Hasta La Gadget!

In the US, the e-book price fixing scandal appears to be winding towards its inevitable conclusion. Many of the publishers settled with the DOJ right off the bat, and now the states themselves have gotten three publishing houses to cough up $69 million in their own agreement. (Of course, Apple, Macmillan and Penguin have all decided to go the trial route, but we’ll have to wait till next year to see how that plays out.) In Europe, the battle is still raging on, but Reuters is reporting that the accused are offering concessions in a bid to put the antitrust allegations behind them. The only name missing from the list is Penguin, which may or may not be part of the plea deal. Not all the details of the proposals have been revealed yet, and there’s no guarantee the commission will accept them. The heart of the settlement, however, would involve allowing Amazon to sell e-books at a discounted price for two years. Would cheaper Kindle books be good, clean fun for the whole family? Sure, but it certainly pales in comparison to the potential penalties if Apple and their publishing partners go to trial.

Filed under: Apple

Apple and publishers offer deal to put price fixing scandal behind them in EU originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Annabelle Bennett is no stranger to Apple/Samsung litigation — the Federal Court of Australia judge has had a hand in the companies’ disputes for at least the past year. And it would appear that she’s grown a bit impatient, following a Samsung move that she’s labeled as “just ridiculous.” According to a Bloomberg report, the trial began with Samsung’s attorney stating that Apple refused to pay a fee to license three patents related to 3G data transmission. Apple’s counsel, however, explained that the company did offer to pay, but Samsung refused. Bennett responded by asking “why on earth are these proceedings going ahead?,” following up with “why shouldn’t I order the parties to mediation?” — a question she expects to be addressed by the end of the week. There doesn’t appear to be any official ruling at this point, though the trial certainly isn’t off to a great start for Samsung. Ultimately, the duo may be forced back to the negotiating table, letting Bennett move on to other cases until the next patent rouse.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Judge calls Samsung vs. Apple 3G suit ‘ridiculous,’ suggests mediation instead originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When I was a kid, I wanted to be older. Now that I’m somewhere in between young and old, I find myself wishing more and more that I were a kid again. That’s life, I guess.

None of my wishes had anything to do with the physical, though. But if you ever found yourself wanting to actually feel older (although I wouldn’t get why), then there’s a way to actually do that: just put on the Age Man Suit.

Developed by Rahel Eckardt from the Evangelical Geriatrics Center in Germany, the suit lets anyone who wears it feel like a 75-year-old (or older) person. It bears 22 pounds down onto the wearer, making him or her feel what it’s like when they reach that ripe, old age. The helmet also deadens sound and has a yellow visor which blurs vision.

It was designed to give physicians and caregivers a sense of what the elderly feel like to encourage empathy. That is one thoughtful intention carried out with an equally ingenious idea.

[via TheGuardian via Dvice]

Not everyone has the luxury of going to the spa at least once a week for some much-needed pampering and sweat time at the sauna. If you’re a girl or guy who wishes you could go sweat it out at the sauna more often, then a portable and practical solution (although we give no assurances that it works) is the Sauna Suit.

With this thing, what you see is really what you’ll get. It’s a suit fashioned from heavy-duty PVC material that makes sure that you sweat it out, regardless of what you’re doing.

Mop the floor, dust the windows, bake a cake, make dinner, do all the chores you need to do while losing all that excess water weight in the process. Just make sure you don’t overdo it, for your own health’s sake.

The Sauna Suit is available from Amazon, and costs between $10 and $26(USD) depending on the model.

[via Gadgets Matrix]

Yesterday we mentioned that a UK court had ruled HTC wasn’t infringing on a key Apple patent in the patent infringement row between the two companies. The UK court did uphold the Apple patent was valid, but found HTC didn’t infringe on said patent. The High Court in London came to the ruling yesterday and deemed three other Apple patents invalid covering slide to unlock, multitouch, and a multilingual keyboard.

It’s unclear if this legal precedent might affect any case is between Apple and HTC in America. HTC has issued a statement saying that it was pleased with the court’s ruling. The UK judge ruled other Apple patents invalid stating the multitouch patent was invalid citing “obviousness over common general knowledge.”

“HTC is pleased with the ruling, which provides further confirmation that Apple’s claims against HTC are without merit,” the company said in a statement.

“We remain disappointed that Apple continues to favour competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace.”

An Apple spokesperson didn’t offer specific comments on the UK ruling but did add, “we think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” This is certainly not the last patent battle will see between Apple and technology companies around the world. In fact, there are still a number of patent wars raging right now.

[via AFP]

HTC is happy about victory over Apple in UK is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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