‘USA’

The Apple and Samsung patent battle has been going on since April 2011. The giant Apple has sued Samsung for infringing on their iPad and iPhone designs. The patent infringement case is battled across borders from Australia to Europe.

Ban of Galaxy Tablet and Smartphones in Australia Lifted

The Samsung Galaxy Tab. 10.1 as the alleged patent infringing object was removed from the shelves of Australian shops because of an injunction filed to court by Apple. It obviously was a strategic move as the court order came only days before the big shopping spree for Christmas started.

More recently Samsung Australia admitted that because of the court ordered injunction the Samsung brand name got free and welcoming publicity. Indeed, it seems as if the court order backfired against Apple in their patent battle. With the public prepared and now in waiting for the Samsung tablet that will be returning to the shelves after a sales ban on the Galaxy tablet, orders have already rolled in for the tablet.

Galaxy Nexus

The Galaxy Nexus will also ride on the free publicity gained through the patent battle. It is perhaps something worth waiting for as it is the first smart phone that will have features such as facial recognition for user identification and with the cool bump app available, the phone users will be able to share information and pictures with other users by simply bumping their phones against each other.

Bump App

Although reviews about Bump seem to indicate that it is a slightly more complex process than advertised, it is still a feature that will be well appreciated by Android-based mobile phone users. Although Samsung certainly received a lot of free publicity because of the patent battle, the company has lost a lot of money because of the retraction from the shelves.

Free Advertising for Samsung Galaxy

According to reports, no indication has been given regarding the exact amount lost, but Samsung has indicated that they appreciate the awareness created for the Galaxy Tab. The company plans to take Australia by storm with units and looking at the orders already rolling in, it seems that a shortage can be expected in the market. This can in turn drive up market prices as well as create even more desire for the tablet.

What will perhaps count in Apple’s favour in terms of market share is the pricing of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Previous indicators have shown that consumers are not so eager to pay just as high prices for Android-based mobile phones and tablets as will be the case for iPad and iPhone technology.

Samsung Market Growth

The expectation is that Samsung will take larger chunks of the market in the coming 24 months, putting it just behind Apple on the top tablet chart. Fans of Android tablets will be glad to know that the 7.7 inch version is expected to hit the world market early in 2012 with the 8.9 inch version to be released only later. Samsung has already reached the top spot in the Australian mobile market in 2011.

Google took a risk with the Galaxy Nexus with the Android platform, but at the end it paid off. iPhone may still be in the lead overall, but one must take note of the underlying patent battle between the giants. As competition heats up, more court battles may become everyday news. Although Samsung has been delayed in the release of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 through the Apple court injunctions, with the ban on sales lifted just before Christmas, it has indeed come in their favour.

Although media attention focused on the Australian court battle, many markets around the world suffered the consequences of the ongoing Apple and Samsung patent battle, including the USA and Europe. Tyler McGee, who is the VP of Samsung telecommunications in Australia, has noted to news reporters that the whole patent infringement court battle between Apple and Samsung may have contributed to a loss of marketing sales drive because of the severe interruptions.

Mere curiosity can lead to consumers reading up on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and also to experiment more with Android tablets and smart phones in the upper price range.

Is it the End of the Apple vs. Samsung Patent Battle?

Maybe in Australia, Samsung has won the battle for now, but similar patent infringement battles are still in the pipeline in countries around the world. The prices of the two giants are similar and because the products fall within the same class, the competition is just starting to heat up.

Apple has failed to convince the High Court to give them a hearing. As a result the decision reached by the Federation Court was duly overturned in favour of Samsung. The battle has been going on for several months over two aspects only. Apple has accused Samsung of infringing on their intellectual property rights in terms of the multi-touch browser capacity as well as heuristic features.

It is not only in Australia where Samsung has been victorious, but also in California USA, where Apple’s request for a ban on sales of the Galaxy smart phones and tablet was rejected. Apple has indicated that they plan to appeal.

Retaliation by Samsung

If anyone has ever questioned the value of a patent, they should just follow the gigantic court battle between Apple and Samsung. Although Samsung has been on the receiving end of accusations, the company has also moved to take legal action against Apple for technologies used. In a similar manner, Samsung was defeated because their request for a ban on sales of Apple iPhone 4S in France was turned down.

With Samsung’s Galaxy SII being the direct competitor of the Apple iPhone 4S, the company went dirty in its fight with a pan indented ad about the capabilities of its smart phone pitted against the iPhone in a rather subtle manner.

The end of the Apple and Samsung patent court battle is not even near. With some 30 or more patent battles fought in numerous countries, it should be good reading for the next couple of months.

The Internet has become the focus of tremendous clamp down actions from governments worldwide. It is almost as if the inability to control the information highway has caused panic amongst policy makers. The newest clamp down action is in the form of a bill proposed in the USA where The Stop Online Piracy Act is under discussion.

Purpose of the Act

The Act has as purpose to stop the widespread copyright infringement that takes place on the Internet. Although certainly a plus for authors struggling to keep others from copying their work and for musicians attempting to make a living without seeing all their music copied and distributed for free, it is seen by many as too much control.

Balance the Measures

The ideal will be to get a middle ground rather than putting into place an act that will give authors far too much power without any control mechanisms. If an author finds infringing content at another website the author will have the right to have the site banned from the search results and even online payment houses such as PayPal must comply in cutting off the site.

The problem is not in taking action against copyright infringing sites, but the lack of control over the process. Someone can simply decide to get rid of a competitor and then allege copyright infringement. Without so much as a warning the site can under the proposed Piracy Act be banned and totally blacklisted. It will surely be an easy means to get rid of a competitor. Google and other ad providers will not be allowed to send visitors to the site and the alleged copyright infringing site will basically have pariah status until proven not-guilty.

Guilty Until Proven Not-Guilty

The onus will be on the alleged copyright infringing site owner to proof the plaintiff wrong and in the mean time the site’s reputation will be destroyed. In addition the owner will have no income from the site. For many website owners it could mean bankruptcy.

Current Situation
Up to now, site owners would get a letter about copyright infringement and the opportunity to remove such before the service provider was informed. If the site owner did not respond further action could be taken, but with the new proposed stop online piracy legislation, the above steps are removed leading to an immediate ban on the site.

Internet service providers will, if the act on online piracy is accepted be forced to act as policing agents regarding copyright infringement. If they don’t act against the so-called perpetrator then they face penalties. It does seem like big brother techniques and almost reminds of dictatorship where the service providers are burdened with additional tasks and blackmailed to report and ban sites.

Alternative Methods for Dealing with Culprits

If a site is indeed guilty of ongoing online piracy or copyright infringement, such should be removed from the Internet with no further avail, but allowing anyone to simply point a finger with the service provider in the middle to take action against a site, is unfair.

There should at least be standards and guidelines as to how much information must have been copied without proper citation or music made available when making a judgement regarding whether online piracy has taken place or not. Innocent sites can easily fall prey to the system.

For a country where freedom of speech is promoted and open source programming is promoted such an act seems grossly out of place. There are those who feel that it would severely hinder the growth of the Internet. With the Internet not belonging to anyone, governments should not be allowed to exert so much control over websites.

The mere fear of possible online piracy or copyright infringement can leave websites empty. Not only has Google recently made it more difficult for websites to perform well, but now with the proposed online piracy act there is the risk that large companies can misuse the rights to get rid of competitors. The Internet consists not only of large websites, but also smaller ones, blogs, forums and more where one can expect some extent of infringement.

Give Users The Right To Choose

The three strikes law should be more appropriate and will be less draconic than the proposed online piracy act. The short name for the act will be E-PARASITE. Although piracy is a huge problem world-wide the control of information platforms should be limited. Users must have the rights to propose measures to counter piracy and should not be forced to accept draconic laws that will lead to the slowing down of information growth.

Internet Service Providers will have to use additional resources to monitor the websites hosted on their servers. It almost becomes a new state of control where there is one party watching another who in turn must watch that another party complies.

Proper Referencing

A solution may be to force website owners to reference the sites from where they obtained information. If such references are lacking, a warning can be given and then can one request removal of the specific site until the site commits to non-infringement.

It does seem as if the openness of the Internet will be something of the past. You will not know that there was a site since it will be completely removed from ads, search results and the DNS servers.

One can even be so bold as to state that such action will be the same as censorship and thus deciding on behalf of individuals instead of users managing the Internet and information sources. The large players on the Internet will be fine, but users can expect to see a diminished information highway should everyone be allowed to have sites removed. The choice should be with the consumer and not a government body.

The USA proposed act to stop online piracy will place the country in the same category as China that already controls what their citizens can see and do on the Internet.

If you are not a fan of Microsoft you will be disappointed with the news of Skype now being another Microsoft product. However, if you love Microsoft you will be glad to know that Skype has been bought for a whopping $8.6 billion.

For those of you who thought that Skype will immediately form part of Windows 8, the news is not good. One can, however, expect Microsoft to use subtle moves to incorporate the application ensuring more income for them and more services for their users.

Live Messenger will certainly be complemented with the integration of Skype and one can expect to see it on the mobile marketplace. The application is already used for video chatting on Facebook and a few more places are expected to use it in future for add-on functionality.

Most Internet savvy users are familiar with Skype and the many cost savings it offers in terms of international video conferencing and normal calls. The company has done well in self promotion and up to now, the mere functionality of the application has been enough to ensure effective viral marketing.

Tony Bates, the CEO of the company, will become the president of the new division at Microsoft for now to help with the introduction of the application across board. He will report to Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft. Communication across platforms is expected to increase rather than decrease. The idea is to provide revolutionary new services and experiences for the users world-wide.

User Concerns Are Addressed

Users have aired their concerns about the possibility of fee based services for which Microsoft is known since millions of users worldwide already make use of the free features offered by Skype. Microsoft has assured all users that current free services will not be changed – albeit for now.

Will There Be A Change In Direction?

One can expect a few changes along the way, but according to the two companies the focus will stay on communication in real time across the globe. It is certainly not a hostile take-over and as such the two companies are looking forward to working together. The Skype employees will not be sacked, but will rather stay in their positions at the various offices around the world including:

• USA
• Japan
• Russia
• Estonia
• Luxembourg
• Czech Republic

Skype has a goal of reaching one billion users daily and Microsoft plans to help the company realise the goal. The acquisition is still in the process in the various countries so immediate changes should not be expected.

Effects on Apple iPad

Skype has recently announced the launching of an application specifically for Apple’s tablet. With it being available for iPad from the iTunes application store, users can have video calling in a two way format as well as SMS and instant messaging features. The interface has been developed specifically for ten inch displays. One only needs 3G connectivity or Wi-Fi to connect. How the purchasing of the company by Microsoft will affect the Apple tablet market remains to be seen.

Effects on Android

Skype has also recently added video calling for Android phones. Connectivity is gained through 3G and Wi-Fi. The quality of the calls is slightly lower than in the case of one to one video chatting. This is another area of uncertainty for users. It is not certain what Microsoft plans regarding these applications.

Current Competitors

Other instant messaging networks competing with Skype that also offer instant messaging in addition to video conference and one to one video chatting include that of Google Voice & Talk, AOL, Yahoo!, iChat and Windows Life Messenger. From the above, only one competitor falls away – that of Live Messenger.

Controversy Surrounding Usage

Not all companies welcome the use of the service as employees have misused the networks and have over used bandwidth in the process. Some companies, however, make extensive use of the service in order to save costs.

Background on Skype

It is a software based application allowing for one to one calls whether video or voice based and instant messaging through the use of the Internet. Calls to other users of the software are free while calls to mobile and landlines are cheaper than with normal calls. One simply loads money for credit onto the account and can then make the calls. There is a log of calls made and notification of how much is left ensuring adequate user control over their own spending.

User Totals

The company had more than 660 million users as counted in September earlier this year and Microsoft thus gains a tremendous user base. What sets it apart from other VoIP competitors is the fact that it operates as a peer to peer application. Most of the other services are client server based.

Why Users Love the Application

Once a user is registered on the network, they obtain a Skype Name that can be listed in the directory. Other users can search and find existing users and communicate free of charge. It also allows for chatting, group chatting, history keeping, message editing and furthermore usage of emoticons.

Excellent Cost Saving Features

The users can receive calls to their personal computers or mobile computers in various countries. One can have local numbers in numerous countries and save on telephone costs. The company has offered video conferencing since the start of 2006 also for Window and Mac. The program can furthermore operate on the Linux platform with the same functionality. Currently, free video conferencing is allowed for Windows, provided the group is smaller than six persons. HQ video is supported for certain platforms.

No doubt, Microsoft has gained a lot through the purchasing of Skype and will use the program to the maximum benefit. Hopefully it will not mean the disappearance of Skype from platforms other than Windows, but with a promise by both companies to expand the market rather than making it smaller, there may not be ground for concern.

From the moment it was announced that South Africa would be hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup the world has been completely abuzz, especially as this was set to be the first time this prestigious sports event was going to take place on African soil. There was another factor that was sure to set this world cup apart from its predecessors though. While the 2006 FIFA World Cup was relegated more towards television media coverage, the 2010 world cup definitely enjoyed a dramatic change as millions of fans turned to the World Wide Web for their full spectrum of world cup news.

As expected Google was at the forefront of keeping a watchful eye on the global search trends as the world cup was nearing. Up to now the results proved to be quite surprising with Botswana, Bangladesh, South Africa, Fiji and Nepal leading the way as the countries doing the most searches over the last 12 months for key phrases such as “FIFA world cup schedule”, “2010 world cup” and other related queries. As far as stars go the one that soon stood out the most was in fact the vuvuzela. Yes, this ubiquitous – and controversial – horn blew its way to the top of the searches, nearly overtaking the official song of the 2010 World Cup, Waka Waka by Shakira.

Apart from the vuvuzela there have been a number of controversies cropping up throughout the world cup which of course sparked a rise in searches. On the 18th of June, for example, the search volume for “world cup referees” surged after a Slovenian goal was disallowed by a controversial offside call during their game against the USA, one that hugely affected their fate within the tournament. As far as participating teams and individual players go the French was sure to make things interesting both online and off. Searches for “Thierry Henry handball” increased as well as “refusal to train” and “anelka” when the French player Nicolas Anelka had to go back home after he insulted the team’s coach.

While the world cup has been providing us with much entertainment, it also attracted cybercriminals, as usual, with their profiteering schemes to pull a fast one on unsuspected fans. In January 2009 these online criminals had their first run with a tried-and-tested technique in which a 2010 FIFA spam led recipients to believe that they had won an online sweepstakes draw. This was soon followed by two separate spam runs leveraging the upcoming world cup. While the one spam sample came with a .DOC file attachment, the second included a .PDF file attachment. The purpose of both these spam emails were to get recipients to open these attachments which would promise great winnings at the price of divulging personally identifiable information (PII).

Social networking sites on the other hand have been pulling out all the stops to reach fans in all four corners of the world with Twitter launching a whole new website solely for the FIFA World Cup and Facebook creating a new page called “Goal Leaderboard”. With the latter the purpose isn’t so much to track the actual goals scored throughout the tournament but to rather keep tabs on the popularity of the participating teams according to Facebook users.

Lastly but most importantly there is the official FIFA website. On this all-encompassing website fans are able to get all kinds of facts, figures and information, from your favourite player’s birthday to photos of yesteryear’s tournaments. As this sports event also draws the biggest crowds FIFA was able to help direct spectators to book their international- and domestic flights, find accommodation in all major cities in South Africa, rent a car, and of course how to buy tickets for the games.

When the tournament officially kicked off on the 11th of June, 2010, every fan around the world was glued to the screen. The celebrations began… and so did the anticipation as to how well your favourite team was going to perform. To ensure that people always stayed up to date FIFA.com teamed up with Google. Even if you do a simple search for the term “World Cup” you will be provided with the latest scores as well as the dates and time of upcoming matches at the top of the search results page. There are also a number of gadgets made available by Google like their Chrome extension where you can get a live feed of tournament’s results. With all this said and done though one can only wonder what is in store for the 2014 FIFA World Cup which will be hosted in Brazil. As the 20th World Cup it will be sure to be an even bigger celebration than before, and with it one can only imagine that it will be bring along a whole new bundle of online features to keep us on the edge of our seat as our teams set foot on the field. We simply can’t wait!