Category Archives: Tech News

Microsoft wins another patent battle against Google’s Motorola

Android, Tech News,

Microsoft’s won another key courtroom victory in its landmark patent case against Google’s Motorola Mobility division.

A federal jury in Seattle late Wednesday found that Motorola failed to license its standard essential patents related to the H.264 video standard and the 802.11 wireless standard on FRAND (fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory) terms in breach of its industry obligation to do so. And it awarded Microsoft about $14.5 million in damages for Motorola’s misstep.

The ruling from the first stage of the case, which found that Microsoft should pay only $1.8 million a year in licensing fees for the patents Motorola was demanding $4 billion for, it’s a precedent-setting victory and embarrassing to Google.

Clearly, the patent value Google thought it was buying from Motorola was not as strong as it first thought. Microsoft seems to be doing really well from licensing agreements over patents with many android phone manufacturers.

Removing your apps from showing on Google Play

Android, Tech News

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Over the years I have installed over a thousand android apps. Sometimes, I installed the free version and then bought the full app. Or I tried various free apps until I got what I needed. Or in the early days, I downloaded an app to fix or provide a function.

But I was getting up scrolling through unwanted apps and games. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, fire up Google Play on your phone or tablet. Select my apps, all. Now top right on each app listing is a cross. Carefully, tap the cross. A box will pop up and ask would you like to remove this from your list. Hit yes and its gone.

But what if you have a large number to remove. Push down on the app icon and hold for a second. It will highlight the line and on the top bar the selection dialogue appears.

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Now tap on the app icons of all the apps and games you want to remove. Then on the top selection bar, tap delete and voila.

I removed about 650 unwanted apps or games.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 full details and new info from Samsung

Apple, Tech News

Samsung has just unveiled 3 new products. The new Note 3, Note 10.1 2014 edition and Galaxy Gear Smartwatch.

Lets look at the Note 3 first.
Galaxy-Note-3-white

There will be two basic models one with a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 chipset and one that uses a 1.9GHz Exynos Octa-core SoC. Both will have Android 4.3 out of the box, a 13MP rear camera with Smart Stabilization, a 2MP front-facing shooter, 3GB RAM, your choice of 32 or 64GB internal storage, microSDXC support, IR LED, MHL 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and a 3,200mAh removable battery. LTE Cat4 support is also included (with up to six different band sets), along with quadband DC-HSPA+ 42Mbps and quadband GSM / EDGE. The rear camera is capable of recording UHD resolution at 30fps and full HD at 60fps.

The removable back battery cover is leather effect with stitching. The metal rim is still plastic like the S4. Other back covers will be available too.

The S-Pen has been updated too. Pulling the pen out of its hiding place triggers a feature called Air Command, which is a semi-circular menu that pops up and gives you a few quick options: Action Memo, Scrapbook, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window.

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And in case you need more information, Samsung has released a 6 min video showcasing the Note 3.

So are you going to buy this?

Samsung Galaxy Gear – Samsung’s new wearable tech

Android, Tech News

gear1

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Gear, a trendy watch apparently with a 320 x 320-pixel, 1.63-inch AMOLED touchscreen,a built in speaker in the watch strap including and a pair of mics for recording and playing back video content and communicating with a caller via the built-in dialler, which also works with the native phone app in your connected Galaxy device.

The Gear includes an 800MHz processor, a 315mAh battery, a BSI camera sensor and autofocus lens mounted in the wrist strap that’s tasked with capturing 1.9-megapixel stills and 10-second video clips at 720p, 640 x 640 or VGA resolution with sound. That camera, designed for on-the-go captures where convenience, not image quality, is a priority, is paired with a pre-installed app called Memographer. Other apps for the Galaxy Gear are set to be made available around and just after launch.

My favourite strap line from the presentation was “Just point your wrist, and shoot”. Sounds like the Secret Service or something out of James Bond.

Now the watch has a 25 hour battery and costs nearly £200. For both those reasons its off my wish list.

And who wears a watch nowadays. If you want to know the time you check your mobile!

Microsoft buys Nokia – Thoughts

Tech News, Windows

A few days ago Microsoft announced it was buying Nokia. The news and twitter feeds went crazy. Conspiracy theories even popped up regarding Elop’s placement at Nokia.

My thoughts are fairly simple in this deal. Clearly Elop was placed into Nokia with the goal of joining the two companies together. Corporate sales or mergers or deals of this nature often involve management change prior to a sale, and often after the deed has been accomplish they move on in to a different role or leave the business.

Personally, I believe once the dust settles, and providing Microsoft can keep the key people and talent, this acquisition could be what the tech industry needs. A strong third competing operating system.