Author Archive: Gareth

A Google U-turn

This has to be the most shocking news of the day, (if not the week and month). Apparently Google’s subsidiary, Motorola Mobility has completely withdrawn their ITC patent complaint against Apple. In case you missed it previously, Motorola filed a complaint with the ITC attempting to ban sales of a multitude of Apple’s products from sale in the United States. Supposedly, these products infringe upon seven patents held by Motorola. The case was under investigation for these claims since August 17th.

For whatever reason, Motorola asked the ITC to "terminate all claims in this investigation without prejudice," and adding that "there are no agreements between Motorola and Apple, written or oral, express or implied, concerning the subject matter of this investigation."

Right now, there is nothing but speculation as to why this might have been the case. Currently, there are only two theories that we have heard as to why this might have happened. One is that Motorola themselves somehow determined the patents were not actually being infringed and decided to withdraw the case before things made them look bad. The other is a much happier outcome, and that is maybe, just maybe, Google and Apple finally worked out some sort of licensing agreement and can begin to end the ridiculous patent wars. Wouldn’t that be great?

Posted by: Gareth

Warning – HP in Attack mode!

It seems that HP is going to jump back into the tablet market big time. In fact, they are also planning to "aggressively attack" the smartphone market as well, and they plan to use the Android OS to do it. Here’s a quote with some of the details,

Quote:

HP will “aggressively attack” both the smartphone and tablet markets, according to Jefferies analyst Peter Misek recent note to investors.
“While the move makes sense strategically, we see it as a high risk move,” Misek explained. “On top of adding costs and working capital burdens to an already stressed balance sheet, there could be additional write-offs.”
HP’s last attempt to enter the mobile space was a short-lived one. Just around a month after it launched the webOS-based HP TouchPad, the company pulled the plug on webOS, cancelled its HP Pre 3 project, all under the strong influence of then CEO Leo Apotheker.
Newly appointed Meg Whitman seems to renew HP’s somewhat lost focus in consumer products and the mobile industry and we can only hope the company brings a great Android device, competition is always welcome.

This seems like a daring move by HP. We are looking forward to seeing what they can come up with. Would you consider moving to an HP phone or tablet?

Posted by: Gareth.

Fighting fire with fire Samsung Vs Apple

According to a late breaking story from last night, Samsung isn’t messing around with their counter-attack on Apple. Insider sources are claiming, Samsung will sue Apple for violating its LTE patents with the iPhone 5 just as the phone is announced tomorrow. Here’s the quote,

Quote:

"It’s true that Samsung Electronics has decided to take immediate legal action against the Cupertino-based Apple. Countries in Europe and even the United States ? Apple’s home-turf ? are our primary targets,” said an industry source.

Apple and Google behind the scenes

According to industry sources, Google and Apple are supposedly conducting "secret talks" behind the scenes in order to come up with a patent settlement agreement. Reuters reported that Larry Page, CEO of Google, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple have recently had a private phone conversation in which they discussed "a range of intellectual property matters, including the on-going mobile patent disputes between the companies." Additionally, according to Reuter’s unnamed source, the two CEOs will likely talk again soon to continue negotiations for some kind of cease fire. Here’s a quote from the Reuters article with some final details,

Quote:

The two companies are keeping the lines of communication open at a high level against the backdrop of Apple’s decisive legal victory in a patent infringement case against Samsung, which uses Google’s Android software.
A jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages last Friday and set the stage for a possible ban on sales of some Samsung products in a case that has been widely viewed as a "proxy war" between Apple and Google.
One possible scenario under consideration could be a truce involving disputes over basic features and functions in Google’s Android mobile software, one source said. But it’s unclear whether Page and Cook are discussing a broad settlement of the various disputes between the two companies – most of which involve the burgeoning mobile computing area – or are focused on a more limited set of issues.

Hopefully a more businessly gentleman’s agreement can be reached.

Posted by: Gareth

Amazon AppStore arrives in the UK

From today Europe now has access to the to the Amazon AppStore. The AppStore has been running successfully in the States for a long time now and Europe has been awaiting it with great anticipation. Bringing with it the free games/apps of the day, the promotional deals and so on. While not all countries will get access right away, a few of will including the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain. This also means that when a game is exclusively released onto Android through the Amazon AppStore for a limited time, you will also be able to access those finally.

It’s nice to see Amazon making the effort to include Europe. You can expect more countries to gain access down the road a bit. As a perk, it looks like Angry Birds (ads-free version) is today’s free game.

Posted by: Gareth