My guess (and it's only a guess) is that the syncing software was low hanging fruit for MS. Moto included something that they shouldn't have, and to make a point MS sued them. The point, of course, being that it's DANGEROUS to use Android and it's a PATENT MINEFIELD because no one really knows what's in it and MICROSOFT WILL INDEMNIFY YOU if you use WinMo.
The thing with HTC seems to be more related to the revenge of a spurned lover than anything else. With Moto, though, the goal seems to be about increasing the uncertainty surrounding Android.
You're right. Moto, not Android. My typing got ahead of me.
The problem still is that Android is getting all these cool features, but it seems to be up to the OEM itself to determine what, if any, licenses need to be licensed. As much as I dislike Microsoft and think that their "indemnification" sales pitch is a load of crap, seeing them going after Moto is a bit disconcerting.
Nuance and IBM hold so many patents in the voice recognition field it's not even funny. With MS suing Android for things as innocuous as "syncing", I wonder what, if anything, Google is doing to protect or aid handset makers from this type of litigation. As I mentioned before in a previous post, a simple list showing all applicable patents and necessary licenses would help give a heads up to Android device makers.
To use the icons and artwork, and the MFI program does seem to encourage it given that they have a link from the main MFI page to the special Cases page, the OEM needs to be approved by someone at Apple. It's probably just a rubber stamp, but as their license spells out,
Apple may terminate this Agreement at will upon 10 days' written notice.
They may not be able to force the product's withdrawal from the market, but they can withdraw their endorsement of it.
Reading other threads in this story, it's pretty clear that most people haven't got the slightest idea what they are talking about.
Think about the quote for a minute. I'll copy it here so you can read it.
We are looking at graphene, and it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it's really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us.
First, the guy declares his intention to find markets to use the invention.
Then he says that the company will base hundreds of inventions on Geim's invention.
The last line is where everyone seems to be having trouble. Take it in context with the first two points, though. Why would Geim need to sue the company? Because they aren't paying him for licensing, ostensibly. Because they have hundreds if not thousands of patents based on his patent that they are using in their products or licensing to other companies and not paying him. Note that *there is no downside except the opportunity cost of losing licensing fees which can only be gained by actually having the patent*
The island comment is not about GB, it's about the dream of retiring rich off of a world-changing invention. The multinational company guy is holding it out there in front of him. Hey, if you patent this, trust us, we're going to find a great way to use it and we're all going to get rich!
If he doesn't patent it, they use it. If he does, they use it. There is no downside to getting the patent, but somehow he took some joviality to mean something nefarious. That's a shame, because if this invention really delivers on what it promises, he would have been really rich.
The quote makes no sense at all as a threat. The "island" comment in particular has no meaning except as a "you're going to be extremely rich" off the cuff joke.
Geim misunderstood the situation, the comment, the person's meaning, and now he will not see a dime in licensing.
That company? Well, they'll go ahead with their hundred lawyers and get patents on all sorts of applications of the technology that Geim pioneered. Which is what the guy was obviously telling him in the first place.
Hate for corporations needs to be tempered with common sense, and Geim showed none in this case. Lucky for him he got some recognition from the Nobel committee.
Many cars already have such a system. Not saying that the laser system couldn't also be used for the task, of course.
But the value of the laser seems to be in its ability to draw shapes that are not predetermined and preprogrammed. Digits or a dial could be useful displayed on the HUD, but so could a graphical display of your car relative to others nearby. It could help parking, changing lanes, and merging.
Of course, navigation is one obvious application of this, but coupled with a front-mounted IR sensor, it could also provide obstacle detection and highlighting during night time driving.
Read the quote again. It's not a threat, it's an offer to work together.
Basically, the company is saying that they will take his work and turn it into a portfolio of really useful things, patents and products. So many, in fact, that they will forget to pay up for the licenses. But by that time, Geim would already be filthy rich living on a tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific.
He would spend his days, daiquiri in hand, dispatching lawyers to gather up licensing fees from delinquent companies. The company would make sure there were enough useful applications around his patent that there wouldn't be any way to avoid stepping on it.
He threw it all away because he thought that idea was arrogant.
It's really simple, and Geim seems to have totally misunderstood the guy's comment.
By patenting it, and the company creating patents surrounding it, Geim stands to gain in licensing incredible amounts of profit. He would be able to "buy his own island".
Geim calls this comment arrogant, but by not patenting it he has simply made it possible for the multinational electronics company to use his invention at no cost. They reap all the benefit while his work to discover/invent goes unrewarded - even the Nobel prize award would be dwarfed by the licensing fees he could make if the invention is truly useful. Geim's altruism benefits only the "arrogant" companies he seems to disdain.
What if the cosmic background "warmth" which hovers just above 2 Kelvin isn't the remnants of the Big Bang but rather a physical phenomenon produced by some more general aspect of our universe. Like goldfish in a bowl, the limits of our experience are defined by our universe, so the phenomena we experience define and are defined within that framework. But like a human outside the goldfish bowl, we can understand why certain phenomena (such as bending of light through the glass) occurs at a simpler, more general level than the goldfish within could grasp.
Our bowl tells us that there is a background radiation permeating the universe, that unknown and unobservable matter and energy are pulling the universe this way and that, and that time and space exist. We send our tools out to study and measure this bowl. We come away with a great deal of understanding of our bowl, but for some reason things don't all fit together.
Outside this bowl of ours there is probably a simple and elegant description of the phenomena we experience here. But for the time being, I'm glad to see us working so hard to learn about this little bowl we live in.
With Microsoft suing Motorola over "sync" features of their Android phone, I think it would be foolish for any phone maker to rush headlong with this browser suite.
The features are compelling, but it may be patent encumbered and may have the potential to embroil an OEM in litigation.
I hope it isn't patent encumbered, but I wonder if anyone has gone through the features with a fine toothed comb to determine the IP licensing requirements of manufacturers. That would actually be a pretty good resource to have.
In some ways I'm sad because we've seen the last of these magnificent vehicles in their space faring roles.
In other ways I'm sad because we have no future plan to go to space, travel to another planet, send a man to somewhere man hasn't been before.
We look at the changes going on here on Earth, glaciers melting, oceans rising, magnets, how the fuck do they work? And it is just so obvious that we need to get off this goddamned planet and out into the universe and start staking our claims.
It feels like we're in the late Middle Ages and we just need a Christopher Columbus to usher in a new age of exploration and colonization. But everyone looks inward to see what they can affect here when that is ultimately just a losing battle. Looking outward, upward, always twirling, this is how we will outlive this planet.
Have they added enough padding to the conference room walls? When Ballmer finds out the terrible ROI on this crap, there will be an epic chair throwing incident.
The Brits are pretty amazing. It's like they are a step ahead of everyone in this field. I imagine not brushing your teeth gives you a few minutes extra every day, and that adds up.
I'm kidding of course. But the British, maybe because of brains, maybe because of necessity, have been pushing the boundaries of computation for almost two hundred years. We owe a great debt of gratitude towards them.
But they were also kind of dicks about that whole independence thing. So it all evens out.
Slashdot Mirror
I gotta admit begrudging admoration of the Russians for this one.
I'll bet she was on her cellphone and didn't even notice the damage.
My guess (and it's only a guess) is that the syncing software was low hanging fruit for MS. Moto included something that they shouldn't have, and to make a point MS sued them. The point, of course, being that it's DANGEROUS to use Android and it's a PATENT MINEFIELD because no one really knows what's in it and MICROSOFT WILL INDEMNIFY YOU if you use WinMo.
The thing with HTC seems to be more related to the revenge of a spurned lover than anything else. With Moto, though, the goal seems to be about increasing the uncertainty surrounding Android.
You're right. Moto, not Android. My typing got ahead of me.
The problem still is that Android is getting all these cool features, but it seems to be up to the OEM itself to determine what, if any, licenses need to be licensed. As much as I dislike Microsoft and think that their "indemnification" sales pitch is a load of crap, seeing them going after Moto is a bit disconcerting.
Nuance and IBM hold so many patents in the voice recognition field it's not even funny. With MS suing Android for things as innocuous as "syncing", I wonder what, if anything, Google is doing to protect or aid handset makers from this type of litigation. As I mentioned before in a previous post, a simple list showing all applicable patents and necessary licenses would help give a heads up to Android device makers.
Any guidelines on how to help the bees return?
I like gardening a lot and put out a lot of ornamental flowers and vegetables to attract bees, but this year there have been very few.
To use the icons and artwork, and the MFI program does seem to encourage it given that they have a link from the main MFI page to the special Cases page, the OEM needs to be approved by someone at Apple. It's probably just a rubber stamp, but as their license spells out,
They may not be able to force the product's withdrawal from the market, but they can withdraw their endorsement of it.
Reading other threads in this story, it's pretty clear that most people haven't got the slightest idea what they are talking about.
Think about the quote for a minute. I'll copy it here so you can read it.
First, the guy declares his intention to find markets to use the invention.
Then he says that the company will base hundreds of inventions on Geim's invention.
The last line is where everyone seems to be having trouble. Take it in context with the first two points, though. Why would Geim need to sue the company? Because they aren't paying him for licensing, ostensibly. Because they have hundreds if not thousands of patents based on his patent that they are using in their products or licensing to other companies and not paying him. Note that *there is no downside except the opportunity cost of losing licensing fees which can only be gained by actually having the patent*
The island comment is not about GB, it's about the dream of retiring rich off of a world-changing invention. The multinational company guy is holding it out there in front of him. Hey, if you patent this, trust us, we're going to find a great way to use it and we're all going to get rich!
If he doesn't patent it, they use it. If he does, they use it. There is no downside to getting the patent, but somehow he took some joviality to mean something nefarious. That's a shame, because if this invention really delivers on what it promises, he would have been really rich.
How is the visibility? Is the green laser going to provide better contrast and visibility than red?
They can always revoke their Made For iPhone license.
http://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/
http://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/cases.html
It seems like the vetting process for third party accessories is about as porous and subject to reviewer whimsy as their iTunes app process.
That isn't what the quote says at all.
The quote makes no sense at all as a threat. The "island" comment in particular has no meaning except as a "you're going to be extremely rich" off the cuff joke.
Geim misunderstood the situation, the comment, the person's meaning, and now he will not see a dime in licensing.
That company? Well, they'll go ahead with their hundred lawyers and get patents on all sorts of applications of the technology that Geim pioneered. Which is what the guy was obviously telling him in the first place.
Hate for corporations needs to be tempered with common sense, and Geim showed none in this case. Lucky for him he got some recognition from the Nobel committee.
Power is not a huge concern for most in-vehicle systems.
HEY what would be awesome is a 3D color display of the cars, pedestrians and roadway ahead of my vehicle.
that would be awesome!
at night.
Many cars already have such a system. Not saying that the laser system couldn't also be used for the task, of course.
But the value of the laser seems to be in its ability to draw shapes that are not predetermined and preprogrammed. Digits or a dial could be useful displayed on the HUD, but so could a graphical display of your car relative to others nearby. It could help parking, changing lanes, and merging.
Of course, navigation is one obvious application of this, but coupled with a front-mounted IR sensor, it could also provide obstacle detection and highlighting during night time driving.
I wonder what they have in the pipeline!
Read the quote again. It's not a threat, it's an offer to work together.
Basically, the company is saying that they will take his work and turn it into a portfolio of really useful things, patents and products. So many, in fact, that they will forget to pay up for the licenses. But by that time, Geim would already be filthy rich living on a tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific.
He would spend his days, daiquiri in hand, dispatching lawyers to gather up licensing fees from delinquent companies. The company would make sure there were enough useful applications around his patent that there wouldn't be any way to avoid stepping on it.
He threw it all away because he thought that idea was arrogant.
It's really simple, and Geim seems to have totally misunderstood the guy's comment.
By patenting it, and the company creating patents surrounding it, Geim stands to gain in licensing incredible amounts of profit. He would be able to "buy his own island".
Geim calls this comment arrogant, but by not patenting it he has simply made it possible for the multinational electronics company to use his invention at no cost. They reap all the benefit while his work to discover/invent goes unrewarded - even the Nobel prize award would be dwarfed by the licensing fees he could make if the invention is truly useful. Geim's altruism benefits only the "arrogant" companies he seems to disdain.
I'm not sure this is a real win. If the user info is turned over, they can still be sued.
Maybe they don't lose internet ability, but the core problem is still intact.
What if the cosmic background "warmth" which hovers just above 2 Kelvin isn't the remnants of the Big Bang but rather a physical phenomenon produced by some more general aspect of our universe. Like goldfish in a bowl, the limits of our experience are defined by our universe, so the phenomena we experience define and are defined within that framework. But like a human outside the goldfish bowl, we can understand why certain phenomena (such as bending of light through the glass) occurs at a simpler, more general level than the goldfish within could grasp.
Our bowl tells us that there is a background radiation permeating the universe, that unknown and unobservable matter and energy are pulling the universe this way and that, and that time and space exist. We send our tools out to study and measure this bowl. We come away with a great deal of understanding of our bowl, but for some reason things don't all fit together.
Outside this bowl of ours there is probably a simple and elegant description of the phenomena we experience here. But for the time being, I'm glad to see us working so hard to learn about this little bowl we live in.
With Microsoft suing Motorola over "sync" features of their Android phone, I think it would be foolish for any phone maker to rush headlong with this browser suite.
The features are compelling, but it may be patent encumbered and may have the potential to embroil an OEM in litigation.
I hope it isn't patent encumbered, but I wonder if anyone has gone through the features with a fine toothed comb to determine the IP licensing requirements of manufacturers. That would actually be a pretty good resource to have.
The vikings are like the British cryptographers. They may have done a bunch of cool stuff, but their total impact is negligible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery
In some ways I'm sad because we've seen the last of these magnificent vehicles in their space faring roles.
In other ways I'm sad because we have no future plan to go to space, travel to another planet, send a man to somewhere man hasn't been before.
We look at the changes going on here on Earth, glaciers melting, oceans rising, magnets, how the fuck do they work? And it is just so obvious that we need to get off this goddamned planet and out into the universe and start staking our claims.
It feels like we're in the late Middle Ages and we just need a Christopher Columbus to usher in a new age of exploration and colonization. But everyone looks inward to see what they can affect here when that is ultimately just a losing battle. Looking outward, upward, always twirling, this is how we will outlive this planet.
Have they added enough padding to the conference room walls? When Ballmer finds out the terrible ROI on this crap, there will be an epic chair throwing incident.
Oh dammit! It's 10am in London now...
Goodbye karma.
The Brits are pretty amazing. It's like they are a step ahead of everyone in this field. I imagine not brushing your teeth gives you a few minutes extra every day, and that adds up.
I'm kidding of course. But the British, maybe because of brains, maybe because of necessity, have been pushing the boundaries of computation for almost two hundred years. We owe a great debt of gratitude towards them.
But they were also kind of dicks about that whole independence thing. So it all evens out.