It has been claimed that the 32-year-old is upset that he plays second fiddle to Iker Casillas for cup games, but he insists that he has no problem fighting for the No.1 jersey
Diego Lopez has rubbished reports that he is unhappy at Real Madrid, joking that he will only leave if the club kick him out of the Santiago Bernabeu on his backside.
It has been claimed that the 32-year-old goalkeeper is frustrated by the fact that he is only Carlo Ancelotti's first choice for Liga games, with club captain Iker Casillas always preferred for Champions League and Copa del Rey clashes.
However, Lopez says he is more than happy to fight for the No.1 jersey and insists that he is not in the least bit unsettled at the Santiago Bernabeu.
"I have said many times," he is quoted as saying by Sportyou. "I have three years on my contract and I'll only leave if they kick me out on my ass!
"The rumours are a joke. I'll stay here. I'm very happy here and I will continue to fight for everything."
Lopez joined Madrid from Sevilla during the January transfer window for a reported €3.5 million transfer fee.
The once-capped Spain international is expected to start in goal for Madrid in Saturday night's Liga meeting with Almeria at the Bernabeu but will most likely revert to the bench for Wednesday's Copa del Rey final against Barcelona at Mestalla.
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple "vastly overstated the scope of its patents" and is asking for an unreasonably high amount of damages, Samsung argued Tuesday during its opening arguments in a court here.
"The suggestion seems to be if you're not asking for billions, you don't take patents seriously," Samsung attorney John Quinn said.
Almost two years after Apple and Samsung faced off in a messy patent dispute, the smartphone andtablet rivals have returned to the same San Jose, Calif., courtroom to argue once again over patents before federal Judge Lucy Koh. Apple is arguing that Samsung infringed on five of its patents for the iPhone, its biggest moneymaker, and it's due $2 billion for that infringement. Samsung, the world's largest mobile phone maker, wants about $7 million from Apple for infringing two of its software patents.
Quinn said Apple's Steve Jobs declared a "holy war" on Android after the mobile operating system started taking off with users and posing a threat to the iPhone. He added that "it's not a holy war" but is a "simple economic transfer" that should be worked out between the two companies.
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He noted that Samsung wants $6.78 million in damages for its '239 patent that covers video transfer and could have implications for Facetime. For its other patent related to camera and folder organization, Samsung wants $158,400 in damages.
"We at Samsung don't ordinarily sue over patents like this," Quinn said. "In the pre 'holy war' days, what would happen in this industry is companies would get together and enter into cross-licensing for their entire portfolios."
Quinn added that Apple lawyers are arguing that Samsung is taking sales away from Apple because it implemented features people want. However, he said Apple doesn't actually use most of the patented innovations. At the same time, Quinn argued that Apple's patents are invalid. Apple attorney Harold McElhinny said during his opening argument earlier Tuesday that it's not acceptable to steal an innovation just because it hasn't yet been used in an Apple product.
"Apple wants you believe these claims are worth over $2 billion even though they're not valuable enough for Apple to use," Quinn said. "Apple is seeking massive damages on fictitious lost sales because of very small features you'll learn didn't have an impact on sales at all."
Apple and Samsung have accused each other of copying features used in their popular smartphones and tablets, and the jury will have to decide who actually infringed and how much money is due. This trial involves different patents and newer devices than the ones disputed at trial in August 2012 and in a damages retrial in November 2013. For instance, the new trial involves the iPhone 5, released in September 2012, and Samsung's Galaxy S3, which also debuted in 2012.
Samsung says Apple's Facetime infringes one of its patents.Apple
Along with different patents and different devices, this trial has some interesting new facets. One is that most Samsung features that Apple says infringe are items that are a part of Android, Google's mobile operating system that powers Samsung's devices. All patents except one, called "slide to unlock," are built into Android.
Suing Google wouldn't get Apple anywhere since Google doesn't make its own phones or tablets. Instead, Apple has sued companies that sell physical devices using Android, a rival to Apple's iOS mobile operating system. In particular, Apple believes Samsung has followed a strategy to copy its products and then undercut Apple's pricing. While Apple isn't suing Google, it expects that Google will make changes to its software if Samsung is found to infringe on patents through Samsung's Android devices.
The latest installment of the Apple vs. Samsung saga kicked off Monday with jury selection as the tech giants battle over patent infringement. The companies selected 10 jurors -- six women and four men -- from a pool of about 140 potential candidates. While the jury pool comes from people living and working in Silicon Valley, few have tech backgrounds. One works as police officer, another is a retired teacher who likes salsa dancing, and yet another is an accounting assistant. In the more tech-savvy category falls a retired software executive from IBM and an executive who works in renewable energy.
However, two jurors asked to be excused from duty at the beginning of court Tuesday. One cited illness while the other cited financial hardship. That brought the jury size down to eight, four women and four men. The jury must have six people for the trial to progress. Judge Lucy Koh joked that she would be giving the remaining jurors Vitamin C and energy drinks and warned them against going bungee jumping or taking other risks for the next month.
The companies may be asking for damages and sales bans, but what's really at stake is the market for mobile devices. Apple now gets two-thirds of it sales from the iPhone and iPad, South Korea-based Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones, and both want to keep dominating the market. So far, Apple is ahead when it comes to litigation in the US. Samsung has been ordered to pay the company about $930 million in damages.
There are seven patents at issue in the latest case -- five held by Apple and two by Samsung. Apple has accused Samsung of infringing US patents Nos. 5,946,647; 6,847,959; 7,761,414; 8,046,721; and 8,074,172. All relate to software features, such as "quick links" for '647, universal search for '959, background syncing for '414, slide-to-unlock for '721, and automatic word correction for '172. Overall, Apple argues that the patents enable ease of use and make a user interface more engaging.
Samsung, meanwhile, has accused Apple of infringing US patents Nos. 6,226,449 and 5,579,239, or in shorthand, '449 and '239. The '449 patent, which Samsung purchased from Hitachi, involves camera and folder organization functionality. The '239 patent, which Samsung also acquired, covers video transmission functionality and could have implications for Apple's use of FaceTime.
The Samsung gadgets that Apple says infringe are the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S II, Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy SII Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, and the Stratosphere. Samsung, meanwhile, says the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Mini, iPod Touch (fifth generation) and iPod Touch (fourth generation) all infringe.
The arguments by Apple and Samsung in the latest case are expected to last until April 29 or 30, and then the jury will deliberate. Court will be in session three days each week -- Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays -- though the jury will deliberate every business day until it has reached a verdict.
Steve Jobs was convinced that if he could tie his company's products together, he'd be successful in locking them into Apple's device line, according to a newly shared e-mail from the late Apple co-founder.
Jobs wrote in an e-mail to employees in October 2010 outlining his itinerary for his company's annual Top 100 meeting -- an event attended only by Apple's top 100 employees to discuss the company's future -- that his goal would be to find a way to connect his firm's products in such a way that customers would have no choice but to stay with Apple.
"Tie all of our products together, so we further lock customers into our ecosystem," Jobs wrote in a bullet list of items he wanted to discuss at Apple's 2011 Top 100 confab.
Jobs' e-mail was disclosed during opening arguments at the Apple-Samsung patent-infringement case in the US District Court in San Jose, Calif. Samsung obtained the e-mails during the Discovery phase of the trial, and promptly brought them before the jury to outline its belief that Apple's real issue is with Google and not Samsung -- a claim Apple has flatly denied.
That Jobs was eyeing ways in which he could "lock customers" into his firm's products is a double-edged sword. From an investor's perspective, keeping customers and forcing them to buy into Apple's products boosts revenue and profits. However, the practice of locking customers into products is a loaded term in the tech world that harkens back to IBM and Microsoft.
IBM was criticized for years over its practices with service agreements and warranties, stipulating that it would not support products that used non-IBM products. Microsoft has been the focus of antitrust debate for decades over Windows and Internet Explorer. Microsoft has also been criticized for its use of proprietary file formats, that some say, aim at keeping customers using its products and no others.
Apple is certainly no stranger to lock-in, either. The company has for years been criticized for its use of proprietary components and file formats, and Jobs' own desire to talk about lock-in adds more fuel to the fire.
Despite the criticism over alleged lock-in practices, they don't appear to be hurting the companies mentioned. All three firms -- Apple, IBM, and Microsoft -- are all posting huge revenue and profit figures and are showing no signs of those dropping significantly anytime soon.
CNET has contacted Apple for comment on the Steve Jobs e-mail. We will update this story when we have more information.
Apple shares are down 50 cents to $541.15 in early trading on Wednesday.
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Apple should receive about $2.191 billion in damages from Samsung for patent infringement, an expert for the iPhone maker argued Tuesday.
Apple earlier said it wanted about $2 billion, but the testimony Tuesday marked the first time the company disclosed the precise total and the factors that went into the calculation.
Christopher Vellturo, an economist and principal at consultancy Quantitative Economic Solutions, said he reached $2.191 billion figure by calculating reasonable royalties and lost sales and profits. He noted the figure comes from evaluating the scale of the infringement, the time span, the head-to-head rivalry between Apple and Samsung, and the belief that the patents were key for making Samsung devices easier to use and more attractive to buyers.
"It's a very large market, and Samsung is doing a lot of sales into that market," Vellturo said. "This was a significant period for Samsung to be infringing."
Samsung sold more than 37 million infringing devices, Vellturo said. The total amount of sales in dollars was kept confidential.
Almost two years after Apple and Samsung faced off in a messy patent dispute, the smartphone and tablet rivals have returned to the same San Jose, Calif., courtroom to argue once again over patents before federal Judge Lucy Koh. Apple is arguing that Samsung infringed on five of its patents for the iPhone, its biggest moneymaker, and that Apple is due $2 billion for that infringement. Samsung wants about $7 million from Apple for infringing two of its software patents.
While the companies are asking for damages, the case is about more than money. What's really at stake is the market for mobile devices. Apple now gets two-thirds of it sales from the iPhone and iPad, South Korea-based Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones, and both want to keep dominating the market. So far, Apple is ahead when it comes to litigation in the US. Samsung has been ordered to pay the company about $930 million in damages.
However, Samsung, in its cross examination, sought to poke holes in expert John Hauser's methodology. Its attorneys said features such as brand and operating system factor more prominently in consumers' purchase decisions.
Hauser, the Kirin professor of marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management, is key to Apple's argument that it deserves about $2 billion in damages for Samsung's alleged infringement. The company argues that Samsung copied Apple's iPhone as it tried to figure out how to react and compete with the device. It realized it "simply did not have a product that could compete successfully against the iPhone," Apple attorneys said during opening arguments last week. Samsung, however, argues that many of the patented items are features Google had earlier created for Android.
Hauser surveyed hundreds of Samsung device users -- 507 for phones and 459 for tablets -- to measure the percent of consumers who would buy devices with certain features. He then used those results to determine how much people would pay for Apple's patented features.
"The features that were enabled by the patents at issue in this case have a measurable impact on consumer demand for Samsung devices," Hauser said during his testimony Tuesday.
Hauser surveyed users about Apple's patented features -- universal search, background syncing, quick links, automatic word correction, and slide-to-unlock -- as well as 21 other features such as screen size, camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, and voice-to-text. However, he didn't take into account brand, operating system, battery life, or LTE connectivity as reasons for buying a phone.
In the case, Apple and Samsung have accused each other of copying features used in their popular smartphones and tablets, and the jury will have to decide who actually infringed and how much money is due. This trial involves different patents and newer devices than the ones disputed at trial in August 2012 and in a damages retrial in November 2013. For instance, the new trial involves the iPhone 5, released in September 2012, and Samsung's Galaxy S3, which also debuted in 2012.
The latest trial kicked off last Monday with jury selection. Last Tuesday featured opening arguments and testimony by Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing. Other witnesses who have testified include Greg Christie, an Apple engineer who invented the slide-to-unlock iPhone feature; Thomas Deniau, a France-based Apple engineer who helped develop the company's quick link technology; and Justin Denison, chief strategy officer of Samsung Telecommunications America. Denison's testimony came via a deposition video.
Apple experts who took the stand included Andrew Cockburn, a professor of computer science and software engineering at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Todd Mowry, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University; and Alex Snoeren, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego.
Samsung, meanwhile, has accused Apple of infringing US patents Nos. 6,226,449 and 5,579,239. The '449 patent, which Samsung purchased from Hitachi, involves camera and folder organization functionality. The '239 patent, which Samsung also acquired, covers video transmission functionality and could have implications for Apple's use of FaceTime.There are seven patents at issue in the latest case -- five held by Apple and two by Samsung. Apple has accused Samsung of infringing US patents Nos. 5,946,647; 6,847,959; 7,761,414; 8,046,721; and 8,074,172. All relate to software features, such as "quick links" for '647, universal search for '959, background syncing for '414, slide-to-unlock for '721, and automatic word correction for '172. Overall, Apple argues that the patents enable ease of use and make a user interface more engaging.
The Samsung gadgets that Apple says infringe are the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S II, Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy SII Skyrocket, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, and the Stratosphere. Samsung, meanwhile, says the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Mini, iPod Touch (fifth generation) and iPod Touch (fourth generation) all infringe.
The arguments by Apple and Samsung in the latest case are expected to last until April 29 or 30, at which time the jury will deliberate. Court will be in session three days each week -- Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays -- though the jury will deliberate every business day until it has reached a verdict.
Does this video have a fiery sky snake? You bet!Video screenshot by Michael Franco/CNETSure, drones can be used to do innocuous things like deliver pizzas or beer. But they can also be put to more sinister purposes like spying on our every move and shooting menacing laser shapes at us if they don't like where we're going.
At least, that's the dystopian vision of drones that's brought to life in the experimental short film "Dysco" by British animation director Simon Russell.
The nearly 3-minute-long video, which was just chosen as a staff pick by Vimeo, takes you into the near future where drones and cameras not only hang in the sky and from elaborate scaffolds attached to futuristic buildings, but get pretty groovy as they move in time to a heavy dubstep electronic soundtrack.
"Initially I aimed to make an abstract animation concerned only with synchronising shapes and sound,"Russell writes on his blog. "But the environments kept getting darker, influences from the real world crept in, especially the Snowdon leaks, the Arab Spring, and maybe just the fact of living in London, the most surveilled city in the world."
As the video opened, I had a sense that there was more packed into each frame than I was seeing, so I found myself hitting the pause button every few seconds. That helped me pick out details like the logo for "Freedom Fences" and the sign that reads, "CCTV For Your Protection." I also cranked up the volume, which let me pick out the robotic catch phrase, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Then, of course, there's the fiery sky snake.
But despite poring over the frames, I clearly missed even more gems that are packed into the video.
"I spent a long time detailing the world of 'Dysco,'" writes Russell. "Everything has a reason for being, for example the lampposts have solar panels and anti-climb spikes to stop interference with the cameras. The graffiti references various hacker groups and movements such as Lulsec and Anonymous. 'Freedom' or 'Resistance' is plastered on the walls in Turkish, Cantonese, and Korean. The drones and security apparatus are branded with parodies of major tech companies; FreeSec is based on the Google Chrome logo whilst Omni is a parody of Facebook."
Keep your eye out for those details and more as you check out the awesomeness of "Dysco" below. If you want to go even deeper into Russell's process, take a look at this clip that details the making of this world.
"I think there's something in my eye."NASAI always knew NASA was working on part-man, part-machine cybernauts to pilot missions to Mars and beyond. Now I have proof!
Oh, um, what's that? He's not a cybernaut? He's just a regular astronaut trying out an eyewash device in Houston? Drat!
Well, you have to admit that this photo of European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst certainly does raise some eyebrows (most of all, his). It's designed to help with a pesky problem that most little kids never think about when they dream of rocketing into space -- getting a speck of dust in your eyes.
In the zero-gravity environment of the International Space Station, where Gerst will be heading on May 28 for a six-month mission, the ordinary annoyances of Earth can become big problems. According to the European Space Agency, which published this image, it's hard to get something uncomfortable out of your eye up there because you can't simply rinse it under running water, or even splash water on your face from a cupped hand.
For one, there's no running tap water on the ISS. And secondly, if there were, that stream of water would just float away like a silvery snake.
So engineers have come up with these goggles, worn here by Gerst at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, which rinse the eyes with an eyewash solution and then drain it away. It might look and sound pretty uncomfortable, but the ESA reports that Gerst assures us, "It does not feel weird, but on the contrary it is good to know that we have these items onboard."
Hmmm. That's exactly what I'd expect a cybernaut to say!
Saturn's moon Titan and its liquid lakes make for an appealing deep-space destination.NASA/Steven Hobbs
It's been nearly 45 years since humans first set foot on the moon. The futurists of that era would likely be quite disappointed to know that we still have yet to press much farther into our solar system.
Sure, we've got robots in different area codes all over Mars -- if Mars had area codes -- but it still doesn't feel quite the same as setting human eyes on alien territory. Of course, private and NASA efforts to land humans on the red planet are under way, but why stop there?
In the interests of long-term planning, I've compiled a gallery of the top 10 places in our solar system that are intriguing and -- at least theoretically -- hospitable enough for a manned visit.
Once we've surveyed all the available real estate, maybe we can start talking colonization. Click through the slideshow below for the details on the most interesting destinations in our solar system, and then start packing your great-grandchildren's bags for their trip to the Kuiper Belt.
