Saturday, July 7, 2012

Software : Samsung Galaxy Nexus US sales ban temportarily lifted

Software : Samsung Galaxy Nexus US sales ban temportarily lifted

Samsung Galaxy Nexus US sales ban temportarily lifted

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus US sales ban temportarily lifted

The US sales ban on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Google-phone has been lifted, albeit temporarily, after the Korean manufacturer appealed the decision.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has given Samsung a reprieve for the first Ice Cream Sandwich handset, but it's possible any response from Apple could see restrictions swiftly reinstated.

The initial ban relates to the 'quick search' functionality on the Galaxy Nexus device, which will scan all areas of the phone and then the web with one tap.

Apple said this infringed on its iOS patents and a California court agreed.

Back with Jelly Bean

Earlier this week, Samsung failed in overturning the decision, while Google has halted sales of the handset through its online portal, pending a software patch.

Google has said that it hopes to have the Galaxy Nexus back on sale next week, with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a workaround for the software functionality Apple claims infringes on its patent.

The saga continues.

Mozilla shoots down Thunderbird, ceases development on mail client

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Mozilla shoots down Thunderbird, ceases development on mail client

Mozilla will not be creating new versions of the Thunderbird mail client for Mac and PC as it seeks to focus attention in its 'ambitious' new projects.

In a letter to staff, posted by TechCrunch, the company has decided that "continued innovation on Thunderbird is not the best use of our resources given our ambitious organizational goals."

That means, it wants more hands on deck for the forthcoming launch of the Mozilla Firefox mobile OS, originally known as Boots to Gecko

The company says it is not 'stopping' Thunderbird per se, but will now focus only on continued security and stability for the 20m users across the world.

Community-driven innovation

In terms of new additions to the client? Well that buck has been passed to the community.

"Thunderbird is one of the very few truly free and open source multi-platform email applications available today and we want to defend these values," wrote Thunderbird MD Jb Piacentino.

"We're not "stopping" Thunderbird, but proposing we adapt the Thunderbird release and governance model in a way that allows both ongoing security and stability maintenance, as well as community-driven innovation and development for the product."

Piacentino says it is likely that members of the Thunderbird team will be moved onto other projects, including the company's more illustrious Firefox web browser and the forthcoming mobile OS.

Apple 'holding back' on entering NFC mobile payment game

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Apple 'holding back' on entering NFC mobile payment game

Apple has adopted a wait an see attitude towards mobile payments after deep-rooted discussions within the company, according to the Wall Street Journal.

While Google Wallet and credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard and Barclaycard forge ahead with their NFC-based solutions, Apple is yet to enter that arena.

The WSJ reports that taking on the emerging market was seriously discussed, but for now the company opted with to go with the Passbook app - launched within iOS 6 at WWDC last month.

Passbook will users to collate their vouchers, coupons, plane tickets and store cards, but does not offer any immeditate indication that a mobile payments service like Google Wallet will be launched.

Ambitions scaled back, for now

The article, paraphrasing an unnamed Apple executive, says the company wanted to take advantage of the 400m credit cards registered to iTunes, with a view to creating Apple's own payment network or teaming up with an existing service and taking a cut.

Scott Forstall's iOS software development team were encouraged to "brainstorm a comprehensive wallet app," but amibtions were eventually scaled back.

Beyond software, the company also investigated new NFC technologies, but decided at this point that the chips would be too great a drain on the iPhone's battery life.

When the mobile payment discussions came to an executive review in early 2012, many "baulked" at the idea, amid further fears over slow vendor adoption, and we ended up with Passbook.

Of course, between now and the final launch of iOS 6, expected this autumn, we could see a new version of Passbook to complement an NFC-enabled iPhone 5 device, kick-starting Apple's entry into the arena. For now, it's a definite wait and see.

However, It's likely to happen sooner rather than later, as analyst Gene Munster says: "They let their competitors do their market research for them."
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