Samsung Vs Apple

Round 3 in the ongoing patent battle between Samsung and Apple has fallen in favour of Apple, but is Samsung on the ropes or out for the count?

Initially a Europe-wide ban was placed on the sale of Samsung Galaxy Tablet following a ruling that elements of the tablet were copied from the iPad.  This was then lifted amid concerns about the court's power to impose such a broad embargo. The latest hearing upholds the original decision in Apple's favour, and means the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is again banned from sale across Germany.

The re-imposition, albeit only within one country, marks yet another round in the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung.  Samsung phones have also been banned for sale in the Netherlands following court action.

The two electronics giants currently face each other in courtrooms in Australia, North America and Asia.

Whoever is your electronic giant of choice make sure that you are protected against those who take advantage of mobile technology.  Be Protected for FREE.

The Mobile Power of Solar

Two words that strike fear into modern society could soon be a thing of the past.  That’s right, ‘low battery’; will no longer be a problem, if an idea born in Serbia, goes global.

A group of Serbian university students have created the world’s first public solar-powered mobile phone charger and it stands proud in a town just outside Belgrade.  The team won a prestigious European Union prize in April for their efforts, despite being the youngest team in the competition. 

Their invention, dubbed, The Strawberry Tree, has sixteen wires capable of charging all phone models, and has enough energy stored for a month should the sun disappear.  It’s a simple idea that uses natural renewable energy to power modern technology cleanly, and we love it!

Mobile security cracked open

A pair of security researchers have demonstrated an eavesdropping toolkit that highlights potential holes in many parts of the most widely used mobile technology.

Using four cheap Motorola telephones and open source software, Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut are able to eavesdrop on mobile calls and texts made on any GSM network. 

In a demonstration at the Chaos Computer Club Congress (CCC) in Berlin, the pair took attendees through the layers of the snoop.  Starting from locating a particular phone to seizing its unique ID, then leap-frogging from that to getting hold of data swapped between a handset and a base station as calls are made and texts sent.

Mr Nohl said the motivation for carrying out the research was to create awareness around the problem and perhaps prompt operators to improve security.  He acknowledged that a few simple steps could make it much harder for potential eavesdroppers.

Check in and Check out using your mobile

The Clarion Hotel Stockholm in Sweden is currently running a trial to test a concept that’s been banging about for a while in other parts of the world: using your mobile phone as your room key in a hotel. Using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, the hotel can register your own mobile phone as the item that unlocks your room.

Almost everyone uses some form of smartcard these days, its very rare that you are actually handed a physical key. We either use cards that you slot into a reader, or cards that you simply hold up in front of the scanner to open your door, it is the latter that is being replaced.


The technology allows customers to check-in on-line or over mobile phone, and be sent the “room key” directly to their phone. Thus, customers can by-pass the front desk on arrival and go straight to their rooms. At the end of their stay, guests can repeat the process by checking out with their phone, taking away the need for any human contact.

A Milestone in Mobile Communications at 17,000ft

Nepalese telecoms firm Ncell, has launched the world’s highest internet service on Mount Everest.  Climbers can now surf the internet and make video calls through a 3G network says TeliaSonera, the Swedish broadband provider, which owns Ncell.

The company has installed eight 3G base stations along the route to Everest base camp.  It is thought that the wireless network will help the thousands of tourists who visit Mount Everest every year. To date, climbers and trekkers have had to rely on satellite phones and a voice-only mobile network.

At present less than one third of Nepal's population have access to telecommunication services.  TeliaSonera have also announced that they will be investing more than $100m (£63m) in the next year to improve mobile coverage in the country.

Blackberry Playbook verses the Apple iPad

The latest player in a highly competitive computer tablet market is the Blackberry Playbook, and is set to be a long-awaited rival the Apple iPad.



It is one of the first business-centric devices in the tablet market with Bluetooth and wi-fi included; BlackBerry users can also tether their phone for a 3G connection, making internet on the move easy. RIM is pushing the angle that it will be ideal for enterprise and business and that security will be at the heart of everything it does. However, they have also made it very clear that it will appeal to the everyday user aswell.


A full list of specs is yet to be published but it features a 7-inch screen, two video cameras and will not use Blackberry's latest operating system, instead relying on that of QNX; a company RIM recently acquired.
The Playbook was unveiled after much anticipation at the Blackberry developer conference in San Francisco. It is set for release in early 2011, and whilst they have been reluctant to comment on the comparisons made with the iPad, it is creating a real buzz in the tablet market.

Mobile phones offer medical solutions to the developing world

The journey of the mobile phone over the last twenty years has been incredible. It has gone from being used just for making calls and sending texts to a serious and sophisticated bit of kit.

So serious, says Professor Ramesh Raskar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, that - with a few tweaks here and there - they could begin to replace expensive scientific and medical equipment.


He believes that there is a clear gulf in the medical facilities that are available in the developing and the developed world. He believes that mobile phone technology could bridge that gap, and he is not alone in his thinking.


In the last two years alone, Professor Ramesh Raskar says, the resolution of these devices has increased six fold, with some now boasting over 300 dots per inch (dpi). Equivalent to that found on high end scientific equipment.


He is currently working on a device called the Near Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment (Netra), a cheap clip-on gadget, which can be used to diagnose eye conditions such as nearsightedness and farsightedness.


"Look through it and it gives you your prescription," he said.


In California, Professor Aydogan Ozcan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is working on a mobile replacement for the microscope.


There is a flurry of experimental technology taking a hold of engineers across the world. The power of the mobile platform offers such potential that this will just be the beginning.


"The cellphone holds huge promise," Professor Aydogan Ozcan said. "It has become like a Swiss-army knife".

Smartphones to be used on the battlefield?

With shrinking budgets, defence contractors, much like other industries are looking for ways to use existing equipment, rather than designing new dedicated pieces of equipment.

The iPhone being used as a weapon at war is a concept that is a long way from being operational, but it’s an idea that is growing in military circles, and today’s release of a missile training app is certainly a step closer.


US defence firm Raytheon has released and iPhone app for The Patriot anti-missile system. Patriot Crew Drill is a multiple-choice game, designed as a refresher tool for missile troops to keep them fresh between tours.


The game, which will not be available on Apple's App Store, will help keep Patriot troops, assigned to other duties, up to speed on the working and mechanics of the system.


Raytheon has said it intends to launch a number of iPhone military apps.

Apple profits sore!

Concerns about the Apple iPod4 have been reduced as the company have just revealed “phenomenal” quarterly figures.
 Wall Street forecasts were completely undone by Apple’s profit figures which have been boosted by the sales of Mac computers and the introduction of the iPad.

 Apple's revenues rose to $15.7bn, well ahead of analysts' forecasts of about $14.75bn.


"It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple's history with iPhone 4," said Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive.

"iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year," he said.

 The company reported net income for the three months to 26 June of $3.25bn (£2.1bn), or $3.51 a share, up from $1.83bn for the quarter last year.


The news sent Apple shares up 3.4% in after-hours trading, and go some way to relieve investors' concerns about the quality of the iPhone 4.

The future of the written word is online and digital

As I browsed the Apple iPads section of PC World yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me that the future of newspapers is going to be online. It seems I’m not the only one that thinks so, but am I the only one that is concerned about it?



Addressing the audience at the Activate 2010 summit held at the Guardian, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said that the experience of the reading news will move to digital devices quite rapidly – and that it will involve personalised and local news which will be alert to your interests and existing knowledge. He also warned that organisations should think of their mobile strategy ahead of their internet strategy – but that the two were intertwined so deeply that it was impossible to think of one without the other.


I certainly agree that with the uprising of mobile technology it is inevitable that the way we access the news, and that as technology develops, our approach to news will continue to be personalised. We will be able to read the news with the addition of video and colour, which can only be a good thing, can’t it?