Hasta La Gadget!

You had to know this was coming. Apple, which is already engaged in a heated battle with Microsoft for the protection of its “App Store” trademark, has filed suit against Amazon for its “improper use” of the same. Amazon’s Android Appstore seems to have been intentionally contracted to a single word to differentiate its name, but that difference isn’t enough for Apple, which has asked a California court to grant a ruling preventing Amazon’s use of the moniker and asking for unspecified damages. Apple claims it reached out to Amazon on three separate occasions asking it to rename its software download offering, but when faced with the lack of a “substantive response,” it decided to take things to court. Its big task remains unchanged — proving that the term App Store is something more than a generic descriptor — and this was a somewhat inevitable move given Amazon’s choice of name. The legal maneuvering, as always, continues.

Apple sues Amazon for App Store trademark infringement originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Porsche’s 918 Spyder Hybrid is going into production. The car was first seen at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show.

Originally posted at The Car Tech blog

The official Twitter app for iPhone is fantastic! Or, well, was was fantastic until Twitter shoved all those promoted tweets into the top of your timeline. If you’ve been so annoyed with the dickbar that you want to ditch the official Twitter app, here are six of the best non-Twitter Twitter apps available for the iPhone. More »

We should’ve known this was coming when Microsoft went after Motorola for Moto’s supposedly patent-infringing Android devices, and now Ballmer & Co. have their sights set on Barnes & Noble, Foxconn, and Inventec for making and selling the Nook Color. Once again, Microsoft has filed in both the ITC and the Western District of Washington Federal Court claiming that the Android OS infringes its patents, though the patents at issue have dwindled in number from nine to five this time around. Allegedly, the Nook Color is riddled with infringing bits from its tab-using web browser and web-document viewing capability to its text selection and book annotation features. Microsoft has resorted to litigation as a new means to get paid for its patents after year-long licensing negotiations with B&N bore little fruit (unlike those with HTC, who got with the licensing program). So count this as another clear message to manufacturers — Android’s open-source, but it ain’t free.

Continue reading Same song, second verse: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble for Android’s patent infringement

Same song, second verse: Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble for Android’s patent infringement originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No goofy active shutter glasses, no headache-inducing parallax barrier screens, no optical trickery here. This is a pure 3D display — unfortunately done at a resolution of just 8 x 8 x 8. It’s a hand-built LED cube created by Nick Schulze, powered by Arduino, and driven largely by Matlab. Yes, Matlab, an application you probably deleted less than three minutes after signing off on your calculus final. We can’t help you find that installation disc again, but we can encourage you to enjoy the video of this 3D matrix of blinkenlights after the break, and you can get the full details on how to build your own at the other end of that source link.

Continue reading Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video)

Cube made of 512 LEDs does 3D with calculus, not glasses (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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