News

The International 2 is finished, and we have new champions, Invictus Gaming! After 3 days of play, only 2 teams were left in the Grand Finals with 1 million dollars on the line. Former champions Natus Vincere from the Ukraine against the Chinese team Invictus Gaming. They faced each other just a few hours before the finals in Winners bracket round 3. Na'Vi came out on top with a 2-1 score. Na'Vi then faced LGD, another Chinese team in the Winners bracket finals and defeated them also with a 2-1 score. iG had to go through the losers bracket, and after they defeated EHOME, DK and LGD (all Chinese teams) they were in the Grand finals against Na'Vi. This time it was a “best-out-of-5“5 game, and they came out on top winning $1 million with a score 3-1.

Over the weekend a report popped up on “The Next Web” that claimed Samsung attempted to leave a few bloggers stranded in Germany if they did not do as they were told. The story has produced anger and more than a few tweets across the web denouncing Samsung. As with most items we find the timing very interesting as well as the way the article was presented. For starters the original article kicked things off with a very aggressive headline indicating that Samsung is clearly to blame: “Here’s how Samsung flew bloggers halfway around the world, then threatened to leave them there”. Sounds pretty bad doesn’t it?

It looks like the second half of 2012 will be the big show down in the mobile market. The fun could begin as early as September 12th with the possible release of the copycat iPhone 5 and the copycat iPad Mini. Now I know that those terms will make more than a few Apple fans and analysts angry, but a fact is a fact. The iPhone 5 will have a larger screen (just like all of the Android Phones), LTE (Just like Windows and Android Phones), and will incorporate features that have been in other phones for about two years. To call the iPhone anything but a copycat product at this stage is to be very dishonest.

Apple has become very brave in the light of their apparent victory over Samsung in Judge Lucy Koh’s court room. Despite potential issues with the verdict including evidence that the jury ignored the explicit instructions that were directly read to them by Judge Koh and written in several places, Apple is riding on a wave of euphoria that has caused them to expand their attack against Samsung. This was not overlay surprising as Apple is confident that the US population is ignorant of the concept of Prior Art, the differences between being inspired by a design and copying as well as some of the basic concepts behind software development (and that nagging little detail that prevents you from copyrighting a UI).