Patent Pools, Good for Technology Patents

      It is not strange int his murky world of technology to hear of patent law suits. A recent ans really nasty fight over patents was between Samsung and Apple. I am sure you all remember it like it happened a second ago. Yes patents are important to the survival of every tech company but you must be honest with me that. The details of the Samsung v Apple trial showed how silly and rotten the patent system has gotten. In midst of this it is really nice to here of companies getting involved in patent pools

Wikipedia definition

“In patent law, a patent pool is a consortium of at least two companies agreeing to cross-license patents relating to a particular technology. The creation of a patent pool can save patentees and licensees time and money, and, in case of blocking patents, it may also be the only reasonable method for making the invention available to the public.” from Wikipedia

I was reading Cnet news this morning and I saw this

“A group of wireless-industry companies -- including AT&T, Clearwire, and HP -- have agreed to a patent pool that could mean fewer lawsuits over the use of LTE technology, Via Licensing Corporation announced today. ” from Cnet News

This kind of stuff makes me happy. Finally some truly positive news in the world of technology patents.

Should Microsoft create its own PC?

Well today I have another question that I will like to answer here on my blog

Q: Should Microsoft create its own PC?

A: Why not?

Its really simple, Microsoft for years has suffered from the image that PC's aren’t reliable due to various PC manufacturers and their varying standards. Giving the Windows operating system a very bad look. On the other hand its main rival Apple, has had the luxury of putting the right hardware on their operating system. This strategy in the long run has turned out to be a good deal for Apple. The only down side is that apples desktop operating system is still not widely available. Apple has gained a lot of market share due to the fact that they are able to control the quality of their product as a whole ie software and hardware.

Microsoft's strategy helped them to gain market share much quicker than apple. Microsoft is now suffering because it cant do that much in terms of quality control. Creating their own phones is definitely a good strategy if you ask me. It gives Microsoft the chance to set standard from which other manufacturers can follow. It also give people who like windows but don’t want crappy hardware to get the best of both worlds. If Microsoft can succeed in creating the perfect hardware and software mix users will have confidence in Microsoft which will translate into sales and its resulting profit.

So YES, it is not a bad idea at all.

Apple Deserves Negative Media Over Maps Inaccuracy

               I am sure most of you are fully aware about the Apple iPhone5 debacle. Its been going on for some days now, from the day the iPhone5 started going on sale. Apple has had some embarrassing moments with their new maps app. It is so un-Apple like. It has turned out to be the kind of app that Apple will be happy to kick out of their app store. Amidst all this noise about Apple's new flop, a question that some tech enthusiasts have asked is if Apple deserve be treated the way they have by the media for this embarrassing mistake.

image from http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com

Well to be fair a lot of tech journalist have seized the opportunity write and Apple hasn’t gone free like they have done in the past. But to answer the question, YES, I think they thoroughly deserve the treatment they are getting.

When you happen to be the largest company in the world by market capitalization and when you have more than $70 billion in cold cash to do all the R&D you need, you and only you are to blame when you bring out a product that isn’t even ready for a beta release onto the market and call it the most powerful maps app in the world. They really got caught up in their own marketing and they managed to convince themselves that they had the Midas touch. When you openly talk about how better you are than your competition and call them out by name you better ensure you have the results to continue to back that claim. If Apple were the kind of company that went about their business without talking about their competitors in the open and blowing their own horn with such arrogance, most people will sympathize with them. But you can agree with me that for the past decade we have continued to here so much about how everything Apple product is perfect. Its one thing if we were getting this only from Apple fan boys, but Apple its self kept on going on and on about how perfect they were.

Apple, if you are listening, get this in your heads. You are not that f*****g good.

You have really done a great job in the past decade of taking things that others have done and taking it in a direction where it really became relevant, but just cool it down and take your time, be humble and continue to make great products. One more thing, Apple stop talking about how good you are and let your products do the talking.

PS: I do not hate Apple. I admire them, I really do. Their hard work has inspired the way I approach life and I wish they could continue doing well. But when I see something I don’t like I am going to talk about it.

Todays Bit of Wisdom

"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future."

John F. Kennedy

image by Salvatore Vuono

Todays Bit of Wisdom

"those who stand for nothing fall for anything"

Alexander Hamilton 

image by Salvatore Vuono

Instagram hasmore daily users than Twitter

Image © Mashable.com

Yes its true. I didn't make up the table you are seeing right now. I am one of those people who like Twitter much more than Facebook. I also trust Twitter more than any another social networking platform. I used to be a little worried about Twitters position on the social media landscape, but now I am really really worried. It seems a little too early to say this but twitter better get their act together or they could slowly drift into the world of MySpace. Instagram now has more daily users than Twitter.

These figures from Comscore don't look good for twitter which has been around longer than Instagram. they should be ahead in the mobile apps section of social networking. This might explain Dick Costolo's recent appearances on TV shows like the Charlie Rose talk show. I hope they have something up their sleeves.

My thoughts on the iPhone5 so far

Ok, so the famous and most sought after smart phone is now out. I know this blog post about the iPhone should have come earlier but I think now that the dust is settling we can all see why in my last post about the iPhone I was so critical about this Californian Tech giant(Apple). It was obvious that people were not going to be wowed by apples new offering, the iPhone5. Don’t get me wrong it would be successful considering Apple's huge following but it will definitely not be the best thing that they have ever made although they boldly proclaimed the iPhone 5 was the biggest thing to happen to the iPhone since the iPhone.

© Apple.Inc

That proclamation sounded quite silly considering the fact that the improvement they were bringing to the iphone5 were things that we had already seen in other phones i.e. Android phones.

Front View of the iPhone5:  © Apple.Inc

It seems like every day we hear new complaints about the iPhone5, something that was unheard off when it came to Apple. It just seemed like apple will never go wrong but it is becoming apparent that there is something going wrong with Apple looking at the current trend of releasing apps that are not ready for launch (maps) and having defects and scratches on the device.

I am hoping they haven’t let their recent success get into their heads, because if that is the case it will be very unfortunate. With competitors like Samsung and Nokia breathing down their necks in-terms of style and quality Apple better wake-up or they will be the next RIM (I have nothing against RIM I just wish them the best).

The way Apple handles their current problems will determine whether their new yet to be launched iPad mini, will take off well (personally I think it would, Apple has an ever growing loyal following ). Let’s wait and see what this tech giant will do.