It’s Tuesday once again and it’s time for
another weekly roundup of news about gadgets and technology. In this week’s
edition of Tech Tuesdays, we’ll be talking about updates on two very
influential social networking sites, alleged patent infringements from two
popular brands and news about two smartphones.
If you’re ready, let’s begin.
Social
Networks
Twitter’s fender bender a few weeks ago was
the storm before the rainbow as the company announced a slew of improvements to
its user interface. These new features include Smart search, related search and
narrowed search.
Smart search acts very similar to Google’s
instant search that autocompletes a query even before the user has finished
typing. Related search on the other hand is also now available in the social
network. According to company engineer Frost Li, people can now use search
queries that match multiple terms and Twitter will provide relevant suggestions
where the majority of those terms can be found in conversations happening on
Twitter. Lastly, the site now also allows narrowing search results which will
now be seen next to the regular search filter options.
On other social networking site news, Facebook has been reported to roll out a new mobile advertising strategy which makes use of a software that tracks the apps that are installed on consumer’s phones. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Facebook engineers have created a software that can track apps that a user has downloaded. By using this information, the company seeks to improve its mobile revenue by serving consumers with targeted ads based on their app purchases and downloads.
However, unlike existing advertising
strategies employed in the past by Facebook, users will receive ads regardless
if they liked the brand or not. If Facebook is indeed developing this software,
it can possibly get the social networking giant in a very precarious position as
the implications of the development of such an app-tracking software can be
very controversial since it may put consumers at risk in terms of privacy and
security.
Infringements
Apple has been waging a patent war against
almost all the big brands in its sphere of operation.
Just recently, Apple paid Shenzen Proview Technology, a Chinese company, $60
million for the name iPad. And if that’s not enough, another Chinese company is
claiming that the Cupertino Company is infringing one of its trademarks and is
asking Apple approximately $80,000 in damages.
Jiangsu Xuebao is a Chinese household
chemicals manufacturer that holds a registered copyright for the Chinese
translation of Snow Leopard which is also the name given to Mac OS X version
10.6. Aside from the financial compensation that the Chinese company may
receive if they win the case, they are also asking for a formal apology from
Apple. The Xuebao’s case against Apple will be heard today – July 10, 2012, in
Shanghai.
Nokia on the other hand has accused ASUS of using
one of its patents on the recently announced Google Nexus 7 tablet without a
license. According to Nokia, ASUS used the patent for IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi
standard to include the said feature on the Nexus 7. The Finnish company also
said that the licenses for the patents were given to around 40 mobile device
manufacturers and Google or ASUS were not on the list.
However, unlike Apple, Nokia is not pushing
any legal actions towards ASUS or Google. Instead, Nokia took the less
expensive route and just offered the two companies to sign up for a license.
Smartphones
Android has once again proven itself as the
top platform choice for manufacturers. The latest brand to jump into the
bandwagon is Amazon. A report from Bloomberg talks about Amazon partnering with
China-based factory Foxconn to build the new device.
Amazon has also been reported to have
started acquiring patents related to wireless technology, possibly to protect
itself from being legally attacked for copyright infringement. Furthermore,
unconfirmed reports surfaced that the retail giant is developing its own mapping
service with the acquisition of UpNext for an undisclosed amount.
The new device will be most beneficial to
Amazon as this will strengthen the company’s Kindle line of
products. The new phone
will allow Amazon to reach more consumers for all their virtual goods and can
even boost sales of Kindle Fire tablets and e-readers as users will then be
able to seamlessly transfer content from phone to tablet and vice versa.
From good news to (sort of) bad news, Meego
developers have left Nokia’s camp which is definitely not good for the only
Meego device in Nokia’s arsenal – the N9. It is still unclear why the Meego
team has left Nokia but the good news is that a startup company in the name of
Jolla, will be taking over the Finnish company’s efforts in developing the
platform.
And
that’s all for this week’s episode of Tech Tuesdays on TFL. For comments and
suggestions, the comment box below is always open for everyone’s voices. For
more news and updates in the world of technology, tune in again next week!
