I was recently told about this site by a client as they liked the interface and usability of the site. However, www.duedil.com is more than just pretty. Its free to use and lets you look at your competitors accounts very easily. So if you had always wondered how much he or she is making compared to you then I recommend try out duedil.com.
Google has made the latest pre-emptive strike in a complicated war with Apple, Microsoft and BT over the ownership of technology used in their Android Operating system.
Litigation wrangling has been brewing for some years now as the competition steps up in the smartphone war.
Apple has already had to patch things up with Nokia in a patent-dispute that was launched back in 2009. Their dispute was over patent infringement that included touch interfaces, caller ID, display illumination, and 3G and wi-fi technology. Apple counter-sued Nokia, but ultimately the whole shebang was resolved with an undisclosed paycheck to Nokia in June of 2011.
But the latest round of litigation focuses on internet giant Google, and its alleged infringement of patent protected technology. The litigation also affects the mobile platforms on which Android is served: HTC, Samsung and Motorola.
Apple scored a victory in December against Android phonemaker company, HTC, when the US International Trade Commission (ITC) agreed that the company had infringed upon two of Apple’s patents relating to “detecting structures in data and performing actions on detected structures”. This ostensibly refers to the technology employed when, for example, a user taps a phone number in a contact list and the phone then calls the number.
The ITC ruling currently excludes future HTC phones that violate the patent from being imported into the US. However, it is not yet known if Apple will pursue the ruling to include other Android smartphones currently sold in the US. Needless to say, the effects of that on Google’s share of the market could be huge.
BT have also weighed in to the fray with a billion dollar lawsuit against Google Android that covers patent infringement for functionality including “a navigation system which includes a fixed part and at least one mobile part to provide guidance information to a user” ie Google Maps.
So how has Google responded?
Well, if you thought someone might take the high road in all of this, think again. The digital land grab continues unabated as Google has now acquired 217 patents from IBM.
The patents cover wide-ranging technologies such as transferring web apps between devices and using semantic networks to develop a social network (hinting at Google’s continued development of Google+).
However, the more cynical of observers note that mass patent buying isn’t primarily creatively focused but a pre-emptive strike against future litigation, bought with the intention of slowing down their competition.
Ultimately, if the heavyweights continue to focus on stifling each other with lawsuits and countersuits than it will be the consumer who loses out.
But shouldn’t they have a right to protect the technology they have invested in?
And how much is the patent system to blame in what they do and don’t choose to rubber stamp?
We’d love to hear your views, so leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
Beadazzle run two jewellery sites online. One site www.beadazzle.co.uk sells official Pandora Jewellery and the www.beadazzle-boutique.co.uk site sells all other non Pandora Jewellery products. Due to Pandora’s strict selling guidelines, they cannot sell any other products apart from Pandora on a single site.
This meant that if they wanted to buy item Pandora and non Pandora products they would need to place two separate transactions. To make it easier to find products I implemented a Search Suggest feature which is licensed from Code Canyon and modified it to work on Digishop. Then wrote a php script to pull product information from Beadazzle Boutique into the Search suggest script.
Customers can now type in the search box and products from both sites will be suggested to them, and click on a non Pandora product will result in a new window opening for beadazzle boutique. This will hopefully show loyal Pandora customers that Beadazzle sell more than just Pandora.
This script can also be implemented in X-Cart which is what I will be implementing in Beadazzle Boutique.