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Nikon Buckles To Microsoft, Will Pay "Android Tax" For Smart Cameras
walterbyrd writes with news that Nikon is the latest company to agree to pay Microsoft for the privilege of using Android on its devices — as you might expect from Nikon, the devices in this case are cameras. (Microsoft's press release.)
One less brand to ever appear on my shopping list.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
The real target of all this bullshit from Microsoft is the use of firmware with software other than what comes from Redmond, period. Face it Microsoft has been squeezed out of the embedded market largely because of the flexibility of OSS and the Linux kernel.
The best and only solution is for manufactures to turn on the bastards and stop using fat and ntfs period or charge more for devices that do.
This could easily be accomplished by providing a software tool with the cheaper devices to read write to Windows without the use of fat or ntfs. If Samsung, Nikon, Sony, Toshiba, Canon and all the other manufacturers got together and created a formatting tool for storage that they shared this could easily be accomplished.
Having one company dictate the format in which all portable storage devices read and write is the problem and the bastards in Redmond need to be held to task and given a full financial enema for a change.
Why isn't Google sticking up for Android?
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
That's because while some don't like the patent system at large, many, I'd say the majority, find the software patent system despicable. This article is about the latter.
Moreover this is a friendly reminder for all those who think that the Xbox/Xbox 360 makes money: the royalties from mobile system patents are collected by the EDD, those, and not the Xbox, counterbalance the losses of Windows Phone.
You callin' this "extortion"? That's a big word, my friend. 'Round here we just call it biz niss.
Nikon is a big boy now and can take care of itself.
Founded in 1917 and a core component of the Japanese industrial cartel Mitsubishi.
You do know Mitsubishi? Employs 350,000 people? Rakes in about $350 Billion in revenues each year?
In a mature industry, all Android-related patents would be pooled, managed and cross-licensed to stabilize the business and the product.
No need to build your own customized portfolio. That hasn't happened yet and the geek won't like it when it does ---- any more than he likes the dominance of the MPEG LA pools in video compression.
even the original MS-DOS circa 1981 was at best a workalike knockoff of CP/M that they bought in from someone else
If Oracle beats Google on appeal, then DRDOS Inc. has a case against Microsoft. The maker of CP/M reworked CP/M-86 into DR-DOS.
I can't help but think this is just a bit of karma comeback for Nikon. A few years ago, they decided to change their RAW file format to NEF (Nikon Encrypted Format), which could be read by nothing but their own software. They graciously allowed MS, Adobe and all to purchase licenses, so that Photoshop and such could read and work with the new .nef files. To be fair, Pentax, Canon and everyone seems to be doing this now.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
>Help me understand - you are mad at the victim?
The problem with danegeld is that you never get rid of the Dane.
Paying off Microsoft is the absolutely wrong "solution" to this and only emboldens Microsoft. Microsoft can point at all these people paying danegeld and say "hey, you have to pay too."
It's why we all got mad at people who paid SCO for their extortion.
Fuck Microsoft, but also fuck Nikon for financing their extortion.
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BMO
Nikon could skirt the patent by using EXT2/3 on their disks and include a driver for EXT2/3 for Windows and OSX. Because such things already exist. It's not like Windows users aren't used to installing drivers already.
But that makes too much sense.
Why device manufacturers insist on using VFAT and FAT64 boggles my mind.
This whole situation is just pure laziness, and a reason why people should point and laugh at Nikon for paying danegeld.
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BMO
Personally, I've used MS Office since 2.0. I've taught classes in many versions. If I go boot up Word on my work machine, now, I can't find a flipping thing. It's easier to get around in LibreOffice. And all that time I spent getting good at Office feel like as big a waste of time as VisualBasic.
I think Google buying Motorola was clearly a defensive move. Google was attempting to protect itself from the most vicious patent trolls, and scam artists in the business, namely Apple, Oracle, and Microsoft.
Who has Google extorted, and how?
It's pretty widely known now that MS is extorting money almost exclusively for its ancient FAT filesystem patents.
It might be pretty widely known, but it is also pretty widely wrong. Microsoft has a massive portfolio of patents which can be used against Android, a lot of which is just useless user interface minutia. If you look at the bottom of the press release it distinguishes between Android patents and exFAT patent agreements. You can see an example of the kind of the patents Microsoft use from the various times they have had to list them publicly.
Also, it is not the ancient FAT filesystem that is patented (although Microsoft would like that), but the long filename extension to the filesystem (which is still pretty old) as well as exFAT (which was introduced in 2006). Nikon would probably need to use exFAT to work with SDXC memory cards.