When Huawei launched its latest P40 series smartphone lineup, Richard Yu, CEO of the consumer business division of the Chinese technology company revealed that its Huawei Mobile Services has reached 400 million active users, which should be a cause of concern for the internet search giant. Speaking on the stage about the Huawei Mobile Series, Yu said that the company had been bringing huge revenue to the US companies because of its partnership. However, because of last year’s “US ban” for the new Huawei phones, the company cannot use GMS (Google mobile services) so they launched the Huawei Mobile Series as an alternative solution. Giving an insight into the figures, Yu said that the platform already has 400 million monthly active users and is available in over 170 countries/regions. Huawei’s rival to Google Play Store — AppGallery — comes with both “normal apps” and “quick apps”, said Yu. The quick apps are web-based HTML … [Read more...] about Why these numbers from Huawei may ‘worry’ Google
Appeals court rules that Google book scanning is fair use
Four factors The court then goes into considering the four fair use factors. Google's use is indeed transformative, the court held, citing caselaw involving other "full-text searchable database[s]" as a "quintessentially transformative use." The court points to Google's "ngrams" tool that allows searches for frequency of usage of selected words—something that couldn't be done in a lifetime of manual searching, even given access to the millions of books in the libraries working with Google. The "snippet view" that Google provides is also transformative, "identifying books of interest to the searcher" without replacing them. … [Read more...] about Appeals court rules that Google book scanning is fair use
Patent troll that pounded Google for $85 million beaten in round two
Google has paid a price for resisting Payne's patents. Last year, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas found that Android's system of push notifications infringed Payne's US Patent No. 7,035,914. The jury deadlocked on damages, but a second damages trial resulted in Google being ordered to pay $85 million to SimpleAir and its lawyers at Dovel & Luner. Google has appealed the results of that case. … [Read more...] about Patent troll that pounded Google for $85 million beaten in round two
Google expands Pixel range with Pixel C tablet running Android, not Chrome OS
Google also has a pair of keyboard accessories, one aluminum and one leather, for the device. The "C" stands for convertible, with the keyboard attaching magnetically. There's no kickstand or clasp; magnets do all the work. The keyboards can stick to the front, to protect the screen, to the back, when using it as a tablet. The keyboard itself is Bluetooth, and when it's closed, it will inductively charge from the tablet unit. … [Read more...] about Google expands Pixel range with Pixel C tablet running Android, not Chrome OS
Google Books ruled legal in massive win for fair use (updated)
A nearly-settled case will now be fought on appeal The parties tried to settle this case but were unable to. A proposed settlement not only involved a complicated set of compensation rules for authors, it also had sections dealing with unaddressed copyright issues like "orphan works." But Chin rejected the settlement in 2011, saying it wasn't fair. Fundamentally, it was just too big—issues like orphan works were best left to Congress, not to a class-action lawsuit. … [Read more...] about Google Books ruled legal in massive win for fair use (updated)
