Archives for March 2010

Apple Sues HTC over 20 infringed Patents Related to iPhone UI

Apple [AAPL] has sued HTC for infringing on 20 different iPhone UI patents. Various patents infringed (according to Apple) include unlock gestures and other similar functions.

From what we understand, Apple is wanting a permanent injunction to prevent HTC selling phones that use these patents. More patents include the following…

The ˜331 Patent, entitled “Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States,” was duly and legally issued on April 22, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The ˜949 Patent, entitled “Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics,” was duly and legally issued on January 20, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ˜949 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit B.

The ˜849 Patent, entitled “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” was duly and legally issued on February 2, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ˜849 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit C.

[Read more…]

Apple iPhone gets RedEye mini – Turns iPhone in to Universal Remote Control

ThinkFlood have created a new product called the ThinkFlood RedEye mini that converts your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad (when available) in to a universal remote control and TV guide.

The RedEye mini costs $49 and connects up to the 3.5mm headphone jack of your iPod allowing you to control a variety of systems such as a TV, DVR, Stereo, Digi-Box etc… and lets you control them all from the single remote control software created as an application.

To get the system working it requires that you either enter a unique code for the device you own, or put the iPhone RedEye mini in to training mode which can detect signals from other remote controls. Once achieved you attach the IR transmitter, load up the app and use a variety of methods to control your TV and other devices. Gestures can be used such as sliding a couple of fingers down the screen to lower the volume or flicking the iPhone to jump up a channel. [Read more…]

Orange and T-Mobile in UK to Merge

Reports in today show that Orange and T-Mobile in the UK have received clearance by the EU Commission. This will allow the two mobile phone networks to join together making them a leader in the UK mobile phone market.

Right now the merger is being prepared for a Spring close of transaction with Deutsche Telekom saying…

‘This is excellent news, for our customers, for our highly committed teams in the UK and for our shareholders. Now the way is clear for pooling our resources to create an outstanding high-speed mobile broadband network in one of the most competitive markets in Europe. This joint venture company is based on a significant potential of synergies which create substantial value for the two shareholders and translate directly into customer benefits. Our teams in the UK will be rolling up their sleeves to roll out these benefits.”

[Read more…]

AMD 890GX Chipset with on-board 1080p GPU Announced

AMD have announced their latest graphics chipset called the AMD 890GX. The 890GX brings HD graphics to most PC budgets.

The new chipset can support up to two high performance ATI Radeon Premium Graphics cards on-board. The new chipset is designed for a new upcoming processor called the AMD Phenom II X6 hexacore. The 890GX chipset can support full 1080p playback as well as utilise picture in picture support.

As well as being powerful on the graphics side, the chipset also features SATA 3.0 that supports speeds of up to 6GBps along with USB 3.0. [Read more…]

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Firmware Update

Canon have announced a new firmware update for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II cameras. The new firmware update will launch in the next couple of weeks bringing more features to the digital SLR camera.

The new firmware will being the camera up to version 2.0.3 which will enable 1080p full HD video recording at 24, 25 and 29.97 frames per second. The recording will meet both PAL and NTSC standards.

As well as the HD updates the new firmware also brings a new histogram display to movie capture mode. Also sound recording levels can be adjusted with the camera. [Read more…]

Microsoft Real-Time Voice Translator

Microsoft [MSFT] research is working on a project that automatically translates languages by listening to a voice. The demo shown on video over at Giz shows a German researcher at Microsoft speaking in German with the software translating it to English and speaking with a voice.

As will be seen in the video, the translations are a little clunky, but still functional. The system is based around the Bing translation service, so you get almost what you’d get if you were to type the text in to a computer.

Uses for such a system could be to automatically translate conference calls for business, or perhaps translate for anyone wanting to communicate with someone in another language. If Microsoft were to embed this in to their Windows Phone software it could be a very handy feature should you need to talk to someone speaking a different language. Obviously there are a few more obstacles to clear before this could actually happen, but the video does give a glimpse of what could be a few years down the road in terms of translation services. [Read more…]

Next-Gen NVIDIA ION GPU has 10x Faster Graphics

NVIDIA have announced a new NVIDIA ION GPU that potentially can deliver graphics up to 10 times faster and still retain a battery life on the netbook of 10 hours.

The new GPU’s use what is called NVIDIA Optimus technology that allows the netbook to “vastly outperform basic netbook graphics by delivering rich HD media in games, movies, and Internet-based video.”

Netbooks are traditionally known as being a little on the slow side when it comes to most things, but by using one of the NVIDIA ION GPU’s in there, it totally transforms the netbook allowing it to playback HD video without jitter as well as play games such as World of Warcraft without problem. [Read more…]

Nokia Cseries Phones Announced

Nokia has announced the Nokia Cseries category for new smartphones launching. The first phone in the Cseries category is the Nokia C5 we just reported on.

The Cseries represents a shift in Nokia’s device naming convention and ads to the other 3 categories of phones already mentioned which are the Nseries, Xseries and Eseries devices.

The categories use a 1-9 numbering system with 1 being the cheaper less featured phones while 9 represents the higher-priced top end phones (putting the Nokia C5 right in the middle).

Each of the series represents a different “type” of phone. The new Nseries will be classed as Nokia’s flagship phones that will contain all the advanced features. Xseries will represent social entertainment. Eseries focusses on productivity and business (similar to blackberry style devices) and the Cseries represents the “core range of products” in Nokia’s words. [Read more…]

Nokia C5 Smartphone Unveiled

Nokia have unveiled a new smartphone called the Nokia C5. The C5 is the beginning of a new series of phones called the Nokia Cseries that ads to the already available Xseries as well as unannounced phones in the Eseries and Nseries.

The C5 sits right in the middle of the Cseries class and runs the Series 60 3rd Edition symbian operating system. It has a 2.2 inch screen along with a 3.2 megapixel camera. Software wise, it comes pre-installed with Ovi Maps allowing for free navigation in a number of countries around the globe.

New features are included in the Nokia C5 such as the phone book that allows you to see friends Facebook status’ as well as send them messages from the phone book. [Read more…]

Intel Atom N455 and N475 Spotted

Over at CeBIT a couple of new Intel Atom processors for Netbooks were spotted called the Intel Atom N455 and Intel Atom N475. Intel have yet to announce these two newly spotted processors even though the announcement was made/released on Saturday regarding the Intel Atom N470.

From what we understand about the two new versions, the Atom N455 looks to be an update to the Intel Atom N450 and the Atom N475 looks to be an update of the Atom N470. It is believed that both will run at the same 1.66GHz and 1.83GHz that the previous models run at with the only difference being that there is support for DDR3 memory instead. [Read more…]

Sony PS3 Bug Fixed

We are now hearing that the Sony PlayStation 3 bug is fixed. Reports are coming in saying that users of the older chunky console can actually now connect without experiencing the errors that were listed earlier.

The PS3 bug was related to the internal clock that effected the older consoles for about the last 24 hours and now that it is fixed, users can log on to the PSN as normal as well as play all games. Trophies are also reported to be re-synced to PS3’s successfully. [Read more…]

Windows 7 RC Shutdown Starts Today

Users of Windows 7 RC have been getting warnings for the past few weeks to upgrade their operating system due to the release candidate version expiring. The final date has now hit and if you are running Windows 7 RC then you are probably seeing your computer reboot every 2 hours leaving all open documents unsaved and perhaps being quite annoying at the same time.

If you feel you can live with the bi-hourly shut downs then go ahead and carry on using it although on June 1, the wallpaper will also be changed to say “this copy of Windows is not genuine”. At this point you will be unable to download updates as Windows Update doesn’t function with non genuine copies of the software. [Read more…]