The whole RIM vs. Kik slap fight just got a lot more serious today, with RIM pulling out the big guns (read: lawyers). The two are officially going to court after…wait for it…patent infringement. Before we delve any deeper, we’ll start with this — There’s a basic cycle that companies born into a free market society go through, which more or less follows the path highlighted below:
Birth — Market yourself as a new exciting startup that is better than “the big guys”. (read: more consumer friendly)
Compete with and start to gain market share against big competitors.
Surpass the old, outdated competitors and become “the leader” yourself.
Fail to innovate, grow complacent in your ways, and begin turning into the old “competitor” that you replaced so long ago.
Have your company and service trumped by a new exciting startup.
Sue said startup for patent infringement, copyright theft, and anything else you can find to keep yourself in business.
Repeat
With that out of the way, hop inside to continue on…
It’s legit — I have some weird fascination with LEGOS and more importantly, things made out of LEGOS. I’ve shown off countless LEGO-fied items in the past. And now on this late Wednesday evening I have another that looks to tap into the World Cup mania — USA vs. England “LEGO Edition”. Check the vid out after the jump…
It’s that time again folks — time for another Waze contest. On that note, who doesn’t like free stuff? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Everyone. With that said, who wouldn’t like to win one of three iPads Waze is giving away to users who simply collect the most points by driving around. Yup, simply driving around can net you a shiny new iPad.
The new contest being held by Waze is in support of the World Cup and features all new Soccer Ball “road goodies”. Over 100 countries will be able to participate, with the final 16 users being whittled down to the Final Four and eventually three winners.
The Schedule:
June 11: Competition begins
July 4th: Final Four selected
July 11th: Competition ends at midnight GMT – winning country and iPad winners will be announced within 24-48 hours.
**After each elimnation/round, road goodies will be reset so it’s in your best interest to get your path of destruction marked down and memorized, ’cause all that matters at the end of the day is the person with the most points. That is, if you want an iPad. If you care more for aimlessly wondering about, well then…have at it…
The full rundown of the competition can be found over at Waze’s website. You in?
You know, I’ve always wanted to travel the world, see the sights, and meet new people. Maybe, just maybe I’ll take a pitstop in NZ sometime around 2020. The reason? Fiber.
Last year, the NZ government set up a plan that will see roughly NZ$1.5 billion invested in a country-wide fiber rollout. One of the best stipulations is that the fiber has to be truly “open” so that any ISP can come in and use it, providing end users with fair competition and choices. When all is said and done, the ending result will ensure Kiwis get access to 100Mb/50Mb down/up service.
It all sounds like a win-win for consumers to me. Fiber, competition, low prices, and oh yeah — speed!
If you happen to care for your general rights in this little thing we call life, you may have stopped by Consumerist once or twice. Run by the same folks behind Consumer Reports, the Consumerist focuses more on personal acts of wrong by any and all corporate entities directed at consumers.
Over the last few weeks, company after company has been knocked out of the running with only one — Comcast — living ’til the end…
Update 2: Well well well. Looks like at least part of the ruffled feathers are centered around Android. How specific does it get? We’ll shall see…
Update: It seems HTC wasn’t enough aware of the filings yet, they only learned of the suit from Engadget’s post and Apple’s press release, They haven’t even been served yet. Here is what HTC sent in to Engadget:
“We only learned of Apple’s actions based on your stories and Apple’s press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.”
Apple has reportedly submitted over 700 pages to the courts, head over to Engadget to read the entire story.
Who loves a good lawsuit? Well get ready because this one involves two heavyweights: Apple and HTC. Apple of course makes the iPhone. A mobile device that has stirred up quite a bit of innovation over the last few years in the mobile realm. And then you have HTC who has done some equally impressive things with their own hardware/software. Apparently HTC has been doing a little too much in the way of “borrowing” ideas from Apple as the Cupertino giant is taking them to court for infringing on no less than 20 of their patents. Jobs himself had this to say:
“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
I’m all for protecting what’s yours and common sense forms of intellectual property. But more often than not, companies simply sue the competition to keep them from legitimately competing. I mean, cut through the BS — how many different ways can you really design a phone to read inputs from a finger sliding across some glass? Once the dirty details of the lawsuit are made public, we’ll be better able to judge if Apple has some actual footing here or if it’s another example of how broken our patent/IP system/mindset is in this country.
Apple thinks they own the whole idea of a basic touchscreen phone that can access the internet. Only problem is, such an idea is entirely too vague to actually enforce. Besides, need we be reminded the whole point of patents and copyrights is to promote the advancement of technology. If we have companies suing each other with overly vague patents, nothing is gained except the prosecuting companies’ pockets. It’s all about money and power unfortunately.
One of the businesses that people constantly complain about are ISP’s. The “gatekeepers of the internet” if you will, have the ultimate say in what does and doesn’t get funneled down the various wires and into your home. Normally people wouldn’t really care because ISP’s are supposed to be gatekeepers. Lately however, they’ve taken a pretty disturbing stance on “bandwidth intensive” users (regardless of legality) as well as come under heavy fire form the RIAA and other media label companies of the like. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if the ISP’s didn’t actually cave to companies such as the RIAA and stab every customer in the back, but that’s an entirely different point for today, who again comes to liberate the people — Google.
Right now, some of the fastest internet consumers can get around the country comes in right around 50Mbps. Not bad by any means. But our neighbors across the pond in countries such as Japan and South Korea are topping 80-100Mbps, and have been for well over a year. Again, why the US is lagging is another point all together. A new announcement from Google however is shinning light on the US’s pathetic broadband network with tales that they themselves are in the process of building out a 1Gbps test network that will be deployed to “select cities” across the country. These test networks will initially touch 50,000 users with expansions planned to ramp up the number of users to 500,000 when all is said and done.!
I can talk until I’m blue in the face and still not sound very convincing. So, we’ll let Google do the heavy lifting.
We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.
Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:
Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses we can’t yet imagine.
New deployment techniques: We’ll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we’ll share key lessons learned with the world.
Openness and choice: We’ll operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we’ll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.
The best part: “openness”. Since Google has long been against net nannies of any type, software or hardware, running their own ISP will be a dream. Can you say “HELLZ YEAH”! The “competitive pricing” is music to my ears. Hell, even if I can’t afford it, Google’s actions alone will force ISP’s to get off their asses and upgrade their networks to keep up. If they don’t, Google will be more than happy to pick up the slack as will many customers be more than happy to cancel their sub-par service.
As often as Google gets criticized, their intentions outside of collecting more raw data are wholly clean. Google is bringing a service to market that consumers have been asking for — faster, cheaper internet. If only there were more Google’s in the business world…
Stoked, sad, frustrated, scared? All I’m still thinking about is a 1Gbps fiber straight into my humble abode. Sounds might nice doesn’t it?
Money, the root of all evil, the fuel of all lust. Eh, throw that nonsense aside because I know you really want some cash. Who doesn’t? Nikon is here to help you with that goal. If you hadn’t heard, Nikon is conducting a special contest dubbed the “Nikon Festival”. The gist behind the whole shebang is for consumers like you and I to come up with 2-minute masterpiece movies. What’s the motivation? Only a cool $100k to fatten up your bank account. The requirements are pretty easy. All you need to do is make a move that is 2 minutes in length and follow @nikonfestival for a chance to win the grand prize.
The whole theme of this contest has been given the name: “A Day Through Your Lens” meaning a nice run through of your typical day (please include some surprises) could make your financial lives inredibly easier. With celebrity jduges juding the submitted videos as well as an overall digital outreach shows that Nikon has at least some clue how to remain relevant in the modern age. Going along with the whole social networking thing, contestants are encouraged to use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to attract votes to their own movies. Before you get discouraged all because you don’t own a Nikon device, turn that frown upside down and take comfort in knowing any user of any device can submit their home movie. No Nikon needed. Super!
So whataya say? No one wants to go Aunt Millie’s this weekend. You want to make a movie and strike it *relatively* big. More details and press release after the jump.
Ya, I built some pretty cool stuff in my younger years (and even now *shifts eyes) with LEGO’s. Not nearly as cool as the foosball table you see above however.
My son is really attracted to foosball tables, and, if I’m honest, I’d have to say I am too. I considered the idea of buying a small, tabletop unit, but I was unsure how much use it’d see. I was afraid it might become one of those things you play with for a bit, then collect dust. Once again, I see a solution in the form of Lego.
[…]
I personally prefer the design and building stage, and my son enjoyed that too, but he REALLY enjoys playing with it and now insists we play a couple matches every night.
Props to the mother above for making a solution to her problem. While I wouldn’t consider it a legitimate replacement for a full size foosball table (unless someone makes a full sized LEGO version), I would definitely give it a few rounds at least. Wouldn’t you. Though I’d be worried of breaking it when I’m zoned in and stuck in “competition mode”.
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The whole RIM vs. Kik slap fight just got a lot more serious today, with RIM pulling out the big guns (read: lawyers). The two are officially going to court after…wait for it…patent infringement. Before we delve any deeper, we’ll start with this — There’s a basic cycle that companies born into a free market society go through, which more or less follows the path highlighted below: 
