NEW YORK — Imagine having William Shatner supply your outgoing voicemail message. Or maybe you’d prefer Morgan Freeman coolly telling callers to wait for the beep. Or perhaps having Betty White joke around is more your speed.
All it takes is $299 and some luck.
(CNN) — At least 40 people were killed in an airstrike on a key hospital in the besieged city of Aleppo, a rebel leader there told CNN.
Following Samsung‘s recent victory in having the iPhone 5 added to the present lawsuit between it and Apple, the Korean company has now requested that the recently-launched iPad mini also be added. The Apple device allegedly infringes on two wireless technology patents and several other feature patents that are used for both varieties of the mini iPad. In addition, Samsung has also pursued whether it properly went after the iPod Touch, stating that it will do so if necessary.
Specifically, the company is seeking clarity to verify that it properly used Patent No. 7,672,470 against the iPod Touch. If it is found that the company did not, Samsung will press forward in doing so, adding a couple more blows to its legal battle against Apple. In this case, the patent involve PMP volume control.
Apple, meanwhile, added the Galaxy Note and US-version Galaxy S III to the lawsuit. The companies were granted their requests to add the products after Judge Grewal stated that he was concerned not doing so would prompt a new batch of lawsuits. The lawsuit concerns Apple’s iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone, as well as nearly two dozen Samsung devices.
Samsung recently requested that the licensing agreement from a settlement between HTC and Apple be provided. The request was granted after Apple offered to provide a censored version, which Samsung argued against in court. The trial is set for 2014, with a no doubt bumpy road of legal matters between now and then.
[via Apple Insider]
Samsung requests to have iPad mini added to lawsuit is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
In light of Hurricane Sandy and other recent natural disasters, the FCC is considering having carriers provide information on how well their networks performed in a disaster. The requirement would only concern major natural disasters, and will provide consumers with relevant information, such as how their carrier performed compared with other carriers. The issue is one of several slated for discussion during several hearings the FCC has scheduled throughout 2013.
The Federal Communications Commission has several hearings set to take place throughout next year concerning national disasters, the latest of which was Hurricane Sandy. The series will kick off in New York, and will then take place in various locations across the nation. In addition to talk about having carriers report on their performance, the agency will also discuss disaster preparation for carriers, service provider cooperation, how to speed up recovery, and better backup power systems.
Several carriers and cable providers experienced outages during Hurricane Sandy, including T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner. The agency noted that several companies shared their resources, including cellular sites, during the process, and questioned how such sharing can be better facilitated in the future. Another major focus of the hearings will be backup power, which is an integral part of keeping systems up and functioning.
Said the FCC, “Users of communications services appear to lack information about the performance of the services they pay for … Would it help consumers to know the performance and reliability of the companies’ service or devices as compared to competitors during past emergencies?” The agency’s chairman said the disasters in recent history have prompted a need for “ideas and actions to ensure the resilience of communications networks.”
[via PC World]
FCC considers making carriers report their disaster performance quality is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Not everyone is super happy with Canonical and the direction it has taken Ubuntu in. Sure, its popularity continues growing, but so does that of an upstart distro called Mint. In addition to swapping purples for greens, Linux Mint ditches the controversial Unity in favor of MATE and Cinnamon, its two GNOME-based desktop environments. With the move to version 14, code named Nadia, the codebase of Mint has caught up to Quantal and its accompanying desktops have received some minor improvements. The MDM display manager has also been updated, with support for user photos and themes added. The most welcome change is certainly to the package manager, which finally runs as root — meaning users no longer have to enter their password for every piece of software they install. To download and try out Linux Mint 14 for yourself hit up the source link.
Filed under: Software
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Linux Mint
Thanksgiving means turkey. Thanksgiving means football. Thanksgiving also means a helluva lot of people taking a helluva lot of flights to get home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. According to Flightradar24.com, this image shows how many planes that are in the air right now. It’s insane. Safe travels, everybody. [Flight Radar 24 via @BuzzFeedAndrew] More »
Does anyone actually play Angry Birds anymore? Whatever. Artist Evan Roth actually had a novel idea with Angry Birds that doesn’t include plush pillows and crappy TV shows. He painted all the gestures required to beat 300 levels of Angry Birds. It’s beautiful smudging. More »
It’s fair to say that some bugs take awhile to fix, and a public schedule isn’t always an option; HTC knows this well. Still, Google may be pushing the limits with the solution for a longstanding Android bug that prevents resolving hostnames on some WiFi networks without using the full domain. The company has officially committed to providing a patch — 2 years, 6 months and 23 days after the bug was first reported on April 29th, 2010. Google explains that the “next major release” after Android 4.2 should hold the remedy, and claims that a mix of “prioritization and resources” prevented the team from sorting things out between Android 2.1 and now. We’ll take Google’s word for it, although the vow won’t be much comfort for anyone who’s still holding on to that original HTC Desire and can’t upgrade. At least the Mountain View team won’t have to deal with any 17-year-old security flaws.
Filed under: Cellphones, Networking, Mobile, Google
Via: Android Police
Source: Google
On Friday, we reported that Samsung had filed a request in court for access to the license agreement that was formed between Apple and HTC in a settlement. The two companies had been engaged in a lawsuit for two years, with Apple claiming that HTC had violated ten of its patents. Today, Samsung’s request was granted, requiring Apple and HTC to provide the settlement details.
Samsung and Apple have been involved in a variety of lawsuits against each other concerning patents. Recently, a judge ruled that both companies could add products to its existing lawsuit, which is scheduled for trial in 2014. The legal squabble concerns 19 Samsung products and Apple’s mobile devices. Apple is adding the Galaxy Note and US-version Galaxy S III, while Samsung is adding the iPhone 5.
The settlement between Apple and HTC involved a 10-year licensing agreement that covers current and future patents from both companies. Samsung filed the information request to see if any of the patents involved in the settlement are part of the current legal issue between it and Apple, particularly the ’381 and ’915 patents. It also wants to know if Apple included “unique” patents that it does not offer to other companies.
Originally, Apple had offered to give Samsung the information it requested minus the financial terms. Samsung didn’t like this, and argued in court that the financial information was important in order to ascertain the consumer demand for certain patents. The judge expressed skepticism over Samsung’s reasons for requesting the financial info, but ultimately granted the request.
[via The Verge]
HTC and Apple must provide Samsung with settlement information is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Stop-motion videos are always a good time, even if it’s just a stick figure dancing in a flip book. So imagine how fun a stop-motion video made with velcro (yes, velcro) is. It’s a freaking mind trip. More »
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