Apple's multitouch patents under attack

Two of Apple’s most important patents are under attack from an unknown party. U.S. Patent 7,469,381 and 7,479,949 are patents related to the multitouch software that Apple uses in its products. According to fosspatents.com, these are the reexamination requests of the patents by the anonymous party.

7,469,381:

PCT Publication No. WO 03/081458 on "controlling content display", by AOL/Luigi Lira, published on October 2, 2003

U.S. Patent No. 7,786,975 on a "continuous scrolling list with acceleration"; inventors are Bas Ording, Scott Forstall, Greg Christie, Stephen O. Lemay and Imran Chaudhri

PCT Publication No. WO 01/029702, which later resulted in U.S. Patent No. 7,152,210 on a "device and method of browsing an image collection"; assigned to Philips (named inventors: Elise van den Hoven, Josephus Eggen)

7,479,949:

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/036618 on a "method and apparatus for detecting and interpreting path of designated position", assigned to Canon (named inventors: Masanori Wakai and Satomi Kayano)

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0101354 on "gesture inputs for a portable display device", assigned to Nintendo (named inventors: Hideyuki Hashimoto and Shigetoshi Kitayama)

U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0012723 on a "system and method for a portable multimedia client", assigned to Move Mobile Systems (named inventor: Matt Pallakoff)

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0063073 on a "touch panel system and method for distinguishing multiple touch inputs" (assigned to a group of individual inventors; first-named inventor: Bernard O. Geaghan

It’s not strange for companies to go after each other’s patents, but usually the names of the two parties are known. In this particular case, however, we don’t know who is making a move against Apple. One theory is that Google is behind the filing, and it’s a legitimate theory. Apple has been using patents ‘381 and ‘949 to impose limitations on top Android manufacturers such as Samsung, Motorola, and HTC.

Not surprisingly, everyday there’s a new patent war, but as it stands, many tech giants need to carve out a stake in the “multitouch” department to keep their devices competitive. It’s unlikely that ‘949 will be an Apple’s exclusive in the future since it mainly deals with the tolerance level and angle of the initial touch movement on a touch interface.

As seen in Figure 35, the patent cites the angles that coincide with the touchscreen behaviors. Any manufacturer can deviate from the angles shown in Figure 35 to mitigate the patent’s specificities.

An in depth conversation of the two patents under examination can be found here.

ASRock Revives the quot;Blaster quot; Sound Card Brand in Cooperation with Creative

ASRock just released a card which is the first sound card outside Creative to bear the name "Blaster" without a worry of a lawsuit. In the past, Creative was very vigilant in protecting the "Sound Blaster" heritage but the company opened to 3rd parties who can manufacture products of required quality.

The "Sound Core3D quad-core audio and voice processor" is the actual sound-chip powering the latest generation of Sound Blaster cards from Creative. We wondered who is going to take that chip and create a 3rd party product which is not a motherboard (ASRock, ASUS, MSI, GigaByte all shipped products with Creative chips in the past).

As you can see on picture above, ASRocks Game Blaster is an interesting product which combines two technologies in a single package: Creative Sound Core3D and Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet LAN. Unlike Killer NIC and USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet is not present to ensure the datastream fits the sound, but rather to enable Full-Duplex 2Gbps i.e. "teaming".

As far as sound capabilities go, theres CrystalVoice filtering technology, EAX 1.0-5.0, THX TruStudio PRO and probably the most interesting one - Scout Mode. This technology enables you to hear enemies from further away... while this may be called a cheat, the technology works that the part of the screen you focus in has more audio focus than things off the screen. If two foes are running towards you, the Scout Mode will "elevate your game" and focus the audio on the person closest to you.

Black Mesa disponible sur Tom's Games

Nous vous parlions la semaine passée, le mod d'Half Life permettant de profiter à nouveau de ce titre culte remis au gout du jour, est enfin disponible. Si vous souhaitez tester cet ambitieux mod, vous pouvez dès à présent télécharger Black Mesa directement sur notre site.

Pour rappel, Black Mesa est un projet amateur reprenant le tout premier et mythique Half Life, pour le faire tourner avec le Source Engine, le moteur de Valve. Sans être sublime, il permet de rajeunir un peu le titre de 1998. Venant d’acquérir le soutien nécessaire sur Steam Greenlight, Black Mesa devrait un jour débarquer sur Steam. En attendant, vous pouvez le télécharger sur notre site à cette adresse. Et si vous hésitez encore, nous vous invitons à aller lire notre test de Black Mesa.

· Télécharger Black Mesa
· Forum Black Mesa

AMD Radeon HD 7900 series to launch January 9th 2012

Turkish website DonanimHaber have received confirmation for final release date of the much anticipated Radeon HD 7900 series - January 9th 2012. This puts the big release one day before CES 2012 commences.

The previous rumoured date, Jan 10th, co-incided with CES 2012. However, AMD has decided to release on Monday, instead of the traditional Tuesday/Thursday release days.

More details about AMD Radeon HD 7900 / Tahiti can be found in our speculation round-up.

Source: DonanimHaber

Android and iOS will have Microsoft Office in 2013

Microsoft has been quiet about its development of Office for iOS and Android, but a version of Office has been spotted via The Verge. Per the same source, Microsoft is planning to release its mobile productivity suite sometime in early 2013.

TheOffice appwill be free to download so that Android and iOS users will be able to view Microsoft Office documents. Basic viewing functionality of Word, PowerPoint, and excel documents will be free of charge in Android, but to edit documents users have to have Office 365 subscription.

iOS users will, too, be able to view the same type of documents, and users will be able to buy Office 365 subscriptions directly from within the app. The Office app for iOS will supposedly launch around March, 2013, but Android users will have to wait until May, 2013 to have a whack at the app.

ASUS EN7950GT amp; EN7900GS Cards

Asus Technology Pte Ltd (ASUS), the leading provider of graphics solutions isproud to introduce two new graphics cards – EN7950GT/HTDP/512M andEN7900GS/2DHT/256M – designed specifically for serious gamers that also demandprice per performance in their video solutions.

EN7950GT/HTDP/512M – Stunning Gaming Power with HDCP

The EN7950GT/HTDP/512M is powered by the latest Nvdia GeForce 7950GT GPU and512MB DDR3 memory to deliver superb video capability for the latest games. TheEN7950GT/HTDP/512M is also HDCP ready to stay in step with Windows Vistarequirements. HDCP technology gives users peace of mind when upgrading theirsystems to support high-definition digital contents.

EN7900GS/2DHT/256M – Cost/Performance Card with Hot Game Bundle

Based on the Nvidia GeForce 7900GS GPU, the EN7900GS/2DHT/256M offers excellentperformance at an affordable price. ASUS further added more value to the packageby bundling “Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter”, market valued at US$ 49.9.

Splendid Video Intelligence Technology

Both the EN7950GT/HTDP/512M and EN7900GS/2DHT/256M support Splendid VideoIntelligence Technology, an exclusive feature found only on ASUS solutions. WithSplendid, images enabled by the ASUS graphics cards are fine tuned to delivervibrant visual representations in conditions most favorable to the human eye.

Splendid detects activation and usage of video applications and automaticallyoptimizes image quality for the best visual results, and further provides fivemodes (Standard, Game, Theater, Scenery and Night) and three skin tone optionsfor various video applications. Splendid works on top of NVIDIA’s PureVideotmtechnology to offer sharp decoded video.

Specifications

The ASUS EN7950GT/HTDP/512M and EN7900GS/2DHT/256M are now availableworldwide.

ASUS launches K93SM 18.4-inch notebook in Europe

ASUS has just officially released its latest K-Series notebook into the European market boasting an 18.4-inch sized LED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080) display. The K93SM can now be found online at various EU e/retailers with stock showing and pricing that ranges from 849 Euro to 1,149 Euro depending on the chosen configuration.

For that you get a notebook that packs a Core i5-2450M or i7-2670QM processor, up to 8 GB of RAM, a GeForce GT 630M 1 GB graphics card and a 500 GB (or 1 TB) HDD. Connectivity includes Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a USB 3.0 port and 3-in-1 card reader. Rounding out the specs, the S93SM comes with either a 8x DVD writer or 6x Blu-ray combo drive, 6-cell (5200 mAh) battery and a chiclet style keyboard; in all weighing in at 4.1Kg.

ASUS keeps temps at bay and ensures the palmrest wont get uncomfortably warm with the implementation of its proprietory IceCool technology. The notebook ships with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Source: Notebook Journal.de