A mysterious startup promising free wireless broadband and voice services to all Americans should rightly prompt a fair bit of skepticism, but FreedomPop isn’t quite your average fly-by-night organization (despite appearances). It’s backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, and it’s just signed an agreement with LTE wholesaler LightSquared to provide the backbone for the service. Unfortunately, details remain decidedly light otherwise. The company says that the service will launch sometime in 2012 (LightSquared’s network itself is slated to go live in the second half of the year, though it still faces some hurdles), and it will apparently be focused on serving markets most in need of wireless broadband initially, before rolling out across the country. As FierceCable notes, the service brings to mind the many free internet dial-up services of the 1990s, which relied largely on advertising, although it remains to be seen if that’s the route FreedomPop has in mind.

SOURCE via Fiercecable

Late last month AT&T withdrew its application with the FCC to acquire T-Mobile, in an attempt, it said, to focus on winning approval from the Department of Justice, first. Now a district court judge is considering dismissing the US’ antitrust suit against ole Ma Bell. According to Bloomberg, the DoJ is looking to either “withdraw without prejudice” or “stay” the suit, as a result of AT&T pulling its application from the FCC. Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle scheduled a hearing for December 15th to decide whether the deal is still possible in the proposed timeframe and the suit still worth pursuing. She had this to say:

We don’t have any confidence that we are spending all this time and effort and the taxpayers money and that we’re not being spun. The landscape has changed.

AT&T’s lawyers remained steadfast, however, demanding the company’s “day in court,” and reiterating that approval from the DoJ would improve its chances of getting the thumbs-up from the FCC. For more sordid details on this legal ping-pong match, hit the source link below.

SOURCE via Bloomberg

Take a look at the new steel door that is now protecting one of the world’s closest-guarded secrets, perhaps only second to Elvis Presley’s current secret identity and location. It’s the Coca-Cola vault, the new centerpiece of the World of Coca-Cola museum in downtown Atlanta.

Check out that big steel Coca-Cola bottle right with a keyhole in it.

The formula had been stored in a vault in the SunTrust Bank in Atlanta, Georgia, since 1925. Now it has left that bank for its new vault. According to Coca-Cola’s CEO, “the time has come for our secret formula to come back home.”

SOURCE via AJC

This image shows Apple lawyers’ wet dream for a Samsung tablet. It demonstrates one thing: the Apple lawyers who described it are imbeciles and/or clueless mischievous snakes. Just as much as Samsung’s product designers are unimaginative shameless cloning bastards.

These are Apple’s demands verbatim:

• Shapes that are not rectangular with four flat sides or that do not have four rounded corners.
• Front surfaces that are not completely flat or clear and that have substantial adornment.
• Thick frames rather than a thin rim around the front surface.
• Profiles that are not thin relative to [Apple patent D'889] or that have a cluttered appearance.

Apple is right to point out that the design and packaging of Samsung’s Galaxy tablet is a clone of the iPad. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s clearly made to look like the iPad. But Apple’s demands are just plain stupid.

Instead, they should have just asked Samsung to design a tablet that nobody could mistake for an iPad in a reasonable way. This could have been really easy. You only have to look at the Playbook or the Kindle Fire or any other tablet out there except for Samsung’s. They are well designed and nobody can confuse them. Samsung could have done this:

Pretty simple. Nobody would mistake that for an iPad but it would retain optimal usability. In fact, using that dark grey—like color professionals use for color proofing—would make this tablet better for color perception and give it its own distinctive look.

Incidentally, except for the change of hue from black to neutral grey, this is actually the tablet that Samsung has made to avoid more legal trouble. Apple is suing them again because they think it’s not enough. I bet that if they changed the color no judge in the world would rule against them. And yes, please make it real, with pink color! I’m sure Samsung can pull something unique out of this.

When life hands you lemons, so the saying goes, you make lemonade. But what happens when the FCC and the Justice Department hand you an almost certain public defeat? If you’re AT&T, the answer is simple: you make denial-ade.

At least, that seemed to be the case Wednesday when, during a panel discussion at the 39th annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, AT&T CFO John Stephens proclaimed the company and Deutsche Telecom are still “motivated to complete a transaction and we continue to pursue the sale.”

He added, presumably with a straight face and no outward sign that he was about to break out in maniacal laughter, that “it’s for our customers. It’s a solid, strategic move that will help us provide better service, while addressing the spectrum concerns that everyone in the industry shares.”

Brave words, considering how the FCC roundly humiliated AT&T on the day it granted the company’s request to withdraw its T-Mobile merger application by making public a searing internal report that showed tremendous potential harm to consumers if the deal were to go forward.

Alas, though it would appear AT&T expects to win its still-pending courtroom fight with the Department of Justice, this is likely what is known in publicly-humiliated-Southern-Belle circles as ‘putting on a brave face’. Statements made later in the discussion suggest that AT&T may be planning for the worst. “As I said before,” Stephens said, “we are going to continue to work with our partner DT, Deutsche Telekom, and work toward a resolution of the transaction.

Those conversations, as they occur, if and when they occur, and as they occur with the Department of Justice, will be kept confidential out of respect for them and for our partners and in hopes to improve the opportunity for the process to be successful.”

Anyone familiar with the unctuousness of the typical MBA should recognize that phrases like “if and when” are never thrown out casually. They could mean nothing, of course, but it certainly sounds like a stealth admission that Deutsche Telecom knows the deal ist kaput and is shopping around for a new T-Mobile buyer, something AT&T is keen to avoid.

Which is to say, this is AT&T’s way of standing outside Deutsche Telecom’s window blasting a Peter Gabriel song. In the meantime, AT&T and the Department of Justice are set to resume hostilities tomorrow, with a previously-postponed status hearing regarding the planned February 13 trial. Whether the events that have occurred since the last hearing have any effect on proceedings remains to be seen, but we will be paying close attention.

This, my friends, may be the end of the smartphone fanboy wars. I can give my two cents. The rest of the tech community can give theirs. But God Almighty himself, through his appointed papal mouthpiece, has picked a winner.

For this year’s celebration of Christ’s birth, Pope Benedict will remotely light a giant Christmas tree display attached to the side of a mountain, from 130 miles away. So, yeah, fuck your lawn display.

But! Scandal! He’s doing it with the Lord’s fave new gadget, MSNBC reports, straight from the Vatican newswire:

Benedict XVI will activate the illumination from his apartments in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. He will touch the screen of a Sony “Tablet” with an “Android” operating system which, via the Internet, will transmit the command to switch on the electric current to the tree.

Will this alleged “Android” “Tablet” be a Sony S? It doesn’t matter. The heavens have parted, and the choice is clear: The Pope Chooses Android. If you are one of the world’s billion-plus Catholics, take note!

Also, kind of sad how far we’ve fallen since the days of the burning bush. Moses needed no “tablet.”

SOURCE via MSNBC

Flerovium and livermorium. Prime names for really ugly babies — or, equivalently, new elements on the periodic table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry opted for the latter last week, baptizing elements 114 and 116 just about six months after they were first ratified. Back in June, as you may recall, Russia’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research proposed flerovium and muscovium as names for the two ultraheavy elements, while deferring to the IUPAC for final say on the matter.

At the time, the organization said it would likely accept any name, as long as “it’s not something too weird.” Flerovium (Fl), named after Soviet nuclear physicist Georgiy Flerov, apparently passed that litmus test. Muscovium, sadly, did not. Instead, slot 116 will belong to livermorium (Lv), named after California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which collaborated on the discovery of the element, back in 2000.

Bill Goldstein, associate director of Lawrence Livermore National Labs’ Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, heralded the decision as a celebration of his institute’s collaborative contribution to chemistry: “Proposing these names for the elements honors not only the individual contributions of scientists from these laboratories to the fields of nuclear science, heavy-element research, and super-heavy-element research, but also the phenomenal cooperation and collaboration that has occurred between scientists at these two locations.”

The nomenclature isn’t entirely set in stone, however, as the two names must first endure a five-month public comment period before appearing in chemistry textbooks.

SOURCE via Live Science

Sony and Ericsson’s decade-long partnership may have humbled Kim Kardashian, but dwindling market share and an over-reliance on feature phones signalled the end of the affair. Ericsson will have until “mid 2012″ to clear its things from the spare room before the electronics giant begins a new solo venture. The revitalized enterprise will leverage its parent company’s brand strength, R&D and content (since it owns a massive chunk of the entertainment industry) and in comments made to Times of India, company Vice President Kristian Tear said there would be a “fierce” advertising push to restore the company’s reputation as a major player worldwide — before taking a Pilates class to try and fit back into its bachelor pad.

SOURCE via Times of India

Digitude, an IP licensing company based in Alexandria, Virginia, just sued RIM, LG, Sony, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, HTC, and Amazon over the infringement of four of its patents:

Amazon got sued just over the following patent:

• 5,926,636: Remote Procedure Call Component Management Method for a Heterogeneous Computer Network

All others were sued additionally for alleged infringed of the patents below:

• 5,929,655: Dual-Purpose I/O Circuit in a Combined LINK/PHY Integrated Circuit
• 6,208,879: Mobile Information Terminal Equipment and Portable Electronic Apparatus
• 6,456,841: Mobile Communication Apparatus Notifying User of Reproduction Waiting Information Effectively

As it is the case so often, Digitude was not the inventor behind these patents, but took ownership just two weeks ago. Two of the patents were originally assigned to Adaptec, one to Mitsubishi and one to Apple. It appears that all four patents are part of a patent package Digitude announced to have acquired in June of this year. The company claims that it owns more than 550 patents, all of which are in the areas of PC and consumer mobile devices, computer peripherals and communications services.

Earlier this year, Digitude announced its intentions to monetize patents via an “innovative patent monetization model, where the company will acquire, aggregate, and license key technology areas in a patent consortium through strategic partnerships.” The company hired several litigation lawyers “in anticipation of launching our licensing programs.” It appears that RIM, LG, Sony, Samsung, Nokia Motorola, HTC, and Amazon are the first ones to ‘experience’ Digitude’s innovative licensing program.

SOURCE via Morris James

Galaxy fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief as Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung has been denied. But while the judge’s ruling allows them to continue selling their products, it also suggests they infringed on Apple’s patents.

So what does all this mean? For consumers it means you won’t be seeing Galaxy phones and tablets disappearing from store shelves anytime soon. So hooray for choice! But seeing as a final verdict has yet to be reached, combined with the fact that Samsung was determined to have likely infringed upon multiple Apple patents (including their software patent for scrolling on touchscreens) it’s likely that they’ll end up having to pay a metric-butt-ton of royalties to them.

Given the scope of this ruling and the patents it upholds, it’s likely that Apple could soon find itself in a Microsoft-esque position wherein they can just sit back and let the cash flow in, not that they need the money.

SOURCE via Reuters