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Video: Meizu M8 prepped for full-scale launch, IP battle with Apple

by Thomas Ricker posted Jan 23rd 2009 @ 3:26AM

Meizu's been on a tear since our last M8 update. Sitting atop a new 0.9.0.1 firmware release complete with working copy and paste, Outlook calendar synchronization, and a "full backup system," the M8 is now supported by a published SDK and licensed to ride the Chinese airwaves for what looks to be a March, mainland China release. With all the passion it could muster, Meizu posted the following announcement to its English website:

Let's bear witness together, to the great moment of MEIZU formally entering the big stage of mobile phone industry!

Currently, the M8 handset with its iPhone roots (but a WinCE core) is only available to an abiding Chinese press and die-hard Meizu fanatics -- a population said to rival the intensity of Apple's own sheeple elite. Having watched the M8 make the transition from art to part over the last few years, we're mighty stoked at the prospective launch to say the least. And while Meizu has clearly trumped Apple's spec sheet (not user experience) in terms of software (copy paste, background task management, video recording, and plenty more) and hardware (720 x 480 pixel display and beefier silicon), we'll bet there's still enough "inspiration" to get Tim Cook and Apple's legal counsel whipped up into a frenzy of Intellectual Property defense. Latest video after the break.

Read -- Mobile license approval
Read -- SDK release
Read -- firmware 0.9 release

Continue reading Video: Meizu M8 prepped for full-scale launch, IP battle with Apple

GSM Association proudly endorses NFC and Carrier ENUM

by Darren Murph posted Nov 21st 2008 @ 11:59AM

The GSM Association has been gung-ho about near-field communications (NFC) for a good while now, but just recently at a meeting in Macau did it take the opportunity to officially proclaim its support for NFC and Carrier ENUM. As for the former, it's urging manufacturers to have NFC technology (which is most commonly used for mobile payment systems) in "mainstream mobile phones by mid-2009 by using the standardized single wire protocol (SWP) interface, which enables communications between NFC hardware and a SIM card." Furthermore, it gave a hearty thumbs-up to ENUM (previously known as Number Resolution Service), which is an IETF-sanctioned standard for converting traditional phone numbers into IP addresses. It also announced that a related service (dubbed PathFinder) was generally available to mobile and fixed network operators from NeuStar. All this sounds fine and dandy, but what we're really interested in is what these folks did in Macau after the business was settled. Lucky...

[Via phonescoop, image courtesy of ISOC]

Read - Official GSMA support for ENUM
Read - Support for NFC / ENUM

Qualcomm: we're flush with 4G patents

by Chris Ziegler posted May 11th 2007 @ 5:35PM

It looks like any hopes that the 4G intellectual property landscape would be a little less of a Qualcomm-controlled minefield are fading fast. Thanks in part to recent acquisitions, a senior vice president pointed out in a recent interview with IDG that the company now owns over 1,000 patents pertaining to OFDM, OFDMA, and MIMO -- technologies which'll prove crucial to 4G data, regardless of the standard(s) that ultimately win out. In other words, whether the networks of tomorrow are banging LTE, UMB, or some flavor of WiMax, Qualcomm's confident that it's in a position to cash in, just as it's doing now. Sorry, Nokia.

[Via mocoNews]

Palm sez NTP patents are invalid, refuses to settle

by Evan Blass posted Nov 7th 2006 @ 3:17PM

Following yesterday's surprising announcement that patent ~~troll~~ firm NTP is taking portable computing pioneer Palm to court over alleged IP infringement, the PDA and smartphone manufacturer has fired back with a statement detailing its position on the matter. While Palm corroborates NTP's assertion that the latter company had previously approached it about licensing the patents in question, it points out that all seven of them are still undergoing re-examination by the US Patent and Trademark Office, and all signs point to them being ruled invalid once the inquiry is complete. Therefore, Sunnyvale-based Palm has promised to "defend itself vigorously against the attempted misuse of the patent and judicial systems," which is the diplomatic way of saying that NTP won't see one red cent unless they pry it from Palm's cold, dead hands. Since the RIM / NTP fiasco took quite some time to wind its way through the courts, it seems that Palm is making the smart move here by stringing this along until the USPTO makes its final decision, but there's one thing it needs to bear in mind: NTP's got half a billion dollars to blow on legal fees, and since it doesn't actually do anything besides sue people, it can focus all of its energy and resources on this amusing but unhealthy lawsuit addiction.