Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Nokia has filed a patent that will allow a user to digitally write on the back of digital photos.  The patent allows a user to “flip” your picture over and label it.  This label can be written on a keypad, or, if your camera device has some sort of stylus, you can write on them just like a photo print. 

This patent has just been filed, so it is not known when it will be approved.  Something tells me that cell phone giant Nokia will probably find a way to get this program into the hands of the consumer and into one of its cell phones as soon as possible.  Once it does work, it will probably look something like a photo-viewer on the iPod.

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Microsoft’s track record with regards to innovation isn’t something you can call spotless, but a recent patent filing puts them on track to beating the rest of the world in a classic case of “Why didn’t I think of that?“ Their patent couldn’t get simpler. It’s called the Wearable computer pointing device, and is supposed to be an easier way to operate a mouse by wearing it in your hand. With the Wiimote and iPhone promoting all kinds of high-tech sensors, a device such as this just had to be concepted. Right?

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The International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate a complaint of patent infringement made against Sharp Corp. Samsung claims that Sharp has infringed on 4 different patents for LCDs. Samsung is attempting to block imports of products using Sharp LCDs. These products include HDTV’s and the Motorola RAZR2. The companies are suing each other in various federal courts and in Seoul, South Korea. A decision is not expected to come for about 15 months.

Read [Bloomberg]

• AT&T wants a Symbian iPhone?  Are you kidding me?
• Verizon lowers Samsung Omnia pricing, now at $199.99
• Sprint’s Cyber Monday deals: free Centro and 5 others

I am sure you will all remember back in 2006 when Hyperphrase Technologies issued a patent claim against Google. Truth be told it had somehow slipped my mind that they were claiming “that Google’s AdSense and the AutoLink function of its toolbar infringed claims in four Hyperphrase patents relating to the contextual linking and presentation of information”

Well looks like the court has “upheld the parts of the summary judgment relating to AdSense, and some of the claims against AutoLink, but overturned the part of the ruling dealing with AutoLink’s alleged infringement of two of the patents.“ I think that what this means is that AdSense is free to go, but AutoLink has another trip to the courts ahead of it. This will be a disappointment as originally the courts cleared Google but the Court of Appeals overturned part of the judgment for “inappropriate interpretation” for “data reference,“ “one of the terms used in the patent claims to describe the way a link is made between a fragment of text and an element in a database”, which I am sure we are all the better for knowing!

Via [Macworld]

• Gadgetell Review: TeleNav Shotgun
• T-Mobile G1 now in White and why it will sell like hotcakes
• Gamertell Review: Android games and apps roundup for the T-Mobile G1 phone

Sections: Web, Websites, Google

This latest patent from RIM indicates an interesting change of direction for the BlackBerry keypad, especially if this is also to be used on the touchscreen BlackBerry.

Patents don’t tell the whole story, and many don’t ever make it past the prototype stage, but this one would suggest a shift away from the current QWERTY style keyboard to a much more angular, slanting design that apparently makes inputting text much easier. That will have to be seen to be believed as they say, but it looks interesting and to me it looks like we may be about to see a bigger screen as well.

Via [Pocket Lint]

• RIM announces re-launch of Mobile BlackBerry website
• AT&T wants a Symbian iPhone?  Are you kidding me?
• The new failure of a keyboard

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved patent number 7,027,987 today to Alexander Franz of Google.  The abstract… “A system provides search results from a voice search query. The system receives a voice search query from a user, derives one or more recognition hypotheses, each being associated with a weight, from the voice search query, and constructs a weighted boolean query using the recognition hypotheses. The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user.“

This is an example of how Google will stay ahead of the competition.  Google’s stock price still soars above $400, and with creativity like this it will continue.

Imagine a customer service manager wants to search through thousands of recorded telephone calls to see how many times the representative says “NO”.  The manager could determine the reps that say it too much and those that don’t say it often enough.  The uses of a voice search function would be endless.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Read [ArsTechnica]

• Gadgetell Review: TeleNav Shotgun
• T-Mobile G1 now in White and why it will sell like hotcakes
• Gamertell Review: Android games and apps roundup for the T-Mobile G1 phone

Sections: Tech News, Web, Websites, Google