The legal battle between Finland's Nokia and its US rival Apple has taken a new turn, with Apple countersuing Nokia over alleged patent violations.
The move follows a Nokia lawsuit filed in October accusing iPhone maker Apple of 10 Nokia patent infringements.
Now Apple, in turn, is claiming that the Finnish phone firm is infringing 13 of its technology patents.
"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours," Apple said.
Apple has not yet revealed which patents are at issue. Nokia was unavailable for comment.
In October, Nokia said it had not been compensated for its technology, and accused Apple of "trying to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation".
The 10 alleged patent infringements by Apple involve wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption.
The breaches applied to all models of the iPhone since its launch in 2007, Nokia added.
Finland's Nokia said that it had agreements with about 40 firms allowing them to use the firm's technology, but that Apple had not signed an agreement.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/yepudxf
The government's controversial broadband tax has been given the green light by chancellor Alistair Darling in his pre-Budget report.
The £6 a year levy will be imposed on all households with a fixed line phone.
The money made will be put into a fund to ensure rural areas of the UK do not miss out on super-fast broadband services.
Mr Darling said the government would provide super-fast broadband to 90% of the UK by the end of 2017.
Announcing the tax, Mr Darling said: "We are modernising the UK's digital infrastructure and, in the process, creating thousands more skilled jobs.
We have provided funding to help extend the opportunities of the broadband network to more remote communities. We now want to go further, so we can provide the next generation of super-fast broadband to 90 per cent of the population by the end of 2017."
Mozilla is wrapping up work on its first version of Fire fox for mobile phones, an important step in bringing the second most popular PC browser to an area where a rival project holds more influence.
"Our goal is to have a release candidate next week," said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's vice president of mobile. "If things go smoothly, we'll have a (final) version out in the next few weeks," with the debut planned for this year, he added.
Mozilla has been a leader in advancing the Web state of the art. But when it comes to the mobile phones, where the power of a new generation of hardware has transformed browsers from primitive afterthoughts to useful tools, Firefox has been missing in action.
Instead, an open-source project called WebKit powers the browser on the higher-end mobile phones du jour--Apple's iPhone, the PalmPre, and Motorola's Droid and other models running Google's Android operating system, with BlackBerry headed that direction, too.
I think it is vital for both Apple and Palm to offer the use of 3rd party browers to ensure people feel like they have the flexibility, Also Apple need to be able to offer the ability to allow people to set any 3rd party browser as the default browsers.
A warning has been issued about a suspected computer hacker who has been calling residents on the Isle of Man.
Identifying himself only as "Mark", he does not state a surname or a company, but says he is phoning regarding a complaint of slow internet connection.
He then asks the computer user to give him remote access by typing in logmein123.com.
The instructions should not be followed and people should contact their service provider, police have said.
Tesco Mobile through its joint venture partnership with O2 is pleased to announce that it will shortly introduce iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in Tesco Phone Shops and online through Tesco Direct in the UK.
For further information and for customers interested in pre-registration please visit www.tescomobileiphone.com.
For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone.
More information can be found on Tesco Mobile at www.tescomobile.com"
Mobile phone retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U have temporarily withdrawn the Sony Ericsson Satio smartphone from their stores.
Both companies said the move followed complaints from customers about software problems.
Phones 4U announced its decision to stop selling the handset 24 hours after rival retailer Carphone Warehouse.
Sony Ericsson said it was "giving this matter its utmost priority and working toward solving it".
None of the companies involved gave details about the nature of the fault but Satio users online have been complaining about frozen screens and problems with ringtones.
"Now on my second Satio and it still has the same issues," wrote Iain H on a handset review site. "Screen freezing and no ringtone. Only way to solve the problem is to take the battery out."
He added: "I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem."
Sony Ericsson recently announced a new smartphone model, the Xperia X10. It is the company's first Android handset but it is not due to go on sale until 2010.
Verity Burns, a technology journalist with gadget magazine Stuff thinks the problem lies with how the Sony Ericsson user interface interacts with the Symbian operating system on the phone.
"The phone seems to be turning itself off when people access certain applications but not everyone will be affected. Vodafone and Orange run their own interfaces and don't seem to have the issue."
A second worm to hit the iPhone has been unearthed by security company F-Secure.
It is specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING.
It redirects the bank's customers to a lookalike site with a log-in screen.
The worm attacks "jail-broken" phones - a modification which enables the user to run non-Apple approved software on their handset.
The handsets at risk also have SSH (secure shell) installed.
Many people use SSH so other programs can remotely connect to an iPhone and, among other things, transfer files. It comes with a default password, "alpine" which should be changed.
Users who have installed SSH and not changed the password are especially at risk.
The new worm is more serious than the first because it can behave like a botnet, warns F-Secure.
This enables the phone to be accessed or controlled remotely without the permission of its owner.
'Clearly malicious'
"It's the second iPhone worm ever and the first that's clearly malicious - there's a clear financial motive behind it," F-Secure research director Mikko Hypponen told the BBC.
"It's fairly isolated and specific to Netherlands but it is capable of spreading."
He added although the number of infected phones was thought to be in the hundreds rather than thousands, the worm could jump from phone to phone among owners using the same wi-fi hotspot.
A spokesperson for ING Bank said that a warning was going to be put on the bank's official website.
"We are also briefing call centre personnel," she added. "It's important to remember that the worm only affects jail-broken phones and it is only aimed at customers in the Netherlands."
The first iPhone worm, called ikee, was harmless. Users with infected phones found their wallpaper replaced with a picture of 1980s popstar Rick Astley.
It also targeted jail-broken phones which were SSH enabled.
Its creator Ashley Towns said he wrote the ikee program in order to raise the issue of iPhone security.
Its clear that jailbraking an iPhone and removing Apples security software is clearly a bad idea!
Internet search giant Google has lifted the lid on its operating system, known as Chrome OS.
The free and open source system is initially aimed at low-cost netbooks and does away with many of the features of a traditional program.
All applications are designed to run in a web browser and all the user's data is stored on Google's servers.
Engineers from the firm said the first computers running the system would be available before the end of 2010.
Google Chrome OS demonstration
"We are trying to offer a choice for users," said Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management, during an event at the firm's headquarters in California.
"This model of computing is fundamentally different."
The event follows the recent launch of Microsoft's Windows 7 and Apple's operating system upgrade, Snow Leopard.
A Microsoft executive was quoted in an interview as saying "what we've tried to do with Windows 7...is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics".
The comments, by partner group manager Simon Aldous, appeared in UK computing trade magazine PCR.
Microsoft countered that Mr Aldous was not involved with the development of Windows 7.
Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog that Mr Aldous's comments were "inaccurate and uninformed".
Suggestions that Microsoft has borrowed technology ideas has been rife for as long as the Windows and Mac operating systems have been around.
The very idea of who invented the "windows" on a "desktop" in Windows 1.0 was the basis of a 1988 lawsuit and remains a point of contention.
'One of our own'
However, many of the significant graphical changes present in Windows 7 have analogues in Mac's OS X - although neither firm has made an official statement about the apparent similarities.
"One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use," Mr Aldous told PCR.
"What we've tried to do with Windows 7 - whether it's traditional format or in a touch format - is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We've significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance."
Mr LeBlanc countered the claims in a post on the official Windows blog.
"Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7," he wrote.
"I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed."
Your iPhone can be unlocked at anytime free of charge. If you unlock your handset and place a non-O2 sim into it, you will still have to honor the remainder of the minimum term on your contract.
For iPhone on Pay & Go, unlocking can take place 12 months after you've bought your iPhone for a one-off £14.69 fee which will be deducted from your airtime balance.
Follow this link to start the process - http://tinyurl.com/yheejjw
The iPhone has been available in the UK from O2 for a year now. But 30,000 devices were sold by Orange on launch day - more than O2 ever shifted in a single day. Why are people flocking to buy the device from Orange instead?
Pay-TV provider BSkyB is to show live Premier League matches on Apple's iPhone.
Users can watch live sports on Sky Sports and ESPN as well as Sky News over a wi-fi connection for £6 a month.
Besides the Premier League, users can also watch Scottish football, cricket and golf via Sky's new application.
BSkyB, which is 39%-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has been launching applications for news and sports to try to expand its reach on mobile devices.
To watch sports on a normal television, Sky charges from £26.50 a month for Sky Sports 1 or 2, or £35 for its total sports package - excluding ESPN.
Sky Mobile TV, the latest application, is free to download.
"Our new Sky Mobile TV app combines the demand for great live TV on the move with the high quality viewing experience offered by iPhone and iPod touch," said David Gibbs, Sky's mobile general manager.
Sky says there have been 2 million downloads of Sky applications on the iPhone to date, including Sky Sports and Sky Sports Football Score Centre.
Other users have been able to watch Sky Mobile TV on other mobile phones over the 3G network from several mobile phone companies.
In September, both Orange and Vodafone announced that they would be offering the iPhone, expanding its reach as O2's exclusive contract expires.
HOT NEWS!....
GEEKS EVERYWHERE This is a rare post that NMG does but interesting never the less. NASA have been working on their new rocket for many years.
They have decided to create this rocket to replace the ageing space shuttle that has caused many problems for NASA scientists.
Ares I-X rocket will be the latest space mission for the USA. Hopefully launching within 24 hours, if they do not launch in that time window they have until the 29th October 2009 to do so.
The two minute flight will give technicians and scientists the chance to test the technology to assist in the future project of Ares space missions. With this said there has been a lot of reports and worries that the future of the Ares will be cut short.
The Augustine panel, which had been asked to review the US human spaceflight programme, published its report last Thursday just days before the scheduled launch.
Although the panel supported the Ares I-X test flight, it questioned the need to develop the Ares I rocket, part of the Constellation programme commissioned by the previous administration and intended to return the US to the Moon by 2020. Thats just americans for you!
The $450m (300m euros; £275m) Ares I-X is what Nasa describes as a "pathfinder" vehicle. "It is a chance for the agency to remind itself what it takes to build a vehicle," said one NASA spokes person.
Nasa has not designed a new launch vehicle for more than three decades and has lost much of the expertise in the area, according to some critics. But looking at the cost of the project would the US government want NASA to build new rockets every week? I think not!
The Ares I-X is the longest, thinnest vehicle ever designed and built by the US space agency. The I-X vehicle is 100m (320ft) tall and has been designed to be as close as possible to the eventual Ares I rocket. However, the top half of the launcher, like the fifth segment of the booster, is a dummy. What would be an upper-stage, with a crew capsule and its emergency escape mechanism, are mock-ups made to the correct shape and weight.
All this said I cannot wait to see and hear the good news of the success of the Ares I-X.
(This article has had information from BBC News)
I will never use anything windows! This is what I was saying about a week ago. I was so anti-windows that I even got rid of my xbox and got behind on work as I didn't want to use what I called 'Saten's Operating System'.
So last week were told we are starting our new assignment in IT; computer game design was the topic. I was looking forward to this as it gives me the opportunity to expand my knowledge of gaming. For me to do this I had to install a windows operating system to my computer, this allowed me to design and create games.
As I am a Mac user (And will be forever!) I thought that I will install the OS on a virtual machine. My chosen agent is VMware.
My chosen poison was the NEW Windows 7. At first I was a little apprehensive as I have not used a Windows machine for over a year and a half. The startup happened and finished so I was now running W7! I felt dirty…
After using it, I felt a warm sensation running through my body… "What is this!" I said to myself. Smooth running, fun little features, clear displaying, great gadgets and I could do what I wanted! This was a million miles away from the dreaded VISTA!
With that said, am a pleased to introduce people to W7 when they ask to see my computer. I would even allow it near my niece and nephew and have dinner with my grandma.
Remember to follow me on twitter.com/jaihill and youtube.com/jaihill
Step 1: Go to http://www.blackra1n.com
Step 2: Download by clicking either Apple or Windows icon (depending on your OS)
Step 3: Plug in your iPod Touch or iPhone
Step 4: Click "Make it Rain"
Step 5: Enjoy!
Thats it!!! works on all models!
iMac features a bright 21.5-inch or 27-inch LED-backlit display with a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio — perfect for HD video.
Now with dual-core Intel processors starting at 3.06GHz and available quad-core Intel processors that boost performance up to 2x.
The new iMac meets ENERGY STAR 5.0 and EPEAT Gold requirements, is free of many harmful toxins, and is made from highly recyclable materials.
Just 1.08 inches thin and weighing only 4.7 pounds, MacBook features a sleek and durable unibody enclosure that slips easily into your bag or backpack.
The built-in battery lasts up to 7 hours on a single charge. So you can take MacBook anywhere and work, play, or do both longer than ever before.
Your photos, videos, games, and websites come alive with luminous color on the 13-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display.
The spacious trackpad gives you plenty of room to navigate and supports two-finger scroll, right-click, and Multi-Touch gestures.
See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Ii-khqinA
After some good 8 months worth of waiting, the Palm Pre has finally landed in Europe. Welcome, it was about time. As of today you can purchase a shiny new Pre given that you live in Germany that is, and you're willing to go for O2.
Shortly after our German friends, Spain will also be having a ball, expecting the thing some time tomorrow (on O2 again). And, as we promised you last time, on 16 October the device is going to be launched in the UK.
Unfortunately, currently there are no other European launches planned but we guess it's only a matter of time for it to start spreading across Europe in a blitzkrieg.
In Germany you can have the Palm Pre GSM for 481 euro SIM-free. However if you go for a 24-month contract with O2 (Telefonica) it will cost you only 1 euro (now that's carrier subsidizing!) but you'll have to shell out 20 euro each a month during the next 2 years (which is exactly 480 euro).
The situation in the UK is a little bit different. The most affordable way to get a Pre will probably be the 18-month contract with O2. You pay 96.89 GBP for the smartphone itself and a monthly fee of 29.38 GBP. In the end of the contract you would have paid at least 625.73 GBP.
Well, it turns out that the Pre ain't gonna cost that less than an iPhone 3GS so the decision remains hard. Or maybe not? Give us your thoughts in the comments.
See me on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/newmacgeek
Napster has relaunched its service, offering unlimited music streaming plus five MP3 downloads for a £5 monthly fee.
A similar deal sprung up in the United States in May for $5 a month.
The move comes hot on the heels of the growing popularity of rival websites like Spotify and We7 which have recently built up a huge following.
Music streaming service Spotify offers users a mobile application and recently announced that it would allow users to download music to their computer.
The service is available to premium subscribers for £10 a month.
Rival We7 is a free streaming service supported by ads, which offers pay-for downloads, and claims to have more visitors than any other British music website.
Competitive marketNapster says users will have access to its eight million songs which include many that other competitors don't have.
Ten years ago Napster was the first site to offer free unauthorised downloads and kicked off the competitive download market that exists today.
Its popularity at the time caused a lot of concern in the music industry and the Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster within months of its launch.
It was eventually shut down following a campaign by record labels and major recording artists, including Madonna.
The website became legitimate in 2002 but since then a whole host of new competitors have sprung up.
Apart from Spotify and We7 there's also Nokia's Comes With Music, which offers customers unlimited downloads when you buy a special handset.
Also on the way are unlimited services from BSkyB and Virgin Media.
The Carphone Warehouse is offering a FREE trial on Napster's new service in all the store nationwide, pop to your local branch to pick up a free promo card today.
Catch me on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/newmacgeek
YouTube now gets over a billion hits a day, according to a new video blog post by the founder of the website.
Chad Hurley's blog marks the third anniversary of YouTube's controversial acquisition by Google.
The site was bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65bn - a price it later described as "a premium".
Earlier this year YouTube was at the centre of a content row over the amount of royalties it paid to musicians for hosting music videos.
Six months later the dispute was resolved when Google agreed to pay UK royalty collecting body PRS for Music an undisclosed lump sum.
Music videos reappeared for British YouTube visitors in September.
Mr Hurley co-founded the website in 2004 with Steve Chen and Jawed Karim.
They met while employees at online pay service PayPal.
"We wanted to create a place where anyone with a video camera, a computer, and an internet connection can share their life, art, and voice with the world, and in many cases they can make a living from doing so," Mr Hurley said, reflecting on YouTube's original aims.
See me on YOUTUBE! - http://www.youtube.com/user/newmacgeek
Mobiles sporting the latest release of the Windows Mobile operating system are now available for sale worldwide.
Microsoft is also formally launching its application store, known as Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
While the service will launch with about 60 applications available in the UK, Microsoft's Alex Reeve said that number will soon rise sharply.
Windows-run phones can also make use of the My Phone service, a synchronisation service managed "in the cloud".
The new operating system and the application store were first announced in February, when a "beta" testing version of the My Phone service also launched.
Tuesday's announcement sees a full integration of handsets incorporating the new OS with access to the store and backup service.
Significant changes in the 6.5 release include a move away from the use of the stylus and toward more finger-friendly icons and buttons, and a push to see more "at a glance" from the lock screen and the main menus.
The operating system comes bundled with Internet Explorer Mobile 6.
It includes a significantly updated user interface and Flash Lite for viewing video and animation content.
The My Phone service is also updated compared to the beta version. Users can both backup and manage their applications and multimedia content via the My Phone service, accessible also on a PC. The service offers 200MB of storage for free.
Photos can be published from the My Phone site or directly from a Windows Phone to popular sites such as Facebook and Flickr.
Security features offered for free include the ability to map the last place a phone was synchronised to the My Phone service.
A further, paid "premium package" allows a suite of security features including the ability to locate a handset's current location, present an "if found" message to its screen, or lock it or erase its contents altogether. The premium service is at the time of launch only available in the US.
The Windows Marketplace will launch with applications including Facebook and MySpace and a raft of popular game titles.
It also offers a no-questions-asked return policy on the applications it sells. While the number of applications at the time of launch is just 60 in the UK (and about 250 worldwide), Mr Reeve said that there is a large backlog of applications that will soon be approved and become available.
The only thing that I think will be in the mind of alot of Tech fans is that a vast majority of these features of the OS have been on the iPhone for some time now, is this to little to late?
Right ok, so both Jai and Ryan have done this so who am I to let you go without my input in what I think about Snow Leopard after living with it for a month.
Well the first nice thing SL does for you is it gives you back some space (about 7GB). This is down to the OS being build from the ground up with new technology at its core. I have taken note of this technology as it does show its face every time I use my computer. It has certainly speeded my machine up which just making day to day tasks easy. SL was released to combat what Microsoft are coming out with at the end of this month, Windows 7.
Although it isn't a complete redesign of the OS certainly does show that Apple are keeping up with their tradition of releasing a new OS every year.
I've found SL to be worth the upgrade as it makes using your Mac that much easier. Apple did say we wouldn't be getting a complete new design but, the little changes that have been made are worth it. Only time will tell as to whether Apple made the right decision to not change the looks of SL too much, especially with Windows 7 coming out soon.
If you haven't upgraded to SL yet because you are still hesitant about it, don't be you'll just be missing out. And all the apps I've tried to use have worked without fuss, even apps that needed updating worked before I updated them.
Although this month has been great, going back to the look and feel of SL I do wish they had done more to the look of the OS as I get bored with things after a while. I would never stop using it even if I got really bored, nothing would make me go back to Windows full time. :)
Don't forget to check out my channel at: http://www.youtube.com/superjon92/
Apple may soon introduce a mouse featuring multitouch technology, like that seen in its iPhones, iPods and MacBook trackpads.
Sporting a touch-sensitive housing, the new mouse will do away with the roller ball on the current Mighty Mouse (pictured above). The rumored multitouch mouse might apply the inertia feedback seen in iPods and iPhones, whereas scrolling speed accelerates or decelerates in response to how the user touches the surface.
Presumably an Apple multitouch mouse would function similarly to the unibody MacBook trackpads, which detect multitouch gestures. On new MacBooks, tapping the trackpad with two fingers triggers a right-click function, for example; this rumored multitouch mouse might copy this behavior. Also, for a mouse, we would expect a multitouch gesture to replace scrolling in different directions, and perhaps there will be special gestures that trigger Exposé commands as well.
Apple’s new mouse may be released with new iMacs, sources have said. The popular iMac desktops were last refreshed in March, and Apple typically upgrades them every seven months. That would suggest new iMacs — perhaps packaged with multitouch mice — will hit stores very soon.
http://www.youtube.com/user/newmacgeek
T-Mobile has launched the UK’s first Pay-As-You-Go Android handset, heralding the rise of cheaper smartphones.
The T-Mobile Pulse, manufactured by Chinese manufacturer Huawei, has the largest Android touchscreen yet, matching the iPhone in size at 3.5 inches. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera and comes supplied with a 2GB SD card. It also features GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
The phone is available for £176.16, making it significantly cheaper than rival smartphones. Alternatively, the Pulse is free for customers who choose to sign up to a contract, starting at £20 a month over a 24 month period.
The Pulse follows the T-Mobile HTC G1, launched last year, which was the first Android phone to hit the UK market.
http://www.youtube.com/user/newmacgeek
Speculation had grown that 3 would be the next mobile operator to announce it would be stocking the Apple iPhone, after Orange and Vodafone confirmed they would sell the 3G and 3G S handsets in the coming months.
However 3 today ruled out making any move to bring the device to its network and will instead concentrate on launching a number of other data centric devices in the near future.
A 3 spokesperson said: "We look to offer customers great value for money with fantastic handsets and very competitive tariffs. We will not currently be ranging the Apple iPhone.
"We've got several strong handsets coming soon that we know our customers will love."
