The Woz (Steve Wozniak) is truly awesome. For those that do not recognize his name, he co founded apple computer with steve jobs and in fact, was the one who invented the comptuer. Steve Jobs was more of the front man. Anyway, here is his take on the patent wars:
“I hate it…I wish everybody would just agree to exchange all the patents and everybody can build the best forms they want to use everybody’s technologies.”
Source: Mashable
If you have been following tech news or my blog you know about the patent war going on between these two companies. Here is a good article by mashable describing the ridiculousness that these patents claim. For instance, the article explains how patents are so broad that its impossible to build a phone without copying. This would be equivalent to Ford claiming that a mercedes was copying it.
The article uses this example from history with the wright brothers:
“Everyone knows the story of the Wright brothers and their historic flight in December 1903. What you may not know is that the Orville and Wilbur Wright submitted a patent for their invention months earlier, which was eventually granted in 1906. Then the airplane patent wars began.
The Wrights sued Glenn Curtiss (among others) for infringing on their patent with his company’s aircraft designs. The thing was, the Wright brothers’ patent was so broad, it was virtually impossible to build any kind of aircraft without infringing on it. Eventually the two sides were forced to settle their differences at the advent of the First World War, when the U.S. government stepped in and created a temporary patent pool for wartime production, which eventually became permanent.”
Here is the full article: http://mashable.com/2012/08/21/apple-samsung-copying/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Motorola (Well Google really as Google is parent company) is suing Apple for various patent infringements.
“Motorola is demanding a ban on the imports of the iPhone and iPad for alleged infringements of intellectual property used in Siri, E-Mail notifications, location reminders and music/video players.”
Personally, all of these lawsuits need to stop. Get rid of these patents because they are slowing down progress and innovation in the tech world.
As many have discovered, when you delete your photos from facebook, they are not really deleted. They are just no longer in your profile but they still remain in facebook databases and are sometimes used for ads and such. According to new sources (article here) when you delete your photos they are only used by facebook for 30 days and then deleted. While I am happy they are actually deleted, I need to ask myself, why does facebook need to use them? Should we all stop using this service due to their weird privacy rules?
Pixlr is a free photo editing website that I have been using for years to edit photos as its very similar to photoshop. I have been showing it to my classes and really like the tool. Now they have a program called Pixlr O Matic which allows you to create instagram like effects to photos from your home computer. They also have created an android and ios app that is very similar to instagram, better in my opinion. Here is a link to their website: http://pixlr.com/
Here is a video that demonstrates this tool:
Tons of headlines floating around the web yesterday included “youtube no longer on iOS 6” “youtube done” etc. Well guess what? Youtube will still be on iOS. It just will no longer be pre-installed on it so you will need to download the app the from the app store. So, you will now need to go into iTunes App Store and download Google’s youtube app.
Now what was the cause of all the headlines? Well to those who understand the google/apple rival we know that apple lost the the license to keep putting youtube pre installed on their OS. Whether google refused to renew or apple chose not to renew is something only they know at this point. Either way, everyone still gets youtube.
This is from a blog on CNET. This is something they have argued for years but now it seems like that tables need to be turned in favor of the customer given certain circumstances. Essentially what has happened is that carriers charge more for their cell plans so that customers can get a cheaper phone – so what happens when a customer buys a phone at full price or uses a phone they had previously? shouldnt they get a discounted plan?
“…regarding the price of your monthly service even though you have had to pay for a phone at full price.
When the FCC questioned wireless carriers in 2009 and 2010 about their early termination fees, which customers must pay if they terminate their contracts before the term is up, the wireless carriers argued the fee existed because it offset the cost of the phone during that contract period. They explained that a portion of the fee that customers pay each month for their service was going toward paying off the cost of the subsidy that the customer got when he bought a new phone on the network.
In other words, the $200 a customer pays to get the phone is only a fraction of the total cost of owning that device. The carrier picks up the other $400 or so on that device. And the carrier claims it recovers the rest of the cost over the life of the two-year contract.
But what happens when you buy the phone at full price? Or what about when your contract ends? Does the cost of your monthly service get reduced because you’ve finished paying off your device? The answer to this question under most carrier plans is no. (T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier that reduces your monthly service charge once your phone subsidy is paid off.)
I’d argue that if carriers are subsidizing phones and arguing that they must charge ETFs (early termination fees) to cover the cost of phones when customers cancel their service early, then they should reduce the cost of the service once the phone is paid off. And they should offer a discount on the service if you bring your own phone.” – Source
Looks like Google might have a competitor with Microsoft’s new outlook. Have you tried it yet? It has merged hotmail and outlook together into one package and will integrate Skype. Seems pretty cool thus far: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57484076-93/microsofts-outlook.com-lures-1m-users-in-6-hours/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title
To sign up for an account go to: outlook.com
