German railways hope to fight graffiti with thermal imaging drones

DNP German railway operators consider drones to nab graffiti artists

Drones aren’t just for war, creating airborne logos or patrolling Aussie beaches. If German railway operators have their way, they’d be used to capture graffiti artists, too. Motivated by the high cost of property damage incurred by spray-painting vandals (around 7.6 million euros / $10 million a year), the Deutsche Bahn will soon begin testing miniature helicopter-style drones in the hopes of identifying those responsible. Each remote-controlled chopper is equipped with an infrared sensor capable of thermal imaging and producing high-resolution photos that would be useful to authorities. The tiny aircraft can also fly up to 150 meters (500 feet) and as fast as 33 mph and would cost about 60,000 euros ($77,550) each. The Bahn assured the public that the mini drones will be restricted to highly targeted areas, which should help allay those privacy concerns.

[Image Credit: thierry ehrmann, Flickr]

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: BBC, RTL

Google Maps brings biking navigation to six European countries

Google Maps brings biking navigation to six European countries

Summer is the prime season for European cyclists, whether they’re racing the Tour de France or just embarking on voyages of self-discovery. It’s a good thing, then, that Google Maps’ biking directions have reached six more European countries. Those in France, Ireland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Poland can now plot pedal-friendly routes using their phones and the web. Google may miss a hidden trail or two when it’s crowdsourcing the data through Map Maker, but the upgrade should still help riders avoid the inevitable crush of tourist traffic.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Source: Google Europe Blog

German Federal Court Says Google Auto-Complete Could Violate Privacy

Google gets into trouble again with the long arm of the law in Germany this time around.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

    

German court dismisses Nokia patent claim against HTC, HTC ‘delighted’

In HTC and Nokia’s ongoing patent litigation, one patent infringement claim against HTC was dismissed today by the District Court of Mannheim, Germany. The patent in question — regarding “a communication network terminal for accessing internet” — describes a “terminal” that can access the internet.

As FOSS Patents points out, today’s dismissal was part of an ongoing collaboration between Google and Android phone makers who’ve been targeted by Nokia over claims against the Google Play store. “Nokia had alleged that Android’s app architecture centered around the Google Play store infringes the ‘016 patent because of the way it allows third-party app developers to provide data to the end-user devices on which their programs run via a Google-operated server,” the site notes. In that regard, today’s dismissal marked a victory for Google beyond HTC — though HTC issued a statement this afternoon exclaiming its “delight” over the court’s ruling. Nokia has yet to return our request for comment.

Filed under: , , , , , ,

Comments

Source: FOSS Patents

Google fined $190,000 in Germany for illegal WiFi snooping with Street View cars

Google fined $190,000 in Germany for WiFi snooping with Street View cars

Google’s been taking heat for a number of years since its Street View cars were found to be pulling WiFi data, and the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has today hit the search giant with a 145,000 euro fine (almost $190,000) for its indiscretions. You may not remember this specific case in Germany — it was nearly three years ago that investigations began, after all — but it has now come a close with this fine and the ruling that El Goog illegally recorded personal data including emails, passwords and pictures, which have all reportedly been deleted. We know the company has enough cash to pay in full, so the ruling will likely make more of a dent to its image than its bank account.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: PCWorld

Source: Hamburg’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom

HTC One officially hits Germany, UK and Taiwan next week, other regions before the end of April

HTC One review

There’s been an uncertainty hovering over just when the HTC One would make its formal debut, between delays in many areas and a trickle of availability in others. At least in theory, those doubts have been resolved: HTC now says that Germany, the UK and Taiwan will have an official One launch next week. Europe, North America and large swaths of Asia-Pacific will get their own units before the end of April. The company hasn’t been more specific about carrier deployments, but we’re sure that HTC is happy just to beat a key competitor to store shelves. Read the company’s full statement after the break.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Nokia obtains injunction on HTC in Germany over battery saving wireless technology

Last May Nokia announced a serious patent offensive against several companies, one of which is HTC. According to FOSS Patents, today a German court awarded Nokia a patent injunction based on power saving technology it has patents for, and it claims is infringed upon by Qualcomm chips used in HTC’s phones. While some of its other cases in Germany were stayed or dismissed, this ruling could be used by Nokia against HTC even during a potential appeal. We’ll see if this is resolved in the courtroom or by some sort of license agreement, in the meantime we’ve contacted both companies for more information on the latest round of patent lawsuit bingo.

Update: Nokia has responded, mentioning that it has 30 other patents asserted against HTC in the US, UK and Germany, with a US case scheduled to start in two months. You can read its response in full after the break.

Update 2: HTC tells us that its German business will not be affected by the ruling, and that its newer handsets do not use the technology in question. You can also read their statement in full after the break.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Source: FOSS Patents

Samsung will stop sale of Windows RT tablets in Germany due to weak demand, according to reports

Samsung withdrawing Windows RT tablets from Germany and some other European countries

We already know that Samsung was too timid (or maybe too sensible) to launch its Windows RT-based ATIV Tab hybrid in the US, but now it appears the manufacturer is having doubts about European demand too. Heise.de and our friends at MobileGeeks are reporting that Samsung will stop selling its ATIV Tab in Germany — Europe’s biggest economy — and some other unspecified European countries after speaking to retailers about the level of interest they’re seeing for Microsoft’s stripped down OS. This European retreat is said to have been confirmed by Samsung execs at CeBIT in Hanover, and MobileGeeks editor Sascha Pallenberg told us that the Korean company simply “sees no market for RT in Germany and other European countries.” We’ve asked Samsung for further clarification and we’ll update this post as soon as we hear back. As things stand, the ATIV Tab is still listed for sale by Amazon.de priced at 605 euros.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: MobileGeeks, Heise.de

German government buys 5,000 BlackBerry Z10s, bucks the BYOD trend

German government buys 5,000 BlackBerry Z10 phones, locks them down tightly

Most of the worry about BlackBerry’s market share has centered around its once-certain corporate and government clientele: when even stodgy institutions have either embraced Bring Your Own Device policies or have switched platforms outright, nothing has seemed safe. The company may be clawing back some stability through a newly approved deal with Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security. The government agency has reportedly agreed to buy 5,000 BlackBerry Z10 phones for its staff, all of which will be locked down with Secusmart protection for data, messaging and voice. We wouldn’t call it a full comeback when there’s been just a few weeks for such deals. Still, the purchase is a very public endorsement for BlackBerry at a time when it’s not clear that large-scale customers will remain faithful.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Source: AllThingsD

We’re live from CeBIT 2013 in Hannover!

We're live from CeBIT 2012 in Hannover!

Hannover might not be as famous as Hamburg (Beatles), Berlin (politics) or Frankfurt (erm, meat-based cuisine), but for one week in March, it’s home to one of the world’s biggest tech events. Unlike our jaunts to MWC and CES, we’re never quite sure what weird and wonderful things we’re likely to find at this Teutonic tradeshow, but we’ll be sure to bring you something new and exciting. Even better, thanks to some corrupted Michel Thomas Method MP3s, we’ll be getting by with what remains of our high school German, a nice smile and a heck of a lot of pointing — so wish us luck.

Comments