technobiru: April 2014

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Type colon my keyboard?

I've tried making my robot print out colons but I just can't seem to.

I tried doing

Java Code:



            robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_COLON);

and

Java Code:



            robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);  
            robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SEMICOLON);

and neither seem to work, in fact I can't seem to get any symbols typed out (I don't want to copy to clipboard and paste out) (yes, I do keyRelease as well -> I've tried a bunch of stuff)

Samsung: 'We Don't Think We Owe Apple a Nickel'

Technobiru :

Samsung said it doesn't believe it owes Apple a nickel and that there will be dancing in the streets of Cupertino if the jury awards them even $100 million, during closing arguments in the Apple vs. Samsung trial.

Apple told the jury that anything short of a massive award for damages would validate Samsung's 'illegal strategy' to copy the features of the iPhone, reports the WSJ. Apple is seeking $2.2 billion in damages from Samsung.

“We don’t think we owe Apple a nickel,” said John Quinn, a Samsung lawyer. “They’ll be dancing in the streets of Cupertino if you give them $100 million.”

This is the second Apple vs. Samsung trial. Apple won the first trial and Samsung was ordered to pay them $1 billion in damages. The jury award in that case was adjusted down slightly to $992 million.

Apple is accusing Samsung of infringing on five utility patents that cover narrow software features such as auto-correct, slide to unlock, universal search, and others. Samsung is also counter-suing Apple for two utility patents that cover wireless video transmission and a method for organizing digital photos.

In his closing arguments, Apple lawyer Harold McElhinny said the iPhone was a revolutionary product and it caught the industry off-guard.

“Where was Samsung before the iPhone? You know the answer to that one. They didn’t even have a smartphone,” said McElhinny. He also noted that Samsung was not 'brave enough' to have its executives fly in from South Korea for cross-examination.

McElhinny told jurors that legal action was a last resort because Samsung refused to stop copying the iPhone even after being warned to stop. “Samsung was committed with trying to get away from patent infringement,” he said. “Apple simply can not walk away from its inventions.” McElhinny also told the jury that “We’re counting on you for justice.”

This time around Samsung brought Google into the mix to help its defense. “We’re not pointing the finger at Google,” said Samsung lawyer Bill Price. “We’re saying they independently developed these features, and they don’t infringe.”

Notably, a lawyer for Google testified recently that the company has agreed to take over defense of some of the claims in the case and compensate Samsung should it lose on those claims.

The jury has begun deliberations, you can follow iClarified on Twitter , Facebook , Google+ , or RSS to find out the verdict.

Im happy I now registered

All times are GMT +2. The time now is 12:13 AM.

I am the new one

All times are GMT +2. The time now is 12:13 AM.

Sprint is Preparing a Bid to Acquire T-Mobile

Technobiru :

Sprint is reportedly preparing a bid to acquire T-Mobile U.S. and has already met with banks to make debt arrangements, reports Bloomberg.

Sprint Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer and Treasurer Greg Block met with six banks to ensure the lenders would be ready with financing structures when Sprint decides to pursue a takeover, said three of the people, asking not to named because the discussions are private. Masayoshi Son, chief executive officer of SoftBank Corp. (9984), which owns about 80 percent of Sprint, is expected to make a formal bid in June or July, one of the people said.

Regulators have expressed concerns about the deal; however, Son and his team are building an argument that they hope will convince the FCC and DOJ to allow the acquisition.

How Sprint will pay for the deal is still being debated. The company would also have to take on the $8.7 billion in debt amassed by T-Mobile. Deutsche Telekom AG, who owns 67% of T-Mobile, reportedly wants as much cash as possible in the deal.

It's still unclear who would run the company; however, current T-Mobile CEO John Legere is said to be the learning candidate.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo: A ‘whisper mode’ would encourage friends to privately discuss public conversations

Technobiru :

Twitter is looking to encourage more private discussions on its service. CEO Dick Costolo would like to have a “whisper mode” that allows users to take public conversations and discuss them solely with friends, according to a video interview with Bloomberg.

While the social network is public-first, meaning content is shared with everyone by default (unlike Facebook, where friends are the default), it does have a direct message (DM) feature for one-on-one chats. This potential new feature isn’t likely to replace that, but rather allow users to pick a tweet or set of tweets and use them as a jumping-off point to start a DM conversation with one of their followers.

Interviewer Emily Chang got the CEO talking by asking about messaging apps, and noting that Costolo has previous discussed enhancing the ability to move between public and private conversations. He then explained his vision as follows (at 8:28):

So when I talk about direct messaging within the Twitter application and the work we’ll do improve it, what I’m talking about is there are frequently public conversations on Twitter, and Twitter is entirely public conversation. It’s real time, what’s happening right now, public and conversational.

There are frequently public conversations that you would like to grab hold of and take into whisper mode with a friend and say, hey, this thing has happened. Look what these people are talking about. What do you think about this, with a friend or more than one friend. So being able to move fluidly between that public conversation and the private conversation is something we’ll make simpler.

What’s also interesting is that Costolo says “more than one friend.” While DMs have long supported one-to-one conversations, there has been much speculation that Twitter will soon enable group chats.

Chang also asked how much product experimentation Twitter is doing on a daily basis? Here’s Costolo’s answer (at 4:50):

In our latest iOS or Android apps, for example, there are well over 100 experiments running in each of those apps. So hundreds.

And the beauty of that framework that we’ve worked on over the past 18, 24 months now is the speed with which it allows to run more and more experiments and quickly get data from those experiments that we can compare to a control group and understand whether the experiment’s working or not. So the faster that we can move on those kinds of things, the faster we can execute change in the products in service to user growth

Depending on how far along in development this “whisper mode” is, some Twitter users may already be seeing it in their app. Again, it probably won’t be called that, but we wouldn’t be surprised if such a feature shows up on mobile first, and only to a select number of users.

Top Image Credit: Andrew Burton / Getty Images