Apple vs. HTC – Someone blinked.

          One of the skirmishes is over. Apple and HTC have signed a 10 year license deal dismissing all outstanding patent litigation. As usual no details whatsoever have been released leaving everyone in the realm of speculation and conjecture. The first conclusion that one can draw is that someone blinked. Typically what happens in these cases...

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Cheap Tablets – Plenty pain for no gain.

          The arrival of the iPad Mini threatens to disrupt the mid to low end of the tablet market but its price premium is likely to ensure that its impact on tablets below $250 is minimal. The tablet market is essentially very similar to the smartphone market in that there is action at the two ends...

Office on iOS – Christmas turkey.

          It is well known that Turkey’s don’t vote for Christmas so why on earth would Microsoft want to make Office available on iOS anytime soon? The notion that Microsoft will make Office available on iOS and Android has surfaced yet again (The Verge) and really stems from the leak (Early October 2012) from Microsoft’s Czech...

ARM, MIPS and IMG – Reducing RISC

          With ARM becoming an ever more dominant force in the world of microprocessors, the fate of its erstwhile competitor MIPS has long been uncertain. That uncertainty was cleared up yesterday with the announcement that Imagination Technologies would acquire the operations of MIPS for $60 and that a consortium led by ARM would acquire the bulk...

Apple and Intel – Birds and stones

          The result of the recent management shake-up at Apple seems to have opened up a series of new avenues that had previously been considered closed. One of those avenues has long been the issue of the harmonisation of iOS and OSX. Currently these two are worlds apart with one running on ARM, being touch based...

Japanese Consumer Electronics – Apocalypse Now!

          Things are so bad at Sharp that it may have to ask the Japanese state to bail it out when its $2.5bn of convertible bonds fall due next year. This is not new news to anyone as Sharp raised concerns about its status as a going concern when it reported its most recent results on...

IPR – The power of precedent.

          The punch-up over standard essential patents continues. This time the focus has moved to the Western District of Wisconsin where Motorola and Apple are slugging it out. Here Apple stands accused of infringing Motorola’s standard essential patents without taking a licence. On Monday 5th November, there will be a hearing to decide the FRAND rate...

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Windows Phone 8 – Thirsty horse?

          Microsoft officially launched Windows Phone 8 at its event in San Francisco yesterday with the main question remaining: is anyone actually going to buy it? With Nokia, Samsung and HTC all having launched devices, the software has already been widely displayed but a few new things emerged that should serve to enhance the user experience....

Windows 8– A sedate frenzy

          It has not been a mad rush nor a scrum down but there has been more interest in Windows 8 (especially the Surface) than the initial reviews would have led me to believe. Furthermore, those that have got their hands on one and played around with it for the weekend have found it to be...

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Windows RT – Confusion abound

          Windows 8 launches tomorrow, doubtless to much fanfare, but will the users be interested? No one has any confidence in the ability of this new OS to stimulate a pickup in PC sales and share prices are indicating that there will not be one. A lot of this depends on the reception of Windows on...