Monday, August 27, 2012

Marissa Mayer: iPhones, Munchies, And Savitt

Marissa Mayer Sent A Late Night Email Promising To Make Yahoo 'The Absolute Best Place To Work'

Process, Bureaucracy, and Jams .... Mayer is also thinking of giving every Yahoo a free iPhone ..... The most telling thing about the email is when it was sent – after midnight on a Friday ..... There are so many things need to be improve in order to get us back in the same league as Google and Apple
Forget iPhones And Free Food, This Story Illustrates The Real Big Change Marissa Mayer Is Bringing To Yahoo

Mayer's real change to Yahoo is much simpler and deeper than all that. ... She's brought high expectations for how hard and fast Yahoo employees can work
Marissa Mayer Appoints Former Lockerz CEO & Amazon VP Kathy Savitt As Yahoo’s New CMO




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Apple Got Away With Murder


This legal wrangle so needs to go through the appeals process.

MAD Before Common Sense
Ban The Fridge
Apple Samsung: The Verdict Was Unfair

Samsung Case Puts Apple Closer to Google Fight
the war is drawing closer to Google’s doorstep. Google is increasingly making its own hardware, thanks in part to its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, or playing an integral part in designing it, as it did with the Nexus 7 tablet. And the jury in the Samsung trial found that features built into Android, and not just features added by Samsung, violated Apple patents — potentially forcing Google to adjust its software. ..... It would be difficult for Apple to prove that Google is benefiting financially from patent infringement, or that Google, and not the hardware manufacturers, is directly responsible for potential damages caused to Apple .... The iPhone includes a Google search bar in its Safari browser, and Google offers some popular apps, like one for Gmail, in Apple’s App Store. A direct attack could compel Google to remove such features from the iPhone and make it a less attractive product to consumers ..... peace between Google and Apple is looking shakier by the day. ..... Several features that Apple said Samsung’s devices had infringed are built into Android, like pinching the screen or tapping to zoom. Another, the rubber band effect, when the screen bounces to indicate reaching the top or bottom, was part of Android until recently. According to a person briefed on Google’s Android design plans, Google removed the effect for design reasons, not in response to patent litigation. ....... “Most of these patent claims don’t relate to the core Android operating system,” Google said in a statement on Monday. “The mobile industry is moving fast and all players, including newcomers, are building upon ideas that have been around for decades.” ...... owning Motorola also armed Google with its own arsenal of mobile-related patents, so a fight between Apple and Motorola could result in a settlement in which the two companies agreed to license each other’s patents ..... Samsung has said it will ask the judge in the case to overturn the jury’s verdict and, if that fails, will file an appeal with a higher court. ..... Apple on Monday asked a federal judge to block the sale of eight Samsung smartphones. But the chance that Samsung will have to take those phones off store shelves soon is slim, because of the likelihood that such an action could be delayed, pending appeals by Samsung
Apple Seeks U.S. Sales Ban on Eight Samsung Devices
Apple seeks quick bans on eight Samsung phones
eight older-model smartphones, including the Galaxy S2 and Droid Charge. While Apple's lawsuit encompassed 28 devices, many of those accused products are no longer widely available in the world's largest mobile market. ... the S III ... can include it in a "contempt proceeding" that moves much faster .... The verdict could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products. .... Samsung lost ... in market capitalization after its shares slid 7.5 percent in Seoul. .... Nokia, which has staked its future on Windows phones, gained 7.7 percent.
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MAD Before Common Sense

Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase
Mutual Assured Destruction
Mutual assured destruction, or mutually assured destruction (MAD), is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the defender, becoming thus a war that has no victory nor any armistice but only effective reciprocal destruction. It is based on the theory of deterrence according to which the deployment, and implicit menace of use, of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order to prevent the use by said-enemy of the same weapons against oneself. The strategy is effectively a form of Nash equilibrium in which neither side, once armed, has any rational incentive either to initiate a conflict or to disarm (presuming neither side considers self-destruction an acceptable outcome).
It is for Google to make the next move and save the day. Or Apple will think it can get away with it.

Apple Wins, Samsung Loses in US Jury Verdict
“It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.”
Apple may have won, but software patents are still evil
the war over software and design patents is bad not just for individual companies but arguably for society as a whole ..... we are all losers in this kind of case .... Apple’s win may satisfy its fans, and Samsung may be able to recover from the ruling, but that doesn’t make it right. .... there appear to be a number of questionable factors involved in the jurors’ decision in this case, at least according to Groklaw, including a debate over whether the jury actually understood the specifics of what they were being asked to do, and whether they ignored certain aspects of the case in their desire to penalize Samsung. That could lead to the case being successfully appealed, but even if it isn’t, or if the appeal fails, the Apple-Samsung decision adds even more weight to the argument that software and design patents are evil and that the entire patent process is badly flawed — if not broken. ....... Two of the design patents involved in the case describe the way in which the iPhone is rounded at the corners and flat on the top, and another refers to the way that icons appear on the screen. Among the utility patents involved are those related to the “bounce back” or “rubber band” feature in some of Apple’s apps — in which the screen rebounds after the user pulls it in one direction or another — and to the “pinch to zoom” functionality used for images. ...... the pinch-too-zoom gesture has become so ubiquitous for mobile devices and apps of all kinds that it is like claiming ownership over the idea of a circular steering wheel ..... there is evidence that similar gestures existed before Apple patented them. ..... the coming of a software patent “apocalypse” created by multibillion-dollar technology giants accumulating software patents. ..... software patents have provided little or no net social benefit over the past decade, despite billions in lawsuits and various legal victories .... what is gained by allowing companies to launch multibillion-dollar cases involving the shape of icons or the swiping motion that users employ to switch pages
Apple vs Samsung: Patently Absurd
this one-time maker of cheap synthetic garments is now squarely in the same bracket as the bluest of haloed Silicon Valley blue-chips ..... The potential sufferers are people on the wrong side of the digital divide, all the would-be users of inexpensive smartphones to access high-speed data. ..... Should patents in the world of fast-changing microelectronics and information technology have a much shorter life span than the 20 years patents have in general? Would three years be enough? Does any member of the digirati carry a phone that is more than three years old? Should any company keep profiting from a patent to a degree that makes a technology that is obsolete from the point of view of all high-end users still beyond the reach of the less affluent? ..... Should money from Universal Service Obligation funds in developing countries like India be used to buy out crucial patents to make wireless broadband access affordable by the masses? After all, life-changing broadband cannot be accessed by the poor just by making broadband services cheap, the hardware also needs to be affordable. Should such funds underwrite fresh innovation efforts and standards in a country like India? .... How far can design patents go? Is patenting a rectangular shape with rounded edges, as Apple has for its iPhone and iPads, too liberal? People buying Apple know they are buying Apple and people buying Samsung products know they’re buying Samsung, not quite Apple. Many women have stood atop a ventillating grate, laughing at the silliness of patting down their billowing skirts instead of moving off the grate. Does this stunt make all women Marilyn Monroe? Apparently, it does, if you go by the logic of the California judge and jury who found in favour of Apple and against Samsung.

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The First Hour

How to spend the first hour after waking up? Not everyone has the luxury to ask. What if you have no choice but to spend that hour on your commute?

Should your time in the restroom be minimal? Should you work out some other time of the day? Should emails and phone calls be saved for the afternoon hours?

For some people the magic happens late at night, not first thing in the morning. But still.

Light meditation and prayers are also good ideas. A little yoga never hurt anyone.


What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day
Don’t Check Your Email for the First Hour. Seriously. Stop That. ..... David Karp will “try hard” not to check his email until 9:30 or 10 a.m. .... “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” Part of it involves light exercise, part of it involves motivational incantations, but the most accessible piece involves 10 minutes of thinking of everything you’re grateful for: in yourself, among your family and friends, in your career, and the like. After that, visualize “everything you want in your life as if you had it today.” .... if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, you’ve got it behind you for the rest of the day, and nothing else looks so bad ..... tackling that terrible, weighty thing you don’t want to do first thing in the morning ..... If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" ..... Newmark says customers service “anchors me to reality.”
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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Apple Samsung: The Verdict Was Unfair

Apple, Samsung Verdict: Implications?
Apple, Samsung, And The Circus
Samsung Galaxy S III Design Story
Apple, Samsung: It's About Android
It Is About Google As Much As Samsung
Apple/Samsung/Conan
Apple Samsung Trial: Big Implications
Hello Samsung, Hi Apple
Samsung Deserves Room To Play
Hello Apple, Hi Samsung
Samsung Galaxy S III
The Smartphone Is A Frying Pan
Apple Acting Soviet
Fighting Over Rectangles
Google Is Not Fighting Back Hard Enough On Android



Apple-Samsung juror speaks out
Jury in Apple v. Samsung Goofed, Damages Reduced -- Uh Oh. What's Wrong With this Picture?
If the jury instructions are as long and complex as they were in this case, a quick verdict can indeed mean it shirked its duty. For example, if the jury rushed so much it assigned $2 million dollars to Apple, and then had to subtract it because there was no infringement, it raises a valid question: what was the basis for any of the damages figures the jury came up with? If they had any actual basis, how could they goof like this? Was there a factual basis for any of the damages figures? .... If this jury thought they knew the right result without instructions, and if they hurried so much they made glaring mistakes, and they did, and all in Apple's favor, something isn't right in this picture. ..... Here’s the thing, ladies and gentlemen of the Apple v. Samsung jury: It would take me more than three days to understand all the terms in the verdict! Much less come to a legally binding decision on all of these separate issues. Did you guys just flip a coin? ....... How did the Galaxy Tab escape design patent infringement? This was the only device to be preliminarily enjoined (on appeal no less), and yet it was the one of the few devices to be spared the sledgehammer. And, by the way, it looks an awful lot like an iPad. Yet the Epic 4G, a phone I own (uh oh, Apple’s coming after me) — which has a slide out keyboard, a curved top and bottom, 4 buttons on the bottom, the word Samsung printed across the top, buttons in different places (and I know this because I look in all the wrong places on my wife’s iTouch), a differently shaped speaker, a differently placed camera, etc. — that device infringes the iPhone design patents....
Relatedly, the ability to get a design patent on a user interface implies that design patent law is broken. This, to me, is the Supreme Court issue in this case. We can dicker about the “facts” of point 2, but whether you can stop all people from having square icons in rows of 4 with a dock is something that I thought we settled in Lotus v. Borland 15 years ago. I commend Apple for finding a way around basic UI law, but this type of ruling cannot stand. ........ This is the second lawyer I've seen predicting this case will go all the way to the US Supreme Court. ..... Now the jurors are contradicting each other. Lordy, the more they talk, the worse it gets. I'm sure Samsung is glad they are talking, though. Had they read the full jury instructions, all 109 pages, they would have read that damages are not supposed to punish, merely to compensate for losses. ....... Samsung, the global leader among smartphone makers, vowed to fight. Its lawyers told the judge it intended to ask her to toss out the verdict....... "This decision should not be allowed to stand because it would discourage innovation and limit the rights of consumers to make choices for themselves," Samsung lead lawyer John Quinn said. He argued that the judge or an appeals court should overturn the verdict....... Apple lawyers plan to formally demand Samsung pull its most popular cellphones and computer tablets from the U.S. market. They also can ask the judge to triple the damages from $1.05 billion to $3 billion....... U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh will decide those issues, along with Samsung's demand she overturn the jury's verdict, in several weeks. Quinn said Samsung would appeal if the judge refuses to toss out the decision....... Samsung said after the verdict that it was "unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners."....... "This is by no means the final word in this case," Quinn said in a statement. "Patent law should not be twisted so as to give one company a monopoly over the shape of smartphones."
Sweeping Apple win, but Samsung set for bounce-back
The U.S. ruling, read out to a packed federal courtroom in San Jose, just miles from Apple's headquarters, came less than 24 hours after a Seoul court found that while the iPhone and Galaxy look very similar Samsung hadn't violated Apple's design. .... it could take "many years" for Apple and Samsung to settle the case whatever the result of this round, leaving the two firmly in control of the $200 billion-plus global smartphone market. .... "The impact on Samsung will be quite limited, as affected models are mostly legacy products and its new products did make some design changes to avoid potential litigation" ..... Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III phone was not involved in the trial ..... "The likelihood of Apple being leapfrogged or a rival creating a new category (of device) is greater if they have to think out of the box. If they just copy Apple, like Coke, Apple can claim to be 'the real thing'." .... Samsung also looks to be staying ahead of the curve - by reviving the stylus function, derided by Apple's Steve Jobs, in its latest tablets and by creating the hybrid phone-cum-tablet, or phablet, category, with its 5.3-inch Note.
Apple Cleared Of Infringing Two Google Patents By ITC
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