While touring South Korea on Tuesday, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told reporters that, despite Microsoft’s allegations and legal threats, the search engine giant will continue to offer the Android operating system free to handset manufacturing partners. He even went so far as to criticize Microsoft’s litigation against manufacturers who are using Google’s mobile OS.

“Microsoft is not telling the truth on this issue, and they are using tactics to scare people because they are scared of the success of Android,” Schmidt said in a news conference when asked to comment about Samsung caving in and paying royalties to Microsoft.

The comment follows a statement made by Google patent lawyer Tim Porter who claims that Microsoft uses its portfolio of patents when its products stop succeeding and the company gets marginalized… which is what’s going on with Android. “They use the large patent portfolio they’ve built up to get revenue from the success of other companies’ products,” Porter said, also pointing out that Microsoft used a similar tactic with Linux.

Tuesday Schmidt told reporters that Google’s pending purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings won’t impact relations with mobile handset partners. Google agreed to purchase the company back in August for $12.5 billion — its largest acquisition thus far — in hopes to expand its presence in the mobile market and take on Apple. The purchase will also open the doors to more than 17,000 patents which Google can use to help protect the Android platform.

But one of the biggest fears floating around in the mobile industry is that Motorola will get special treatment once it becomes officially integrated into the search engine giant. Schmidt claims that won’t be the case. “In general, with all of our partners, we told them that the Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android…we’re not going to change in any material way the way we operate,” Schmidt said.

Although Google doesn’t generate revenue by supplying partners with the Android platform, it does generate an income by pushing ads to Android-enabled devices: around $2.5 billion per year, in fact, which is expected to double within the next 12 months. Microsoft is rumored to be pulling in $3 to $6 per Android device sold thanks to its portfolio of “dubious” patents.

“Android has a patent fee,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said. “It’s not like Android’s free. You do have to license patents.”

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Next week, Mozilla will release another Firefox 8 version, which specifically targets users of Firefox 3.6. The “advertised update” is somewhat odd as Mozilla is pushing out Firefox 3.6.24 today and pitches the update next week as a plea to 3.6 users to make the move to version 8. Perhaps it would be a better idea to send the update to version 8 out simultaneously with version 3.6.24 to reduce the overall number of updates.

Mozilla stresses that 3.6 will still be supported, even if users aren’t upgrading to version 8. There is no official end for 3.6 just yet. Mozilla says that users can update to the new version, if they are “inclined” to do so. Mozilla has made similar pitches with previous versions, but was not very successful. Firefox 3.6 users still account for about 5.8 percent market share, according to StatCounter, while Firefox 6 users are down to about 1.4 percent.

The update offer is scheduled to be sent out on November 17. Mozilla has not said when it will phase out Firefox 3.6. Current Firefox users will be getting a silent update (like Chrome) in Firefox with version 10 or 11, depending on Mozilla’s ability to implement the feature.

SOURCE via Mozilla

We first got wind of Sony’s PlayStation Suite SDK back at the Tokyo Game Show in September, but the company just opened up the application process for a closed beta test, letting Windows XP and Windows 7 users in the US, UK and Japan submit their credentials for early access. Those getting the nod from Sony will be able to develops apps for use on the PS Vita, which is set to hit in February, along with the PS Suite — that “hardware-neutral” framework that’ll allow access from non-PlayStation branded products, including the Xperia Play, Tablet S and Tablet P, with the potential for third-party devices to come as well. The SDK uses the C# programming language, and doesn’t require devs to have access to actual Sony hardware — so don’t expect a Vita to show up at your door anytime this year. Think you have what it takes to be a Sony dev? Hit up the source link to send ‘em the word.

SOURCE via Playstation

Do overclockers tend to carry iPhones? Some do, surely, which is why MSI has released Afterburner for all iOS devices over at the App Store. Like the Android version we reported a while back, it hooks up to the main Afterburner utility on your PC to allow remote tweaking and monitoring of your MSI motherboard. You don’t even have to touch your case to clear the static.

SOURCE via iTunes

When Adobe announced the death of Flash Player on mobile devices earlier this week, it did so while promising to issue a final version for Android devices and the BlackBerry PlayBook. Now, that promise has come to fruition, with the release of version 11.1. Like pretty much every Adobe update, this latest refresh promises to patch up a host of security flaws — 12 “critical” ones, to be exact. More intriguing, however, are Adobe’s plans for future security support. In a blog post published Wednesday, company exec Danny Winokur confirmed that Adobe will “continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations.” This sentiment was echoed in a Twitter post yesterday from Brad Arkin, senior director of product security and privacy: “Adobe will continue to ship security updates for Flash Player mobile after the final feature release.” But neither Winokur nor Arkin have specified how long this patch distribution will continue, and the company has yet to offer any sort of timeline for future tablet and smartphone updates. For more information on the latest release, check out the source link below.

SOURCE via Adobe

Normally when the giants of the entertainment industry team up, it’s to record “We Are The World”– but not this time. Sony, Panasonic, X6D and Samsung are forming a supergroup that makes the Traveling Wilburys seem small-time. They’re forming the “Full HD 3D Glasses initiative,” a project to standardize 3D glasses. Currently, we have wholly incompatible active-shutter models based on different technologies, which the consortium wants to replace with a unified standard that will let you use the same pair of spectacles on any display or at any theatre that uses the Xpand 3D standard. The doors open on the joint testing centre later this month, which will check and approve products to the program, gaining the logo you see before you as a badge of honor.

SOURCE via Full HD 3D Glasses

Whether it will be called Xbox Next, Xbox 720 or Xbox Loop, the next-generation Microsoft gaming console slated to make an appearance in 2013 will reportedly feature a “Zune HD-like” hardware platform: an ARM-based heterogeneous system-on-chip (SoC) with multiple dedicated assistive cores for graphics, AI, physics, sound, networking, encryption and sensors. The SoC will even be custom designed by Microsoft along with two unannounced partners.

In addition to the ARM-based SoC, rumors suggest that the console’s operating system will be built around a Windows 9 core. Yet a recent leaked roadmap suggests that Windows 9 won’t even go into Developer Preview mode until the BUILD conference in 2013, the same timeframe when Xbox “Loop” is slated to arrive in stores. For that matter, Windows 9 isn’t scheduled to enter beta until CES 2014 if Microsoft stays on track. Using a Windows 8 core sounds more likely for the unannounced console to better connect it with Windows Phone 8 devices and Windows 8 PCs.

According to rumors, the next Xbox will rely on the ARM-based architecture in order to make it smaller and cheaper than the current Xbox 360 system, further enabling Kinect adoption. Microsoft may be looking to make it more portable despite previous conceptual designs of the future console, but don’t expect the company to remove the optical drive just yet — physical media is still the preferred method of content delivery.

For years Microsoft has stated that the Xbox 360 console will have a lifespan of up to around 2015, but that never meant the company would hold off on releasing a new console until then. Yet with mobile technology progressing at an accelerated rate and the uncertainty of the gaming industry’s immediate future, it’s understandable that Nintendo and Microsoft are scrambling to push the console sector into another generation. The Wii U looks to take on a tablet approach while current rumors suggest Microsoft wants something a bit more portable… possibly with 3G connectivity?

As always, take all of this with a grain of salt: nothing is official or set in stone.