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TECH SPACE
SciTechTalk: Whither goest smartphones?
by Jim Algar
Washington DC (UPI) Sep 23, 2012

Apple seeks more damages in wake of win against Samsung
New York (AFP) Sept 22, 2012 - Apple is seeking more than $700 million in additional damages and interest while arch-rival Samsung wants a new trial in the wake of a verdict that saw the US technology giant awarded $1 billion.

In a massive US court victory, a California jury declared on August 24 that the South Korean electronics giant should pay Apple $1.049 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones.

But in a court document filed late Friday, Apple said it "is requesting an amendment to the existing verdict and a total judgment" of more than $707 million, noting that the amount it received did not adequately cover Samsung's infringements on its patents.

In another document, Samsung underscored that "the court's constraints on trial time, witnesses and exhibits were unprecedented for a patent case of this complexity and magnitude, and prevented Samsung from presenting a full and fair case in response to Apple's many claims."

Samsung "therefore respectfully requests that the Court grant a new trial enabling adequate time and even-handed treatment of the parties," the document said.

Apple and Samsung have been at loggerheads over dozens of patent lawsuits in 10 nations, accusing each other of copying technologies and designs.

While the US verdict was seen as victory for Apple, a Japanese court rejected its claim that Samsung stole its technology and also awarded legal costs to the South Korean firm.


As on-line orders for Apple's iPhone 5 soared into the millions and the die-hard faithful set up sleeping bags and camp stoves in front of Apple retail stores in advance of Friday's opening sales day, it may be the time -- or at least the opportunity -- to ask a question: Does anybody really need an iPhone 5?

Not that need is necessarily a pertinent subject when it comes to Apple products, which seem to produce fervor beyond any possible practical benefit or service bestowed on the owner of one of the devices beyond what's offered by, say, any one of a number of Android smartphones.

As the snarky joke goes, "How can you tell if someone owns an iPhone? Easy, they tell you." At the first opportunity, usually.

But let's recast the question and broaden the inquiry a bit, to wit: Does anybody truly need to buy the latest smartphone from any manufacturer? Should they feel they're burdened with embarrassing obsolescence if they're walking around with a smartphone nearing the end of their carrier's contract, to wit: a 2-year-old device?

Lets' see, shall we. I have in my pocket -- well, I've put in on the desk for now -- a smartphone purchased in June 2010. The manufacturer isn't important, other than that it's not an iPhone, simply a representative of what a middle-range Android phone offered back then.

Processor speed? Just 600 MHz, well below the 1.2 gigaherz seen as the new minimum in phone horsepower.

OS? Android 2.3 "Gingerbread," several steps back from Android's current 4.1 "Jelly Bean" offering.

Screen size? 3.4 inches, while some new Android phones have gone well beyond 4 inches and even the iPhone 5 is bragging about its bigger screen.

So, obsolete?

If the verdict should be based on whether the phone can do what the new iPhone or any new top-of-the-line Android phone can do -- and let it be so decided -- the answer must be no.

Any task the typical smartphone owner might require -- and nowadays that's all about what a phone can do beyond simple calling and texting -- is still within the capability of almost any 2-year-old Android smartphone.

Navigate? Sure, it will run Google Maps.

Facebook access? On-line banking? Internet shopping? Camera? WiFi access? YouTube video watching? Yes.

Talk to your phone and have it talk back? Well, Apple touts its Siri voice assistant, but there are any number of Android equivalents, like Vlingo or Assistant, that will run fine on even a mid-level phone.

Play music? Yes (OK, it's not iTunes, but there are plenty of Android music apps and services out there.)

And no, you don't need this season's phone to play Angry Birds.

Does all this prove any particular point?

Perhaps not, but what it does do is raise a broader and possibly more important question regarding where smartphones have come from and where they are going.

Simply put, it's this: Is each new generation of smartphone still offering a revolutionary advance in technology and capability as we've been used to seeing, or has the curve leveled off to the point where we're now in a period of incremental, "evolutionary" improvement?

I would argue for the latter, and would present as Exhibit A my 2-year-old Android workhorse. A little slower than an iPhone 5 or a Samsung Galaxy S III, missing perhaps a bell here or a whistle there, but still a smartphone capable of what people use a smartphone for.

That's not to say an iPhone 5 or any latest-model Android phone isn't impressive. It's just that manufacturers have pushed the technology so far so fast it may take them a while to regroup and reconsider just where they need to go to come up for a phone that will reach the jaw-dropping, revolutionary, "wow, that's cool" level rather than just offering "new and improved" bells and whistles.

So go ahead, buy that iPhone 5 or the latest speed-demon Android handset if if makes you feel good.

But realize it's just a smartphone, just like mine is a smartphone. Just like a lot of -- even all -- smartphones.

Evolution, anyone?

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Foxconn shuts China plant after 2,000-strong brawl
Beijing (AFP) Sept 24, 2012 - Electronics giant Foxconn, whose vast plants in China churn out products for Apple and other tech firms, shut a factory Monday after a brawl involving some 2,000 workers, officials said.

Around 40 people were injured in the incident in Taiyuan in northern China, which began around 11:00 pm Sunday and was not brought under control by police until four hours later, Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai said.

Pictures posted online, which could not be confirmed, showed crowds of workers, a building with shattered windows, and an overturned police car, among other damage.

"The facility was closed today, just today, in order for an investigation. It will be reopened tomorrow," Hon Hai spokesman Simon Hsing told AFP.

Foxconn is the world's largest maker of computer components and assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, among others.

The company statement said the trouble began "as a personal dispute between several employees" in a privately-managed dormitory for workers at the plant in Shanxi province.

"The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related," it said.

Numerous postings on the Sina Weibo microblog, which could not be confirmed by AFP, said the brawl was between factory security guards and workers.

Foxconn has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants in the past two years.

In 2010, at least 13 Foxconn employees in China died in apparent suicides, which activists blamed on tough working conditions, prompting calls for better treatment of staff.

"Foxconn is known to have a very authoritarian management style and discipline is very strict," Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, told AFP.

"When you have a working environment like Foxconn where workers are treated simply as units of production, essentially robots, not human beings... then sometimes violence is the only way out (and) you see minor disputes escalating into violence."

Following the spate of suicides, Foxconn rolled out a series of measures, including wage hikes and safety nets outside buildings, and has since been expanding its workforce throughout China.

In January, workers at a Foxconn plant in Wuhan, in central China, that makes Xbox game consoles for computer giant Microsoft "staged a workplace incident" over a plan to transfer staff, Foxconn said at the time.

About 45 workers resigned afterwards, the company added, offering few details.

Foxconn employs about one million workers in China, roughly half of them based in its main facility in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.

The Taiyuan plant employs 79,000 workers and makes automobile electronic components, consumer electronic components and precision mouldings.

A Taiyuan city government official said the unrest had "quieted down" and was not work-related. City police spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.



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TECH SPACE
Apple seeks more damages in wake of win against Samsung
New York (AFP) Sept 22, 2012
Apple is seeking more than $700 million in additional damages and interest while arch-rival Samsung wants a new trial in the wake of a verdict that saw the US technology giant awarded $1 billion. In a massive US court victory, a California jury declared on August 24 that the South Korean electronics giant should pay Apple $1.049 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad featur ... read more


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