Hasta La Gadget!

After five years of debate and a 117-4 vote, New Zealand’s Parliament has passed a bill that says computer programs are not considered inventions and are therefore ineligible for patents. However, the phrasing of the bill is flexible enough to provide some leeway. Since “products or processes” are understood to be patentable inventions, software that is integral to the implementation of a process designed to improve hardware can be included in the terms of a patent application. The text of the bill, intended to replace the outdated Patents Act of 1953, states, “Protecting software by patenting is inconsistent with the open source model, and its proponents oppose it. A number of submitters argued that there is no ‘inventive step’ in software development, as ‘new’ software invariably builds on existing software.” You can come to your own conclusions on the matter by checking out the bill at the source link below.

Filed under: Misc, Software

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Via: Ars Technica

Source: New Zealand Parliament, Patents Bill 235-2

Rumor has it that Samsung Electronics co-CEO JK Shin ordered that the company’s first Tizen smartphone be delayed. The smartphone was previously expected to be launched in the third quarter of 2013, it was rumored that Samsung had pushed the launch to October, or the fourth quarter of this year. Shin apparently handed down this order so that Samsung could get even more time to create “the best smartphone.”

It is said that the company was testing Tizen on a Galaxy S3, some considered this to be a hint that the first Tizen smartphone would have hardware similar to the Galaxy S3. Those plans have reportedly been scrapped now, due to obvious change in hardware trends. Samsung engineers have reportedly said that the delay doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with the OS itself, instead the delay would allow them to make Samsung’s homegrown OS better and packed with more features before it debuts on a device later this year. It was rumored recently that Tizen was almost dead and the company wasn’t going to work on it anymore. Those rumors were quashed by Samsung, it launched a new app challenge for developers to create apps for Tizen and earn prize money. It also announced that its conducting its first ever developers conference in October this year, where Tizen OS and the first smartphone powered by it is expected to be unveiled.

Samsung co-CEO Ordered Tizen Smartphone Delay [Rumor] original content from Ubergizmo.

When you have the Alien Facehugger clock on your wall, your days are numbered. When you have a clock like this it doesn’t really matter what time it is. The important thing is that you get the hell out of there and avoid getting facehugged by it.

This awesome sculptural clock was created by Rockstar Games artist Chris ‘Eddie Escher’ Edwards. He used polymer clay, wire and plastic to make it. It’s hand-painted and lacquered, and the clock has a quartz movement and glow in the dark hands. Oh, and it looks like it could crawl off of the face of clock easily and hunt you down.

If you happen to live in the UK, you can check it out in person at the Rapture Gallery at 2 Westmoreland Street in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. You can buy it for about $310(USD), assuming you can live with this thing on your wall.

In the DROID Maxx is Motorola’s vision for longest-lasting battery life in a device that’s part of a very close-knit family of smartphones all released in the same generation. There’s a DROID Maxx, a DROID Ultra, a DROID Mini, and the Moto X. These devices deliver essentially the same experience as one another, with only […]

Twitter has announced a conversation related update today. This one is being released for the Twitter.com website as well as the iPhone and Android apps. The short version here is that conversations should now be easier to follow. And as a side effect, easier to join in on should you have something to say on […]