Google Inc accused Microsoft Corp and Nokia of conspiring

Google Inc indicted Microsoft Corp as well as Nokia of conspiring to operate their patents opposite smartphone attention rivals, as well as pronounced it has filed a grave censure with a European Commission. In a complaint, Google claimed Microsoft as well as Nokia, which concur upon smartphone record as well as production, eliminated 1,200 patents for avowal to a organisation called MOSAID, which a association called a “patent troll” – a tenure referring to a hilt of patents which litigates them aggressively.

“Nokia as well as Microsoft have been colluding to lift a costs of mobile inclination for consumers, formulating obvious trolls which side-step promises both companies have made,” a Internet poke personality pronounced in a statement, adding which a censure was filed “recently.”

“They should be hold accountable, as well as you goal a censure spurs others to demeanour in to these practices.”

Microsoft pronounced a censure was a “desperate tactic” by Google.
“Google is angry about antitrust in a smartphone attention when it controls some-more than 95 percent of mobile poke as well as advertising,” Microsoft pronounced in an emailed statement.

“Google is angry about patents when it won’t reply to flourishing concerns by regulators, inaugurated officials as well as judges about a abuse of standard-essential patents,” Microsoft said. Nokia was not rught away accessible for comment.

Zynga into the Game on Cellphones

Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus expects mobile gaming to grow, but believes Web-based gaming will still be crucial. Facebook, he said at the AllThingsD conference this morning, remains central to Zynga's platform and distribution. Facebook, the company's first platform, was the early accelerator for its games and is still really important in part because it has both a social stack and an app stack, he told conference host Kara Swisher.

For distribution, it has been significant, but there are other alternatives. Building a great experience matters, as does how well it is integrated into people's lives. Facebook has been a great platform on the Web and has the potential to be on mobile, as well. Pincus was clear to mention that desktop and Web use remains big. Just as Facebook was the accelerator for play on the Web, mobile fills that role for play in more places. The majority of play, though, is still on the desktop, often from company employees during office hours.

The conversation started with a discussion on valuation and the stock market. Zynga went public six months ago, but it had been preparing to go public for two years prior to that by setting quarterly goals and having a quarterly all-hands meeting. Going public wasn't a huge transition for Zynga, Pincus explained. He believes the recent companies that have gone public are "awesome companies" with great business models, but the market is busy trying to figure out how to value them.

Zynga began with the thought there was room in the gaming market and a new business model could monetize it. Reach, retention, and revenues were the principles on which Pincus built Zynga. In the early stages, he placed 40 percent of the focus on each of the first two, and just 20 percent on revenues, but that balanced out over time. Mobile is still in the early stages, with games such as Words with Friends and Draw Something, though he expects mobile usage to grow rapidly and revenue to follow.

Pincus agrees that part of the gaming market is a "hits" market, with some games like Farmville having a very intense period of use. However, Zynga is good at releasing new content to extend the life of such games. Many other games, like Poker, are "evergreen."

Acquisitions are not in Zynga's business model, although it has made some. When the company bought Words with Friends, it had less than two million daily active users. Zynga thought the product could grow, and soon it was more than five times as popular and was building extensions. He was attracted to Draw Something because of its focus on user-generated content. Success comes by integrating a product with Zynga's platform, rolling it out to other countries, and extending the brand. It's crucial to keep a product line strong over a period of years, so it is too early for Pincus to tell if it is a success.

Zynga aims to be best operator of mobile social games and needs to have the best platform and network to do that. The company recently announced opening its platform, network, and APIs to other game makers. "We want to be a game network much like Xbox Live," Pincus said, but he isn't interested in getting into the console market.

"Innovation for us comes in lots of small places and ways," Pincus said. The company focuses on making it easier to play and filling in the gaps. Zynga, in Pincus' eyes, is a disruptor.

Pincus aspires to be a great CEO, not just a product entrepreneur. He learns things as a CEO every week. Though he's good at planning products, he realizes he must learn on the job how to manage, turning to other entrepreneurs like Intuit's Scott Cook for advice.

When asked to compare different international markets, he asserted Asia is ahead of the U.S. in converting "players to payers," but the U.S. is ahead in things like game mechanics. While the U.S is now focusing a lot on mobile games, countries in Europe are more focused on the PC.  "Real-money" gaming could be very big, but is dependent on regulation changes, Pincus said.

Internet service from Verizon FiOS Speeds to 300 Mbps

Verizon Bumps Up FiOS Internet Speeds to a Maximum of 300 Mbps. Pricing for all of the tiers will be announced next month, where Verizon users can choose a standalone Internet service or add these tiers to their bundles. Verizon announced today that it will not only more than double the speeds of many FiOS Internet tiers, but will also add two new tiers.

According to Verizon, its updated FiOS Internet tiers will consist of 50/25 Mbps and 150/65 download/upload speeds. However, other entry-level options will remain the same, such as the 15/5 Mbps, 25/25 Mbps, 35/35 Mbps, 50/20 Mbps and 150/35 Mbps tiers. The two new tiers will feature 75/35 Mbps or 300/65 Mbps speeds. Verizon said the 300/65 tier is double that of the current FiOS Internet top speed, which is 150/35 Mbps.

"The ways we used the Internet and watched TV over the past 10 to 15 years have dramatically shifted," said Bob Mudge, president of Verizon's consumer and mass market business unit. "With the emergence of smartphones, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, tablets and gaming consoles that also serve as over-the-top devices, consumers need more bandwidth to receive the highest quality experience."

Each tier is targeted at a specific audience. The layout is as follows: 15/5 Mbps for a one or two person household for just email and Web browsing; 50/25 Mbps for a multi-person household that downloads music, watches videos and telecommutes; 75/35 Mbps for households that have three or more people on Internet-connected devices, stream HD movies, and play multi-player gaming, and 150/65 and 300/65 for households with five or more heavy Internet users.

"Our top FiOS speed will be twice as fast as anything America has ever seen," said Mike Ritter, chief marketing officer for Verizon's consumer and mass market business unit. "High-speed Internet no longer is just for techies, as more than half of our residential consumers already use at least a 20 Mbps Internet connection. Streaming online video on an all-fiber-optic connection providing faster speeds is better and more reliable during peak Internet usage hours.

"As recently as 2005, video was less than 10 percent of Web traffic. By the end of this year, we expect it to be 50 percent, growing to 90 percent in just a few years."

The 150/65 and 300/65 tiers will require a gigabit passive optical network (GPON) installation. Pricing for all of the tiers will be announced next month, where Verizon users can choose a standalone Internet service or add these tiers to their bundles.

The 3rd Smartphone by Facebook Headhunts Apple engineers

Facebook has employed more than some former Apple company technical engineers with experience operating on the 3rd Smartphone to make its own mobile cellphone application and components in reaction to increasing risks from the cellular web.

The social media massive has tried this project two periods previously. The first effort truly was scrapped after the organization noticed the issues it would face in the move from a application designer firm to a components company. Its second effort, which released late last season, is still under development with Taiwanese cellphone manufacturer HTC. The project codenamed "Buffy" took over from the first unsuccessful effort.

Now Facebook is making its third make an effort to build a new 3rd Smartphone for as early as next season. The organization is allegedly sampling "deeper into the process, by growing the group operating on Buffy, and checking out other mobile cellphone tasks too, creating a team of professional components technical engineers who have built the devices before."

In the organization's recent IPO processing, the ever-increasing cellular web utilization by customers moving from pc and laptops to smartphones on the market and pills is listed as one of the organization's greatest risks to its business. The issue is outlined further by financial statements disclosing Facebook makes no real substantial income from cellular app customers, which are now increasing more rapidly than traditional website customers.

"Mark [Zuckerberg] is concerned that if he does not make a cell cellphone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other cellular systems," an personnel at Facebook said when speaking to the NY Times.

He is right to be concerned, however. Facebook's main advertising competing on the web is Look for engines, and it's also probably the innovator in cellular OS looks as well, with a profitable search deal with Apple company for iOS using the Look for engine optimization. That's without even considering the military of Look for engines Operating system OS powered smartphones on the market and pills, also using Look for by standard.

"We're operating across the entire cellular industry; with services, components companies, OS services, and application designers," the organization said in a declaration, including that it doesn't thoughts on rumours or gossips.

2.000 RIM's workforce (11%) terminated

RIM 'to cut 2,000 jobs'. Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry phones, is preparing for a major restructuring that will see it eliminate at least 2,000 jobs worldwide from its roster of 16,500, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper says. The newspaper cited several people close to the company saying that the next round is layoffs is planned for around Friday 1 June – a day before the smartphone maker's first financial quarter ends – though some expect the announcement even earlier. One source close to the company told Reuters that the impending layoffs could hit as many as 6,000 people and affect legal, marketing, sales, operations, and HR operations.

"The strategic question is: are you accelerating into a better future or shrinking to a niche operation?" said the source.

A string of high-level employees have departed RIM recently, including global head of sales Patrick Spence, who is set to take a senior job at networked audio company Sonos. Several sources close to the company told Reuters that RIM had been letting more junior staff go for several months in what has come to be known internally as "Goodbye Thursdays", because the cuts typically occurred on that day of the week.

A RIM spokeswoman contacted by Reuters declined to comment on the report. RIM and its new chief executive, Thorsten Heins, are struggling with what looks like a perfect storm of problems.

The BBX 10 software to power a new generation of BlackBerry phones is not expected until autumn, while existing users are abandoning BlackBerry phones for models from Apple or those using Android more quickly than new ones are coming aboard. Added to that, price competition – also driven by the burgeoning number of Android smartphones – is eroding the prices that RIM can charge, putting extra pressure on its finances.

And its PlayBook tablet, launched a year ago, has sold slowly while costing the company billions first in inventory and then in writedowns. As a result, RIM's stock has plummeted so that on Thursday it touched $10.59 (£6.75) – an eight-year low. Though it recovered to $11 on Friday, the company's value has dropped steadily from $60 in February 2011

A RIM spokeswoman pointed to comments that Heins and chief financial officer Brian Bidulka made on RIM's last earnings call about plans to streamline operations and save $1bn in the financial year. RIM reported a fourth-quarter loss in March, when the new chief executive announced the initial steps in a strategic overhaul. Heins took over from longtime co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in January.

Horace Dediu, who runs the consultancy Asmyco, has repeatedly observed that mobile phone companies that fall into loss – even once – never recover their former position.

He restated the point on Sunday night on Twitter, pointing out that Motorola Mobility had become the latest to fulfil that trend after being acquired by Google. RIM has already been through one round of restructuring. Last July it announced plans to cut about 11% of its workforce, or 2,000 jobs.

Ice Cream Sandwich for Motorola Moto RAZR

Ice Cream Sandwich or Motorola Moto RAZR? We have all been waiting a long time to see how the latest version of Android, the Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, would look on the awesome Motorola Moto RAZR. But unless you have a leaked custom ROM already installed on it, you would not know. And if you have installed a leaked custom ROM, you would not know how the Motorola touch to Ice Cream Sandwich would look like on the device. But before all this, the wait for the official release of the Ice Cream Sandwich for the Motorola Droid RAZR was not scheduled to be any time soon. 

But thanks to the newly released timeline by Motorola, the smart phone is sure to get the Ice Cream Sandwich treat before the end of June for sure, that is before the end of the second quarter. If you think, even that is a lot of delay compared to other manufacturers in releasing the Ice Cream Sandwich update. But now that it is on its way, the joy for Motorola Droid RAZR owners who have not installed any custom ROM is uncontrollable. 

But how does the smart phone look after the update to Ice Cream Sandwich with the manufacturer’s Blur custom user interface on top of it? We are talking about Webtop 3.0, screenshots, the new lock screen, time lapse video, navigating around ICS, the browser, dialer, notifications, and more. Well, we seem to have got an introduction to that. The official Japanese Motorola Droid RAZR website has released a series of video on the website where it describes how the phone will function after the update to the new Ice Cream Sandwich, and also, the videos detail different features of the new operating system. A few of the videos uploaded are in Japanese, unfortunately, but a few others are in English. 

So you do not have to worry about not understanding anything at all. These videos will most probably be made in other languages as well by the time the update gets ready for seeding over the air. It is just a matter of time. So, are you excited?

Mobile phone competition fall short to keep up with iOS, Android

Smartphones running Apple’s iOS platform and Google’s Android operating system are outshining the rest of the smartphone market, says a new report from market researcher IDC. Both Android and iOS have seen their share of the smartphone market grow progressively over the last twelve months, with Android accounting for 59% of the smartphone market and iOS 23%. During the first quarter of 2011 Android and iOS accounted for a combined share of 54.4%.

"The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with," says Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends program. "Neither Android nor iOS were the first to market with some of these features, but the way they made the smartphone experience intuitive and seamless has quickly earned a massive following."

Previous market leader Symbian saw a sharp decline over the last year as Nokia transitioned to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. BlackBerry was also on a downwards spiral falling from 13.6% of the market in 2011 to 6.1% in 2012.

While Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile currently accounts for just 2.2% of the market, the platform is expected to show moderately increased growth in the latter half of the year and beyond as both Nokia and Microsoft boost WP7 sales volumes. IDC notes that platform growth will be slow until “Nokia speeds the cadence of its smartphone releases or more vendors launch their own Windows Phone-powered smartphones.”

A separate report from analyst firm ABI Research suggests shipments of “phablets” -- devices that are bigger than smartphones but smaller than tablets -- such as the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Note will exceed 208 million units globally by 2015.

“One of the chief drivers for phablets is the amount of time people use their smartphones for web browsing, reading articles and newspapers on the go, or simply navigating their journeys,” says senior ABI analyst Joshua Flood. “The larger screen sizes make a significant difference to the user’s experience when compared to conventional-sized touchscreens between 3.5 to 4 inches.” Additionally, new phablet-styled devices provide an attractive two-in-one device proposition and are beginning to see the competition between these larger smartphone form factors and smaller media tablets (less than seven inches)."

'Cisco' Requires Its Mounds, Keeps Creating Movie Conference Tools

Cisco Techniques possessed up to some miscalculations in its video cooperation technique but revealed off some ensuring upcoming abilities in a briefing with press this weeks time. The organization's video meeting company is best known for its TelePresence Conference Techniques, especially the high-profile three-screen meeting locations offering Cisco-designed fixtures and price tons of money. But 'cisco' is now looking beyond those trendy conditions toward cellular phones that can carry video events to members wherever they are.

One foundation developed as aspect of that technique, the organization's Android-based Cius product, has been cut from upcoming growth programs, said Robert O'Sullivan, mature v. p. and gm of the Collaboration Technological innovation Team, during the briefing at 'cisco' on Friday mid-day. 'cisco' mentioned the shift in a short article later on Friday. The Cius will still be available for organizations that particularly want a program released and firmly managed by the IT division, but 'cisco' won't be developing more type aspects for the foundation, O'Sullivan said.

Cisco now recognizes most organizations let workers carry their own pills to perform, stating its own study that said 95 % of organizations have a BYOD (bring your own device) plan.

"When we discuss to them about the Cius product, they say, we really like the cooperation encounter on Cius, but can you please take that program and put it on other devices?" O'Sullivan said.

"Our way of the long run is all about program," O'Sullivan said.

The next section in that force is a new customer for Jabber, Cisco's speech, video, instant-messaging and existence foundation, arriving September. Jabber customers are already available for Apple company iOS and for Analysis In Motion's BlackBerry foundation, as well as Microsoft windows PCs, and will soon come out for common Operating program pills, he said.

The new Jabber customer will allow customers to take video calling on PCs, pills and 'cisco' TelePresence systems and exchange the calling from one foundation to another. 'cisco' APIs (application coding interfaces) allow Jabber features to be incorporated into Ms Perspective so customers can discover associates and begin Jabber calling from Perspective, and this incorporation will be extended in the new editions.

At the briefing, 'cisco' confirmed Jabber classes being shifted among different systems. It also revealed customers of third-party video conferencing systems, such as Ms Lync and a Polycom HDX program, becoming complete members in a 'cisco' TelePresence meeting. Cisco's addition of industry requirements such as SIP (Session Start Protocol), H.323 and H.264 create this possible, the organization said.

The full-scale TelePresence foundation is still walking ahead despite the new focus on providing in different customers. And real-time interpretation of telepresence events is returning on Cisco's map. In overdue 2008, 'cisco' video primary Marthin De Alcohol said that he predicted that function to go available with 20 dialects in the second 50 % of 2009. But a season later, 'cisco' said the body precision wasn't great enough and the organization didn't even have a prediction for when it would go available.

Cisco is still operating on it, said De Alcohol, now mature v. p. of Cisco's Movie and Collaboration Team.

"It's arriving along. It's not quite real-time yet," De Alcohol said. "It's a little bit too costly still to do that and the technology's not ... mastered enough." But De Alcohol once again desires the function to be over the counter available within a season or two. 'cisco' does provide interpretation of a registered meeting within a few moments, he said.

The 'cisco' TelePresence systems already set up in organizations are being used about six time per day on regular, De Alcohol said. But new cellular video alternatives may be injuring another company 'cisco' once marketed as a big prospective industry, of video conferencing packages for lease in resorts and air-ports, he said.

"It is being used. It has not gone persistent, it has not gone big," De Alcohol said. "We've marketed probably a large number of systems in that area." The Marriott resort cycle has set up packages in several of its places, he said. But the accommodations, which in some situations were costing 100's of money hourly, may not be necessary down the line. "Now that video becomes persistent on your iPad, on your mobile phone and your PC, maybe that use situation will actually reduce," De Alcohol said.

IBM Restrictions Siri Over Protection Concerns

IBM has triggered a mix by prohibiting Siri from personnel iPhones. The organization statements that it is worried that Siri will flow private details and has incapable it on personnel iPhones. The purpose for IBM's issue is the way that Siri performs. The iPhone 4S's voice-recognition function performs by producing your speech and submitting it to a hosting server that thinks what you've said and profits simply textual content. Siri actually becomes better at converting because it successfully crowd-sources 'languages', studying from other individuals who are using the assistance.

It's the truth that this producing of what you said is sent to Apple's hosting server that IBM isn't satisfied about. The concept that Apple company could be gathering details about IBM tricks seems a bit farfetched, however, it is believed that Siri may lately have knowledgeable a burglar violation. United states discuss display coordinator Hurry Limbaugh described a specialized issue with his iPhone and Apple's Siri speech associate, knowledgeable on his generate to perform, there is some controversy as to whether this was individual mistake, or if Siri was compromised.

IBM is an recommend of BYOD (bring your own device) - a pattern that recognizes organizations enabling their personnel to use their own Apples, PCs, cellular phones, and pills at perform. According to analysis, BYOD has already been accepted by 69% of UK organizations.

The Siri ban is just one of a variety of demanding safety actions applied by IBM on gadgets purchased into the organization by workers. According to Conspiracy of Mac, IBM harnesses the cellular phone control (MDM) structure designed into iOS to eliminate Siri on every iPhone 4S.

Samsung Galaxy S III comes beginning for some

Samsung’s Galaxy S III is not predicted to begin to show up with willing new customers until almost through next weeks time at the first, but it looks like some suppliers have hopped the gun. A SlashGear audience in Japan handled to catch not one but two Galaxy S III mobile phones, and distributed a few images of his new toys and games that he took using the Samsung’s 8-megapixel photographic camera itself.

As guaranteed, part of the Galaxy S III installation process contains getting a Dropbox account with a substantial slice of no cost storage: 48GB no cost, on top of the 2GB the reasoning store service contains as conventional. That is incorporated through Samsung’s personalized Ice Lotion Food develop, though as opposed to the Galaxy Nexus the Galaxy S III does have a microSD card position for including extra local storage space.

Announced at the top end of the 30 days, the Galaxy S III has already seen pre-orders calculating in the “thousands” according to New Samsung. Sales will begin in European countries first, with the US gadgets – operating a Qualcomm dual-core processor with LTE rather than the Exynos quadcore combined with the HSPA+ editions – predicted to fall over summer time season.

Best Buy Canada release of the Galaxy S III

Jitters have persisted that the Canadian release of the Galaxy S III might face the customary weeks-long delays that those north of the border are used to. If we go by what looks to be an escaped Best Buy Canada flyer graphic, Samsung's Android 4.0 beast should be going up for pre-orders soon - MobileSyrup hears May 30th - with launches on at least Bell, Rogers, Telus and a Bell-owned Virgin Mobile around June 20th. We know that Samsung has publicly promised a US release in June, so there's a real chance that we could be seeing a simultaneous North American appearance that brings everyone together in TouchWiz harmony. 

There's still some big questions left open even if we're seeing an accurate snapshot, such as when Mobilicity, Wind and other LTE-less carriers will get their units as well as whether or not the LTE versions use Snapdragons instead of the Exynos 4 Quad.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play News

An all new update has hit the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play devices which is dubbed as 4.0.2.E.0.57, don’t get confused with the firmware version which starts with 4.0.2 with that of an ICS update as this update which is officially pushed via OTA is not an ICS update and is a Gingerbread update of 2.3.4 version. (This is a preview of the article from Android Advices Click on the Title to read the entire entry.)

Upon its debut, the Xperia Play suffered from a lack of game titles that were compatible with its unique built-in gamepad. While the selection has improved considerably since its inception, the question remains: wouldn't it be nice if the handset supported any Android game you threw at it? Wonder no longer, because that's exactly what GameKeyboard 2.0 brings to the table.

Yes, the app requires root access, but most importantly, it allows users to map on-screen touch controllers to the Xperia Play's physical gamepad. While it's slightly cumbersome to setup for the first time, anybody who has ever configured an emulator with a USB game controller will feel right at home. GameKeyboard 2.0 sells for $2.49 in the Play Store, and if you'd like a quick overview of how it all works, just hop the break for a video. Those who proceed with the download will also benefit from written instructions (for both root access and configuration) in the xda-developers forums.

 Xperia-Play I know, I know. 4.0.2 sounds a lot like Android 4.0, but it isn't. It's actually Gingerbread 2.3.4, and Verizon Xperia Play owners who wish to rock out like it's May 2011 need only mash the update button.

The good news (in addition to the version bump) is that this update will let you take pictures with the right trigger (how did they not think of that earlier?), enable 720p video with continuous autofocus, and fix those crazy bugs like charging forcing landscape mode. You also get to take screenshots with the power button. The bad news is that it will install Verizon Video on Demand and Verizon Navigator.