Apple V Samsung in the Supreme court this week!

Today, Samsung and Apple take their legal battle over smartphone design similarities to the United States Supreme Court.

It’s kind of a big deal, guys. 

The supreme court will be deciding on how much of a combined $548 million patent infringement ruling Samsung will be required to pay Apple.

Kinda crazily, the case also marks the Supreme Court’s first examination of a design patent dispute in 120 years, “which cover the ornamental look of an object rather than any functional aspect.”

Apple’s design patents cover “the rounded corners of its phones, the rim that surrounds the front face and the grid of icons that users view.”

Last December, a federal court in San Jose ruled in Apple’s favor, and Samsung appealed days later in attempts to avoid the $548 million reward payment to Apple.

In Samsung’s appeal, the company gave the court a metaphor centering around owing a car’s entire profits to a rival company for infringing upon their cup holder design.

Samsung officially stops all sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7

Samsung has officially announced that it has asked its global partners to cease all sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 while it further investigates claims of ongoing safety issues with replacement devices.

This came about because a number of customers who were given ‘safe’ replacement Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, caught on fire. 

These were devices  that were supposedly using batteries Samsung said were “not vulnerable to overheating and catching fire.”

Yikes.

A flight from Louisville to Baltimore was evacuated when a Note 7 began smoking,  a 13-year-old girl in Minnesota received burns from a defective device while a man in Kentucky suffered from smoke inhalation after his Note 7 caught fire while he was asleep. Additional Samsung note 7 fires were reported in Virginia and Texas, as well as reports of fires from Taiwan and South Korea.

Danger Will Robinson.

Hence, sales will temporarily end worldwide.

This is the important bit –

According to Samsung, customers with an original Galaxy Note 7 or a replacement Galaxy Note 7 should shut down their devices and stop using them right away.

from the Sauce:

“We are working with relevant regulatory bodies to investigate the recently reported cases involving the Galaxy Note7. Because consumers’ safety remains our top priority, Samsung will ask all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note7 while the investigation is taking place.

We remain committed to working diligently with appropriate regulatory authorities to take all necessary steps to resolve the situation. Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note7 or replacement Galaxy Note7 device should power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available.”

For customers in the United States who still have a Galaxy Note 7, all of the major carriers are now offering to replace the defective devices with another smartphone, such as an iPhone 7.

Um, win for Apple.

New Google Releases!

At its media event in San Francisco last week, Google announced a boatload of new Google products.

We’re talking Google Home and other products supported by their AI intelligence and 2 new smartphones called Pixel and Pixel XL.

There’s also the company’s new Chromecast Ultra streaming dongle, and a VR headset called Google Daydream.

Let’s begin with Google’s artificial intelligence platform, Google Assistant. It can perform tasks like playing music, performing search queries, and providing navigation directions, as well as carrying on a normal conversation with the user.

From the Sauce:

“When I look ahead at where computing is headed it’s clear to me that we are evolving from a mobile first to an AI first world,” Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, told the audience at the start of the presentation.
Ok, now the phones- Pixel is the first official device with its machine learning AI built directly into it.

We have 5-inch Pixel and 5.5 Inch Pixel XL. They come in two storage options: 32GB or 128 GB and both come with unlimited full-resolution photo and video storage via Google Photos.

Acpparently one of the biggest advantages of Pixel is that it has the highest DxO Mark camera rating (89) of any smartphone on the market. The 12.3 megapixel camera has a f/2.0 aperture and includes features like “Smartburst,” which intelligently selects the best image from a burst of images, while HDR+ lets the smartphone shoot images in bright and low light situations.

Both devices are built by HTC and powered by the Snapdragon 821 processor.  Both have a fingerprint sensor, hi-definition AMOLED Display, and all of the smartphone’s components are covered by a combination aluminum unibody and polished glass encasement.

Both models will be a Verizon exclusive in the United States, but will also be available unlocked for $649 from the Google Store. Each phone comes in “Very Silver,” “Quite Black,” and “Really Blue” colorways.

Next up! Google Daydream is a virtual reality headset – the evolution of Google Cardboard if you will.

 
Over fifty companies have partnered with Google and will bring VR experiences by the end of the year, including video games, video streaming apps like Hulu and Netflix, and even journalism publications.

It will ship in November for $79 and will come in one color at launch, “slate.” Later this year, “snow” and “crimson” options will be added. In the US, preorders for the headset start on Oct. 20th. They will be available in Canada, Germany, Australia and the UK in early November.

The Daydream View requires a smartphone to work. It currently only works with the Pixel, but the headset will be able to hold any phone that ends up supporting the Daydream platform in the future.

The company revealed Google Wi-Fi, which will bring support for the expansion of network throughput in a home with a modular system that users can place in each room that needs a signal boost. Google Wi-Fi is coming in December with a single pack for $129 and 3-pack for $299.

On the entertainment side of things, Google announced the Chromecast Ultra, which supports streaming of up to 4K video content, includes Ethernet support and is also 1.8 times faster than the previous Chromecast. It’ll be available in November for $69.