Netizen

Google Chrome 21: Can You Smell It?

google chrome (Photo credit: toprankonlinemarketing)

21 releases already? That is fast paced innovation. Chrome has been the best browser for a while now. It's just that Internet Explorer has legacy users.

Google Chrome 21 stable release adds Retina MacBook Pro support, webcam use without plugins

Chrome 21 is now crisp and clear for those who took the plunge on Apple's new laptop but would rather not cling to Safari for the web. No matter what hardware you're using, Google has rolled in its promised WebRTC support to let webcams and microphones have their way without Flash or other plugins. Other notable tweaks like wider support for Cloud Print

New senses for the web

What if web apps could see? What if they could hear? ..... The getUserMedia API is the first step in WebRTC, a new real-time communications standard which aims to allow high-quality video and audio communication on the web

Patent Potholes

English: Portrait of Judge Elbert Tuttle, taken by United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, from here. It is a work of the federal judiciary, so it is in the public domain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Software is like music. Notes can not be patented.

Top patent court struggles to decide when software is patentable

the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a patent on the idea of using a computer to perform a particular kind of financial transaction. Now, just a couple of weeks later, the same court has reached the opposite conclusion about a patent on using a computer to manage a particular type of life insurance policy. ..... The courts have long ruled that "abstract ideas" and "mental processes" are not eligible for patent protection. And that has implications for the patentability of software. .... Every computer application, no matter how sophisticated, consists of nothing more than "the performance of repetitive calculations." .... At root, the judges of the Federal Circuit appear confused about how computers work

Real Time

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

We can’t entrust Twitter with the future of the real-time web

Twitter is an important development. The ability of individual users to pool their efforts to essentially document, minute by minute, every day on an Internet-connected planet Earth, is an amazing gift...... a snapshot of humanity on a speed and scale that we’ve never known in the past. .... It is either a broadcast network for brands, which happens to host conversations of individuals, or it’s a platform for discussion in which brands can take part, just like the rest of us

Trees were still falling fine before Twitter came along.

I am not at all opposed to Twitter monetizing. Twitter should make money so it can keep the service free and improve on it.

There was not only one email service. There was not only one Instant Messenger. But there is only one Twitter. I find that amazing. How do you explain that?

The Twitter Book By OReilly, Tim/ Milstein, Sarah

The Twitter Workbook

Twitter Power 2.0 By Comm, Joel

Twitter

Twitter Tree iPhone 4 Slider Case by CafePress

August NY Tech MeetUp

Check out the 7 startups demoing at August’s New York Tech Meetup

Simple Banking

Much of banking is just moving around data. And that should be kept out of sight.

First Look: Simple Reimagines Banking

one fundamental axiom of modern life: banking sucks..... Banking sucks a lot. What’s worse, when it sucks, not only does it drive you insane, it costs you money. Lots of money. ..... they would use the large charges to make the balance fall to zero as quickly as possible, then hammer the account with the small charges to rack up overdraft fees ...... the bank’s abusive fees and seeming inability to block fraudulent charges from hitting my account — even after being notified multiple times — he was apologetic but unable to offer much help. ..... Simple, and the company’s stated goal of removing abusive fees ..... The bank’s phone support was a nightmare ..... “Simple replaces your bank, but we are not a bank.” ..... The company’s drive for simplicity permeates everything from the packaging that the card is shipped in, to the massive “Call Customer Service” button in the app, all the way to its promise to never punish its customers with hidden fees; yes, the overdraft fees that decimated my PNC account a few years back are gone. Kaput. ..... “Our stated mission is that we don’t profit from fees

There's moving around money. That's data. Then there are abusive fees. That is behavioral. And then there is customer service. Three different things, all related.

The no abusive fees part should fall in the public policy domain, one would think.

And great technology should free up resources to provide amazing customer service.

Tech Leadership On Patent Reform

The official online color is: #A4C639 . 한국어: 공식 온라인 색은: #A4C639 . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is for the biggest tech companies to take the lead on patent reform. Perhaps there are allies on Capitol Hill. But this Microsoft gesture seems to seek patent defeat not patent peace. For now the big dogs are in mood to duke it out, not hug it out. That is the impression I get.

Microsoft to Google: Enough With the Diversionary Tactics, Let’s Hug It Out

called on Google and Motorola to join it in hammering out a comprehensive settlement of intellectual property disputes between them ..... Motorola’s public proposal to take a license for only a small sub-set of the large number of Microsoft patents used in its products will not result in durable patent peace ..... “Microsoft wants to undercut Motorola’s industry-leading patent portfolio, licensed by more than 50 other companies on fair and reasonable terms, while seeking inflated royalties tied to standards that Microsoft alone controls. Motorola is always open to negotiations that avoid wasteful and abusive patent claims.”

A Solid Foundation for Patent Peace

we are seeking solely the same level of reasonable compensation for our patented intellectual property that numerous other Android distributors – both large and small – have already agreed to recognize in our negotiations with them.

Microsoft to Motorola: The way to 'patent peace'

The patent wrangles have a complicated history: earlier this year more than a dozen Android-powered Motorola devices were banned from being imported to the U.S. for sale because Motorola was found to have infringed Microsoft's ActiveSync patent, thanks to a ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). ..... More recently, a German court banned the sale of all Motorola devices running Android because the smartphone maker infringed a Microsoft-owned patent relating to file storage. .... Meanwhile Motorola secured an injunction against Windows 7 and the Xbox in Germany over H.264 video codecs, though the sales ban will not be enforced immediately. Microsoft said it wanted to use the video compression technology, but Motorola would charge in the region of $4 billion in annual royalties -- which Microsoft said was not at the market rate.

Microsoft wants 'patent peace' in ongoing Motorola spat

Microsoft's lawyers pen a public note to Motorola: 'We want to talk because this patent nonsense is getting way out of hand.' Will the two companies kiss and make up, or squabble until a court rules?