Latest Updates about Mobile and Computer

Friday, 31 January 2014

Twitter buys 900 IBM patents

Twitter has bought 900 patents and signed a cross-licensing agreement with IBM.

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter has bought 900 patents and signed a cross-licensing agreement with IBM, making peace with Big Blue and bulking up on its intellectual property portfolio as it takes on larger rivals Google and Facebook.

The agreement comes after International Business Machines accused Twitter in November - on the eve of its high-profile initial public offering - of infringing three of its patents. At the time, it underscored how few patents the six-year-old social media company possessed in relation to more established rivals.

A cross-licensing agreement will help safeguard Twitter against similar claims in the future.

IBM is one of the industry's largest research spenders and stockpilers of intellectual property, a consistent leader in US patent filings and the owner of some 41,000 patents.

Twitter is following on the heels of Facebook, which itself faced similar claims before its own 2012 IPO. The world's largest social network has since gone on a patent-buying spree, acquiring intellectual property from tech bellwethers, including Microsoft Corp and IBM.

"This acquisition of patents from IBM and licensing agreement provide us with greater intellectual property protection and give us freedom of action to innovate on behalf of all those who use our service," Ben Lee, Twitter's legal director, said in a joint statement with IBM on Friday.

Credits:-www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Obama: I care deeply about net neutrality

Obama says the US is exploring options for keeping the internet free and open after a federal court set aside rules designed to do so.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama says the US government is exploring options for keeping the internet free and open after a federal court set aside rules designed to do just that.

A three-judge panel earlier this month set aside rules intended to ensure that the transmission of internet content be treated equally, without priority given to some types of traffic over others. Obama says it's an issue he cares deeply about, partly because his campaign was powered by an internet that was free of commercial barriers.

He says a court's decision must be respected, at least initially, but that the Federal Communications Commission is examining its options. Those options include appealing the court's decision or coming up with a new set of rules.

Obama commented on Friday during a chat on Google Plus Hangout.

Credits:-www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Google: Not liable to pay taxes for Indian operations

NEW DELHI: US multinational Google has submitted to Delhi High Court that it is not liable to pay any taxes in India for its internet activities, as it is not providing any taxable services or earning income from here nor does it have a permanent establishment in the country.

The submission has been made in an affidavit filed by the website in the High Court which is hearing a plea by a former BJP leader seeking protection of children from online abuse and recovery of taxes from the websites on their income from operations in India.

The website's claim has been opposed by the petitioner, KN Govindacharya, who in his affidavit has contended that sites like Facebook and Google are liable to pay taxes as they generate huge revenue through agreements with Indian advertisers as well as sale of games and applications to internet users here.

The case is slated to be heard tomorrow by a bench headed by Justice B D Ahmed.

Google India has contended in its affidavit that it "is not providing any taxable services in India, neither has a permanent establishment in India nor is it earning any income which is arising from or accruing in or deemed to be arising or accruing from India.

"Furthermore, Google is not receiving any payment in the nature of 'royalty' which may be taxable either under the relevant Indian laws or under the Double taxation Avoidance Agreement between India and USA."

In his affidavit filed through advocate Virag Gupta, Govindacharya has alleged that the website has "incorrectly" submitted before the court that no tax is payable by them in India.

Govindacharya has also alleged that the tax department has "failed to initiate penal provisions" or "demanded the outstanding taxes for previous year(s)" from the websites "which has caused irreparable loss to the Indian economy and exchequer."
Credits:-www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Apple trying to intimidate US retailers, telcos: Samsung

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: Samsung sought to defeat Apple's bid for a permanent sales ban against some Samsung smartphones, arguing in court that Apple's request was an attempt to instill fear among telecom carriers and retailers that carry Samsung's products.

At a hearing in federal court in San Jose, California, Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan told US district Judge Lucy Koh that the injunction would give the iPhone maker an opening to come back to court quickly and argue that newer Samsung products should also be banned.

"An injunction would create fear and uncertainty for the carriers and retailers with whom Samsung has very important customer relationships," Sullivan said.

Apple attorney William Lee said that a jury has already found that nearly two dozen phones infringed Apple patents, and that Apple has lost sales to a direct competitor.

"The natural, inexorable result is an injunction," Lee said.

Apple's request for the permanent injunction stems from the companies' legal fight over various smartphone features patented by Apple, such as the use of fingers to pinch and zoom on the screen and design elements such as the phone's flat, black glass screen. Apple has won US jury verdicts against Samsung Electronics totaling about $930 million.

Koh had previously rejected such a sales ban, but the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered her to reconsider in November.

Even though Samsung no longer sells the older-model phones targeted by the injunction request, Apple has argued in court documents that such an order is important to prevent Samsung from future copying with new products "not more colourably different" than the defunct models.

Sullivan, the Samsung lawyer, argued that the injunction would allow Apple seek other bans on new products on a much faster timeline than through traditional patent litigation, which can take years.

Koh did not say when she would rule on the request.

The chief executives for Apple and Samsung have agreed to a mediation session, which will take place by February 19. The two companies are scheduled to begin another trial in San Jose in March over a separate batch of patents that involve Apple's Siri search technology.

Samsung's phones use the Android operating system, developed by Google. Samsung and Google announced a global patent licensing deal this week.

The case in US District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc vs Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, 11-1846.
Credits:-www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Samsung: 820ppi screens coming in 2015

NEW DELHI: Samsung is widely expected to use display panel with 2K resolution (2560x1440p) in its upcoming Galaxy S5. While the company's first smartphone with 2K resolution is still awaited, it has already started working on screens with 4K resolution.

At the Semiconductor and Display Technology Roadmap Seminar 2014 in South Korea, the company announced that it will unveil mobile displays with 2K resolution this year. This will be followed by 4K resolution screens in 2015.

2K displays offer twice as many pixels in the same area as HD screens (1280x720p), whereas 4K displays offer four times as many. Samsung has said that its mobile screens will offer pixel density of 820ppi, nearly twice that of the current crop of full HD displays.

In November last year, Samsung announced that it will launch handsets with bendable screens in 2014 and foldable screens by 2016-17. It has already shown a prototype of such a display, called Youm, at Consumer Electronics Show 2013. The company is also the first in the world to launch a smartphone with curved screen. Credits:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/hardware/Samsung-820ppi-screens-coming-in-2015/articleshow/29546624.cms

Apple going Samsung way? Gets patent for stylus

NEW DELHI: One of the distinguishing features of Samsung's Galaxy Note range of smartphones and tablets is the stylus and arch rival Apple may be looking to 'copy' it.

The iPhone maker has been granted a patent for stylus orientation detection by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The new patent describes means of detecting orientation when the stylus makes contact with surfaces like touchscreens and then calculating relative orientation between the two.

This is, however, not the first patent for a stylus that Apple has been awarded. According to a report by Patently Apple, the company already holds patent for recording the text written using the stylus, pressure and texture input, gesture recognition etc.

The focus on a stylus for mobile devices gives more credence to rumours of Apple making its first big-screen smartphone, with display measuring 5.7-inch. It is also said to be working on a 12.9-inch iPad, and a stylus may be a useful tool for professional-grade tasks.

Samsung made the stylus popular among smartphone users in 2011 with the launch of its Galaxy Note phablet. The model was a hit and was later followed up by two more phablets; the South Korean manufacturer also added tablets to its Note range.

Steve Jobs - Apple's iconic founder and former CEO - once famously dismissed the stylus as an input tool, saying that the human finger is a much more accurate medium of interacting with a touch-enabled display. Though Apple devices do not come with styluses, there is a huge market for third-party styluses - mainly for the iPad - as writing or drawing on a big screen becomes more convenient.

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Why hackers are difficult to track

PUNE: The strictly virtual nature of underground hacking groups makes it difficult for cops to trace their physical whereabouts, said experts. These groups are in thousands and deal in people's credentials, which means that when paid, they could leak almost everything online, be it bank credentials to email passwords to credit and debit card information.

Experts said that another possible way these underground networks manage to get passwords is by figuring out a way to access back-end servers using insider help. "Underground communities are virtual and we do not know where they operate from. It is not about India or Pune. They are in thousands and spread across the globe," said a cybersecurity expert.

Ritesh Chopra, country manager, Symantec Corporation, said, "The motivation of cyberattackers has moved from fame to financial gain and malware has become a prevalent tool to plant financially motivated attacks making it a successful criminal business model with billions of dollars in play. Given that India ranks number 1 in spam and number 2 in virus attacks (according to Symantec's Internet Threat Report), it's evident that hackers and cybercriminals are eyeing India's online citizens for their personal information and monetary gain."

Jagannath Patnaik, director, Channel Sales (South Asia), Kaspersky Lab, said, "It is mandatory to change the password frequently at least once in a week/fortnight and also make sure to delete all the mails in 15 days and empty the inbox so that in case your account is hacked, the hackers can't have access to all your data. If you want to keep some important mails, then archive these and save them in an encrypted format in a folder on your PC or laptop,"

Cyber Crime Investigator Sagar Rahurkar said email service providers have many security features like two-way authentication and linking your phone number to email account which users can use. "Also check your 'last account accessed' feature periodically. It will give an idea about the IP address using which your account was last accessed," he said.

It is mandatory to change the password frequently at least once in a week/fortnight and also make sure to delete all the mails in 15 days and empty the inbox so that in case your account is hacked, the hackers can't have access to all your data.
Credits:-www.timesofindia.com

MTNL users to get home Wi-Fi at public places

MUMBAI: Ailing state-owned telecom company MTNL plans to launch high speed Wi-Fi servicesin Mumbai and Delhi that will provide internet services to customers at locations apart from their homes.

MTNL will be tying up with malls, coffee chains and food courts to provide this unlimited Wi-Fi service to its customers.

"We are planning to provide our customers Wi-Fi services at indoor locations such airports, cafes, food courts, apart from their homes. We will be offering 8Mbps speed," MTNL executive director Peeyush Agarwal told reporters over the weekend.

On the tariff side, he said a customer will have to use a line-bonding modem to avail of this service, adding that customers already using theMTNL Wi-Fi services on mobile devices will be charged an additional Rs 50-100 apart from their existing monthly rental.

He said MTNL, which operates only in Mumbai and Delhi, has already tied up with city's new terminal T2 to provide this Wi-Fi service and is in talks rest of the two airports for the same.

MTNL will be targeting the Mumbai and New Delhi airports and all the food courts and malls for this service.

Agarwal said an MTNL customer who uses Wi-Fi on multiple devices like laptop, mobile, personal computers and tabs at home will also have access to internet on such locations.

A customer will have to register himself at such places, and just by using his unique login ID and password can have access to internet there, he added.

He said there are certain authentication process required before launching the service and as soon it gets complete, the service will be launched. MTNL has partnered with C-bot to provide this Wi-Fi service.

MTNL which currently has 6 lakh broadband customers, sees addition of another 2 lakh to its customer base once this service is launched.
Credits:-www.timesofindia.com

Google to offer $2.7 million prize at hacking contest

NEW DELHI: Search engine giant Google will offer $2.7 million to researchers who can hack its browser-based operating system Chrome OS as part of its Pwnium hacking contest to be held in March this year.

"Security is a core tenet of Chromium, which is why we hold regular competitions to learn from security researchers. Contests like Pwnium help us make Chromium even more secure," Google said in a blogpost.

This year, Pwnium 4, will be hosted in March at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, Canada.

"With a total of $2.71828 million in the pot, we'll issue Pwnium rewards for eligible Chrome OS exploits at $110,000 for browser or system-level compromise in guest mode or as a logged-in user, delivered via a web page," it said.

Google will also pay $150,000 for providing an exploit to be able to persistently compromise an HP or Acer Chromebook, ie hacking the device to retain control even after a reboot.

The earlier editions of Pwnium competitions focussed on Intel-based Chrome OS devices, but this year Google will allow researchers to also choose from ARM-based Chromebook, the HP Chromebook 11 (Wi-Fi) and the Acer C720 Chromebook (2GB Wi-Fi) based on Intel's Haswell microarchitecture.

Last year, Google had put $3.14159 million in the pot for Pwnium 3.

Google said it would consider larger bonuses this year to researchers who demonstrated what it called a "particularly impressive or surprising exploit."

"New this year, we will also consider significant bonuses for demonstrating a particularlyimpressive or surprising exploit. Potential examples include defeating kASLR, exploiting memory corruption in the 64-bit browser process or exploiting the kernel directly from a renderer process," it said.
Credits:-www.timesofindia.com

Saturday, 28 December 2013

Nokia 106 feature phone launched at Rs 1,399

Nokia 106, the Finnish company's low cost feature phone, is now available in India via its official online store for Rs 1,399.

NEW DELHI: Nokia 106, the Finnish company's low cost feature phone, is now available in India via its official online store for Rs 1,399. The phone is available in black, red and white colour options. The handset was first announced in August for the Chinese market.

The all-new Nokia 106 sports a 1.8-inch display with a resolution of 128x160p and pixel density of 114ppi. One of the USPs of the phone is its dust and splash-proof keymat. Nokia claims that 'the characters on the keys would not fade, no matter how long they're used.'

The single-sim phone (supports only micro-sim) doesn't come with a rear camera and supports only 2G networks. It packs in an 800mAh battery that claims to deliver talk time of 9.9 hours and standby time of 35 days.

The Nokia 106 is capable of storing up to 500 contacts and 5 phonebooks. It comes with 32-polyphonic ringtones. The phone also supports FM Radio and measures 112.9 x 47.5 x 14.9mm and weighs 74.2gram.

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Tuesday, 5 November 2013

iPhone craze grips India, retailers await stocks

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: The rush for the latest iPhones, which were launched in India on November 1, has seen the costlier iPhone 5Smodel sold out across the country and retailers asking Apple for emergency replenishments, which are expected in the next two days, some of them said. To be sure, not too many phones may have been supplied by the company, with the trade estimating the number of 5S devices at 6,000 units.

Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel, along with major retail chains, have sought additional stocks, but the Diwali weekend has delayed re-stocking efforts. Top multi-brand cellphone and electronic retail chains such as The MobileStore, PlanetM, UniverCell and Future Group say their iPhone 5S stocks are over but that they still have iPhone 5C phones.

PlanetM Retail chief executive Sanjay Karwa said those who want the iPhone 5S aren't willing to settle for the iPhone 5C. Manish Chaubey, 32, an executive at a multinational based in Gurgaon, was one of those disappointed. "I went to buy the 16GB iPhone 5S. I have made several enquiries at retail stores as well as Airtel and Reliance outlets and am really frustrated as they say stocks are sold out and they aren't sure when they will get fresh stocks," he said.

According to trade estimates, about 30,000 units were launched in India. Of these, some 6,000 were iPhone 5S models. Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile phone operator, and RCom, the third largest, began selling the smartphones through bundled offers on November 1 and 2, respectively. Retail chains began selling the device on November 1.

"Reliance Communications was supplied around 2,700 units and it was sold off in one and a half days," a company official familiar with the matter told ET on Monday. He said that the company has been in touch with Apple and is hopeful of getting fresh stocks of both models sometime this week.

A Bharti Airtel spokesman said the company had sought additional stocks, and is awaiting Apple's response. "Things are a bit delayed given this is a Diwali weekend," the person said. An industry insider said Bharti Airtel had got about 700 units, all of which had been sold out. Bharti Airtel didn't confirm the figure.

On Saturday evening, retailers asked Apple to get its distributors, Redington and Ingram Micro, to send them any remaining iPhone 5S stocks. These reached stores on Sunday evening and were sold out by noon on Monday.

While the telecom companies echoed the view of retailers that the iPhone 5S has seen much higher demand than the iPhone 5C, they have exhausted stocks of both models and their variants, thanks to the deals available. The phone is available for the first time under the kind of contracts available overseas.

Under RCom's bundled offer, buyers can get the base models of both the 5C and 5S for zero upfront payment. They need to make monthly payments of Rs 2,599 and Rs 2,999, respectively, which includes unlimited voice calls and data usage.

Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, offered the iPhone 5S and 5C to Indian customers with monthly rental plans that it said would effectively reduce the cost by Rs 12,000 over a year.

Airtel is offering a 50% discount on monthly rental plans beginning at Rs 300 and going up to Rs 1,000. For those who don't want to opt for such plans, the iPhone 5C costs Rs 41,900 (16GB) and Rs 53,500 (32GB), while iPhone 5S is priced between Rs 53,500 and Rs 71,500, depending on the internal memory.

PlanetM's Karwa said Apple has promised to rush fresh supplies of the 5S to India.
Credits:-www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

BlackBerry may abandon smartphone business

TORONTO: Those few BlackBerry lovers left could be in for some bad news.

The device that was so addictive that it was dubbed the "CrackBerry" might not have much of a future: Its new chairman and interim chief executive says he wants to emphasize software and services - not devices. That could mean the company might ultimately get out of the business of selling smartphones.

The possible change in strategy comes as Fairfax Financial, BlackBerry's largest shareholder with a 10% stake, said Monday it won't buy the struggling smartphone company and take it private. It said that instead Fairfax and other investors will inject $1 billion as part of a revised investment proposal.

CEO Thorsten Heins is stepping down and John Chen was appointed chairman of BlackBerry's board of directors and interim CEO. Chen, the former CEO of software data company Sybase, said that BlackBerry employees need to start thinking differently about the company and accept that "we're really not in phones but we're in phones for software, for services.''

Chen said he wants to find a CEO with a strong software and services background.

He noted that BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry's popular messaging application, has been downloaded by more 20 million users since it became available on Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms last month. BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, works like text messaging but doesn't incur extra fees.

"I'd like to find somebody to help me monetize that," Chen said.

Colin Gillis, an industry analyst at BGC Financial, questioned whether that's possible.

"It's like Apple saying we're going to stop making phones and we're going to become an iMessage company," Gillis said.

Gillis said BlackBerry might indeed stop selling phones but noted BlackBerry is already obsolete. He doesn't think current BlackBerry users have to worry though.

"They are not just going to shut the lights off," Gillis said.

The decline of the BlackBerry has come shockingly fast. In 1999, BlackBerry became a game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness. It changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things.''

Then came a new generation of competing smartphones, and suddenly the BlackBerry looked ancient. Apple debuted the iPhone in 2007 and showed that phones can handle much more than email and phone calls. In the years since, BlackBerry been hammered by competition from the iPhone as well as Android-based rivals.

This year's much-delayed launch of the BlackBerry 10 system and the fancier devices that use it was supposed to rejuvenate the brand and lure customers. It did not work. Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry recently announced 4,500 layoffs, or 40% of its global workforce, and reported a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion.

"Sadly I think they are already out of the business after the BlackBerry 10 flop," said Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity.

Walkley said he believes BlackBerry will focus on its mobile device management business, which allows IT departments to manage different devices connected to their corporate networks.
Credits:-www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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