Free Republic

Gangnam style is trouncing Cupertino’s when it comes to high tech pre-eminence. You may remember the wild popularity of Psy’s video celebrating the upscale Gangnam shopping district of Seoul, Korea. And a look at Samsung’s latest financial report suggests that Cupertino-based Apple is falling behind fast. After all Samsung — the world’s leader in computer memory chips, televisions, mobile handsets and LCD panels — took a huge chunk out of Apple’s hide in the first three months of 2013. How so? According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung took about 33% of the global smartphone market in the first quarter to Apple’s...

A federal court in Seattle issued a ruling Thursday that could help settle the question of just how much a company can expect to reap from standards-essential patents. In the highly anticipated court ruling, U.S. District Judge James Robart determined that Google’s Motorola Mobility unit is entitled to about $1.8 million a year from Microsoft for its use of certain patents. Motorola had been seeking in excess of $4 billion in the case, which centered around patents related to the the H.264 video standard and the 802.11 wireless standard. In making its determination, the court noted that there are some...

Sales of the Windows 8 operating system, which was launched on October 26, were driven by upgrades rather than users purchasing the software on new machines, according to Reuters. Microsoft sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses in two months, compare to 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in one month. Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of Microsoft's Windows division, said yesterday: "Windows 8 upgrade momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7," speaking at an investor conference held by Credit Suisse. Previous versions of Microsoft operating systems sold considerably fewer licenses than Windows 8 in a comparable period, with XP...

I’ve been playing around with Microsoft's Surface tablet for several days now and suddenly realized that I’m using it very differently than any other tablet or laptop I’ve ever owned. It seemed to come to me naturally, but this little device has really improved the quality of my life. Personally, I think Surface represents more than just a new product and should be pereceived as the beginning of a new way of blending work and play. Then again, it may not come as naturally to many of you and I think that aspect of Surface deserves some further discussion. Working...

While the base-level 32GB version of the Surface RT tablet from Microsoft sold out online in less than 24 hours after launch last week, as of yesterday all versions of the tablet have been moved into sold-out status. The backorder for the 32GB version without an included keyboard is now up to three weeks, while the 32GB version with keyboard and the 64GB model (which also includes a keyboard) are now on up to a two-week back order according to shipping estimates on Surface.com. Microsoft is planning to build between three and five million Surface tablets this quarter, on par...

TOKYO — A Japanese court on Friday rejected patent claims made by Apple against Samsung, a victory for the company after its crushing defeat in the United States last week and a reminder of the global scope of the patent war between the two technology giants. While Apple prevailed over Samsung in the United States, winning an award of $1 billion in damages from a federal jury, the two companies remain neck-and-neck in legal disputes in almost a dozen countries. A judge in South Korea, where Samsung is based, for example, handed down a split decision in a patent case...

The jury in Apple vs. Samsung, doubtlessly eager to be out by the weekend, rushed their way through the approximately 26 pages and 55 questions of their instructions and decided that Samsung did indeed violate some of Apple's patents just over a billion bucks. Impressive? Not really. This is not the end. This verdict doesn't even matter in the long run. This was just another clash. This case was going to be appealed, no matter who won, the second it started. This is just one more encounter on the case's way to the Supreme Court. Samsung has lost this skirmish,...

Apple scored a big victory in its smartphone patent infringement case vs. Samsung late Friday afternoon as a jury awarded the victor $1.05 billion in damages. But does the closely watched verdict mean anything to consumers? No–at least not for now. Why? * This case no doubt will be appealed. That means little is likely to change anytime soon, at least until Apple files for injunctions against the Samsung products involved. And those are by no means all of Samsung’s products, let alone other Android smartphones. You won’t have to surrender your Samsung smartphones or tablets or worry that some...

(CNN) – A South Korea court ruled that both Apple and Samsung violated each other’s patents, in a case that mimics legal battles between the electronics giants around the world. The Seoul District Court ruled that Samsung must pay $33,350 for infringing two of the intellectual property rights for Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Apple was found to have infringed Samsung’s Wi-Fi technology, and must pay $22,000 in damages. The court banned sales in South Korea of Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPad 2, Samsung’s Galaxy SII and Galaxy Nexus smartphones and Galaxy Tab and Galaxy 10.1 tablet computers. Both Samsung and...

Samsung today brought out early technology relics in hopes of busting Apple's design patents for the iPhone and iPad — the very ones Apple has pointed at it like howitzers. The South Korean technology giant called upon a pair of experts — one in person, another by video deposition — to make the case that others had beaten Apple to the punch, effectively rendering those patents useless. Samsung’s argument relied mainly on foreign patent designs and an early prototype for a tablet that never made it into commercial production. However, Samsung also brought out a real product, Hewlett-Packard’s TC1000...

Samsung attorney probes industrial design expert Peter Bressler's qualifications to judge whether Samsung phones infringe Apple's patents. Samsung attorneys drew a bead on Apple's claims about the uniqueness of its iPhone design Monday, with stronger counterclaims about preceding designs or "prior art," citing three patent applications that preceded the iPhone. Two Japanese patents and one Korean patent show a rectangular phone form with a large glass face and rounded corners. The glass face varies in size from one patent to the other, but all are much larger than older generations of phones. All three resemble the form of the iPhone,...

Australian chief information officers (CIOs) have been impressed with Microsoft's answer to the iPad — the Microsoft Surface — which was announced last month. Two tablet variants have been announced; one running Windows RT on an Nvidia ARM processor, and the other running Windows 8 Pro on an Intel Core i5 system. Both devices have a 10.6-inch display employing Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Because Microsoft is so late to the market with its tablet — the iPad was launched in 2010 — it has been stated that the Surface's only chance of success is in the business market, which will...

An indie developer working on a new version of its signature title for Microsoft's new tablet said its compatibility with the Xbox 360 controllers presents some interesting advantages for the player and new challenges for designers. Creative director Jake Kazdal and the rest of the crew at 17-Bit (formerly Haunted Temple Games) are prepping their turn-based strategy title Skulls of the Shogun for the Microsoft Surface, according to a blog post on Wired's GameLife. Kazdal said players can control their game with the touchscreen display, a mouse and even an Xbox 360 controller, thanks to the USB port provided by...

-------snip------- Built-In Kickstand: Microsoft believes a stand should be an integral part of a tablet's design. (Take that, iPad!) The Surface's built-in kickstand is made of the same sturdy VaporMg material--more on this later--that encases the slate. "The hinge design is like that of the finest luxury car," said Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky, sounding a bit like a car salesman. The stand does look ideal for landscape-mode viewing. But how well will it work in portrait mode? Skinny Genes: You've gotta be thin to compete with the iPad. The Surface for Windows RT is 9.3 millimeters thick--or "thin," as the marketing...

Many have scoffed at the idea that Redmond's tablet will succeed. But there are three crucial reasons to take the effort seriously. By Don Sears FORTUNE -- Do not underestimate Microsoft's Surface tablet move. Its gambit to design and build its own hardware is a bold play to develop a thriving ecosystem of new products. It is centered on Microsoft's dominant property: the operating system. Monday's flashy Surface launch may have felt like an Apple event with its bright, pastel-colored keyboard, slick introductory videos and breathless hyping from little-known engineers. But, in fact, Microsoft's play is anything but Apple-like. The...

The Surface tablet unveiled by Microsoft at its mysterious event in Los Angeles this week looked very impressive. It obviously faces very stiff competition from the Apple iPad—which dominates the tablet market. But, there’s a very good chance that businesses will flock to the Surface (or other Windows 8 tablets) if Microsoft delivers something close to what it presented to the media. I am a huge fan of the iPad, so I don’t make that claim lightly. I have owned all three iterations of the iPad thus far, and I’m not prepared to abandon the New iPad any time soon....

It should not be a surprise that physcians are not fans of Microsoft products -- namely Windows and Internet Explorer. Much of this hatred is due to hospital enterprise solutions still using outdated versions of Internet Explorer. Ask a physician friend to fill you in if you need a better idea. On a personal note, I had been dreading the forthcoming Microsoft tablet because I know Microsoft products make hospital health IT departments salivate. We commented last year how many hospital IT departments cite physicians using the iPad at work as their biggest headache. I knew as soon as Microsoft...

With its new Surface Tablet, Microsoft didn’t just break the mold. It smashed it into a million little pieces, chucked them all into the furnace and set the temperature to obliterate. There really is no precedent for what Microsoft did this week. What was once recognizable is gone. The expected is no more. There are no rules, only supply and the possibility of demand. Microsoft finally built the tablet it wants to use for its platform: an ultra-thin, superlight, kick-stand-sporting, brainiac-cover wearing, touch screen wonder that elicited dozens of “I wants” in Mashable’s live blog chatter. Surface is still wrapped...

It looks like Microsoft are about to launch their own Tablet device, probably running a version of Windows 8 (and yes, I’m assuming Taniyama-Shimura once more). I’m fully expecting a lot of commentators to talk about how inexperienced the Redmond based company is at making hardware. So let me point out two counter-examples before the big event for your consideration. I’ll start with the Xbox 360. It’s had a pretty rough ride in terms of hardware with the Red Ring of Death and numerous issues early in the life cycle of the platform, but as Microsoft have understood the issues,...

When Intel announced its Windows 8 Tablet check list running on a soon-to-be-released Intel Atom Z2760 dual-core System on Chip (SoC), the reaction was mild enthusiasm with a healthy dose of skepticism. Intel said that Intel Windows 8 tablets would come with 10- or 11-inch screens, measure less than 9 mm thick, weigh less than 1.5 lbs, and offer more than nine hours of battery. The typical reaction was disbelief because no Intel notebook or netbook has ever come close to being as thin and light as an iPad with the battery life of an iPad. Conventional wisdom among tech...

Microsoft has announced today that Windows 7 has reached a milestone of 600 million licenses sold. Just four months ago, in February, the figure stood at 525 million licenses. Windows 7 was released in October 2009 and is currently the operating system on nearly 40 per cent of internet connected devices according to Microsoft figures. Windows XP still accounts for approximately 45 per cent of global market share. Speaking at the Computex ICT show in Taipei, Microsoft’s Steve Guggenheimer updated us on Windows 7 sales figures while showing some new Windows 7 based devices. Most of the new Computex hardware...

Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty upped her sales projections for the tablet computer market Thursday, and argued that Microsoft will grab the number two spot in the market, after Apple iPad and ahead of tablets running Google‘s Android software, with the launch of Windows 8 later this year. Huberty and the tech team at Morgan Stanley are now estimating shipments of 133 million tablets in 2012, up 57% from their original estimates; and 216 million tablets in 2013, up 112%. No surprise there, tablet sales have been growing fast — despite high-profile stumbles by Hewlett-Packard and Dell — thanks to...

Microsoft’s Windows Phones are outselling iPhones in the Chinese and Russian markets. Though Windows Phone was only launched in China 2 months ago it has surged to 7 per cent market share compared to 6 per cent for iOS. Android is still top dog in China with 69 per cent of the market. Meanwhile in Russia figures from their largest mobile operator MTS have been released that paint a similar picture to the Chinese results. In the Russian results Windows Phone accounted for 8.2 per cent of sales compared to 7.3 per cent for iOS devices. The leading sales for...

This is really rather amusing. Until just recently if you asked Siri, the voice assistant on the latest of Apple‘s iPhones, which was the best cell phone ever the reply would be that it was the Nokia Lumia. Which is, as all know, a Windows based phone. The proof is here with a screen shot. The reason why it gave this unexpected answer (well, unexpected to me, it might actually be that the Lumia is the best cell phone ever) is that Siri interrogates the Wolfram Alpha database to answer such questions. And if there are four reviews (as there...

A surge in Galaxy smartphone sales fuelled earnings at Samsung Electronics to a record high in the first quarter, usually a tough season for the global consumer electronics industry, outshining handset rivals such as Nokia. Samsung sold more smartphones in the first three months of the year than Apple and raked in more than 70% of its operating profit from mobile businesses. Shares in Samsung shot up nearly 3%. Net profit nearly doubled from a year earlier to a record 5.05 trillion won (£2.75bn) for the quarter to 31 March. Operating profit also hit a record high, at 5.85 trillion...

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is known for playing around with all kinds of mobile tech, even if it competes with iOS devices. Wozniak recently bought Nokia's new Lumia 900 Windows Phone, and shared some of his thoughts on Microsoft's Mobile platform in a podcast interview with The Report. (The Verge first picked up the interview). Overall, Wozniak says he prefers the look and feel of Windows Phone apps over Android and iPhone apps. He also likes Windows Phone better overall than Android. We had similar feelings towards Windows Phone apps when we reviewed the Lumia 900. Many apps such as...

Microsoft revealed late last week that usage of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview has doubled that of Windows 7 during the same pre-release timeframe for that version. “Millions” of people are already using Windows 8 every day, the company claimed. Because this is literally all the information that Microsoft communicated about this incredible milestone, let’s read between the lines a bit. I have two thoughts about this issue, one of which has been bothering me for some time. First, this announcement is an attempt by Microsoft to remind people of how popular Windows really is. While the mainstream media is...

AT&T and Verizon Wireless want Windows Phone smartphones to succeed in the U.S., partly to provide leverage against Apple's demands for subsidies and other concessions required for selling the popular iPhone. AT&T recently began selling the Nokia Lumia 900 with the Windows Phone 7 operating system for a competitive $99.99 price. Meanwhile, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo recently told Reuters that Verizon is "really looking at the Windows Phone 8.0 platform because that's a differentiator." Both carriers need a strong competitor -- like Windows Phone -- to go up against the iPhone and Android phones, analysts said. The wireless...

Bloggers got in a fair amount of digs at Nokia for launching the Lumia 900 flagship phone on Easter Sunday, when vast majority of AT&T stores were closed. Fair enough – the decision was odd. But on Monday eve, the day after the Lumia 900 launch, the traction this phone has at Amazon.com is certainly better than anticipated. Four points about Amazon’s Cell Phones with Service Plans sales chart. Lumia 900 sales are split between two color variants right out of the gate. The black version is #1, the blue one #2. This is unusual – phones tend to debut...

With Apple and Microsoft both recently displaying their respective operating systems: Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Windows 8. Digital Trend's Rob Enderle explores why Apple's lion may no longer be king of the mountain. This last week has been fascinating. Both Apple and Microsoft introduced their new operating system for PCs. Interestingly, folks are raving about Windows 8 and ranting at OS X Mountain Lion. Both products are far from final and, of the two, Mountain Lion has far fewer changes. Given that we don’t like change, you’d think folks would like that. But it seems they are comparing...

Windows 8 is now available for anyone to download, and it already shows a ton of potential. In fact, Microsoft’s bold new OS, which reminds us a lot of Windows Phone, outshines the iPad in some key areas. Granted, there were things we didn’t like in our Windows 8 Consumer Preview — and the iPad 3 or iPad HD is just around the corner — but there’s no question that Apple will soon have a real fight on its hands. Here are the top 10 ways Windows 8 is better than the iPad right now. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture...

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – On a winter day in 2010, Tim Tebow sat alone in a hotel meeting room with Ken Herock, a former NFL general manager who tutors players on how to approach important team meetings at the draft combine. The topic was a perception among NFL teams that Tebow was successful in college only because of the University of Florida’s offensive system, a notion upheld by the failure of Alex Smith to thrive in the NFL after having played for Tebow’s coach, Urban Meyer, when Meyer was at Utah. “A lot of people are comparing you to Alex Smith...

HTC said Windows Phone devices make up 30 percent of its sales, as Microsoft begins gaining ground in the mobile market. The Taiwanese phone maker is betting Microsoft’s platform will be a big part of its future plans and expect the number of Windows phones sold to go up. “We believe that Windows Phone 7 will eventually be better than other platforms and will give Android a run for its money,” said HTC’s manager in Singapore, Melvin Chua. Microsoft believes its platform has made good progress since its launch last year, and the Mango update builds on that success. Mango...

Microsoft is to buy Skype for $8.5 billion. Let’s analyze the price Microsoft paid for Skype, the reason why Microsoft bought Skype and how we should trade our Microsoft now. First off, let’s talk price. $8.5 billion is a lot of money and as a Softee shareholder, I do wish they’d only paid the $7 billion plus as was originally reported by the WSJ last night. But $8.5 billion, including debt, appears to be the price that Softee’s paying for this wildly successful Voice-Over-IP company that has 100 million more registered users in its network than even the vaunted Facebook....

Back when the Verizon iPhone was first announced we assumed that it would easily outsell the HTC Thunderbolt because, well, it's the iPhone. But it looks like we might have been very wrong because according to one analyst the Thunderbolt is beating up the iPhone and taking it's lunch money. Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG Research, and his team made calls to 150 Verizon stores across 22 US cities and discovered that while the iPhone was outselling the Thunderbolt at 11 percent of the stores, the phones were selling even at 61 percent. Even better for HTC, the Thunderbolt...

There increasing chatter on the Street that Nokia (NOK) next week will unveil a deal to adopt Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone 7 as the operating system software for at least some of its smart phones. Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair weighed in the possibility this morning, asserting in a research note that such a move “would address the key concern we have had about Nokia for the last several years: terrible software.” He adds that a pairing of the two companies “could be a powerful combination in the smartphone war and put Nokia on solid footing for the first time...

On the heels of a Canalys report that said that Android had overtaken Symbian to become the top smart phone platform in the world, NPD reported later Monday that Android now owns over half (53 percent) of all U.S. consumer smartphone sales in Q4 2010. That's not just a leading market share, it's enough to prevent a runoff in some elections. What's good for Android is bad for Windows Phone however: that same report noted that Windows Phone was outsold by creaky, dying Windows Mobile in that quarter. Some of that might be attributable to the fact that Windows Phone...

Despite entering a crowded market, Microsoft’s brand-new Windows Phone operating system seems off to a healthy start. Nonetheless, the estimates aren’t impressing cynical tech journalists. “The anemic sales number does not include the 89,000 Microsoft employees that will be given free Windows 7 phones,” Moritz quips. CNET reporters added their bleak perspective based on the performance of a single AT&T store in San Francisco (where every hipster in sight is already fondling an iPhone), which sold fewer than 20 Windows devices by midday. “If Microsoft hopes to get back in the smartphone game, it had better hope that Windows Phone...

The Android platform has been steaming along, making pundits wonder whether Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Phone 7 has a chance. But if developers have anything to do with it, and they do, WP7 seems to represent an easier way to mobilize their applications. During an event in Hong Kong, Michael Dell reportedly said that developers have been telling him that it's easier to develop for WP7 than it is for Google's Android platform. Interestingly, those comments are no longer in the original article. Perhaps Dell got itself into hot water with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Sign up for our FREE newsletter...

In a report that is raising eyebrows this morning, UK-based market research firm Canalys estimates that total shipments of Android phones in the U.S. during the third quarter were nearly twice as large as iPhone shipments. Out of 20.9 million smartphones shipped in the U.S., about 44 percent, or 9.1 million, are running the Android OS. Apple, shipped an estimated 5.5 million phones, or 26 percent of the total. Apple ships only one phone, the iPhone. And it became the single largest smartphone in the U.S., surpassing all Blackberry phones combined (with RIM shipping an estimated 5.1 million phones, or...

The idea that lower taxes and less spending are 'extreme' positions says far more about the accusers than the GOP.If on Election Day voters hear tales of frolicking unicorns, flying pigs and President Obama walking on water, don't worry. Consider them more myths of the 2010 campaign season. Elections are about who wins. But the months leading up to elections are also about laying out a narrative. The more a party is losing, the wilder its explanations. The less the press identifies with the winning side, the more it presents them as fact. That's why 2010 has already had its...

Even without the glamour of an iPad or another novel technology hit among consumers in its product lineup, Microsoft Corp. posted a 51% profit jump as two of the most venerable products in the technology business—Windows and Office—continued to thrive. The software giant's results suggest the standout growth of two of its biggest rivals, Google Inc. and Apple Inc., haven't yet begun to meaningfully hit Microsoft's cash cows. Yet the earnings still leave unanswered questions about whether Microsoft can reap financial success in fast-growing markets like mobile phones, tablet computers and Internet search. Apple, for one, recently showed how it...

The sweeping cuts in spending and entitlements far exceed anything contemplated in the US where Barack Obama, the president, has proposed only a three-year freeze on discretionary spending and Congress is still debating whether to extend tax cuts for the wealthy. The UK cuts of £81bn ($128bn) over four years are the equivalent of 4.5 per cent of projected 2014-15 gross domestic product. Similar cuts in the US would require a cut in public spending of about $650bn, equal to the projected cost of Medicare in 2015 The UK deficit is about 10 per cent of 2010-11 GDP. The US...

Good writers borrow, great writers steal, or so the saying goes. Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 (WP7) operating system borrows heavily from Apple's iOS and Google's Android but then takes the interface and navigation in an intriguing new direction, offering a user experience that at least equals and in some ways surpasses them. Yet WP7 is very much a work in progress; adopting it out of the gate requires something of the same leap of faith that the first iPhone or Android buyers took. Certainly, there's no expectation at launch that the application marketplace for Windows Phone will be anything...

It was a testament to how well Cliff Lee pitched Monday in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series—eight shutout innings, two hits, 13 strikeouts—that the most treacherous moment of his night occurred after he had beaten the Yankees. As he sat down for his postgame news conference, he slipped on his chair and became tangled in a microphone wire. A look of panic crossed the faces of the two Texas Rangers teammates who flanked him, Josh Hamilton and Michael Young, as if they feared a freak injury to their ace might sabotage their chances of reaching the World...

Top technology executives found themselves in another round of back-biting this week, after Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs went out of his way to publicly criticize his competitors and their products. Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive at BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., fired back Tuesday, saying in an emailed message that he thinks "many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple." Mr. Jobs made a surprise appearance on Apple's quarterly earnings call Monday for the first time in two years. After briefly highlighting the success of the iPhone, Mr. Jobs went straight for RIM,...

Steve Jobs wasn't above talking a bunch of trash about his competitors in his company's earnings call During his company's earnings call last night, Apple, Inc.'s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs let slip an interesting tidbit of information. He believes that the iPhone, for the first time, has passed Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry, in sales. Mr. Jobs showed little interest in playing the role of a gracious winner. He rubs the victory in RIM's face, stating, "[I don't] see them catching up in the foreseeable future." Perhaps that was fair given RIM's recent struggles -- or perhaps...

Unlike Other Devices, Power Packs May Not Enjoy Major Economies of Scale The push to get electric cars on the road is backed by governments and auto makers around the world, but they face a big hurdle: the stubbornly high cost of the giant battery packs, which can account for more than half the cost of an electric vehicle. Both the industry and government are betting that a quick takeoff in electric-car sales will drive down the battery prices. But a number of scientists and automotive engineers believe cost reductions will be hard to come by. Unlike with tires or...

If you line up an iPhone 4, Droid X, and BlackBerry Torch next to each other, and zoom in so you only see the display alone, the similarities between the platforms seems to outweigh the differences. Windows Phone 7, however, breaks the mold on the sea of app icons, and provides an innovative means of interacting with the information and functionality of the smartphone through tiles and hubs. Microsoft attempts to say as much in its commercials for Windows Phone 7. The commercials are clever and appealing--not something one can normally say about a Microsoft marketing campaign. But, at the...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Google's(GOOG_) ambitious blue sky investments are starting to soar. More on GOOG The 5 Dumbest Things on Wall Street: Oct. 15Best Value Stocks For 2011Insiders Trading GPS, GOOG, TXI and HALLMarket Activity Google Inc.| GOOG UPApple Incorporated| AAPL Google shares surged more than 10% after the company reported blowout third quarter profits driven by big growth in new markets like display ads and mobile. Analysts responded by showering Google with praise Friday. "Firing On All Cylinders," read the title of ThinkEquity's research note. "No Longer a Single-Trick Pony," said the headline on Caris & Co's report,...