Looking particularly cool on a Windows 8 tablet, but also available for Windows phones and on Android, is Cocktail Flow. Recipes for drinks, of course, and possibly pretty good ones going by comments of users for whom cocktails seem to have flowed freely. The app is free, by the way. Other than looking good, Cocktail Flow gives you recipes by drink type; say dark rum or vodka or whatever floats your boat. There are also nonalcoholic cocktails, but who wants them. You can choose by colour, by type such as classic or shooter or exotic. You can also choose to go with whatever ingredients you happen to have in your bar. Then, just click to get quick and easy ways of making a nice drink. All you need to do next is appear as if you knew how to make that drink all along — and swig the concoction down the hatch.So, it works like this: you go somewhere, say a cottage in the hills. You walk around and you come across things you don’t want to forget. You take photos or even jot down a line or two, or a note, and you share it via Wyst, which is rather Instagram-like, but with a different focus. Maybe you sit down in a particularly beautiful spot and have an interesting conversation. Before you leave, take a picture and make a note. These will become your stored memories and you can look them up any time. Or let someone else across the world into them. It’s people’s feelings and experiences that endow a place with meaning, and so, sometimes, it’s nice to put them into a sort of collective with others’ experiences.Add A Bit Of Wyst Almost every place on the planet holds secrets and stories. Some of them are buried away in the depths of a history that we can’t reach; some are remembered even now and passed on, and some stories are in the making. Wyst is a little social application with the lofty ambition of making these stories travel from one part of the world to the other by making it easy for people to share their place-associated stories. They can choose to keep them within a small group of people, or just an intimate memory between two people, or they can make them public. Sure, you could share on Facebook or one of a dozen other ways. But when you share on Wyst, your experience gets tagged and plugged into a world map. Others can scroll and explore and when they touch the place you were at, your Wyst comes up — the one you shared. Exploring places through peoples’ experiences is then very interesting. Say you’re going to a wildlife park. You look up Wyst to see what others saw there. Or you could do that when you come back from your trip.Wyst, available free for the iPhone and usable on the iPad, is yet to make its way to other platforms. In fact, it’s yet to be densely populated with users and Wysts as people begin to explore it. On its website, wyst.it, you can see some examples of Wysts.Google+ For iPad All this time, iPad users were 2x’ing the iPhone app for Google+ when they wanted to use that network from their iPads. Now, the iPad app has arrived and it’s nothing short of gorgeous. It’s very visual, with big photographs and the clean lines layout first popularised by Flipboard and adopted by everyone else. Many users sign up and then forget all about Google+, finding it all too much to deal with yet another network that isn’t devoid of its own work. Others who have found a comfort zone in Google+, interacting with like-minded people in the safety of those Circles, will probably welcome a dedicated app. You can manage your profile, people and hangouts from within the app, and, of course, you can engage with your network and upload your own content.Elevate Photos To A Work Of ArtWhen you share photos on wyst, your experience gets tagged and plugged into a world mapPainterly for the iPad is a unique and beautiful app. One of the nicest ways to use it is to pick one of its elegant backgrounds as a base and then pull in one of your own photographs from the camera roll. Then, choosing from one of over 30 brushes, you paint parts of the photo for a really arty and lovely look. There are many interesting modes and combinations to explore and yet the app is very simple, requiring little or no actual artistic skill. Look at some of the examples on the app’s website or watch the in-app tutorial (guides also to be found on YouTube) to see the different things you can do. Two kinds of distinctive looks can be achieved when you pick either Paint or Erase before you start brushing. It’s a great way to while away extra time, soothe your nerves, and make your photos look extra special. It costs $1.99.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 13-08-2012)
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US-based e-commerce firm Amazon on 22 August launched its Kindle store, which offers over one million e-books in India.The company also launched its bestselling e-reader Kindle in the country at an introductory price of Rs 6,999."We are proud to launch this new Kindle store for Indian customers, offering Kindle book purchases in rupees ... In addition, we are excited to work with Croma to make Kindle available at retail outlets across India," Amazon.com Vice President of Kindle Content, Russ Grandinetti, said in a statement.The India Kindle Store features a vast selection of titles, new releases, bestsellers, and works from a range of Indian authors, including Chetan Bhagat, Ashwin Sanghi, Ravinder Singh and Amish Tripathi."We are excited to be the first retailer in India to offer the latest generation Kindle to our customers. This product will launch exclusively in all Croma stores across India," Croma CEO and Managing Director Ajit Joshi said.Amazon also launched Kindle direct publishing (KDP) for independent authors and publishers in India.KDP is a free and easy way for authors and publishers to make their books available to Kindle customers in India and around the world on both Kindle devices and free Kindle reading applications.(PTI)
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Apple is seeking speedy bans on the sale of eight Samsung phones, moving swiftly to translate its resounding court victory over its rival into a tangible business benefit.The world's most valuable company wasted no time in identifying its targets on 27 August: eight older-model smartphones, including the Galaxy S2 and Droid Charge. While Apple's lawsuit encompassed 28 devices, many of those accused products are no longer widely available in the world's largest mobile market.Although Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III phone was not included in the trial, the jury validated Apple's patents on features and design elements that the US company could then try to wield against that device. Apple may not have to seek a new trial over the S III, but can include it in a "contempt proceeding" that moves much faster, according to legal experts.Many on Wall Street believe Apple now has momentum behind it in the wake of its near-complete triumph over the South Korean company on Friday."The evidence and weight of the case are heavily in Apple's favor," said Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek. "We expect there's a two-thirds chance of an injunction against Samsung products."An injunction hearing has been set for September 20. If US District Judge Lucy Koh grants sales bans, Samsung will likely seek to put them on hold pending the outcome of its appeal.Samsung said it will take all necessary measures to ensure the availability of its products in the US market. A source familiar with the situation said Samsung has already started working with US carriers about modifying infringing features to keep products on the market should injunctions be granted.Apple's win on Friday strengthens its position ahead of the iPhone 5's expected September 12 launch and could cement its market dominance as companies using Google Inc's Android operating system - two-thirds of the global market - may be forced to consider design changes, analysts say.Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages after a US jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The verdict could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products.Apple's stock scored another record high on Monday.While the victory does not cover new Samsung products including the Galaxy S III, Apple will push its case on these products in the near-term, Evercore Partners analyst Mark McKechnie said."While a ban would likely increase Apple's leading smartphone share in the US market, we believe this verdict could lead to Samsung also delaying near-term product launches as it attempts to design around Apple's patents," Canaccord Genuity analysts said in a note.Tooth-and-nail FightApple's shares gained 1.9 per cent to close at $675.68, tacking on another $12 billion-plus to its already historically leading market value. Samsung lost about the same amount in market capitalization as its shares slid 7.5 per cent in Seoul.Samsung shares rebounded 1.8 per cent on 28 August."The ruling marks an important victory for Apple against Android. Competitors may now think twice about how they compete in smart mobility devices with the industry's clear innovator," Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes wrote on Monday. "If Apple forces competitors to innovate more, it could take longer for competitive products to come to market, and make it more expensive to develop them."The victory for Apple - which upended the smartphone industry in 2007 with the iPhone - is a big blow to Google, whose Android software powers the Samsung products found to have infringed on patents. Google and its hardware partners, including the company's own Motorola unit, could now face legal hurdles in their effort to compete with the Apple juggernaut.Google shares closed 1.4 per cent lower at $669.22. Microsoft, a potential beneficiary if smartphone makers begin to seek out Android alternatives, ended up 0.4 per cent. Nokia, which has staked its future on Windows phones, gained 7.7 per cent.Even Research in Motion - which has hemorrhaged market share to Apple and Google - climbed more than 5 per cent, before ending 2 per cent higher."The mobile industry is moving fast and all players, including newcomers, are building upon ideas that have been around for decades," Google responded in a Sunday statement. "We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don't want anything to limit that."The verdict came as competition in the device industry is intensifying, with Google jumping into hardware for the first time with the Nexus 7 and Microsoft's touchscreen-friendly Windows 8 coming in October, led by its " Surface" tablet.Samsung, which sold around 50 million phones between April and June - almost twice the number of iPhones - will have to pay damages equivalent to just 1.5 per cent of the annual revenue from its telecoms business."The verdict does not come as a surprise," wrote William Blair & Co analysts. "From Apple's perspective, Samsung's market position and its leadership in the handset world was something the company could no longer overlook, and viewing this as another 'imitation is a form of flattery' was not possible.""Companies such as Samsung, who we categorize as fast followers, have been viewed by the industry for their ability to quickly adopt the latest handset trends ... rather than their ability to introduce fundamental innovation." (Reuters)
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A few years ago, my Gmail account got hacked. Try as I might, I couldn’t get into it, even when I enlisted the help of a few techies. Amazingly, I could reset my password, but that wasn’t working to give me access to the actual account. All sorts of emails I never knew I’d miss suddenly escalated in importance as I realised I would have a difficult time if I couldn’t get to various bits of information. It was not pretty. It never is. Eventually, the guys at Google had to do something to free up my account.What Wired writer Mat Honan went through on the 3rd of August was far more terrifying and it gives me the chills to hear him talk about it as he has been doing on various podcasts, in addition to detailing on his blog and on Wired how he was “hacked hard”. There was Mat Honan busy being a normal guy, playing with his baby daughter, when disaster struck. First, his iPhone seemed to go dead and when it rebooted, all its data was wiped out. When he went to his laptop, he found his Gmail account was not accessible. And then his MacBook blanked out as well. Next in line was his iPad. But that was gone too.Whoever or whatever was doing this wasn’t finished yet. Honan found that his Twitter account had been commandeered. The whole thing took a mere 15 minutes or so. Fifteen minutes that destroyed his digital life, as Honan says.To read exactly how this awful saga unfolded, just type Mat Honan into search and you should reach his blog. What is amazing is that this was no hack in the sense of breaking into code. Rather, it was a sequence of smart moves that showed how the hackers, if I can call them that, understood the way people behave both online and in customer service situations, and were able to manipulate them to get what they wanted. They used security loopholes in the process to get access to Honan’s Apple and Amazon accounts. From all the information available online to begin with, they had enough to get in easily.The eventual goal for the youngsters who social engineered the break-in seems to have been to get at Mat Honan’s Twitter handle. And perhaps to show what could be done. But they certainly could have done some more damage. While Apple and Amazon shot into the news for their loose processes, one can safely bet that practically every company has a similar weakness, whether they’re tech companies or otherwise.Security specialist Steve Gibson is fond of pointing out that convenience is the enemy of security. We don’t take measures like backing up our data or exploring security and privacy settings because it’s natural to take the path of least resistance and do whatever is easiest at that time. While it’s true that nothing we can do can guarantee security online (or even offline), our only hope is make it inconvenient for anyone trying to compromise our security. That will also mean making it inconvenient for ourselves, but there’s no other choice. For instance, how many of us just use the easiest possible password — combo of kids’ names. Wife’s name and birthday. Part of phone number and name. And then, because it’s inconvenient to have so many passwords for different services, we use the same one everywhere, giving hackers free and easy access to everything at once. Linking all our accounts to one another is also an invitation to anyone with a bit of time and motivation to explore and find what they want. At the very least, email accounts that have “sensitive” information should be separated from the rest. It might also be worth redoing and remembering your security questions, keeping them known to you but not easy to guess.One can’t say that firms and services make it particularly easy to be secure. Both Gmail and Facebook have a two-step system but nobody uses it because it has to be figured out and few people have the time to spare. Google explains it in a video though and all it means is using your phone (something you have, not just something you know) to receive a password you can then use. There are also one-time application-specific passwords that can be used to give access to various other apps that use Gmail.These and more security measures are described online right now because everyone is spooked in the wake of the recent Honan hack. As we transition to a world where all our data is going to be in the cloud, accessible and convenient, enough time will have to be invested in securing our information. It’s also one of the top few digital skills that children must be made familiar with as they grow up in a completely digital age. mala(at)pobox(dot)com, (at)malabhargava on Twitter (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 27-08-2012)
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A Great Palm-FitThe HTC Desire C is about the size of the iPhone but feels smaller. It has a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 screen on the front, and its soft and rubberised back with its gentle curved sides makes it hold-friendly all around. It feels just right in one’s palm, in fact. At first I thought it was a unibody device, but some investigating revealed otherwise. Being the size it is places the Desire C in the budget phone category — although it has a Rs 14,999 price tag. This phone doesn’t make a style statement. It’s quiet and accented here and there, but lacks the glitzy premium feel. It’s meant to do the job rather than make you look good. Sometimes it seems as if features have been taken in and out of smartphones quite at random. It has Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC’s Sense 4.0 interface, with some tweaks. The Desire C runs on a 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which isn’t much these days. The RAM is a standard 512MB. Storage is a low-end 4GB, so you’ll need to buy an SD card. Adding to the Android 4.0, we also have other perks that are missing on even the larger premium smartphones. A removable battery (in red, at that), a micro SD slot, and a standard sim — micro sims have become a fashion on premium phones. What’s not so great is the 5MP primary (and only) camera, pulling it down a few notches. The camera has neither flash nor auto-focus. Clearly, it’s sort of just there. The battery is a 1200 mAh and adequate for what you’ll be able to do with the phone. Overall, a good intro-Android smartphone; one which will make for an everyday workable, no-fuss device.Beam Me Up, GalaxyGet ready for some serious ceiling gazing. Samsung’s Galaxy Beam GT-I8530, the projector smartphone, is finally in India and, luckily, one doesn’t pay a huge premium for what you might think is a novelty or specialist phone. At Rs 29,999 (please, let’s call that 30,000) it’s doable, if you can think of interesting things to beam around and enough situations in which to use projection. If you get a good deal on it — why not. A tailor-made Beam situation, if we go by the blissful-family promo video, would be when you lie back in bed with your kid and tell a bedtime, story complete with pictures or video up on the ceiling. Children will love that, though I’m not sure it’ll put them off to sleep. The Beam has a solid feel without being too heavy. The body has a yellow strip running around it, giving it a sporty look. It also has a nice soft rubbery back and a 4-inch screen, but just a 5MP camera. One would have thought the projector would be paired with a better camera so you have more personal material to beam. The Pico projector is on the top of the phone (where else) and has a dedicated button to beam your screen instantly. The projector is 15 lumens and can give you a 50-inch display, projecting up to 2 meters. That’s as big as a big TV, though not as bright and crisp. The Beam is an otherwise typical Samsung Android phone. Amazingly, it still runs on Android 2.3 or Gingerbread — now two versions old. It’s powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and 768 MB of RAM. Internal storage is 8GB but there’s a micro SD slot so you can increase your space up to 32GB. There’s a 2000mAh battery which should give over 3 hours of video-playing and beaming. Really worth considering if you don’t mind your phone being a few versions behind on Android. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 27-08-2012)
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Android users, here’s a way to unclutter your home screens and clutter your notifications drop down instead. The app, 1Tap Quick Bar, lets you customise your notifications area somewhat by adding little icons in the drop down for things you need quickly. I change my text input method often because there’s either a word that’s just refusing to be recognised or because it’s just easier to input a certain way under some conditions. So I put in an icon to give me quick access to the changing input menu. You can get the same thing by long-pressing, of course, but I thought I would experiment this way as well. After all, that’s what Android is all about. I also put in an icon to stop the screen from timing out altogether because that’s really helpful while you’re reading something. Just tap again to de-activate. 1Tap lets you put icons for settings, applications, recently accessed items, shortcuts (to peoples’ phone numbers etc) and some other functions such as recording or moving to a next song. Just tap the + sign to add an item and tap the item on the bar to remove it. When you exit the app, choosing to apply the changes you made, the bar will appear in the notifications area, always within reach.The google search app for iphone or ipad has got some exclusive features and fast access to gmail and docsThe app is free if you want one Quick Bar. If you want more, you have two levels of upgrade, the first to get you two bars and the second to get you unlimited bars. This app may behave somewhat differently on different phones and versions of Android. Users with newer versions of Android, especially Jelly Bean, may not want to bother. Cool Things Google DoesThere are many hidden gems in the world’s favourite search engine, some old and some new. When you start to use them, you realise how useful they are. For instance, just type in a flight number into the search box. In an instant, you get the flight status and other details. You should be signed in and your location visible to Google so that you get relevant flight information.Also type in Calculator into the search box. If you’re the type who needs a scientific calculator often on the go, you’ll find one available right there on Google. Type in weather. Immediately you see the weather in your location for the day and the forecast for the week. The weather information behaves differently depending on different apps. If you use the Google app on the iPad or iPhone, type in weather and then tap the vertical bars on the top right of the screen. You can now see many pages of beautifully laid out information and you can swipe and tap to get to any that you want to take a closer look at. But by far, one of the coolest things is the Handwrite option, though hardened techies scoff at anyone getting excited over handwriting recognition because it remains imperfect to this day. Handwrite can be enabled by getting into the browser on a touch screen device, going to Search Settings and checking the Enable box next to Handwrite. Save and come out to the regular search page. Now, you will see a new toolbar at the bottom of the screen and you can write anywhere on the screen with your finger to search. You have a space bar, a delete, and you can always tap on the Handwrite button to turn it off. Handwrite stays active on the search results page but will turn off if you make a move to type in the search box. Handwrite will work on any browser that lets you get to the search settings including Dolphin and Safari. LiquiPad HDAnd here’s a perfect time-waster. Or de-stresser, if you want to look at it that way. LiquiPad HD (not to be confused with Liquid Pad) turns your iPad into a watery delight. The screen, with beautiful background pictures, turns all watery and responds to your touch as if it were water, with the appropriate sounds. There are actually several modes to choose from for different effects, such as oil, syrup and gel. It goes quite still and stops rippling or making watery sounds when you put it down. For something essentially nonsensical, though pretty, this app shouldn’t cost $1.99. But unfortunately it does. Still, if you’re an app addict…(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 27-08-2012)
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In August 2010, just a few months after Samsung Electronics launched its Galaxy smartphone, a team of Apple Inc lawyers flew to South Korea. Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, had already told Samsung executives at a meeting earlier that summer that he considered the Galaxy S, based on Google's Android operating system, an illegal copy of the iPhone. But given the extensive business ties between the two companies -- Samsung is one of Apple's key component suppliers -- a negotiated solution seemed most likely. The Apple attorneys were blunt: "Android is designed to lead companies to imitate the iPhone product design and strategy," read the second slide in their presentation. But the meeting did not go well, according to a person familiar with the case. Samsung attorneys bristled at being accused of copying, and produced a set of their own patents that they said Apple was using without permission. The meeting brought to the fore a fundamental disagreement between the two companies, and set the stage for a bitter, multi-country patent dispute that led to Friday's US jury verdict that Samsung had violated Apple's patents. The jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion (approx Rs 5,500 crores) in damages, which could be tripled as the jury found Samsung acted willfully. Samsung could now face a costly ban on sales of key smartphone and tablet products. Shares in Samsung -- the world's biggest technology firm by revenue -- tumbled more than 7 per cent on Monday, set for its biggest daily percentage drop in nearly four years, wiping $12 billion off its market value. Samsung says it will seek to overturn the decision, and the worldwide patent battles among tech giants are hardly over. But for now at least the decision in what was widely seen as a critical case promises to re-set the competitive balance in the industry. The vast majority of patent disputes settle before trial, particularly between competitors. In this case, though, the stakes were just too high -- and the two companies ultimately had very different views of the often murky legal issues. Samsung believed its wireless communications patents were strong and valuable, and would serve as a counter-weight to any Apple showing of infringement, people close to the case say. The South Korean company also didn't believe Apple could or should be allowed to claim patent protection on design elements like the form of a rectangle, or the front flat surface embodied on the iPhone. Apple, for its part, considered its feature and design patents to be very high up on the intellectual property food chain -- and demonstrating their validity was critical to a much wider war against Android. The two companies never came close to settling their differences, according to courtroom testimony, trial evidence and interviews with several sources close to the case. And when it came to the trial, Samsung's lawyers miscalculated in arguing that a verdict for Apple would harm competition in the marketplace. The jurors, led by a foreman who holds his own patent, were more persuaded by Apple's pleas to protect innovation. For them, it ultimately wasn't even a close call. A spokesman for Samsung in Seoul had no immediate comment. @page_break@ Coridal But AdamantApple launched the iPhone in 2007, revolutionising the mobile phone market. But later that year Google, then still an ally of Apple's, unveiled the Open Handset Alliance, with the aim of distributing its Android smartphone software to all-comers. Google's open approach quickly caught on among manufacturers looking to compete with Apple. The strategy infuriated Jobs, and by 2009 relations between the two companies had soured and Google's then-CEO, Eric Schmidt, left Apple's board. Jobs' biographer famously quotes him as accusing Google of "grand theft" and vowing to "go to thermonuclear war" over the issue. In January 2010, Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC Corp launched a touch screen, Android-based smartphone that sported features very similar to the iPhone. Apple sued in March of that year, and the Android smartphone patent wars were on. HTC, though, was a minor player compared with Samsung. After the cordial but failed August 2010 meeting, attorneys from Apple and Samsung talked in a series of meetings both in South Korea, California and elsewhere in the US. Apple's attorneys set to work putting a price tag on a royalty demand. By October 2010, they had concluded that Samsung should pay $24 per smartphone, and $32 per tablet. Based on Samsung's own estimation of its profits, Apple's royalty payments would effectively wipe out more than half of Samsung's margins on any phone priced less than $450. And, Apple's offer wouldn't have covered the "unique user experience" patents Apple holds dear. "We made that clear," said Apple licensing chief Boris Teksler. By the end of 2010, the meetings stopped as the two sides were too far apart. Viewed As Rip-OffApple hoped its relationship with Samsung would make filing an actual lawsuit unnecessary. Yet instead of wilting under Apple's pressure, Samsung instead pressed its own patent claims, including a critical one relating to how mobile products send and receive information over wireless networks. Samsung eventually would request a 2.4 per cent royalty on those patents, or $14.40 per device. But Samsung had committed to license its wireless patents on fair terms to competitors over the years, in exchange for the technology becoming part of the industry standard. Courts have generally been reluctant to bar companies from using such "standards essential" patents, and thus, they are often less valuable than other types of intellectual property. Then, in early 2011, Samsung released the Galaxy Tab 10.1. To Apple, it was a clear rip-off of the iPad, and showed Samsung had no intention of modifying its products. Apple sued Samsung in a San Jose, California federal court in April 2011, saying the Korean company "slavishly" copied its designs. Samsung quickly counter sued, and the dispute bled into at least 10 courts around the world, including Australia and South Korea. Over the next year, outside law firms hired by both companies racked up thousands of billable hours around the world, but no decisive rulings threatened either side. Jobs passed away in October 2011, and Cook carried on the litigation, filed "reluctantly," he said. Until recently it had mostly been a see-saw battle. Apple largely succeeded in thwarting HTC. But earlier this year a federal judge in Chicago threw out a case pitting Apple against Google's Motorola Mobility unit, saying neither side could prove damages. For Apple, the California lawsuit against Samsung took on even more urgency as it sought to prove the basic validity of its iPhone and iPad patent claims. It scored its first serious victory in the San Jose court when US District Judge Lucy Koh issued two sales bans: one against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the other against the Galaxy Nexus phone. In her ruling on the tablet, Koh said Samsung had the right to compete, "but does not have right to compete unfairly." Yet Koh repeatedly urged the two sides to settle. Last month, Cook and his Samsung counterpart Choi Gee-sung participated in one last mediation in an attempt to stave off the impending US trial. They couldn't agree. Besides the dispute over the "standards essential" patents, Samsung believes it has a stronger patent portfolio than Apple when it comes to next-generation technology like 4G. Out Of TimeThe trial began on 30 July. Apple presented top executives who testified in coherent narratives, and revealed damaging internal Samsung documents that showed the company modifying its products to be more like the iPhone. Samsung's case was far less slick. Koh gave both sides 25 hours of trial time, but Samsung lawyers used up too much time in the beginning and couldn't cross examine some Apple witnesses towards the end. Samsung employees testified through interpreters, or in video depositions that alienated jurors. "Instead of witnesses, they sent you lawyers," Apple attorney Harold McElhinny said during his closing argument. And while Samsung's own patents were a major part of behind-the-scenes negotiations, at trial its lawyers struggled to present them on an equal footing with Apple's intuitively comprehensible design and feature patents. Samsung could have opted for a separate trial on its patents, but declined. Its lawyers may have believed that placing its own allegations in front of the same jury would balance out any toxic impact from breaches of Apple patents. It didn't work. Samsung violated six of Apple's patents, the jury said. Whether damages will be tripled is a decision for Koh in the coming weeks. Samsung asked for up to $399 million on its standards patents. It got nothing. Samsung has vowed to keep fighting. It could get an appeals court to delay any potential sales ban, which would give it time to bring new, modified products to the market. But barring a reversal on appeal, Apple now has a clear verdict: how it values its intellectual property is more than just a theory. (Reuters)
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Samsung’s Galaxy Note, the famous “phabet” was quite a hit in India. For a gadget that immediately caused many to laugh at its in-between size making it a phone that was too big and a tablet that was too small, the 5.3 inch Note went on to sell over 10 million units – and will probably continue to do so. It was when you held it in your hands that the penny dropped. It had a way of feeling just right, and its slim little stylus, the S-Pen, added a layer of functionality for anyone who wanted it. A lot of people also poked fun at the stylus, saying that it was rewinding to an earlier time in tech history, but even that didn’t put a dent in its sales. It had obviously hit some sort of sweet spot with its size and specs. With that sort of success, it was inevitable that there would be another Note. Or several, in fact. And finally there was one. But it doesn’t quite come from the phabet family, except for the S-Pen. The successor to the 5.3 inch Note is yet to reveal itself. Today, about two weeks after the launch in the US and UK, Samsung debuted the bigger Note, the 10.1, in India. It’s known as the Galaxy Note 800 and the tech media got a quick look at it. Pick it up and it immediately feels light (more so than the third generation iPad for sure) and extremely “plastic-ky.” Not many people can understand Samsung’s passion for plastic that doesn’t feel premium, and with 10.1 inches of it, it’s noticeable in much the same way as it is on the Galaxy S3 smartphone. Others have shown that plastic can be done more elegantly, but Samsung seems to have an attachment to the new shiny variety. For devices that sell readily in any case, one can’t help wondering if maybe they would fly off the shelves even faster if only they weren’t so plastic down to the soul. Well, that white Note 800 actually looks like a giant Galaxy S3 and opens to the same watery blue theme, enhancing the sameness. The screen looked bright and vibrant but a closer look will be needed to see whether the image remains sharp when you use it. The overall look is for a moment also reminiscent of the iPad but perhaps that’s best left to the courts to decide. Samsung is currently fighting it out in court with Apple who says its arch rival has blatantly lifted off design and other elements in what is an infringement of copyright. In any case, no tablet outside of the very low cost bracket can hope to come into the market without everyone wondering whether it will be a thorn in the side of the still-dominant iPad. The Note 800 isn’t a budget tab at all but costs Rs.39,990 for a 16GB version. The user can expand it to 32SB with the micro SD slot. Other specs include 1.4GHz quad-core Exnyos processor, 2GB of RAM and there’s 1280x800p resolution on the display. The battery is a 7000 mAh but how many hours it lasts one will have to see. The camera, the results of which looked surprisingly clear and sharp, is a 5-megapixel primary and 1.9-megapixel secondary. Samsung is really pushing the addition of the little S-Pen that is tucked into the side of the tablet, working with a Waccom digitizer on the device. They are claiming that it the S-Pen is what makes the tablet super special, allowing artists, fashion designers, architects etc to really unleash their creativity. They also expect the Note 800 to be just what students want. The S-Pen is pressure sensitive for some uses, but as much good as using a finger in others. There are not enough S-Pen optimized apps to make use of the fine control of the stylus. Six of the apps on the tablet allow it to work in a split-screen mode. The Note 800 runs on Ice Cream Sandwich and Samsung’s own TouchWhiz interface and as is typical, there can be an interminable wait for the upgrade to Jelly Bean, the newest Android version. The Note 800 not only may have a tough time standing up against the iPad but will compete against some of its own tablets, including the 10.1 minus an S-Pen.
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