Sympathy for Google in China (src: Vincent Thian/associated Press Photo)

If you picked a newspaper – oh I forgot they are obsolete now!. I mean if you read news or blogs within last week, you would know about the bitter Google Vs China cyberwar. Google took a fancy stance (that of course only a company with such huge stature can afford) by declaring that it will uncensor its search engine in China or move out. Although morally applauded for standing against the ‘human rights violating’ Chinese laws, Google’s motivations appear to be coming from avenging the harsh cyber laws it has long faced in the country. The recently discovered large scale cyber attacks/spying merely gave Google a wound to gain sympathy for.
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Over this past week, I had to bang my head several times on the so called scam of ‘IP protection’ and software patents. First, I didn’t even know much about this term except that it had become a buzz word in last 5 years. So, when we were asked about our awareness of patents by TechStars, my immediate reaction was f***. We delved deeper and I contacted old friends who were more knowledgeable. I finally developed some awareness of the pitfalls, why it matters and how it is like digging your own grave. The issue is simple – you have an idea and you build a system. Even if your system is the first implementation of that idea, if some troll had thought about it vaguely 10 years ago and registered a patent on it, you are screwed. Even if he has no clue on how to put the idea into practice leave apart being qualified enough to build it, the law will be on his side. So – you need to know if you are violating some patent registered by someone in some world. I could stop cribbing about it but the issue is very real nuisance esp in the digital age.

Secondly, as I stumbled upon this post by Brad Burnham, I knew I wasn’t being unreasonable.

Thirdly, RX threw some light on the biggest impotency of Nexus and Google Android, one that I had been wondering since the phone was launched – why doesn’t Android have multitouch? I mean come on, iPhones have had it for a couple of years now and a company like Google didn’t provide it? How can a touch phone even imagine of competing with iPhone without multitouch? The answer is – Apple has patented the multi-touch.

Apple’s massive multi-touch patent portfolio is cited as a reason, both now for the Droid and then for the T-Mobile G1. Either Google, while CEO Eric Schmidt was still on the board, agreed not to violate them, or fears litigating them. So, they build in the functionality and let 3rd parties take advantage — and the risk that goes with it — if they so choose.

But why then does the Palm Pre have multi-touch gesture support on Sprint in the US? Wouldn’t the same patents apply? Sure. However, patents are like nukes. They can be deadly unless the guy you’re pointing yours at is pointing equally deadly ones back at you. As both TiPb and PreCentral.net have posted for a while — and Palm has explicitly stated — Palm has a heckuva mobile patent arsenal.

Apple’s massive multi-touch patent portfolio is cited as a reason, both now for the Droid and then for the T-Mobile G1. Either Google, while CEO Eric Schmidt was still on the board, agreed not to violate them, or fears litigating them. So, they build in the functionality and let 3rd parties take advantage — and the risk that goes with it — if they so choose.

But why then does the Palm Pre have multi-touch gesture support on Sprint in the US? Wouldn’t the same patents apply? Sure. However, patents are like nukes. They can be deadly unless the guy you’re pointing yours at is pointing equally deadly ones back at you. As both TiPb and PreCentral.net have posted for a while — and Palm has explicitly stated — Palm has a heckuva mobile patent arsenal.

Wow, I can still imagine Apple having come up with the technology itself first being able to patent it but in reality when it comes to software, the boundaries are really thin. As Brad said, the patents made sense for Pharmaceutical industry but software! Really?

iPhone and Nexus – just a beginning. It is a given that mobile computing is the next big thing. When Apple opened its iPhone SDK, which gave developers the tools to make native mobile apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, no one imagined how revolutionary it will prove in the long run. iPhone Apps make it the ‘it’ phone of this generation. And the explosion of mobile app users just confirms that the cell phone will become the ultimate solution to personal computing within next few years. Google Android is trying to take it one step further by being open source.

So, it does not surprise that Palm follows suit in a battle of survival. Palm opened up its webOS developer program to the public on Thursday, saying it expects to see a flood of new applications developed for the mobile OS. Read the Slashdot story here.

As an incentive to developers interested in building their own directories, Palm is offering US$1 million to the developer with the most downloads of free and paid applications between February and May, Mitic said.

Palm also announced a plug-in development kit for WebOS that allows developers to extend the OS’s capabilities using code written in C and C++. Over time, these plug-ins will be incorporated into the software development kit, she said.

Mobile Mania (src: wirefresh)

A look at the LATimes’ 2010 predictions: Another turbulent year ahead for media-

Our crystal ball says: Jay Leno will leave prime time; MGM will finally be sold; Disney will discover video games; and maybe somebody will figure out how to make money on online content.

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When consumer becomes the king, the producers may soon be becoming paupers.

Falling books - flickr

As technology advanced by leaps and bounds, many industries had tapped into it and dreamed of an assured future. When Sony won the Hi Def DVD war, little did it anticipate that same technology will undercut its own motion picture business as more and more viewers choose to relish the movies in higher end technology systems in the comfort of their home and stop paying 10 bucks to AMC Loews. With piracy and illegal internet streaming becoming a headache for movie production houses and music industry, entertainment companies have been wary of technological developments.

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