U.S. Supreme Court to Begin Reviewing Samsung & Apple’s Design Patent Disputes

Starting today, the top court in the United States will start hearing arguments from both Apple and Samsung over design patent allegations. This case has been going on for years and has seen appeal after appeal to get us to where we are this week. Interestingly enough, this is the first design patent case that the U.S. Supreme Court has had to get involved in in over 120 years (which involved carpets and rugs).

Back in May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington agreed with the 2012 verdict, but overturned the liability of Samsung for the trademark infringement. So at the end of the day, it's all about how much Apple should be owed. Apple feels that Samsung should have to pay their total profits on an infringing "article of manufacture." Samsung says that since design patents aren't for the entire phone, they shouldn't have to pay for all of it.

Samsung uses an example of a cup holder for a car. If a company infringed on the design patent of a cup holder, that company shouldn't have to pay its entire profits on a car. Since it's just a component of the car, they feel the damages should be pared back. Court papers already show that Apple agrees the an article of manufacture might only be a component of the product. But Apple is arguing that in this case, they have evidence to prove it is the entire phone that is is sold by Samsung.

Design patents can be tricky and Apple has been lobbying fashion names like Calvin Klein and Alexander Wang to get behind them on this case. The ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court is said to be due before the end of June and it will be a major precedence for both parties and future design patent disputes for years to come.

Source: Reuters

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Dates Available for Google Code-in 2016 and Google Summer of Code 2017

Google does a number of things for the open source community. Along with contributing open source code, they also hold a number of events and contests that benefit its developers. Two of their most popular open source events are Google Code-in, and the Google Summer of Code. Google has already released some statistics for Google Summer of Code 2016, and they hope to top that next year.

The Google Summer of Code event is for university students from around the world. Google brings these students together and lets them work on various open source projects that interest them. Mentors are provided for the students and this enables them to practice their skills along with offering experience to work on such projects. The students can even earn a stipend once they have completed the project they were working on.

Google has just announced the Google Summer of Code (also known as GSoC) will begin on March 20th. Those who are interested in participating can start turning in their applications on January 19th. Google has also announced the dates for their Google Code-in 2016 event, and this will take place on November 28th. This marks the 7th consecutive year that Google has offered this to 13 – 17 year-old kids.

Google's Code-in event gives younger students a chance to find out if open source development is really for them. Not only will students get to learn about the industry, but they also get hands-on experience that teaches them about a number of related tasks. Google starts from scratch and teaches students what open source is, how it's used, and how to contribute. They then offer various tasks to show them what it's like to write and refactor code, how to create documentation for the code, QA testing, and researching along with designing a user interface for the project.

Source: Google Open Source Blog

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Samsung to Permanently Discontinue Production and Sales of Galaxy Note 7

It's been a rough ride for Samsung in the second half of 2016. After news emerged that Samsung would be pausing the production of the Note 7, newer developments kill off all hopes of the "temporary halt" ever transitioning back to full scale production.

For starters, yet another Galaxy Note 7 burned up, this time in New Zealand. The source article does not immediately mention whether this was part of the "safe" replacement batch, but seeing the phone was purchased and returned back to New Zealand carrier Spark, the device is likely to be of the safe batch based on previous Samsung directives for replacements.

Samsung was put on serious damage control with the number of reports rising every day, despite their attempted recall and safe unit replacements. Oculus even went on to disable the Galaxy Note 7 from making use of the Gear VR headset "until further notice". This move is likely to infuriate a lot of Note 7 customers, many of who likely purchased the Note 7 and Gear VR for experiencing virtual reality. But seeing that this is a potentially hazardous situation that can cause bodily harm (particularly given VR can overheat devices), we fully support Oculus's decision.

Of course, with all of this happening, the fate of the Note 7 was sealed even before the official announcement. There was no way the Note 7 would have regained the lost market share and reputation. So, announcing the inevitable by filing in with South Korean regulators, Samsung has permanently discontinued the production and sales for the Galaxy Note 7.

Taking our customer's safety as our highest priority, we have decided to halt sales and production of the Galaxy Note 7

Samsung also announced that it will ask all telecom carriers and retailers to stop sales and exchanges of the device. All consumers were advised to power down and stop using the Note 7, irrespective of the "safe" status of the phone. Samsung is also sending out Note 7 "return kits", which consist of insulated boxes and safety gloves, along with strict instructions to ship via Ground only.

The bad news does not end here though for Samsung. Samsung's stock fell 8% in Seoul on Tuesday, which wiped out $17 Billion of Samsung Electronic's market value. This was before the termination news was announced, and after the news, the stock dropped further in London with as much as a 9.9% slide down. The device recall is also predicted to cost the company another $17 Billion thanks to lost sales of up to 19 Million phones that the Note 7 was expected to generate during its product cycle. This figure is a significant rise from the earlier predictions of $5 Billion in missed sales and recall costs that were estimated during the first recall. Obviously, the long term costs in terms of loss of reputation and brand is not estimable at this stage.

With all of this happening, there is a very good chance that the "Note" branding would be killed off. It is sad to see the product line that was once referred to as the "King of Phablets" die such an unceremonious death.

What are your thoughts on Samsung permanently killing off the Note 7? Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments below!

 

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Samsung Sent us a “Note 7 Return Kit” with a Thermally-Insulated Box and Safety Gloves

Samsung is apparently sending out packaging for returning Galaxy Note 7 devices, and we received one of these "Return Kits" at our XDA office. The contents and instructions highlight the extents to which Samsung is going to ensure the safety of their customers.

The Return Kit comes with various boxes, including a thermally-insulated box for the device and safety gloves for handling the procedure. The instructions are precise and also we've learned this should only travel through ground shipping. We've attached the documents below, plus a video of the kit for your viewing pleasure.

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Humble Mobile Bundle 21 Includes Goat Simulator, _PRISM and More

The team behind Humble Bundle has just announced the 21st mobile bundle, and it comes with a number of Android games that you can get for a low price. As with all of the Humble Bundles lately, this month's offering is broken up in the three different tiers. So depending on which games you want, you could pay as little as $1, or as much as you'd like. As usual, portions of the revenue from this bundle goes toward charity.

The least expensive tier is $1, and for this occasion you get three different games for Android. First up is Westport Independent and this is a game about censorship, corruption and newspapers. The second game offered in the $1 tier is _PRISM and this is a puzzle solving game with 13 levels that can take around an hour to complete. Lastly, you will receive a copy of Sage Solitaire, a new solitaire variant that combines some poker elements into its gameplay.

For the second tier of the Humble Mobile Bundle 21, you will need to pay more than the average (which is currently at $5.12 as of writing this). There's only two games listed here as of right now, but in a week they will reveal some more games that will be added. The first game offered in this tier is Ghosts of Memories and this is another puzzle game that has you trying to free a woman trapped in crystal. The other game is Door Kickers, which is a real-time strategy game that has  you controlling a SWAT team.

The third and final tier of this bundle will cost you $6, and it comes with two different games. Unlike the second tier, there won't be any additional games added to this tier. The first game under this tier is Twofold Inc., and this is another puzzle game that has you unraveling tiles and matching them together so you can clear them away. The other game in this $6 tier is Goat Simulator, a silly physics simulator that has you controlling a goat and playing around in a sandbox environment.

Source:Humble Bundle

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Google Assistant Has Been Ported To The Nexus 6P

As expected, after the Pixel's system images leaked it didn't take long for users to find a way of porting Google Assistant to other devices; Simply altering your build.prop and installing the latest Google App (Velvet) is sufficient on the Nexus 6P.

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Unoffical CyanogenMod 13 Available for Huawei P9 Plus

An experimental version of CyanogenMod 13 is now available for the Huawei P9 Plus. Be warned though, there are plenty of bugs, so make backups before you try this out!

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