Apple found guilty of willful patent infringement

Apple has been found guilty of willfully infringing on a "predictive snooping" patent awarded to Opti Inc. in 2002. The company has been ordered to pay just over $19 million in compensation, despite its attempts to have the patent thrown out.



Apple has been ordered to pay $19 million to Opti Inc., a technology company based up the road in Palo Alto, for patent infringement. The verdict came out of Patent Lawsuit Valley (also known as the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall) late Thursday, where a jury found that Apple had "willfully" infringed on Opti's patent for "Predictive snooping."

The patent—its full name is "Predictive snooping of cache memory for master-initiated accesses"—describes a method to more efficiently transfer data among the CPU, memory, and "other devices." The patent was issued to Opti in June of 2002, and the company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in January of 2007 (which we briefly mentioned in a Friday Apple links post that week).

Apple had acknowledged that it used similar technology, but argued unsuccessfully that the patent should be declared invalid due to prior art and obviousness. Much to Apple's dismay, the jury didn't buy it. They ended up rejecting Apple's claims and found the company guilty of willful patent infringement, awarding Opti $19,009,728 as a "reasonable royalty for infringement." We sincerely hope some lawyer uses that extra $8 to buy a nice coffee or something.

With close close to $30 billion in the bank, $19 million isn't likely to hurt Apple very much in the overall picture. However, cases like this remind us of why Apple seems to be a popular target for patent infringement suits. It's a large, well-loved company that has tons of cash. If it's not careful with those patent searches when developing new technology, the company could continue to find itself shelling out—or being forced to change its products.

(Original post www.ArsTechinca.com)

Can the iPod Shuffle Be Swallowed?

Someone asked that question when the tiny shuffle came out, so we tried it. Well, we didn't, but we found someone who did: The very sweet sword-swallower Heather Holiday, from the Coney Island Circus.

Heather is a professional sword swallower. Someone with no gag reflex—or better said, trained to suppress it while swallowing 36-inch long solid steel swords down her throat. No tricks, no smoke and mirrors. She's the real deal. I saw her swallow an entire—and very large—soup spoon with my own eyes in a second. She didn't even blinked. She gobbled it down like I eat maple-syrup-bathed buttermilk pancakes.

Needless to say, she had the right credentials to try our test: Swallow the tiny, 1.8 x 0.7 x 0.3-inch iPod shuffle and then take it out again, after we have listened to a couple of songs thanks to the in-cable remote control—which is a bad idea for regular use, but it's great to play songs when someone has the iPod down the esophagus.

Unfortunately, as you will see in the video, she wasn't able to do it for a number of reasons. First, the iPod shuffle is way too light. Apart from controlling your gag reflex, her technique for swallowing swords use the force of gravity to pull them down. She also uses her esophagus muscles to control how fast it gets in her body, but the gravity is what pull downs the sword. With the iPod shuffle—which is only 0.38 ounces or 10.7 grams—this was impossible. The iPod just hanged there and had to be pushed with her hand or a large object—like a spoon—to get into the entry of her throat. However, from there it was not possible to make it go down.

Heather thinks she can do it with more training—or maybe pushing it with something larger—so she took the iPod with her and will be back when she can do it. Until then, here's the answer to the question: No, you can't swallow the iPod shuffle, even if it's small enough to get it in. If the iPod shuffle is sword-swallower proof, it's certainly child- and moron-proof.


Can the iPod shuffle be swallowed? from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

(Original post www.i.Gizmodo.com)

I Ate the World's Largest Cheeto Over the World's Most Expensive Keyboard

World's Largest Cheeto and the Optimus Maximus from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

Here's something gross: I was given the world's largest Cheeto. So of course I had to eat it over the Optimus Maximus keyboard. Don't try this at home.

Because I am the token shameless jackass of the Gizmodo crew, I was the first person that came to mind when Rothman was offered a chance at the "World's Largest Cheeto." This one-of-a-kind object is more buoy than snack, with the middle completely unseasoned by cheese and tasting basically exactly like styrofoam.

But I persevered. It was stale and horrible. I will never eat Cheetos again. But hey, who am I to turn down a challenge of this magnitude?

Also, sorry for ruining your keyboard, Art Lebedev. It was in the name of science.

(Original Post: www.i.Gizmodo.com)

10 Gadgets With Too Many Stupid Features

There is nothing wrong with offering a feature-packed product, but it is possible to take things a little too far. The following gadgets definitely illustrate convergence at its worst.



It's a gun! No, it's a knife! Actually it's a gun AND a knife. That's right - the G.R.A.D .22 caliber gun knife is two kills in one.



A coffee mug that doubles as a mouse? It's almost a good idea.



Traffic jams just got a whole lot more entertaining with these rims that feature a built-in LCD screen. Then again, motorists trying to catch up on the Today show while driving next to you on the highway may be the reason for the traffic jam in the first place.



What song goes best with electrocuting a mugger? Find out with this leopard skin Taser with built-in 1GB mp3 player.



The Rong Zun 758 Razor is a GSM phone with a decent feature set - like dual SIM card slots, a 2.6-inch touchscreen, 3-megapixel camera, MP3/MP4 player, FM radio, GPRS, Bluetooth connectivity and a microSD slot. However, the record goes off the track with the addition of a working shaver hidden under a cover on the bottom.



Bring some high-tech to your Oktoberfest with a pair of lederhosen that features a built-in set of mp3 controls. Also available in a stylish hunting jacket.



This is actually a pretty cool product, but the last thing our chubby society needs is one device that can make hot dogs, pop popcorn, boil eggs and warm buns at the same time.



The latest product from world renowned over-the-top toilet maker Toto makes each trip to the bathroom like a physical at the doctor's office. It features a weight scale, a BMI indicator, a blood sugar and blood pressure monitor as well as urine temperature measurement and analysis to help women keep track of menstruation cycles. Plus the whole thing can be networked to your PC via Wi-Fi.



Imagine what MacGyver could have done with a Swiss Army knife that has 85 distinct functions.



China is one country where the whole anti-smoking movement has yet to take hold. Perhaps that is why a company would invest the resources in developing a cellphone with a bult-in cigarette holder.

Acer announces Aspire Timeline thin'n'lights -- $699 to $899

Acer's announcing a ton of new gear right now (we're live at the event in a New Jersey IMAX theater, of all places) and the hottest new products so far are the new Aspire Timeline laptops. Hard specs are a little light at the moment, but what we do know sounds pretty great: 13.3, 14.1 and 15.6-inch LED-backlit 16:9 screens in a one-inch thick chassis, Intel ULV processors, multitouch touchpads, HDMI and S/PDIF out, and eight hours of battery life -- 10 hours with an SSD. The real killer is pricing, however: $699 to $899. Ouch -- poor Adamo. We're still at the event, but we'll be trying to get as much info on these as we can, stay tuned.

Update: We got some more detailed specs, and things are still looking good -- like, built-in WiMAX good. The processors will be ULV Core 2 Duos, and the 13.3-inch model will weigh 3.5 pounds while the 15.6-incher will tip in at 5.3 pounds. RAM is DDR3 and drives top out at 500GB spinners and 64GB SSD. We're angling for clock speeds, we'll let you know when we go hands-on

(Original Post: www.Engadget.com)