Wednesday, April 23, 2014

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Apple press screams over Google and Samsung defence pact

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 03:15 AM PDT

The Tame Apple Press (TAP) has been screaming about the fact that Google has agreed to pay part of Samsung's legal bill as it tries to see off Apple's patent cases.

Press covering the trial have been referring to a "secret agreement" between the two which was hatched in 2012.

The pact between Google and Samsung was "revealed" in a videotaped deposition played to the eight-person jury hearing Apple's patent infringement case against the Korean firm, in which the iPhone maker is seeking more than $2 billion in damages.

In the emails, Google offers to indemnify Samsung against two Apple patents as they relate to the Android search box, and a third Apple patent as it relates to Google's Gmail app.

This means that Google would assume responsibility for Samsung's defence if Apple brought claims against the company over those patents.

The patents in question were US 6,847,959 and 8,086,604, which related to the Android search box, and US patent 7,761,414, which related to the Gmail app.

Apple lawyers just wanted to show that Google and Samsung had been working together to defend against those patents and that they should ignore claims because they related to software developed by Google.

Press reports muttered about how Google lawyers looked uncomfortable appearing in court and the implication was that they had been caught out. Bloomberg said that Apple's presentation of a "Mobile Application Distribution Agreement" between Google and Samsung, was intended to show the jury that Samsung hasn't been forthcoming about Google's behind-the-scenes role.

This is important because the case between Apple and Samsung has always been a proxy war between Google and Apple. Jobs' Mob never took Google on directly but instead tried to put the frighteners on suppliers and especially its number one competition Samsung.

Samsung's lawyer characterised the case in his opening argument as "an attack on Android" and has used Google engineers to prove Samsung didn't need to copy Apple to equip its phones with newish technology.

Samsung would cheerfully have paid Apple off ages ago, but it seems that the company wants funny money for patents which are only a small part of the phone itself. Apple is seeking $2.19 billion in damages while Samsung is asking the jury to award $6.2 million. 

NYPD Twitter PR backfires

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 03:13 AM PDT

PR spinners at the New York Police Department are probably considering new careers after an attempt to make police officers "more human" after a Twitter campaign backfired incredibly.

The NYPD image is problematic. Its officers have a history of showing that law and order involves beating people up for no reason such as this case and this one and this one etc. So what could possibly go wrong with a nice campaign on Twitter asking people to send in pictures of them and NYPD officers?

"Do you have a photo w/ a member of the NYPD? Tweet us & tag it #myNYPD. It may be featured on our Facebook," the department posted on its NYPD News Twitter feed.

In minutes, images and tweets of many arrests of demonstrators went viral, including such presumed lowlights as an officer pulling the hair of a handcuffed young black woman and another of the bloodied face of an 84-year-old stopped for jaywalking.

One image showing police after striking a protestor brought the remark "Here the #NYPD engages with its community members, changing hearts and minds one baton at a time".

Also largely criticised was the unpopular "stop and frisk" policy, which many argue unfairly targets minority youth.

So far, there has been a lack of any laughing policemen photographs under the hashtag. Perhaps someone should have told the PR's how Twitter works. 

Big iPhone 6 rumoured to be late

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 03:11 AM PDT

While the world+dog has been plagued by the usual rumours about the iPhone 6, we found one which was potentially brilliant – the world will not have to suffer the super-sized version until next year.

Chinese website ctee.com claims that Apple's next iPhone iteration won't be arriving until sometime next year.

Apple plans to release the iPhone 6 in two sizes: 4.7-inches and a larger 5.5-inches. Mystery has surrounded the larger version in particular, with some claiming it wouldn't arrive until after the smaller version launches, and others think it is far too innovative for Apple to release.

According to the latest sources, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will arrive in the second half of this year, but the 5.5-inch version, which will be called the iPhone Air, it is being suggested, won't arrive until 2015 because Apple can't get it to work.

While the Tame Apple Press is claiming that it is only a rumour, the Chinese site has a good amount of detail.

The problem appears to be the battery. Apple has asked the battery cell supplier to cut the thickness of iPhone Air battery by a third, but it turns out that this is a challenge to the technical limit of flexible packaging cell battery cell plant.

A general smart phone battery is 2.8 to 2.9 mm, but the thickness of the battery Apple iPhone Air requirements must be 2 mm or less. Not only is this tricky, but there are yield problems and difficulties getting enough.

Chinese plants are apparently trying to work out how they can upgrade so that the batteries can be made in time, when they are effectively invented. All up, this means that a year seems optimistic for the Apple iPhone Air and indeed a big size iPhone generally.

The 4.7-inch screen increase is not exactly dramatic in comparison with what others are doing in the market so the lack of a compelling new product will probably send the Apple into a snooze for a year. 

AMD will develop a 20nm process

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 03:10 AM PDT

AMD has confirmed that it is developing chips that would be made using 20nm manufacturing technology and will press ahead with fabrication processes that include those with FinFET transistors.

There had been talk of AMD slowing down moving to different processes, as no one seems to be buying PC chips right now.

But Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of global business units at AMD  said that this year all of AMD products are made using 28nm across graphics, client and semi-custom business.  But it was in the design phase of creating a new 20nm product line and that will come to production. Then, the company would adopt FinFET.

Su did not exactly say which AMD chips would be the first to adopt the 20nm fabrication process, but that the new breed of low-power accelerated processing units, code-named Beema and Mullins, are about to enter the market. Beema and Mullins are low-power APUs which use 28nm process technology so it is likely that the Kaveri  APU models will be the first to move to 20nm.

She also did not officially confirm that we would see the first 20nm AMD Radeon GPUs later this year but the fact she used the words coming “to production” may hint on the plan that we should see them in the shops soon.

Su has confirmed that the company plans to move its product line to process technologies that take advantage of FinFET transistors, but Su did not reveal whether the company plans to move to 14nm XM hybrid FinFET process technology ot 16nm FinFET.   This would give some clues as to who will be making the chip.  The 14nm FinFET is used by GlobalFoundries and Samsung while the 16nm FinFET/16nm FinFET+ fabrication process is developed by TSMC.

The indication is that it will be GloFlo and Samsung, as Su was waxing lyrical about Global Foundries pact with Samsung. She said that it was good for the industry and it is good for AMD relative in getting FinFETs to market sooner.

This is a turn around on AMD’s position a couple of years ago when it was telling the world+dog that it did not need the latest process technologies to succeed on the market. It seems that it has woken up and realised that it is going to get a good kicking from Intel, Qualcomm and other makers of system-on-chips for media tablets if it does not pull its famous finger out.

Brazil creates web user bill of rights

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 03:08 AM PDT

Brazil's Congress passed an Internet privacy law which is similar to a web-user's bill of rights.

The move follows the news that the US had been spying on Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff for no other reason than it could.

The bill sets out principles, guarantees, rights, and duties for internet users, and internet service providers and aimed at balancing freedom of expression and the web-users' rights to privacy and protection of personal data.

The legislation, dubbed Brazil's "Internet Constitution," has been hailed by experts, such as the British physicist and World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, for balancing the rights and duties of users, governments and corporations while ensuring the internet continues to be an open and decentralised network.

The legislation protects freedom of expression and information, establishing that ISPs will not be liable for content published by users, but they must comply with court orders to remove offensive or libellous material.

The bill also limits the gathering and use of metadata on internet users in Brazil.

What was interesting was that the law stopped short of what many in the US feared – namely that companies like Google and Facebook would have to store local users' data in Brazilian data centres.

Instead, the bill says companies such as Google and Facebook will be subject to Brazil's laws and courts in cases involving information on Brazilians, even if the data is stored on servers abroad.

Rousseff has spoken out forcefully against cyber-snooping revealed by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden. The US eavesdropping targeted her staff's communications and those of others at Petrobras, the state oil giant.

She was so piqued by the snooping that she cancelled a state visit to Washington scheduled for October and pushed for a UN resolution aimed at protecting "online" human rights. 
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