There is no way my parents could have known what a world of pain they were dropping me in by simply giving me the name Mario. It was 1984, and Mario was my dad’s name. THEY COULD NOT HAVE KNOWN WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. But now all the Super Mario/Where’s Luigi/ItsAMe/Wario jokes I’ve ever been the butt of are worth it because this lamp is so damn cool. That’s right people. With the pull of a lamp chain, I am free.
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AT&T just agreed to acquire Leap Wireless, the company behind the Cricket brand. The acquisition includes Leap’s spectrum which will be absorbed into AT&T’s network and should offer AT&T customers more 4G coverage in more cities.
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Thought the ITC battle between Microsoft and Motorola over Microsoft’s email-based meeting patents was over? Think again. Despite winning an exclusion order (read: an import ban) on all MMI handsets infringing its patent, Microsoft has filed suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Customs Deputy Commissioner Thomas Winkowski, the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for failing to enforce the order. The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to do their jobs and allowed infringing devices to continue to be imported based upon claims and arguments Moto successfully made to US Customs — and Microsoft was neither privy to these discussions, nor given the opportunity to respond to Motorola’s claims. Essentially, Microsoft argues that Customs and Border Protection has both shirked its duties and made rulings in direct conflict with the ITC’s decision and order.
As such, Microsoft wants the court to rule that the CBP exceeded its legal authority, set aside the unlawful rulings set forth by CBP and compel it to enforce the ITC’s exclusion order. In addition to the complaint, Microsoft also filed for a Preliminary Injunction asking that the original ITC import ban be enforced immediately. We’ve yet to hear how the government will respond to these allegations, but we’ll keep you posted as things develop.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Microsoft, Google
Via: Bloomberg
Source: Complaint [PDF], Preliminary Injunction request [PDF]
You want to protect your MacBook Air, but you want to protect it in a way that’s worthy of its beauty. Mujjo has a new leather and felt sleeve that is just as lovely as your 13-inch laptop.
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If you’re waiting for a so-called “Retina” display on an iPad mini in the near future, you’ll be better off planning to wait it out for at least another season. While the iPad mini currently sits with the same display resolution as the iPad 2, the trend for best-of-the-best in all things display and specifications have suddenly proven to be topped out. While this isn’t the only indicator for the iPad mini staying with the display it’s got now, the trend has become rather apparent: the next waves of smartphones and tablets selling out of stores wont necessarily beat out the previous generation for high-end specs, they’ll be aimed at the everyman.
Suggestions from Economic Daily News Report lead the pack this week with suggestion that the second-generation iPad mini will either be pushed back to 2014 for a full launch OR will be appearing with an incremental update – not quite a full second generation, that is. Almost like an iPad mini S, as it were.
While we’ve seen the casings from the iPad 5 matching up quite well along the edges with that of the current-generation iPad mini, the iPad mini itself has had no such leaks. Only suggestions of Retina or non-Retina from sources close to the matter, analysts, and factory floor enthusiasts.
You’ll find a May 6th report from NPD DisplaySearch that suggests that the iPad mini with Retina display will be coming inside 2013, but without a boost to the machine’s processor. Similar reports suggest the opposite, with the processor (and perhaps the camera) getting a bump in an incremental update while the display would get its full-on retina upgrade in 2014.
Meanwhile the rear shell from the iPad mini 2 appeared to leak earlier this year and cannibalization continues.
The most recent update to iOS 7 – still in beta mode at the moment – suggests that the “x2″ mode included with all devices has been given a quality boost. This means that the applications made for smaller displays like the iPhone grow in size to meet the display they’re on, and with the iPad 2′s display size – it’s amount of pixels, that is – rolling strong with the iPad mini, the change will be welcome. Don’t be surprised if the iPad mini 2 continues to be called the iPad mini (without the 2) later this year, complete with upgrades to its insides, but not to its out.
iPad mini 2 skipping retina again: here’s why is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
AT&T dropped an interesting bit of news this afternoon: it’s going to purchase Leap Wireless in its entirety for $15 per share, which translates to roughly $1.19 billion in cash. For many, Leap is best known by its consumer-facing brand, Cricket, a prepaid wireless provider that holds nearly 5 million subscribers. In exchange, AT&T will acquire Leap’s customers, retail stores and network licenses, which span 35 states across the PCS and AWS bands. Leap’s stock closed at $7.98 today, but shot past $16 in after hours trading. The transaction must still be approved by Leap shareholders, and then both the FCC and Department of Justice. As it stands, 29.8% of Leap’s outstanding shares are in favor of the transaction, and ever optimistic AT&T expects to wind up the deal within six to nine months. Better luck this time?
Over the last decade many of the principals of molecular gastronomy have carried over to mixology, but generally speaking you have to take out a second mortgage if you want to try them. Here’s a kit that lets you be a cocktail chemist in the comfort of your home. No mortgage required.
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This makes shopping a more terrifying experience.
(Credit: Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)
The produce aisle may never be the same again. A British tinkerer attached a jet engine to a shopping cart and tore it down a track at 44 mph. Why? Because that’s just what some people do for fun in England.
It’s true. The jet-powered shopping trolley quest for speed has been a phenomenon for years. What Matt McKeown did differently is go faster than the other jet-powered supermarket carts that came before. A recent run found him beating the previous speed record of 42 mph, though there doesn’t seem to be a governing body of shopping trolley racing to confirm the officialness of the record.
You can’t just snag a shopping cart from the local grocery store and rip it down a track. It requires some mods to get up to speed. McKeown’s cart has go-kart wheels a… [Read more]
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The next Motorola smartphone launch, the Moto X, is going to be massive. There’s very little we haven’t heard – or cannot guess – about the machine that’s just this week appeared in the hand of Google’s own Eric Schmidt. While we’ll be going over the suspected specifications of this device here in this article soon, right now the most important bit of information for you is this: Google will be backing this machine from start to finish.
With Google supporting the release of this machine, several things will certainly be true. The first is that Motorola will have a level of support and visibility in the market that they’ve not had since the height of Verizon’s “DROID” line. And what’s more, while Verizon had a contract with Motorola for that release and continue to have a licensing agreement with Lucasfilm for that name, Google owns the operating system inside the Moto X.
So Google owns the software as well as the hardware, having secured their ownership of Motorola long enough ago that they’re through with their scheduled creations still needing to be completed before Google could have a real hand in the process.
Though Motorola and Google operate separately, and indeed one does not communicate on every single level with the other, Google will be supporting the launch of this phone. This device will have a backing unlike any Android phone has had before it – unless you count Samsung, of course.
But even Samsung, with their Galaxy line of smartphones – the most popular line of Android devices in the world – still have a barrier that a company like Apple does not. Apple owns the software and the hardware in the iPhone. Now that Google owns the smartphone hardware manufacturing process with Motorola and the software that runs in it, we’ll get to see what it’s like for Apple to finally have an opponent attacking from the same angle – more or less.
The Moto X itself will be appearing with modest specifications. According to an amalgamated set of rumors, tips, and inferred truths from the leaked images of the machine that’ve appeared thus far have shared, the Moto X will exist as follows:
• 4.3 OR 4.7-inch display with 720p resolution
• Customizable Body
• Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR
• 4G LTE for multiple carriers (Verizon, AT&T, possibly T-Mobile)
• Wi-fi 802.11ac
• Stock or near-stock Android (with minimal carrier-added software, if any)
The styling of this device will be – is – guaranteed – to match that of the first image in this post. It’s a photo of Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Google, and it matches leak after leak of the device as it’s appeared from factory floor photos in multiple colors. We’ve seen green, bright pink, light purple, and both black and white up front.
The full “taste the rainbow” collection will likely be based – at least lightly – on the Motorola logo updated earlier this month. There you’ll not be seeing black, white, or gray, but they’re rather good bets if you’re betting.
The machine is coming in both a flat, solid bit of soft plastic and a more textured edition as you’ll see Schmidt carrying above. Exceedingly thin, this machine will be aimed – as most Motorola phones are – at being robust, as well. You wont be complaining about scratches to this device any time soon (at last to the back panel), while the front will still need to be made with some form of reinforced glass or the other.
The actual final release of this machine will likely be coming somewhere in the latter half of August. According to a Verizon roadmap, the big red version of the machine will be appearing on the 23rd of August, while the announcement for the phone could take place far closer to the end of the month we’re in right this minute.
Sound like a solid release, based on what you’ve read? Are you ready to pick a color and texture – not to mention engraving – for the back and front of your phone yet, or are you still deciding if it makes sense to move away from a top-tier smartphone to join the Moto X party? Or could it be that this machine isn’t aimed at early adopters, but the everyman instead?
Moto X and the details you need for an ideal launch is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Information is still coming in about Asiana Flight 214
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