Apple

Reports from last week noted that Samsung’s attempt to lift Apple’s preliminary injunction placed on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States was rejected by District Judge Lucy Koh. Today, in Apple’s ongoing patent cases with Samsung in the United Kingdom, Bloomberg reported Judge Colin Birss ruled against Apple, claiming Sammy’s Galaxy Tabs “are not as cool.” It is hard to imagine Apple losing in any more of a complimentary way, as Judge Birss claimed his decision was based partly on the fact Galaxy tablets “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity.”

The Galaxy tablet doesn’t infringe Apple’s registered design, Judge Colin Birss said in a ruling today in London. He said that consumers weren’t likely to get the two tablet computers mixed up.

The Galaxy tablets “do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design,” Birss said. “They are not as cool.”

The company provided a full email statement regarding today’s decision (via Pocket-lint). Samsung explained the court referred to roughly 50 pieces of prior art when dismissing Apple’s case:

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The original Galaxy Note model.

A recent report suggests the Galaxy Note successor will début with a slightly larger display at a popular consumer electronics show in Europe next month.

According to Maeil Business Newspaper, the Galaxy Note 2 will boast a 5.5-inch display, which is .2-inches larger than the original model, and it will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. A quad-core Exynos processor will give the phablet a performance boost, and its rear-facing camera will see an upgrade from 8-megapixels to 12- or 13-megapixels.

“Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Note 2 during the IFA 2012, a consumer electronics show held in Berlin, Germany in late-August,” reported South Korea-based Maeil, while quoting a source “familiar with the matter.”

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc&feature=player_embedded]

The August issue of Vanity Fair fully dissects “How Microsoft Lost Its Mojo,” but it also gives an interesting glimpse at how the once-reigning tech company foolishly underestimated Google.

The actual article is not online, but BetaBeat obtained a physical copy and found a little nugget buried inside that describes chief executive Steve Ballmer going on a rampage in 2004. After allegedly throwing a chair, the CEO had this to scream say about an engineer who left Microsoft for Google:

“Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy!” Ballmer yelled, according to the court document. “I’m going to fucking bury that guy! I have done it before and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google.”

Ballmer is notorious for his emotional antics and miscalculated quotes about the competition. The video atop is a perfect demonstration of Ballmer going, well, crazy. Meanwhile, the video below shows the executive laughing about the iPhone in 2007, while dismissing its ability to handle business-oriented tasks due to its lack of a tangible keyboard.

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Reuters interviewed the U.S. judge today who dismissed Apple’s patent court case against Motorola, and the details behind the jurist’s reasoning for tossing the lawsuit are as interesting as they are controversial.

Richard Posner sits on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago and disputes whether software and related tech industries should even have patents for their products.

“It’s not clear that we really need patents in most industries,” said Posner, referring to the slew of features in smartphones that are legally protected. “You just have this proliferation of patents. It’s a problem.”

Posner, 73, argued the pharmaceutical industry better deserved protection for its intellectual property because of the, as Reuters coined it, “enormous investment it takes to create a successful drug.” He tossed Apple’s lawsuit against Google’s Motorola Mobility last month and denied an injunction against the sale of Motorola devices using Apple’s patented technology.

The judge attributed Apple’s scramble to attack competitors allegedly using its technology to a “constant struggle for survival.”

“As in any jungle, the animals will use all the means at their disposal, all their teeth and claws that are permitted by the ecosystem,” Posner contended.

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The folks at iFixit recently took a look inside Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, and today they are ripping apart another new Nexus device: the Nexus Q media streaming, Apple TV competitor. We already told you all about Google’s reasoning behind manufacturing the device just 15 minutes away from its United States headquarters, but iFixit wanted to find out exactly what parts came from where.

There was nothing too shocking in the teardown, but iFixit was able to identify the origin of many components. As noted in the report, “it’s nearly impossible to have a truly American-made electronic device.” Here is what it found:

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHkhp6BwnGo&feature=player_embedded]

The video above is a quality demonstration of voice searches on Android Jelly Bean.

Jean-Louis Nguyen posted the video, titled “How to impress your friends (or annoy your iOS counterparts): 40+ voice searches thrown at Google on Jelly Bean,” on Google+ yesterday.

“I never make videos, but felt compelled to share the many new voice capabilities on +Android, some of which were not demoed on stage during Google #io12. You may be surprised by some answers, notably those provided by the Knowledge Graph,” Nguyen wrote.

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Since Google unveiled its Nexus Q streaming device at Google I/O, more and more details have come out about what is essentially a set-top box (albeit orb-shaped) Apple TV competitor with a built-in stereo amplifier. Google was first to make it clear that the device was manufactured entirely in the United States, and a report from The New York Times later confirmed the Q “was being assembled in a large factory 15 minutes from Google headquarters.”

Today, a report from Reuters quoted Google’s Senior Director of Android Global Partnerships John Lagerling explaining that the decision was based on the ability to innovate faster and not necessarily cost:

“We wanted to innovate fast. This is the first end-to-end hardware product that Google has ever put out,” said John Lagerling, Google’s senior director of Android global partnerships.

The cost of building the orb-shaped Nexus Q, a cross between a streaming video box like Apple TV and a stereo amplifier, “was not the No. 1 priority,” Lagerling said. “We wanted to see if we could do fast (design iterations) rather than having our engineers fly across the world.”

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iFixit is hardcore when it comes to breaking open our favorite electronics to see what’s inside, and the website did it again today with the refreshed Google-flagship, Asus-built Nexus 7 that unveiled at the Google I/O conference last week.

Teardown highlights:

What’s inside:

A gallery is below.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuC0i4xTyrI]

You already saw a replay of the skydiving stunt if you watched today, but here is the rest.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEfzwsPRk2k&feature=youtube_gdata]

One Wall Street analyst is calling into question Google’s co-founder, Larry Page, and his health, due to the executive’s notable absence from the company shareholders’ meeting on Thursday.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who bequeathed his CEO title to Page in April 2011, told shareholders that the chief executive “lost his voice.” Schmidt further revealed Page would not attend the Google I/O developer conference next week or Google’s Q2 earnings call next month (as seen in the video above). Page will, however, maintain his post duties and continue an active role at Google while his voice recuperates over the next few weeks.

According to Canada.com, a Google representative explained that Page was “asked to rest.” No more information on the CEO’s mysterious voice condition is available at this time, but JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth debated Google’s excuse for Page in a note to investors today:

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In a post on the Android Developers blog, Google today outlined how it will be improving the ability for developers and app users to connect with one another through Google Play. Starting with an initial rollout today for Top Developers, devs will now have the ability to reply to user reviews from within the Google Play Android Developer Cosnole:

Developers can gather additional information, provide guidance, and — perhaps most importantly — let users know when their feature requests have been implemented…We’ll also notify the user who wrote the review via email that the developer has responded. Users can then contact the developer directly if additional followup is needed or update their review.

Google noted it will begin to offer the feature to additional developers as it gathers feedback on the feature from developers and users.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg2rwyEYe5c]

I spent the last week with two Samsung Galaxy S IIIs—a Sprint version and an AT&T version. Sprint’s version is LTE, which has not rolled out yet, so it has been on the slow 3G CDMA. AT&T’s version is also LTE, which I am often able to get access to while on the outskirts of Silicon Valley. For that reason, I have used the AT&T version most of the time. But really, they are the same phone, which is the big news here…

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Note: This is a Samsung SPONSORED POST, opinions are our own.

Samsung’s ES8000 LED TV with Smart TV

Samsung is updating its television lineup with the Samsung ES8000 LED TV. It features a dual core processor, slim bezel, and U-shaped stand. The television goes up to 55-inches and displays a more intuitive user-interface with an emphasis on voice interaction, facial recognition, integrated camera controls for multi-video conferencing, and multitasking.

“Let’s say you are watching a movie on Netflix and want to check in on the hockey highlights, just toggle from Netflix to one of my favorite apps, NHL Game center, and come right back to the movie without having to quit the app and launch another app,” said Samsung America President of Consumer Electronics Division Tim Baxter at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year.

Samsung’s all-new 55-inch flat screen will début later this year with the Smart TV platform on board. The product’s pricing details and release date are currently not known, but the South Korea-based Company fully detailed its television and Web-based platform that allows users to find, control, and experience their set and media by way of Smart Interaction, Smart Content, and Smart Evolution.

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We heard several reports in the past that Google was working on various evolutions of its Voice Actions platform for Android. We heard of “Project Majel” in December, which, according to reports, is the codename for a new voice-controlled assistant app similar to Siri. In March, TechCrunch reported on a similar project dubbed “Google Assistant.” According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Google is accelerating its plans to launch a competitor to Apple’s Siri:

Google, meanwhile, has accelerated plans to launch its own Siri competitor that would work on Android-powered devices, people familiar with the matter have said.

The report does not offer any additional details on the project, but it noted: “In coming weeks, Google is expected to unveil a lower-priced Android tablet that it developed with Asustek Computer.” Google recently acquired Clever Sense, the makers of popular local recommendations app Alfred, and some have speculated the technology could be included in Google Siri competitor. Many expect the Google tablet, mentioned by WSJ, to unveil later this month at Google I/O, where we could also possibly see some of Jelly Bean and this rumored assistant feature.

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William Blair analyst Anil Doradla (via Barron’s) wrote in his notes today that the iPhone is still the best-selling smartphone across the United States, but it is coming “under pressure, particularly at Verizon” due to the carrier’s aggressive marketing of 4G-capable devices. Citing his checks of sales for the current quarter as of June, Doradla claimed the Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX outsold the iPhone on Verizon:

Since Apple’s iPhone launch in North America, we believe this was the first quarter where the iPhone was not the best‐selling smartphone at a North American mobile operator (where it was available). While Apple continued to maintain its top position at AT&T and Sprint, Motorola’s Droid RAZR MAXX was the best‐ selling smartphone at Verizon. Our checks also indicate that at this stage consumers are not pausing in front of the iPhone launch as it is not influencing their purchasing decisions (but we expect it to start impacting over the next couple of months).

While the RAZR MAXX took the top spot, Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus grabbed third position behind the iPhone, according to Doradla. He backed his “outperform” rating on Apple by saying he is “not worried” given the next generation iPhone, which is likely due in October, is expected to include 4G LTE capabilities:

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