Apple and Microsoft sues Google and most big Android manufacturers

Many companies including Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Ericsson, and BlackBerry filed lawsuits again Android manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei, Asustek, and ZTE, as well as other Android manufacturers. All the lawsuits target Google as well, if only indirectly, and one mentions the company by name, saying its core money-maker, Adwords, violates a 1998 patent.

The company is called Rockstar, and was established as a consortium in 2011, to bid on the trove of technology patents left behind by the bankrupt Canadian technology company Nortel. Back then, Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson, and Sony teamed up to bid for almost 6,000 of Nortel’s patents, many covering mobile technology. The so-called Rockstar Bidco consortium eventually won the acution, with a bid of $4.5 billion. The other big competitor in the auction was Google, who bid $4.4 billion before giving up. Later, Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion, and its own treasure trove of patents was reportedly one of the main reasons behind the acquisition.

Rockstar was widely expected to attempt to monetize the 6,000 patents it bought from Nortel, and this week the company made its first move by filing lawsuits against Google, Asustek, HTC, Huawei, LG Electronics, Pantech, Samsung, and ZTE. The suits were filed in the Eastern District of Texas, a district that is well known for favoring plaintiffs in patent cases.

The complaint against Google involves six patents related to serving ads in a search engine describing “an advertisement machine which provides advertisements to a user searching for desired information within a data network”. The technology isn’t related to mobile, but it’s a frontal attack to Google’s bread and butter business, AdWords. The oldest patent precedes Google’s founding, being awarded in 1997, while the newest was awarded in 2011.

Rockstar attacked the group of Android manufacturers with a batch of seven diverse patents, including ones that pertain to navigation through electronic interfaces or to an integrated message center. The stakeholders of Rockstar claim that the consortium acts independently. And, because Rockstar doesn’t have any operations of its own, Google, and other companies in its sights, can’t retaliate with a countersuit, like Samsung did with Apple.

Because Rockstar is a distinct entity, it can even sue companies that its owners have patent agreements with – for instance, Apple and HTC signed a 10-Year patent licensing deal, but that didn’t shelter the Taiwanese company from Rockstar’s suit. Sony, as a stakeholder in Rockstar and a major Google Android partner, is also in an interesting position.


Patent lawsuits can take years to finalize, and it’s not clear yet if the patents that Rockstar yields as a weapon against Google and Android OEMs are essential to their business. In other words, there’s a long way to go before these lawsuits have any tangible effects. However, the fact that Rockstar has finally commenced its attack should be worrying for consumers, who have absolutely nothing to gain from it.

Intel reviled what happens in an Internet Minute

What happens in an Internet minute? Today, the number of networked devices is equal to the global population. By 2015, the number of networked devices will be twice the global population.

              Everything moves fast on the Internet, but just how fast are we talking about here? How much data gets shared across the Internet? How much data transferrers through Internet, While you start reading this article and thinking how the data is transfered in the span of time, Petabytes of data transfers through Internet this is how huge and faster Internet is, we are talking about emails, status posts, tweets and retweets,the downloading of apps and uploading of vacation pictures, streaming of online videos and music, online transactions and many more the list goes on.

Intel's internet minute infographic reveals exactly what we do online - with 639,800GB of data transferred

              What about the other side of the data transferrers i.e, servers, hosting, data storage, social networking and all other stuff.

             So what happens in an Internet minute? Well, folks at Intel did some number crunching and came up with a figure that describes what happens in sixty seconds on the Internet — 639,800 GB of global IP data gets transferred, that’s what. Above is an infographic to show you a breakdown of what contributes to more than half a million gigabytes of information being transferred all across the world every minute through the power of communication technology.

           This new study, by chipmaker Intel, found that more than 204 million mails are sent every minute, while 47,000 apps are downloaded and retail giant Amazon rings up around £55,000 ($83,000) are in sales. Around 20 million photos and
6 million Facebook pages are viewed, 1.3 million video clips on YouTube are watched.

Nearly 64,000 GB of global ip data is transferred in just one Internet minute.

             'Computing is transforming and touching more people in a wider range of devices,' said Intel's Krystal Temple. But while it's hard to miss the proliferation of portable devices, it's what we don't see that's the bigger issue.

              What many people don't see is that the increase in mobile devices has a tremendous impact on the amount of data traffic crossing the network. It's a little easy to understand once we think about all that's done on a connected device like a smartphone's .

 Google’s data center in Douglas County, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta.

               Listening to music, watching videos, downloading and uploading photos, playing online games, refreshing and retweet twitter feeds and status updates - all of those activities generate network traffic. The study by Intel also looked at how the data could expand dramatically in the future, It predicted that by 2015, the number of networked devices is expected to be double the world's population and it would take five years to view all the video content crossing IP networks each second by then. 

              The Intel also reveled it is developing new networking equipment to deal with the increase in traffic, codenamed 'Crystal Forest,' that will boost performance and specially designed chipset for network infrastructure.

 

 Intel's new Crystal Forest chipset includes an undisclosed embedded CPU, an 89XX-series chipset and their Data Plane Development Kit which is the SDK they've created for designing fast path network processing.
 
This is not a competitor to AMD's Freedom Fabric which is designed for communication within a large series of processing nodes, instead you will see Crystal Forest powering high end routers and web appliances.

Intel has designed this new chipset to increase the performance of cryptography and compression on network packets and claims it will increase speed as well as security, along with the benefits of support coming directly from Intel.

Samsung CHROMEBOOK serves everything

The most admirable search engine "GOOGLE" launches the new "SAMSUNG CHROMEBOOK" .

I am quite sure that you have heard of the term Chrome book before – it is one of those computing machines that Google has commissioned to make sure that affordable and yet effective computing is made available to the masses. 


The thing is, the Chrome book did not really take off in that big a way, as consumers do not mind forking out additional dough to make sure that they have access to superior computing power. 



Well, there is a new Chromebook in town today as announced by Google, and this incredible piece of computing device retails for a mere $249. Tipping the scales at a mere 2.5 pounds while measuring just 0.8” thin, the new Chromebook is definitely one of the lightest laptops on the market today.


 Well, for starters, you have over half a dozen hours of battery life which should be more than adequate for the standard user, not to mention being able to access up to 100GB of free storage space on Google Drive, allowing you to access your data anywhere, anytime, as long as there is a decent Internet connection.



 Last but not least, if you tend to revolve your working life around Google’s suite of products such as Gmail, Drive, Search, Maps, YouTube, Play or Google+ Hangouts, you will find that the new Samsung Chromebook serves everything up in a seamless manner.

Google has started a Revolution - Googlisation ??

 Google  the one of the best search engine in world proved its excellence in the internet world more over Google is getting into the broadband business. The company plans to deploy its own “experimental” fiber-optic network to at least 50,000 homes, perhaps as many as 500,000. The fiber-optic network will deliver speeds of 1 gigabit-per-second, which is more than 20 times faster than residential fiber optic services offered today in the U.S. 

The Google has started ruling the internet world with the new features upgrade of internet may bring a tremendous change in the internet world. 

Google originally stated that they would announce the winner or winners by the end of 2010; however, in mid-December, Google pushed back the announcement date of the selected Google Fiber community (or communities) to "early 2011" due to an increase in the time necessary to review all of the over 1,100 applications.

A different kind of Internet.

Google Fiber starts with a connection speed 100 times faster than today's average broadband. Instant downloads.
Crystal clear HD. And endless possibilities. It's not just TV. And it's not just Internet. It's Google Fiber.



At 1000 Mb per second, Google Fiber is 100 times faster than today’s average Internet, allowing you to get what you want instantaneously. You no longer have to wait on things buffering; everything will be ready to go when you are. So whether you are video chatting, uploading family videos, or playing your favorite online games, all you need to do is click and you’re there.

Google Fiber is a project to build an experimental broadband internet network infrastructure using fiber-optic communication in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, following a selection process.Over 1,100 communities applied to be the first recipient of the technology.

On April Fools' Day 2012, Google Fiber announced that their product is an edible Google Fiber bar instead of fiber-optic internet broadband. It is stated that the Google Fiber bar delivers "what the body needs to sustain activity, energy and productivity."

On July 26, 2012, Google announced that it would roll out a companion fiber optic television service in the Kansas City area that September called Google Fiber TV, which will be offered as a conventional pay television service and will also stream live program content on iPad and Android tablet computers. Neighborhoods that initially receive both the TV and internet services are to be selected through demand from Kansas City area residents. The initial channel lineup for the service does not currently include cable television networks owned by Time Warner, The Walt Disney Company, AMC Networks, and News Corporation, which may eventually be added pending carriage agreements with those companies.

Source: Google fiber

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Google, Amazon, Apple Battle Over Web Domains

The full list of new Internet address endings was unveiled Wednesday, in a shake-up designed to increase consumer choice and make the Web a safer and more trusted place to do business.  

The full list of new Internet address endings was unveiled Wednesday, in a shake-up designed to increase consumer choice and make the Web a safer and more trusted place to do business.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) said 1,930 applications had been made, including 901 from North America, 675 from Europe and 17 from Africa. The cost of an application is $185,000.
The new system dramatically expands top-level domains from the familiar .com, .org, .edu or country codes like .fr, .de and .it.




“This is an historic day for the Internet and the more than 2 billion people around the world who depend on it. The Internet is about to change for ever,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of Icann.
“If even three-quarters of these applications are approved, the number of top-level domains will expand four-fold.”

Applications range from .aaa to .zulu. Inevitably, both .porn and .sex were applied for, but so too were .love and .lol.

The top five contested domains were .app (13), .home (11) .inc (11), .art (10) and .blog (9).
Tech companies including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. all applied to run their own registries. Amazon was among the most voracious, submitting 75 applications including .author, .book, .circle, .like, .news and .shop.

Even the Vatican, through the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, bought up the .catholic registry, as well as the same word in Arabic, Cyrillic and Chinese. There were 116 applications for non-Roman script extensions, including the Arabic for bazaar. There was only one application in Hebrew, for the transliteration of “.com.”

In reply to questions about trademark disputes, Mr. Beckstrom said there were nine ways in which complaints could be resolved, including the ability for a rapid take-down system.
Some corporations have criticized Icann’s system, raising concerns that companies will need to buy many more defensive addresses or even full domain names to protect their trademarks. Damian Herrington, lawyer in DLA Piper’s Intellectual Property and Technology practice, said in an emailed statement. “While procedures for resolving conflicts and protecting certain rights holders have been provided for, it remains to be seen how these will work in practice,” he said. “Given the uncharted territory, high levels of investment involved and the messy start to the procedure, future court litigation involving applicants, other rights holders and/ or Icann seems inevitable.”

Charlie Abrahams, VP for San Francisco-based MarkMonitor, said some of the generic top-level domains were contentious. “.sucks may be seen as little more than corporate blackmail. Is it in the interests of the internet?,” he said. Mr. Abrahams suggested corporations might be forced to buy the name simply to stop others from using it.

The allegation was denied by John Berard, a spokesman for Vox Populi Registry Inc., one of three companies contesting the name. He said that if successful in acquiring the domain, it would be used for companies to engage in debate with disgruntled customers. “We are trying to create a new hub between consumers and companies. It will be a real advantage because companies have been seeking this kind of input and consumers have been looking for a way to be heard.”
Peter Dengate-Thrush, until recently chairman of Icann, but now behind a domain-registering service, welcomed the changes.

“The domain name system was set up in the 1980s when the Internet was much smaller. This is another step in bringing the internet to the people,” Mr. Dengate-Thrush said.

He said the new system improved confidence among consumers. “Say you are buying Nike products. If you see something ending in .nike you know they are dealing with the genuine goods. If there is a question of sending money or making a complaint, then the consumers and traders are going to be that much safer,” he said.

David Green, head of global digital marketing for KPMG, said that the new domain-name system would make the Internet safer. “All of the applicants have applied for the right top operate their own secure part of the Internet. They can determine who is in and who is excluded. Secondly these new registry databases have a layer of security called DNSSEC, so the point-to-point communication is a lot more secure,” Mr. Green said.

The announcement of the applications is just the first stage. All applications need to go through vetting and testing before the name will be granted. Applications will be done in four batches. The 231 domains that are disputed (more than one applicant) will go through a process to determine who will be awarded the name.
The first of the new names isn’t expected to be live until the first quarter of 2013 at the earliest.

Google Earth, now in 3-D!

 

With 3-D imagery, expanded street view, and offline access, Google Earth and Google Maps got a pretty major boost this week. Rumor has it that Google is beefing up their services before Apple launches its own competing map app.

 

   Google announced a new offline Maps mode which, when paired with a little foresight, will let you use the service even when you don't have Internet access. Just save an area of a map while you're connected, and you can call it up later no matter how deep in country backroads you are.

 

 Offline Maps support was just one of the new features Google announced on Wednesday. It's also going to start offering high-resolution 3-D imagery, or what the company calls the "next dimension" of maps, in the Google Earth program. Google is putting Earth cameras on a number of small planes, which then fly around buildings and over strips of cities, snapping thousands of images from different angles. Google then stitches all the images together to make a 3-D map of, say, a city skyline.

Google Earth has featured 3-D images of certain buildings for a while now (to see an example, enable the "3-D buildings" layer in Google Earth, then take the program's "sightseeing tour" of famous landmarks), but the new technology can show a whole metropolitan area in 3-D. For now, you're limited to zooming around the San Francisco skyline on the mobile Android app, but Google promises to have 3-D coverage of more cities and suburbs -- covering at least 300 million people -- and a roll-out to the desktop version of Google Earth by the end of the year.

Google is also turning its attention to less-populous areas with the new Trekker service, which aims to do for foot-accessible areas what Street View did for streets. As the service expands, hikers and bikers will be able to get a ground-level view of trails and locations that can be reached by foot. Trekker is powered by a 40-pound, backpack-sized Street View camera that captures 360-degree views of any place you can hike to.

 

There's a long string of rumors suggesting that Apple is preparing its own mapping service, which could be unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week. If that's the case, then Google's launch this week is probably aimed at showing just how committed they are to Maps. Currently, iPads and iPhones ship with Google Maps pre-installed, but it's no secret that Apple doesn't particularly enjoy having to rely on Google to provide mapping on the iOS platform. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the new version of iOS will contain Apple's own mapping service, and that Cupertino will begin encouraging app developers to use their maps, in place of Google's, in applications.

Are you excited about the new Google Earth features? Are you expecting Apple to roll out something even better? Let us know in the comments section below.

 Follow us on www.networkupdate.blogspot.in for more tech news.

 

Apple's war with Google heats up

When Apple Inc kicks off its annual conference for software developers on Monday, all the power players in the Apple universe will be on hand, save the one that is in many ways driving the agenda: Google Inc. 

More than ever, the consumer electronics juggernaut finds itself in a pitched battle with the online search giant - in smartphones, cloud computing and the never-ending competition for the hearts and minds of the best software developers.

Apple is expected to announce its own mapping application, challenging the position of Google Maps as one of the most-valued features on the iPhone. It will unveil closer integration of its iPhone apps and iCloud storage service with all its devices, the latest riposte in its battle with Google's Android smartphone software.

When Apple Inc kicks off its annual conference for software developers on Monday, all the power players in the Apple universe will be on hand, save the one that is in many ways driving the agenda: Google Inc.
More than ever, the consumer electronics juggernaut finds itself in a pitched battle with the online search giant - in smartphones, cloud computing and the never-ending competition for the hearts and minds of the best software developers.

Apple on Monday is expected to announce its own mapping application, challenging the position of Google Maps as one of the most-valued features on the iPhone. It will unveil closer integration of its iPhone apps and iCloud storage service with all its devices, the latest riposte in its battle with Google's Android smartphone software.

It may promote the latest in Siri, the voice interface that the company thinks can continue to set the iPhone and the iPad apart from the Android pack.

And there will likely be a new line of Macintosh laptops too - underscoring the leverage that a full line of hardware products can bring to what is mainly a software war with Google.

Apple is looking to differentiate its mobile devices from Google's Android by further enticing consumers deeper into its app ecosystem, said Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Gartner Research.

"It's all about loyalty and basically leveraging the opportunity of selling more to them," she said. "I don't think the consumers in the mass market are necessarily tied into the Android ecosystem in the same way that consumers on the Apple side are."

Battling in many arenas, the rivals employ different weapons. Apple's vise-like grip on its ecosystem - with the closely managed app store and its seamless integration with the hardware - stands in sharp contrast to Google's free-for-all approach.

An Apple computer is shown on Google's company campus in Mountain View, California February 9, 2010.

The open system approach, reminiscent of Microsoft Corp's hugely successful strategy of creating standard-setting software that runs on a variety of hardware, has allowed Android to capture the market lead in smartphones (albeit with nothing close to Apple's profit margins).

Android has also helped create several potent hardware rivals to Apple. Samsung Electronics' Android-driven Galaxy S III is drawing favorable comparisons to iPhone and Amazon.com Inc's cheaper Kindle Fire is challenging Apple in tablets and digital content.

Apple's expected move to replace Google Maps with its own mapping application is a particularly dramatic example of how the rivalry between the companies has been evolving.

Google has invested huge sums in its mapping technology over the years, and about half of its map traffic now comes from iPhones and iPads. Among other things, the traffic from those devices reveals valuable location data that helps improve the mapping service and provides features like real-time traffic reports.

Apple has spent three years preparing to take mapping back. It has integrated technology from acquisitions such as 3D mapping company C3 Technologies, Canadian startup Poly9 Group and mapping service Placebase, said ISI analyst Brian Marshall.

"As Apple builds out its Siri service, they build out the iCloud infrastructure and more capability into its operating system, location data is going to become important," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu.
"This could help their advertising business too."

MULTI-PRONGED BATTLE

In what was seen as a pre-emptive move against Apple's upcoming maps service, Google on Wednesday showed off its own mapping capabilities, including soon-to-be-launched 3D features.

While Google executives avoided any comment on the possibility of being ousted as a default service on Apple devices, one executive said the integration with Google's search engine provides a mapping service that is far more useful than a product that simply uses a "geocoder.

Apple began to use its own geocoder - technology that uses geographic coordinates to create a digital map - for the Google-based maps on its smartphones late last year, a move that was seen as a precursor to Apple using its own map software.

Another software upgrade that fans and developers are hoping for is Siri, a popular voice-enabled personal assistant service that Google has yet to match.

The service could come out of its beta testing phase and show up on the iPad when Apple unveils iOS6 or the next version of its mobile operating software.

Siri, which has been plagued with connectivity and other issues, is still in beta test version.

Apple's global war on Google and Android in the courts is one sign of how seriously it is taking the potential threat. The consumer device giant is seeing limited success, though, in courtrooms for various patent infringement cases it has against Android manufacturers.

Apple said this week it is mulling a legal order to stop the U.S. launch of Samsung Galaxy S III phone later this month. Samsung is one of the biggest Android phone manufacturers.

In another of the many lawsuits worldwide pitting Apple against Motorola Mobility, now owned by Google, a federal judge canceled a scheduled trial as neither could prove damages. That decision particularly hurts Apple because the iPhone maker was seeking an injunction barring the sale of Android products, said Brian Love, a professor at Stanford Law School.

"The Android side is likely thrilled to simply have the case go away," Love said.
Apple declined to comment on the case.


MACBOOK REDESIGN IN THE WORKS


Where Apple has the upper hand is in its hardware - groundbreaking in design, vastly popular with consumers for its ease of use.

The redesigned MacBook laptops to hit the stage next week are expected to include high-definition screens and Intel Corp's Ivy Bridge cutting-edge processors. Some even expect the iPad's "retina" display to show up on the MacBook line.

This would be Apple's first big redesign of the MacBook Pro since mid-2009. With the new lineup, it hopes to fend off budding competition from rival manufacturers who are pushing a spate of new, thinner laptops called "Ultrabooks."


Windows 8, a new version of Microsoft's flagship operating system that runs on tablet computers as well as PCs, will bolster PC makers' ability to offer premier computers rivaling Apple's MacBook line.

Already, about 20 touch-enabled ultrabook designs with various styles of foldable, detachable or sliding keyboards running the new Windows 8 system are in the pipeline.

The MacBook line generated 13 percent, or about $5 billion, of Apple's fiscal second-quarter revenue. Unit sales of the aging lineup were up 7 percent from the previous year but were down 23 percent sequentially.



 Whatever the case, Apple fans and partners can look forward to a fairly action-packed week.
"Apple is very serious about getting far in front of Windows 8 and Ultrabooks," said Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes. But "software and services will be the focus, with major enhancements to Maps, iCloud and Siri, which developers and users can take advantage of."

MICROSOFT RELEASES THEIR OWN SOCIAL NETWORK SOCL FOR PUBLIC

In a world where social structure plays a major role more and more companies are trying to pump into the competitive world of social networking to grab a piece of the action after seeing how Facebook rose from a room in Harvard to a full blown 100 Billion Dollar IPO. Last year we saw the attempt of Google doing it with their Google+Social network and this year Microsoft takes the leap of faith with their brand new website called so.cl.

The name might sound a bit odd at first but Microsoft believes that the social network will specifically cater in connecting students from across the globe. We all know that Facebook’s initial objective back in 2004 was to connect all guys studying at Harvard University. So the question is with Facebook domination this segment of the industry do we see a place for so.cl? In 2011 we all saw how Google+ was all hyped up and compared to Facebook. Many critics thought that Facebook’s domination will finally be over with Google jumping into the niche but after a few months things looked rather flat for Google and we saw Facebook crossing the 900 million user mark.

The reason why so.cl might attract certain audience is the fact that it integrates searching the web and social networking into a seamless environment. In fact when you join so.cl the first page that you are going to land looks a lot like a windows phone layout with various tabs covering different topics which you can browse further.

Microsoft has been respectful to Facebook by offering a Login with Facebook button on their social networking platform as well.  This gesture passively displays yet another confirmation of Social Media domination from the industry giant Facebook.Most of the features of so.cl are pretty similar to other social networks. The peer to peer connection happens with the help of a follow button similar to that of Twitter. You have your own personalized feed, profile pages, and you can browse through various topics using the explore button.

A significant new addition to this new network is a feature called Video Party. The dedicated button to start a video party can be found on the top right hand sidebar. Video Party allows you to stack up multiple videos and watch them together while you guys can still enjoy commenting and sharing your views. It’s like watching a concert or a sports match together virtually with your friends.

So.cl is still pre-mature and I am sure that Microsoft will be improving and adding lots of features to this website. I am keen on seeing how users respond to yet another Social Network and how it will integrate with later version of Windows Mobile.

Apple may ditch Google maps in next version of iOS

Apple and Google are known to fight on occasion, so we shouldn't be surprised that the two are having a little tiff over maps right now. But let's review what's going on.

As the folks at the Wall Street Journal point out, "the iPhone and Google Maps have seemed like ideal digital bedfellows" ever since they got together in 2007. The iPhone has relied on Google Maps — the search engine giant's map service — in order to keep Apple fanboys and fangirls from getting lost in the real world.

But, based on recent reports, Apple may finally be ready to ditch Google's resources for its own. According to BGR's Jonathan Geller, iOS 6 — the next version of Apple's mobile operating system — will bring 3-D mapping features which use mapping technology developed by Apple. The Wall Street Journal explains that the Cupertino-based company may preview iOS 6 during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote on June 11 2012.

According to current and former Apple employees who've spoken with the Wall Street Journal, "Apple has been hatching the plan to evict Google Maps from the iPhone for years." Over time, Apple has "quietly acquired at least three cutting-edge map companies, melding their technology with its own" and begun developing its own proprietary mapping service.

Google isn't standing by idly, of course. The company is holding a press event on June 6 — mere days before Apple's keynote event — during which Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Google Earth, will show off "the next dimension of Google Maps."