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Samsung to begin paying royalties to Microsoft

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Samsung’s legal troubles from its competitors – most notably Apple, seems to be taking its toll on the company, and seems to be losing its spark to fight some legal battles that are in its way. Samsung just recently announced that it will begin paying royalties to Microsoft for every single Android device it sells, whether it is a phone or a tablet. The agreement was reached between the two parties so that the patent infringement lawsuit Microsoft is filing against Samsung will be withdrawn.

This is not the first royalty agreement Microsoft has entered with a company regarding the sale of Android devices. Microsoft has forged the same agreement with other Android device manufacturers, the most notable of these is with HTC, which is the other company that produces much of the Android devices on the market.

The decision to agree to a royalty payment is to keep Microsoft from suing these companies. Microsoft claims that no Android device they have seen has not infringed on any of Microsoft’s patents. The most crucial element in the suit though is not being made to the public – that is, what Microsoft patents are Android device manufacturers violating. Even though no one knows what (the exact patent infringements are not being made public) these Android manufacturers are violating, Microsoft’s previous lawsuits against Linux for precisely the same charges may shed a little light on the issue because Android is based on the Linux OS.

It’s ironic that Microsoft, which has shown how much it dislikes the Android OS entering the market, is also earning from its existence and success.

Originally posted on September 29, 2011 @ 8:01 am

Recipe Search Engine Opens Up New Dimension to Cooking

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Recipe Finder Home Page
Recipe Finder Home Page

A new player has entered the search engine arena, and it goes by the name of Recipe Finder. As the name implies, the new search engine focuses on recipes and opens up a veritable treasure trove for those who love to fiddle in the kitchen. Recipe Finder holds the distinction of being the largest recipe search engine in existence. It boasts a whopping 1.7 million recipes and 700,000 images – or thereabouts.

It does not plan on stopping at those figures, though. The search engine continues to index some of the most trusted recipe web sites one can find. As such, the database is an ever expanding collection of recipes. For now, the site indexes around 250 recipe web sites, but it is to be expected that the number grows with time as well. [Read more…]

Originally posted on September 30, 2011 @ 1:05 pm

Google Wallet: How it works

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Google has been consistently coming out with a lot of new products that have met with a lot of success. One of the most ambitious Google projects to be unveiled to the public is Google Wallet, which could be considered a highly effective payment platform using smartphones. So how does Google Wallet work?

Google Wallet uses an embedded near-field communications or NFC chip that allows users to use their credit cards, debit cards, coupons, store loyalty cards and other payment or discount products without having to physically use the card. With the use of the NFC chip, all the user needs to do is to use their smartphone and tap it onto a payment receiver to initiate and complete the transaction. Bigtime brands like Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express have already thrown their support for Google Wallet and will become part of the whole Google Wallet system. [Read more…]

Originally posted on September 21, 2011 @ 11:45 am

iPhone trade-ins rising in anticipation of iPhone 5 release

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You know anticipation for the iPhone 5 is reaching a fever pitch when people are beginning to dump their old iPhones.

This is the trend Gazelle, a trade-in service, has been noticing over the last few days. It has noticed a dramatic increase in the number of iPhone users trading in their phones. The main reason is universal – they are anticipating the announcement for the iPhone 5 during the first week of October.

This kind of behavior is really indicative of the level of anticipation Apple and iPhone lovers are experiencing over the rumored iPhone 5. Gazelle reported that it has experienced an 84 percent rise in trade-ins for various models of the iPhone, compared to the trade-in levels for the product about two weeks ago. The rise in trade-ins is made the more significant by the fact that there is still no solid indications on whether Apple will release information about the iPhone 5 for October, which is generally believed as the month Apple will unveil new products in its lineup. [Read more…]

Originally posted on September 22, 2011 @ 10:29 am