Samsung's defense against Apple patents begins with DiamondTouch table, LiveTile UI prior art

Samsung may have convinced Judge Koh to toss a few international handsets out of Apple's lawsuit, but the Korean firm still has Cupertino's patent licensing accusations to contend with. Their tactic? Convince the court that Apple's claim to the inventions are invalid, and that the technology was developed prior to the disputed patent's filing. It's called showing "prior art," and Sammy's done it before -- famously showing a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey in an attempt to put Apple's iPad design claims to rest. Today's examples were more grounded in reality, focusing on debunking Cupertino's claim to the "bounce back" effect that happens when a user reaches the end of a page and common multitouch zoom / navigation gestures.

Samsung pitted the famous "bounce back" feature against an old PocketPC interface called LaunchTile, which allowed users to navigate through 36 applications by zooming in and out and a panning across a grid-like "world view" of said apps. Movement between grids snap to each zone, marking the end of a page. Apple shot back, noting that LiveTile's snapping navigation didn't work on diagonals, and cited other differences as well. Samsung wasn't deterred, however, and brought out DiamondTouch, a projector based multitouch table that utilized both one touch scrolling and pinch-based zoom gestures. The table even takes aim at the aforementioned bounce-back patent with a technology called TableCloth, which bounces back images that are pulled off screen. DiamondTouch's creator, Adam Bogue, told the court that he had demoed the technology to Apple privately back in 2003, noting that it was also available to anyone who visited the Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratories' lobby.

If the jury takes to Samsung's claims of prior art, it could severely cut Apple's claims against it. Even so, Cupertino's lawyers aren't going down without a fight, and still have a number of navigation and design claims that Samsung hasn't addressed. The two parties are expected to keep up the fight for about a week, we'll keep you posted on the inevitable revelations as they come.

[Source: Engadget]

Gartner: worldwide mobile phone sales dipped 2.3 percent while users wait for next iPhone

Gartner is reporting that worldwide mobile phone sales this quarter dropped 2.3 percent as buyers postponed upgrades and held out for the next big thing. Of the 419 million units sold in the last three months, Samsung, Nokia and Apple unsurprisingly took the lion's share of the sales, while ZTE and LG rounded out the top five. Overall, Android's the most popular phone operating system, running 64.1 percent of all new handsets, while iOS phones came in second with 18.8 percent. If you feel like you need some more spreadsheets in your life, then read on for the full breakdown.

[Source: Engadget - Read the full story]

Telenav's Scout gives iOS users offline navigation in exchange for ten bucks

We know that iOS 6 will bless iPhone users with some in-house-made mapping, but that hasn't stopped Telenav from bettering its own Scout navigation offering for Apple's favorite handsets. Scout now does offline navigation by letting users download maps of the west, central or eastern United States over WiFi only. Plus, Scout now takes voice commands, so on your next road trip you can tell it to find the nearest Whataburger whether you have cell signal or not. Interested parties can head on over to the App Store to get their download on, but you'll pay for the privilege -- offline navigation costs $9.99 a year or $2.99 a month, though the free, data-dependant version of Scout for iPhone still includes speech recognition. Still not sold? Perhaps the video after the break will persuade you.

[Source: Engadget]

iMac and Mac Pro could ditch disc drives, OS code hints

Apple's desktop-bound iMac and Mac Pro computers could be about to lose their disc drives, configuration files in OS X Mountain Lion reveal.

An Appleinsider reader noticed the cryptic clue, which appears in a configuration .plist file that's used by Boot Camp Assistant, a bit of software that helps you install Windows on your Mac.

The file details newer models of Mac computers that can boot up an older operating system from a USB drive, handy if your computer lacks a disc drive. While a few Macs in the list do have slots for a CD or DVD, most are models that lack that disc-chomping capability.

Nestled among those models numbers are two that refer to Macs that haven't come out yet, the IM130 -- reckoned to be the next iMac -- and the MP60, which is thought to be an upcoming Mac Pro. It's far from conclusive, but does raise the possibility of professional-grade Apple gadgets devoid of disc holes.

The iMac was notably left out in the cold when Apple recently refreshed its lines of fancy computers, shivering in the snow outside the Apple family home and pressing its nose against a frosted window pane to watch the MacBook Air and all-new retina MacBook Pro dancing around a Christmas tree with Tim Cook.

The Mac Pro meanwhile was given a cursory processor boost and a snifter more memory, but hasn't been given a significant upgrade since 2010. Updates for both are tipped to arrive next year.

Apple appears to be driving out disc drives with its other computers, but would shedding this once-crucial port from its desktop machines be a smart move?

I can't remember the last time I stuck a CD in my computer, but I remember the cruel lesson taught by the browser-only Chromebook laptop -- just because you don't think you use something (like a bit of software or a certain port) very often, doesn't mean it won't prove totally crucial in the near future.

[Source: cnet]

Battle.net hacked, Blizzard says change your password

World of Warcraft-mongers Blizzard have been hacked, with the company's Battle.net system broken into and customer emails compromised.

Blizzard fessed up to the security breach in a statement posted to its site, where it explains that a list of email address for global Battle.net customers outside of China has been accessed by digital ne'er-do-wells.

President and co-founder Mike Morhaime says the company has found "no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses or real names were compromised," but notes that the investigation is ongoing.

Scrambled passwords, answers to security questions and mobile and dial-in authenticator data for players dwelling on North American servers (that's generally gamers from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia) were also accessed, but the Blizzard boss says that the leaked information isn't enough to let anyone take control of a Battle.net account.

That's a drop of good news, but Battle.net members, who use the platform to play World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, may find their emails used in phishing scams that persuade the account holder to fork over passwords or other information. Blizzard won't ever ask for your password via email, so be wary, gaming fans.

Gamers may also be irked to learn that Blizzard detected the breach on 4 August, but waited until 9 August to notify the community. It says its "first priority was to re-secure our network," though in those intervening days customers may have been subjected to targeted phishing scams that they wouldn't have been on guard for.

Players on North American servers will be prompted to change their secret questions and answers over coming days, while the official advice for gamers on those servers is to change your password, which you can do here. Blizzard also notes that if you've used the same or similar passwords elsewhere, it might be an idea to change them as well.

The Orc-spawning organisation says that in the wake of the attack it closed off access and has started "working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened."

With breaches of this sort seemingly becoming more and more common, customers understandably want reassurance that big companies have their data safely stowed away. Apple recently turned off the ability to reset passwords over the phone after it was revealed that malevolent hackers could take control of an iCloud account with only a few bits of personal information.

[Source: cnet]

Xbox 720 in the next 18 months, job listing divulges

The next Xbox has been pegged to go on sale next Christmas by a revealing Microsoft job listing.

The job details, which were spotted by PCWorld and have since been deleted, explain that "over the next 18 months Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products," going on to list "Windows (Client, Server, Phone and Azure), Office and Xbox." We already know about the new Windows gubbins -- that's Windows 8 of course. But so far Microsoft has remained tight-lipped regarding a new games console.

18 months would see a new system released early in 2014 at the latest, though it's far more likely that Microsoft would try and get the new Xbox -- reportedly codenamed Durango -- on sale in the run up to Christmas next year, giving cash-addled parents the opportunity to stuff their offsprings' stockings with a brand-new console.Microsoft has already stated that there would be no new console out this year, ruling out a surprise 2012 unveiling. Not much is known about what Microsoft's follow-up to the popular Xbox 360 will look like, though rumours tip it to feature a Blu-ray drive and to require a constant web connection in order to play games.

If we're talking about excluding gamers who don't have an Internet connection, then perhaps we could also see Microsoft ditching physical media altogether and having games accessed solely through downloads. Another recent Microsoft job ad spied by Techradar suggests that the company responsible for Clippy is already working on a second round of Surface tablets.

[Source: cnet]

Sky Movies on YouView as Now TV arrives with 30 days free

Cut-price dish-free Sky channels are now available on YouView -- for free. You can watch Sky's online service Now TV on your YouView set-top box, bringing Sky Movies to your goggle box without coughing up for a Sky subscription.

Now TV is free for the first month -- so that's 30 days of movies from Sky's film channels, long before they reach other TV channels or online services.

With Now TV, you can watch Sky programmes on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and selected Android smart phones -- not the Samsung Galaxy S3 or any Ice Cream Sandwich phones, though. You can currently watch Sky Movies from Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Warner, Universal and more, on demand or as part of a £15 monthly contract. Classic films cost 99p to rent and newer releases are £3.50.

Sky Sports is set to follow shortly for Premier League, Test cricket, and Formula One action.

When you sign up to Now TV, you can watch on two devices, such as your YouView box and a phone or tablet. I can understand why the folks at Sky would limit the number of devices -- they don't want you logging in on your friends' phones for free films all round -- but two is a bit tight. If you own a TV, a computer and a phone, you're stuck, let alone if you have a tablet or a laptop as well.

[Source: cnet]

London 2012 closing ceremony celebrated with Google doodle

It's the last day of a two-week run of Olympics-themed Google doodles. And fittingly, today's marks the closing ceremony of what has been a triumphant games.

We've seen plenty of playable games during the run, including piloting a canoe through a slalom course, a basketball shootout and the hurdles.

Today's shows a party in full swing, as all the stars of the doodles over the last two weeks celebrate around the word Google. There's the archery woman who kicked everything off (that's another string to her bow, ahem). There's the man kicking the football at the goal in the playable penalty shootout. The synchronised swimming team, fencer, pole vaulter and all the others are there too.

The doodles started the day of the opening ceremony, then it wasn't long before we had some playable games to waste time with. Hurdles was first on 7 August, then basketball the next day, slalom canoe the day after and then football.

The closing ceremony will start tonight at 9pm. It's not too late to get tickets either. Once the set has been moved into place, between 200 and 1,000 seats will go up for sale online. No fewer than 3,500 performers will take part in the Olympic stadium. There's also talk of an extra special musical guest making a performance, to show the world we've got more rabbit than Sainsbury's. Please, Seb Coe, make it so.

Team GB has won a phenomenal 62 medals, including 28 gold. And it's not over yet, with more medals guaranteed today in the men's boxing. The women's modern pentathlon is still yet to be decided, as is the men's marathon and men's cross-country mountain biking.

[Source: cnet]

Gmail results in Google Search now available to some field trial participants

One of Google's bigger announcements at its search-focused event earlier this week was the integration of personal Gmail content into Google Search — users will soon have the option to see Gmail results integrated right alongside other search results. The feature isn't publicly available yet, but Google began accepting sign-ups for a limited field trial along with the announcement, and now some Gmail members are receiving notifications that the feature has been activated for their account. Several tipster have written in to let us know that Gmail has begun popping up in their searches after receiving an email notification saying the feature was turned on; we've been able to confirm that with a few personal email accounts, as well.

It works just as Google explained a few days ago — search results from Gmail show up in the upper right of the screen, above Google Knowledge Graph content. They're hidden from view by default, but you can click to quickly see a snapshot of your Gmail conversations relevant to the search term. Upon clicking a conversation, it brings up a dedicated view of the whole relevant email thread rather than simply moving the user into Gmail, but there's an option to click and view the messages in the native Gmail interface as well. Strangely enough, this feature doesn't appear to be supported in Safari right now, though it works fine with Chrome and Firefox. If you want to participate in the trial, you can sign up right here.

[Source: The Verge]

Curiosity undergoes software update to better explore the surface of Mars

While you spend your weekend watching meteors streak through the sky, the Curiosity rover is undergoing what NASA describes as a "brain transplant." Now that the rover has safely completed the flight and landing portion of its mission, it's getting a software update to help it with the next phase — exploring the surface of Mars. The update takes four days to complete — it began on the 10th and should be complete by the 13th — and will improve the rover's ability to both drive and use its robotic arm.

Curiosity will also have improved image processing abilities once the upgrade is complete to make it easier to see obstacles in its path. And the update won't just be giving the rover new abilities, it will also be removing unnecessary ones. "The flight software version Curiosity currently is using was really focused on landing the vehicle," says NASA"s Ben Cichy. "It includes many capabilities we just don't need any more." In the meantime, the Curiosity team will be analyzing the pictures that the rover has sent back so far in order to determine where it should start exploring next.

[Source: The Verge]

eBay seller claims to be auctioning a Microsoft Xbox Durango development kit

A seller on eBay posted a listing for what they claim is a Microsoft Xbox Durango development kit today, with the current bid for the Alpha Tower at $15,000.

The tower, which is supposedly for the next-gen Xbox, was posted by eBay user SuperDae earlier this morning and listed additional items like a wireless controller and power supply. The auction includes only a single image of a non-descript tower, with no further details on its contents. The starting price for the tower was set to $1, and when contacted by The Tech Game, SuperDae said: "All proceeds go to charity. And by charity, I mean my new car." A Twitter user with the same handle tweeted images of what he claimed to be Kinect for the Durango over the weekend, although Microsoft did not officially confirm that they were legitimate.

According to Kotaku, SuperDae is policing the bids for the supposed Durango Alpha Tower, saying, "I only expect people who know what it is to buy it. Otherwise you have no reason to bid." We have contacted Microsoft for comment and will update this story when more information is available.

UPDATE: The Durango development kit was sold for $20,100. Earlier today the auction has six days to go, but the status of the auction switched to "sold" at 17:32 PDT after 43 bids had been placed

[Source: The Verge]

Flipboard for Android updated with tutorials, navigation improvements

Flipboard for Android has been on a steady update cycle ever since it arrived on the platform a few months ago. The latest release focuses on navigation improvements, simplified access to Google Reader feeds, and adds in-app hints for those new to the elegant magazine-style news aggregator. Version 1.9.6 of Flipboard also introduces shopping cart functionality for the Gilt Taste food section, letting readers order select treats directly within the app. And there are of course the usual promises of performance improvements and bug fixes, though the release notes don't delve into anything specific. The latest update is available via Google Play now.

[Source: The Verge]