Jury Finding Google Liable for Oracle’s Java copyr...

On Monday, a federal District Court in San Francisco found Google liable for copyright infringement in its use of Java in Android, a programming platform that Oracle Corp. bought two years ago.

Oracle is seeking up to $1billion in damages on copyright claims.

The jury also found that Google infringed on Oracle's copyright on nine lines of Java code that is in Android.

Google could pay from $200-$150,000 for those damaged, according to sources.

Oracle Corp. is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing computer hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems. 

Google Announced Its New Drive Cloud Service

On Tuesday, Google announced officially its new Google Drive cloud service, a typical cloud service, allowing to users to store videos, photos, documents, PDFs, and other types of files.  

According to Google spokeswoman, Google Drive will be available for some user today and it will roll out worldwide in the next few weeks. 

Users will now be able to upload pictures or spreadsheets to Google Drive and share them with a link, instead of sending a bulky file. They can also access their files from an app available on Android phones and tablets. A version for Apple's (AAPL) iOS is in the works, as well, according to sources. 

“Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience,” Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome and Apps for Google, wrote in a blog post. 

“You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you'll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we're working with many third-party developers so you can do things like send faxes, edit videos and create website mockups directly from Drive.”

Facebook will buy Instagram for $1bln

Facebook, the biggest social network, announced Monday that it will buy the Instagram mobile photo-sharing application for about $1 billion in cash and stock. 

“I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. 

“Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.” 

According to sources, Instagram was founded in 2010 by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom and became the most popular free photo sharing application on the iPhone. Instagram released a version of its application for Google’s Android operating system last week. 

Instagram lets users take pictures with smartphones, retouch them with borders and filters, and then post the images on social networks.  

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” said Zuckerberg. 

“But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many ...

Apple Loses ITC Case Against Motorola

Apple continues to lose its legal battle against Android. After losing Germany, Australia, The Netherlands the company has now lost on the home turf. The United States ITC [International Trade Commission] issued a preliminary ruling on Friday stating that Motorola Mobility smartphones do not infringe three Apple patents.

"We are pleased with today’s favorable outcome for Motorola Mobility," said Scott Offer, senior vice president and general counsel of Motorola Mobility. "Motorola Mobility has worked hard over the years to develop technology and build an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio. We are proud to leverage this broad and deep portfolio to create differentiated innovations that enhance the user experience."

Anti-Android bloggers who have been trying to spread the FUD against Android that Google's Motorola acquisition won't help Android defend against Apple's attacks need to look at new ways to spin their stories against Android.

The defeat of Apple on legal grounds shows why Microsoft is using bogus methods to pretend as if they are making money from Android by signing cross licensing deals with Android players. I believe that Microsoft is very much aware of its extremely weak position in mobile patents that is the reason why it signs ...

10 ways to measure social media for business

Is your business a social business? Companies that are making good use of social media should take the next step and measure the progress of their social media programs and campaigns. How do you know if you're succeeding if you don't have the numbers?

Today we'll look at 10 ways that metrics can offer visibility into your business's performance. You won't want to chart all of these, but tracking a few well-chosen metrics -- and incorporating the learnings into your business processes -- can contribute to the bottom line.

 Customer engagement

1. Engagement can take place offline and online, on your site, on your social networks and in real-world face-to-face events. By letting customers participate in conversations about your brand, you can improve your business, your products and your levels of service. Ultimately, customer engagement is key to improving satisfaction and loyalty rates and revenue.

Metrics to track could include:

Number of followers on Twitter, Facebook, et al. Number of retweets on Twitter Number of comments per blog post Number of external widgets embedded Invaluable assets as redistributors of content Customer reviews and ratings

Note: Such customer interaction can be invaluable in fostering a culture of community and in guiding product development. In ...

Will Online Television and Video Sharing Really Ch...

Connected TV is a new technology that is starting to get popular. But will it really bring any changes to TV as we know it? 

In the next few years, it is expected that online integration with television sets will advance at a very rapid pace. Already, devices such as Google TV and Apple TV are making use of remote controltechnology to let viewers watch online videos, as well as watch video files stored on other devices at home, such as on a main desktop PC. Many technology experts are wondering how this is going to change the way people watch television as well as the programming they watch.

According to a recent report published by ZDNet, online television is at its starting point and there is still an element of chaos in the industry. Consumers are beginning to realize its value and companies are now bringing out products that will make it easier to make TV more interactive. Many solutions have already been proposed. Some are simple remote control software that would let users stream live TV in their home and watch TV programming on any connected device, such as a computer or mobile device. ...

Google, Facebook Ordered By Indian Court To Remove...

India's acting telecom minister, Kapil Sibal was the victim over Twitter & Facebook when he demanded a need of censorship over the internet in our country. Everyone mocked out at him for messing with their only freedom of expression over the web. 

In response, on 22nd Dec a local court in New Delhi has ordered at least 22 social media websites, including Google, Facebook and Yahoo, to delete "inflammatory" images of religious figures from their network. This statement from civil judge Mukesh Kumar explains: "Contents which are uploaded by some miscreants through these social media sites are highly unacceptable and are inflammatory and derogatory which cannot be accepted by any religion." 
This move to censor web content is practically impossible as even Kapil Sibal himself agreed on this while he also said," This is business in progress. We will evolve a consensus and, if the sites still don’t accept it, then we will have to do something about it [as] this kind of content should not be in the public arena." 
Earlier this month both Google and Facebook had given out public statements in response to this issue but they agreed upon doing ...

Google Rocks Latest Holiday Doodle

As it's done in years past, Google's put a bit of holiday cheer on its usually stark white search page.

The new design went live today ahead of Christmas. The doodle changes colors and plays "Jingle Bells" after users light up each note with their mouse. Clicking on the page itself does a search for "happy holidays."

The design itself is strongly reminiscent of the glowing Lite-Brite toys, which light up in various colors after being poked through thick, black construction paper. Once animated it looks like plain old holiday lights.

Last year's doodle was a bit more abstract, with a smattering of paintings that could be hovered over to enlarge. Together they spelled out Google, though at first glance looked more like a funky art exhibit. This time around, it's a fixture of easily identifiable holiday symbology, with snowflakes, Santa Claus, bells, snowman, candle, and wrapped present.

Source : http://urbanchristiannews.com

 

Google Adds New Updates to Google+ Social Network

Google on Monday added a few updates to its Google+ social network, including a more detailed notifications bar, redesigned photo viewing, and the ability to hide or highlight certain people.

"Some of these were on nearly everyone's wishlist ... and some we hope will be welcome surprises," Google said in a blog post.

Up first is the option to "pump up (or down) the volume" on the frequency with which you see certain peoples' updates. Using a slider tool atop the stream for a particular Circle, you can opt to see more or less from a Circle so you don't miss important updates. If people in your "Work" Circle tend to post constantly, possibly causing you to miss some posts from the "Family" Circle, you can opt to hear less from work folks and more from family.

Facebook has a similar option; click the drop-down arrow to the right of a certain update on your newsfeed and Facebook will allow you to select all updates, most updates, or only important updates from that person.

Next up for Google+, though, is more useful notifications. The social network has a red notifications button atop your page when you ...

Google Announces Chrome-Only Games

In another move to make Chrome the required and only browser that runs certain Web content, Google yesterday announced some new games that would run only in Chrome, using the browser's Native Client (NaCl) capability.

With Chrome 14, Google added a new Chrome-only feature that allows the browser to run applications programmed in hardcore languages like C and C++ as opposed to the simpler JavaScript Web programming language, which is also removed by a layer from the underlying machine through an interpreter. Programs written in C and C++ are compiled for use only on a specific platform, such as Windows or Mac OS X, so game developers have typically used these for maximum responsiveness and hardware compatibility.

Yesterday, Google announced on its Chromium blog that game developer partners Square Enix, Unity Technologies, and Bungie have begun developing for the technology. A Square Enix press release states that the company and Google "share a similar vision for bringing immersive applications to the Web within the browser." Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada said, "Native Client enables the same consumer experience in the browser as in a native application. With the power of this technology, Square Enix ...