Technology Thread

YePaDoPa

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Oct 30, 2002
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#81
lol tons of game! no not a gamer! yes, LTE would be an a few step up from Blackberry Bold! Thanks for the info.
 

IEI

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#85
well, well I am really glad to hear this
Oracle sued Google for patent Infringement of Android and now today they lost the case ... what a joke of lawsuit

Jury: No patent infringement in Oracle/Google case

The jury in the Oracle vs Google trial has returned a unanimous verdict that Google did not infringe Oracle's patents. The jury was dismissed and, because of an agreement between Google, Oracle and the judge, will not have to hear the final damages phase of the trial. Google's director of litigation, Catherine Lacevera, said the verdict was "a victory not just for Google but the entire Android ecosystem". An Oracle spokesperson said the company would "continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write once run anywhere principle".

The damages phase is now cancelled; how the case progresses is now in the hands of Judge William Alsup, who has to rule on whether Oracle can claim copyright protection on the structure and organisation of 37 Java APIs. The jury had found that Google had infringed the copyright of the APIs, but had been told to assume that APIs were protectable under copyright. The jury could not decide if Google had used the material under "fair use" either.

Without an affirmative ruling on the issue of copyrightability of APIs, Oracle is left with a copyright claim spanning nine lines of code and some test files, and under the agreement, they will only be able to claim statutory damages. If Oracle do get an affirmative ruling though, a new jury and a new trial would hear the case for monetary damages.
 

IEI

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#86
Interesting Stuff:

Rumour: Facebook looking to acquire Opera

Pocket-lint has a rumour up that Facebook is interested in acquiring Opera to kickstart their own move into the browser market, to compete with Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft. While it would mean much-deserved recognition for Opera, I actually hope such a deal does not go through - for entirely selfish reasons.

Opera is one of those products that I have the utmost respect for, even though I personally don't even like or use it. As a company, Opera has been incredibly innovative, and has always been at the very forefront of supporting the open web and web standards. However, I find the browser has just too many features for my own liking, and as such, it just isn't for me.

Still, it makes sense Facebook would look in Opera's general direction if it wanted to move into the browser market. Opera is already quite popular in certain countries, and has a very strong mobile presence, too. On top of that, there's probably loads of talented employees and know-how at Opera, since it's a company that has been in the browser business for longer than Google even exists. The Pocket-lint rumour comes from a "trusted source", so take it all with a grain of salt.

I hope such a deal does not go through, and for a very simple reason: in essence, Opera is the only truly independent browser maker out there. Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari are all led by giant corporations, while Mozilla receives large sums of money from Google. I'm not saying Mozilla is currently nothing but a Google puppet - quite the contrary - but it is a fact that they receive most of their income from Google.

This leaves Opera as a kind of last bastion of independent browser development, and a last resort to flee to once everything else starts to suck. If Opera were picked up by Facebook, this escape clause would cease to exist. I'd hate to see Opera get stuffed with Facebook crap; Facebook is a website to me, and nothing more.

We'll see just how valid this rumour is, but assuming Facebook wants to get into the browser business, Opera is the only logical choice. I'm just hoping it doesn't go through.
 

IEI

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#87
Customers who pre-ordered Samsung's new top-end smartphone face weeks of delays in receiving their handsets.
The South Korean firm signalled that it had faced issues in manufacturing blue models of the Galaxy S3.
Vodafone added that it had also been advised of "shipping delays" to the 32GB version of the white version of the handset.
Available devices went on sale in the UK and 27 other European and Middle Eastern countries earlier.
"Samsung's Galaxy S3 Pebble Blue version comes with a newly invented blue colour and special hyperglaze material," said a statement from the electronics company.
"In order to meet the highest internal quality standards and to provide the best quality Galaxy S3 to customers, a short supply of [the] Pebble Blue version is expected in some regions in the next two to three weeks."
Vodafone - which has an exclusive deal to distribute white 32GB models in the UK for four weeks - noted that it might take up to that period for customers to receive the delayed models.
It added that "all customers who have pre-ordered the marble white 16GB version... should expect to receive their new phone on the UK launch date".
O2, Everything Everywhere and Three also confirmed their customers would be affected by the "shortage of blue" models.
Positive reviews The Android-based phone is expected to prove highly popular. It features a 4.8 inch (12.2cm) screen, a "natural language user interface" and can track users' eye movements to ensure the screen does not dim while they are looking at it.
The success of its predecessor, the Galaxy S2, helped Samsung overtake Nokia as the world's best-selling phone maker, according to the research firm Strategy Analytics.
Reviews have compared the device favourably with Apple's smaller-screened iPhone.
The Verge declared it a "a technological triumph", although Engadget suggested that HTC's One X had a superior user-interface and design.
Samsung has said it expects the S3 to outsell the S2. It is scheduled for release in 145 countries by July.
 

IEI

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#92
This is amazing, truly amazing:

[h=1]Hey, Brother, Can You Spare a Hubble? DOD: Sure! Have Two[/h]
ASA's been wracked by budgetary concerns as it tries to figure out how to do research into the origins of everything *and* loft human beings into orbit with big rockets. In particular, the space agency has been dealing with cost overruns on the next-generation Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, which have been eating up the science budget. Now, we get word from the Washington Post that the Department of Defense has gifted two better-than-Hubble telescopes to NASA. That's right. Our military had two, unflown, better-than-Hubble space telescopes just sitting around. This story is almost unbelievable; it feels like a hoax. But it's not.
The U.S. government's secret space program has decided to give NASA two telescopes as big as, and even more powerful than, the Hubble Space Telescope. Designed for surveillance, the telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office were no longer needed for spy missions and can now be used to study the heavens.


Three Thoughts:


  • First, hooray! NASA needs all the help it can get, especially around its scientific missions, which get dwarfed by the space-travel components of its work. Plus, Hubble's quality is going to start deteriorating in the coming years, so these are nice to have.
  • Second, if the DOD didn't need these two birds, which are both better than any civilian telescope, what *do* they have? Are drones replacing space telescopes? Are there much better telescopes already up there?
  • Third, how did this happen? Were two satellite scientists out at brunch and the military lady turns to the civilian guy and says, "You know, we have a couple telescopes in the shop, if you guys need them."

Of course, like any good gift, these telescopes do come with a catch. NASA has to outfit them with cameras and instruments. NASA also has to come up with the money to pay the scientists to run them. To get that done could take until 2020, the Post says.
This is the state of our military-industrial-scientific complex in miniature: The military has so much money that it has two extra telescopes better than anything civilians have; meanwhile, NASA will need eight years to find enough change in the couches at Cape Canaveral to turn these gifts into something they can use. Anyone else find anything wrong with this state of affairs?
 

IEI

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#93
While it's clear Microsoft isn't planning to introduce its next-generation Xbox console this year, all signs indicate that a 2013 launch is on the cards. A newly leaked 56-page document sheds some light on the company's plans, for what it calls the "Xbox 720." The presentation appears to be from August 2010, and references future improvements like SmartGlass, a Metro dashboard, and Xbox TV apps. Alongside its incremental Xbox 360 updates, Microsoft has a clear vision for its next-generation Xbox 720 console — we've dug into its plans to bring you the best bits.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/16/3090944/microsoft-xbox-720-kinect-2-kinect-glasses-doc-leak-rumor
 

IEI

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#94
Microsoft Is Expected to Introduce a Tablet

For decades, Microsoft has made the software that runs a majority of the world’s personal computers, leaving a gang of outside hardware companies to design the machines. Apple, its rival, makes it all.

Microsoft is about to concede that Apple may be onto something.

On Monday, Microsoft is expected to introduce a tablet computer of its own design that runs a new version of its Windows operating system, according to people with knowledge of Microsoft’s plans who declined to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is the first time in the company’s 37-year history that it will offer a computer of its own creation. The device is aimed squarely at Apple’s blockbuster iPad, which has begun to threaten Microsoft’s hegemony in the computer business.

Microsoft’s move is another example of how Apple has demonstrated that the most effective way to create easy-to-use consumer gadgets is by building the whole package — upending the longstanding practice in the technology industry of companies’ devoting their energies to either hardware or software. Google, too, has made a big concession to Apple’s approach, signaling with its acquisition of Motorola Mobility last year that it will also design its own devices.

Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman, declined to comment.

For Microsoft, the decision to make its own tablet would once have been almost unthinkable. Microsoft swallowed the PC market in the 1980s and 1990s by letting any hardware maker pay licensing fees to put Windows on its machines. That business was so lucrative for Microsoft that there was no reason for the company to make its own PCs and compete for computer sales with its own partners.

The stunning success of Apple, now the most highly valued company in the world, has shown its rivals that they can no longer rely entirely on the business models that were so successful during an earlier era of the tech industry.

With the iPad, Apple coupled hardware and software together in an elegant package, producing longer battery life, a more responsive touch screen and other features competitors have not been able to match.

“If it’s true that Microsoft is going to produce its own tablet, it’s a major turning point for the company and shows just how breathtakingly the landscape has changed in a just a few years,” said Brad Silverberg, a venture capitalist in Seattle and former Microsoft executive, who said he had no knowledge of the company’s plans. “The stakes are enormous.”

In the smartphone business, Google initially followed Microsoft’s playbook by making its Android operating system available to any hardware maker who wanted it, a move that helped turn Android into the top operating system for smartphones. The search company’s hardware partners were far less successful, though, in selling Android tablets to the public, which were often criticized for being inferior to the iPad.

Last year though, Google announced plans to pay $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility, a maker of Android smartphones and tablets. That deal, which was completed last month, was seen as a big shift in strategy for Google that will help it create better Android smartphones and tablets.

Microsoft and Google are not entirely embracing Apple’s approach. Even as they design their own devices, they both will continue to make their software available to hardware companies that want to base their products on them. Microsoft has already publicly demonstrated devices from hardware makers like Samsung running Windows 8, the next version of its operating system.

Microsoft has invited the media to an event in Los Angeles Monday afternoon, where it is expected to show its tablet device. The entertainment industry Web site The Wrap earlier reported that Microsoft planned to announce a tablet at the event.

For Microsoft, making a tablet is a risky venture. Even with the emerging competition from the iPad, Windows remains one of the greatest franchises the technology industry has known, accounting for $4.6 billion in sales during the most recently reported quarter. Those sales are rooted in Microsoft’s alliance with its hardware partners. The plans could erode the commitment those partners have to Windows since Microsoft will effectively be competing with them for sales.

Also, Microsoft has a mixed track record in making hardware. It makes the popular Xbox 360, but that device sustained years of losses and manufacturing problems before it became a success. Microsoft failed with the Zune, a music player that was designed to compete with the iPod.

But there is also great risk for Microsoft in betting entirely on its old way of working with PC companies. The iPad has already begun to steal sales from low-end Windows laptops, though most people still aren’t using tablets for hard-core tasks like writing long documents and building big spreadsheets.

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has repeatedly predicted that tablet computers will eventually outsell traditional computers in part because of their simplicity.

In its most recent quarter, Apple’s revenue from the iPad was $6.59 billion, more than Microsoft’s sales of Windows.

Microsoft’s move is a vindication of sorts for Steve Jobs, Apple’s late chief executive and long the technology industry’s most vocal advocate for making both hardware and software. Mr. Jobs often said that the only way to create superior technology products was to “make the whole widget.”

Many technology executives these days have come around to thinking like that, saying that conceiving hardware and software together is especially important with consumer devices like the iPad because of how things like poor battery life and unresponsive touch screens can ruin consumers’ enjoyment of the devices.

“In consumer technology, tight integration of hardware and software produces a demonstrably better platform,” said Roger McNamee, a veteran technology investor with Elevation Partners, a Silicon Valley private equity firm. “But that is only the first step in competing with Apple. Now Microsoft has to deliver functionality superior to iPad in a package consumers want to buy.”

A longtime Microsoft executive, Steven Sinofsky, is leading the company’s tablet effort. Mr. Sinofsky took over the company’s Windows division several years ago, helping to lead a turnaround in the business after the release of Windows Vista, which was widely criticized for early technical flaws.

Mr. Sinofsky’s first step in responding to the iPad was to oversee the most drastic change in the design of the operating system in years so that it could take better advantage of touch screens. That new version of the software, Windows 8, is expected to be released this October on an array of devices, including more traditional-looking computers.

The Microsoft tablet is expected to use a variation of Windows 8, known as Windows RT, that is designed specifically for tablet devices based on a class of microprocessors called ARM chips. That is the same class of chips inside the iPad and other mobile devices.
 

IEI

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#95
After days of speculation and rumors, Microsoft's major announcement has just been unveiled at a press event in Los Angeles: a Surface tablet. We suspected the company might be working on its own tablet, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed the device on stage at Milk Studios in Los Angeles today. Discussing Microsoft's history with Windows, Xbox, and Kinect, Ballmer introduced a video of the company's hardware products over the years before unveiling Windows 8's companion, the Microsoft Surface.
Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky took to the stage to describe the hardware of Microsoft's Surface tablet. There will be two options for Microsoft's Surface PC, one powered by Intel's 22nm Ivy Bridge chips running Windows 8, and another Surface powered by an ARM chipset and Windows RT. The Windows RT version is just 9.3mm thin, weighs 1.5lbs, includes a built-in kickstand, and is the first PC with a vapor-deposited (PVD) magnesium case, according to Microsoft. It will ship in 32GB or 64GB versions, complete with a 10.6-inch ClearType HD display (of unknown resolution).
Microsoft's Intel-based Surface tablet will run Windows 8 Pro, with a thickness of 13.5mm, a weight of 1.9lbs, and USB 3.0 support. This particular version will also include magnesium casing and a built-in kickstand, but will ship with either 64GB or 128GB storage. Additionally, the Intel version will include additional digital ink support through a pen that magnetizes to the body of the tablet, and a 10.6-inch ClearType "Full HD" display. Both of Microsoft's Surface tablets feature optional Touch and Type keyboard covers.
Microsoft says suggested retail pricing will be announced closer to availability and is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class PC.

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IEI

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#96
And more on Microsoft tablet:

[video=youtube;PP6aTFgkNL4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP6aTFgkNL4&feature=player_detailpage[/video]
 

Pooya

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#97
dude, I heard US S3 is not Quad core, its only Dual. WTF. is that same thing in Canada? I read that has to do with the ATT LTE network in US.
Same here as well, LTE is Dual core and 3G is Quad,

the problem with Quad is battery life, no one has manage to get a decent battery life out of Quad yet, and you through LTE on top of that , you are in for disaster !
 

IEI

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#99
Russian Media Mogul Globalizes Real-Life Avatar Project

http://2045.com/

Russian media mogul, Dmitry Itskov, initiated a real-life Avatar project (a little over a year ago), aimed at the creation of a robotic body that would house, sustain, and be controlled by the human brain. The project, mostly living within Russia (up until a few months ago), has recently been globalized (a move that will no doubt help the project move forward).

The ultimate goal of the project is to extend human lifespan through cybernetic technology (technology that would merge man and machine into a single entity). So far, about 9000 participants have joined their movement, and an ambitious timeline has been set. According to this timeline (which can be found on their website), it is hoped that by 2025 it will be possible to transplant a human brain into a robotic avatar, and that by 2045 it will be possible to upload human personality and consciousness into an artificial brain that would control a holographic avatar.

The goals of the project, given the timeline, are indeed lofty and raise both philosophical and ethical questions that no doubt will have to be addressed by society as the Avatar Project and science of a similar vein progress.

For example, would uploading one’s personality/consciousness into an artificial brain also transfer the actual identity of the person into the artificial brain? Or could this actual identity be lost in some way such that the artificial brain inherits your characteristics and acts like you, but is not you? How would others be able to tell?

At the moment, there is no way to tell, but as projects such as the Avatar Project push and peer further into the fundamental nature of human existence, in an effort to prolong it, perhaps we will find out. Below is a video promoting and describing the project:

[video=youtube;01hbkh4hXEk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01hbkh4hXEk&feature=player_embedded[/video]
 

IEI

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[h=1]I guess this case is finished:

Oracle accepts $0 in damages from Google, moves toward appeal[/h] [h=2]After losing Java copying claims, Oracle wants to get the case over with[/h]
Oracle has agreed to accept zero dollars worth of damages from Google, three weeks after losing the major portions of the case in which Oracle accused Google of violating Java patents and copyrights in Android.
After one partial victory on the issue of whether Google infringed copyrights, Oracle lost its argument that Google violated patents. Oracle then lost a ruling that held that the structure of the Java APIs asserted by the company couldn't be copyrighted at all. The rulings left Oracle little room except to appeal, and today in court the two sides agreed to a damages total of "zero." That's only a few billion less than Oracle originally sought.
Oracle could have sought damages for the small amount of code copying Google was found guilty of, but it chose not to. A stipulation and proposed order that Oracle and Google submitted to Judge William Alsup in US District Court in San Francisco today called for $0 of damages "related to Google’s infringement of Oracle’s copyrights in connection with (1) the rangeCheck code in TimSort.java and ComparableTimSort.java, and (2) the eight decompiled files (seven 'Impl.java' files and one 'ACL' file)."
Upon seeing the proposal, Judge Alsup asked, "Is there a catch I need to be aware of?" according to on-scene reporting by the IDG News Service. Oracle has said it will appeal the bigger claims in the case to the Federal Circuit appeals court. The move today appears to be Oracle waiving its rights to damages in order to get the trial over and move on to the appeal. When asked by Alsup when the parties would be in court again, Oracle attorney Michael Jacobs said, "I hope we see you again after an appeal"—drawing a few laughs from those in attendance. If Oracle were to win its appeal, parts of the case could go in front of Alsup once again.