The War There was once a time when being a heavy Google services user and a Microsoft fan was the easiest choice on the block. The boys in Redmond could provide a robust and productive operating system platform while the Mountain View search cowboys could back you up with web services. Now, the two companies are going head to head and it might just be causing a hellish nightmare for...
It has been revealed that Microsoft has delved into voice-controlled camera technology. The US Patent & Trademark Office has published a patent application filed by the company, which would introduce speech commands for camera operation on a smartphone. Just when you thought the handsfree approach couldn't go any more... well... handsfree. Microsoft has been attempting to head down...
I know what you're thinking, "Oh, not more patents!" Believe me, we wish we could simply forget about the business altogether and focus on technology and innovation, but we're talking about multiple corporations here. Microsoft is battling it out against Google and are currently in a strong position. This has been reinforced with ZTE becoming the 20th company to have taken a royalty-...
Level with me. You’re civil and fairly polite here in the comments on Windows Phone Central. But on other sites you’re a Microsoft fanboy. Don’t worry, there’s one deep down in all of us. Here’s some fodder for the next little flamewar you start with your Android frenemies – Microsoft will pocket dough for every single Android and Chrome OS device that Foxconn makes. Foxconn is that...
Since first being captivated by the beauty and excellence of Nokia's Lumia family of Windows Phone devices, people having been wondering if Nokia would follow Microsoft's lead by creating a Windows-based tablet, like the Surface. While we're nowhere closer to learning the answer to that question, what we do know is that Nokia had their sights on building a tablet back in 2011. A...
Nokia has made an intellectual property rights declaration to the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) with respect to Google's VP8 data format and decoding guide, listing 64 granted patents and 22 pending patent applications. VP8 is Google's dream to create a royalty-free codec, but it's reportedly not open standard and Nokia is having none of it (to see why, check quote below). The...
Just as many gamers have shouted over the headset in excitement, "BOOM! HEAD SHOT!" Nokia has won a patent injunction against HTC in Germany. Yes, we're aware that many of you have grown tired of such news being covered, but it's a Windows Phone OEM being attacked by another, so it's certainly worth noting exactly what's going on. It's reported HTC has since disabled the patented power-...
Nokia may be set to hop onto the train to join both Apple and Microsoft in signing patent deals with Android manufacturers. Nokia has put forward two patent infringement claims against ViewSonic and it's been confirmed that both parties are willing to strike a deal. This will prove to be yet another blow to Google with a hardware partner validating Nokia's claims that its platform has...
Today in Germany, the District Court of Mannheim ruled that HTC was not guilty of infringing on two patents owned by Nokia, including one involving the use of Google Play on HTC Android devices. The patent (EP0812120), which nebulously covers a "method for using services offered by a telecommunication network, a telecommunication system and a terminal for it," was one that HTC called...
A new patent has been found for a Nokia Windows Phone. What's more is that the design looks familiar. In fact, we've seen this particular design before in a render. Filed back in December 2011, concept images of the device were leaked prior to that in August, which was before the Lumia 800 - Nokia's first Windows Phone was even announced. A previous patent that came to fruition was the...
Motorola/Google lost a bit of ground in their patent litigation against Microsoft when the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington invalidated or dismissed thirteen of Motorola's patent infringement claims. The litigation claims that Microsoft infringed on sixteen of Motorola's patents with the Windows Phone and Xbox 360 systems. Judge James L. Robart granted...
InterDigital is looking to create a storm in the patent realm of we've-been-here-many-times-before. The company has filed a complaint with the US ITC (International Trade Commission) against Huawei, Nokia, Samsung and ZTE. InterDigital wishes a ban to be enforced on US imports of products made by companies in question. So what's this all about? InterDigital claims the companies have...
Although the stock market as a whole is down due to America’s ongoing blowhard budget bickering, we think investors have yet another good reason to buy Nokia (which is down today 3%). RIM will reportedly make an initial payment of $65 million to Nokia for their WLAN patent settlement from a few weeks back. The settlement came after Nokia brought a complaint against RIM in U.S., United...
A Delaware jury has ruled that Apple violated three patents owned by MobileMedia Ideas LLC. (MMI), a patent holding company that was created by Nokia, Sony and MPEG-LA. The original complaint, filed in March of 2010, alleged that Apple's iPhone used technology protected by fourteen patents held by MobileMedia Ideas. However, all but three patents, 6070068, 6253075, and 6427078, were...
Nokia has prevailed in a patent dispute the company filed against Research in Motion Limited (RIM) in 2011. Nokia filed complaints in the U.S., United Kingdom and Canada claiming RIM was in violation of WLAN patents. Long story short, the case went to arbitration and today the Arbitrator ruled in favor of Nokia. The ruling will require RIM to pay Nokia royalties for Blackberry handsets...
HTC can't seem to catch a break. Having only recently just settled with Apple over patent disputes, the Taiwanese company is preparing to battle Nokia over 32 different issues around the globe. The patent allegations range from syncing databases within a time to solutions with antennae design. If you're interested in the whole list of complaints, head over here. The question is whether...
HTC and Apple released a joint statement tonight announcing an end to their global patent dispute. The settlement comes with a new, 10-year cross licensing deal that includes both current and future patents, though no terms were disclosed. HTC's Peter Chou and Apple's Tim Cook had this to say about the deal: “HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on...
A Federal lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Maine claiming Microsoft's Windows Phone Live Tiles infringe on four patents. The patents in question are held by SurfCast and the litigation involves Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 devices. SurfCast is asking the Court to declare Microsoft directly and indirectly (through encouraging app development) guilty of...
Fan concept of a Nokia Tablet The notion that Nokia may be working on a tablet is not really controversial—members of the company have said as much in recent months. Rumors go back that they had Meego tablet in the works before that whole Microsoft deal squashed the future of that platform for the company. Indeed, we’re not a 100% sure of what to make of the two patents filed by Nokia...
Just don't whack it too hard... What a way to round off the working week with a humorous patent that has been filed by Microsoft. If implemented into Windows Phone, we'll be looking to "whack off" our phones should they start ringing. Depending on what the term "whack" means in the society you belong to, it usually involves utmost satisfaction followed by intense drowsiness, or crying...