Hasta La Gadget!

We haven’t had a chance to head on down to The Hague to have a look-see for ourselves, but Dutch tech site Webwereld spotted some more inconsistencies in Apple’s Samsung lawsuit filings. This time the culprit is a shrunken Galaxy S, standing side-by-side with an identically tall iPhone 3G — when in reality the Samsung phone is seven millimeters taller than its Apple counterpart, and slightly wider as well. The image, filed in the Netherlands, is part of an intellectual property suit against Samsung, and came to light just days after accusations that Apple manipulated photos of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 that it submitted to a German court. While misleading, this latest error isn’t nearly as concerning as last week’s shrunken Tab — which could easily be described as image manipulation, considering that the tablet included in that filing represented an incorrect 4:3 aspect ratio, while the Samsung device has a 16:10 display.

Update: The phone pictured above is the Samsung Galaxy S, not the Galaxy S II.

[Thanks, Florian]

Did Apple shrink the Samsung Galaxy S in Dutch lawsuit filing? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Microsoft is busy readying the much talked about Windows 8 for release, a new patent application has popped up that could reveal even bigger — or at least faster — things to come. According to the filing for “Fast Machine Booting Through Streaming Storage,” which was submitted in February of last year and released last week, Redmond is looking at creating a system that could stream an entire OS to just about anything with a screen. The proposed setup would enlist a series of storage devices, both remote and local, to act as a virtual hard disk, allowing anything from a set top box to a tablet to boot almost instantaneously. We don’t know about you, but we’ve already started a list of ways to spend the extra seconds.

[Thanks, Bogen]

Microsoft patent application points to fast-booting streaming OS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s keen on eliminating antenna woes in its products, even ones you may not even realize had antennas in the first place.

A new patent win for the Cupertino, California, giant illustrates a method for integrating a cellular antenna into MacBook and iMac keyboards, specifically by placing antennas under some keyboard keys.

According to Patently Apple, this is Apple’s fourth cellular-based MacBook related patent over the past year and the second to deal with disguising the cellular antenna itself. Could we be seeing a 3G or 4G-capable MacBook in the future?

The design and positioning of an antenna in a device is an important issue Apple is fully aware of.

Last summer, users discovered that the iPhone 4’s reception significantly dropped when they would touch one of its antenna bands.

In the past, MacBook Pro owners have had difficulty getting Bluetooth accessories, like the Magic Mouse, to play because of the Bluetooth antenna positioning in the notebook.

Recently, a 2007 MacBook Pro prototype with a Mag-safe-style rabbit-ear 3G antenna was racking up big bucks on eBay before the auction was pulled.

In the patent, the antenna is hidden under a few keyboard keys to improve its reception and transmission efficiencies.

When a user is not pressing the key, the antenna’s resonating element is about as far from the conductive metal housing as possible. So, ideally, the antenna would be positioned under a key that’s not used very often, like a Print Screen key (which the patent singles out despite the fact that Apple keyboards typically don’t even have a Print Screen key).

According to the diagrams, individual antennas would be placed under multiple keys and the device would use real-time information to decide which antenna is the best one to use. For instance, it could choose one that has a stronger signal than the others.

The patent doesn’t specify what kind of antenna would be placed on the keyboard. It could be Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or it could be used for cellular communication or for data services (3G or 4G reception). The type of wireless signal the antenna would receive or transmit would depend on the configuration of the antenna.

So it could be that in iMac keyboards, the antennas would improve reception with Bluetooth peripherals, while in the MacBook keyboard, it would be used for Wi-Fi or cellular services. Then you wouldn’t even need to use your iPhone as a hotspot when you’re on the road.

Image: Patently Apple

A Dusseldorf, Germany regional court has partly lifted a preliminary injunction issued last week banning Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe, the day after Webwereld noticed inconsistencies in Apple’s injunction filing. Now Europeans (save those living in Germany) won’t need to trek to the Netherlands to get their Tab fix — at least until a verdict is issued after Samsung’s August 25th appeal hearing. Sales of the device were originally banned following an Apple lawsuit alleging patent infringement, but were permitted to resume after a realization that a German court may not have the authority to halt sales of a South Korean company’s device outside of Germany. Since the judgement didn’t affect devices that had already been distributed to retailers, it’s unknown whether or not the week-long ban has had any effect on sales.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

German court lifts ban on some European Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Did Apple alter photos of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its injunction filing?

Did Apple alter photos of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its injunction filing? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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