Google, Samsung diss MicroNokia in China -- report

Google and Samsung have taken to the China Ministry of Commerce to express concern over Microsoft's impending $7.5 billion acquisition of Nokia, a new report claims.
The companies went before the Ministry of Commerce recently to say that the acquisition could give Microsoft too much control over the patent market by taking on Nokia, which has a massive patent portfolio, and thus could put competitors in a troubling competitive position, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the talks.
Microsoft isn't technically taking on all of the Nokia's mobile patents in the deal, deciding instead to leave the portfolio in Nokia's control. Still, Google and Samsung argue that Microsoft will have enough influence to hurt competitors on licensing fees.
This isn't the first time we've heard of companies expressing some concern over the patents Nokia owns. Last year, in fact, several Microsoft competitors went before the European Union raising the same competitive concerns. The EU approved the deal, but said it would watch Nokia's licensing to ensure it fell within legal constraints.

Apple's 'iOS in the Car' technology to roll out next week, says report

Apple's "iOS in the Car" operating system, which would let drivers access various iPhone functions through a car's built-in screen, is set to head out of the garage next week, says a report.
Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo are the automakers on board for the launch, says the Financial Times, which cited unnamed sources in reporting that the official announcement will take place at the Geneva Motor Show. The FT said neither Apple nor the carmakers would comment.
Apple talked up iOS in the Car at its Worldwide Developers Conference last year, with VP Eddy Cue -- a Ferrari board member -- showing a mock-up of a car's LCD with Apple menu buttons for maps, phone, music, and messaging. Cue said the functions could be accessible via Siri as well. Many cars already include integration with iOS music functions. Cue said Chevrolet, Ferrari, Honda, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan, Volvo and others would be introducing iOS integration this year.
Beyond smartphones, "the bigger opportunity for Apple and its ecosystem is becoming essential not just for people texting, checking news, watching movies, and playing games, but for massive growth areas such as transportation, home automation, and health care," CNET's Dan Farber noted last week, following a report that Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions had met with Elon Musk, CEO of electric-car maker Tesla, in 2013.
Apple's rivals are also aware of those opportunities. The Wall Street Journal reported in December that Google had teamed up with Audi to develop in-car entertainment and information systems based on its Android OS. And, of course, on the home automation front, Google is set to buy Nest for $3.2 billion.
Here's Eddy Cue talking about iOS in the Car at last year's WWDC:

Microsoft's latest stab at Apple: Macs are no good for weddings

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to discuss the fact that Apple has no feelings.
Anyone with a heart knows that if you're going to plan a wedding, you have to be able to poke and stroke your laptop screen. Otherwise, it's bad karma.
That is my initial reading of Microsoft's latest ad aimed at belittling Apple.
There have been a few lately. Everything from telling you you'll fail at college if you use an iPad to sending a decaying apple to iPhone users.

Android and Windows getting along inside your PC? Nope

That's the political problem. "Neither [Microsoft nor Google] can be very happy about it," said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64, alluding to the fact that it's a shotgun wedding of the two rivals' software, which can never turn out very well.hen there are the technical challenges. For example, will Asus come up with a way to elegantly, easily share files across the competing operating and file systems? How is memory sharing implemented? And when there's the inevitable glitch, who owns it, Microsoft or Google?

And there's the track record of computers in the past marketed as dual-OS. "They've never been successful," Brookwood said.

The Duet created a buzz at CES in January (see video at bottom), with both Asus and Intel promoting the device as a way to bridge the gap between mobile (Android) and desktop (Windows). The device, in fact, consistently drew crowds at the Intel CES booth, where it was being demonstrated.

Specs, as announced in January, include Windows 8.1 Standard / Android 4.2.2; a 13.3-inch Full HD multitouch display; up to an Intel Core i7 processor; 4GB of RAM; and up to 128GB of SSD storage in the tablet.

Twitch Plays Pokemon conquers Elite Four, beating game after 390 hours

In a stunning display of sheer perseverance and impressive strategizing, the players participating in the endlessly strange and wondrous Twitch Plays Pokemon have, after more than 390 hours, reached the end of the game's main plot and bested the final frontier, the Elite Four. If anything, this definitively proves that if the Internet spends enough time at something, it can achieve the seemingly impossible.
hroughout the course of the first series of repeated attempts at defeating the Elite Four -- which began shortly before 11 a.m. PT on Friday and ended around 1 a.m. PT Saturday morning -- viewership on the stream doubled to around 100,000 and hovered there, only dipping down when especially ill-fated failures seemed to dampen the spirit. Though many had postulated that it might potentially take weeks to overcome the final hurdle, it in fact took only less than two dozen attempts in a single day.

Pros and cons of an ultra-connected world

We're in the beginning of a world in which everything is connected to the internet and with one another, while powerful yet relatively cheap computers analyze all that data for ways to improve lives.

Toothbrushes tell your mirror to remind you to floss. Basketball jerseys detect impending heart failure and call the ambulance for you.

At least that's the vision presented this past week at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona, Spain. The four-day conference highlighted what the tech industry has loosely termed "the internet of things."

Some of that wisdom is already available or promised by the end of the year.

Fitness devices from Sony and Samsung connect with your smartphones to provide digital records of your daily lives. French startup Cityzen Sciences has embedded fabric with heart-rate and other sensors to track your physical activities.

Internet-connected toothbrushes are coming from Procter and Gamble's Oral-B business and from another French startup, Kolibree. The mirror part is still a prototype, but Oral-B's smartphone app does tell you to floss.

Car makers are building in smarter navigation and other hands-free services, while IBM and AT&T are jointly equipping cities with sensors and computers for parking meters, traffic lights and water systems to all communicate.

Internet-connected products represent a growth opportunity for wireless carriers, as the smartphone business slows down in developed markets because most people already have service.

With the technological foundations here, the bigger challenge is getting people, businesses and municipalities to see the potential. Then there are security and privacy concerns: health insurance companies would love access to your fitness data to set premiums.

At a more basic level, these systems have to figure out a way to talk the same language. You might buy your phone from Apple, your TV from Sony and your refrigerator for Samsung. It would be awful to get left out because you aren't loyal to a single company. Plus, the smartest engineers in computing aren't necessarily the best in clothing and construction.

Nokia X hacked to run Google Play Store

NEW DELHI: Nokia X, the recently announced series of smartphones that run a heavily modified version of Android, has been hacked to run the Google Play Store and key Google services.

While Nokia has replaced key APIs and services, including Google's Maps and applications marketplace, with its own apps and Microsoft's services, an XDA ddevelopers forum member has posted a way to root the Nokia X so that it could run the Google launcher, Play Store and other Google apps, including Gmail and Maps.

One of the reasons why the apps work is that Nokia has apparently left the application framework untouched in order to allow apps from third-party app stores work on the phone.

Nokia has mentioned on its official SDK page that the phone will be able to run around 75% Android apps without any modifications. Developers only need to make changes if their apps use Google services for push notifications, maps or in-app payments.

It's worth pointing out that rooting the phone will void its warranty. Also, unlike Android, Google's own suite of apps are not open source, so technically, it's not legal.

With the Nokia X series, the handset giant is targeting the budget segment - just above its Asha series and just below the Windows Phone-run Lumia series - trying to leverage Android's app ecosystem, which is comparatively richer than Windows Phone.

It is also worth noting that Nokia's handsets division has been acquired by Microsoft and the transaction will be complete in a few weeks. It's not clear if Microsoft will continue with the X-series as it runs an OS developed by its arch rival, Google.