Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The parent company of the Discovery Channel (Discovery Communications) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, claiming that the Internet retailer's Kindle e-book reader infringes Discovery's U.S. patent 7,298,851, titled "Electronic book security and copyright protection system".
It was filed in 1999 as a "continuation in part" from patent applications dating back to 1992. Among the prior-art disclosures listed are 52 U.S. patents or applications, 34 foreign patents or applications, and 15 nonpatent publications. It has 171 claims, three of which are independent. Those are all signs of a strong patent.
*~*~*
The Startup 2009 conference, which will take place in New York in June. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider, New York University's Stern School of Business, General Catalyst, SoftBank, and Venrock. Startup 2009 will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $50,000 prize.
Startup 2009 will be a one-day conference featuring interviews with entrepreneurs, expert panels, networking, and a 10-company startup contest. Committed speakers include:
* Jason Calacanis, Founder/CEO Mahalo, founder Weblogs, former EIR at Sequoia.
* George Bell, partner General Catalyst; former CEO Excite, Excite@Home, and Upromise; board member Big Fish Games; Going; HubSpot; PhotoShelter; ShortTail Media and WonderHowTo.
* David Pakman, partner Venrock, former CEO eMusic.
* Kevin Ryan, CEO Alleycorp; former CEO Doubleclick; founder Gilt Groupe, Silicon Alley Insider, Shopwiki, Panther, 10gen.
*~*~*
Media regulator Ofcom will take over the regulation of video on demand services, but will delegate it to an industry-formulated co-regulator, the Government has said.
The Government has published details of how it will ensure that the UK complies with the European Union's Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which extends regulation to television-like programmes regardless of the medium used to show them.
*~*~*
New iPhone uses
A host of companies took the stage at Apple headquarters in Cupertino on Tuesday to explain what their new applications can do on the much-vaunted personal communications device.
NBC Bay Area tech reporter Scott Budman tweeted all the updates as they occured.
Developers will gain access to thousands of new application "API's" because of the updates. The API's will allow developers to create and change the applications they want, Budman reported.
Designers unveiled new audio file and texting features for the iPhone. There is also a new voice memo feature built into the phone's home screen, as well as a more synchable calendar, Budman reported.
More information is available here >>
It was filed in 1999 as a "continuation in part" from patent applications dating back to 1992. Among the prior-art disclosures listed are 52 U.S. patents or applications, 34 foreign patents or applications, and 15 nonpatent publications. It has 171 claims, three of which are independent. Those are all signs of a strong patent.
*~*~*
The Startup 2009 conference, which will take place in New York in June. The conference is co-hosted by Silicon Alley Insider, New York University's Stern School of Business, General Catalyst, SoftBank, and Venrock. Startup 2009 will showcase 10 top startups competing for bragging rights, buzz, and a $50,000 prize.Startup 2009 will be a one-day conference featuring interviews with entrepreneurs, expert panels, networking, and a 10-company startup contest. Committed speakers include:
* Jason Calacanis, Founder/CEO Mahalo, founder Weblogs, former EIR at Sequoia.
* George Bell, partner General Catalyst; former CEO Excite, Excite@Home, and Upromise; board member Big Fish Games; Going; HubSpot; PhotoShelter; ShortTail Media and WonderHowTo.
* David Pakman, partner Venrock, former CEO eMusic.
* Kevin Ryan, CEO Alleycorp; former CEO Doubleclick; founder Gilt Groupe, Silicon Alley Insider, Shopwiki, Panther, 10gen.
*~*~*
Media regulator Ofcom will take over the regulation of video on demand services, but will delegate it to an industry-formulated co-regulator, the Government has said.
The Government has published details of how it will ensure that the UK complies with the European Union's Audio-Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, which extends regulation to television-like programmes regardless of the medium used to show them.
*~*~*
New iPhone uses
A host of companies took the stage at Apple headquarters in Cupertino on Tuesday to explain what their new applications can do on the much-vaunted personal communications device.
NBC Bay Area tech reporter Scott Budman tweeted all the updates as they occured.
Developers will gain access to thousands of new application "API's" because of the updates. The API's will allow developers to create and change the applications they want, Budman reported.
Designers unveiled new audio file and texting features for the iPhone. There is also a new voice memo feature built into the phone's home screen, as well as a more synchable calendar, Budman reported.
More information is available here >>
Labels: amazon, Apple, discovery channel, iPhone, kindle, ofcom, startup 2009, video
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Hershey's has joined hands with Jazwares to develop a line of consumer electronics. They are rather interesting and unique. Check out the 1-4GB USB drives that resemble Hershey's chocolates. I hope they have a dark chocolate version. Besides this, there will be a range of digital cameras, earphones and speakers that will assume the shape of one of your favorite Hershey's candies too. I wonder if the earphones will look like Kisses? Expect the price of the products to vary between $15-$30.*~*~*
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos showed up at Jon Stewart's pad the other day to discuss the Kindle 2, and Jon seemed fairly unimpressed. They were just finally getting into a groove when Bezos dropped the price bomb, and then their fleeting segment was over. It's embedded after the break. Amazon VP Ian Freed has also been chatting up the device, but in a more technical nature. On designing the Kindle he reiterates the "invisibility" design ethic surrounding the device, about making it "disappear" for the user. They also improved the cellular modem for improved reception, and also fended off features like a color screen that would shorten battery life, up the price and cause the device to generate more heat and make its presence known. As far as text to speech goes, he thinks it's good for short stretches of reading, and notes that it covers the vast majority of titles that aren't available in an audio format.
*~*~*
Apple has failed in its bid to trademark the word "pod" in Australia, due to an objection from a guitar electronics company that produces a product by a similar name. Guitar accessories group Line 6, manufactures the "POD" device, blocked the trademark claim, arguing it has a pre-existing trademark in the same category related to musical devices. While Line 6 has sold far fewer units of its product than Apple's range of iPod devices, Australian Trade Marks Office hearing officer Iain Thompson declared that the POD device was still an established product.
*~*~*
NASA has announced the imminent debut of a promotional film entitled Return to the Moon, made for the radical new "spherical film-making" projection system.
What, you didn't know about spherical movies? Neither did we, to be honest. In essence, the idea is to project the images not onto a flat screen but onto a large sphere hanging suspended in the auditorium.
This is obviously ideal for movies such as Return to the Moon, which largely consists of imagery from various NASA lunar missions. According to the space agency:
"The LRO in particular will be looking to map the Moon very precisely, hoping to avoid bottom-puckering moments like that suffered by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 when they found their lander's autopilot taking them down into a crater bottom strewn with massive boulders. By the time they had manually maneuvered to a clear area for landing, they had less than 30 seconds' fuel left."
Labels: amazon, Apple, Gadgets, hershey, kindle 2, NASA
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