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samsung

Technology

October 24, 2013

Carl Icahn’s Letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook

Just a few days before Apple’s Q4 report, billionaire investor Icahn gave his input to Cook.

We want to be very clear that we could not be more supportive of you, the existing management team, the culture at Apple and the innovative spirit it engenders. The criticism we have as shareholders has nothing to do with your management leadership or operational strategy. Our criticism relates to one thing only: the size and timeframe of Apple’s buyback program. It is obvious to us that it should be much bigger and immediate.

I have no doubt that Icahn has strong confidence in the executives at Apple. His issue is with the board of directors. He continues with:

As we proposed at our dinner, if the company decided to borrow the full $150 billion at a 3% interest rate to commence a tender at $525 per share, the result would be an immediate 33% boost to earnings per share, translating into a 33% increase in the value of the shares, which significantly assumes no multiple expansion. Longer term (in three years) if you execute this buyback as proposed, we expect the share price to appreciate to $1,250, assuming the market rewards EBIT growth of 7.5% per year with a more normal market multiple of 11x EBIT.

While, this in theory will boost AAPL shares to a new high of $1,250 per stock. Is this really what needs to be done? Shouldn’t Apple be using this large amount of cash to acquire companies and new technologies? Or at least a combination of both buyback and acquisitions?

Finally, a bill to end patent trolling

The bill would require patent holders to lay out details about their infringement case early in a lawsuit, and would require the loser of a patent suit to pay legal fees unless they could show that the case was “substantially justified.” It would expand a program to allow for the review of “business method” patents at the US Patent and Trademark Office, a key request by CCIA that has not been without controversy. And the bill would also allow customers or end users of a technology to stay a lawsuit while the patent holder and the manufacturer battle it out. That would prevent patent trolls from pulling moves like one last month, where a judge let Lodsys dodge Apple’s lawyers— while it continues to threaten iOS developers.

The patent system is broken. No question. Hopefully, this will end all of the wasted sums of money, time and energy by these companies. And maybe they can get back to doing something more productive.

HTC One Max Fingerprint Scanner

The new technology is a major feature of HTC’s behemoth phablet, and it mostly performs the way the company intended. But HTC failed to take into account everyday usability, which is a huge shame—planting it on the back is just plain awkward; it’s a huge oversight that greatly diminishes a stand out feature.

This is a prime example of what separates Apple from the rest. The design of the scanner on the new HTC device is so terrible. Why would anyone in their right mind place the camera lens right above where users are supposed to slide their fingers?

Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads in search results

Google’s decision to start showing banner ads is a repudiation of many of its founding principles. The company gained attention when it started in 1998 because its opening search page, and following results page, was uncluttered by adverts and other elements – and especially banner ads. In 2000 Google’s founder Larry Page and Sergey Brin were offered $3m by Visa to display an ad for the credit card company on the site homepage – and turned it down, even though the site was losing money at the time.

Promises are meant to be broken eh Google? Eventually people are going to just be sick to their stomach with all the garbage plastered over the content they want.

Samsung fined $340,000 over faking negative web comments about competition

Throughout last year, Apple-friendly web sites were infested with an avalanche of ugly comments by anonymous posters concerning the iPhone, iPad and the Apple brand in general. While website owners were reluctant to publicly point the finger of blame at the South Korean conglomerate, many had suspected it was no coincidence given Samsung was riding high on its anti-Apple ad campaign.

I can only make fun of Samsung so much more…

Why Android first is a Myth

The reality is that platform constraints at the engineering and financing levels tell a much different story. “Android-first” faces structural and financial barriers which are unlikely to be overcome. iOS will remain the primary platform that startups develop for regardless of how much more quickly Android grows share.

Steve Cheney goes on to list a lot of outstanding and strong points on this position. I agree with all of them.

Technology, Uncategorized

Android Shenanigans

They’re (almost) all dirty: The state of cheating in Android benchmarks

We started piecing this data together back in July, and even had conversations with both silicon vendors and OEMs about getting it to stop. With the exception of Apple and Motorola, literally every single OEM we’ve worked with ships (or has shipped) at least one device that runs this silly CPU optimization. It’s possible that older Motorola devices might’ve done the same thing, but none of the newer devices we have on hand exhibited the behavior. It’s a systemic problem that seems to have surfaced over the last two years, and one that extends far beyond Samsung.

Pretty sad.

Note 3’s benchmarking “adjustments” inflate scores by up to 20%

After a good bit of sleuthing, we can confidently say Samsung appears to be artificially boosting the US Note 3’s benchmark scores with a special, high-power CPU mode that kicks in when the device runs a large number of popular benchmarking apps. Samsung did something similar with the international Galaxy S 4’s GPU, but this is the first time we’ve seen the boost on a US device.

It’s not surprising to see Samsung pulling a Samsung again. Even Phil Schiller outed them call this stunt shenanigans.

The Galaxy Note 3 comes with a “tiny screen” mode that enables one hand usages

When you enable a buried option in the one-hand operating menu, you can enable a “tiny screen” mode with a simple swipe gesture. Like Alice in Wonderland, what you see on your Note 3?s display suddenly becomes smaller and you’re effectively using Android as if it were a windowed application on your desktop computer.

So, this is innovation by Samsung eh? Great. Make gigantic devices that don’t fit in anyones pocket. And then lets make it have a one-handed mode.

Internet can be “100x more affordable” 

Zuckerberg explains a few of the methods that the tech companies involved are looking into. For instance, by extending the range of antennas and relays, infrastructure builders can reach distant areas with fewer towers (and less cost). And by using compression algorithms on everyday data, the amount of bits and bytes needed to watch a video or download an article can be reduced

And Zuck can make Internet even more affordable if we give him all of our personal data as well?

Technology

Samsung Unveil Galaxy Gear

Today Samsung unveiled a smart watch called the Galaxy Gear

There are a couple of significant downsides that temper my enthusiasm for the new Gear. First and foremost is the speed and intuitiveness of the user interface — or rather, the lack thereof. There’s a tangible lag to anything you do with the Gear, while the swipe gestures are hard to figure out and do different things depending on where you are in the menus.

My thoughts are that Samsung was trying to quickly put a product on the shelf in an attempt to prevent a highly anticipated “iWatch” by Apple later this month. I think that the Galaxy Gear is ugly, seems laggy and too clunky. Personally, I think it does too much of what a smart phone does. Tim Cook has stated previously that if they were to make a new product such as a watch or wrist band, it would have to compliment the smartphone but have features that make it standout.

Update: Sept. 11, 2013

Check out Jon Rettinger’s rant on the Galaxy Gear:

Technology

Vetoed

The Obama government just vetoed Samsung’s proposed ban on AT&T’s Apple phones prior to iPhone 4S, iPad 2.

“After extensive consultations with the agencies of the Trade Policy Staff Committee and the Trade Policy Review Group…I have decided to disapprove the USITC’s determination to issue an exclusion order and cease and desist order in this investigation…”

This ruling came in after T-Mobile executive VP of public policy  and general counsel Randal Milch, wrote an open-plea for Obama to prevent the potential ban from taking place. This affects the company as T-Mobile might have maintained around 400,000 subscribers due to the introduction of the iPhone 5 to their line up.

Basically, Samsung did not want Apple to use some of their standard essential patents. Practically, these patents allow a device to connect to an industry standard such as a 3G network. The owners of these essential patents have a duty and responsibility to licence them to anyone at a reasonable fee. However, in this case, Samsung wanted to use some of Apple’s patents (non-standard essentials). And of course Apple would not allow their crown jewels go just like that.

Well done Mr. President. You deserve a third-term.

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