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Tokyo Court Rules In Favour Of Apple Against Samsung On Patent

A Tokyo court ruled on Friday that Samsung Electronics had infringed on rival Apple’s patent for a “bounce-back” feature on earlier models of its popular smartphones.

The rubber-banding patent refers to the bouncing animation that takes place when a user scrolls past the end of a page while on a mobile device.

Samsung has already changed its interface on recent models to show a blue line at the end of documents, the report noted.

The Tokyo District Court issued a partial verdict Friday in favor of Apple. Damages were not announced. A final verdict is expected later.

Apple and Samsung are embroiled in similar battles in the U.S., South Korea, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia.

The Japanese court’s decision comes after the US Patent and Trademark office judged in April that Apple’s patent for the bounce-back feature was invalid, allowing older Samsung models that had a similar feature to remain on sale.

Samsung and Apple, the world’s two biggest smartphone makers, have each scored victories in patent disputes fought over four continents since the maker of the iPhone accused Asia’s biggest electronics maker of “slavishly copying” its devices. The companies, are competing for dominance of a global mobile-device market estimated by researcher Yankee Group at $346 billion in 2012.

Further details regarding the Tokyo court’s decision will be announced when the final ruling is handed down later today.

[Via]

June 21, 2013
Audi fires head of R&D, Wolfgang Dürheimer

Audi’s highly regarded head of R&D, Wolfgang Dürheimer, has been fired by the German manufacturer, ahead of the revered 24 hour of Le Mans race this weekend. The story was broken by German magazine Der Spiegel and has been corroborated by several high-ranking Volkswagen Group sources.

Dürheimer had been appointed Audi’s R&D boss in September 2012 following a management shakeup within the Volkswagen Group in mid-2012. Prior to then, he had served as the head for Bentley, restructuring the brand and spearheading their effort to bring an SUV to the market. He has also held the same position at Bugatti, and was formerly the development chief at Porsche (where he is credited with helping get the original Cayenne into production, ushering in a new era of profitability for the company).

But at Audi, a lot of his decisions did not go down well with VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn, leading to personal tension between the two. He reportedly quickly put a stop to costly projects such as the R8 E-Tron and the rotary range-extender engine for the A1 E-Tron, and shuffled the reporting structure within the brand’s design department. Winterkorn strongly disapproved of Dürheimer’s conservative E-mobility strategy, and apparently disagreed with Dürheimer several times on the styling direction for the brand as well.

Dürheimer’s future within the Volkswagen Group is unclear at this time, and his position at Audi will currently be filled by the Group’s R&D chief, Ulrich Hackenberg.

June 21, 2013
Lava Iris 504q Now Available For Pre-Bookings On Online Stores For Rs.13,499

LAVA International Limited is now offering the newly launched Lava Iris 504q for pre-booking on various e-commerce websites.

The new Lava Iris 504q has a super slim 8.4mm thickness that makes it the slimmest handset in its category. It brings HD experience to a 5 inch IPS screen with OGS display technology and a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Powered by a Quad Core 1.2GHz processor and running on the latest Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), the Iris 504q comes with an intelligent flip cover.

This device sports an 8MP camera with rear auto-focus and BSI sensor. Lava Iris 504q also packs in 1GB RAM and an internal memory of 4 GB, which is expandable up to 32 GB.

The Lava Iris 504q is priced at Rs. 13,499 and comes with a free flip cover and screen guard. It is expected to reach the stores in the last week of June.

You can watch our hands-on video below :

[youtube id=”C3g00WG6NSw” width=”100%” height=”300px”]

June 21, 2013
Leaked : Image Of Rumoured iPhone 5S With Dual-LED Flash

MacRumors has allegedly gotten their hands on photos of what appear to the rear shell and components of the rumored iPhone 5S.

The photos reveal a vertical pill-shaped LED flash, which suggests that Apple might include dual-LED flash inside iPhone 5S, just as recently leaked model schematics for the device unveiled.

Previous reports have noted that Apple has been experimenting with a 12 or 13-megapixel camera for the iPhone 5S, along with an improved night shooting mode.

MacRumors also notes that the main chip on the logic board doesn’t feature an A-series label as the one inside iPhone 5, and that it has been manufactured sometime in late October.

The rumoured iPhone 5S looks pretty much identical to the iPhone 5 – it even has the same two-tone pewter colour scheme.

‘The battery carries a more recent Apple Part Number of 616-0652 compared to the iPhone 5 battery, which has carried several different part numbers including 616-0611 and 616-0613,’ reports Mac Rumors.

The alleged Apple iPhone 5S also includes a larger 5.92 Whr battery compared to the 5.45 Whr capacity of the iPhone 5. But most of its internal workings look very similar to the current Apple iPhone 5 smartphone that is currently available.

Although we cannot verify the authenticity of these images, Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5S later this year alongside a lower-cost iPhone with a plastic shell that will be available in an array of color options.

[Via]

June 21, 2013
Samsung Launches The Samsung Galaxy NX Android Mirrorless Camera

Today Samsung finally introduced the Galaxy NX, a mirrorless camera that runs Android with LTE connectivity and can use interchangeable lenses.

Like other Samsung mirrorless cameras, the Galaxy NX has a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor with hybrid autofocus. The rear LCD is a large 4.8-inch touchscreen, and there’s an electronic viewfinder as well. It’s capable of capturing fast action with shutter speeds as quick as 1/6,000 of a second, and ISO goes up to 25,600 for shooting in low light.

The lens situation is definitely an improvement over past incarnations of phone-camera hybrids. You can attach pancake, telephoto, wide-angle, or even 3D lenses to the Galaxy NX Camera. However, they will have to be the Samsung NX lenses, which tend to be more expensive less abundant than other mirrorless options.

Samsung Galaxy NX boasts 1080p Full HD video capture capabilities at 30 frames-per-second, and is also compatible with Samsung’s line of 3D lenses for extra-dimensional shooting. The Galaxy NX plays host to a 1.6GHz quad-core processor.

The Samsung Galaxy NX specs sheet is further enhanced by 3G and 4G LTE connectivity options via a SIM card, as well as dual-band Wi-Fi compatibility. It packs 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage expandable via microSD up to 64GB and runs Google’s Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS.

Also onboard is a Drime IV Image Signal Processor, which is promised to deliver speed and accuracy. Thanks to Android, there’s also access to a bunch of apps, such as Samsung’s own ChatOn client, S Voice, S Translator as well as the normal things you’d find on Android.

The Samsung Galaxy NX Camera release date and price for the Indian market is still to be determined.

June 21, 2013
Samsung Ativ One 5 Style AIO Launched

The all-in-one entry to Samsung’s Ativ PC line-up is the Samsung Ativ One 5 Style.

Samsung explained that the PC’s sleek design was meant to mimic that of the Galaxy S4 phone, featuring sleek curves, bevels, and edges.

The Samsung Ativ One 5 Style features a 1,920 x 1080 display with an unfortunate glossy reflective finish., AMD A6 quad-core processor, shared graphics, 4GB of memory, up to 1TB HDD, and a 720p camera. The One 5 has two USB 3.0 ports and HDMI in/out.

It runs a full version of Windows 8, which means that when Windows 8.1 finally drops later this year, One 5 Style customers will be able to get it for free.

It also has SideSync pre-loaded so you can tether a smartphone or tablet to it as a second screen or perform tasks like backing up photos.

There’s no battery so you can’t take it round the house with you like the Sony VAIO Tap 20 and Dell XPS 18. Nevertheless, it’s a nice all-in-one PC on first impressions.

Like the rest of Samsung’s Ativ range, we’ve got no pricing details or a specific release date beyond ‘later this year’.

June 21, 2013
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus, ATIV Book 9 Lite Announced

Samsung today announced two new Ultrabooks, the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus and Samsung ATIV Book 9 Lite.

Both feature aluminium unibodies and 13.3-inch screens with touch functionality. The one on the ATIV Book 9 Plus however packs the whopping 3200 X 1800 QHD+ resolution.

The ATIV Book 9 Plus supports a 256GB SSD, up to 8GB RAM and offers a battery life of 12 hours. At its thickest point its said to be 13.6mm, and weighs just 1.39kg. They’ve also made improvements to the backlit keyboard and trackpad and the touchscreen touts Gorilla Glass, which makes it quite durable.

The Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus can be hinged in two positions, one is around 105 degrees and the other is a flat 180 degrees. Samsung says that the touchscreen display will offer an improved experience due to the use of OCR bonding.

Samsung also announced the lower-end ATIV Book 9 Lite, which ditches the high resolution display for a standard 1366 x 768 display, and features one of AMD’s new Kabini APUs under the hood. The machine does have a 256 GB solid state drive in its 1.44-1.58 kg body, but it’s not surprising to learn the battery life is lower than its flagship counterpart: apparently you’ll only be able to manage a maximum of eight hours out of this device.

As with the ATIV Book 9 Plus, the Book 9 Lite is slated for a Q3 release with no price announced just yet.

June 21, 2013
Behold The Samsung ATIV Q, Android And Windows In One Device

Samsung is aiming to make your decision regarding which tablet OS to choose, much easier. The electronics giant announced the Samsung ATIV Q which combines Android (Jellybean 4.2.2) and true Windows 8 (not RT) on the same device.

It comes just over a fortnight after Asus unveiled its own laptop-tablet hybrid which also runs both Microsoft and Google’s systems.

The Samsung ATIV Q features a razor-sharp 3200×1800 qHD+ display. It measures 13.3 inches on its diagonal — meaning the Q going to be a tad more bulky than the Galaxy Note 10.1. While you might normally be concerned about the Windows performance of a device like this, you don’t need to worry about the Samsung ATIV Q. It’s not running an Atom like some other dual-booters. It’s running Intel’s latest silicon, a Core i5 Haswell with HD 4400 graphics and 4GB of RAM. That should provide the Ativ Q with brilliant battery life in Windows and equally brilliant performance while running Android. And yes, that also means that you’re getting the full Windows 8 experience — not the confusingly limited Windows RT.

As for storage, it has a 128GB SSD which is considered large in the tablet segment.

The hinged Samsung ATIV Q allows users to lay the display flat over the keyboard for tablet mode; raise the display upright to type as on a laptop; ‘float’ and adjust the display to a comfortable viewing angle; or flip the display to place in the stand mode to watch movies. A stylus is also included to enhance the tablet experience.

Users will not only get access to Android apps via Google Play but also be able to transfer files, to share folders and files from Windows 8 to Android, truly marrying the mobile and PC experiences”.

The two distinct operating systems are individually hosted but provide strong, seamless file and data transitions work together well, quietly and behind the scenes.

Whether or not people will warm up to the idea of dual boot devices remains to be seen, but it is surely a step in the right direction.

Pricing and availability details have not been revealed yet!

June 21, 2013
Microsoft Giving Away $100,000 Rewards For Finding Windows 8.1 Security Flaws

If you’re good enough with code, perhaps you can make some good money digging up bugs for Microsoft.

Microsoft is offering what it calls a ‘Bounty Program’ to finding exploits and vulnerabilities for Windows 8.1. Google has had a similar program for its Chrome web browser for quite some time now, though not offering as much money.

The new exploitation method must not be one that Microsoft already knows or that has been described in prior works and the submission must also include a white paper explaining the method.

The biggest one is the Mitigation Bypass Bounty, which will pay up to $100,000 to developers who find “truly novel exploitation techniques” in Windows 8.1.

Any successful hacker can earn an additional $50,000 “BlueHat Bonus” if they can tell Redmond how to fix a major flaw in the operating system. In addition, there’s an $11,000 bounty on Internet Explorer 11 Preview Edition vulnerabilities – but with a 30 day time limit – presumably so that any new problems can be fixed in time for the final release.

“Microsoft will pay up to $100,000 for truly novel exploitation techniques against protections built into the latest version of our operating system (Windows 8.1 Preview). Learning about new exploitation techniques earlier helps Microsoft improve security by leaps, instead of capturing one vulnerability at a time as a traditional bug bounty alone would,” the company explained.

That program begins on June 26 but will end 30 days later on July 26th. More details on all three bounty programs, including some advice on how to submit a good exploit report, can be found here.

The company is set to introduce the new Windows 8.1 Preview at the BUILD developer conference in San Francisco on June 26th as well.

June 20, 2013
Tata Motors launches eight models including CNG Nano

Tata Motors has launched eight new products across five brands to mark ‘Horizonext’, its new passenger car business strategy, at its plant in Pune. While some models get additional kit and a choice of new colours, the company has also unveiled CNG variants for the Indica, Indigo and the Nano. Horizonext is all about evolution rather than revolution. Which is why all eight products showcased at the company’s plant in Pune encompassing cars and utility vehicles, are refreshes rather than all-new products.

The Tata Indigo eCS now comes with a new powertrain, a new Feather-shift gearbox and an all new noise, vibration and harshness package. The Sumo Gold gets dual AC, bluetooth and USB connectivity. There is a new Nano with keyless entry, twin glove boxes, a four speaker music system with blutooth, USB and aux-in connectivity. The new nano also features a chrome strip on its hood and a new vent on its boot for better engine cooling. The Nano can now also be customised with personalisation kits.

The Indica is now available in a new range of colours and graphic designs. It also gets a refreshed exterior, dual path suspension set-up, multimedia entertainment options and Feather-shift gearbox with smart-shifter gear technology. Tata Motors also announced the launch of the Safari Storme Explorer edition, which is equipped with a double DIN touchsreen multimedia system, a nudge guard, door visors, explorer decals among other gear.

The CNG lineup includes the Nano (called emax), the Indica and the Indigo.

According to Tata Motors, these refreshes mark a new direction for Tata Motors. The company now wants to focus on improving existing technology and fine-tuning it to function better. Improvement in ergonomics, interior quality and features are other focus areas for Tata Motors as part of this strategy along with speed in bringing out new and improved products. The company added that it was its new mission to bring about desirable products that will make sense not just today but in the future as well.

We expect to see all the updated models as well as the CNG variants in showrooms very soon.

June 20, 2013
Report : Microsoft Was Close To Acquiring Nokia But Talks Broke Down

Technology pundits have long speculated that, one day, Microsoft would buy its way into manufacturing of its own mobile phones. Apparently that day came a lot closer to fruition than people had thought.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone business – the deal you probably assumed would happen sooner or later – has been scuppered before talks were even made public, according to a new report.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal wrote that Microsoft has been engaged in “advanced talks” to snap up the Finnish mobile maker, but that those discussions have recently broken down and are not likely to resume.

The WSJ also adds that both companies were close to an oral agreement with Microsoft purchasing the device division of Nokia, using some of Redmond’s reported $66 billion held in off-shore businesses. That method would have let Microsoft avoid a hefty tax penalty for purchasing the massive phone maker.

The price was reportedly too high in Microsoft’s reckoning and the software giant was understood to be concerned by Nokia’s inability to mount a serious challenge to the likes of Apple and Samsung in the smartphone business. This may sound a little rich coming from Microsoft, but the addition of HTC to the ranks of top class smartphone makers and the recent return to form of Sony and BlackBerry has made Nokia an outside bet in the smartphone race.

Nokia’s smartphones exclusively use Microsoft Windows Phone software, under a deal the two companies struck two years ago.

[Via]

June 20, 2013
Microsoft Backtracks On Xbox One DRM And Used Games Policy

Xbox One will not require regular online check-ins or place restrictions on game-lending “as a result of feedback from the Xbox community,” Microsoft announced today.

“Today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360,” wrote Don Mattrick in an official blog post today.

Additionally, Mattrick wrote, players will be able to “trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today. There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.”

This will come at a small cost — despite previous announcements, Xbox One will require that discs remain in the tray in order to play games, and players will be unable to share downloaded games. In other words, it’ll work exactly like the Xbox 360 — for better and for worse.

Originally it was planned that the new Xbox One would have allowed digital games to be shared with ten friends and family, allowing others to log in and play the titles. A cloud-based system also meant that software would be available from any console, even without a physical disc, and downloaded titles could be shared and sold. That would not be the case now.

Now, when the new console is released this November, there will be no need to authenticate the system online every 24 hours – a requirement thought to have been introduced as a digital rights management measure. According to the statement, “After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again.”

On the other side of the coin, capitalizing on online anger about Microsoft’s policies, Sony took E3 by storm with their announcement that the PlayStation 4 would use no similar DRM scheme.

June 20, 2013
LG To Begin Mass Production Of Flexible Mobile Displays Later This Year

LG demoed their “unbreakable and flexible” 5-inch and 7-inch display last month at the SID Display conference in Vancouver. Reports indicated that the 5-inch display will have a “1.0mm bezel allowing production of borderless smartphones,” plus the 7-inch display would be for tablets and has a HD resolution “that exceeds 300 pixels per inch (PPI).”

LG was rumoured to launch a smartphone with a flexible display sometime in Q4, but plans of this were reportedly halted due to a manufacturing issues. Recently, Dr. Sang-Deok Yeo, CTO and Executive Vice President of LG Display, said “with the resulting rapid need for new display advancements, LG Display, at the forefront of these trends, is well positioned to lead the market with its differentiated and cutting-edge technologies.”

An overseas report today surprisingly reveals that LG is heading into production of its flexible displays. LG spokesperson Frank Lee, who was once leading the Canadian communications arm of LG, stated “We have completed the development of our first flexible displays. We will mass produce flexible displays from the fourth quarter of this year.” The flexible display that will be used in mobile devices will be OLED (organic light-emitting diode) supporting ultra-high definition (UHD).

Unfortunately there’s no indication of specific details of the smartphone, only that it’ll be released “later this year” and that LG might be “selling the screens to other major mobile producers.”

The new technology will break the conventional cycles in the industry, and LG confirmed it is also working on TVs with flexible UHD displays.

[Via, Via]

June 20, 2013
Rumour : Qualcomm Likely To Power Microsoft’s Next Surface RT

The latest rumours surrounding the Surface RT state that Microsoft is currently testing a new version of the tablet with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chipset inside. Bloomberg claims that Microsoft will update the tablet with new chips from Qualcomm, while NVIDIA will “continue as a supplier for some versions”, presumably including the existing model with its Tegra 3 chipset.

The Verge is even more specific on the new chips at the heart of the Surface RT. Its sources claim that the Snapdragon 800 is the CPU in question.

The news comes just as the Snapdragon 800 MDP leaked out showing impressive results, comparing well with Cortex A15 architectures and showing big strengths in the graphical department where the Adreno 330 basically sets a new standard for mobile graphics.

Sales of the Surface RT – which runs the pared-back Windows RT, a version intended for ARM processors, and which does not offer direct app support for software written for full Windows 8 – have failed to grab Microsoft a significant share of the market.

Earlier this month, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to RT at the Computex show in Taiwan and said it will add a version of the Outlook e-mail and calendar application in an attempt to make it more attractive to businesses.

Recently Microsoft appear to have been clearing out their remaining Surface RT stock, offering low prices to students, offloading 10,000 units to educators across the United States, and deeply discounting the tablet at TechEd earlier in the month.

[Via]

June 19, 2013
HTC Butterfly S Officially Announced, Features Ultra-Pixel Camera

Last week we saw some leaked photos of the new HTC Butterfly S, the handset has now been announced in Taiwan and we have all the specifications on new Android smartphone.

You should rejoice as the Butterfly S packs a massive 3,200 mAh battery, a big upgrade over its predecessor which had a 2020 mAh battery.

Image Courtesy : Engadget

The new HTC Butterfly S comes with a Snapdragon 600 quad core processor clocked at 1.9GHz. It has a 5 inch full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Other specifications on the HTC Butterfly S include 16GB of built in storage and a HTC Ultrapixel camera, the device also comes with HTC Boom Sound speakers.

The device runs on Android 4.2 with HTC Sense 5.0, and hence has the HTC Zoe feature. Blinkfeed is likely to be brought to the device as well.

In terms of the connectivity, the phone comes with quad-band HSPA , Wi-Fi a/ac/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Infrared and GPS.

The HTC Butterfly S is a little chunky, weighing in at 160 grams and measuring 10.6 mm in thickness, but that’s what you get when you dramatically increase the battery size.

The HTC Butterfly S will go on sale in Taiwan in July it will also launch in Europe and Asia later this summer, although we do not have any details on an exact launch date.

We hope HTC price the phone better than last time.

[Via]

June 19, 2013