[Update 2] Google Takes Off The Gloves: “Microsoft’s Patent/Royalty Agreements Amount To Extortion.”

The argument that Android is “free” became less valid today with news of a new cross-licensing agreement between Microsoft and Samsung over alleged infringing material contained in Android’s source code. From here on out Samsung will reportedly pay Microsoft an undisclosed royalty on each Samsung Android device sold. Google is obviously none too pleased, with the company’s official statement sounding a tad loaded:

“This is the same tactic we’ve seen time and again from Microsoft. Failing to succeed in the smartphone market, they are resorting to legal measures to extort profit from others’ achievements and hinder the pace of innovation. We remain focused on building new technology and supporting Android partners.”

Last year Microsoft signed a similar deal with HTC.

While have no doubt there’s probably some Microsoft IP buried within Android, the same can be said the other way — and for iOS and webOS, and… See where we’re going with this? The mobile market has been ridiculously held in a stranglehold of BS IP lawsuits.

While it’s sad to see other platforms that may/may not be “stealing” IP from competitors, we’d wager it’s even more sad that Microsoft’s best weapon in the mobile market at this point is suing competitors for licensing fees and royalties instead of direct revenue from their own Windows Phone 7 platform.

Update

The royalty payments Samsung must send Microsoft’s way are being reported as high as $15 per device. Yeeeouch.

Update 2

Microsoft’s head of communications, Frank Shaw, just laid out his (non) sugarcoated views on Google’s response as stated above…

The overall reality that the mobile world (and IP law) is screwed up remains. Still, it’s in a way damn funny to watch and refreshing to see an actual person responding instead of some carbon copy PR department.

[Update] Microsoft Trying To Ban Apple Gear From Decibel Festival Conference 2011 (Which They Sponsor)?

If the above tweet by @MadronaLabs (hardware and software maker appearing at Decibel Festival Conference 2011 — a conference which Microsoft is a large sponsor of) is telling of a legitimate claim by Microsoft, well, it’s just sad they’re having to stoop that low. Let’s be real here for a moment. If you go to any art/music/tech event you’re going to see a higher number of Macs compared to the norm. That’s just how it is.

MacDailyNews hits the nail on the head by describing this move as a perfect candidate for the “Streisand Effect” award.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft to see if we can get any confirmation/denial of the allegations made above.

Update

A Microsoft spokesperson just responded to our request for comment with — “No Comment”. Pretty telling if you ask us.

Apple Inventory System Gives Up A Few Secrets: New iPhones And iPod Touches.

Still think Apple is going to release an iPhone 4S? Today evidence supporting such a device was made public by 9to5Mac citing an unnamed tipster claiming the new models are now appearing in Apple’s inventory system. Three of the devices are labeled as “N81A” — a slight change from the current 4th-gen iPod Touch — and likely just the white colored iPod Touches that were rumored a couple of weeks prior. What that means is that the black 4th-gen iPod Touch won’t be getting an upgrade, at least that’s what it looks like today. Tomorrow that could very well change.

The other device(s) carriers a model number of “N90A”. For those not keeping track the current iPhone 4 is the N90. Considering the iPhone 5 is pretty much guaranteed to share the iPad 2′s dual-core A5 processor, expanded 1 GB of RAM and potentially larger display, we’re hard pressed to believe this is the new iPhone 5. 9to5Mac speculates that it is an 8 GB, “low-cost” iPhone 4. Apple took a similar approach with the iPhone 3GS when the iPhone 4 launched. Seems plausible at least. And let us not forget the “N94″ moniker we’ve seen float around the web a time or two.

Everything will be settled on October 4th. Mark the date.

[Update] Amazon Kindle Event Wrap-up.

Amazon just unveiled some new Kindles. Bookworms rejoice! Now there’s a Kindle for everyone at $79, $99, $149, and $199 price points. Hop past the break for the rundown…

Amazon Unveils Kindle “Fire” Tablet. Android, 7″ Display, $199

Can the myriad of Android tablets already on the market feel the heat (bad pun) from Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet? At $199 it’s far cheaper than pretty much all of the competition and yet still runs powerful (customized) version of Android. Specs include a dual-core processor, 7″ IPS display, WiFi (no 3G version) and a free month of Amazon Prime.

Pre-orders start today. Ships November 15th.

Motorola DROID Bionic Uses A Custom In-house LTE Chip.

That Motorola DROID Bionic doesn’t just make use of Unicorn horn dust to achieve the better than average LTE battery life. According to ABI Research labs vice president of engineering James Mielke, “Motorola has mixed some of the latest technology with quite a few components now considered the norm and a few that have not been seen in phones for years”. (Read: Motorola’s LTE chip is super fancy/special.)

The discovery was made after a full teardown of the phone, and notes that while the LTE chip is custom made, the CDMA portion is your typical generic Qualcomm silicon found any every other CDMA device. But what’s even more interesting than the mere fact that Motorola designed their own LTE chip (Intel/Infineon based) is that they used some pretty old modem technology (10-year old tech specifically) and supports a good deal more “RF frequencies than either Motorola or Verizon advertise”.

If you’re eyes have glazed over, just know this: That extra 9 months Moto took to get the Bionic into public hands was well spent. It’s faster, more potent, and more frugal thanks to a little old school ingenuity.

Deal Breaker: PlayBook Android Runtime App Incompatibles Lengthy.

It appears one of the few saving graces of RIM’s unloved BlackBerry PlayBook, Android app compatibility, was just revealed to be more or less useless.

Today at the Droidcon developer conference in Romania, RIM engineers began releasing certain stipulations that would prevent Android apps from being compatible on the PlayBook’s Android app emulator. A few here or there were to be expected. But as it looks currently, a large chunk of Android apps will only partially work with gaping holes in functionality/features, with many more being completely incompatible.

According to RIM, features that won’t work within the Android emulator include SIP/SIP VoIP, apps built with the Native Development Kit, apps that contain only App Widgets, and apps with more than one activity tied to the Launcher. Even worse, apps will be completely incompatible if they use any part of the following:

• Google Maps

• in-app billing services

• Android’s text-to-speech engine

• cloud-to-device messaging system

Hopefully RIM has something intriguing and inviting with the PlayBook’s 2.0 update due out later this year. Because as it stands now, QNX is venturing down the same path as webOS and MeeGo — and that’s something we would hate to see.

Lesson worth learning: Don’t rely on a competitors platform to plug the holes in your own.