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.

Hitman trailer shows the game of sexual politics

Hitman trailer reveals the strange, writhing sex-related state policies within games. If you think video games have issues with females, then the newest Hitman Absolution trailer is all your issues (and a person's wet dream) come at once.

In it, a bloodied Broker 47 clears his injuries and makes for another series - falling on a fresh bright clothing and very carefully taking on his dark-colored set safety work gloves - while outside, a record of terrible sex killing nuns strategy. You observed me. Sex muder nuns. The photographic camera organisations on the busts jiggling under the dark-colored addiction, whizzes a glance of a very inked experience and some jogging prostitute footwear to recommend this might not be an traditional sisterhood, and then the dark-colored gowns slide off to expose PVC basques and big pounding weapons.

It's hardly a realistic consistent for murderwork. And unsuprisingly, 47 shoves his hopeful ladykillers right off their ridiculous footwear and onto their revealed arses, where he can beat the noses on their very encounters. It is an remarkably ridiculous movie trailer, and knowing from the on the internet mix of huffing-and-puffing and hefty respiration, a exceptionally attention-grabbing one too.

It's also extremely prejudiced. Let's have none of the ooh-sexy-empowered females discuss here: these women rocked up to be broken down, and because some video activity designers still have the mindset of a terrified prepubescent when confronted with an real females individual, the best way to create them seem harmful was to create them look insane attractive.

Bare woman skin can be almost as frightening as being able to own a gun successfully. (See also, martial artist femmes in stilletoes and bosom like Tekken's Nina Williams.)

Actually, it's not reasonable to create this out as a issue due to girl-shy geeks on the innovative part. In Asia, when Layton dev Level-5 determined to create a female-focused RPG, it put a females team on the situation. And these skilled, effective, females technical experts came up with... Ladies RPG: Cinderelife, a coordinator team sim in which you come on with customers to generate income to buy outfits to entice more customers to oh my God please provide Cinderel-death now.

Unsurpisingly, the overall activity stiffed: ladies already have a lot of RPGs to select from, all of them more interesting that a prettified sexwork sim.

Games don't always get it incorrect. There's Chell in site - a females personality who controls to be dolled up, qualified and somehow not resilient to a mostly men viewers. Elena in Unknown is challenging without being tarty. And there's Vib Lace, who I think is a young woman but is also a line-drawn bunny.

Against them, you've got Bayonetta throwing ass in a self-stripping catsuit created of her own locks and satisfying illustrations of the gigantic womanly, like Isaac Clarke's thoughts of his missus Nicole trying to entice him to a awful area loss of life.

In other words: the hot deceased nuns are just a small glance of the strange, writhing sex-related state policies in the lot of games. Why are they like this? My best think is that they're the item of a hothoused, mostly men innovative team trying to second think what a mostly men viewers wants, and arriving up with a febrile funhouse reflection edition of a person's desire. Which, in these situation, indicates putting the junk out of nuns in latex.

If that's your factor too, then get on the preorder record, but Hitman Absolution can depend me out.

Galaxy Note LTE or Motorola Razr?

Will Samsung's Smartphone Beat The Motorola's Best Bet? The Samsung Galaxy Note LTE was released in January and comes with the trademark large screen that allows users to view more with less scrolling and transitions. It also features the S Pen stylus, which integrates with the device's native apps to offer a richer and more interactive experience.

The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is a feature-packed smartphone that offers a powerful battery as well as high-speed 4G LTE compatibility. Check out how the Galaxy Note LTE's specs do against the Droid Razr Maxx:

Display
Samsung's Galaxy Note LTE features a gigantic 5.3in Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels at 285 pixel per inch (ppi). It includes the TouchWiz User Interface. The Droid Razr Maxx comes with a 4.3in Super AMOLED Advanced capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 960x540 pixels at 256 pixels per inch (ppi). It includes Corning Gorilla Glass which protects the screen from damages, as does the Galaxy Note LTE.

Processor
The Galaxy Note LTE is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon chipset with a dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion processor. Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx is powered by a 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU and TI OMAP 4430 chipset. Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx sport 1GB of RAM.

Camera
Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx boast an eight megapixel rear-facing camera with auto-focus and LED flash. The sporting features are geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection and image stabilisation. Both smartphones allow users to record video of 1080p. The Galaxy Note LTE features a two megapixel front-facing camera, whereas the Droid Razr Maxx includes a front-facing camera of 1.3 megapixels.

Operating System
Both smartphones run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which is upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

Storage
Both the Galaxy Note LTE and the Droid Razr Maxx have 16GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot with additional memory space of 32GB. Connectivity
The Galaxy Note LTE features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi hotspot. It offers support to Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and EDR. The Droid Razr Maxx comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot. It supports Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, LE + EDR technology.

Battery
The Samsung smartphone packs a Li-Ion 2500mAh standard battery that allows for talk time of up to 10 hours and stand by time of up to 252 hours. In comparison, the Droid Razr Maxx comes with Li-Ion 3300mAh standard battery that provides for talk time of up to 21 hours 30 minutes. It allows for stand by time of up to 380 hours.

SkyDrive updated by Microsoft in July

Microsoft to update SkyDrive in late July, Recycle Bin feature and Android app in development. Microsoft appears to be working on several SkyDrive updates for a launch in late July. The software giant has rolled out a number of SkyDrive improvements recently, including a Windows and Mac client to support automatic file access.

Documents supplied to us this week indicate that the company is working on a Milestone 3 release of SkyDrive, due between July 23rd and July 30th. The release is said to include improvements to the company's iPad app, simple file sharing, and online web interface.

Although we're unable to immediately verify the details, the documents also reference a Milestone 4 release due later this year. This particular update to SkyDrive will focus on Android support and a new Recycle Bin feature designed as a backup option for SkyDrive users.

There's no specific timeline for the Milestone 4 release, but planning and coding is said to commence in early August. We have heard separately that Microsoft is actively testing an Android SkyDrive app, but for now third-party options are available.

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.

A look at Samsung's Series 5 550 Chromebook

Indeed, the name "Chromebook" comes from the fact that the laptop is running the so-called Chrome OS - basically an embedded version of Google's Chrome Web browser. If you've used the Chrome browser on Windows or Mac, you know that it asks you to log in, and then it syncs your bookmarks, Google identity, Google Docs, and Google Drive files. The Chromebook works the same way, except there's no way out of that browser. Apps can run on a Chromebook, but they're Web apps; they load through the browser.

That's not to say the Chromebook can't do anything offline: it can read files and play movies and music anytime. And Chrome OS has gotten better at file compatibility PowerPoint, Word docs, Excel files, ZIP files, and PDFs all load well and look great. You can't edit documents without first uploading to Google Docs, though. Photos can be viewed and even lightly edited with brightness and contrast adjustments, rotation, and cropping. The files can be resaved or uploaded to Picasa.

Our experience with the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook last year left us underwhelmed: it had smoothly running hardware and a clean operating system, but with such a limited set of uses compared with Windows, a high sticker price of over $400, and the requirement of being online to use most apps like Google Docs, the Chromebook didn't add up to a logical choice for anyone other than a Google cloud devotee. A year later, the new Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 has slightly improved hardware and improved Chrome OS software, but its price - a whopping $449, or $549 with a Verizon 3G wireless antenna - is flat-out crazy.

Here's the biggest problem with the Chromebook: the hardware's fine, and the simplified Web-based OS is clever, and even versatile if you don't mind its limitations. Still, it's a radically reduced subset of what you can get on a Windows or Mac laptop...or even an iPad or Android tablet, for that matter. Yet, it costs more than a new iPad 2, a thinner, keyboard-enabled Android tablet like the Asus Transformer Pad, or a fully featured 11-inch ultraportable laptop like the AMD-powered HP dm1z. If the Chromebook were $99, this could have been a revolutionary product. As it currently stands, it's merely an invitation to pay a lot of money to be part of a Google experiment.