Friday, August 31, 2012

Reuters: Technology News: Apple targets more Samsung products in patent suit

Reuters: Technology News
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Apple targets more Samsung products in patent suit
Sep 1st 2012, 01:03

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An employee poses as he holds Apple's iPhone 4s (L) and Samsung's Galaxy S III at a store in Seoul August 24, 2012. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won

An employee poses as he holds Apple's iPhone 4s (L) and Samsung's Galaxy S III at a store in Seoul August 24, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Lee Jae-Won

NEW YORK | Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:03pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Seeking to capitalize on a major legal victory over its rival Samsung Electronics Ltd, Apple Inc has asked a federal court in a separate case to find that four additional Samsung products, including the Galaxy S III, infringe Apple's patents.

In February, Apple alleged that at least 17 Samsung products infringe its patents. In a court filing made in San Jose federal court on Friday, Apple added four more products to the list of allegedly infringing products that have been released beginning in August 2011 and continuing through this month.

Apple won a major victory over Samsung last Friday in a separate case when a jury found that the South Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.05 billion in damages.

Samsung representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case is U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Ltd, et al 12-00630.

(Reporting by Andrew Longstreth; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Reuters: Technology News: Facebook cracks down on fake "Likes"

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Facebook cracks down on fake "Likes"
Aug 31st 2012, 21:26

The sun rises behind the entrance sign to Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park before the company's IPO launch, May 18, 2012. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach

The sun rises behind the entrance sign to Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park before the company's IPO launch, May 18, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Beck Diefenbach

By Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:26pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is weeding out fake "Likes" on its social network that are being caused by spammers, malware and black marketeers as it strives to maintain credibility as an advertising platform.

Facebook said the number of Likes, or endorsements by users, on corporate pages is likely to drop by less than 1 percent, on average, after the crackdown.

"Newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes," Facebook said in a post on its official blog on Friday.

"While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes," the post continued.

Thanks to a growing black market, companies can instantly raise their profile on Facebook by purchasing thousands of Likes at a time - a practice that is forbidden by the No. 1 social network, which has 955 million users.

Many of these Likes come from bogus Facebook user accounts rather than genuine users of the social network.

Meanwhile, various spam-like programs on Facebook deceive users into unwittingly liking something when they perform another action, such as clicking to watch a video.

Facebook said the cleanup will benefit both users and companies that maintain pages on the network, by giving a more accurate measurement of fan count and demographics.

Ensuring the integrity of Likes is serious business for Facebook, which depends on advertising revenue from large brands and other businesses. Many of the ad campaigns that companies conduct on Facebook are designed to garner Likes - a sign that their marketing message has resonated with consumers.

"It's their currency," said Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at research firm Altimeter Group. "Facebook is playing the Federal Reserve, to take the counterfeit currency off the market to ensure that there's quality in the marketplace."

The problem is not unique to Facebook, say analysts, who note that Twitter and Google Inc also grapple with fake accounts, spam and other techniques to game the service.

But for Facebook, the pressure to show that activity on its social network is genuine has grown as concerns have mounted on Wall Street about the company's long-term profit potential.

Shares of Facebook set a new low on Friday, falling as much as 5.3 percent to $18.08, after brokerages cut their price targets on the stock. Facebook has lost more than 50 percent of its market value since its initial public offering in May.

Facebook estimates that 1.5 percent of its users are "undesirable" accounts set up for purposes that violate its terms of service, according to its most recent 10-Q regulatory filing.

"I think what they're intending to do is get a handle on it before it gets really out of control," Brian Blau, an analyst with research firm Gartner, said.

"You can imagine no business wants to pay for advertising to fake accounts."

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Reuters: Technology News: China won't challenge WTO ruling in U.S. bank card row

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China won't challenge WTO ruling in U.S. bank card row
Aug 31st 2012, 22:26

By Tom Miles and Doug Palmer

GENEVA/WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 31, 2012 6:26pm EDT

GENEVA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States welcomed China's decision on Friday not to appeal a trade panel ruling that Beijing discriminated against U.S. bank card suppliers such as Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc in favor of a state-owned enterprise, China UnionPay.

"Fair and open financial services markets are critical to facilitating global trade," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement, noting that China now had 30 days to say how it would comply with the World Trade Organization's July 16 ruling.

The U.S. case accused China of imposing a series of measures dating back to 2001 that discriminated against foreign suppliers of electronic payment systems that allow consumers to make purchases using credit, debit, prepaid and other payment cards.

More than $1 trillion worth of electronic payment card transactions are processed in China each year, making it a hugely attractive market for U.S. electronic payment services firms such as Visa and MasterCard.

"The WTO panel agreed that China's pervasive and discriminatory practices are unfair to American suppliers of electronic payment services and discriminate at each stage of a payment card transaction," Kirk said.

"The message to the Government of China is that those practices must end," Kirk said.

As many as 6,000 jobs could be gained from increased access to China's electronic payments market, Kirk's office said.

China had until Friday to notify the WTO whether it intended to appeal the July decision.

In a statement, Beijing played down the significance of the panel's ruling, even though the United States heralded it as a major victory in its effort to open China's financial services sector to more foreign competition.

"In fact, China's electronic payments market is already very open," China's Commerce Ministry said. "The panel's decision rejected the U.S. charges that UnionPay was the only service provider, and affirmed that (China's policy) does not prevent foreign service providers from entering China's market."

Although the July ruling found that China UnionPay (CUP) had a monopoly on yuan payment cards issued and used in China, it rejected the U.S. claim that CUP was an "across-the-board monopoly supplier" for all transactions denominated in yuan.

A U.S. diplomat, according to a transcript that did not identify individuals by name, told the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body the United States was disappointed the ruling had stopped short of branding CUP as a "monopoly or exclusive supplier".

China's representative at the meeting said that claim had been the centerpiece of the U.S. case, and China commended the dispute panel for rejecting it.

However, despite China's decision not to appeal, the Chinese official also said that the ruling was not entirely free from error, and China was "troubled" by parts of it.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry, in its statement, said China believed "cooperation and competition" between domestic and foreign companies would help develop its payments market.

"China will continue to push forward with reform and opening up and international cooperation in the electronic payments market," the ministry said.

(Additonal reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Doug Palmer in Washington; Editing by Stephen Nisbet and David Brunnstrom)

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Reuters: Technology News: Exclusive: Walmart tests iPhone "Scan & Go" feature

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Exclusive: Walmart tests iPhone "Scan & Go" feature
Aug 31st 2012, 19:19

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A Walmart store, that was destroyed by a tornado and later rebuilt, is seen in Joplin, Missouri May 17, 2012. REUTERS/Eric Thayer

A Walmart store, that was destroyed by a tornado and later rebuilt, is seen in Joplin, Missouri May 17, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer

By Jessica Wohl

Fri Aug 31, 2012 2:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is testing a "Scan & Go" system that would allow shoppers to scan items using their iPhones and then quickly pay at a self-checkout counter.

Earlier this week, Walmart invited employees with Apple Inc iPhones to participate in a test at a Walmart supercenter in Rogers, Arkansas, near the company's headquarters, according to a form on the Survey Monkey website (here).

While self-checkout aisles are common at many stores, the ability to scan items with one's mobile phone while shopping is not a typical process. Supervalu Inc's Jewel-Osco chain once let shoppers use hand-held scanners and then enter that information at the checkout to pay, but that test ended years ago.

A push to get other participants, including Walmart employees' friends and family, appeared to have also been emailed this week by someone from the company's @WalmartLabs team, but could not be verified on Friday afternoon.

"We're continually testing new and innovative ways to serve customers and enhance the shopping experience in our stores," said Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Reuters: Technology News: Facebook hits new low after price target cuts

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Facebook hits new low after price target cuts
Aug 31st 2012, 15:31

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The Facebook logo is seen on a screen inside at the Nasdaq Marekstsite in New York May 18, 2012. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The Facebook logo is seen on a screen inside at the Nasdaq Marekstsite in New York May 18, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:31am EDT

(Reuters) - Shares of Facebook Inc (FB.O) fell 4.5 percent to a new low on Friday after brokerages cut their price targets on the company's shares, saying several lock-up expirations over the next year will weigh on the stock.

Early investors got the green light to sell Facebook shares for the first time on August 16, sending its stock down 6.3 percent and prompting price target cuts.

About 243 million shares will become available for trading from mid-October, with November 14 being the big day when more than 1.2 billion shares will enter the market.

The company's current free float is about 628 million shares.

"We expect investor attention to return to fundamentals after the technical challenges presented by lock-up expirations over the next six months have been absorbed by the stock," BMO Capital Markets analysts said in a note.

They added that Wall Street sentiment on Facebook is now much worse than advertiser sentiment.

The brokerage cut its price target by $10 to $15, 60 percent below the price at which the company's stock started trading on May 18.

Media reports said BofA Merrill Lynch, an underwriter to the IPO, cut its price target by $12 to $23.

The company's shares fell to $18.23 on the Nasdaq on Friday amid heavy trading.

Shares of game publisher Zynga Inc (ZNGA.O), which gets most of its revenue from Facebook, slipped 3 percent on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore, Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Sriraj Kalluvila)

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Reuters: Technology News: Android phone makers back platform but consider other options

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Android phone makers back platform but consider other options
Aug 31st 2012, 13:41

An Android 4.1 ''Jelly Bean'' mobile operating system logo is seen during Google I/O 2012 Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 27, 2012. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

An Android 4.1 ''Jelly Bean'' mobile operating system logo is seen during Google I/O 2012 Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California June 27, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam

By Tarmo Virki and Harro Ten Wolde

BERLIN | Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:41am EDT

BERLIN (Reuters) - Some phonemakers are quietly exploring alternatives to the Android operating system implicated in the Samsung-Apple ruling, industry watchers say, despite their public pronouncements they are sticking with the technology.

Last week, a U.S. court ruled Samsung's Android devices were violating Apple patents - a major blow to the leading mobile software platform because it could lead to sales bans and high licensing fees.

The impact could also hit smaller vendors that use Android like HTC, ZTE, and Sony. Android is used in more than two thirds of smart phones.

Huawei, Sony, Lenovo and ZTE - which all use Android extensively - told Reuters they were continuing to bet on the Google's platform despite the ruling.

"(The ruling) is not relevant to what we are doing," said Chris Edwards, chief of ZTE's business development in Europe.

But as the mobile market matures and more patent cases look likely, some makers are looking at the alternatives.

Samsung, which has used a number of platforms but now mostly uses Android, announced a new phone running on Microsoft's new Windows Phone 8 software at a consumer technology conference on Wednesday, sneaking ahead of a hotly-anticipated launch of a Nokia-Windows phone due next week.

Shares in Nokia, which has partnered with Windows and is its main user, jumped after the Samsung ruling on expectations it might be a safer legal bet than Android makers.

The California jury said Samsung infringed six of seven Apple patents in the case, including technology that recognizes whether one or two fingers are on the screen, the front surface of the phone and the design of screen icons, which is a clear reference to Google's technology.

After the verdict, Google said that most of the patents involved "don't relate to the core Android operating system."

Android was used in 68 percent of all smartphones sold last quarter, with Samsung making almost half of them, while Microsoft had 3 percent market share.

The balance of power is unlikely to shift quickly as this season's new phones were all made before the ruling.

Sony launched three Android phones this week at IFA, Europe's largest consumer electronics fair. Chinese phone maker Huawei launched four.

"We have made our choice," said Lars-Christian Weissewange, vice president at Huawei's phone unit, adding that consumers were making the platform choice for them by picking Android phones. Sony said the ruling was not impacting its business.

"This is probably not impacting consumer thinking," Gianfranco Lanci, chief of Lenovo's European operations, said on sidelines of the conference.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

But behind closed doors, companies are looking at alternative routes should the ruling impact ripple wider out, said several industry insiders.

"Today, all Android vendors are considering their software options," said Pete Cunningham, an analyst at research firm Canalys.

Samsung's brief, surprise launch on Wednesday of the world's first smartphone running on Windows Phone 8, should be interpreted as muscle flexing, analysts said.

However, it should not be seen as a firm move away from Android as the model will likely struggle to stand out even among the other Windows phones, said Malik Saadi, analyst at research firm Informa.

Illustrating the high interest at stake are the behind-the-scene meetings of Google's and Apple's chiefs Larry Page and Tim Cook on the patents.

Despite its small market share, Windows Phone is still the largest alternative to Android as Apple and Blackberry maker RIM have not made their platforms available for other handset makers.

At the same time, vendors are pretty much stuck with Android as Windows is way behind in terms of applications on offer, offering just 100,000 apps against half a million each on Android and Apple.

"Microsoft needs to create a developer environment for the Window Phone, which is growing, but still trails behind the others," said Roberta Cozza, analyst at Gartner.

Attracting developers is difficult with tiny market shares.

Navigation firm TomTom launched an app running on Android this week but said it was not planning a Windows app.

"I have a big bucket of (research and development) and if I had to decide where to put my money, I want to wait first to see whether Windows is a success," said co-founder Corinne Vigreux.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki; editing by Jane Barrett and Janet McBride)

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Reuters: Technology News: Nokia, Microsoft head for "Last Chance Saloon"

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Nokia, Microsoft head for "Last Chance Saloon"
Aug 31st 2012, 14:11

By Sinead Carew and Bill Rigby

NEW YORK/SEATTLE | Fri Aug 31, 2012 10:11am EDT

NEW YORK/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp and Nokia Oyj are loading up for their best -- and possibly last -- shot at denting a smartphone market dominated by Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android mobile software.

If the new Lumia phones do not appeal to consumers when they are unveiled next Wednesday, it could mean the end for Nokia, and a serious blow to Microsoft's attempts to regain its footing in the mobile market, analysts and investors said.

"This is very high stakes," said Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley. "Nokia bet everything on Windows, and if this doesn't succeed the next step might be having to do what's best for shareholders, and that might include selling off key assets or selling the whole company."

The Finnish handset maker has logged more than 3 billion euros in operating losses in the last 18 months, forcing it to cut 10,000 jobs and pursue asset sales.

Its share of the global smartphone market has plunged to less than 10 percent from 50 percent during its heyday before the iPhone was launched in 2007.

For Microsoft, a successful Lumia launch would convince more handset makers and carriers to support its latest phone software, which is based on the same code as the upcoming Windows 8 computing system, and promises faster performance and a customizable start screen.

Windows phones have only captured 3.7 percent of the global smartphone market, according to Strategy Analytics. Android phones have 68 percent, while Apple has 17 percent.

The new Lumia phones will hit the market just as the world of Android reels from a potentially crushing legal blow, and as Research In Motion Ltd's BlackBerry continues its decline.

A California jury decided last week that some of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's hot-selling Android smartphones copied features of the iPhone, which may result in import bans and drive handset makers to put more resources into making Windows-based phones.

The judgment opens a window for Microsoft to exploit -- but it first needs to find favor with consumers.

"Windows Phone really is going to have to stand or fall on its own, it's going to have to appeal to consumers," said Jack Gold, an independent mobile analyst who runs consultancy J. Gold Associates.

GOOD TIMING?

Nokia is expected to launch two new Lumia phones on September 5, on the same day that phone maker Motorola, now owned by Google, also unveils a new product.

It kicks off a busy fortnight for mobile devices, with Amazon.com Inc expected to introduce new Kindle tablets on September 6. Apple is seen unveiling the newest iPhone on September 12.

The costlier of the two Lumias will go up against the iPhone, and is expected to feature a larger, brighter screen; a powerful camera on both sides; Qualcomm Inc dual-core chips; Skype calling; voice recognition; short-range radio technology for wireless payments and built-in maps for navigation.

But Lumia will need something completely different to beat the iPhone and Android, such as a bold new shape, exceptional camera quality or a mini-projector, said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst at mobile diagnostics company Alekstra.

Part of the problem is that Windows Phones have only 100,000 or so apps, compared with about 500,000 for Android or iPhones.

"Developers want to see more devices, and people want to buy only when they see more apps," said Sid Parakh, an analyst at fund firm McAdams Wright Ragen. "I'd say it will take years, they are so far behind."

Nokia may not have years. Finland's most famous company, relegated to second place in the global cellphone market by Samsung after more than a decade at the top, has bet its smartphone future on Microsoft.

Samsung stole some of Nokia's limelight by being the first to unveil a phone based on Windows Phone 8 software on Wednesday, a week before Nokia's event. Canaccord's Walkley expects Samsung to offer steep price discounts for Windows phones in markets where Nokia is also launching its phones.

While Samsung, HTC Corp and Huawei Technologies Co are also making phones based on the new Windows software, only Nokia is focused entirely on Windows Phone 8. This means that Nokia should be able to deliver more sophisticated Windows phones.

SUPPORT FROM CARRIERS

The job of saving Nokia, and getting the new Windows Phone 8 software off to a strong start, falls to Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop, the former Microsoft star who forged the agreement between the two companies.

One thing Elop has in his ammunition bag is support from big U.S. mobile service providers who want see Windows become a third strong smartphone platform to counterbalance the market heft of Android and Apple, which charges a heavy price premium.

Top U.S. wireless providers Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA have all said they will support Windows Phone 8, and AT&T Inc said it will sell Nokia phones based on the Microsoft software.

"Everybody's liking what they see coming from Microsoft with the Windows 8 (mobile) platform from the user experience perspective and the integration perspective," said Bill Versen, a Verizon Wireless executive who works with business customers on their smartphone strategies.

"Enterprises have Windows-based platforms they're using for their businesses. They've been waiting for Microsoft to mobilize that in a user-accepted way," he added.

Because Microsoft's new phone software is similar to the upcoming Windows 8 desktop and tablet software - to be released on October 26 - developers can more easily write apps for both, which should help the platform's popularity and may even lead developers to eventually build apps for Windows before Android, Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said.

Microsoft actually makes more money from royalties on Android products than it does on sales of its own phone software, but "can't afford not to have a significant position in the global smartphone market," said CCS Insight analyst John Jackson.

Microsoft needs to get at least a 10 percent share of the smartphone market by the end of 2013 to be a contender, Canaccord's Walkley added.

(Additional reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Reuters: Technology News: Religious groups vie for new Web domain names

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Religious groups vie for new Web domain names
Aug 31st 2012, 13:01

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS | Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:01am EDT

PARIS (Reuters)- Centuries-old theological disputes have broken out in cyberspace as religions aim to influence the future presentation of faith on the Internet.

The forum for the rivalry is not the pulpit or church bulletin, but the website of ICANN, the corporation that oversees the Internet address system and now wants to expand it beyond the usual .com, .org or .net domains.

When ICANN began accepting applications for new names early this year, bids came for extensions such as .catholic, .islam and .bible. Not far behind were critics who challenged many applicants' right to monopolize those and other religious terms.

"I respectfully ask you not to award .bible to a bunch of hardcore Bible-thumpers," wrote one critic of an application by the American Bible Society to manage that extension.

Questioning a Turkish IT company's bid for the .islam domain, Fahd Batayneh of Jordan's National Information Technology Centre asked how it could ensure no pornographers or Muslim extremists would use names with this ending?

ICANN (www.icann.org), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is accepting comments on these and other applications for another month and will then evaluate the bids for new extensions, known as top level domains (TLDs).

First results are due next summer. A group awarded a TLD can manage that domain exclusively, renting out addresses that use its extension and rejecting bids it considers unsuitable.

ICANN CAN'T

The religious problems facing this 21st century project are as old as the schisms and heresies that have haunted faiths for ages. Who speaks for Islam? Does the Vatican have a monopoly on the word "catholic"? How should one interpret the Bible?

"I don't think I can solve issues that have been going on for centuries," Akram Atallah, interim head of ICANN, told Reuters by telephone from its Los Angeles headquarters.

"Our goal, at the end of the day, is to provide innovation in the domain name system."

Website owners are now restricted to a few dozen TLDs such as .com and country code domains such as .co.uk. Many of the 1,930 applications for new TLDs came from companies, including Internet giants such as Amazon and Google.

If there are rival bids for the same TLD, ICANN has panels of experts to consider legal, financial and technical factors in making the decision to award a domain name. A dispute resolution process exists if an losing applicant disagrees.

But there won't be geeks consulting Gospels to decide who can have a TLD such as .church.

"We don't look into whether the Vatican has the right to the .catholic name," Atallah said. "Hopefully, the process will get to a conclusion that is satisfying to the majority."

SAUDIS OPPOSE, CHRISTIANS SQUABBLE

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, seems to see no hope of a consensus on religious TLDs and opposes them all.

Its Communications and Information Technology Commission filed 163 comments, opposing not only TLDs with Muslim terms such as Islam, halal and Shia but also Catholic and Bible.

It also criticized bids for sex, gay, wine, virgin, dating, porn and other terms that go against its strict moral code.

The Vatican's application for exclusive use of .catholic drew criticism from members of several Protestant churches who also use the term, which comes from the Greek for "universal".

"This request is a move by a powerful group to squelch the voices and rights of other Christians," wrote Dave Daubert, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Elgin, Illinois.

Some comments asked if the large Life Covenant Church, based in Oklahoma, would share the .church name it applied for with other Christians who did not hold its evangelical beliefs.

"If something as basic as the Ten Commandments can't be agreed upon, how can the TLD be operated fairly?" one asked.

The American Bible Society would share the .bible domain with "individuals and groups who, regardless of faith, have a healthy respect for the Bible," spokesman Geoffrey Morin said.

Clerics aren't the only ones trying to get into the game.

AGITSys, an Istanbul-based IT company, said it wanted to create "a quality online space for the Muslim faithful" with domain names such as .islam and .halal and would allow Sunnis, Shi'ites and members of other schools of Islam to use it.

"They didn't consult anybody in the Islamic community," said Batayneh from Jordan. "This application should have come from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah."

Some religions seem to have kept out of the fray entirely. There were no applications for .buddhist, .hindu or .jewish.

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Reuters: Technology News: Apple, publishers offer EU e-book antitrust concessions: source

Reuters: Technology News
Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Apple, publishers offer EU e-book antitrust concessions: source
Aug 31st 2012, 11:20

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An Apple logo is seen at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco, California June 11, 2012. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

An Apple logo is seen at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco, California June 11, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam

BRUSSELS | Fri Aug 31, 2012 7:20am EDT

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Apple and four major publishers will allow retailers such as Amazon to sell e-books at a discount for two years in a bid to end an EU antitrust investigation and stave off possible fines, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The EU antitrust watchdog opened an investigation into Apple's e-book pricing deals with the publishers last December, saying these may hamper competition in Europe.

The four publishers are Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, French group Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, which owns Macmillan in Germany.

The publishers have agreed deals with Apple under which online versions of their books sell for set prices on Apple's iTunes, with Apple taking 30 percent of the proceeds. The deals specified that other retailers, such as Amazon, could not sell the e-books at a lower price.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)

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Reuters: Technology News: Sharp's production of new iPhone display behind schedule-source

Reuters: Technology News
Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Sharp's production of new iPhone display behind schedule-source
Aug 31st 2012, 06:55

By Reiji Murai

OSAKA | Fri Aug 31, 2012 2:55am EDT

OSAKA (Reuters) - Production of Sharp Corp's screens for Apple Inc's latest iPhone is behind schedule as the Japanese display maker struggles with low production yields, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Apple, which is also tapping other suppliers such as Japan Display and South Korea's LG Display Co for the new, thinner displays, is planning a major launch on September 12. That has raised expectations that the product will be its latest iPhone model.

Sharp President Takashi Okuda said on August 2 that his company would begin mass production and shipments from its Kameyama LCD plant in central Japan this month. The facility is widely known to make screens for Apple, but Sharp has declined to acknowledge that Apple is a customer.

Kameyama "is operational," Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said, declining to give details of either output or shipment levels.

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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Reuters: Technology News: From smart to genius: will design define future gadgets?

Reuters: Technology News
Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com
From smart to genius: will design define future gadgets?
Aug 31st 2012, 06:07

By Jeremy Wagstaff, chief Asia technology correspondent

Fri Aug 31, 2012 2:07am EDT

(Reuters) - In a pre-iPhone age, mobile phones came in all shapes and sizes. Remember the clamshell, candy bar, swivel, backflip, slider, dual-slider, lipstick, and, of course, the taco? Nowadays, most phones have a touch screen, rows of icons and are rectangular.

In short, they all look a lot like the iPhone.

Now, in the wake of the Apple Inc vs Samsung Electronics trial, where the U.S. firm won what the South Koreans scathingly called a "monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners," the fear is that an era of rapid and exciting innovation in mobile design is over. The iPhone has won the day and all those whose handsets use Google's Android operating system, the argument goes, will either give up or tread carefully for fear of litigation.

But others argue the opposite.

Paul Pugh, creative vice president at frog, a San Francisco-based design company owned by India's Aricent Group, believes companies may now unshackle their designers to come up with genre-busting form factors and user interfaces that breathe fresh life into the industry.

"We don't know yet how far the impacts are going to go from here," says Pugh. "I do hope it's an inspiration moment for the Android platform and the manufacturers to put their bets on innovation ... to come with great user experience based on users' needs, and not stagnate based on the patents crippling them."

SMARTPAD

Frog knows how hard this is to bring to market. Take the SmartPad; a prototype Android phone the company unveiled last year that at first glance looked, in the words of one reviewer on the technology website Engadget, like "yet another plain smartphone - dark, nondescript, and maybe a little like an iPhone 4 that's had its right-most extent sliced off."

Flip open the two layers, however, and you had a phone with twice the normal screen size. "Suddenly it's a little tablet, two screens forming a 6-inch slate," the Engadget reviewer wrote.

The prototype, which belonged to Imerj, part of Singapore-listed contract manufacturer Flextronics International, intrigued: The Engadget article attracted more than 400 comments. It wasn't a wholly new concept, but the design was impressive, including the software, which included apps that made the most of the extra screen. Imerj promised a kit for software developers, and a team worked on a slew of apps that made use of the innovative dual screen. They dreamed big: to take on Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

"We had an idea that the smartphone was going to be the primary computing platform for most people going forward," recalled Brett Faulk, then Imerj's vice president of marketing. "However, it has two challenges: small screen and small keyboard. So the concept was to create a product that scales as my productivity needs increase."

After a few months, however, everything went quiet. Imerj's Twitter account went dead, as did its website. Both are now offline. Faulk and others left the company. Flextronics declined to comment, as did frog's Pugh.

A former member of the Imerj team said the project was deliberately aimed at a niche far from Apple's consumer-driven world, but that was part of the reason for its demise.

Building a device and the suite of office applications to go with it required at least five years gestation, an investment the parent company in the end couldn't make. "We were very ahead," said the person, who was not authorized to speak about the project and declined to be identified. "We were very sad to see innovation being pushed aside."

LIMITED ROOM

At issue now is whether the Apple vs. Samsung verdict might upend such conservative calculations.

It may already be happening: The latest addition to Samsung's Galaxy range of devices - at the centre of the court case - is a camera with a display that looks, feels and acts like an Android smartphone, including WiFi and 3G connections. And Samsung itself has a patent on a dual screen device, according to patent blog patentbolt.com, that looks a lot like the SmartPad.

But there are limits to what can be done with hardware.

"There was a lot of ingenuity about the mechanical configuration of designing buttons and cameras and exposing these particular features," said Horace Dediu, a former Nokia engineer who now runs a consultancy and influential blog called Asymco. With the rise of the iPhone "all that went away when you have a clean glass display with touch interface."

The problem he says, is that the operating systems available to device makers - Android and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft's Windows Phone - are designed for that shape.

So, if there is going to be a change in what a phone looks like, Google needs to be the one to change. "Theoretically, if Google thinks that this isn't a winning game for them they may go to the manufacturers and say OK, we're going to allow you to have mechanical differentiation," said Dediu.

Until that happens, manufacturers have limited room to move. They can toy with the specifications and proportions of the device - Samsung has had a surprise hit with its outsized Galaxy Note, the second version of which was unveiled on Thursday - or by tweaking the Android operating system itself.

Indeed, frog's most visible success in smartphone design has been a user interface that Sharp Corp recently launched for its Android phones in Japan. Sharp, said Pugh, was looking to maintain its market lead as Japan shifts from older feature phones to smartphones, and gave frog a broad remit to come up with something to make their Android devices stand out.

The so-called 'Fresh UI' software adds an extra layer, or skin, to Google's basic operating system, which Pugh says improves access to the most used features on a device.

SKINS AND FORKS

Indeed, such skins are an increasingly popular way for handset makers to differentiate their devices from those of competitors. Huawei on Thursday unveiled its own 'Emotion UI' skin which it said will give consumers "one more reason to choose a Huawei smartphone over another brand's." It's not just for the big boys: Meizu, a small Chinese smartphone maker, has gained a cult following with its quirky customization of Android that once earned the ire of Steve Jobs, but is now fending off its own copycats.

But taking this route is not without its problems.

For one thing, skins are usually just that: a surface layer that users either love or hate, and which quickly peels away to the standard Android interface that is little different whether the device costs $500 or $50. And while the goal is to differentiate, they can end up pushing the Android interface into more closely resembling Apple's own iOS. Indeed, Apple presented slides at the trial alleging that Samsung's tweaks to the home screen on 13 devices made it mimic that of the iPhone. The jury agreed.

Some makers have already taken note. Meizu, the Chinese manufacturer, was happy when the home screen of one of its models was cited in court by Apple as an example of not infringing on its design patents, but the Chinese firm has nevertheless "modified some aspects of our user experience" for future products, according to the Zhuhai-based company's product director Yang Yan.

Still, in the longer run innovation needs to go beyond mere tweaking, argues Brandon Edwards, Shanghai-based colleague of Pugh. He believes more manufacturers will follow Amazon's path of taking Android in their own direction with the Kindle Fire, effectively parting company with Google.

Such so-called forks are likely to appeal to device makers beyond phones, Edwards says. Clients have been talking to frog about embedding technology into smart systems, cars and healthcare, and those devices could well be running Android.

DESIGN VALUE

Innovation in smartphones, meanwhile, is likely to move beyond form factor and apps to how they interact with their surroundings, says Pugh. Expect to see smartphones better controlled by voice and gesture, moving beyond the restriction of the device's shape and touchscreen in the next year or so.

The most significant outcome of the Apple Samsung spat, however, may be that design is no longer merely an afterthought.

There may have been a lot of different shaped devices in the pre-iPhone world, but that doesn't mean they offered consumers a better user experience, says Pugh. "All this confirms that there is a monetary value to design," he says.

"In the past, they were competing on speed and the technology base itself. Those things are now relatively normalized and design is really defining the device and the device experience."

(Reporting By Jeremy Wagstaff; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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Reuters: Technology News: Exclusive: Amazon teams with Nokia, snubs Google for maps - sources

Reuters: Technology News
Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com
Exclusive: Amazon teams with Nokia, snubs Google for maps - sources
Aug 30th 2012, 23:12

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up the new Kindle Fire at a news conference during the launch of Amazon's new tablets in New York, September 28, 2011. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up the new Kindle Fire at a news conference during the launch of Amazon's new tablets in New York, September 28, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Aug 30, 2012 7:12pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's new Kindle Fire will have mapping services via a tie-up with Nokia Oyj, according to two people familiar with the situation, filling a gap in the tablet's capabilities while snubbing Google Inc's popular service.

The world's largest Internet retailer, which says its nine-month old Kindle Fire now accounts for one in five U.S. tablet sales, has teamed up with Nokia on mapping, the two people told Reuters.

Amazon will release at least one new version of the Kindle Fire next Thursday.

Amazon will also add location capabilities to the new Kindle Fire, which requires either a GPS chip or a process known as WiFi triangulation, the people said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak ahead of Thursday's launch event.

Mapping services, which are popular features on tablets, typically include street maps, information about local businesses and sometimes traffic status. They can also support navigation instructions and third-party applications that depend on location information, such as travel services.

Location capabilities mark the location of tablet and smart phone users.

Google Inc's Nexus 7 tablet, which competes directly with the Kindle Fire, comes with GPS receiver chips to support location and mapping functions.

The first Kindle Fire launched last year and at $199 costs half the price of the entry-level Apple Inc iPad, helping it rapidly gain consumer acceptance. On Thursday, Amazon said its Kindle Fires had completely sold out.

Analysts say the 7-inch device helps drive sales of digital media such as ebooks and music, which in turn propels core retail growth for the company.

Amazon may unveil larger versions of the Fire on Thursday in Los Angeles, analysts and media say, which will compete more directly with the iPad.

Although the Kindle now runs on an early version of Google's Android, which Amazon developed into its own operating system, it does not integrate Google Maps into the device. That means users had to access Google Maps via a Web browser, or download map apps from third-party developers.

A Nokia spokesman declined to comment and an Amazon spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

GOING NATIVE

Shares of the Internet retailer closed down 0.4 percent at $246.22 on Thursday, after hitting a record high of $250 earlier following the announcement that it had run out of Kindle Fires.

Cooperating with Nokia may help Amazon develop integrated, or "native," mapping functionality for the Kindle Fire without relying on Google Maps. Nokia is one of the world's largest mapping companies, through its 2007 acquisition of Navteq.

Apple took a similar step earlier this year, when it dropped Google Maps in favor of its own mapping features for its next mobile operating system, known as iOS 6. As part of the switch, Apple signed a global licensing deal with TomTom NV, another leading mapping company, for its map content and related information.

In July, Amazon agreed to buy mapping startup UpNext, which specializes in detailed 3D maps of cities and some sporting stadiums.

(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Edwin Chan and Bernard Orr)

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