ... Bloggers, pundits, and developers wasted no time decrying [Oracle's] suit. Farata Systems' Anatole Tartakovsky wrote, "Oracle managers are clearly out of their minds." PC World's Tony Bradley described Oracle as a patent troll, while others made unflattering comparisons to the SCO Group. InfoWorld's own editor in chief, Eric Knorr, compared Oracle to Darth Vader and to Batman's nemesis the Joker in the same column. Such knee-jerk reactions are misguided. Google is no Luke Skywalker, and its handling of Java has been questionable at best. Ironically, few companies have been as outspoken on the issue of Sun's failed leadership as Google. Speaking at the Red Hat Middleware 2020 virtual conference in April [of 2010], Google chief Java architect Josh Bloch described the platform as "rudderless" and called on Oracle to take a lead role in steering its future direction. "Technical and licensing disputes over the last few years have been highly detrimental. They've sapped the energy of the community and caused plenty of bad press," Bloch said. ... And the Android development platform is [...] a hodgepodge of classes drawn from stock Java, the Apache Foundation, and Google's own contributions. This was no accident. In a blog post, Java creator James Gosling recalls Sun's early talks with Google and how the search giant was more interested in "disrupting Apple's trajectory" with Android than in upholding Java's core principle of interoperability -- despite Sun's strong objections. How would Sun benefit from Android? It wouldn't: "Google did have a financial model that benefited themselves," Gosling writes, noting "they weren't about to share." ... The greatest challenge to [JAVA originally] came in the late 1990s, when Microsoft tried to splinter the Java community by offering a Windows-only version of the language. Sun took the issue to the courts, arguing that Microsoft's implementation violated the Java license agreement. When the dust finally cleared in 2001, Microsoft had agreed to scupper its Java work and pay Sun $20 million in damages. "Now if Microsoft wants to use Java, they will have to use the same Java everyone else does," Sun vice president Rich Green said at the time. Should not Google be held to the same standard? Oracle thinks so, and like Sun of old, it has chosen a legal remedy. ... What happens next? Google claims Oracle's actions are "an attack on the Java community," but that would only be true if Google were promoting Java. ... April 4, 2011: Patents and innovation: Posted by Kent Walker, Google's Senior Vice President & General Counsel http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/patents-and-innovation.html (emphasis added) The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology. The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It's for these reasons that Google haslong argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole. But as things stand today, one of a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories. So after a lot of thought, we’ve decided to bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio in the company’s bankruptcy auction. Today, Nortel selected our bid as the “stalking-horse bid," which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community—which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome—continue to innovate. In the absence of meaningful reform, we believe it's the best long-term solution for Google, our users and our partners. April 15, 2011: (http://www.apple.com/pr/pdf/110415samsungcomplaint.pdf) Apple brings a complaint against the Korean company Samsung saying it's Andriod products violate 16 Apple-owned utility, design, and trade-dress patents which include things like the Multi-Touch™ gestures for scrolling, pinch-zoom, and the like including the way documents "bounce back" when a user scrolls too far; the design of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. for things like the design and layout of the screen and case; as well as the distinctive user interface and packing for which Apple describes the shape and appearance of these devices (and their packaging) as being "radically different from the devices that preceded it." - See some examples at the end of this message - Apr 22, 2011: "Why Samsung Took the Apple Patent Battle International" (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/226027/why_samsung_took_the_a…): "It is no surprise that Samsung retaliated against Apple's claims of patent infringement with some patent accusations of its own, but the fact that Samsung chose to file lawsuits internationally against Apple in three different countries (The Netherlands, Germany, South Korea) seems a bit perplexing.... Why wouldn't Samsung simply countersue Apple in the US District Court of Northern California where Apple filed its lawsuit against Samsung in the first place? ... [According to] Florian Mueller, a technology patent and intellectual property expert, "...recent cases before the ITC don't seem to be going the way the litigants intended, so Samsung might see the ITC as being too risky. Rather than bog things down in US federal courts, though, Samsung opted to take the battle international. Some courts may also afford a political or psychological advantage for an "underdog" competitor being oppressed by an American tech giant like Apple. Mueller notes that an international, multi-jurisdictional legal battle can be a logistical nightmare, and consume considerable resources, but global players like Apple and Samsung have the skills, resources, and lawyers on retainer to take the challenge on." ... [BTW, for those keeping score, there are now 19 ongoing lawsuits at this stage taking place in 12 courts in 9 countries on 4 continents; it seems evenly distributed with 10 originating at Apple and 9 originating at Samsung: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/apple-vs-samsung-list-of-all-19.html June 31, 2011: "Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony consortium beats Google for Nortel patents" (http://www.macworld.com/article/160911/2011/07/nortel_patents.html) "Google, which offered $900 million for the patents in April, was not among the winning bidders.... In a blog post in April, [Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel] said Google was bidding for the Nortel patents as it hoped the portfolio would create a disincentive for others to sue Google, and also help the company, its partners and the open source community, which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome, continue to innovate. Having a formidable patent portfolio is one of a company’s best defences against an explosion in patent litigation that threatens to stifle innovation, he added. "We believe the consortium is in the best position to utilize the patents in a manner that will be favorable to the industry long term", Ericsson said. July 1, 2011: "Google bid "pi" for Nortel patents and lost" http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/02/us-dealtalk-nortel-google-idUSTRE… (Reuters) - At the auction for Nortel Networks' wireless patents this week, Google's bids were mystifying, such as $1,902,160,540 and $2,614,972,128. Math whizzes might recognize these numbers as Brun's constant and Meissel-Mertens constant, but it puzzled many of the people involved in the auction, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation on Friday. "Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers," one of the sources said. "It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi," the source said, adding the bid was $3.14159 billion. "Either they were supremely confident or they were bored." It was not clear what strategy Google was employing, whether it wanted to confuse rival bidders, intimidate them, or simply express the irreverence that is part and parcel of its corporate persona. Whatever its reasons, Google's shenanigans did not work. A group of six companies -- Apple, Microsoft, RIM, EMC, Ericsson and Sony -- won the auction of 6,000 Nortel patents and patent applications with a $4.5 billion bid. The final figure was three times the amount expected by some analysts -- a sign of the lengths to which Google's rivals were willing to go to get their hands on the treasure trove of wireless technology, and thwart the Internet powerhouse's mobile ambitions. Google had been expected to emerge victorious after it set a $900 million stalking horse bid in April. But the auction that started on Monday and saw 20 rounds of bids over four long days ultimately hit a price that became too much even for Google, the sources said. The Internet company might have had $36.7 billion in cash as of March 31, but it was only willing to go up to $4 billion for these patents, one person said. July 15, 2011: "[The U.S. International Trade Commission says HTC's Android-based Galaxy devices are violating two of Apple's patents" (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20079905-94/itc-says-htc-violating-two-of-…) ...in judgement of the March 10, 2010 complaint by Apple. July 21, 2011: Tim Lindholm, a Google engineer involved with Android and Chrome development using JAVA (and a former Sun employee) was deposed at the Oracle/Google trial testifying that he sent the above email where he states, 'We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java". His testimony becomes part of the court records in this case and a printed copy of the email was shown to the court and to Oracle's lawyers. July 26, 2011: "An Apple/HTC patent deal could signal big trouble for Android" (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/an-applehtc-patent-deal-could-signal-big…): "Earlier this month the ITC (International Trade Commission) ruled that HTC['s Android-based Galaxy devices were] infringing on two of Apple’s patents. That’s a big deal for Apple, but it’s also a big deal for the Android platform as a whole since it is likely that these patents apply to every Android device out there. That’s a very big deal. "...HTC isn’t defenceless ... given that HTC has something that Apple wants (at least it’ll be HTC’s when its buyout of [patents belonging to the company] S3 is complete) then a settlement seems far more likely. "If Apple and HTC can reach a deal through both having technology that the other side wants to license, where does that leave all the other OEMs out there? Also, where does that leave Android? In trouble, that’s where it leaves [Android]... remember that Android is at the center of 49 federal and ITC infringement suits, so it’s likely that things are going to get worse before they get better. starting in July, 2011 - August 15, 2011: Authorities Find Another 22 Fake Apple Stores in China (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/fake-chinese-apple-stores-china,news-12165.html) When more than 20 fake Apple stores are discovered in various cities in mainland China, Apple China complained to China's Administration for Industry and Commerce for unfair competition and violating its registered trademark. "...even the employees thought they were working for Cupertino." August 3, 2011: Google complains of patent attacks upon Android from Apple, Microsoft http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/08/03/google_complains_of_patent_at… Google's chief legal officer has posted a public blog entry complaining that Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and others are waging an "organized campaign" against its Android operating system "waged through bogus patents." The complaint, entitled "When patents attack Android," accuses Apple and Microsoft of "banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents to make sure Google didn’t get them." It also describes the $15 per phone patent royalties that Android licensee HTC agreed to pay Microsoft as a conspiracy to "make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Mobile." August 4, 2011: Microsoft says Google refused to join the Novell patent consortium http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/08/04/microsoft_says_google_refused… In response to a public complaint by Google accusing Apple and Microsoft of a patent-wielding conspiracy to hold back its Android platform, Microsoft's general counsel has pointed out that Google rebuffed an invitation to join the consortium, apparently with the hope of obtaining all of the Novell patents for itself. ... However, the CPTN consortium of companies (including Apple and Microsoft) that bid for the Novell patents are themselves competitors in the mobile space, but have stated that they jointly bid on the patents to prevent the portfolio of intellectual property from falling into the hands of a patent troll that could work to derail the entire industry with years of lawsuits. Additionally, according to Brad Smith, the general counsel of Microsoft, Google refused to join the group bidding on the Novell patents, instead bidding separately for the collection of patents in hopes that it could win them all for itself, just as had earlier done on a portfolio of around 1,000 patents from IBM. In a tweet, Smith stated, "Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no." Google's chief legal officer David Drummond took the similar Rockstar consortium to task for "escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth," complaining that "Microsoft and Apple’s winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion," without also noting that Google itself had been involved in raising the ultimate price of the patents far higher than any patent troll could ever pay, after refusing to join the consortium in the first place. August 5, 2011: in the period since Tim Lindholm's testimony on July 21, Google withdrew the evidence of the email in which Mr. Lindholm says, "What we've actually been asked to do (by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin]) is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome. We've been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need." So, Oracle files a motion about to obtain that email. The motion can be read at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/61754518/11-08-05-Oracle-Google-Joint-Letter-Re-L… but, basically, Oracle is asking Judge D. M. Ryu to compel Google to produce the documents testified to by Mr. Lindholm. Google claims lawyer/client confidentiality. August 6, 2011: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/oracle-and-google-keep-wrangling-ov… Judge Alsup -- the federal judge presiding over the main Oracle/Google litigation -- attaches a great deal of importance to that particular document - [the Lindholm document]. At a recent hearing, he essentially said that a good trial lawyer would just need that document "and the Magna Carta" to win this case on Oracle's behalf and have Google found to infringe Oracle's rights willfully. The judge told Google that "you are going to be on the losing end of this document" with "profound implications for a permanent injunction". Let me add that a finding of willful infringement would not only make an injunction much more likely than otherwise. It can also result in a tripling of whatever damages will be awarded. August 16, 2011: "HTC sues Apple over everything" (http://gigaom.com/apple/htc-sues-apple-over-everything/): "HTC has asked the U.S. District Court in Delaware to ban the import and sale of [Macs, iPads, iPhones, iPods, AirPort, Time Capsule and Apple TV because they infringe on three patents it owns] and has asked for compensatory damages as well. Because it has accused Apple of willfully infringing on its patents, it wants three times the compensatory damages. This type of lawsuit has lately become standard operating procedure in the mobile world, but now even products that are not mobile devices are getting swept up in the ongoing mobile patent wars." August 26, 2011: Google denied in latest attempt to bar controversial [Lindholm] e-mail http://itgovernment.computerworld.com/patent/36162/google-denied-latest-att… August 31, 2011: (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hqVJQWeYFLBTE4Q_qQywiuHl…) (http://www.ipe.org.cn/ and http://www.ipe.org.cn/En/) The mainland Chinese environment watch-dog group "Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs" (IPE) says "factories it believes are contracted to make Apple products are engaging in rampant pollution, and accused the US technology giant of turning a blind eye." IPE confirm it has "received an email from Apple on Wednesday[, August 31, 2011] asking for direct talks, an unusual move for the technology giant and an indication of how damaging the allegations could be." Last week of August/First week of September, 2011: "Google provides to HTC ammo in Apple patent fight" http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkwamtz8UbUK0NSEXDWDlE5p… "Google last week transferred to HTC a set of patents that the Taiwan-based company used to amend intellectual property infringement complaints against iPhone maker Apple in the United States. [Google] confirmed selling the patents to HTC but referred additional questions to the smartphone maker - [HTC]. "In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in the state of Delaware, the Taiwanese smartphone maker charged that Apple violated three HTC-held patents in its Macintosh computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads and other products. HTC asked the court for damages and to bar Apple from importing into the United States any devices found to be infringing the patents. "We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones," HTC general counsel Grace Lei said. "This is the third case before the ITC in which Apple is infringing our intellectual property," Lei said. "Apple needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its products." "Some of the nine patents that HTC reportedly bought from Google had belonged to Motorola Mobility, which Google last month said that it is buying for $12.5 billion in cash. "Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies," Google chief executive Larry Page said when the Motorola Mobility buy was announced September 6, 2011: ClassCo sues Apple, HP, Huawei, LG, ZTE, HTC, RIM and Samsung over patents relating to handling "caller ID". - [NOTE: they *do* appear to manufacture at least one product: http://www.classco.com/] September 9, 2011: (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-09/apple-wins-ruling-for-german-samsu…) Apple Wins Court Ruling to Ban German Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1 "Apple won a ruling over sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S, S II and Ace smartphones in the Netherlands last month. Samsung filed a lawsuit in London against Apple on Sept. 7"..... "“The crucial issue was whether the Galaxy tablet looked like the drawings registered as a design right,” said [Presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann]. “Also, our case had nothing to do with trademarks or patents for technology. The court is of the opinion that Apple’s minimalistic design isn’t the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible. For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks like the design Apple has protected in Europe." ...and more to come... September 9, 2011: Intel Said to Weigh InterDigital [Patent] Bid http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-09/intel-said-to-weigh-interdigital-b… "Intel Corp. (INTC) is among companies considering submitting bids for InterDigital Inc.’s patent portfolio this month, while Google Inc. (GOOG)is losing interest in the assets, said people with knowledge of the matter. "Intel, Samsung Electronics Co., Ericsson AB and HTC Corp. (2498), are reviewing confidential InterDigital data as they weigh offers for the company’s assets, said the people, who declined to be identified because talks are private. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) have also looked, one person said. First-round bids are due in two weeks, and bidders have been asked to indicate initial interest in the coming days, the person said. "Some buyers may team up on proposals, the person said. Google is backing away from an offer after agreeing to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion last month to gain patents and a hardware business, the people said." <breath easily AGAIN> iOS (mainly iPhone) Galaxy family (mainly Galaxy S II) Box Screen …from: http://images.apple.com/au/education/ipodtouch-iphone/images/glance_iphone3… …from: http://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-vibrant-aka-galaxy-s-images-leak-20100… A Google search shows this picture used to also be at http://www.samsung.com/hk/ htmlnews/2010_jun/galaxys_2.jpg … this is the new image at that link now: Sometimes the following is the picture that shows up on the ‘net for a Galaxy S II: Icons Phone calls: Music: Notes: EMail: Camera: Settings: Contacts: Maps: Or or .. or .. Maps:

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INTEREST: perhaps you've noticed this new Safari 5.1 behaviour: RELOADING...
by billing 11 Sep '11

11 Sep '11

Basically it means that Safari will outright crash and then quit fewer times; instead it will recover somewhat gracefully by reloading *all* the web pages instead of crashing completely because of one bad page or plugin..... ...or some variant thereof... from: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3198617?start=0&tstart=0 Jul 31, 2011 6:13 AM To understand why this comes up you need to understand how the Safari processes have been redesigned for version 5.1 Historically plugins have been a leading cause of many a Safari crash. So in Safari 4 Apple seperated Safari into 2 processes - one of Safari itself and it's renderer and the other for it's plugins to run in. This meant that if the plugin crashed it Safari would in theory continue to function. This of course ignored the other ways in which a web page can crash a browser so in Safari 5.1 Apple separated things even further. Now Safari is separated into 3 processes - The Safari app comprimising of the windows , menus , tabs , bookmarks and URLs of what's loaded in each tab/window , our old friend from above WebkitPluginAgent and a new process just for the web page renderer. This new process is called "Safari Web Content" What your seeing here is when the Safari Web Content process crashes on the content of a page for any reason. Safari can detect when this happens and automatically restarts the process. When you click back into a window or tab where you had web page stuff loaded before it gets reloaded.

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INTERST: Apple Inc's Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive
by billing 11 Sep '11

11 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/25/tim-cook-who-is-apples-new-ceo/ Tim Cook: Who is Apple's new CEO? By Brian Heater posted Aug 25th 2011 at 12:00PM Tim Cook is no dark horse. He's no outsider either. And while most of us were caught a bit off guard when Apple announced Steve Jobs's resignation last night, none were too surprised when the 50-year-old executive was formally named his replacement. It's a role for which Cook has been groomed for some time now, even temporarily stepping into the position in 2004, 2009 and early 2011, as Jobs took leave in order to tend to his ongoing health problems. Cook has been with Apple for the lion's share of Jobs's second coming, joining the company in 1998. At the time, Cook was six months into a stint at Compaq, serving as Vice President, Corporate Materials. Prior to his brief run there he was the COO of Intelligent Electronics and spent a far longer 12-year stretch at IBM, serving as the Director of North American Fulfillment at the time of his exit. Cook did his undergrad at Auburn University, earning a BS in industrial engineering, going on to get an MBA at Duke University half a decade later. Tim Cook has sent a letter to the company's staff this morning, thanking his predecessor, and predicting bright things for Apple's future. Team: I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I've ever made and it's been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve's optimism for Apple's bright future. Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve's ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman. I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple's unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that-it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do. I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is. Tim = - = - = - = - = ...from Bloomberg News: Jobs’s Departure as CEO Puts Product Vision in Hands of Ive Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Jobs’s departure as chief executive officer this week leaves Apple Inc. without the full- time attention of its technology visionary, putting pressure on head product designer Jonathan Ive to fill that gap. While new CEO Tim Cook comes from an operations background, Ive has been Jobs’s foremost creative partner within Apple, said Eric Chan, who runs Ecco Design Inc., an industrial design firm. Ive, who goes by Jony, oversaw the exacting development that led to devices such as the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. “You need the combination of the chemistry that Jonathan and Steve have,” Chan said. “They have trust and they have the kind of quality vision that you need. They push each other.” The company aims to prove it can still churn out successful products without as much oversight from Jobs, who is now serving as chairman. Ive drew inspiration from the former CEO’s legendary attention to detail and aesthetic sense -- something that Cook hasn’t had to demonstrate in his previous roles. “The greatness of Apple has a lot to do with Steve’s commitment to design -- the willingness to spend amounts of money on design that would be crazy to most other companies,” said Robert Brunner, a former Apple design chief who hired Ive. “There’s no better place to be to do great design. If Steve drops out of the picture, will Tim have the same religion?” Close Relationship Jobs and Ive honed a close working relationship since the British native began running Apple’s design in the late 1990s. In a typical scenario, Jobs or one of Apple’s engineers would come up with a concept. Jobs would then commission Ive, 44, to produce a variety of prototypes to turn the idea into a physical model. Since his return to Apple in 1997, Jobs frequently disappeared into the design studio Ive shares with his team of designers. Once Jobs made his choice, Ive oversaw the painstaking development that led to Apple’s computers and devices. While each process was different -- the team visited a confectioner to perfect the candy-colored enclosure on the iMac -- Ive consistently created products that were functional, reliable and melded with Apple’s software. If Jobs steps aside altogether, it raises the possibility that Ive may leave Apple as well, said Brunner, who now runs a design company called Ammunition LLC. That would make it harder for Cook to preserve the company’s product vision. Nothing to Prove “Jony doesn’t have anything else to prove at Apple, and he’s made a lot of money,” Brunner said. Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment on Ive’s plans. The company has no additional personnel changes to announce, he said. A design prodigy who won a British student award twice while attending Northumbria University in the 1980s, Ive is quiet and avoids cameras but shares Jobs’s intensity for creating stylish products. His goal, he said in a 2006 speech, “is not self-expression. It’s to make something that looks like it wasn’t really designed at all -- because it’s inevitable.” That’s been the case since his college days, said Clive Grinyer, who went to school with him. Grinyer recalls visiting Ive’s apartment, and being shocked to see hundreds of foam models of a single product. Each one was good enough to have been the final product, he said. “They all looked bloody good to me,” said Grinyer, who later formed a design firm with Ive called Tangerine. “He doesn’t rest on his laurels. He does everything to the nth degree.” Designing Toilets In 1992, Ive moved from projects like designing toilets at Tangerine to Apple. He no longer wanted to sell his services to clients who then refused to let him turn his ideas into reality. By the time he was put in charge of Apple’s design effort in 1996, the company was struggling and he once again was spending much of his time lobbying executives for resources, said former Apple designer Thomas Meyerhoffer. That changed when Jobs returned to the helm in 1997. He needed the yet-to-be-released iMac to be a hit. To make sure it stood out, Jobs approved Ive’s plan to use a candy-colored translucent plastic enclosure -- a major expense given rapidly falling prices for computers at the time. In the years since, Ive and his team have achieved rarified status at Apple. They do their work in a lab deep within Apple’s Infinite Loop campus. Filled with expensive prototyping equipment -- often with music playing -- the room is locked off from all but the highest-ranking executives. While industrial design is seen as cost to be minimized at many companies, Ive has latitude to specify features that require his team and Apple’s hardware engineers to create new production techniques. ‘Antennagate’ Often they work well, as with the unibody design that helps make Apple’s laptops thinner. On some occasions, Jobs has demanded things that Ive’s team can’t execute perfectly, as occurred when Apple designed the antenna of the iPhone 4 into the bezel of the device. Some consumers complained of dropped calls when they held the bezel in certain ways, setting off an imbroglio known as “Antennagate.” Apple’s approach to design goes beyond cosmetics. Ive is known to travel to Asia for weeks, studying intricacies of metal-bending equipment, Meyerhoffer said. The result is that Apple’s products have unique shapes, textures and thinness. The solid feel of products such as the iPhone is due in part to Ive’s insistence on miniscule tolerances -- the tiny gaps around each part and screw in a product. Choosing Your Victories Like Jobs, he is private, living a low-key existence with his wife, a historian he’s known since childhood. While he matches Jobs’s passion for products, he’s not widely regarded as a CEO candidate. Ive lacks operations, marketing and sales skills, something he doesn’t regret, he said in the 2006 speech. “Victories from your ability to sell are very short-lived,” Ive said. “Victories from things you’ve really worked hard at can have a lasting impact.” The question now is whether Cook will make design as high a priority as in the past, said Meyerhoffer, who is head of his own firm in Montara, California. Cook -- who has spent 13 years at Apple, six of them as chief operating officer -- reassured employees in a memo yesterday that “Apple is not going to change.” “I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values,” he said in the memo. “Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that -- it is in our DNA.” Still, Cook is a spreadsheet junkie and operations wonk, who may be more likely to pinch pennies on a new iPad enclosure or iPhone, Meyerhoffer said. “Even a subtle shift might unsettle the balance,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Burrows in San Francisco at pburrows(a)bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5(a)bloomberg.net Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://m.bloomberg.com/iphone/

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INTEREST: Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia
by billing 10 Sep '11

10 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/apple-tops-j-d-power-customer-satisfacti… Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia By Sharif Sakr posted Sep 9th 2011 9:22AM Not only is Apple shipping the most smartphones, it's also shipping the best smartphones -- if you believe the stats in J.D. Power and Associates' latest US customer satisfaction survey. It gave the iPhone a score of 838, versus HTC's handsets in second place with 801 and an industry average of 788. Sammy got a disappointing 777, but we guess it might have fared better if the Galaxy S II had been quicker to cross the Atlantic. Hapless RIM got shunted into fifth place, having come second in 2010. You'll find plenty more factoids in the PR after the break, including evidence that people just love 4G. Well, we could have told you that. Show full PR text J.D. Power and Associates Reports: The Right Blend of Design and Technology is Critical to Creating an Exceptional User Experience with Smartphones and Traditional Mobile Devices Apple Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Smartphone Manufacturers, While Samsung Ranks Highest among Traditional Mobile Phone Manufacturers WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 8 September 2011 - Overall satisfaction with smartphones and traditional mobile phones is considerably higher for devices that are a specific size and weight and are equipped with the latest technological advancements, such as high-quality display screens, faster processing speeds, longer battery life and touch screen capabilities, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 2 and the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 2, both released today. Satisfaction with both smartphones and traditional or "feature" phones is greatly impacted by the physical design and dimensions of the device. For example, satisfaction ratings are highest (8.1 on a 10-point scale) when the weight of the smartphone device does not exceed 5 ounces. In comparison, satisfaction averages 7.6 for smartphone devices that are 5 ounces or heavier. The same scenario holds true for feature phones, for which satisfaction with the weight of the device peaks between 3 and 3.5 ounces, and drops considerably when the feature phone weighs 4 ounces or more. The width and thickness of the smartphone device are also critical in maximizing the ownership experience, and echo the old adage that "thinner is better" holds true. Overall physical design satisfaction is highest (852 on a 1,000-point scale) for smartphones that are less than 0.45 inches wide. In comparison, satisfaction averages 783 for smartphones that are 0.65 inches wide or wider. Technology advancements also impact the experience of mobile devices in a number of areas. For example, touch screen-only smartphones generate considerably higher satisfaction with ease of operation (817 points) than either QWERTY-only based devices or those that have both a touch screen and QWERTY functions (785 and 782 points, respectively). In addition, faster processing speeds, higher computer chip bit rates and the most advanced display screens (such as Super AMOLED vs. older LCD-based screens) all add significantly to user satisfaction. Even the number of megapixels found in camera-enabled mobile devices influences the ownership experience. In general, the higher the number of megapixels, the higher the satisfaction with camera picture and video quality. However, devices with at least 5 megapixels achieve nearly as high a satisfaction score as those smartphones with 8 megapixels or more. "It's not unexpected that satisfaction is higher for devices that have new technological advances or features," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. "Having the right combination of physical dimensions and operating functions and features for both smartphones and traditionally equipped devices is key to creating an exceptional ownership experience with each type of wireless device." These two studies have been updated to measure customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets and smartphones among owners who have used their current mobile phone for less than one year by examining several key factors. In order of importance, the key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are: performance (31%); ease of operation (24%); physical design (24%); and features (20%). For smartphones, the key factors are: performance (35%); ease of operation (24%); features (21%); and physical design (20%). For a sixth consecutive time, Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones in customer satisfaction. Apple achieves a score of 838 and performs well in all factors, particularly in ease of operation and features. HTC (801) follows Apple in the smartphone rankings. Samsung ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction with traditional handsets with a score of 718. Samsung performs well in three factors: performance, ease of operation and features. LG (717), Sanyo (716) and Sony Ericsson (709) follow Samsung in the traditional handset rankings. The studies also find the following key wireless handset usage patterns: • The price of a traditional wireless mobile phone continues to decline and averages $71 in 2011, compared with an average of $81 at the beginning of 2009. The decline is primarily due to discounts provided by handset providers and wireless service carriers to incentivize sales. Currently, 42 percent of owners report having received a free mobile phone when subscribing to a wireless service. • Mobile applications continue to enhance the smartphone user experience. More than two-thirds of owners say they have downloaded games and social networking applications to their device. More than one-half (54%) say they have downloaded entertainment-oriented applications, while 52 percent indicate having downloaded travel software, such as maps and weather applications. This indicates that smartphone owners are continuing to integrate their device usage into both their business and personal lives. • Customers are highly satisfied with 4G-capable devices. Satisfaction among customers using 4G-capable phones averages 819, compared with 786 among customers using phones with 3G capability. Owners of 4G devices are also more active in terms of calling, texting and browsing the Internet. The 2011 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study-Volume 2 and the 2011 U.S. Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Satisfaction Study-Volume 2 are based on experiences reported by 6,898 smartphone owners and 8,775 traditional mobile phone owners. Both studies were fielded between January and June 2011. For more information on customer satisfaction with wireless service, wireless retail sales, cell phone handsets, customer care, prepaid wireless service and business wireless service, please visit JDPower.com. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

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INTEREST: Amazon.com coming to a 7-Eleven? Someday. Soon?
by billing 06 Sep '11

06 Sep '11

...from: http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/09/02/090211-tech-technews-amazon-lockers/ Convenience store A new locker system from Amazon sends your deliveries to 7-Eleven BY MATT HICKEY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011 You’re at work and your cellphone rings. It’s the delivery guy and he has your Amazon purchase ready to be dropped off. (Yes, the new shower curtain!) But you’re chained to your desk and can’t get home to sign for it. And forget about having it sent to the office — if the mailroom doesn’t lose it, the package will be undoubtedly delivered on a weekend when you’re not around. First World problems! But nestled in the back of a 7-Eleven store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood is a prototype delivery locker from Amazon that may solve this nightmare scenario. According to a source with knowledge of the project, the idea is simple: these nondescript boxes will be in 7-Eleven stores across the country and act as a sort of P.O. box for Amazon purchases. Once a customer makes a buy on Amazon’s website he can select a 7-Eleven close to work, or on the way home and have the package dropped off there. When the package is actually delivered, the customer receives an email notification along with a bar code to his smartphone and heads to the 7-Eleven. There he’ll stand in front of the locker system, which looks like the offspring between an ATM machine and a safety deposit box. The machine will scan the bar code on his handset to receive a PIN number. He’ll punch that PIN number and retrieve the package. The source told The Daily that Amazon is currently in early testing stages of the system. If it is successful, the lockers could be in place at 7-Elevens across the U.S. by next summer. Amazon had no comment about the locker system. ...and from: http://www.engadget.com/page/2/ http://www.geekwire.com/2011/confirmed-amazons-delivery-locker-7eleven Amazon's 7-Eleven lockers are very real, very gray, slated for Friday activation By Amar Toor posted Sep 6th 2011 at 10:18AM After an arduous expedition that must've lasted hours, an intrepid frontiersman in the Seattle area has finally unearthed the Holy Grail of convenience store cubbies -- Amazon's elusive delivery locker, at 7-Eleven. GeekWire's John Cook discovered the prototype lockers at a 7-Eleven in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, where store clerks told him that the system wouldn't be activated until Friday. According to Cook's description, the setup consists of about 40 different sized containers, centered around a keypad and monitor (neither of which was illuminated during his visit). All told, the array of P.O. Box-style cabinets stands about seven feet tall and is completely devoid of Amazon branding. The in-store pick-up program may roll out of a nationwide basis next summer, but you can check out a photographic sneak preview at the source link, below.

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INTEREST: HP's webOS global business unit split outlined in leaked HP documents
by billing 05 Sep '11

05 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/03/webos-global-business-unit-split-outline… http://www.precentral.net/hp-splitting-webos-gbu-two-software-headed-office… webOS global business unit split outlined in leaked HP documents By Christopher Trout posted Sep 3rd 2011 at 5:23PM It's been just over two weeks since HP announced plans to discontinue production of its webOS devices, and speculation over the future of the platform is still going strong. Just this week, Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung put to rest rumors of a webOS deal, and now two leaked missives from inside HP show plans to split the webOS global business unit in two. According to letters apparently from Todd Bradley and Shane Robison, webOS software will find a new home in the outfit's Office of Strategy and Technology, while the hardware division will remain with the Personal Systems Group. One of these letters from Tom Bradley explains the split: The pan-HP charter of OS&T provides a broad view of how we can optimize our technologies. In fact, it has proven to be a successful incubator of technologies; it is home to a team of senior technology experts devoted exclusively to exploring longer-term strategies for our technologies. The second missive, from Shane Robison, goes on to say that "webOS software is still a great asset." None of this should come as a surprise, as our interview with Stephen DeWitt reiterated the company's dedication to the webOS platform, while HP's recent ads hocking PSG show the outfit's intentions to spin-off its PC business. Now the question is, who has the bones to make it happen? For the full-length leaks hit the source link below.

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