Looks like things are heating up between Apple and Samsung. I am not talking about anything like a war between the two companies or anything like that, but in the realm of stupid and asinine complaints. We kick off things with Apple’s complaint that Samsung “Copied” the iPad and iPhone. They base this in the fact that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks like the iPad and that some of Samsung’s phones look like the iPhone… (their words not mine). Apple then goes on to say that Samsung copied the look and feel of the iOS (where have I heard that before).

I hate to say this but, if you were to pick up 20 smart phones they would all be very alike. They are all around the same size and shape and the UI’s are also very close. If you dig deeper, the way they operate are also nearly identical; after all how many different ways can you swipe or tap with your finger? No, this one smells of Apple trying to delay a product that has a very good chance of hurting their sales. There is no other reason to ask for the injunction. The funny thing is that there are almost no real patents being bandied about here by Apple. This is because if they throw those out Samsung has a few of its own to drop on Apple some that could even be tied to the A4 SoC in the original iPad…

For Samsung’s part they are making the claim of “Nuh-Uh!” followed by the “you never said that!” defense. As it stands right now they are pushing for a rehearing on the claim that an injunction was not mentioned or requested in the original complaint. They are also claiming that the judge that approved the temporary ban did so without allowing Samsung to present evidence in its defense.  This is very hard to believe as it represents both an unethical and illegal move by the judge in question. It is even harder to believe considering that an injunction and ban is exactly what Apple went for in Australia.

To be honest both companies are acting a little childish and unprofessional. If you ever wanted to see just how arrogant companies can be here it is, and to top it off you get to see just how ignorant the legal system is to how technology and the tech industry as a whole works.

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Everyone talks about Apple innovation and how they are great designers and creators. They have come up with some amazing ideas; marketing ideas. If you look at the history of Apple they have really not “created” much. They have taken ideas and concepts and made them work and in some cases even made them better, but for the most part they have not really created anything new.

For those that are going to nay-say this let’s look at a few items. The original Apple, was based off of concepts that were seen at Xerox and also on the IBM “PC” concept that was out. The Original iPad was taken (as proved in court) from the Creative Nomad MP3 player. The iPod was a much better product, but it was based on the Creative design. You can look back and see this trend in almost all of Apple’s devices. I am not calling apple out on anything new here as this is also the trend with most companies.

Where Apple does things different though is to file a patent on their way of doing things and make those patents so vague and broad that they can easily be extended to encompass almost anything in the event that Apple feels threatened. A case in point on this is one of the core patents in the Apple Vs the world of Android suits around the world. The Patent that was granted by to Apple actually covers “the look and feel” of the way a touch screen works. Excuse me? The look and feel? How to you patent that? Maybe I am wrong, but I thought patents were for technology. As such they should be about the actual hardware and workings involved not the concept or thought. Still Apple has managed to push these through even with prior art in evidence and on the books.

So Apple’s success (and bank roll) comes from being able to market old ideas as new and innovative, and to patent concepts and ideas that are so broad that they can sue anyone that even tries to invent a competitive product. Considering they are getting away with it on a massive scale it is really not a bad business model.

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About three or four years ago nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made the bold announcement that he wanted nVidia’s ARM based SoC (System on Chip) named Tegra to become 50% of nVidia’s revenue. One of the products that has had at least good success has been Microsoft’s ZuneHD. We were given the chance to play around with one of these and found it to be a great product. Unfortunately between the launch of the Tegra and the Tegra 2 was a serious delay. This had something of a negative impact on the market acceptance for this processor. When you combined these delays with the issues (and rumors) around the Fermi GPUs things did not look good for nVidia’s dream.

However, since that time they have managed to turn much of that around and pulled off some great design wins. We have found nVidia’s dual core Tegra 2 in devices such as Asus’ Transformer and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Both of these devices have grabbed the market’s interest and have begun to nibble away at the strangle hold that Apple has on the tablet market (and prompted a number of lawsuits from Apple).

Now with the Tegra 2 still tumbling out into the market nVidia is talking Kal-El a quad core Tegra that is reportedly faster and more power efficient than the Tegra 2. Now, having a power efficient quad core ARM based SoC is a very cool feat, but if nVidia is to be believed then the Kal-El Tegra will use less power than the current dual core Tegra 2. For those that will sat that the Android based Tablet and phone is in serious trouble due to Apple’s recent lawsuits and patent complaints do not worry. According to Huang, nVidia is still investing heavily in Android and also looking forward to Microsoft’s Windows 8. Windows 8 will be the first Windows operating system for ARM based SoCs.

We have some questions into nVidia to see just what they see as the future for Terga and the whole world of the Tegra and Smart device. We hope to hear back from them soon on this, but for now… it will be interesting to watch and see if nVidia can get Kal-El out of the gate soon and not repeat the same mistakes that plagued Tegra 2.

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Kingston Wi-Drive Wins Best of Show at Flash Memory Summit

Wireless, Portable Storage Solution for Apple Devices Recognized as

“Most Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application”

Fountain Valley, CA -- August 11, 2011 -- Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced that Wi-Drive^™ has been chosen by the Flash Memory Summit as a Best of Show award winner for 2011 in the Most Innovative Flash Consumer Application category. The award was handed out last night at the Flash Memory Summit Best of Show Awards event in Santa Clara, Calif.

“We are honored to have received the Best of Show award this year as Wi-Drive is truly an innovative Flash memory-based wireless solution that extends the storage capacities of Apple devices,” said Andrew Ewing, Flash memory business manager. “Wi-Drive allows users to wirelessly view documents and media files, and choose to share them with others, while on the go for work or pleasure.”

The Flash Memory Summit conference, held once a year, is dedicated entirely to Flash memory and its applications. The summit features exhibits and technical sessions that bring together Flash vendors, engineers, system designers and other professions. Wi-Drive was reviewed by a panel of industry experts prior to the show. Winning products were evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Distinctiveness of the application, technology, or product
• Central use of Flash memory as a solution or innovation
• Technical and business significance to the general marketplace

“The judges of the Flash Memory Summit Awards Committee had the daunting task of selecting the Most Innovative Consumer Application from such a large pool of quality submissions,” said Tom Coughlin, Summit Chairperson and President of Coughlin Associates.  “We are proud to select Kingston Digital’s Wi-Drive as a wireless, portable storage device that allows users of the Apple iPad^®, iPhone^® and iPod touch^® to expand their storage.”

Wi-Drive began shipping in July and is available in both 16GB and 32GB capacities. Through the Kingston Wi-Drive app from the App Store^SM, three users can simultaneously watch movies, listen to music and view photos or documents. Its sleek, extremely portable and functional design allows users to view their files anywhere, without having to rely on cloud-based technology or Internet access.

To learn how users can easily enhance the storage capabilities of the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, a video demonstration and more information is available at www.kingston.com/flash/wi_drive.asp

For a complete list of all the Flash Memory Summit Best of Show awards winners, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com

Kingston can be found on:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/kingstontechmemory

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kingstontechnology

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/kingstonhq

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/164609?trk=tyah

About Kingston Digital, Inc.

Kingston Digital, Inc. (“KDI”) is the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Established in 2008, KDI is headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, USA. For more information, please visit www.kingston.com or call 800-337-8410.

About Flash Memory Summit

Flash Memory Summit is the only conference dedicated entirely to flash memory and its applications.  It is intended for system designers, analysts, hardware and software engineers, product marketing and marketing communications specialists, and engineering and marketing managers.  It features forums, half-day tutorials, paper and panel sessions, and expert tables.  Subjects include harsh environments, laptops, enterprise storage system applications, consumer products, performance, product design, caching methods, design methods, software, new technologies, market research, testing and reliability, and security.  The Summit also includes exhibits of the latest products and product awards. For more information, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com. Twitter: flashmem Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-Memory-Summit/72498807894

About Conference ConCepts, Inc.

Founded in 1994, Conference ConCepts is a full-service professional conference and association management company that provides extensive capabilities in all aspects of technical conference management. Conference ConCepts develops and produces events both on its own, and in partnership with associations, corporations, and publishers. The skill sets of the company’s employees and contractors, representing over 200 cumulative years of experience, enables Conference ConCepts to offer clients a choice of services, ranging from assistance with a single aspect of a conference to the complete development and administration of a full-fledged “turnkey” event. For more information about Conference ConCepts, visit: http://www.confconcepts.com

There are things that I find ironic but that seem to go unnoticed by many (mostly the press). Today I read an article that the FTC is looking into claims that Google might have put restrictions in place for manufacturers that make Android based smart phones. Now, I have no lover for Google. I think they do not care about people’s privacy, ignore laws and worse. However, to see the FTC starting to investigate them for antitrust issues is laughable when this same commission said there was no credible evidence that Apple was doing this. It is funny that the investigation appears to be looking into if Google is preventing the use of services such as mapping, navigation etc. other than their own on Android based phones. After all wasn’t it Apple that put a stipulation to app developers that they could not develop an app that reproduced core functions of the phone? 

Then there was Steve Job’s rather public rant about never allowing flash on the iPhone, their arbitrary app approval process and many other items are even more conclusive.  To me this illustrates that our federal regulators have no clue what is going on and only do what they are told by the person throwing the most cash around The Hill. Interestingly enough that used to be Michael Schmidt and Google, but now we see Google’s charm wearing off.

Still I am glad to see that the FTC is looking into some of the advertising and search practices that Google is participating in. For years it has pretty much been common knowledge that Google stacks some of the search results and their ad placement is something of a joke.  Maybe some good will come of this, but they really need to stop turning a blind eye to companies like Apple and begin to actually do their jobs and protect the public from ALL companies that participate in this type of activity.

Source Cnet

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CMHD.tv Blog Writer Launch Giveaway

Chino, CA – August 9th, 2011 - Cooler Master’s CMHD.tv Blog is celebrating the addition of three new “PC Guru” writers from the PC enthusiast community with a big giveaway! The company maintains a presence in many popular forum communities such as EVGA, Overclock.net, Hardware Canucks, and many others. Now it’s time for these communities’ members to have a voice of their own. These new blog writers will be writing informative and helpful tips and tricks to help you better manage system cables, setup custom water cooling builds, compare performance, and much more.


The CMHD.tv Blog Writer Launch Giveaway may include:

• Cooler Master HAF X Full-tower Chassis
• Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W
• CM Storm Sentinel Z3R0-G Palm-grip Gaming Mouse
• CM Storm Spawn Claw-grip Gaming Mouse

Entrance is as simple as signing up for a CMHD.tv account and commenting on what you’d like the CMHD.tv Blog writers to cover. For more details on how to enter the giveaway, head on over to the blog and read the announcement post. It ends Friday, 8/12/2011 so make sure to enter soon!


Enter Here

About Cooler Master
Cooler Master was founded in 1992 to provide the world’s best thermal solutions. Since its establishment, the company continues to invest in product development to provide leading-edge innovations. Cooler Master’s line-up includes heat sinks, fans, chassis, power supplies and computing accessories. Headquartered in Taiwan with branch offices located across Europe, America and APAC, Cooler Master offers unsurpassed service to our customers. For more information on Cooler Master, please visit www.coolermaster.com.

Anonymous has announced they intend to bring the social networking (notworking?) site Facebook down on November 5th.  You might be wondering why Anon would go after Facebook when its founder Mark Zuckerberg has been idolized as a geek and a hacker in many biograph

ies and books.

Plus isn’t Facebook a place where information is freely shared by those that want to share it? Most would have thought that Facebook of all places would be safe. However, it is not and here is why.

This first thing is that Facebook has in the past taken liberty with its user’s images, personal information and has been rumored to pass information along to government agencies in people or groups that may use, let’s say inflammatory language. It has also been rumored (one that no one has been able to confirm) that Facebook maybe allowing advertiser (or governments) to view users preferences and possibly actual pages.  We do know that Anonymous believes this at the very least. Now all of this would be good enough reason for the group of hackers with a cause, but there is more and this is possibly one of the real reasons. You see Facebook is getting ready to launch a facial recognition API that can pull data on people tagged in pictures from sources around the net. It is also rumored to be able to match aliases from dating sites, forums, etc. as long as the API can link the real name with the screen name. This massively privacy invading bit of software has already been declared illegal in Germany and w

e have hopes that other countries will follow.  We believe this is what Anonymous is actually alluding to when they say “for the sake of your own privacy”.  

Much of the rest of their press release (shown in its entirety below) also has truth in it. According to the same German lawmakers that want the Facial Recognition API removed, Facebook makes the removal of the data collected by the software almost impossible to delete even after the image that person was tagged in it removed from the profile.  We think this is what Anon is talking about when they say “your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time”, but it is also true that what you put in Facebook stays on Facebook even when you leave.

So will Anon bring down Zuckerberg and his social networking/ information collection site, or is this another threat that the group will lose interest in before the date they have set aside. A date that hold special meaning to the British and which was immortalized in the move “V for Vendetta”. Will Zuckerberg prepare and harden the Facebook servers? I guess we will see on November the 5th.

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Overclockers Push Sandy Bridge to New Levels of Performance

Futuremark® Announces Winners of Palit Overclocking Contest

HELSINKI, FINLAND – AUGUST 8, 2011 – In June Futuremark® ran a worldwide overclocking competition to push the limits of performance for PCs using Sandy Bridge chipsets. Today, Futuremark congratulates the winners of the contest that saw thousands of entries from more than 60 countries.

SANDY BRIDGE Z68 INTEGRATED GRAPHICS OC CONTEST

This contest segment was restricted to PCs with Intel's new Sandy Bridge Z68 chipset with integrated Intel HD Graphics.

Alva "Lucky_n00b" Jonathan smashed through the P4000 limit to set a new world record of P4419 using 3DMark Vantage's performance preset. His set-up consisted of an Intel Core i7-2600K with MSI Z68A-GD80 motherboard. To better appreciate Alva's skills, with factory settings his set up would score around P2200.

SANDY BRIDGE PLUS PALIT DISCRETE GRAPHICS OC CONTEST

The second contest segment was open to any PC using a Sandy Bridge-based CPU together with a single card, single GPU Palit brand discrete graphics card.

Giorgioprimo took the honors, and collected the $1000 cash top prize, with a score of P10734 using 3DMark 11 performance preset. His set up included an Intel Core i7-2600K processor paired with a Palit GeForce GTX 580 graphics card. At factory settings, this set up would score P6600.

TOP SCORES, TOP PRIZES

Palit Overclocking with Sandy Bridge is one of a number of overclocking competitions Futuremark holds each year. For details of upcoming contests please visit http://www.3dmark.com/competitions/ or follow Futuremark on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Futuremark

###

About Futuremark® Corporation

Futuremark® Corporation creates the world's most popular benchmarks and PC performance tests. Futuremark's free 3DMark®, PCMark® and Peacekeeper™ tests have helped millions of people measure and improve their PCs' performance for games, media, applications and web. Futuremark Games Studio creates original games with new and entertaining gameplay such as Hungribles™, a skill shot puzzle game for iPhone® and iPad® and Shattered Horizon, a zero gravity FPS for PC. The studio is currently developing Unstoppable Gorg for PC, Xbox LIVE® Arcade and iPad® and has one further unannounced title in development. Futuremark has offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland. http://www.futuremark.com/

About Palit® Microsystems Ltd.

Established in 1988, Palit Microsystems Ltd is well-known for manufacturing stable, excellent, and innovative graphics accelerators. As one of the top PC components manufacturers, Palit continues to provide industry-leading graphics cards with reliable and excellent quality. With branch offices in America, Europe, and Asia, Palit has developed a worldwide sales network which cooperates closely with our customers.

© 2011 Futuremark® Corporation. Futuremark® and 3DMark® trademarks and logos, character names and distinctive likenesses, are the exclusive property of Futuremark Corporation. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Ugh! I know people love Apple and they do make some cool gadgets, but it is getting ridiculous when they continue to go after company after company with patent lawsuits while illegally violating other’s patents. Now Apple the ITC is reviewing a complaint claiming that rival HTC has violated Apple’s patents with even more phones and a tablet. Apple wants an injunction to prevent HTC from being able to import these devices into the US (I guess that is one way to beat the competition).

At the same time they are doing this they have been found to be illegally using patents held by graphics company S3 (now owned by HTC). I have an idea for the legal system… how about you not allow any lawsuits by ANY company not in compliance with patent laws themselves. Make them prove they are not violating the same laws they are trying to abuse before you even let them in the door. My bet is that this will stop a ton of these useless and anti-competitive wastes of time and money long before they start.

Source CNET

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