Monday, May 30, 2011

Samsung Requests to See Apple’s iPhone 5 and iPad 3

Posted by NEWS on 01:47 0 comments

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Samsung’s legal department is demanding to see the unreleased iPhone 5 and iPad 3, following Apple’s own request to have a look at some of the Korean company’s unreleased products, sources inform.

People with knowledge of the matter say Samsung is not backing off in its spat with Apple in which the latter is citing major similarities between their products and Samsung’s.

The judge presiding the case already granted Apple access to the Samsung devices, but many of these had already been made public.

By contrast, the next-generation iPhone and iPad are under the Apple-branded veil of secrecy.

Still, the Cupertino tech giant will have no choice but to show them to Samsung’s lawyers, should the judge grant the motion.

A screenshot depicting Samsung’s reciprocal discovery requests to Apple reveals that the Korean electronics manufacturer is asking to see:

a) a sample of the final, commercial version of the next generation iPhone that Apple will release, whether that product will be known as the “iPhone 4S”, “iPhone 5,” or some other name, along with the final version of the packaging in which this product will be delivered to retail customers and a final version of the insert(s) that will be included within such packaging; and

b) a sample of the final, commercial version of the next generation iPad that Apple will release, whether that product will be known as the “iPad 3,” “Third Generation iPad,” or some other name, along with the final version of the packaging in which this product will be delivered to retail customers and a final version of the insert(s) that will be included within such packaging.

Needless to point out, if Samsung is granted its motion to see Apple’s next-gen portables, it will be only the legal department that gets to analyze them to determine the veracity of Apple’s claims for their part.

Should any substantial leak occur around this time, Apple would have yet another reason to point fingers at Samsung in court.

It is worth noting that Samsung is the manufacturer of the A4 and A5 chips found in Apple's iPhones and iPads.
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Apple Confirms OS X 10.7 Lion Download via Mac App Store

Posted by NEWS on 01:46 0 comments

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Apple-Confirms-OS-X-10-7-Lion-Download-via-Mac-App-Store-2.jpgThe seed note accompanying Mac OS X 10.6.8 10K531 - the third beta build of Apple’s next maintenance update to Snow Leopard - provides the first real confirmation that Apple will be distributing copies of OS X Lion as digital downloads through the Mac App Store.

The fact that Apple distributes Lion betas to developers through the Mac App Store makes it easily deductible that the next major version of the Mac OS will arrive not only on retail disc and thumb USB drive, but via Apple's digital storefront for Mac software as well.

Currently, Apple sells Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) copies on DVD.

The Cupertino, California company also distributes the software on USB stick, boxed next to the latest generation of MacBook Air laptops that lack an optical drive.

The seed note for Mac OS X 10.6.8 Build 10K531 (as revealed in a screenshot posted at fscklog.com) is reproduced below:

The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

- Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion
- Resolve an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit
- Improve support for IPv6
- Improve VPN reliability
- Identify and remove known variants of Mac Defender.

Notably, Apple also plans to use Mac OS X 10.6.8 to patch the widely-publicized Mac Defender threat.

In a Support document dated May 24, Apple pledged to address Mac Defender in a matter of ‘days’ via software update.

It is unclear whether OS X 10.6.8 will be that update, or whether there will be some other release specifically aimed at the malware.

With WWDC 2011 knocking on our doors with the promise of a final unveiling of Lion, it may just as well be this last Snow Leopard system update.
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Microsoft Winner of the Best Multinational Workplaces 2011 in Europe Award

Posted by NEWS on 01:44 0 comments

Microsoft is the European king of the best workplaces on the continent, according to the Great Place to Work Institute.

The inaugural winner of the Best Multinational Workplaces 2011 in Europe award is just the latest accolade that the software giant received from the Great Place to Work Institute, although the organization has little to do with the laurels other than surveying the company’s employees.

According to the Redmond giant, in excess of 12,000 of its workers in various markets across the pond participated in the survey.

Still, Microsoft is no stranger to offering Europeans great places to work, since this is not exactly the company’s first award from the Great Place to Work Institute.

"Being named Best Place to Work in Europe for the fourth year in a row is a great honor for us, especially because it's an employee-driven award," revealed Jean-Philippe Courtois, president, Microsoft International.

"We believe the combination of our mission, our people and constantly finding new ways to use technology to help employees communicate and collaborate across cities, borders and around the world, are vital ingredients for attracting, retaining and motivating Europe's best talent."

The Great Place to Work Institute surveyed over than 1.5 million employees across Europe, with Microsoft ending up besting 1,380 companies.

In previous years, the software giant was awarded the Best Large Workplace in Europe accolade three years standing.

“Winning the top spot on our new European Best Multinational Workplaces list, on the back of several national awards, reflects Microsoft’s continued success in creating a working environment where people can thrive,” added José Tolovi Jr, Global CEO for the Great Place to Work Institute.

“The new list recognizes companies that create great workplaces across country borders, as well as cultural and language differences. Operating successfully in multiple countries is a complex job and Microsoft has shown how to create a great workplace in multiple countries through a combination of leadership and smart use of technology.”

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Windows 8 NUI Gaming

Posted by NEWS on 01:43 0 comments

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Windows-8-NUI-Gaming-2.pngWill Windows 8 usher in the era of NUI gaming for computers? Windows 7 certainly didn’t manage to do it, but the potential for marrying natural user interfaces with next generation gaming experiences is there, and is bound to become only more comprehensive with Windows vNext.

Over the weekend, I could not help thinking back to the Touch Pack that Microsoft released a few months after Windows 7 RTM.

The Touch Pack consisted of six titles, three casual games and just as many applications ported from Microsoft Surface to Windows 7. All of them NUI-enabled.

The Touch Pack revealed what kind of NUI experiences Windows 7 was already capable of supporting. I’ve had the chance to play with the Touch Pack’s NUI apps and games most recently in the fall of 2010, on a next generation monitor.

I was joined by a friend who pointed out a range of caveats, including the performance impairment on what was a high end machine, but also obvious interaction limitations. As much as I felt as a kid in a candy store, he was indeed right; Microsoft still had a lot of work to do before NUI gaming on Windows would become reality.

I do see a possibility that Windows 8 will introduce a new level in terms of NUI capabilities, and I do hope that it will be on part with what the Xbox 360 plus Kinect can already do today.

Having done a bit of digging, I can now say that it’s not as simple as just plugging in a Kinect sensor into a Windows 8 machine, and start using it.

Sure, the software giant is already flirting with the idea, with the Kinect for Windows software development kit that the company announced.

The truth is that the Kinect for Windows SDK is simply not enough. There are NUI scenarios which require the most basic of interaction, such as entertainment experiences, but there are also those which will require extremely complex interaction, such as games.

The current Windows 7 gestures API is quite limited in this regard, with support for a little over a handful of gestures, and limitations on just how many of those gestures the users can perform simultaneously.

Windows 8 needs to change this. But in order for this to happen, the Redmond company must make the next version of Windows as appealing as possible to game developers. So more tools are required, code samples, controls, new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Visual Studio vNext enhancements, etc.

Since we’ve already seen Windows 8 enhancements such as facial recognition and human presence detection, I’d dare to say that Microsoft is on the right track to supporting NUI gaming with Windows 8. But this is just speculation on my part, and should be taken as such.
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EVGA Prepares GTX 570 HD Classified Graphics Card

Posted by NEWS on 01:42 0 comments

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EVGA is getting ready to update its product portfolio with a new graphics card built on the GTX 570 design that is targeting overclockers and extreme enthusiasts. The card is called the EVGA GTX 570 Classified and is expected to debut at Computex 2011.

Judging by the preliminary information that is available at this point, the GTX 570 Classified will feature a cooling assembly that looks remarkably similar with the Nvidia reference design.

However, this has been tweaked in order to cope with the increased amount of heat produced by overclocking and EVGA has even redesigned the card's printed circuit board.

Compared to the standard PCB, this now features a 10-layer design, an advanced 6-phase digital GPU VRM, which EVGA states that it can improve overclocking headroom, as well as dedicated voltage readout points.

Additional modifications were also brought to the power delivery systems, as the card now carries a 6+8 pin PCI-Express power connector.

Finally, the HD designation comes from the fact that EVGA's GTX 570 Classified houses a full-sized HDMI 1.4 connector as well as a DisplayPort output, next to the usual pair of dual-link DVI connectors.

Sadly, EVGA hasn't made public the operating frequencies of its graphics card yet, but this is expected to come higher clocked than the Nvidia reference design.

The stock version of the GTX 570 has its core running at 732MHz, while the memory works at 950MHz (3800MHz data rate).

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 570 is based on the company's GF110 GPU and it packs 480 stream processors, 60 texture units, 40 ROP units and a 320-bit wide memory bus that is connected to 1.25GB of GDDR5 video buffer.

As mentioned earlier, the EVGA GTX 570 Classified is expected to make its debut at Computex 2011. No details regarding pricing are available at this time.
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ViewSonic Also Provides a 24-Inch Smart Monitor

Posted by NEWS on 01:41 0 comments

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/ViewSonic-Also-Provides-a-24-Inch-Smart-Monitor-2.jpgWith the folks over at Computex now getting ready to get the show on the road, ViewSonic, like so many others, has prepared a whole collection of items to show off, one of which is an LCD smart monitor.

On a market where performance is already so high that variation in it can go by unnoticed, companies have started to expand their horizons.

To be more specific, the image quality and overall performance of today's displays is no longer the only feature that prospective buyers look for.

Power efficiency is one asset that is getting attention, but it looks like monitors and HDTVs that have extras like web connectivity and such are favored, to some extent.

That said, ViewSonic developed a 24-inch LED-backlit monitor that has all the performance anyone could hope for, down to 3D support.

The widescreen aspect ratio (16:9) makes a nice pair with the Full HD support (resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels).

Also, the newcomer has a very good response time (2ms), plus a contrast ratio of 20,000,000:1 and a refresh rate of 120 Hz (3D demands no less).

All in all, the V3D245wm-LED should be able to show off high picture detail and color accuracy, while the SRS Premium Surround sound and HDMI 1.4 support complete the feature set.

“We have continued to invest in our strategic partnerships with Microsoft and Google,” said Alan Chang, ViewSonic Managing Director of Europe and Asia-Pacific.

“At Computex, you will see that ViewSonic is not content with standing still and are continuing to innovate with 'display solutions', ranging from small as three inch ultra mobile devices to large 300 inch professional display solutions, all brought to the user with the ViewSonic attention to quality and service."

In addition to this product and the 10-inch ViewPad 10Pro, the outfit also prepared a pico projector and a digital photo frame, plus a series of camcorders.
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Twitter Reveals Anonymous British Twitter User to Court

Posted by NEWS on 01:40 0 comments

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Twitter-Reveals-Anonymous-British-Twitter-User-to-Court-2.jpgA lawsuit involving Twitter is causing a lot of fuss in the UK and elsewhere, since Twitter revealed account details and private data of a Twitter account holder to the authorities. The main concerns is that this puts a dampen on free speech online, however, Twitter acted in full compliance of the law and, like in the past, notified the account holder and gave him time to respond and fight the claim.

The city council of South Tyneside, in the UK, accused an anonymous blogger and Twitter user going by the name Mr Monkey of libeling council members.

The council asked a California court for details about the user so that charges could be brought against him.

Twitter was ordered to supply all of the relevant info, but notified the user in question, Ahmed Khan, a South Tyneside councilor, that a court asked for his details.

The user had the opportunity to challenge the claim, while remaining anonymous. However, he declined to do so, not being familiar with the US legal system and being afraid of the legal costs associated with fighting a lawsuit abroad.

Twitter then proceeded to hand over the requested data, as it is required by law. Khan also received a copy of all of the data revealed. Khan denies being the author of the libelous accounts.

Twitter revealed the data for five accounts, only two of which Khan says are his. While he denies being involved, he does say he has been critical of the council in the past and believes the council is spending too much money with the lawsuit.

He also claims he doesn't need anonymity to express his views on the council members or their politics. Rather, he says he fears that whistleblowers which may have contacted him over Twitter may be revealed as a consequence of the lawsuit.

The main concern about the lawsuit is that it is the first time, at least in the UK, where a California court was used successfully to retrieve information on Twitter users. However, Twitter did all that it could legally do to ensure that the users are protected.
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