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Boot up: tech that died, Typo in court, Xiaomi's complaints, trying Tango, and more
[March 25, 2014]

Boot up: tech that died, Typo in court, Xiaomi's complaints, trying Tango, and more


(Guardian Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team 3D phones? Here's the tech that never took off >> CNBC Gender-specific phones may also be considered a no-no. The Nokia 7280 phone was a dubbed the "the lipstick phone," and while it was not necessarily geared for women, its name - along with it having no number pad - did not attract customers.



Similarly, the Rong Zun 758 Razor Phone, was - as the name suggests - a phone that had a razor at the bottom edge of the device, perfect for a quick shave before an important call.

So was it a razor with a phone, or a phone with a razor? BlackBerry tells Judge that Seacrest's Typo copied keyboard >> Bloomberg Olivier Taillieu, an attorney for Typo, said BlackBerry is trying to monopolize the keyboard market and many keyboards have the design characteristics that the smartphone maker is claiming it owns.


BlackBerry hasn't shown that its mobile phone sales are driven by the popularity of its keyboards, he told [Judge William] Orrick.

"The Q10 by and large was a failure" and "has literally not sold," Taillieu said. BlackBerry "hasn't provided any evidence of nexus between the keyboard and the commercial success of this device," he said.

Typo didn't copy the BlackBerry keyboard and is a "grain of sand" compared to BlackBerry's, he said.

"BlackBerry's problems are not related to Typo," Taillieu said. "We don't believe Typo is the reason for any loss of sales to BlackBerry." The Q10 failed? Harsh. And it would be pretty easy to find BlackBerry users who bought because of the keyboard. Orrick says he will issue a ruling on whether to block Typo sales "promptly".

Xiaomi tops the list of most-complained about mobile phone >> WantChinaTimes.com Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has received the highest number of complaints from consumers in China among any mobile phone brands, with 993 such instances being reported, followed by Apple at 805 and Samsung with 621 complaints, reports the state-run China News Service, citing a report published by a Chinese product control foundation.

The foundation stated that it had received 6,497 mobile phone-related complaints in 2013, a 60% growth from the previous year, and which accounted for 12.4% of the total number of complaints received by the industry.

The report revealed the top 10 mobile phone brands that received the most number of complaints, which included Xiaomi, Meizu, Huawei, ZTE, HTC, Nokia, Lenovo and Motorola.

Hands on: project Tango, Google's 3D-scanning phone for makers >> MAKE Omar Soubra: we are at the very beginning of the next phone and tablet revolution. The integration of sensors in one device, no additional accessory needed, will bring to the market a new area of apps, from gaming to professional applications. The games with augmented reality are already bringing a new dimension to the experience. I believe that shopping experiences will be completely transformed. You could already foresee an IKEA app, where you would "3D" model your existing kitchen with a Tango phone and order a completely new cabinet set online… delivered by an IKEA drone? Clones, clones everywhere – "1024," "2048? and other copies of popular paid game "Threes" fill the App Stores >> TechCrunch Saarah Perez: This latest clone battle, preparing to best the "Flappy Bird" saga, began with a well-designed, addictive puzzle app called "Threes" from development shop Sirvo (Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer). The game launched in early 2014, and began to gain steam in February. Using Sudoku-like mechanics and Candy Crush-style matching, "Threes" involves matching up multiples of threes for higher scores.

However, "Threes" was a paid game at $1.99, which meant there was room for another, perhaps less scrupulous developer, to come in and fill a gap by addressing a free-to-play audience. And so one did. "1024" quickly emerged, effectively ripping off "Threes," even directly referencing the hit game it copied in its App Store description, saying: "No need to pay for ThreesGames. This is a simple and fun gift for you, and it's free." Soon, the battle of the "Threes" clones was on. Next came a game called "2048," which launched online, also a copy of "Threes" and "1024." The more subtle point is: what happens when the "time to clone" falls closer to zero? Who earns, and how? CITE study: Windows 7 still rules at work, but iOS 7 is coming up fast >> CITEworld According to the 2014 IDG Enterprise CITE survey published today, Windows 7 is still ubiquitous at work: 51% of respondents said their companies are buying new devices with the nearly five-year-old OS and another 42% support existing devices, for a total of 93%. iOS 7 is supported by 72%, even though it's less than six months old, and the almost thirteen-year-old Windows XP is supported by 66%. Shockingly 10% of technology buyers surveyed in November and December 2013 said their companies were still buying Windows XP on new computers, even though support expires in April 2014.

"Survey of 1,115 website visitors actively involved in purchasing products for their companies." Average company size: 15,000 staff. The "do not support" figure for Windows 8 is really surprising.

How did you meet your cofounder? >> Secret Simple question. The answers.. well, one of them..

Two computer screens aren't better than one >> Sydney Morning Herald (via NYT) Farhad Manjoo: In a switch that amounts to heresy among some techies, I've become a two-screen sceptic. Two months ago, about five years after becoming an ardent proselytiser for the Church of the Second Display, I turned off the extra screen on my desktop computer. At first, the smaller workspace felt punishingly cramped. But after a few days of adjusting to the new set-up, an unusual serenity invaded my normally harried workday. With a single screen that couldn't accommodate too many simultaneous stimuli, a screen just large enough for a single word processor or browser window, I found something increasingly elusive in our multi-screen world: focus.

Was my experience with a single screen simply a function of personal preference, or was it a demonstration of the fundamental problem of working on two or more displays? It seems a great mistake to have your email (or YouTube) visible on either screen. That apart, though, two screens still feels like a winner, personally.

More departures at Twitter as VP of analytics exits, Android lead leaves for Secret >> Re/code Sara Haider, a mobile engineer and technical lead at Twitter for the past four and a half years, announced on Friday that she plans to leave the microblogging company to join Secret, the buzzy anonymous social startup that launched just two months ago.

Haider will assume the role of Android lead for Secret, where she'll be responsible for launching an Android version of the app as soon as possible. (Currently, Secret is only available on iOS devices.) At Twitter, Haider worked to launch the Android version of the company's Vine video app, and for years also worked on the Android app for Twitter proper.

Along with Haider, Twitter confirmed to Re/code that Vice President of Analytics and Business Intelligence Cayley Torgeson also plans to leave the company.

Cashing out their stock? You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service.

(c) 2014 Guardian Newspapers Limited.

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