On Wednesday, Sept. 28, we're headed to an Amazon press conference in New York where we anticipate the company will launch a tablet. Three weeks ago, TechCrunch's MG Siegler purported to have a hands-on with the mystery device, a 7-inch Android tab. Now he's reporting its name, "Kindle Fire," and Amazon's rollout plan.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Technolog - Amazon's tablet called 'Kindle Fire,' says TechCrunch
Christine Lagarde: IMF may need billions in extra funding - Telegraph
The plan, which would aim to build a "firebreak" around the indebted eurozone countries, emerged at the IMF annual meeting in Washington where global leaders united to demand urgent action from European politicians.
Despite the developments, traders warned that the failure of politicians to agree a solid rescue plan would result in more turbulence on global stock markets.
One trader said: "The expansion to the EFSF would be good, although it's still not the eurobonds that the market has really been wanting to see. And, most significantly, it's still only an idea, not a deal."
In a G20 communique issued on Friday, leaders set a six-week deadline to resolve the crisis – to unveil a solution by the G20 summit in Cannes on November 4.
However, already the plans to recapitalise European banks have been criticised in France – which has the biggest exposure to Greek debt.
The governor of the Bank of France, Christian Noyer, told reporters yesterday he didn't "see any sign" that French banks were in trouble and that he believed there was "no need" for a recapitalisation.
But international pressure on European politicians has intensified.
Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary who proposed an increase to the EFSF at the Ecofin meeting on September 16, said that the sovereign debt pressures and banking strains in Europe were "the most serious risk now confronting the world economy". Larry Summers, Barack Obama's former chief economic adviser who was attending his 20th IMF meeting, said: "I have not been at a prior meeting at which matters have had more gravity."
Demands for action were also made by emerging market leaders. Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, said European policymakers had a responsibility "to ensure that their actions stop contagion beyond the euro periphery".
The governor of the Chinese central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, said that "the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area needs to be resolved promptly to stabilise market confidence".
With Greece facing a debt deadline at the beginning of October, the first priority is to release an €8bn tranche of bail-out money. Ms Lagarde said that the priority of international authorities this week must be "implementation, implementation, implementation" of the bail-out agreement of July 21.
via telegraph.co.uk
Apple Seeks Samsung Tablet Ban in Australia
By ROSS KELLY
SYDNEY—A legal dispute between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in Australia intensified Monday with an attorney representing the maker of the iPad alleging its South Korean rival's product infringes on patents relating to touch-screen technology.
The case is part of a global battle between the two companies that began in April, when Apple sued Samsung in California, saying its smartphones and tablets had "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad. The companies have since filed suits against one another in Germany, Japan, France and South Korea.
Apple is seeking a court injunction to prevent Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia starting Friday. Apple has sold about 500,000 iPads in Australia, equal to about 2% of the total population, Credit Suisse said in June.
The company has filed at least a dozen patent infringement claims but only three, all related to touch-screen technology, are being considered in a hearing before Justice Annabelle Bennett in the Federal Court this week.
"It must have been as plain as the Opera House to Samsung that the Apple patents were right in front of its eyes and they were wide open," an attorney for Apple, Steven Burley, told the Federal Court. "They ought to clear the way in advance rather than try to crash through."
Mr. Burley said that Samsung's product is similar in "form, factor and shape" to Apple's iPad 2 and that even the cardboard boxes they are sold in look alike. Still, he confirmed that the current part of the hearing relates only to the touch-screen patents. One of these is for a "selective rejection" function on the iPad, where the tablet doesn't respond to accidental touches. The other patents relate to the design of the touch screens and their ability to enable vertical scrolling even when the person touching the screen doesn't move their finger in a precise vertical pattern.
An attorney for Samsung, David Catterns, said the case currently has nothing to do with the form, function or shape of the product and is instead based on specific patents that would have a "negligible" impact if the product's sale goes ahead. Mr. Catterns also said some existing Samsung products have the same features but Apple hasn't made any patent infringement claims.
Samsung on Sept. 18 said it had filed a countersuit alleging Apple's iPhone and iPad 2 tablet violate many wireless-technology patents held by Samsung.
The hearing continues Thursday morning.
Write to Ross Kelly at ross.kelly@dowjones.com
via online.wsj.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)