Patents: Apple wins over Motorola in 'slide-to-unlock' ruling
Apple has won a patent dispute against Motorola Mobility regarding a "slide-to-unlock" feature on smartphones.
The judgement marks Apple's first patent victory over Motorola in any part of the world.
Patent consultant Florian Mueller said the ruling could affect patent disputes involving Android device makers worldwide.
Motorola said it planned to appeal and the judgement would have "no impact" on supply or future sales.
A spokeswoman for the Motorola said: "Today's ruling in the patent litigation brought by Apple in Munich, Germany, concerns a software feature related to phone unlocking in select Motorola devices sold in Germany.
"Motorola has implemented a new design for the feature. Therefore, we expect no impact on current supply or future sales."
Apple said it would not be commenting on the decision.
'Global battle'
Motorola Mobility is in the process of being acquired by Google, and most of its handsets run on the search firm's mobile operating system, Android.
The Android system is Apple's closest rival in the mobile market.
Mr Mueller, a patent expert who has in the past consulted for Microsoft, described the ruling as a "very significant win for Apple against Android".
"After Google closes the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, the Apple-Motorola Mobility dispute will soon gain importance transcending that of the global battle with Samsung," he said.
While this decision relates solely to activity in the German market, the decision could potentially help Apple with other patent disputes in other parts of the world, Mr Mueller added.
"Apple is already asserting the slide-to-unlock patent in different jurisdictions against all three leading Android device makers and might use it against even more of them going forward."
The patent in question - EP1964022 - relates to the process of unlocking a smartphone by simply swiping a finger from one area of the screen to another.
A second patent ruling, which covers a method of scrolling through pictures in a photo gallery on mobile device, was also due on Thursday but was postponed by the court.
Stanford saw Antigua as "Crown Jewel", jury hears
The former Sir R. Allen Stanford, the man US federal prosecutors accuse of a $7 billion investor scam through certificates of deposit in an offshore bank, saw his adopted country of Antigua and Barbuda as a “crown jewel.”
The disclosure came from a lawyer and former U.S. Customs Agent Thursday, who testified in defense of Stanford. The defense opened its case yesterday, a day after the prosecution rested, and called its first of 27 witnesses, Patrick O’Brien, to the stand. O’Brien served with Stanford during the late 1990s on a committee charged with reforming banking laws in the Caribbean nation of Antigua, where Stanford owned the largest bank. O’Brien told jurors and the court that Stanford wanted to make Antigua the “crown jewel” among Caribbean nations for providing financial services and even loaned the island’s government the money to fund the committee.
He said the vision and effort yielded new laws and a new regulatory body in Antigua, and Stanford was named to its board even though he owned an institution it was charged with overseeing.
AG AND THE BILL
The integrity commission bill was a hot button issue as it revealed yesterday who should under law be able to make declarations and as Attorney General Hue Shepheard explained on the Governor is exempt, thus meaning himself and the CEO of the TCI can be called to give evidence or face the commission.
He added that the governor is in the TCI as a representative of the queen and holds that responsibility as is observed in the UK and the laws are clear on what the Governor can and cannot adhere to in the Turks and Caiocs Islands.
This clarification has left to query whether it was under these principles that former Governor Richard Tauwhare operated under while installed as Governor of the TCI but has his signature affixed to several of the now controversial deals that have been placed under public scrutiny while ruling over the former Premier Michael Misick administration.
Tuesday’s meeting also debated and supported amendments to the Integrity Commission Ordinance and accompanying Schedules. The amendments, among other things, change the filing requirements that apply to persons in public life; give the Commission and the Governor more flexibility in administering the Ordinance; and lower the threshold for the value of gifts that must be declared.
One of the Schedules carries a list of the “Persons in Public Life” who are required to file returns, and the Commission has asked these persons to review and submit comments on the amendments.
The Agriculture Bill 2012 provides for the establishment and operation of a Department of Agriculture, and the appointment of a Director and staff to manage and administer the Department. Government expects the agriculture sector to meet more of local food demand, reduce dependence on imports, and create employment, as part of its role in the ongoing recovery and future economic growth of the TCI.
The Forum also voted to support the related Control of Animals Bill 2012 which transfers responsibility for the control of animals, including the provision of pounds, from the Environmental Health Department to the new Department of Agriculture.
Payroll tax cut: US Congress reaches deal
A US congressional panel has reached a tentative deal on extending a payroll tax cut, ending weeks of uncertainty.
The $150bn (£95.69bn) deal extends the tax cut until the end of 2012.
Both houses of congress are expected to approve the extension - which will affect 160m workers - by the end of the week.
Agreement came after Republicans dropped calls for spending cuts to offset the expense, and Democrats put aside requests for other tax breaks.
The payroll tax sparked an impasse in Congress at the end of 2011.
The new deal is expected to provide workers with an extra $40 every two months.
The joint House-Senate panel has also agreed to extend unemployment benefits as part of the deal.
"We have reached an agreement and we're moving forward," said Republican Representative Dave Camp, who headed the negotiating committee.
Mr Camp said there were some technical details outstanding which would be sorted out by staff aides.
Extending the cut, which was originally passed in 2010, was part of a wide-ranging jobs plan launched by President Barack Obama in September 2011.
But the Republicans had opposed the plan as it had wanted spending cuts to pay for the tax reduction in order to avoid an increase in the federal debt.
Republicans had wanted to reduce the extension of unemployment benefits from 99 weeks to 59 weeks. The White House wanted a 79-week extension as a compromise - but the deal agreed is 73 weeks in states with the highest numbers of unemployed people.
Although particularly states where unemployment is a key issue - such as Rhode Island and Nevada - will actually see more generous measures than under current law.
The Republicans also dropped a condition that potential recipients of unemployment benefits must be drug-tested first.
Another condition which was dropped was the requirement for those on low incomes who claimed child tax credit to possess social security numbers if they wanted government cheques.
However, under the terms of the tentative deal, there would still be a 2% point cut in the payroll tax which pays for federal social security pensions.
It would also renew benefits worth an average of $300 a week for the long term unemployed.
Chinese Vice President Wins Hearts in US Heartland
Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping won the hearts of ordinary Americans during a visit to a farming community in the Midwestern state of Iowa Wednesday, 27 years after he first visited the area as a mid-level official.
The man presumed to be China's next president spent an hour sipping tea with residents in the town of Muscatine, and many said he remembered faces and recited events from his previous visit in 1985.
Among those who met with Xi was local resident Tom Hoopes, whose farm Xi visited during that earlier trip to study U.S. agricultural practices.
"I've never been around anyone who worked an audience like he did," Hoopes said, "and in view of the fact that it was a two-language situation, he worked it as sincere as my first impression of ever having heard him talk."
Xi, who concludes his U.S. tour with a visit to Los Angeles Thursday, stressed his interest in person-to-person contacts during a formal dinner later Wednesday in the Iowa state capital, Des Moines.
At the dinner, hosted by state Governor Terry Branstad, Xi said he is in the United States to advance cooperative relations.
Kosovo Serb Voters Reject Pristina Rule
Serbs in northern Kosovo cast a near unanimous rejection of a referendum on whether to recognize the country's ethnic Albanian dominated government after two days of voting.
The Kosovo Serb electoral commission said 99.7 percent of voters in the four Serbian communities in northern Kosovo opposed the referendum.
Ethnic Serbs have ignored Pristina's efforts to extend its authority into the northern areas since Kosovo gained independence in 2008.
Prior to the polls closing Wednesday, some voters expressed their defiance at polling stations, including this Serbian man from the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica.
“My vote at the moment defends my interests, the interests of my family and my state Serbia on Kosovo and Metohija.''
For an unidentified female voter, it was a clear no to Kosovo rule.
“We don't want to be part of Kosovo, we stay in Serbia, we don't need Kosovo.''
Pristina, Belgrade and the international community have dismissed the vote, which many see as a threat to Serbia's bid for European Union membership. Serbian President Boris Tadic has said the referendum is harming the interests of the country.
The EU has said Serbia must find a way to end ethnic unrest along its boundary with northern Kosovo if it wants its bid for EU membership to move forward.
Some 35,000 voters in flashpoint Serb towns and enclaves participated in the vote that carried no legal weight.
Analysts warn the vote could further stoke ethnic tensions in an already volatile region.
Kosovo is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, while Kosovo Serbs dominate in areas bordering Serbia. The country is preparing to celebrate the 4th anniversary of its independence from Serbia on Friday.
Honduras prison fire: Huge task to identify victims
Honduras is beginning the grim task of identifying the victims of a prison fire that killed more than 350 people.
As forensic experts worked to recover the charred corpses from the jail in Comayagua, hundreds of relatives remained desperate for news.
The government has promised a full investigation and accepted that the entire prison system needs reform.
More than half the inmates in Comayagua were on remand or held as suspected gang members, AP news agency says.
AP obtained an internal Honduran government report sent to the United Nations that detailed conditions in the Comayagua prison.
The report said that there were some 800 prisoners in a jail built for 500, and only 51 guards by day and just 12 by night.
Tuesday's fire, which broke out at night, destroyed large parts of the Comayagua complex.
With the number of dead past 350, it is the world's worst prison fire in a century.
Survivors said inmates had tried to save themselves by jumping into showers or sinks.
Bodies are being sent to the mortuary in Tegucigalpa for formal identification. Many are so badly charred that dental records and DNA will be needed.
REDjet boosting visitor arrivals
REDjet has had a significant impact on Barbados’ visitor arrivals from the Caribbean and Tourism Minister Richard Sealy has affirmed government’s commitment to supporting the local carrier as a result.
Sealy said the decision to throw support behind the airline was the “ direct the result” of a significant increase in visitor arrivals from the CARICOM region last year following the introduction of “the new player” into the regional airline pool.
Barbados saw a 9.5 per cent increase in arrivals from CARICOM in 2011 with over 35 percent of those visitors coming from Trinidad and Sealy insisted REDjet’s entry into the marketplace had been responsible .
“It is for that reason that the Barbados government is supporting REDjet through the Barbados Tourism Authority. We have already taken that decision and we are just working out how we are going to do it” Sealy said as he addressed local and regional journalists attending the annual CTO “State of the Industry” news conference at CTO’s Collymore Rock headquarters earlier this week. (GC)
ALBA nations want Cuba at summit with U.S
A bloc of leftist-led countries Wednesday insisted that Cuba be invited to a Summit of the Americas but put off a decision on whether it will otherwise boycott the gathering, which would spark a diplomatic row with the United States and embarrass host Colombia.
“To not invite (Cuba) is to run the risk that this will be not the last Summit of the Americas but the Last Supper, because we don’t think it’s acceptable,” Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño told reporters after a meeting in Havana of the eight-nation group known as ALBA.
But the ALBA countries will not decide what they will do if Cuba is not invited to the gathering of 34 heads of state, expected to include President Barack Obama, until host Colombia replies to their request for an invitation, Patiño added.
Patiño said that the ALBA envoys also agreed to demand that the summit take up the issue of the 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, as well as Argentina’s claims to the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, which sparked a war with Great Britain in 1982.
Attending the ALBA gathering were the foreign ministers or other top officials of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador — all ruled by leftists — and the Caribbean islands of Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda.
The diplomatic drama was sparked by Ecuador President Rafael Correa on Feb. 5, when he declared at an ALBA gathering in Venezuela that the group’s members should boycott the April 14-15 summit in the Colombian city of Cartagena unless Cuba was invited.
“It is unheard of that in the 21st Century, something is called the Summit of the Americas and for certain hegemonic countries some of us are Americans and some of us are not,” declared the left-of-center Correa.
The Obama administration has insisted that Cuba cannot attend the gathering because the 34 nations attending a previous summit in Quebec had agreed that only democratic governments could participate.
The summits, an attempt at regional economic integration and coordination launched in Miami in 1994 with the strong backing of President Bill Clinton, have the same membership as the Organization of American States, the Washington-based group that brings together all 34 nations of the Western Hemisphere.
Cuba’s OAS membership was suspended 1962 and technically reinstated in 2009 – on condition that it open a dialogue on the “practices, goals and principles” of the OAS, a reference to the organization’s many clauses on democracy and human rights.
Cuba has repeatedly said it is not interested in returning to the OAS fold, complaining that it is too dominated by the U.S. But the Cuban government has now said that it does want to be at the Cartagena gathering.
“It cannot be a summit of the Americas so long as it excludes, without reason or justice, a Cuba that has declared … that it would attend … with respect,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said at the start of the closed-door meeting on Wednesday in Havana.
Jeremy Lin May Appear In All-Star Shooting Stars Competition
Jeremy Lin emerged just a little too late this season to be considered for inclusion at this month’s All-Star Game, but fear not — there’s still a chance for the New York Knicks phenom to play a role in the Orlando festivities.
According to a Sporting News report, the NBA is looking to include Lin in the Haier Shooting Stars competition on Saturday night. The event features one current NBA player, one WNBA player and one retired star from each competing city, and the league is looking to get New York a team this year, starring Lin.
The Shooting Stars game appears to be the only way to make room for Lin. He wasn’t selected as an Eastern Conference All-Star reserve, he wasn’t named one of the 3-point shooters tonight, and commissioner David Stern has already denied him a spot in the Rising Stars game. And… the dunk contest? Let’s get real.
Lin has emerged as a dominant force overnight as the Knicks’ point guard, leading them to victories in all six games he’s started to date. He’s averaging 24.3 points, 9.5 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game in those starts.