Archive for 'General'

In what seems to be an never ending saga of law suits, claims, and stolen patents between the likes of Nokia, and Apple, one has to wonder how much all of these proceedings cost, and if these costs are then past onto us, the consumer by some way of device/service prices. Bloomberg has reported, the latest Patent fight between Nokia, and Germany Intellectual company, IPCom, has ended Nokia’s way this time round.

IPCom, which acquires patents and licenses them to manufacturers, went against the European “trend” for companies to “put up their cases in time for them to be dealt with fairly,” the Court of Appeal ruled today in·London, upholding a January 2010 decision that the patents are invalid.

“What IPCom seeks to do here is quite contrary to that trend, as well as being an abuse of process,” Justice Robin Jacob said in the ruling. “The message is: ‘put up in time, or shut up.’”

The two companies are involved in patent litigation throughout·Europe as IPCom seeks royalties from a portfolio of mobile-technology patents it acquired in 2007 from·Robert Bosch GmbH, the world’s largest automotive supplier. IPCom acquired the patents after Bosch’s negotiations to license them to Nokia broke down in 2003, according to the judgment.

Alistair Hammond, a spokesman for Pullach, Germany-based IPCom, declined to comment on the ruling.

“This was an important decision against two of IPCom’s alleged strongest patents,” Mark Durrant, a spokesman for Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, said in an e-mail. “IPCom’s assertions of the strength and value of its portfolio are not surviving the test of litigation.”

Full article can be found over at Bloomberg

PDF Of previous Unsuccessful Nokia claim from 2009 can be found here.

Following on from my article covering a story in Sweden where a local man was charged with importing fake Nokia handsets with the intent on reselling as genuine, here is another story, this time, in Africa, and how Nokia’s ongoing anti-counterfeit programme has unveiled the massive cost cloned Nokia devices have locally on both, economy, and taxation. As many of you may already know, I personally hate counterfeiting with a passion, especially when it comes to Nokia cloned handsets.

Mr. Abdulla Hasayen, Brand Protection Manager for Middle East & Africa, said high penetration of fake devices is negatively impacting on performance of operator networks and customer satisfaction, lowering operator profits and government tax income. He was speaking when he conducted training for officials from the Weights & Measures Department, the Kenya Bureau of Standards and the Anti-Counterfeit Agency. The training, which was attended by over 25 officials from the government departments, is a part of Nokia’s ongoing anti-counterfeit programme.

“Fake devices are imported illegally without import duties or VAT paid. This creates a tax loss of between KES2.8bn and KES3.2bn (USD35-40m) annually for an average African country. Counterfeits are also undermining attractiveness of local economies because international companies direct their investments elsewhere to countries which can protect their intellectual property,”

Counterfeiting is the illegal use of intellectual property rights including trademarks, patents, designs and copyrights. Globally, the spread of counterfeit products has increased in recent years due to the transfer of technology, ease of trade and export transactions through the internet, in addition to the recent economic crises.

“As a global company, Nokia takes a leadership position in offering genuine and quality products and partners with a broad network of organizations including the Coalition of Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) and International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC). We continue to advocate for legislation, regulation and enforcement of anti-counterfeit policies to protect the broader industry because we believe companies conducting genuine business should be supported in their operations,” said Mr Kenneth Oyolla, General Manager, Nokia, East and Southern Africa.

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Here’s another of my guest posts for Nokia Push, and in this I detail the five sensors.  Now having actual experience with the various Push Snowboarding sensors, wearing them, and seeing the work that goes into actually kitting out someone with them, the Nokia Push team created a kind of pit stop set up, for each snowboard rider to come in and get fitted with the kit.

This process alone was very well organised and executed, even the different N8 devices were given various names so they would not get mixed up.  As you can imagine, this would of been a problem otherwise. I was impressed!

The heart sensor itself is housed in a wearable vest, and the contacts which capture data from the rider’s chest were sprayed with a solution once fitted to ensure the sensor gets good, solid reliable data of the rider’s heart during the run.

The sensors that capture the data from the riders toe and heel pressures are put into the insole of the rider’s boots. This process took a little time, as snowboarder’s boots are very solid things,and having to remove them to insert an was needed for each of the riders.

The cable from these sensors then runs around 8 inches to the sensor box which has a clip on it, so it be can securely attached to the rider’s boot exterior, and then the rider can cover, and protect the sensor even further than its already solid weather proofing by concealing it under his or hers waterproof trousers inner lining.

Another sensor I wore was one on my arm. The sensor is fitted in a kind of nylon elastic band. You have to put your hand through the band, then slide it into position just below your elbow.

This sensor is called the ‘Rush’ sensor, which measures Galvanic Skin Response, and collects some interesting data from the riders. It’s named ‘Rush’ because this sensor can capture data about how the rider’s feeling about certain parts of their run, jumps, and even tricks.

Speed: There were several tests done in order to measure speed prior to heading out to Laax, one of which was wind speed, however, after further tests it was the N8’s GPS that proved to be the most reliable and accurate method of capturing the speed data of the snowboarder. Check out R+D Episode 1: Speed for more on that.

The final sensor is the ‘orientation’ sensor box, which is mounted on the board – It’s a remarkably small box that measures the rotation of the snowboard during a run. And all of the individual data streams are captured through the sensors and then streamed via Bluetooth direct to the Nokia N8, where they’re processed! More on the actual Snowboarding application on the N8 coming soon!

It’s my second day here at the European Snowboarding Open in Laax, Switzerland with Nokia Push and their Research and Development team, and as I type this I’m sat in glorious sunshine, with the view you can see below.

What I will be covering in this post is my experiences from yesterday’s time on the slopes with a snowboard. This was my very first time on a snowboard on real snow, having only experienced a couple of hours on an artificial slope back in the UK several years ago.

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The Handheld Blog has been quick on the uptake of this newly release Beta of the Symbian^3 Socially client, and gone ahead, and installed it on their Nokia N8, and have noticed the client is now much better than its previously release. The new build brings the following improvements to version 3.0b Beta. If you decide to give this Beta a try, please help the team iron out any final bug, or let the team know any suggestions you may have but following the link below screenshots.

http://getsatisfaction.com/socially/topics/releasing_socially_v3_0_beta_major_upgrade

(a) a completely new and rewritten engine to deliver faster performance

(b) removing the many UE quirks that have been confusing and frustrating our users

(c) building optimized user experience separately for v3 and v5 handsets(d) improved Social Notifications – 5 mins refresh & customization by social network

No new social features have been added in this version. Also, only Facebook & Twitter are active in this beta release.

A stable version of V3.0 is predicted to be released soon, bringing back the LinkedIn, and foursquare functionality to the client which are not active in this Beta.

After arriving in Laax last night after a couple of flights, and a shuttle to my apartment, I had no time to pack as I arrived mid evening time, but no problems. Matt from Nokia Push welcomed me there, and got a couple of beers in, and we sat down at our booked table, ready for some food.  

We were then joined by the remaining members of Nokia Push and the Research & Development team that have been working so hard on these amazing sensor modules and tech. Let me tell you, the chemistry, passion and creativeness these guys have for what they do is nothing short of amazing, and it’s all these ingredients that make this project so much fun.

With any Alpha and Beta testing, such as this trip to Laax I will be covering, things can go wrong, and what I love about how the Nokia Push team work is, if and when something does go wrong, it’s a lesson learned, but at the same time, the guys crunch their code, and find a solution as a team. This is the main important observation I noticed with the team, plus they are really nice guys too.

Today i have been kitted out with a few of these sensors before strapping my feet to a snowboard and having some fun on the slopes, I will detail my experiences on the slopes in my next post here. The sensors I wore today were one sensor in each boot, these are to collect downward force data from your heel, and toe pressure. I also had a sensor strapped to my left arm, this one was to collect data of my skin’s moisture, and much more.  

Finally the final sensor I had to wear was a special body vest which was quite tight fitting, and it needed to be because in the chest of the vest there were sensors which collect a lot of data about my heart rate, but more importantly, where, and when my heart rate changed. 

I will close for now, as it’s time for lunch here, stay tuned for more later today.!

In just six hours time I will be jetting off to Switzerland where I will be meeting up with the Nokia Push Snowboarding team, and their R&D team for the Alpha tests of thier Sensor boxes, and talking of these sensor boxes, I have the Nokia Push first video of five in total detailing each of the sensors functionalities, and what data they collect specifically. The second video will be posted later today, and then the following three each day in turn later too.

The first video details a snowboarders Speed. Enjoy.! Stay tuned at http://blogs.nokia.com/pushburton/

I have just finished my packing for the upcoming Nokia Push & Burton Snowboarding tests which will be taking place in the next 48 hours. ·In exactly 24 hours I will be airborne, heading to the beautiful snow capped mountains of Switzerland, Laax to be precise, its there where the Burton Eurpopean Open 2011, and Snowboarding trials will be held, and its right there I will team up with Nokia Push, and their R&D team for the first Alpha Tests of their Snowboarding Sensor boxes. ·I’m really excited about seeing how this technology works and perform in extreme conditions.·

I’m also very nervous, I have to be honest, because the last time I Snowboarded, it was many moons ago, and from my vague memory I wasn’t too good either, but not only that, my little experience was on an artificial ski slope in the UK! ·I found out earlier today that I have a snowboarding lesson booked for me so I can get to experience snowboarding in the real white stuff. This is going to be fun, and you can be sure I will be covering my days there in detail right here, and over at Nokia Push Burton.

I will be tweeting, and checking in to the various airports along the way, so stay tuned to my twitter feed to see where I am live as I will also be uploading photos along the way too. ·You can find me on twitter here, and here, and of course, you can follow @NokiaPush for all the latest updates from the three days happenings too.! ·I’m also on foursquare·http://foursquare.com/mickyfin

If you are wondering why the British Passport, that’s because I’m originally from the UK, and now reside in Suomi. ·

Next month if you cannot make this small event, you can watch a live stream of it, Nokia’s Strategy and Financial Briefing in London which will be the first Nokia media reach since Mr Elop took over from OPK last year.

I’m very keen to learn what exactly Nokia will have to say, and hope that there will be some announcements on their current plans for the mobile world.  With MWC (Mobile World Congress) just around the corner too 14th – 17th Feb, one would hope that there is something of interest announced, and with a Q&A session too, one would think there will indeed be many questions asked.

This will be a half-day event, with registration and lunch starting at 11 a.m. UK time, followed by presentations and Q&A from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. UK time. For those not attending in person, a webcast will be available. Keep checking here for said webcast.

Hat tip My Nokia Blog

In this second video update, following Nokia Push and the R&D team testing out the sensor boxes in Austria, we have a sneak peek of the data logging software used for collecting the data from the various sensor boxes.

This software on an Nokia N8 will be the very software I will get some hands on time with in Switzerland in a couple of days when I head out to the snow covered mountains of Laax for the initial Alpha tests.

Head over to Nokia Push for the full rundown of the progress, and hard work that has been going on behind the scenes in order to get these sensor boxes working as intended, and that includes weathering too. 

Another thing I’m really looking forward to checking out, and getting my hands on, is the following Nokia Push App too.  Here’s a quick peek, although you may of already seen this which I posted about before Christmas, but if not, here you go…