Samsung to sue Apple

Apple may have won the battle, but it hasn’t won the war—-at least this is probably what Samsung is currently thinking. After being ordered by a jury to pay Apple US$1.05 billion in damages for copyright infringement last August, the South Korean smartphone maker decided to fire back by suing Apple for using its Long-Term Evolution patents in the recently announced iPhone 5.

According to a report by The Korea Times, Samsung confirmed that it will “immediately” sue Apple if it releases products that use LTE technology. For the uninitiated, LTE is marketed as 4G LTE, a wireless communication standard that’s faster and more advanced than the current 3G speeds being used in mobile phones today. Keep reading »

Cut Back on Emissions; Save the Polar Bear

More and more species are becoming endangered as the years go by.  It probably would not be a surprise if one day, we hear news about the human race being in danger of disappearing because of what we are doing to the environment.  Sometimes, though, we make the most interesting connections.

Take polar bears and data centers, for example.  They have been the focus of some discussion lately.

How so?

Apparently, the extent of global data center service has reached such proportions that this industry is one of the leading contributors to global warming.  Believe it or not, the Information Age has a negative impact on the environment, and polar bears are being used as a focal figure in the awareness campaign.

Obviously, if global temperatures continue to increase, the polar ice caps will melt, leaving those adorable fuzzy white creatures without a home.  If this happens, of course, the bears just might disappear from the face of the earth.

Data centers are not solely to be held responsible for this issue, though.  While it may be tempting to point fingers at a single industry, everyone has his role to play in the matter.  Emissions from vehicles – both private and public alike – are as much to blame.  Daily activities that may seem benign also contribute to the amount of emissions.  Governments must do their part, and so must individuals.

The bottom line is that more is at stake than the polar bear.  Everyone is responsible for saving the earth.  We need to act now or probably suffer negative consequences in the very near future.

$1,000 Phone Sex Bill For An 86-Year-Old Woman

Sometimes, when people try to pull off a scam, they do not pay much attention to the details, do they? Take this latest scam which borders on the ridiculous. Someone, somewhere out there, stole the identity of a man who has long passed away; created a credit card account in that man’s name, and then managed to charge over a $1,000 in phone sex bills.

Unfortunately – or fortunately, as the case may be – the bill went to the widow of the “card holder.” Arlene Hald, 86 years old, received a credit card bill from Preferred Platinum Plan. The bill was addressed to her husband Sylvester, who passed away about 20 years ago. Hald declares that they never had a credit card.

Naturally, the family took action and contacted Preferred Platinum Plan. To be fair to them, they immediately agreed to “remove the charges.” Then again, there should be no question about that, right? The company was probably still non-existent when Sylvester passed away!

Peggy Rytych, Arlene Hald’s daughter has stated that it was probably a case of ID theft and she may very well be right. While they were satisfied that the phone sex bill incident was taken care of, they had another surprise coming. Not long after that matter was resolved, another bill arrived – this time for $70.

These companies do not seem to get it, do they? I think that it is time for someone to take a closer look into this Preferred Platinum Plan entity. You would think that they were stricter on these things.

Hottest News at the click of a mouse

Brain cancer cases are on the rise and the search for a cure is one of the most pressing undertakings of our generation. We have grown by leaps and bounds in our quest to understand the human brain and how it functions but it is still not enough to answer all our questions. Some of the best sources of information might be the most unlikely ones for as individual we are as our fingerprints, so does the manifestation of the disease and the best defense is access to the latest news and developments. Technology has greatly improved our access to information, through our computers, mobiles and portable computers we have with us each and everyday. On the road, we can get the latest information on diseases other news by simply logging into our preferred sites handing us information where ever, whenever you need it. You get the latest news about just about anything, even as you wait in line for the bus. Need the latest news on just about anything anywhere, then the internet is the place to go, so log on and start searching.

Will Life Be Worth Living in 2000 AD?

Ok, so this isn’t exactly what you’d call news, but I just had to share this amusing article written in 1961.

Some things slightly ring true, the bit where kids learn from TV (not entirely, but which parent hasn’t bought and educational DVD, CD rom or system like Leapfrog?), indoor swimming pools and tv telephones, juice powders (Tang), tablets for energy and overall healthier people (the eco-friendly organic craze worldwide).

But largely, the article proves to me that scientists really can’t predict the future after all, or we would have floating roofs on our houses by now!

The article was the the July 22 issue of Weekend Magazine (printed where? I have no idea, I doubt it still exists) found on the web in the Pixelmatic website.

Will Life Be Worth Living in 2000 AD?

What sort of life will you be living 39 years from now? Scientists have looked into the future and they can tell you.

It looks as if everything will be so easy that people will probably die from sheer boredom.

You will be whisked around in monorail vehicles at 200 miles an hour and you will think nothing of taking a fortnight’s holiday in outer space.

Your house will probably have air walls, and a floating roof, adjustable to the angle of the sun.

Doors will open automatically, and clothing will be put away by remote control. The heating and cooling systems will be built into the furniture and rugs.

You’ll have a home control room – an electronics centre, where messages will be recorded when you’re away from home. This will play back when you return, and also give you up-to-the minute world news, and transcribe your latest mail.

You’ll have wall-to-wall global TV, an indoor swimming pool, TV-telephones and room-to-room TV. Press a button and you can change the décor of a room.

The status symbol of the year 2000 will be the home computer help, which will help mother tend the children, cook the meals and issue reminders of appointments.

Cooking will be in solar ovens with microwave controls. Garbage will be refrigerated, and pressed into fertiliser pellets.

Food won’t be very different from 1961, but there will be a few new dishes – instant bread, sugar made from sawdust, foodless foods (minus nutritional properties), juice powders and synthetic tea and cocoa. Energy will come in tablet form.

At work, Dad will operate on a 24 hour week. The office will be air-conditioned with stimulating scents and extra oxygen – to give a physical and psychological lift.

Mail and newspapers will be reproduced instantly anywhere in the world by facsimile.

There will be machines doing the work of clerks, shorthand writers and translators. Machines will “talk” to each other.

It will be the age of press-button transportation. Rocket belts will increase a man’s stride to 30 feet, and bus-type helicopters will travel along crowded air skyways. There will be moving plastic-covered pavements, individual hoppicopters, and 200 m.p.h. monorail trains operating in all large cities.

The family car will be soundless, vibrationless and self-propelled thermostatically. The engine will be smaller than a typewriter. Cars will travel overland on an 18 inch air cushion.

Railways will have one central dispatcher, who will control a whole nation’s traffic. Jet trains will be guided by electronic brains.

In commercial transportation, there will be travel at 1000 m.p.h. at a penny a mile. Hypersonic passenger planes, using solid fuels, will reach any part of the world in an hour.

By the year 2020, five per cent of the world’s population will have emigrated into space. Many will have visited the moon and beyond.

Our children will learn from TV, recorders and teaching machines. They will get pills to make them learn faster. We shall be healthier, too. There will be no common colds, cancer, tooth decay or mental illness.

Medically induced growth of amputated limbs will be possible. Rejuvenation will be in the middle stages of research, and people will live, healthily, to 85 or 100.

There’s a lot more besides to make H.G. Wells and George Orwell sound like they’re getting left behind.

And this isn’t science fiction. It’s science fact – futuristic ideas, conceived by imaginative young men, whose crazy-sounding schemes have got the nod from the scientists.

It’s the way they think the world will live in the next century – if there’s any world left!