TechEye |  |
- Google will try to comply with EU rules
- Patent trolls making smartphones too pricey
- Apple clock details leaked
- Microsoft integrates rival Salesforce Apps
- Ballmer buys a basketball team
| Google will try to comply with EU rules Posted: 30 May 2014 02:00 AM PDT Search engine outfit Google has agreed to attempt to comply with European "right to be forgotten" rules and will forget all about Europe. A service through which European citizens can request that links to what they deem as objectionable material be taken off search results. The world's largest internet search engine, which processes more than 90 percent of all web searches in Europe, has made available a webform through which people can submit their requests, but stopped short of specifying when it would remove links that meet the criteria for being taken down. Google has convened a committee of senior Google executives and independent experts to hatch out a long-term plan to dealing with what's expected to be a barrage of requests from the region. "In implementing this decision, we will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public's right to know and distribute information," reads the webform that Google made available yesterday . Google says in the form that when evaluating requests, it will consider whether the results include outdated information about a person, as well as whether there's a public interest in the information, such as information about professional malpractice, criminal convictions and the public conduct of government officials. The form includes space for users to submit objectionable links and a box for the person to explain why the link is "irrelevant, outdated, or otherwise inappropriate". To make a request, a person must submit a digital copy of an official identification, such as a valid driver's licence, and select from a drop-down menu of 32 European countries the appropriate country whose law applies to the request. The decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union places Google in a tricky position as it strives to interpret the EU's broad criteria for objectionable links, and to remove certain content from its search engine. Failure to remove links that meet the EU's broad criteria for take-down can result in fines and since the ruling, Google has received thousands of removal requests. It is unclear when Google will begin to actually remove any links. In the webform, Google says it is "working to finalise our implementation of removal requests under European data protection law as soon as possible. In the meantime, please fill out the form below and we will notify you when we start processing your request".        |
| Patent trolls making smartphones too pricey Posted: 30 May 2014 01:57 AM PDT The cost of the existing system of patents is pricing smartphones off the market as manufacturers are spending a bomb trying to avoid trolls. A new report compiled by Ann Armstrong, Joseph Mueller and Timothy Syrett said that it costs manufacturers more to buy patents for their products than it does to make the gear. There has been a focus on "royalty stacking," in which the demands of patent holders across the relevant technology or the device threaten to make it economically unviable to offer the product, the report said. "The data show that royalty stacking is not a theoretical concern. Indeed, setting aside off-sets such as "payments" made in the form of cross-licences and patent exhaustion arising from licensed sales by component suppliers, we estimate potential patent royalties in excess of $120 on a hypothetical $400 smartphone—which is almost equal to the cost of device's components," the report said. The result is that the smartphone royalty stack across standardised and non-standardised technology is significant, and those costs may be undermining industry profitability—and, in turn, diminishing incentives to invest and compete, it said. The report added that the magnitude of the potential royalty burdens on a smartphone were getting extremely high. The smartphone royalty stack may be one important reason why selling smartphones is currently a profitable endeavour for only a small number of suppliers who already own shedloads of patents. Many of the largest royalty demands rely on the methodology of seeking a royalty based on a percentage of the sales price of the entire smartphone, as opposed to the modest price of the component within the phone itself.     |
| Posted: 30 May 2014 01:55 AM PDT The much hyped vapourware the iWatch has been leaked to a loud sounding yawn from the rest of the world. Design details of the Apple iWatch have been revealed by an analyst, Brian Blair of Rosenblatt Securities, who claims to have got the information from within Apple's supply chain. If the leak is true, then Apple really is out of ideas and it explains why the Fruity cargo cult was so keen to strike a patent deal with Google. The iWatch is a clone of the Motorola Android Wear device, Moto 360, although it is slightly thinner. The analyst Blair also claims that the iWatch will go into production around July or August, which will set it up nicely for an October launch. It is unlikely to be ready for release at the same time as the iPhone 6. Variant models of the iWatch will be released, most likely for men and women, and Blair forecasts Apple's production runs for the second half of 2014 will amount to between 18 and 21 million wearable devices. He previously estimated that the company would order between 15 and 20 million. He did not say how many Apple seriously expects to sell. Watches were big news a couple of years ago when it was expected that Jobs' Mob would release them. Since then a number of different devices have come to market with limited success. Already the tame Apple press is trying to drum up a bit of enthusiasm for the design, saying that the rounded image is much better than the square one being touted by rivals.     |
| Microsoft integrates rival Salesforce Apps Posted: 30 May 2014 01:54 AM PDT Software giant Microsoft appears not to be too enthusiastic about writing its own cloud software. Vole plans to integrate rival Salesforce apps into its Windows and online Office platforms as part of the company's drive to make the company more cloud-computing friendly. Salesforce's customer-management apps will be available on Windows desktop PCs, tablets and mobile devices, while Salesforce users will be able to access Microsoft Office content such as Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. The pair will also allow for fuller data integration features although it is not clear who has paid for what in the deal. The collaboration is the latest sign that Chief Executive Satya Nadella's is intent on forcing Microsoft to work with companies that have a better hold on mobile customers. The new approach, which Nadella calls "mobile first, cloud first". Salesforce has been a pioneer in cloud software, Microsoft moved a little slowly to the cloud-based, subscription software model. The announcement is also a change of heart for Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. Benioff was a big fan of Apple and has parroted the anti-Microsoft angle for a long time. Vole is a direct competitor of Salesforce.com with its Microsoft Dynamics suite of business tools.     |
| Ballmer buys a basketball team Posted: 30 May 2014 01:53 AM PDT Former Microsoft CEO Steve " there is a kind of hush" Ballmer has finally found something to shout about – he has bought the LA Clippers, a basketball team in the NBA. Apparently Ballmer's will write a cheque of $2 billion for the team which is a new record price for an NBA team. Ballmer left Microsoft this past February and has a net worth of $20 billion. Ballmer has been in talks with the wife of the owner of NBA's Los Angeles Clippers basketball team after Donald Sterling who bought the team in June, 1981, for $12.5 million, was ruled too insane to stop the deal. Apparently Sterling did not want to sell the team, however The Sterling Family Trust owns the team, with Donald and his wife Shelly each owning half. The trust spells out provisions and procedures related to the mental capacity of the trustees, and Donald Sterling did not meet the standard in a determination by experts, giving his wife sole decision-making power for the trust. Sterling was caught insulting African-Americans in a secret audio recording, prompting the need to find a new owner of the basketball team as a result. Under the deal Ballmer gets all of the team, though Shelly Sterling still could be involved in the franchise in some other capacity. The deal is apparently tentative, as 29 other NBA owners need to offer their approval as well, but that shouldn't be a problem as long as Ballmer reaffirms his commitment of keeping the Clippers in Los Angeles and agrees to stop shouting for a minute.     |
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