Wednesday, April 2, 2014

TechEye

TechEye

Link to TechEye - Latest technology headlines

Opening shots fired in Samsung versus Apple case

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 03:35 AM PDT

The opening shots in the Samsung versus Apple case are about as inane and silly as you would think.

The goal here is to convince a US jury that America invented everything and those nasty Asians just copied them. Apple attorneys will ask the jury to fine Samsung a ridiculous $2 billion in damages because it used five patents.

Harold McElhinny, one of the lead attorneys in Apple's patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung, claimed that Samsung realised it did not have a product that could compete successfully against the iPhone.

He quoted internal Samsung documents, including a memo containing comments from JK Shin, Samsung's head of mobile, that said the company was suffering a "crisis of design" and had to figure out how to respond to Apple.

McElhinny said Samsung copied the iPhone and it also took many other novel Apple inventions that have not yet appeared in Apple products.

McElhinny said Samsung has sold more than 37 million infringing devices. If the two parties had negotiated royalties, Samsung would have paid an average of $33 per device or $40 per device -- or about $2 billion overall -- for the use of all five Apple software patents.

Almost every expert on patents said that figure is wildly out and McElhinny admitted that the requested damage level is high, but said he hopes that at the end of the trial, the jury "will understand the reason the damages in the case are high is because the scope of Samsung's infringement has been massive".

Then it starts to get sillier. McElhinny insists that ten percent of people who would have bought Samsung devices would have purchased an iPhone if the Samsung device was not available. So therefore it will have to pay for Apple's mythical lost sales. Given that Apple had a huge market share in the US at the time, that is like saying "we are a monopoly and anyone who creates competition for us should be fined".

We will get to hear Samsung's side of the story today. 

Blackberry walks away from TMobile

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 03:33 AM PDT

You would think that the troubled mobile maker Blackberry would need all the friends it can get; but apparently, it does not want any help from TMobile.

Blackberry said on Tuesday it will not renew its licence with T-Mobile US to sell Blackberry products after the current contract expires on April 25.

The Canadian company said it will continue to provide service and support to existing customers on T-Mobile's network or those who will buy products from the carrier's inventory.

Blackberry Chief Executive John Chen said in a statement that the two company's strategies are not complementary.

Blackberry said it is "working closely" with other carrier partners to provide users with alternatives should they decide to switch from T-Mobile.

At the heart of the problem was when T-Mobile sent out emails to some of its customers in February, pitching free iPhone 5s and touting the promotion as a "great offer for BlackBerry customers."

Blackberry customers were furious at what they perceived as a slight and the social media backlash prompted T-Mobile US Chief Executive John Legere to respond publicly, assuring Blackberry and its users of his company's support. 

Google asks Supremes to let it off wiretap hook

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 03:32 AM PDT

Google has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court that its collection of data from unencrypted wi-fi networks is not exempt under federal wiretap laws.

The search engine claims that its data collection does not violate the Wiretap Act as it fell under an exemption that makes it lawful to intercept electronic communications that are readily accessible to the public.

In September, Appeals court ruled that wi-fi network data collected by Google was not readily accessible to the public.

Google wants the Supreme Court to rule that the Appeals court got it wrong in defining "radio communications" under the Wiretap Act were restricted to "predominantly auditory broadcasts" and do not include wi-fi communications.

This is fall out over the Street View cars fiasco when Google kitted out its cars with Wi-Fi antennas and software that sniffed data transmitted by Wi-Fi networks in nearby homes and businesses.

This included network identifying information and so-called payload data transmitted over unencrypted wi-fi networks. Google said that it had inadvertently collected some personal data from unencrypted networks and said sorry.

Google in its appeal to the Supreme Court does not, however, accept that the collection of the data was illegal in the first place.

It pointed out that the US Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission declined to take enforcement action after investigating Google.

Google claims that an adverse ruling could in fact hurt security professionals who routinely use the same kind of technology as Google's Street View cars did to collect packet data in order to secure company networks. 

Barking councillors opt for Chromebook

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 03:30 AM PDT

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is to roll out Google Chromebooks to replace its aging Window XP desktops.

The council will save over £200,000 by not deploying new Windows desktops, and thinks that it will save another £200,000 worth of lecky as a result of Google Chromebooks being more energy efficient than desktop PCs.

The council bought Samsung 303Cs as its Chromebook of choice because of its "impressive battery life and portability".

The migration project, which was started in mid-2013, was designed to provide an upgraded platform before the Windows XP expiry date.

The council had 3,500 desktop computers and 800 laptops for its 3,500 employees. The project means that it will switch the vast majority of these with 2,000 Chromebooks for employees and 500 Chromeboxes for reception desks and shared work areas.

The council thought about replacing its existing hardware with Windows 7 desktops and laptops but the Chromebook option was the cheapest. The fact Vole wanted an arm and a leg for licensing did not help.

The council will still use 600 and 1,000 desktops with the Windows 7 operating system installed because some apps can't be delivered through its Citrix environment. 

UK gets cyber emergency response team

Posted: 02 Apr 2014 03:28 AM PDT

The UK has formed a national computer emergency response team to act as a civil defence operation against nationwide hacks.

The outfit will be run by CERT-UK and Chris Gibson said it will work with partners across government, industry and academia to enhance the UK's cyber resilience.

Talking at the official launch of CERT-UK and its website Gibson said that the site will build trust, foster collaboration and both encourage and lead on sharing of information to develop the level of situational awareness we need to stay ahead of our adversaries.

Most of the work will be focused on Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) companies.

However, he said the organisation will also work more broadly across industry through the government's Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP), now an integral part of CERT-UK.

Gibson said the national CERT will work with other national CERTs when the UK is being affected by activity originating in other countries and will assist other national CERTs, including through working with the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) when activity is tracked back to the UK.

The group will promote cyber situational awareness throughout the UK, to be an international point of contact, and to manage national cyber incidents. 
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)