Daily Crunch: Farewell To The Social Edition

R.I.P. Microsoft Zune, 2006-2011 Sneakers Built From Computer Parts Look Amazing, Amazingly Uncomfortable A Lego Like Light That Lights When You Like (Video) Apples To Apples: Apple Inc. Files For Apple Corps? Old Apple Logo Trademark HP?s Sandy Bridge Notebook Line Now Shipping

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/03/15/daily-crunch-farewell-social/

MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES LSI LINEAR TECHNOLOGY

Google Doodles awarded patent for 'enticing users to access a website'

If you thought the crazy, Wild West days of the United States Patent and Trademark Office were over... think again! Google has been awarded a patent for its famous Doodles. The application was originally filed in 2001, some three years after Google began using custom logos on its home page.

With the awesomely vague title "Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site" we can only hope that Google isn't in a particularly litigious mood. Wouldn't such a patent cover animated Flash splash screens? And with the steady rise of HTML5esque Web apps and Web-based add-ons, will their shiny, enticing front pages fall under the auspices of Google's patent?

The USPTO has seen weirder days, though. Sun, the company behind Java, famously ran a contest to see which developer could secure the 'goofiest' patent -- and then there was the time that British Telecom tried to enforce a patent issued in 1976 that apparently gave it ownership of the ubiquitous HTML hyperlink. BT lost that court case, thankfully.

Google Doodles awarded patent for 'enticing users to access a website' originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 05:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/23/google-doodles-awarded-patent-for-enticing-users-to-access-a-we/

SRA INTERNATIONAL SPSS SPANSION

London Underground to get 120 WiFi hotspots in advance of the 2012 Olympics

A big announcement arrived today if you live in or around London: to prepare to the onslaught of data-hungry visitors for the 2012 Olympic games that the city is hosting, 120 WiFi hotspots are being added to various locations along the Underground subway system's stations and platforms, in addition to other measures being taken to beef up tech. No WiFi will be in the actual tunnels, mind you, but it should definitely come in handy for all those tourists trying to find their way around the city. British Telecom has already tolled out a trial run at the Charing Cross station, with further installations expected in the lead up to the games.

London Underground to get 120 WiFi hotspots in advance of the 2012 Olympics originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/26/london-underground-to-get-120-wifi-hotspots-in-advance-of-the-20/

INSIGHT ENTERPRISES INGRAM MICRO INFORMATICA

Art Galleries Online: Everything Except the White Wine and Snooty Talk

Artists seeking to sell their work and art lovers seeking to buy it need now go no further than their computer. With the rise in online art sales, buying and selling original art can take place entirely online. One such site, Ugallery, was founded by two University of Arizona college students in 2006 as a class project. Since then, the site has taken off, and it currently sells the work of over 300 emerging painters, photographers, and other artists.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/72109.html

AMPHENOL ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL APPLE COMPUTER

Test that showed Android browser faster than iPhone Safari was flawed

Yesterday's rather shocking finding that the Nexus S loads Web pages 52% faster than the iPhone 4 has turned out to be a sham.

Apple has lashed out at Blaze Software, the company behind the test, saying: "Their testing is flawed. They didn't actually test the Safari browser on the iPhone. Instead they only tested their own proprietary app, which uses an embedded Web viewer that doesn't actually take advantage of Safari's Web performance optimizations."

Blaze has updated its website in response to Apple's rebuttal, kind of admitting it made a mistake, but also attacking Apple for crippling iOS's embedded Web viewer.

There's another, more nefarious, story at play, though. With iOS 4.3, Apple shipped a new version of Mobile Safari, which thanks to Nitro JavaScript and asynchronous rendering should be very fast indeed. Apple didn't update the embedded Web viewer that iOS Web apps use, however. The result is that while websites are very snappy, Web apps that you launch from the home screen are sluggish.

By not updating the embedded Web viewer, developers are claiming that Apple is intentionally stymying the performance -- and thus adoption -- of Web apps on the iOS platform. It could simply be that Apple didn't get around to updating the embedded Web viewer in time for iOS 4.3's release, though.

Test that showed Android browser faster than iPhone Safari was flawed originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/18/test-that-showed-android-browser-faster-than-iphone-safari-was-flawed/

MEMC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS MICROSOFT MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR

Microsoft asks state lawmakers to make domestic companies pay for foreign firms' software piracy

Microsoft's pirated software police have been going after companies abroad for years, but getting those far-away folks into US courtrooms isn't easy. What is easy, however, is suing the folks in your own back yard -- which is why Microsoft is lobbying to get laws passed in several states that'll put US businesses on the hook for the pirating ways of their foreign suppliers. For example, if a manufacturer uses pirated software in the "manufacture, distribution, marketing, or sales" of products sold in Washington, Microsoft could sue the vendor of those products and get an injunction to stop the goods from being sold. So Washington widget retailers would be liable for the piracy of their foreign widget manufacturers, even if the illicit act was merely creating the sales invoice on a counterfeit copy of Word.

The Washington state Senate and House have already approved different versions of the bill, and the legislature is in the process of merging the two together for final approval. Louisiana passed a similar law last year, and analogous bills have been proposed in Oregon and several other states as well. Numerous companies -- including Dell, IBM, Intel, and HP -- oppose the laws, as they see them giving Microsoft the power to not only drag them into court, but also futz with their supply chains. (There's bound to be some counterfeit software being used in Shenzhen, right?) As Microsoft's latest anti-piracy scheme unfolds, there should be plenty more legislative action to come. Evidently the crew in Redmond doesn't see piracy as a problem to be fixed by lowering prices.

Microsoft asks state lawmakers to make domestic companies pay for foreign firms' software piracy originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/XanyfIlHFEI/

KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY KEY JDS UNIPHASE

Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light

Although this is not the first time we've seen an efficiency increase in blue OLEDs, it's worth noting that their proposed cap of productivity up to this point was a lowly five percent. It's exciting to learn, therefore, about a breakthrough by professor John Kieffer and graduate student Changgua Zhen from the University of Michigan, which has resulted in them successfully increasing azure diode power efficiency by 100 percent. The duo, accompanied by some bright minds in Singapore, manipulated performance controllers by rearranging OLED molecules in a computer model, improving material characteristics. In simple terms though, we're still looking at a measly ten percent efficiency, so we'll see where they take it from here.

Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/26/scientists-improve-blue-oled-efficiency-dont-promise-everlasti/

MANTECH INTERNATIONAL MANHATTAN ASSOCIATES LSI