A new gaming device has been revealed. No, it’s not another portable gaming console like the Nintendo DS or the Sony PSP, although it is indeed portable. The new gaming products that will be on everyone’s holiday list – both kids and adults alike – are called Sifteo cubes. This next-generation toy is actually made […]
We take a look at how some comic book characters have changed a lot since their initial introduction, some decades ago.
QR codes may be turning up in more places than ever these days, but are people actually using them? According to market research firm Comscore, at least some of them are — 14 million in June in the US alone, to be specific, or about 6.2 percent of all smartphone users. As for who makes up that slice of the smartphone market, Comscore says that just over 60 percent are male, 53 percent are between the ages of 18 and 34, and 36 percent have a household income of $100k or more. Folks are also apparently more likely to scan QR codes at home than at a retail store, and magazines and newspapers edge out websites or product packaging when it comes to the top source of the QR code being scanned. So, not exactly an explosion in use, but still fairly impressive for a weird-looking barcode that was rarely seen outside of Japan until a few years ago.
Comscore finds 6.2 percent of smartphone users scan QR codes originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Aug 2011 07:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This article was written on March 05, 2007 by CyberNet.
When I think of USA Today, I think newspaper. However, with some new changes to their site, USA today wants you to think “Social Network”. Reading through the comments on their announcement, veteran readers are not liking the change too much. There are comments like “this redesign is horrible,” or “I think you did too much too soon,” or “Improved search, NOT.”
After taking a look at all of the new features they have added, I think it was a great move. While some might find it hard to adjust to initially, I think they’ll end up falling in love with the new look that’s easy on the eyes, and features that will make their news experience that much better.
To make it “social,” they started with the obvious. Conversation. Now every single news article will have a comments section where people can discuss the news. USA Today will place the most interesting comments featured up at the top of main pages.
Along similar lines as the conversation feature, they’ve added a community center where readers will be able to find some of the best comments, user-submitted photos, and other things. You can become a member of the community by creating a profile page where you can upload photos, write a blog, upload your Avatar, and send messages to others users. Sound familiar?
They’re even adding in a voting system where readers can “recommend” an article, or vote on a story that they think others will be interested in. The purpose of this is so that it’s easier to see what the hot topics are, or what everybody is reading.
There’s a whole list of features that I haven’t even mentioned. It’s a big change, and one that their loyal readers will probably have to adjust to. Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion thinks that the change is good but it doesn’t go quite far enough. He suggests that the media needs to “bridge their communities to the ones where we already spend out time. RSS, widgets and embedded content would help here.” His ideas make sense, but I think USA Today needs to take a few baby steps after this giant step to allow readers time to catch up and adjust to the differences.
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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Reminiscent of Ghostbuster‘s Marshmallow Man, new Goodyear tires might just Stay-Puft on their own. The company is developing Air Maintenance Technology (AMT) tires with built-in pumps to keep themselves at the perfect pressure. The reason? Even slightly under-inflated tires can drop your mileage by 3.3 percent, costing you cash at the pump. For highway-hustling commercial trucks that’s a whole lot of moola, leading the US Department of Energy’s Office of Vehicle Technology to grant Goodyear $1.5 million towards self-plumping commercial tire development. For those of us who don’t wear mesh hats, Goodyear is working on a consumer version in its Luxembourg lab. It’s unclear exactly how they will work, but earlier implementations have a pipe that’s compressed as the tire rolls, allowing air to enter the tire without bursting thanks to a pressure sensitive valve. With so much automated car technology now all we need is the kind that cleans out its own trunk and pumps its own gas. Check out the full PR after the break.
Goodyear’s self-inflating tires could improve gas mileage, leave Schrader valves unsatisfied originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Aug 2011 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Continue reading ‘Kraftwerk Who?’ Pioneering ’50s Synthesizer unearthed in French Barn
‘Kraftwerk Who?’ Pioneering ’50s Synthesizer unearthed in French Barn originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Aug 2011 03:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google has intervened in an ongoing intellectual property dispute between smartphone application developers and a patent-holding firm, Wired.com has learned, marking the Mountain View company’s first public move to defend Android coders from a patent troll lawsuit that’s cast a pall on the community.
The company says it filed a request with the United States Patent and Trademark office Friday for reexamination of two patents asserted by East Texas-based patent firm Lodsys. Google’s request calls for the USPTO to assess whether or not the patents’ claims are valid.
“We’ve asked the US Patent Office to reexamine two Lodsys patents that we believe should never have been issued,” Google senior vice president and general counsel Kent Walker told Wired.com in a statement. “Developers play a critical part in the Android ecosystem and Google will continue to support them.”
Lodsys is currently suing 11 smartphone app developers for allegedly infringing the two patents, U.S. 7,222,078 and 7,620,565. Lodsys claims its patents cover the use of in-app payments technology, which allows users to carry out transactions within the context of an app itself. Countless app developers use in-app payments technology in their applications.
Lodsys CEO Mark Small did not respond to an e-mail, and the company did not immediately respond to a telephone inquiry from Wired.com on Friday evening, after Google filed its request.
If Google’s request for reexamination is granted, it could end up saving the developers and development studios — many of whom are composed of a handful of staffers — from large litigation fees.
“Reexaminations are often times a tool used to stay ongoing litigation,” said Julie Samuels, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights advocacy group. “It’s much, much cheaper than federal litigation, which on average costs between two and five million dollars.”
Since Lodsys first began targeting application developers months ago, the patent saga has been long and messy. The firm originally dispatched a series of cease and desist letters to iOS and Android app developers in May. The letters threatened legal action within a 21 day period if developers did not negotiate to pay Lodsys a licensing fee for the use of the technology. The company is now suing 11 defendants, ranging from small app development studios to major game companies like Atari, Square Enix and Electronic Arts.
Dan Abelow, the former owner of the patents who sold them in 2004, told Wired.com he was unable to comment on the matter.
Lodsys’ actions are what many intellectual property experts refer to as “patent trolling” — the practice of using patents for little else outside of suing other companies for damages or coaxing them into licensing agreements.
Both Google and Apple have licenses for Lodsys’ patents, so Lodsys has been going after third-party developers instead. But the potential impact on Apple and Google is clear enough. Whether or not Lodsys wins its lawsuit, the threat of potential litigation for iOS and Android developers may cause them to think twice before creating apps for the two mobile platforms.
“In this case, the strategic interest of Apple and Google is to make app developers happy, or at least comfortable,” said Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst who has covered the lawsuit exhaustively in his blog. (Defendants Rovio and Illusion Labs declined comment.)
But despite the fact that two Android developers were named as defendants — Rovio, the Finnish development studio behind Angry Birds, and Illusion Labs, a Swedish company that produces the game Labyrinth — Google has remained conspicuously quiet on the issue until now, rankling many in the development community.
Apple, in contrast, has attempted to insert itself into the Lodsys lawsuit on behalf of developers. On Monday, Apple filed a brief claiming it has the right to intervene in the case because Apple provides the in-app billing technology to its developers and retains its own license for the patents in question. Therefore, Apple argues, its license extends to coders who use Apple’s technologies as well.
Google’s request for reexamination is the company’s first major public action backing up its developer community. If a reexamination is granted, the patents in question could be amended to the extent that they won’t affect developers.
“It’s rare that an entire patent is invalidated through the USPTO,” said Samuels. “More likely is that the claim of the patent will be narrowed.”
Google confirmed they filed this request “inter partes,” which essentially means Google will be involved in the precedings throughout the entire process.
“Inter partes requests are usually more thorough,” said Samuels. Ninety-five percent of “inter partes” reexamination requests filed since 1999 have been granted by the USPTO.
Of course, even if the USPTO grants the reexamination request, there’s no guarantee that the court will grant a stay.
“Courts have inconsistent track records of granting stays of litigation,” Samuels said. Especially in the eastern district of Texas — home to a federal court that is often favorable to patent litigation plaintiffs — where the lawsuit was filed. Eastern district courts grant motions to stay litigation pending reexamination around 20 percent of the time, according to a 2009 study conducted by Matthew Smith, senior counsel at Foley and Lardner LLP.
That could complicate things for the developer defendants, and potentially continue to cost them money for ongoing litigation expenses.
Still, Google’s request marks an entirely different strategy than Apple’s, and could potentially pay off for all parties involved.
Except, of course, for Lodsys.
Lending further gravity to the proposed crackdown being bandied about in British parliament, an Essex teen has been arrested for sending a BBM that ran afoul of the Serious Crime Act of 2007. The 18-year old, now free on bail, allegedly used the service to encourage copycat attacks of the violent rioting that’s swept London, and is set to appear in court on September 1st. It’s the second known case to put RIM’s private messaging service — “popular among urban teenagers” as a cheap texting alternative — in the UK’s legal hotseat. For its part, the Canadian electronics maker has since reached out to police, promising to aid the investigation “in any way [it] can.” Although no decision has yet been made to extend law enforcement’s powers over social media services, such as Twitter and Facebook, arrests like these seem to indicate a murky free speech future.
UK teen arrested for illegal BBM, social media crackdown gains steam originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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EES packs circuits into temporary tattoos, makes medical diagnostics fashionable originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 23:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’re getting tired of all this teasing without any payoff, but when it comes Motorola’s forthcoming dual-core Droid, we can’t help ourselves. Just days ago we saw the Bionic’s guts when it passed through the FCC, and now we’ve got fresh pics of the phone in the wild. This most recent sneak peek comes courtesy of Howard Forums user ceb unit, who posted a couple photos of the device after a Moto rep let a friend get handsy with the newest Droid. It’s good to see civilians get their paws on one, but enough already, we want shots of this thing in the hands of some happy customers!
[Thanks, Tu Tran]
Droid Bionic spotted in the wild, again, blurrycam still in full effect originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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