In what could be labeled as this year’s biggest non shocker, Apple is claiming that Samsung is violating Siri patents with Mountain View’s Google Now software. U.S. patents 8,086,604 and 6,846,959 cover technology related to Siri, a “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system.” 

We all know that Google Now is the epitome of your phone knowing exactly where you are and giving you information based off of that, but another patent recently secured by Google is going to extend that ability to your phone’s camera. Their new patent hopes to put GPS to work to figure out three things: where you are, if you are indoors or outside and what the local weather near you is like. All of this information is then fed into your camera to make your photos look better. 

Battery life in a mobile device is very important. All your fancy specs won’t mean anything if you can’t keep it turned on more than 15 minutes, so we’re seeing companies either putting bigger batteries in their phone like Motorola’s MAXX line or trying to innovate to make batteries last longer. Seeing as how the display in a device is usually the biggest battery drain on a device, Google has just been granted a patent that allows Android to read the battery life of a phone and change the display accordingly. 

This morning, moments before the first 15-minute recess of the day at Mountain View Elementary, Googlers stood in front of their monitors, placed right hands over their hearts, and pledged allegiance to non-assertion of open-sourced patents. That’s right – no longer will Google sue “any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked.” Times are-a changing in the patent game, at least Google hopes so with this move, dubbed the Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge. 

We see interesting patent filings from Google every now and then, most of them are pretty forward-thinking ideas that we won’t see for a while. The next patent to add to that list is Google’s recent acquisition of the ability to interact with your phone by touching, tapping and sliding across the back of it.

Google mentions this new tech for only “simple controls” and demonstrates swiping to a new page in a document. Skipping to a new track on a song or disabling a notification would most likely be some of the first implementations of this patent if we ever see it in an Android device.

Think we could see this in a future Nexus device?

Via: Pocketnow

Good news for Samsung today, as Judge Lucy Koh announced that damages being awarded to Apple will no longer exceed $1 billion, but reach a mere $598,908,892. Practically nothing, right? In her look into the jury’s findings, it was seen that there were some miscalculations, which is why Koh is proceeding to fix the mistakes. A new trial is being established to determine the remaining balance, but she has urged both sides to go over the appeals process before entering a new trial.

Much as we expected, this case is clearly not over. Not by a long shot. If anything exciting happens, we will keep you posted, but I think I’m pretty much spent on this case.

Via: The Verge

Yesterday, there was new development in the Samsung vs. Apple case, with Judge Lucy Koh finding the Korean manufactures infringements of Cupertino’s patents un-willful. Previously when the jurors gave their verdict, it was possible that Samsung would have to pay triple the damages if the infringement was intended. Luckily for them and after a long appeals process, it looks like their bank accounts can sleep just a bit better at night not having to shell out in upwards of $3 billion dollars. 

Back in September of 2011, it looks like Google filed for a patent that would allow for the placement of multiple LED flashes along either the backside or even the sides of a device. This morning, the USPTO has granted Google this patent and according to speculation, we could be seeing this in an upcoming Nexus device. Google states that one of the downsides of having either a single flash or two closely placed together flashes are shadows and of course, any photographer could agree with that.