Apple Patent Case: Wisconsin University Wins Huge Damages

Apple to Pay - Damages for Patent Infringement

Apple has been ordered by a US jury to pay more than $234m as damages for patent infringement. The patent licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation had stated that the verdict was considered to be important to protect its inventions from being misused.

A decision had been taken earlier by the jury that Apple merged patented microchip technology in some iPhones and iPads without permission and Apple had stated that it would appeal for the same. It could be a bad moment for Apple to go through the court proceedings for using the microchip in their gadget without taking permission for the same from the manufacturer.

Further comments were declined by the company. The amount was said to be less than the foundation had claimed and had initially sought as much as $862m. The amount was reduced in part since the judge had ruled out that Apple had not deliberately infringed the patent. Professor Curindar Sohi of the University of Wisconsin-Madison computer sciences one of the inventors of the microchip technology that had been created to enhance the performance of computer processor had been in the federal court for the decision, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Apple Refrained from Agreeing to Licencing Conditions

The university had mentioned in court that it had made efforts in dealing with Apple, however was swiped away when the company had refrained from agreeing with any licensing conditions. It would probably come to regret for doing so.

There were other reports though unconfirmed that the damages were set at $862bn and figures indicate that Apple had earned $4,540 a second and giving it a couple of minutes, there could be some way there.The annual revenue of Apple for the year 2014 was $182bn.

The managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Carl Gulbrandsen had stated that this seems to be a case where the hard work of the university researchers and the integrity of patenting as well as licensing discoveries had prevailed and the jury had recognized the seminal computer processing work which had taken place on the campus.

 The situation was connected to the usage of the technology in iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus and an added lawsuit which made the same claim against Apple’s latest models, the 6S and 6S Plus was also filed.

Severe Battles – Patents – Fought in Courts Worldwide

Intel was sued by the University of Wisconsin for the same patent in 2008 and the case had been settled out of court for an unknown sum.

Inspite of the latest revealed truces between some of the big tech firms, severe battles with regards to patents still tend to be fought in courts worldwide.

Recently a judge had tossed claims by graphic card specialist Nvidia that Samsung together with the others had infringed three of its patents.

University of Wisconsin had successfully demanded that Apple had utilised its microchip technology without any permission in some of its iPhones and iPads. It is said that the patent filed in 1998 is to improve the power efficiency of microchips. The case is related to the use of the technology in the iPhone 5s. 6 and 6 Plus

YouTube Gives its iOS App a New look and in-App Editing Tools

YouTube has brought in an extensive update for its iOS app, which makes it much more similar to the Android version. This update has been introduced in the Material design style of the app, which is very much noticeable and quite divisive in nature. Google is simply trying to provide a consistent look for its products across the platform and devices by using the Android friendly material design. YouTube also gets in-app editing tools, which allow users to edit videos as per their choice before uploading it.

Changes brought about by this update

YouTube now has three tabs on the top of the main page, which includes Home, Subscription and Account. Home is usually filled with number of videos and channels available on the YouTube, Subscriptions showcases all the recent updates from the subscribed accounts and Account gives a summary of user’s account. YouTube app happens to be more vibrant in color, offers enlarged space and requires a lot of navigation for moving around the app, which might not be liked by some users.

A new in-app editing tool has been integrated in the app, which allows users to polish the videos before uploading on the network. A refreshed version of the Creator Studio App is also given to the users which offer enhanced Analytics section.

YouTube iOS update gets one star reviews

Google had introduced these dramatic and wholesome changes in the YouTube iOS app with the aim of making it more interactive than before. However, the early adopters of this app with its comprehensive redesign have stated that this new layout is simply garnish and happens to wastes space. The navigational changes brought about by this update require users to perform more swiping and tapping to get content. In simple words, this redesign of layout is not at user friendly and makes it difficult to move across the app.

A large number of reviewers of this update have complained of removing the left sidebar for better. The left sidebar has made it difficult for the users to access simple but essential things like history, subscriptions and playlists. One of the iTunes reviewers was quite upset with the need of pressing back button each time one has to move to different channel. To be true the iOS users feels that latest update has simply done away with the easier functionality and navigation support with YouTube app had earlier and it has been replaced with bigger pictures and vibrant pictures.

YouTube misses on bringing integration with iOS 9 features

Users with iOS 9 were quite let down by this new update, as it didn’t provide any support for the new iOS features. YouTube has missed on the great opportunity to integrate the support some new rich features of iOS 9 like plus SlideOver, Picture-in-Picture and Split View. Video editing tools and features included in the app are fairly basic at this point of time. But it still offers a way to perform few of the essential video editing tasks within a quick time directly from the app.

CAF – Delivering Technological Inventions

Chelsea App Factory – CAF, was established in 2010 when the release of iPad came up and is positioned to offer solutions enabling consumers to succeed in the mobile world. Established in London, CAF has created a niche for themselves as a leading UK mobile app expansion company and is the largest specialist mobile consultancy in the nation for consumers as well as enterprise apps.

This is due to their creation of cutting edge environments delivering tangible and impressive returns.Chelsea Apps Factory one of the fastest growing tech firm has been ranked 16th of the topmost 100 quickest growing private tech companies and is linked with well-known group of UK firms which tends to deliver technological inventions.

Companies tend to be ranked based on their compound annual growth rate – CAFR with regards to sales over a period of three years. Since its establishment in 2010, this seemed to the first opportunity that the business mobility experts Chelsea Apps Factory were entitled to enter along with the Tech Track 100 needing four years of account, to be considered to be included. Their Innovation Labs are `always on’ powerhouses which efficiently tends to drive business resolutions together with productivity and profit.

Delivering Industry Leading Mobile Solutions/Services 

CAF’s widespread and recognized armoury of Strategy, Consultancy as well as delivery besides the Innovation Lab makes sure that the businesses stay on. Created to manage planned urgencies of CEO’s worldwide in 2015 inventions, their labs have been offering perceptible ROI by aiming on customer involvement and achievement.

Since its launch, the company has been making great progress year after year, developing reputation in delivering industry leading mobile solutions together with services to Ladbrokes, KPMG and Waitrose and last year the company had gained profits which has doubled its turnover with the employment of additional 80 staff at its London and Edinburg App Factories and a third Factory opened at Belfast in 2015.

They have embarked on transformational programmes of work with a share of great confidence in supporting enterprises at various stages all through their mobile journey with them. They have built up relationships with renowned consumers across retail, professional services, pharmaceutical, telecoms and legal sectors.

IBM's Carbon Nanotube Breakthrough Takes Processors beyond Silicon

IBM Research – Created New System of Creating Contacts for Carbon Nanotube

IBM Research has created a new system of creating contacts for carbon nanotube which seems to open a `pathway to smaller, faster and a much powerful computer chips beyond the skills of traditional semiconductors’. It involves rolling nanoscale tubes from sheets of graphene that measures about one atom thick and gives new life to Moore’s Law.

The results were published in the journal Science which describes a new system of creating contacts for carbon nanotubes which are different to the prevailing system for carbon as well as silicon transistors and does not suffer from the issue of increased electrical resistance.

This is due to the contact which seems to be reduced in size. The increase in electrical resistance in a transistor would lead to performance reductions which till now resulted in smaller contacts of slow processors. In order to overcome this issue, IBM created a completely new metallurgical procedure which chemically binds metal atoms to the carbon atoms towards the end of the nanotubes.

IBM had stated that the `end-bonded contact scheme’ enabled the contacts to be contracted to below 10 nanometres devoid of deteriorating performance of the carbon nanotube devices. This would mean that we could be seeing carbon nanotube processors within the period.

Method - Carbon Nanotubes to Self-Assemble & Bind to Dedicated Molecules

In a Q&A which had been posted on the IBM Research blog, Nanoscale device as well as technology manager Shu-Jen Han had clarified what is needed to be done to utilise carbon nanotube transistors in a practical processor stating that they had developed a method for carbon nanotubes to self-assemble and bind to dedicated molecules on a wafer.

Then it is pushed to the density of the placed nanotubes, to around 10 nm apart and the reproducibility through the complete wafer’. The issue with the prevailing silicon based transistors is the tiny switches which tend to carry information on present computer chips and the material properties of silicone limits the degree to which transistors could be condensed in size.

BM tends to have built functional silicon germanium transistors at 7 nanometres. However it states that this pushed the limits of what could be done with the material. Intel on the other hand stated that it would not be utilising silicon beyond the 10 nm scale. The present CPUs of Intel are at 14nm while the next generation would be 10nm.

Assets of Carbon Nanotubes – Appropriate for Computing

The assets of carbon nanotubes tend to make them appropriate for use in computing, wherein they conduct electricity much faster than silicon, utilise less power and evaluating just one nanometre thick, seems to be much thinner than the prevailing silicon that makes them less liable to unsolicited electrostatic discharge. IBM had been investing profoundly in carbon nanotube study which has shown that carbon nanotube transistors could be utilised as outstanding switches at channel dimensions less than 10nm.

The company has clarified that it is equivalent to 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair and less than half the size of present leading silicon technology’. Vice president of science and technology, Dario Gil, had written on IBM’s `A Smarter Planet blog, mentioning that the new technology could extend the life of Moore’s Law.

Created in the 1960s, Gordon Moore’s fundamental saying of modern technological development assumed that the number of transistors which could be put onto a computer chip would double every two years and with silicon reaching it limits, physically, the achievement of carbon nanotube research would be essential if the development seems to continue.

Apple Pay is coming to Starbucks

Apple’s Mobile Payment Service Coming to Starbucks

Vice President of Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey, during the Code Mobile conference, had revealed that Apple Pay, Apple’s mobile payment service would be coming to Starbucks next year. Starbucks would be starting to pilot the service in some of the stores towards the end of 2015 and would be rolling it out to Starbucks company owned stores, around 7,500 by next year.

Bailey has informed that working on Apple Pay, she has seen great changes in momentum around acceptance at the merchant level, adding that about 80% of Apple Watch owners very actively tend to use Apple Pay. She said that Apple Pay would be hitting KFC restaurants in spring and Chili’s restaurants in 2016 as a pay at the table model.

The potential of turning smartphones into digital wallets with the ability of paying at the register had been advertised for years. Apple had kick-started consumer interest in the technology when it had launched its first project into contactless mobile payment last year. Less than 72 hours after the debut of Apple Pay, around 1 million credit cards had been utilised on the service.

Pay Through Near Field Communication - NFC

People can pay for products on the go at supported retailer through near field communication - NFC, technology with a new iPhone or Apple Watch. Besides this, other Touch ID enabled devices like the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 can also be used to pay for in-app transactions.

The iOS 9 update since last month enables users consolidated loyalty as well as rewards cards. The service tends to utilise a tokenization method which sends an encrypted digital token to stores rather than a credit or debit card number whenever a transaction has been made, which means merchants as well as retailers never get to view customer data.

 Mobile payments service of Samsung also works in the same manner. With around 500 financial institution partners together with 220,000 US merchant locations which tend to make mobile payment through NFC’s short range, secure wireless capabilities, Apple Pay had gone live in 2014. Towards mid-2015,over 2,500 banks had signed on to render support to Apple Pay with more than 1 million locations accepting Apple Pay.

Apple Pay – Two Thirds Contactless Payment – Radio Frequency

Apple Pay seems to be on track to be accepted at over 1.5 million US locations towards the end of this year. Apple had said that in January, Apple Pay made more than two-thirds of all contactless payments comprising of any device or smart card which makes payments utilising a radio frequency.

However, Apple has faced a lot of competition from Google which has been bulking up its Android Pay offering, together with Samsung which had introduced its Samsung Pay service in the US last month. The services of Samsung enables consumers to pay for products with their Galaxy phone and the impending Gear S2 smart-watch, tends to work at older retail depots that do not accept Apple Pay but thanks to the achievement of LoopPay in February.

Bailey had commented recently that she had been treated well as one of the few female executive at Apple. Bailey had been one of the two female executive highlighted on the stage in June at the time of Apple’s developer conference