Apple Sued Over iPhones Making Calls and Sending Email

Apple Sued Over iPhones Making Calls and Sending Email.

Yes, you read that correctly. Apple has been hit by one of the more shocking patent lawsuits in recent memory. A company that seemingly does nothing but license patents or, if necessary, sue other companies to get royalties, has taken aim at Apple AAPL 1.51% . But here’s the kicker: the lawsuit alleges that Apple’s last several iPhones and iPads violate a slew of patents related to seemingly standard features, including the ability to place calls as well as sending and receiving emails.
A total of six patent infringement claims were brought against Apple by Corydoras Technologies on May 20, according to Apple-tracking site Patently Apple, which obtained a copy of the lawsuit. The case was brought against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Corydoras is headquartered in Texas, where many similar companies that buy up or file their own patents and sue others for royalties operate. That’s mainly due to some success the companies have had in Texas courts.
According to Patently Apple, the counts against Apple cover every iPhone dating back to the iPhone 4 and every iPad dating back to the iPad 2. In addition to taking issue with Apple’s devices placing calls, the lawsuits also allege that the tech giant violates patents Corydoras holds related to video calling, which is similar to Apple’s FaceTime, as well as displaying a person’s geographic location through a feature like Find My iPhone and the ability to block unwanted calls.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment on the report. Corydoras is only listed as a limited liability company in Texas, but it does not appear to have a website or any other method of communication and was not contacted on its lawsuit.
Corydoras has been called a “patent troll” by Patently Apple, among other critics. The term is used to define a company that doesn’t actually sell anything, but buys up intellectual property designed by others (or invents its own technologies) to profit. While these companies are often viewed in a negative light and try to skim royalties off seemingly ridiculous features in some cases, it can pay off. Some patent trolls make millions each year off the sale of devices they don’t make.
For those companies, therefore, there is little risk. Patents can often be acquired for a small amount and a simple court filing is sometimes enough for major companies to settle out of court and pay a nominal royalty. Others like Apple, however, like to battle it out.
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That said, it hasn’t always worked out in the company’s favor. Last year, for instance, Apple went to court in what was called the “plaintiff friendly” U.S. District Court in Texas, only to lose the case. That one was brought against Apple by Smartflash LLC for the company allegedly violating three patents related to copy protection. Apple was ordered to pay $533 million. For its part, Corydoras hasn’t only targeted Apple. In March, the company brought a similar suit against the world’s top smartphone maker, Samsung. That case is still pending.

source: www.fortune.com

A Stair-climbing Wheelchair.

Toyota is remaking the iBot, a stair-climbing wheelchair that was ahead of its time.

The iBot motorized wheelchair was first unveiled back in 2001, but it still looks remarkably futuristic today. The device was created by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, and could climb stairs, raise users from sitting level to eye-height, and travel at a steady walking pace in this "standing" configuration. However, with prices starting at $25,000, the device was too expensive for the mainstream market and was eventually discontinued in 2009. Now, it's making a comeback, with help from Toyota.
This weekend, the carmaker announced that it's joining forces with Kamen's company DEKA to "support mobility solutions for the disabled community." This includes developing and launching the next generation of the iBot, with the company publishing a photo of an iBot 2.0 prototype. The device has the same basic layout as the original iBot, but is much slimmer, and Kamen says the new device will be "[enhanced] with 15 years of improvements in technology." Hopefully that will mean a cheaper price too.

Stair-climbing Wheelchair

"As we've seen people enjoy the flexibility and the freedom and the independence that an iBot brings — and that no wheelchair can bring — we've known that we have to bring this technology to more people who need it around the world," says Kamen in a promo video, available from Toyota and hosted via a YouTube mirror above.
As part of the agreement with DEKA, Toyota will be licensing balancing technologies from the company for its own products. The automaker says these will be used for "medical rehabilitative therapy and potentially other purposes." Toyota has previously invested $1 billion in a research institute developing robotic helpers and related products, and it's possible that the technology licensed from DEKA could feed into these ambitions as well.

source: www.theverge.com

Top Cheapest And Awesome Gadgets You Can Get In 2016

Top Cheapest And Awesome Gadgets You Can Get In 2016

Do you love gadgets but don’t have huge pocket to purchase the expensive ones in the market? We will be revealing the top 10 cheapest and amazing gadgets you can buy in 2016. These lists range from smartphone solar chargers to Wi-Fi set-top boxes to Reality lasers.

 Below are the list of the top 10 amazingly cheap gadgets in 2016:

Roku LT

Roku LT

Roku LT is an online-only budget box or Wi-Fi set-top box, that give you the full experience of streaming over 1000 channels, including TED Talks, Amazon Instant, HBO Go, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora radio, MLB.TV, Vudu and Amazon Cloud Player. The price is just $50, and with it you have the cheapest way to cut satellite cord, as you can connect your broadband, HDTV, HDMI cable and an AC outlet and start streaming 720p contents.

iPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffle

Designed by Apple Inc, the iPod Shuffle is a high quality, digital audio player with 2GB memory. It is an awesome gadget because of its stylish and portable design, and can be controlled using your voice. We included it here because the price of this awesome gadget is just $49.

PogoPlug

PgoPlug

With just $50, you can purchase this awesome gadget called PogoPlug. It allows you to create your own personal cloud, and access your file from anywhere, and on any device. Unlike other cloud file services companies, who charge on subscriptional basis and with recurring charges, you only make payment once for the hardware and then create your own unlimited storage personal cloud.

iHome iDM8

iHome iDM8

Another awesomely cheap gadget you can get for $50 is iHome iDM8. iHome iDM8 is a compact rechargeable and portable Bluetooth speaker with a cool design, and it provides modest audio quality with a standard 3.5mm input.

Sony Ericsson LiveView

Sony Ericsson Live View

Sony Ericsson LiveView is a wristwatch-size, wearable device with a screen which allows you to control your Smartphone using Bluetooth. With this cheap gadget, that is sold for just $23, you can run third party applications from Google’s Playstore, enabling you to display Twitter feeds and messages, RSS feeds, Facebook, SMS, and even control the phone’s media player without pulling out your phone.

Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver

                 Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver

Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver allow you to play music wirelessly through your home stereo or stand-alone speakers. Wirelessly set up the connection from the comfort of your couch, and get beam audio on your sound system. If you watch Hulu+ or Netflix on your tablet, you’ll love having full home-theater sound to accompany it as you lounge on the couch. It is sold for just $25.

IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig

                             iRig

IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig sold for just $20, is a guitar adapter that turns iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and Mac, into pocket studio. With the advent of powerful yet affordable apps such as Garageband and IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube amps and effects offerings, there has never been a better time to learn guitar or to lay down some searing tracks.

LED Lighting T-Shirt

LED Lighting T-Shirt

LED Lighting T-Shirt is sold for $13, and it has an in-built LED lighting bars. The amazing part of this cool but cheap gadget is that, the shirt has a built-in microphone and the EQ bars actually light up to their respective frequencies. There are companies online who can also help in customizing the light with your logo or design.

LED Display Six-in-One Digital Altimeter

LED Display Six-in-One Digital Altimeter

LED Display Six-in-One Digital Altimeter combines an altimeter, a clock/calendar, a thermometer, a compass, a barometer, and a weather station in just one single gadget. The price is just $20 and it is good for woods and mountain expeditions as it will let you measure all Mother Nature’s vital signs.












Source: www.top10.kleanar.com

Bionic Hearing with New Smart Earbuds

Get Bionic Hearing with New Smart Earbuds

Smart Earbuds

If you've ever been on a crowded bus and found yourself stuck between a loud conversation on one side and obnoxiously loud music on the other, the idea of being able to cancel out that background noise probably sounds like bliss. Now, new earbuds can not only help boost your hearing and cancel out pesky noise, but also serve as wireless earphones for making phone calls and listening to music hands-free.

Wearable devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches have become popular accessories, and recently, companies have started developing "hearables" — earbuds that electronically control how a person hears the world.
The IQbuds from Nuheara in San Francisco can use Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to a smartphone. As such, these earbuds can act like wireless earpieces, so you can listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks in stereo; make hands-free phone calls; and engage with Siri and other voice-enabled apps. Users can also answer phone calls and start or stop audio with a simple tap of the earbuds.

source: www.livescience.com

Cyber security

McAfee confirms he'll head cyber security company

SAN FRANCISCO — Shares of a small tech firm soared 34% on news John McAfee, the computer antivirus legend and Libertarian party presidential candidate who once spent several months on the run fearing assassins, has been proposed as its CEO. McAfee confirmed the appointment in a phone interview with USA TODAY on Monday. MGT Capital Investments, a Harrison, N.Y.-based tech firm with investments in fantasy sports and mobile games, will be rebranded as John McAfee Global Technologies, according to a release. The company's (MGT) stock jumped to $0.49 in trading Monday. McAfee, in an interview, said the company should be renamed soon after approval from MGT's board of directors. "The company's new focus will be on security and privacy," he said. The new company's first product will be D-Vasive, an anti-spyware product for mobile devices, McAfee said. "It locks down a device's microphone, camera, Blue Tooth," he said. "What shocked me most about FBI Director (James Comey's) testimony (before Congress in February) was that he put tape over his (smartphone) camera lens to protect it."
"D-Vasive offers a powerful tool for protection from the proliferation of invasive apps by consumer products companies, social networks, financial institutions and others," MGT said in a statement. "These invasive apps can secretly turn on a phone's microphone and camera, as well as monitor geographic movements and access contacts." McAfee founded McAfee Associates in 1987. The company was purchased by Intel in 2010 for $7.7 billion, He has also announced he wants to be the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in this year's election. "Things are going extremely well," he said. Though a reluctant campaigner — "I'm not a hand shaker or a baby kisser," he said — McAfee is "confident" he'll get the nomination when the Libertarian Party holds its national convention in Orlando on May 29.
Source: www.usatoday.com

Phone Holographic Glasses-Free 3D

Your Next Phone Might Have a Holographic Glasses-Free 3D Display

Holographic phone

Holograms are still mostly science-fiction fodder, but researchers at Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab have developed a prototype smartphone that uses holographic technology to display dynamic 3D images without the need for head tracking or annoying glasses. So how is this possible when 3D TVs and movie theaters still require you to wear shutter or polarized glasses, and Nintendo’s 3DS relies on a front-facing camera to track the position of the user’s head and face? It all comes down to a clever trick with the HoloFlex phone’s unique display.
The device starts with a 1920 x 1080 resolution OLED touchscreen display, but images are displayed as an array of 12-pixel wide circles. When viewed through a special 3D-printed overlay that’s covered in 16,000 tiny fisheye lenses, those images appear to pop-off the screen. And as the phone is angled and moved around, 3D objects can be viewed from almost any angle. The downside is that the images end up having a relatively poor resolution of just 160x104 pixels, but as screen resolutions and manufacturing technologies improve, eventually that special lens-covered overlay will be invisible to the naked eye.
But 3D images aren’t the HoloFlex phone’s only party trick. The OLED display it uses is completely flexible, allowing the phone to be bent and warped, introducing an additional element of interaction. Besides tapping the screen, and other touch gestures, users could play games like Angry Birds by physically bending the phone back to draw back the bird-launching slingshot. It also means if you were to forget about the HoloFlex in your back pocket when you sat done, there’s little risk of finding a shattered screen when you get back up.

source:www.gizmodo.com

Cheap 'Apple Watch' copies on sale

Cheap 'Apple Watch' copies on sale via Alibaba site

Smartwatches that mirror the look of the Apple Watch's hardware and software are being advertised on China's most popular online shopping service.

Alibaba's Taobao site lists devices branded the AW08 and the iWatch.
They both feature "digital crown" dials on their sides, similar-styled straps and identical user interface graphics to Apple's forthcoming wearable.
However, their listings reveal they run on Google's Android platform rather than Apple's Watch OS.
Other giveaways that the watches are not the iPhone's official "companion" include:
They are being offered for about 250 yuan ($40; £26.50) - a fraction of the 2,588 yuan that Apple will charge for its smartwatch in China when it goes on sale next month
They do not feature the same heart-monitoring sensors on their rear - although this is not always made clear
They boast longer battery life

This model - sold on Taobao - features Apple graphics on its screen, but makes clear in its text it is not the official Apple Watch

Taboao acts as a showcase for third-party sellers - much like eBay and Amazon's Marketplace service - and some vendors have taken pains to make clear that the devices they are selling are not Apple's own technology.
One listing, which was highlighted by the Financial Times, even used the slogan: "Knockoff Apple watches have hit the market!"
Taobao's owner said it did, however, remove deceptive ads.
"Alibaba Group is dedicated to the fight against counterfeits," a spokeswoman for the company told the BBC.
"We work closely with our government partners, brands and industry associations to tackle this issue at its source.
"We also utilise technology like data mining and big data to scrub our platforms of counterfeits."


source: www.bbc.com