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Windows users have already marked their calendars for October 26, 2012, which is the day Microsoft joins the touch-computing revolution with the launch of Windows 8. Not the least bit surprising, it's also the day Microsoft will begin selling its Surface tablet, a revelation that appears in a recent 10-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in lieu of an official announcement.
Microsoft can no longer stick its head in the sand and claim ignorance to the fact that its Surface tablet could, and probably will, incite anger among its OEM partners who aren't keen on the idea of competing with the company in the tablet space. That luxury went out the window when Microsoft filed a Form 10-K with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, admitting in black and white print what's been obvious since the get-go.
While Samsung and Apple continue to tangle in court over patent infringement claims brought on by the latter, the former spends its spare time shipping smartphones, and a great number of them at that. In the second quarter of 2012, Samsung figures it shipped 52.1 million smartphones, or nearly double that of its closest rival, Apple, which shipped 26 million iPhone devices in the same time period.
If you're into sports, then you know how maddening it can be to see the referees penalize teams like crazy in one game, and then swallow their whistles in the next. That makes it hard for players and coaches to decipher the rules, which is exactly how Samsung must be feeling right about now. Not only are different courts around the world issuing opposite rulings in Samsung's patent fight with Apple, at least one is also factoring in the size of Samsung's devices, or so it seems.
Qualcomm's newest mobile development platform is a quad-core tablet powered by a Snapdragon APQ8064 S4 Pro system-on-chip (SoC) clocked at 1.5GHz, an Adreno 320 GPU, and 2GB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) and has a 10.1-inch display pumping out 1366x768 pixels. All that juicy hardware (save for the screen resolution, which falls well short of the iPad 3's Retina Display and other Android models boasting Full HD 1080p panels) adds up to a powerful Mobile Development Platform (MDP/T) intended to give programmers a potent device to develop, test, optimize, and showcase their latest apps and games.
Imagine if the windows in your home or automobile weren't just windows, but transparent solar panels collecting light energy and converting it into electricity? Such a concept could have a monumental impact on future hybrid cars, and could potentially shave your monthly electricity bill. If transparent solar cells existed, of course. Well guess what? Not only do they exist, but researchers at UCLA say they've developed a new kind of transparent solar cell that's better than anything out there.
Satellite TV provider DirecTV and Viacom have finally reached a long term agreement to restore 17 channels to DirecTV customers, ending a bitter dispute that neither side could afford to let drag on. Be that as it may, the disagreement over financial terms of a contract renewal went on longer than it should have, resulting in a blackout of popular channels like Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Spike, CMT, and TV Land, along with ten others, while customers were used as pawns in contract negotiations.
One step forward and two steps back. That must be how Samsung feels as it dances with Apple in various courts around the world defending its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet and other products the Cupertino outfit claims infringes on the look and feel of iPad and iPhone devices. The latest setback took place in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which denied two of Samsung's motions related to the preliminary injunction levied against the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Nobody likes to eat crow, but what do you do when a judge in a court of law hands you plate full of it and orders you to shove it down your gullet? The answer to that question is forthcoming. Apple, which has been on a crusade to bury Samsung for allegedly copying the look and feel of its iPad and iPhone devices, was ordered by a U.K. judge to flip the script and take out ads stating Samsung is innocent.









