Showing posts with label U.S.. Show all posts

US officials to Delhi court: Can’t summon Facebook, Google

US officials have told the Indian government that they cannot serve summons to Facebook and Google executives, as requested by a Delhi court, because that impacts “free speech principles".

India had asked the US to help in serving papers to the executives of 11 Internet companies who are accused of hosting content designed to fuel communal hatred.

In January this year, the court issued fresh summons for the executives and asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure they were delivered. “As you know, there are limits to our Constitution’s protections on free speech, such as when the speech comprises a true threat or incites imminent violence. In this case, there has not been a sufficient showing in this regard,” US authorities said in response.

Facebook and Google won't have to appear in Indian courts just yet

The case was filed in December 2011 by a journalist named Vinay Ray who said Internet firms should be prosecuted for hosting the content. The case will be heard in Delhi on May 21.

Even as Google and Facebook get a breather from appearing in court over allegedly hosting offensive content, the search giant has had to deal with another legal issue pertaining to the Google Mapathon event’s India leg. While Google has maintained that the Mapathon contest was in line with Indian laws, the company could see some court time in India over allegedly violating the cartographical laws of the land.

Another petition filed with the Delhi High Court questions the legality of allowing minors to register on Facebook or the likes. The High Court is awaiting a response from the government, which was asked to explain why minors are allowed to enter contracts with social network.

Report by : Nikhil Subramaniam

Apple to Ship Updated A1428 iPhone 5 With AWS WCDMA Enabled for T-Mobile USA

Back when I did my Qualcomm modems and transceivers piece, I gained a deeper understanding about the cellular RF engineering side of the handset puzzle. Specifically, how an OEM can enable LTE on some bands and not enable WCDMA on those very same bands. The interesting and relevant takeaway from the whole exploration is that all ports on the transceiver are created equal, and that if an OEM implements LTE on a particular band, that usually means that the device design can inherit support for 3G WCDMA on that same band, given the right power amplifier. I alluded at the end of the article to the fact that if you see an OEM implement band 4 on LTE and not band 4 on WCDMA, it's just a matter of a firmware lock and appropriate certifications to enable it, and what I was alluding directly to was the A1428 iPhone 5.

Today T-Mobile USA formalized their LTE plans and announced that the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (as predicted), Blackberry Z10, and Sonic 2.0 hotspots would immediately work with their Band 4 LTE which is either 5 or 10 MHz FDD depending on market. In addition the upcoming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 will support T-Mobile LTE. The operator also launched its LTE network in Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, Calif., and Washington, D.C. I plan to drive up to Phoenix at some point this week and test the network out there.

Among all that other news however was news that T-Mobile would finally be carrying the iPhone 5, specifically an updated version of the A1428 hardware model which included Band 4 (AWS) LTE support. This was the variant aimed at AT&T specifically, with both Band 4 and Band 17 LTE included, in addition to a number of other bands as we noted in the iPhone 5 review. As I mentioned earlier, what's interesting about A1428 is that it always had the necessary power amplifiers for AWS WCDMA, but only enabled it on LTE. The hardware could support AWS WCDMA, but that was locked out in firmware — until now. Apple gave a statement to Engadget which confirmed my earlier suspicions – beginning 4/12, Apple will ship a new A1428 with different firmware onboard that enables AWS WCDMA. There won't be any software update for existing A1428 owners, meaning if you bought an iPhone 5 AT&T model, you're not going to be able to get AWS WCDMA on T-Mobile overnight unfortunately, instead new shipping A1428 models will simply have different firmware on them which enables the AWS paths through the transceiver for WCDMA to be enabled. I'm unclear how Apple will choose to differentiate the two identical A1428 hardware models for users or on their own spec lists, either way there will be an old version and new version which differ in this regard. In addition, existing A1428 hardware without AWS WCDMA support will be phased out.

In fact, there's the same FCC-ID for the A1428 with AWS WCDMA enabled, it's still BCG-E2599A. I was surprised to see that Apple has already in fact processed the Class II Permissive Change and added Band 4 (AWS) WCDMA tests as necessary, dated today March 26th 2013.

So there we have it, the new A1428 with AWS WCDMA for T-Mobile is identical hardware to the previous A1428 hardware, it's just a matter of enabling those modes in the transceiver for WCDMA. The hardware will also support DC-HSPA+ (42.2 Mbps downlink) on AWS, which means speedy fallback if you detach from LTE and are in a T-Mobile market with two WCDMA carriers.

Report by : Brian Klug

81 per cent of Facebook users don't want to be friends with their boss

Washington: At least 81 per cent people believe that there is one person you should never be friends with on Facebook - your boss - according to a new survey.

The survey of 722 people conducted by two websites found that 81 per cent said you should not be Facebook friends with your boss.

Slightly more men than women said it was alright to friend your boss, the survey site SodaHead and anonymous feedback site YouTell found.

Those aged between 25 to 34 are the most comfortable with befriending their boss on the social networking site, Huffington Post report.

Those aged between 25 to 34 were the most comfortable with befriending their boss on the social networking site, 'Huffington Post' reported.

While there seemed to be a consensus on not befriending the boss on Facebook, people were less sure when it came to being friends with colleagues on the site.

In a parallel survey that asked whether or not you should be Facebook friends with your co-workers, 55 per cent said yes and 45 per cent said no.

Employees probably don't want bosses to see embarrassing information about them, and don't want to have to censor Facebook photos from their wild college days.

The fears may not be totally unfounded as people have been fired for Facebook posts.

In 2009, a Swiss woman was fired from her insurance job because she had told her boss that she couldn't work at her computer and needed to lie down in the dark. She was fired when she was seen to be active on Facebook.

In 2010, a woman was fired from her waitressing job after complaining about a pair of customers on her Facebook page.

Report by : Press Trust of India

Facebook Home now available outside US on Google Play

Facebook Home is now available for users outside the US. You can grab it for free from Google Play. To use Facebook Home, you will have to update your Facebook and Messenger apps to their latest versions. As of now, the app is only available to for a few smartphones, namely, Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note II, and HTC's One, One X and One X+.

Cover Feed on Facebook Home lets users view their News Feed posts as soon as they turn their phone on. They can swipe through these posts to view more, double tap to like a post and then can comment on a post from the cover feed.

Up next is Chat Heads and Messenger. Home users can install Messenger on their devices to send and receive texts and Facebook messages at the same location. Then there is the ability to move in and out of conversations while, say, watching a video or browsing the web. It is possible to type replies right from chat heads. Alternatively, users can choose to move them around, in case they don't want to respond to it right away.

Now in India!

The app was launched last week and was only available to US users at the time. This didn't stop enterprising homebrew developers from getting their hands on the apk from Google Play and releasing it in the wild, however. There is also a tweaked version of the Facebook Home apk out in the wild that makes the app compatible with any phone that has a 720p screen.

Facebook Home has been very popular. Shortly after being available on Google Play, the app garnered a lot of downloads and user reviews. Opinions on Facebook Home seem to be polarised. The review rating is averaging out at 2.3 out of 5 stars. The overwhelming consensus seems to steer towards the lower end of the rating scale, though, with the app having gotten 2,608 1-star reviews, as opposed to only 897 5-star reviews and 478 4-star reviews.

The biggest criticism faced by the app is that it eats up too much battery and data usage, while at the same time hampering regular Android features such as widgets. A 1-star review says: "The app's pretty lousy. Causes battery drain, severely hampers operation of your device, it just gets in the way of what you need/want to do."

Facebook lovers seem to have taken a liking to Facebook Home, however. Users have praised the app for being smooth and having quick access to their social feeds. A 5-star review says: "I have the galaxy note 2 it does a amazing job thank you facebook! Keep up the amazing work!"

Some of the average reviews, namely the 239 3-star reviews, mostly seem to have issues with the restrictions on homescreen customisation that Facebook Home seems to have. One of the 3-star reviews read: "Looks pretty. Messenger is cool with that chatheads. However, we should have more freedom controlling what we want on the Lock screen because I want the phone dialer there."

Report by : Shunal Doke

Facebook begins allowing international users to buy Gifts for friends in U.S.

Facebook has started to expand its Gifts product beyond the U.S., according to users in the U.K., India and Canada who say they got access to the service this weekend. However, it seems that international users can only send gifts to their friends who live in the U.S.

Facebook launched Gifts in September 2012 as a way for users to buy physical and digital gifts for their friends via desktop or mobile. The product rolled out to all U.S. users by mid-December, but hadn’t been available in other countries until now.

[Update 4/8/13 6:03 p.m. PT - Facebook confirms to us that it launched "an update to Gifts that allows people using Facebook in English outside of the U.S. to send Gifts to friends living in the U.S."]

U.K. reader Matt Navarra sent us this screenshot of his Facebook homepage on Saturday. Inside Network contributer Pete Davison says he saw a similar prompt about Gifts today.

From the Gifts dashboard, users will see a note that they can send gifts to their friends and family in the U.S., Navarra says. Majestic Media Managing Director Mario Zelaya tells us he’s able to access the same dashboard from Canada.

Like in the U.K. and Canada, Gifts in India can only be sent to users in the U.S., according to reports from MediaNama and Techcircle.in.

This expansion increases the potential audience for Facebook’s relatively new monetization channel. So far, Gifts seems to be growing slowly. Facebook made $5 million from non-game payments in Q4 2012, a portion of which came from Gifts, but CFO David Ebersman said that user-promoted posts were the primary source of that revenue. Ebersman said he expected Gifts to continue to represent a small percentage of Facebook’s overall business as the company experiments with the design and functionality of the product. Facebook is due to report its first quarter earnings of this year on May 1.

Allowing users to buy gifts for their friends outside of the U.S. is a greater challenge when it comes to fulfillment and legal issues. In November, the company added a job listing for a customs and trade manager, which could be related to making Gifts available more globally. That position is still listed on Facebook’s careers site. Another job focused on strategic partner development for Gifts is also available.

Report by : Brittany Darwell

Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone5 Pre-orders Now Live At T-Mobile USA

T-Mobile subscribers will now enjoy the benefit of pre-ordering Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone5 before it becomes available in the stores next week.

As listed on T-Mobile’s website, users can preorder all the variants of iPhone5 including the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models in either black or white. The purchase options offered by T-Mobile will be different compared to the offers from Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S).

As per the payment plans, buyers will have two choices: they can buy the iPhone5 at a full non-subsidized cost, paying up front; or they can make a small down payment and the rest can be paid in 24 monthly payments of $20 each. In accordance with the carrier’s plan, a 16 GB iPhone will be $99 up front or $579 in total and a 32 GB variant will costs $199 initially or $679 in total.

The 64GB edition of iPhone5 will come around $299 up front or $779 in total. The carrier gives the buyers an option to choose from three different plans offering voice, text, and data ranging from $50 to $70 per month for a single line.

Although the iPhone 5 supports 4G LTE, the company’s 4G LTE capabilities are still in a nascent stage. T-Mobile rolled out its 4G LTE network last month in seven markets across the country. The carrier plans to expand its LTE network to 100 million people by the middle of 2013 and 200 million by the end of the year.

Yesterday, the company announced its first customer growth in four years with the customer base soaring to 579,000 during the first quarter of 2013 to reach 34 million users. Prepaid services experience the bulk of increase, with more than 202,000 new pay-as-you-go customers added during the quarter. However, the company lost 199,000 net postpaid customers, which was 61 percent improvement on the final quarter of 2012 when the carrier lost some 515,000 contract users.

Partnering with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been a good strategy for T-Mobile. CEO and President John Legeregere told earlier this year that T-Mobile USA has 1.9 million iPhone users and every month it is adding about 100000 new iPhone customers.

Despite huge outage from Apple store, just last month only T-Mobile USA announced to carry the iPhone5, but still the carrier is not listed among the US vendors of the phone on Apple Inc.

Report by : Aman Jain

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Gains Ground On Android In The U.S.

The latest data from comScore indicates that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained ground on the Android platform over the last three months. Apple’s iOS platform gained 3.9 percentage points, while Google Inc (GOOG)’s Android platform lost 2 percentage points.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) appears to be gaining ground in the U.S. versus Android. Over the past year, it is clear that the U.S. consumers overwhelmingly prefers Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in terms of which devices to buy. However, the Android platform has the advantage of being offered on multiple phones, so it has remained the top platform, even in the U.S

The trend is starting to change. According to the latest data from comScore Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is starting to catch up to the Android platform in its home country.

COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) examined the top smartphone platforms in the U.S. between November and February. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s platform continues to hold the top spot, but it lost 2 percentage points.

Fortune magazine published a chart made by one of its readers, who has been keeping track since August 2010. The data indicates that over the past three months, there were a total of 10.4 million new subscribers in the U.S. Of that number, 8.9 million chose the iPhone, while only 2.9 million selected an Android phone.

It certainly appears that Android’s gains in the U.S. after the release of the Samsung Galaxy 3 last year appear to be over. Meanwhile, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is still reaping the benefits of the release of its newer iPhone 5. However, the Galaxy S4 was just launched, so some analysts believe that the next three months could indicate that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will start losing ground to Samsung again.

The data collection service also compared Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s numbers with its closest competitor—Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930). According to COMSCORE, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 3.9 percentage points during the time frame, while Samsung gained just 1 percentage point.

Keep in mind that even though Samsung managed to gain 1 percentage point during the three months, three companies which sell phones on Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android platform dropped in popularity. Motorola, HTC Corp (TPE:2498) and LG Electronics Inc (KRX:066570) all lost ground in the U.S. These three companies’ losses seem to be where Apple picked up the most subscribers.

Meanwhile, the iOS platform gained 3.9 percentage points, which of course is consistent with the number of new iPhone subscribers during the period.

Report by : Michelle Jones

'U.S. court clears Samsung phone, setback for Apple'

A U.S. appeals court overturned a preliminary injunction on the sale of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy Nexus smartphone on Thursday, dealing a setback to Apple Inc in its battle against Google Inc's increasingly popular mobile software.

Apple is waging war on several fronts against Google, whose Android software powers many of Samsung's devices.

In one of the more visible developments of that battle, Apple scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung in August when a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

District court abused its discretion!

In this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was considering an injunction ordered before the trial began but which was quickly stayed. The appeals court reversed the injunction entirely on Thursday, saying that the "district court abused its discretion."

Apple failed to prove, the court said, that consumers purchased the Samsung product because of the infringing technology. The court considered a single patent - one which allows the smartphone to search multiple data storage locations at once. For example, the smartphone could search the device's memory as well as the Internet with a single query.

The appeals court has sent the case back to a lower California court for reconsideration.

The Nexus is an aging product in Samsung's lineup, with a collection of new tablets and smartphones intended for launch before the holidays.

On Wednesday, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt called the intensifying struggle between Apple and his company a "defining fight" for the future of the mobile industry.

"We've not seen ... competitive fights on this scale," he said during an interview with tech blog AllThingsDigital at New York's 92nd Street Y. Apple declined comment. Samsung did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Report by: Reuters

iOS 6 on 60 Percent of U.S., Canadian iPhones

Apple's latest mobile operating system, iOS 6, is now installed on approximately 60 percent of iPhones in the U.S. and Canada, according to new stats from online advertising firm Chitika.

iPhone users have been quickest to adopt the new mobile OS, followed closely by iPad users. iPod touch users have shown the lowest rates of adoption.

To reach its conclusions, Chitika took a sample of millions of mobile ad impressions on its network from Sept. 18 to Oct. 1 and compared the iOS 6 growth rate to total iOS Web usage. Just 11 days after iOS 6 was released, the new mobile OS was installed on nearly 50 percent of iPads and 39 percent of iPods.

"Apple's newest mobile operating system, iOS 6, has shown unprecedented adoption rates by Apple users," Chitika found.

Apple released iOS 6 on Sept. 19 and those with compatible iDevices rushed to upgrade. Within a day, the new mobile OS had already been installed on 15 percent of iOS devices.

"Overall, this data points to Apple doing an outstanding job of keeping their user base up-to-date with the latest OS," according to Chitika.

In comparison, new data shows that only about 1.8 percent of Android devices are running the most recent version of the mobile OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. About 23.7 percent of gadgets now have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The difference, of course, is that Apple only offers the iPhone and controls the updates itself, whereas multiple handset makers offer Android devices and those upgrades are in the hands of the carriers.

Though users eagerly upgraded to iOS 6, the new mobile OS hasn't been without its share of problems. By far the biggest issue is iOS 6 Maps, has been widely criticized for mis-labeling cities, leaving out landmarks, duplicating islands, and more. Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the problems users were experiencing with the app.

Report by: Angela Moscaritolo

Judge dissolves U.S. ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1

A U.S. judge has removed a three-month-old sales ban of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S. following a jury decision last month.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh issued an order this evening dissolving a three-month-old ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S.

The order (PDF) follows one from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week that enabled Koh to make a determination.

"The Court agrees with Samsung that the sole basis for the June 26 Preliminary Injunction was the Court's finding that Samsung likely infringed the D'889 Patent. The jury has found otherwise," Koh's ruling read. "Thus, the sole basis for the June 26 Preliminary Injunction no longer exists. Based on these facts alone, the Court finds it proper to dissolve the injunction."

The Korean electronics giant welcomed the news, asserting that sales ban was unnecessary.

"We are pleased with the court's action today, which vindicates our position that there was no infringement of Apple's design patent and that an injunction was not called for," Samsung said in a statement.

CNET has also contacted Apple for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

Samsung's once-flagship device was banned from sale in June with stipulation that it could be reversed if Samsung was cleared of infringing Apple's D'889 tablet design patent. That's just what happened in the jury verdict that was delivered last month, leading Samsung to appeal the decision.

The only snag in that taking effect was that Judge Koh, who was presiding over the case, said she didn't have the jurisdiction to make that decision, something that was passed down from the higher court last week.

A federal jury in San Jose, Calif., last month overwhelmingly sided with Apple in the trial between the two companies. The group rejected all of Samsung's patent infringement claims and found that the South Korea-based smartphone maker was liable for about $1.05 billion in damages arising from software patents on mobile devices. The fallout was also closely tied with other legal actions, including the injunction against the Galaxy Tab, which Samsung has since replaced with newer models.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in front of Apple's iPad

Within tonight's decision, Judge Koh said that the court would hang on to the $2.6 million bond Apple put up to get the preliminary injunction to take effect. She also told both sides to submit a schedule for "any issues" about the dissolving of the preliminary injunction, something Apple is likely to fight.

Both companies are expected back in court on December 6 to discuss a wide range of post-trial issues, including a U.S. sales ban of eight Samsung devices that were found to infringe on Apple's patents.