Apple wins $1 billion in Samsung patent case

A California jury awarded Apple Inc more than $1.05 billion on Friday in its patent infringement claim that Samsung Electronics Co copied technology used in its iPad and iPhone. The nine-member jury in a federal court in San Jose, California, found overwhelmingly in Apple’s favour, saying Samsung had infringed on six of seven smartphone patents in question. The US lawsuit was one of several cases around the world between California-based Apple and South Korean Samsung over technology rights and innovation in the fast-growing mobile computing sector. Apple sued Samsung in April 2011, and Samsung countersued. The companies have also sued each other in Britain, Australia and South Korea. The California case was the first to go to a US jury.

Apple sought $2.75 billion for its claims that Samsung infringed four design patents and three software patents. Samsung demanded as much as $421.8 million in royalties for claims that Apple infringed five patents. The complexity of the case was compounded by Apple’s contention that nearly two dozen of Samsung’s devices violated its patents. The disputes date to 2010 when Samsung released its Galaxy smartphones. Apple immediately suspected that Galaxy phones copied the iPhone, which had been on the market for three years. Apple and Samsung are the world’s largest makers of handheld devices that blend phone and a computer functionality.

Sales of the iPhone totalled 47 billion dollars in 2011, while iPad sales totaled 20.4 billion dollars, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Together they comprised 62 per cent of Apple’s sales in fiscal 2011. In smartphone sales, Samsung has a lead over Apple with about 32 per cent of the market to Apple’s 17 per cent, according to technology market researcher IDC.In a related decision, the US International Trade Commission ruled Friday that Apple did not infringe two patents owned by Google Inc’s Motorola Mobility unit for wireless technologies. The commission stopped short of resolving their dispute, ordering a trade judge to reconsider Motorola Mobility’s claim that Apple had violated another patent.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA,  for The Hindu.

 

 

 

One S – Middle Child in ONE Family

The HTC One S (codenamed Ville) is a smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC as part of the HTC One series which runs the Android mobile operating system with HTC Sense. It was Officially announced by HTC on 26 February 2012.

The One S is HTC’s thinnest phone to date, at 0.31 inches (7.87 mm) at its thinnest point. The phone uses an aluminum unibody shell, with two finishes available – a black micro arc oxidized finish, and a light-blue to dark-blue gradient anodized finish (currently the only finish available through T-Mobile USA). HTC states that the micro arc oxidized finish makes the body five times stronger than the bare aluminum, although some users claim that the finish chips easily.The phone has a power/lock button and a 3.5 mm headphone jack at the top, a volume rocker on the upper right side, and a MHL/Micro USB port on the upper left. Three capacitive buttons (back, home, and task switcher) are located on the front of the phone, below the display. There are two speakers, one on the front (serving as the earpiece) and one on the back. A two-color (amber and green) notification LED sits under the earpiece grille.

Key features

• Stunningly thin at 7.8mm, ceramic or anodized aluminum finish
• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 4.3″ 16M-color capacitive Super AMOLED touchscreen of qHD resolution (540 x 960 pixels); Gorilla glass
• Android OS v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.0
• 1.5 GHz dual core Krait CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260A chipset
• 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage
• Beats audio enhancement
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; face detection, geotagging and continuous shooting
• 1080p video recording @ 30fps; Snapping photos while recording video
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity and ambient light sensors
• Front facing camera with video calls
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• MHL TV-out (requires a MHL-to-HDMI adapter)
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• DivX/XviD video support
• HTC Locations app
• HTCSense.com integration
• HTC Portable Hotspot
• Splendid audio quality
• Office document editor
• 1650mAh battery
• 25GB of free Dropbox storage for the first two years

For now unfortunately, HTC is shipping the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 Scorpion-equipped HTC One S to India, with a less power-efficient 1.7GHz dual-core processor, instead of the current-gen dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Krait processor. This is due to the shortage of Snapdragon S4 Krait processors, for which Qualcomm is facing high demand. The situation will reportedly resolve itself soon however.

Source : GSMArena, Thinkdigit.

Galaxy Nexus

The Galaxy Nexus is a touchscreen slate Android smartphone developed by a partnership between Samsung and Google.The phone and operating system were developed collaboratively by engineers from both companies. It is the third generation successor to Google’s previous flagship phones, the Nexus One and Nexus S. It has a curved HD (1280×720 pixels) Super AMOLED display, an improved camera system, and Google’s new version of its Android operating system, version 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. The name is the result of co-branding between the Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus brands of Android smartphones.

The Galaxy Nexus was unveiled at Google and Samsung’s Ice Cream Sandwich event on 19 October 2011 in Hong Kong. It was released in Europe on November 17, 2011, and made its debut in the United States on December 15, 2011. Expected to be released by the end of January 2012 in India.

Features:

• General: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100, LTE (region specific)
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 135.5 x 67.9 x 8.9 mm
• Weight: 135 g
• Display: 4.65″ 16M-color HD (1280 x 720 pixels) Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 0.01ms response time; oleophobic surface, curved display, multi-touch input
• Chipset:Dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, TI OMAP 4460 chipset
• RAM: 1GB
• OS: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• Memory: 16/32GB storage
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and geotagging; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps, LED flash, front facing camera, video-calls, touch-to-zoom while recording
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC
• Misc: Hyper Skin material for increased grip, built-in accelerometer, proximity sensor, barometer sensor, notification LED area.

Samsung Galaxy S Plus

Samsung’s bespoke Hummingbird chipset has been swapped out for Qualcomm MSM8255T Snapdragon. The “T” means it’s a faster version of the vanilla MSM8255 chipset found in a good deal of Android phones. With a clock speed of 1.4GHz, it could be up to 40% faster. We’ll see how they measure up though, as they have slightly different architectures.

Qualcomm’s chipset comes with Adreno 205 graphics instead of the custom PowerVR SGX540 in the original Galaxy S. We expect a slight difference in graphics performance too. Also, the new battery can hold up to 10% of extra juice, for a total of 1650 mAh.

Other than that however, you can’t tell the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S Plus apart – not even with a caliper and scales. Here’s a summary of what the S Plus has to offer, complete with a feeling of deja vu.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
• 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4″ 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution, PenTile matrix
• Super slim at 9.9mm
• Android OS v2.3.3 with TouchWiz 3.0 UI customization
• 1.4GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255T chipset
• 512 MB of RAM
• 8GB internal storage, microSD slot (up to 32GB cards)
• 5 MP autofocus camera with face, smile and blink detection
• 720p HD video recording at 30fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g and n support
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Great audio quality
• FM radio with RDS
• 1650 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Document editor and file manager come preinstalled
• Secondary video-call camera
• Swype predictive text input
• Full Flash support for the web browser

Main disadvantages

• No flash for the camera
• No dedicated camera key
• Fingerprint prone plastics
• Virtually unchanged year-old design
• Adreno 205 GPU is weaker than PowerVR SGX540 in the original

How to Run Android apps on Windows ?

Most Android-based smartphone users would agree that they would prefer testing an app before downloading it to their phone. The reason behind this is usually to avoid unnecessary space hogging apps. Some users might also wish to play some of the cool mobile games available for the Android platform on their PC i.e. on a larger display. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how can your favorite Android apps on your Windows-based PC using a simple and free software called BlueStacks.

BlueStacks is an app player for Windows, which can play Android apps faster than it can run on a phone and that too, on a full-screen. The app includes 10 pre-loaded apps and one can add up to 26 more apps of their choice. Favorite apps can be pushed directly from the phone onto the PC using an Android app via internet route. Download and install the software for Windows from the URL ‘www.bluestacks.com’. The software is nothing, but a simple virtual Android operating system, which simulates an Android phone or UI. It uses the desktop PC’s resources such as the processor, the internet connection, mouse, keyboard and the audio card. The installed folder located on the PC contains the necessary files for its use, namely the kernel, data, system, boot and storage (the SD card). The BlueStacks Android (Gingerbread) virtual machine creates a hardware environment with a limited amount of storage (around 363 MB) for installing apps and 262 MB of SD card storage space.

Once BlueStacks is installed, the application will be running the Android operating system in the background and you will see an icon in the system tray area and a widget will be running on your screen. A single click on the widget will reveal the Android system apps installed in it. Click on the apps and enjoy them on a large screen. Additional apps can be installed from the BlueStacks website by signing in using your Facebook account details. To get to this page, all you need to do is click on the BlueStacks widget, scroll to and click on the app icon/shortcut ‘Get more apps’. A website will open up where you can login using your Facebook details. Once logged in, simply click on the ‘Subscribe’ button for the available apps (in the Featured Apps section) and they shall automatically get installed on your system via the internet. The ‘Could Connect’ link on the same page will highlight a special 9-pin numerical code which needs to be entered on your Android phone running the BlueStacks Cloud Connect app (download it from the Android Market for free). Once done, you can push apps from your phone to your PC by simply selecting multiple apps and syncing it. That’s it! You can now enjoy all your favorite apps from your phone on your Windows desktop PC.

Note: There are a few (or many) apps that will not function on BlueStacks, due to reasons such as incompatible hardware (for example there is no wireless network available here and apps that need the wireless network will not function). Also a few apps cannot be installed under the free license of BlueStacks. The BlueStacks Pro version will be out soon and you can do a lot more on it. The free version has a maximum limit of 26 installable apps, while the pro version will have the possibility of installing unlimited apps. Do not attempt to troubleshoot, repair, or modify any device without understanding and following all of the relevant safety guidelines! Do also please keep in mind that repairing a product on your own while it is under warranty, will automatically nullify the warranty provided by the company.

Source : Tech2

 

HTC Explorer

The HTC Explorer is a smartphone developed by the HTC Corporation announced on 29 September 2011. Formerly known as the HTC Pico, the model was leaked on 21 September 2011 by online retailer Clove when they published the phone specifications on their website for a short time. Because of the low end processor, the HTC Watch movie rental service and the 3D scrolling effects on the homescreens are not available.  The handset will come in black or navy colour options.

Its appearance is very similar to the HTC Wildfire S and it comes with a 3.2 inch HVGA screen, a 600mhz Qualcomm processor and runs the Android operating system.

FEATURES :

• TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
• 320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches (~180 ppi pixel density)
• Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
• Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
• HTC Sense UI v3.5
• Touch-sensitive controls
• SRS surround sound enhancement
• 90 MB storage, 512 MB ROM, 512 MB RAM
• microSD, up to 32GB
• GPRS : Up to 80 kbps EDGE : Up to 236.8 kbps 3G : HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth : v3.0 with A2DP, EDR
• 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels
• Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
• 600MHz Sncorpion CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, Qulacomm MSM7227 chipset

Google Shuts Down Products

Google is  shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact Google hoped for. This process started some days ago and now some products are being shut down. The products include:

• Google Bookmarks Lists

• Google Friend Connect

• Google Gears

• Google Search Timeline

• Google Wave

• Knol

• Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C)

Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow says that : 

This is our third blog post in our off-season spring cleaning series. To recap, we’re in the process of shutting a number of products which haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for, integrating others as features into our broader product efforts, and ending several which have shown us a different path forward. Overall, our aim is to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience.

More details can be found at the Official Google Blog Post HERE.

Top 5 Android ICS [Ice Cream Sandwich] Features

Ice Cream Sandwich has come out, and it’s looking pretty delicious. As reported by PC Mag, here are few of the best features so far, for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Face recognition unlock:

Swiping fingers is so passé. Enter face unlock. With Android 4.0 you can now simply look at the phone and unlock it, well if it is yours. Cool feature to have as smartphones are slowly bridging the gap with laptops.

New UI:

Bored of the Gingerbread UI on your phone? Worry not, the user interface for Ice Cream Sandwich is touted to take the best from both worlds, tablets and smartphones, and that definitely will be a delicious treat. That is, if your phone can be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Watch out, iOS! Ice Cream Sandwich is coming

Speech recognition:

All those going ga-ga about Siri and the iPhone 4S can look to Google’s new and improved speech recognition. It’s touted to be more advanced in terms of functionality and we’re hoping it’s Google’s answer to Siri. As of now though, this feature lets users create e-mails, texts and other varied functions.

Better camera control:

With Android 4.0, the time period for clicking snaps has been considerably reduced so you won’t really miss that image shot again. Also, there’s an auto image rotator that will rotate pictures according to where your eye is looking.

Android beam:

This feature allows phones with NFC to share applications, maps, directions, videos, contacts, files and a lot more by tapping two Android 4.0 devices together.

So, that’s a brief rundown of the five cool features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

“DART” ==> Google’s New Programming Language

Google has made good on its promise to launch its own JavaScript competitor, releasing an early preview of the Dart language to developers across the world.

Designed for web programming, Dart is built to offer familiarity to those used to JavaScript – to the point where it’s possible to compile Dart code into JavaScript, in place of the usual virtual machine approach.

As a result, Dart is ready for use now, but what makes Google think that developers are ready to move on from JavaScript?

“Dart’s design goals are: create a structured yet flexible language for web programming; make Dart feel familiar and natural to programmers and thus easy to learn; ensure that Dart delivers high performance on all modern web browsers and environments ranging from small handheld devices to server-side execution,” writes Dart developer Lars Bak.

“The language comes with a set of basic libraries and tools for checking, compiling, and running Dart code, all of which will evolve further with your participation,” he adds – but there’s a problem.

“The Dart VM is not currently integrated in Chrome,” Bak admits – meaning that anyone hoping to make use of the language beyond testing will need to use the compiler to translate their code into JavaScript first, or risk alienating users by requiring them to download and install a dedicated Dart VM for their chosen browser.

That stumbling block could prove a real problem: the majority of web developers are well versed in JavaScript, and writing in an unfamiliar language only to translate it back into JavaScript at the end is a step many will find cumbersome. It’s something that Google believes will bring benefits, should the virtual machine become a standard part of web browsers in the future.

“We believe Dart will be great for writing large web applications,” Bak writes. “Dart targets a wide range of development scenarios: from a one-person project without much structure to a large-scale project needing formal types in the code to state programmer intent. To support this wide range of projects, Dart has optional types; this means you can start coding without types and add them later as needed.”

So far, Dart’s reception has been mixed. Many developers appear hopeful that the development of Dart will avoid some of the kludges inherent in JavaScript, while others believe that Google will struggle to convince other browser manufacturers to include the virtual machine in their software – a step required if Google truly wants to make Dart competitive with JavaScript.

Full details of Dart, plus downloads for the compiler and virtual machine, are available on the Dart website.

Happy Birthday Google…..!

Search giant Google has entered teens today, the tech behemoth has turned 13. Officially a teenager, Google celebrates its birthday with a doodle Surrounded by multi-coloured balloons and streamers, its logo is adorned with party hats and sits behind a table heaped with wrapped presents and a large white birthday cake with 13 candles.

A click on the doodle takes visitors to a search result page on Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google Inc in September 1998 with four computers and an investor’s $100,000 bet on their belief that an Internet search engine can change the world.

The company filed for incorporation on September 4, 1998, and the Google.com domain was registered on September 15. The search engine officially celebrates its birthday on September 27.

The pair came up with the name as a play on the word “googol”, the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

As Google enters its 13th year, the company faces increasing legislative scrutiny and increasing competition from social networking giant Facebook. Google Inc has evolved to become a dominant and potentially anti-competitive force on the Internet, US senators remarked at a recent congressional hearing.

“Google is in a position to determine who will succeed and who will fail on the Internet,” said Republican Senator Mike Lee, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel. “In the words of the head of the Goggle’s search ranking team, Google is the biggest kingmaker on Earth.”

The company has been broadly accused of using its clout in the search market to stomp rivals as it moves into related businesses, like travel search. The Federal Trade Commission is looking into that charge and others, including whether Google manipulates its search result rankings to favor its own products.