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Samsung and Google Sign Global Patent License Agreement

Samsung Electronics and Google Inc. further extended their partnership with a global patent cross-license agreement covering a broad range of technologies and business areas.

“This agreement with Google is highly significant for the technology industry,” said Dr. Seungho Ahn, the Head of Samsung’s Intellectual Property Center. “Samsung and Google are showing the rest of the industry that there is more to gain from cooperating than engaging in unnecessary patent disputes.”

This new agreement covers Samsung’s and Google’s existing patents as well as the ones that will be filed over the next 10 years. This agreement allows Samsung and Google to get access to each other’s patents portfolios, which might lead to focus more on product innovations than on filing lawsuits.

“We’re pleased to enter into a cross-license with our partner Samsung,” said Allen Lo, Deputy General Counsel for Patents at Google. “By working together on agreements like this, companies can reduce the potential for litigation and focus instead on innovation.”

January 27, 2014
Report: Apple to Build a Mobile Payment Service

After adding the touch sensor to the iPhone 5s, Apple is looking to do more with the fingerprint sensor it seems. As per a report, Apple is looking forward to build a Mobile Payment Service.

The Wall Street Journal reported that, Eddy Cue, the company’s senior vice-president of Internet software and services, has met with “industry executives” to discuss Apple’s role in handling payments for physical goods and services. The mobile payment service is not used by many as people are sceptical about it, with companies like PayPal are working to give easier experience to users to pay for physical goods with their smartphones.

Having said that, the App Store is the only store with these many users registered with credit cards. In June of 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that its then cache of 400 million iTunes accounts with credit cards made it “the store with the most credit cards on file anywhere in the world by far.”

As per the report, Apple is building a payment service which will not only be used in the app store but for other purchases as well. Apple has not commented on this yet, stay tuned for more.

January 26, 2014
The 12th Auto Expo 2014 App Will Help You To Organize Your Visit

The 12th Auto Expo 2014 is around the corner, it is fine if you did not organize your visit yet. With the upcoming Motor show, the company has also lunched a new application on all mobile platforms. ‘AutoExpo – Motor Show 2014’ is the app, and can be downloaded from Play Store, App Store, Windows Store and also on BlackBerry’s Store.

To start with, the user interface of the application is fairly simple. The home screen will show you options like the list of exhibitors, from which you can choose your loved one and mark it as favorite. The application also showcases the Site Map of the new venue, which is the India Expo Mart, Greater Noida. Buying tickets for the much loved Auto Expo is easy as it can be done online, the charges for a reugular ticket on weekdays is 200 INR and on weekends is 300 INR. However, if you want to visit during the business hours, the money you will spend is 500 INR.

Moving On, as the Auto Expo 2014 shifts from Pragati Maidan to India Expo Mart, it also takes the convenience of Delhi Metro. However, the organizers have also provided free shuttles from the nearest metro station. The Auto Expo 2014 will witness the launch of over 70 products from the Auto companies, this makes the Auto Expo 2014 to be the biggest ever auto show in sub-continent.

All this information is given to us via the Auto Expo app itself, once you enable the push notifications it will show you all the latest happenings in the event. The application does a great job of giving al the information a person might be looking for to attend the huge upcoming show. So, are you planning to visit the show ? Expect every new launch to be covered by us, Stay tuned to AutoGyaan.

January 25, 2014
Edit : How To Survive A Tradeshow Or Any Large Event

With ever growing marketing drives and commercialization, trade shows and other large scale events are slowly becoming a common occurrence now.

There are events for everybody – music festivals for those fond of music, auto expos for automobile aficionados and technology shows, launch events for the techies – like the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

More often than not, people attending shows are lost in the magnitude of them. After an entire day(s) of walking, they still end up missing important bits and pieces. So, here we present to you some tips on surviving large scale events like tradeshows.

1. Plan

Procrastinators could find themselves left in the dust. One of the most common rookie mistakes is the attendee failing to plan for the event in advance.

Read over the schedule of events prior to attending the trade show or conference so you know what to expect before you get there. Smartphones have excellent calender apps that let you fill in important events and appointments. Pre-plan your itinerary so that you have an idea of the time you will spend at the event.

If you are someone who is going to have difficulty relaxing and sleeping with even minimal noise and/or lights, you are going to want to pack along an eye mask and some noise-cancelling headphones or earplugs for the trip, as these events may not necessarily be in the city/country you reside in.

2. Pack

This part is even more important if the event is outside your hometown. Make a list of things you’ll need throughout the event and buy them if you don’t have them already – they are just an investment for further events as well.

For example, if you were to be going to CES in Las Vegas, you should have a main camera, a secondary camera, a pair of memory cards, an adjustable tri-pod etc. packed at least a week advance.

Besides your professional gear, your personal belongings should be packed and stocked in advance as well. Make sure you include medicines and healthcare stuff in your inventory as well.

3. Get To Know The Battleground

The annual Consumer Electronics Show offers a mobile application to help attendees navigate it. Getting familiar with maps of the trade show and the area will save plenty of time because often there are multiple dropoff points along the way.

Keep a hard copy of the map with you at all times. Identify places that you will need to visit frequently – like the restrooms and the cafeterias. If it is a multi-day event, plan what areas of the showfloor you will be covering on each day. Mark them according to priority and importance.

4. Enjoy, but Behave!

Trade shows can be both fun and profitable. The key to being sure that your trip stays within the bounds of what is acceptable is to remember to keep all things in moderation.

Beware of alcohol. While drinking alcoholic beverages may loosen you up and make interacting with strangers easier, it is wise to keep this to a minimum.

Several events are typically crammed into a short period, which can make for some very long days. It is crucial to allow yourself some down time in order to get the most out of the event. At the end of the day, once you’re all done with your work, head out into the city for a nice meal and a little bit of sightseeing, if you’re in another city.

5. Learn

If it’s your first trade show, you will probably end up making mistakes and end up with the feeling that you could have probably done better.

The most important part of trade shows is that you make sure that you come back with something valuable. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you come back with the freebies that they hands out at stalls, but that you come back with ideas.

Large scale events are the excellent opportunity to learn more about the topics you’re interested in, so make sure to look around and take notes.

6. Take Care of Your Belongings

Once you’re wrapped up with all your work and are ready to leave, check all your belongings. Tally each item with the list you make before leaving the place. Crowded events are like a hunting ground for pick-pocketers.

Keep your expensive belongings like smartphones and wallets at places where you feel they will be safe. Also, don’t keep all your money in one place.

7. Keep Your Cards Handy, Make Contacts

Trade shows and other large scale events are the perfect opportunity for you to make new contacts for yourself or your company. Talk to people, find out what they do – it might just turn out to be relevant for you or your company. Engage with them and at the end, hand out your business card so that they know how to get to you and discuss future opportunities.

Ask the presenters or vendors if they have written information you can take back to the office with you.so that you have formal details of their products or ventures when you need them.

January 23, 2014
Google To Face Hefty Fine For SimpleAir Push Notification Patent Infringement

SimpleAir is seeking $125M in damages from Google after a jury found that push notification services in Android infringe on a SimpleAir patent, the company said Tuesday.

The accused services are the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) services. The services are used by Google to process and send instant notifications for Android applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail.

It’s worth noting that Google isn’t the first company to run into trouble with SimpleAir. Microsoft, Apple and even Blackberry all have licensing agreements with the company, after all.

Because the jury did not agree on how much to award in damages, a limited second trial will be held to determine the amount. SimpleAir said in a press release that it will seek US$125 million, though it did not specify how it had calculated the amount.

[modal heading=”Press Release” text=”Press Release” size=”btn-medium”]Federal Jury Finds Google Infringed SimpleAir Patent January 21, 2014 03:45 PM Eastern Standard Time MARSHALL, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SimpleAir announced today that a federal jury returned a verdict that SimpleAir’s U.S. Patent No. 7,035,914 is infringed by Google. The verdict was reached on Saturday, January 18, 2014, following a week-long trial presided over by the Honorable Rodney Gilstrap, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas. “We are grateful for the jury’s hard work in this case and pleased with their verdict” SimpleAir had alleged that Google’s push notification services for the Android smartphones and tablets infringed five claims of the ‘914 patent. The jury agreed unanimously on all counts of infringement and also found unanimously that each claim was valid. The validity of the patent had previously been confirmed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office during a Reexamination proceeding that concluded in February 2013. The accused services are the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) services. The services are used by Google to process and send instant notifications for Android applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail. The jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the amount of damages to award for Google’s infringement. The damages issue will be decided by a separate jury in a limited second trial. SimpleAir will seek damages in excess of $125 million for Google’s infringement in the damages retrial. “We are grateful for the jury’s hard work in this case and pleased with their verdict,” said John Payne, who is the lead inventor and majority owner of SimpleAir. “There was a lot of information presented to the jury and they did an exceptional job figuring out what mattered and what didn’t. We look forward to addressing the issue of damages in the second trial and hope the jury in that trial will be as dedicated as this one was.” SimpleAir is an inventor-owned technology licensing company. The company holds eight issued U.S. Patents and several pending patent applications in the areas of wireless content delivery, mobile applications, and push notifications. SimpleAir has licensed its inventions to many leading technology companies. SimpleAir is represented by Greg Dovel, Jeff Eichmann, and Simon Franzini of Dovel & Luner LLP and by Calvin Capshaw, Elizabeth DeRieux, and Jeff Rambin of Capshaw DeRieux LLP.[/modal]

January 23, 2014
Huawei and Arsenal Announce Global Partnership

Huawei and Arsenal Football Club yesterday announced a new partnership, which will see the telecommunications specialist become the Official Smartphone Partner of the north London club on a global basis.

Huawei and Arsenal announced the global deal, which lasts until the end of season 2015/16 at the Arsenal Training Centre in Colney, Hertfordshire, with members of the first team including, Aaron Ramsey, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Özil along with manager Arsène Wenger. The partnership will be officially unveiled to supporters at the Emirates Stadium in London before the Premier League clash with Fulham Football Club on Saturday, January 18, 2014.

Tom Fox, Chief Commercial Officer at Arsenal Football Club, said: “We are delighted to welcome Huawei to Arsenal as an official partner. This is the first global deal we have signed with a Chinese brand, demonstrating our long-term commitment to the market through pre-season tours and sustained digital fan engagement. Huawei is a genuine leader in its field serving more than a third of the world’s population with its information and communications technology. We are delighted to be partnering with Huawei at such an exciting time in the development of its brand globally, and in particular in the UK and Europe.”

The partnership will see global collaboration between the two brands, with Arsenal FC’s officials and players taking part in Huawei’s communication and promotional activities both in the UK and overseas.

Mark Mitchinson, Executive Vice President at Huawei Technologies UK, said: “Huawei is delighted to partner with Arsenal, one of the world’s leading football clubs. We are a young, dynamic brand, as well as a technical leader in our field and this makes us a great brand match for a club with the global stature of Arsenal. We look forward to working with all the team at Emirates Stadium over the coming years.”

The partnership will also include exclusive offers, content and brand presence during Arsenal matches, as well as through the Club’s digital and social media platforms. In addition, Huawei will have access to the Club’s extensive marketing database and exclusive match day hospitality for competition winners at Emirates Stadium.

January 19, 2014
Intel Will Cut 5000 Jobs In 2014

Intel has said that it plans to reduce its global workforce by over 5,000 people over the year.

During a conference call Thursday evening to discuss the company’s financial results, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith disclosed that Intel would be “bringing down employment” in 2014; the company went into greater detail Friday, confirming with Mercury News that it would be shedding about 5 percent of its global workforce of 107,000 employees, or about 5,350 workers.

The cutback was decided following Intel’s projection of virtually no revenue growth this year, and will be accompanied by the company’s re-orientation toward mobile and other markets.

A company spokesperson told news media that the move is “part of aligning our human resources to meet business needs.” Intel has not yet said where the cuts will be made, or how they might affect departments or product lines.

Intel dominates the PC chip industry, but it has been slow to adapt its processors for smartphones and tablets, markets now dominated by rivals such as Qualcomm Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Last month HP announced that it would be eliminating 5,000 jobs in 2014, bringing its multi-year restructuring plan up to a total of 34,000 layoffs.

January 19, 2014
Motorola Moto G Hands On

The Motorola Moto G is one of the most widely anticipated smartphone in India, with no firm release date revealed yet. We managed to get our hands on one.

In terms of hardware, the smartphone sports a 4.5-inch HD display with a 1,280×720-pixel resolution and 329ppi. Powering its insides is a quad-core, 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, Adreno 305 graphics, and 1GB of RAM.

There is a 2070 mAH battery inside, but unfortunately there is no expandable storage. At the back of the Moto G there is a 5 MP camera and a 1.3 MP camera at the front.

The Motorola Moto G has proven to be hugely popular in the regions that it is already available, and is set to reach other countries shortly. No pricing has been revealed yet. You can check out the hands on video at the top.

January 18, 2014
India Now Officially A Polio Free Country

This week marked three years to the day the last polio incident was reported in India – the official requirement of being marked as a Polio free country by the World Health Organisation.

On the same day in 2011, a two-year old girl suffered polio paralysis in Howrah district of West Bengal. Since then, India has not reported any new cases of wild poliovirus.

Being declared polio-free is a tremendous achievement for India, which reported 200,000 new cases in 1988, and as recently as 2009 still reported 741 cases, more than any other country in the world according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador for Polio eradication for almost a decade, Amitabh is delighted with the news that India has officially been declared polio free by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“As the brand ambassador for the United Nations in the fight for polio eradication, I’m very happy and proud that India has been declared a polio-free country. I wish to applaud the efforts of the various volunteers and medical workers who have persevered tirelessly and charitably to enable India to be eradicated of the disease,” Bachchan said.

On the website of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is inexplicably called Impatient Optimists, Gates wrote: “As of today, India has gone three years without a single case of wild poliovirus, which means it’s now officially ‘polio-free’. India’s achievement is one of the most impressive accomplishments in global health, ever.”

He added: “India’s victory galvanized the global health community to commit to achieving a polio-free world by 2018. Now, we only have 3 more countries to go, down from 125 in 1988.”

January 16, 2014
Microsoft : Syrian Hackers Hacked Into Employee Accounts

Microsoft yesterday confirmed that the Syrian Electronic Army accessed a “small number” of employee e-mail accounts.

As The Verge notes, those published screenshots “mainly discuss[ed] the latest compromises of several Microsoft-owned Twitter accounts.” Included among the published screenshots was an email from Steve Clayton to Frank Shaw.

The Syrian Electronic Army — a political hacking group that supports Syrian President Bashar Assad — appears to be waging a war on Microsoft. Over the weekend, the group took control of the Twitter accounts of Xbox and Xbox Support, along with Xbox’s Instagram account.

As the Verge reports, it’s not immediately clear how many email accounts were targeted during the recent attacks, or how much data the Syrian Electronic Army were able to obtain before the accounts were reset. A Syrian Electronic Army representative says that the latest attacks were designed to be a distraction, indicating there could be further compromises in future. “We are making some distraction for Microsoft employees so we can success in our main mission,” the SEA told The Verge by email.

January 16, 2014
Google Launches Chrome 32 Browser

Google today released Chrome 32 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

While users running beta versions of Chrome might already be familiar with some of the new features, it is the first time Google has brought these features to the masses.

One of the features that are present in Chrome 32 are tab indicators for when a site is playing sound, accessing the webcam and sending video to your Chromecast. Google uses a speaker icon, blue rectangle and red dot to indicate these different functions.

Google has fixed five vulnerabilities in its Chrome 32 browser and also has activated a feature that will block malicious file downloads automatically. The change is a major security upgrade for Chrome and will help prevent users from unwittingly downloading harmful files, an attack vector that attackers count on for the success of drive-by downloads and other attacks.

Google has also introduced the beta version of its “supervised users” feature, which will help parents monitor and control their child’s browser activity.

If you’re a Windows 8 user, Chrome now looks much better on Microsoft’s latest OS. In Metro mode, Chrome 32 now looks like ChromeOS with its integrated app launched on Windows.

You can get more details on Chrome 32 here.

January 15, 2014
Facebook Paper Coming Soon To Rival Flipboard

After the entire 2013 passed with rumours about Facebook’s news reader being launched, the time may finally be upon us. Facebook could launch a brand new app called Facebook Paper next week according to Re/code’s Mike Isaac.

Facebook Paper will act like Flipboard, aggregating media content from mainstream publications like CNN and the New York Times, while also adding status updates from Facebook into the mix.

Facebook’s developers are believed to be taking Paper back to “a time before digital devices” in its aesthetic, with ReCode reporting that the name refers to a new “paper-like” format.

Re/code explains that the project spun off from an attempt to redefine the news feed :

Like many Facebook initiatives, the Reader project originally began years ago as an idea to completely overhaul the News Feed itself, but after numerous delays and design refreshes, the project was split into pieces. Parts of the redesign made it into Facebook’s March refresh of the News Feed, according to three sources, when the team had not finished what would eventually turn into “Paper.” While this initiative has been Cox’s pet project, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been directly involved (as he has final oversight over Facebook products), according to sources.

Facebook Paper would fit in with the company’s strategy of trying to become the go-to place for internet users looking to know what is going on in the world, a strategy Mark Zuckerberg pointed to at the launch of Facebook’s revamped news feed.

January 15, 2014
LiveBlog : Samsung CES 2014

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztsmusDQ9jU”]

For all the Latest CES Coverage on iGyaan : Click Here

January 7, 2014
Bump and Flock Will Shut Down On January 31

Google acquired contact and file-sharing app Bump back in September. Bump co-founder and chief executive David Lieb said the company was “thrilled” to join Google, citing similar passions for sharing information between people and devices. We’re not too sure he’ll feel the same way now.

Bump and Flock are no more and will stop working and be removed from Google Play (and the App Store) on January 31st, 2014. The reason for this decision: Lieb and his team are now “deeply focused” on new projects within Google and don’t have the resources or time to devote to innovating on either product.

The app allows iPhone and Android users to “bump” together two phones to share contact details and files between devices. Later versions also allowed phone users to “bump” phones with desktop computers.

In September 2011, the company announced it had 50 million downloaders and 10 million active “bumpers.” Just less than a year later, more than 600 million photos were shared by “bumping” phones. Later it released an iPhone-only version photo-sharing app dubbed Flock (not to be confused with the social browser of the same name).

January 1, 2014
Snapchat Hack : 4.6 Million Usernames / Phone numbers Published

An Australian security team last week published two new Snapchat exploits, claiming that hackers can easily get their hands on users’ personal data and create hoards of dummy accounts.

Gibson Security published Snapchat’s API and the pair of exploits on Christmas Day, opening up the popular startup’s disappearing message app to anyone who wants to stalk the app’s 8 million users.

Well today, it appears that someone has used that exploit to collect 4.6 million usernames, and their associated phone numbers, and publish them on a website.

The website SnapchatDB.info allows anyone to simply grab either as a SQL dump or a CSV text file information that the creators claim was acquired through “the recently patched Snapchat exploit”. The last two digits of each number were hidden by the group.

The site later appeared to have been taken down, but, while accessible, explained that the material had been published to “raise awareness” of the issue.

“This information was acquired through the recently patched Snapchat exploit and is being shared with the public to raise awareness on the issue. The company was too reluctant at patching the exploit until they knew it was too late and companies that we trust with our information should be more careful when dealing with it,” it said.

“For now, we have censored the last two digits of the phone numbers in order to minimise spam and abuse.”

January 1, 2014