Xpertfeed

Summary: Years in the making, the Supreme Court has agreed to listen to Samsung's appeal of Apple's design patent awards. At first it looked like Apple won its design patent wars over Samsung. As time went on, that "victory" started looking more like a defeat as Samsung won its appeals. Now, Apple is in even more trouble. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has elected to hear Samsung's appeal of the $548-million award lower courts gave Apple. In December 2015, Samsung agreed to pay Apple $548 million in damages over iPhone patents. But Samsung has also claimed "all rights to obtain reimbursement from Apple". So, Samsung appealed this loss to Apple to the Supreme Court . SCOTUS has agreed to address the issue. Specifically, Samsung is asking that the court decide that when a design patent is applied to only a component of a product, the award of infringer's profits should be limited to those profits attributable to the com...

Summary: Domino's has thought outside the box, prototyping what it claims is the world's first autonomous delivery vehicle that has already traversed Brisbane streets to deliver pizzas. Dominos Pizza has unveiled its plans for the first commercial autonomous delivery vehicle, the Domino's Robotic Unit, known as DRU. The four-wheeled driverless vehicle with pizza box-sized compartments has been designed for the pizza giant with help from Australian startup Marathon Robotics. Speaking in Brisbane on Thursday night, Domino's CEO and Managing Director Don Meij said that DRU had already successfully performed a number of customer deliveries in restricted streets in Brisbane under a special permit given by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. During these trials, DRU was operated in semi-autonomous mode to ensure the tests complied with current reg...

Summary: The software giant said the flaws could allow an attacker to remotely run malware if a user opens specially crafted media content that's hosted on a website. The vulnerabilities in how Windows handles media files could allow an attacker to remotely run malware. This month's bumper release of security patches has one bulletin that affects every supported version of Windows. Microsoft said on its regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday that users on Windows Vista and later -- including Windows 10 -- should patch as soon as possible to prevent attackers from exploiting a flaw in how the operating system handles media files. The "critical" bulletin ( MS16-027 ) patches an issue that could allow an attacker to remotely execute code or malware as the logged-in user. Those who are logged in as an administrator are at the greatest risk. An attacker would have to trick a user into opening a...

Summary: Credit card-based scams are nothing new -- but ransomware makes these campaigns far more dangerous. If you have a Visa credit card, be careful not to fall for a new ransomware phishing campaign which offers you benefits and rewards, researchers say. A new and unusual phishing campaign has caught the eye of Symantec. Tthe scheme relates to credit cards -- but attempts to lure consumers to download ransomware instead of handing over their financial details. While fraudulent credit-card based spam is nothing new, the introduction of ransomware into the mix is a new avenue cyberattackers are using to try and force people out of their hard-earned cash to keep their system files and content. The news follows the latest high-profile infection case to hit the headlines; that of two German hospitals which became victims of ransomware which booted the organizations out of their servers and IT systems. Neither hospital has bowed to the cyberattacker's demand fo...

Intel has used Mobile World Congress 2016 to attempt to position itself as a big player in the push towards 5G and the Internet of Things with a raft of product and partnership announcements. Intel said it will work with Ericsson, Nokia, LG and Verizon in order to speed up development, testing and ultimately deployment of 5G wireless networks in an effort to provide greater connectivity for computers, Internet of Things and mobile devices and even connected cities and driverless vehicles. "5G represents a significant shift for these networks and we think it's essential to get ready ahead of the curve," said corporate vice president and general manager of the Intel communication and services group, Aicha Evans, speaking in the run up to MWC in Barcelona. Intel will work with Ericsson and engage in joint trials surrounding 5G, while it will also work with Nokia to collaborate on 5G radio technologies "to meet the device connectivity requirements for future ...

Microsoft rolled out a new preview build of Windows 10 'Redstone' on February 18 which includes a few new, externally visible features. Among the new features in this build are improvements for searching for music in Cortana; some UI improvements to the Favorites bar in Microsoft Edge; the ability to clear browsing data when exiting Microsoft Edge, plus improved Edge Download prompts; and the ability to attach photos to Skype messages. No, Edge extension support still isn't there in this build, for those wondering. Windows 10 preview Build 14267 , unlike a number of recent Fast Ring Windows 10 test builds, isn't just about under-the-covers Core work and fixes. There are some fixes in this build, too, including ones that allow recovery after reset to work as expected. Microsoft also has made it so users with PCs with Intel RealSense cameras can again use their front-facing cameras. And an incorrect storage capacity issue also is now fixed with Build 14267, acco...

VMware launched a new release of its Virtual SAN platform as it rounds out its software-defined stack for private and public cloud infrastructure. The VMware Virtual SAN is the company's software defined storage play and is primarily aimed at Nutanix. The company said that it has more than 3,000 hyper-converged infrastructure customers since VMware Virtual SAN launched 21 months ago. VMware Virtual SAN 6.2 will be available in the first quarter with a starting price of $2,495 per CPU. Software defined storage is shifting the landscape for vendors. More storage is being consumed, but the traditional system vendors in the market are seeing slowing growth. The cloud is partly to blame, but there's also the hardware end of the equation. Software defined storage means that arrays can be built with commodity x86 servers. As a result, those sales that were once recognized by storage vendors shows up as a server sale. VMware is using the trend to work both the storage and network...

Facebook has once again made changes to its News Feed algorithm as part of its ongoing effort to keep users happy with the kinds of content they see on the site. The social networking giant said the latest changes are based off of qualitative feedback from a sampling of Facebook users who were asked to share their daily experiences with News Feed content. Based on this research, Facebook said it was able to rank which stories users would be interested in seeing near the top of News Feed even if they choose not to actually engage with it.Instead of using engagement actions, Facebook focused on two particular signals: The probability that users want to see a particular story at the top of their feed, and the probability they'll like, share or comment on it. "We saw through our research that people reported having a better News Feed experience when the stories they see at the top are stories they are both likely to rate highly if asked and likely to engage with," s...

The forthcoming Minecraft: Education Edition, written in C++, looks faster and smoother than the old Java version, but won't be compatible with all the old mods. If Microsoft mis-handles the transition, a split could damage the Minecraft community that underpins the game's stunning success.... Microsoft will release a beta of  Minecraft: Education Edition  written in C++ rather than Java, which looks like removing the performance problems associated with running the current version of Minecraft. The Education Edition should run well on the types of Windows laptop commonly found in schools, and in homes. Microsoft announced the Education Edition at the BETT 2016 educational technology exhibition held last week in London. Microsoft also announced that it had  purchased MinecraftEDU , an educational version of Minecraft, from Teacher Gaming LLC. (Microsoft  acquires MinecraftEdu from Teacher Gaming .) MinecraftEDU will not be developed any further, but most ...

Summary: Want a portable Linux-powered web server that will fit into your pocket? Look no further than  Ocean . Ocean may look like a smartphone, but it is in fact a fully functional Linux-powered web server that you can fit into your pocket. Ocean has been designed from the ground up for portability, and features an integrated battery that allows you to run web and Bluetooth applications in places where direct power is limited. The device is approximately the size of an iPhone 6, and can easily fit in your pocket. Because it packs the power of a Linux operating system (the default is Debian, but you can install your own), Ocean can be used for a variety of functions: Building and deploying web applications using frameworks such as Node.js or Ruby-on-Rails Building a custom router IoT hub iBeacon or Eddystone beacon prototyping The device can also act as a portable battery pack for iPhones and Android devices, and holds enough power to recharge an iPhone 6 ...