May
20

Apple vs Samsung: CEOs set to meet Monday in patent talks

admin on May 20th, 2012

Apple’s Tim Cook and Samsung’s Choi Gee-sung were ordered  last month by US federal judge Lucy Koh to attend the so-called settlement conference where the two firms will be expected to make a serious effort to resolve their differences. If no settlement is reached, the case is likely to go to trial late July.

The patent dispute kicked off in California in April 2011 when Apple accused Samsung of “slavishly” copying elements of the iPhone and iPad in the design of its Galaxy line of mobile handsets and tablets. Samsung countersued, claiming that the Cupertino-based company had infringed some of its patents. Since then, lawyers at both companies have been working overtime, filing around 50 patent-related lawsuits in 10 countries. 

The two company bosses will meet in a courthouse in San Francisco, overseen by magistrate judge Joseph C. Spero. Both will be accompanied by their legal teams as they talk through the details of the dispute.   

On Sunday, a leading executive at the South Korean electronics giant, JK Shin, told Reuters that Samsung was keen to find some common ground with Apple in a bid to sort out the ongoing issue.

“There is still a big gap in the patent war with Apple but we still have several negotiation options including cross-licensing,” said Shin, who will be present at the talks. 

Even if tomorrow’s talks between the two companies go well, it’s expected to be some time before any actual deal is reached. It’s safe to say that the final chapter of the Apple-Samsung patent dispute story is far from being written.

Article source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apple-vs-samsung-ceos-set-to-meet-monday-in-patent-talks/

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May
20

Leaked: Nintendo’s New Tweaks to the Wii U Controller

admin on May 20th, 2012

Did a QA tester accidentally post a picture of the new Wii U controller to Twitter? It sure looks like it, and there are a few interesting changes that appear to have been made since Nintendo first showed off the controller’s prototype design when announcing the Wii U at last year’s E3.

According to GamesRadar’s Hollander Cooper, the image of the updated controller was allegedly uploaded via the Twitter account of an employee at Traveller’s Tale Games – who you might recognize as the developer of a huge chunk of Lego-themed titles, as well as a number of Disney Interactive games.

The image has since been pulled from the Web, and it appears that the account in question, @MATTYBOOSH, has been scrubbed of all postings back to 2008. Go figure.

Cooper’s published a great, annotated comparison shot of the differences between the two versions of the controller. There aren’t many, and they don’t seem super-significant in that the general shape and appearance of the controller remains roughly identical to what you’re already seen. Additionally, it’s unclear whether the updated controller is actually indicative of what Nintendo plans to release as a final model, or whether the new elements are just appearing on Wii U developer kits.

85d8d 0%2C%2Ci%3D345764%2C00 Leaked: Nintendos New Tweaks to the Wii U Controller

That all said, Nintendo’s gone and updated the controller’s thumb sticks from small (ugly) nubs to actual analog sticks, akin to what one would already find on the original Wii’s nunchuk controller. The “Wii U” name has been stamped on the bottom portion of the controller’s front side, and the “select” and “start” buttons previously sandwiching the controller’s “home” button have been relocated to just underneath the cluster of “A,” B,” “X,” and “Y” buttons on the controller’s right-hand side. Finally, there’s a new and mysterious square-shaped button on the controller’s left-hand side, right underneath the directional pad – that’s a new bit that never appeared on the Wii U’s original design.

While some are speculating that the “new” controller shot is actually an image of a controller that predated Nintendo’s previously revealed design, Cooper says that the new image does seem to fit rumors from earlier in the year that Nintendo was working on some controller redesigns prior to E3.

The Wii U is expected to launch in the U.S., Japan, and Europe by winter.

 

For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/CjVbZscZ3xs/0,2817,2404652,00.asp

Computers No comments »