4oD for iOS and Android to get Live TV and offline viewing

Watch Live coming to 4oD in 2013

Channel 4 has announced a major upgrade to its 4oD application for iOS and Android.

The new-and-improved 4oD app, coming in early 2013, will allow users to tune in to the whole range of channels through the Watch Live functionality.

That means free, ad-supported, live streams of C4, 4+1, E4, More 4 over Wi-Fi and mobile internet, are coming directly to the iPhone, iPad and applicable Android devices.

Score one for Channel 4

The second major addition is the offline viewing. This will enable C4 fans to load their device with programming for when there's no connectivity or limited data allowances.

That functionality is not yet available on the BBC iPlayer app, so score one for Channel 4. Finally, the 4oD refit will also enable Pause and Play.

Sarah Rose, Channel 4's Commercial and Business Development Director, said: "We're very excited to be the first commercial public service broadcaster in the UK to offer mobile offline viewing, enabling our viewers to catch up with Channel 4 wherever they may be.

"The introduction of 'Watch Live' on the move and cross-platform 'Pause and Play' is great news for our young-skewing audience who are increasingly watching our content on multiple mobile devices."

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/4od-for-ios-and-android-to-get-live-tv-and-offline-viewing-1111749

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HTC DROID DNA gets revealed before its announcement

In a manner, which has shaped up to be quite fashionable lately, the previously leaked HTC DROID DNA for Verizon Wireless got revealed only a couple of days before its official announcement is scheduled to take place. The DROID DNA name has been confirmed on Verizon’s own DROID DOES webpage, while press renders of the photo have made an appearance in Twitter.

The leaked press photos reveal yet again that the upcoming Verizon DROID looks similar to the Japan exclusive HTC J butterfly, save for the Verizon livery on its black body with red accents . The same goes for the specs which will include a 5” full HD display, quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset, and 2GB of RAM.

HTC’s Android powerhouse with 1080p display for Verizon is scheduled to be announced this coming Tuesday, on November 13, at an event in New York City. We will be covering the unveiling live, so be sure to stick around for the full scoop on the device, including hands-on photos and initial impressions.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Via

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_droid_dna_gets_revealed_before_its_announcement-news-5066.php

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The uncertain future of NFC and the mobile wallet

There are a lot of companies, technologies, and services banking on the fact that you want to use your phone as a credit card, but do you? And what about retailers? We examine the past, present, and murky future of NFC and mobile payments.

Mobile payments. NFC. RFID. Digital Wallets. We’ve been hearing about these buzzwords for years. Entire companies have thrown their weight behind various mobile payment systems on many occasions, including Google. Yet, despite the attention the space has gotten, mainstream adoption remains elusive. According to a Gartner forecast back in May, there will be 448 million mobile payment users transacting $617 billion worth of business by 2016. That could be the case, but there are some important questions that remain unanswered.

Lately, all the talk is about ‘NFC’ or Near-Field Communication technology. (It’s a chip in your phone or gadget that can allow for a secure data transfer if you tap your device onto another NFC-enabled receiver.) There’s plenty of evidence that financial industry execs are ready, but what about everyone else? What is the benefit for retailers to join up? There’s also evidence to suggest that consumers are not averse to the idea of a mobile wallet, but few people are jumping onboard the options that currently exist. What is it going to take for NFC or some similar mobile payment technology to take off?

Are consumers ready?

Surveys of consumers show that people are interested in tapping their phones or credit cards at points of sale in order to make purchases. Contactless card payments and contactless mobile payments are steadily rising in popularity, but people overwhelmingly see them as a convenient way to pay for low cost items. A Forrester survey in the U.S. back in 2010 showed that 18 percent of respondents were interested in mobile payments. The same survey conducted in 2012 showed that 30 percent were interested.

In a study by M for Mobile UK, the vast majority of respondents thought the limit for mobile payments should be low. There was also a significant difference in the findings if contactless payments involved entering a PIN. Without a PIN, people were either not interested due to security concerns or thought the limit should be around £20.

You have to wonder what the benefit for consumers actually is. Contactless payment with a simple tap sounds convenient and could speed up queues to buy lunch or coffee in the morning, but if you have to toggle NFC on and off for security purposes, or stop to enter the PIN on your smartphone, then that boost in convenience is surely being lost. Our own security concerns may ruin the convenience NFC offers.

The industry incentives

Banks, wireless carriers, and retailers are the big companies hoping to push mobile payments. The reason is simple: money. They all believe it is the next big thing and expect it to be a growing source of revenue in the future. And to banks, carriers, and retailers, money is everything.

A white paper by M for Mobile discussing NFC and mobile payments found that, “For mobile network operators (MNOs) it is a question of reducing churn while banking brands can expect to see uplift through an increased volume of intermediary payments.”

The situation for retailers is a little more complex. On the one hand, “mobile payments is expected to deliver better cross and upselling.” On the other hand there is a relatively high cost for Point-of-Sale technology, if NFC is to be adopted. Retailers have to purchase and install cash registers that can handle NFC bumping and tapping instead of just credit card swiping. There is also a lack of demonstrable Return on Investment.

Have you ever been at a small retailer and seen a sign related to a minimum payment value for card payments? Retailers do that because credit card companies charge them a fee for every transaction. It may not be such a big issue for large retailers like McDonalds and Starbucks, but smaller retailers still aren’t completely on board with standard credit cards, let alone wireless forms of payment.

The big backers

Some companies are betting big on NFC and seem convinced mobile payments are set to take off. As such, they all want to get in on the ground floor.

Brad Greene, Sr. Business Leader for Visa told us, “Consumers in developed countries are becoming increasingly comfortable with using mobile devices to manage their finances. Banks are launching mobile applications that enable their customers to view account information, including balances, perform account transfers and mobile-check deposits. Adding payments to mobile banking is no longer considered a big leap but the natural next step.”

The AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile backed ISIS digital wallet service recently began trials in a couple cities, as well. As you might expect, they are similarly confident about mobile payments based on NFC technology taking off. An ISIS spokesperson told us, “Consumers are ready for a comprehensive and secure mobile commerce experience. We believe – and the ecosystem agrees – NFC is the best, most secure technology to modernize the payments process. Payment networks, card issuers, payment terminal manufacturers and mobile handset manufacturers have consolidated around and embraced NFC on a global scale.”

The current problem

There’s one big problem gumming up the works for NFC and that’s the lack of NFC-enabled handsets on the market and in circulation right now. M for Mobile research suggests that the tipping point will come in 2015 when we can expect NFC handset penetration to reach 51 percent. Forrester is less confident, suggesting that most new smartphones will ship with NFC by 2013 and that over 25 percent of Americans will own one by 2016. That’s a big gap.

The new iPhone 5 was widely expected to support NFC, but even back in March of 2011, sources reported that Apple would not adopt NFC and they were right. Patently Apple just revealed that the company has been granted a patent for an alternative technology that could be used for mobile payments.

No consensus on technology or consumer demand

Apple revealed a new service called Passbook with the iPhone 5, which looks like a baby step toward mobile payments. It is focused on coupons, tickets, and membership cards, but we are seeing a lot of interest from big names like American Express. Passbook isn’t a digital wallet yet, but it has ambitions to grow into one. Consumer confidence in using a smartphone for tickets, loyalty or membership cards, and redeeming coupons is higher than it is for mobile payments. As confidence grows further through use, this could grow into an NFC alternative for mobile payments, and it’s not the only one.

Square’s mobile payment system, which attaches a credit card scanner to any smartphone, is another NFC alternative that’s taking off quick. Starbucks will begin accepting Square payments early next month, which should be a real boost for the platform. Starbucks has also integrated its iOS app with the new Passbook service.

Another potentially huge player in the mobile payment space remains unconvinced that mobile wallets are really the answer. In a recent blog post, Anuj Nayar, Senior Director of Global Communications for PayPal, argues that many of the new mobile payment solutions, like those powered by NFC, are not solving a problem for consumers. He says, “Putting your wallet in the cloud and making it smart enough to work out the best way to pay for you solves a real consumer problem that mobile wallets simply do not.”

He argues that mobile devices are just another way to access your digital wallet, “At PayPal we have had a digital wallet for 14 years, we are just updating it to let our customers shop wherever they want, not just online.”

As Carey Kolaja, Head of Solutions Management for the Americas, PayPal, argued in an AllThingsD op/ed, “NFC is a technology, not a strategy. It enables communication between two devices that are close to each other (hence the name). It is not the Holy Grail for mobile payments.”

Worth remembering

One potential driver for Near-Field Communication technology is the fact that it has many potential uses beyond mobile payments. If consumers see the benefit of those uses, such as digital keys, tickets, and newspaper downloads, and companies realize their potential, then NFC could become a must-have feature. Once it is already present on a large number of handsets, it is obviously a viable solution for mobile payments as well, but that’s not the case right now and there’s clearly time for another solution to win out.

The future for mobile payments

The mobile payments market is still in its infancy, but there are signs that NFC may not be the winning technology in 5 or 10 years time. There are already rumblings about Google Wallet not working out – that the demand from consumers has been lower than Google predicted. Google relied on NFC and carrier backing by Sprint, but has been blocked by other wireless carriers who now back ISIS.

Even big adopters like Visa won’t hesitate to jump from the NFC ship if a better opportunity presents itself. Brad Greene at Visa told us, “Visa continues to see NFC as the near-term opportunity to make mobile payments a reality for consumers in developed countries…” but also went on to say, “…we are evaluating new and emerging technologies, including cloud-based technologies.”

Right now it looks as though mobile payments offer clear benefits for the companies offering solutions and for bigger retailers. What isn’t clear is the benefit for small retailers, and more importantly, the incentive for consumers. A mobile payment solution that is cheaper than NFC for retailers to adopt would be an attractive alternative. There isn’t much evidence that consumers care about the technology behind making mobile payments, so long as it’s secure.

It’s a muddy space at the moment, with service providers and technologies jockeying for position and there’s no clear leader in the pack yet. Years from now, we may all be paying for goods with our smartphones, tapping and bumping away at objects for sale, but that day isn’t here yet. And right now, despite major advances in Near-Field Communication and some high-profile product launches, the market for mobile payments seems as lost as ever. Until a hit service comes out, the mobile payment space is still on the move, and still for sale.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/389778/

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Nexus 7 has meltdown, owner receives replacement and Google Glass

After leaving a Nexus 7 charging unattended, a user was greeted to a room filled with smoke and a melted 7-inch tablet. Asus has reportedly offered a replacement device and Google Glass as compensation.

The release of the Nexus 7 set the tech world on fire (figuratively) when it showed us all how powerful and joyous a smaller tablet could be. However, for a user on China’s Google equivalent, Baidu, the fire was started in a much more literal sense.

The user posted the above photo to Baidu, showing a Nexus 7 after a tragic meltdown. Apparently the device began smoking while charging using the official connector and ended up filling the entire room with thick, black smoke. The device had only been charging for a total of three hours. Not surprisingly, the internals as well as the shell were completely ruined in the fire.

There are a number of reasons that this fire could have started, not all of them directly related to a mistake made by Google or Asus. It could have been an infrastructure issue or electrical surge just as easily as a faulty battery or wiring issue. Plus, this isn’t the first time a device has spontaneously combusted.

To Asus’ credit the user’s story has been taken as truth, even though there is really no way to tell who or what is at fault in a case like this. In response, Asus has allegedly offered to replace the Nexus 7 and include a free pair of Google Glass as an added bonus. It’s certainly admirable that Asus has stepped up to the plate and plans to set things right. However, since this particular incident has been so highly publicized there’s no doubt Asus realizes this is a necessary response if it wants to keep a positive brand image.

It’s certainly a dangerous line for Asus and Google — if the offering of Glass is true — to straddle. Once one fried device is replaced, it opens the floodgates for similar cases. Unfortunately, not all of those cases will be legitimate. It’s pretty easy (and arguably crazy) to torch a device once you’ve scratched the screen or broke some part of it. It may not be morally advisable, but we could see the generosity being exploited quite easily. Just as a disclaimer, if you’re thinking of setting fire to your Nexus 7 to earn a replacement then please refrain.

Since we’re innately curious about our readers, we have to ask if this has ever happened to you before. Any of you Nexus 7 owners had an unwelcome flame erupt from your tiny tablet? What about combusting devices in general? Any firsthand experience you’d like to share?

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/nexus-7-meltdown-and-owner-receives-google-glass/

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Terms & Conditions: Use Uber ‘at your own risk’

Tech-savvy city slickers across the U.S. have made mobile car service provider Uber one of the country's hottest startups, thanks to its ability to call you a cab at the push of a button. But a quick look at Uber's terms of service show the company needs to polish up its legal language, or it might scare people away.

What are you really agreeing to when you click that fateful “agree button? Terms & Conditions cuts out the legal lingo to spell it out in plain English.

Mobile car service company Uber has made a name for itself over the past year as one of the hottest startups out of Silicon Valley. And for good reason: It lets users in an increasing number of cities around the country call a cab, and pay for the fare, quickly and easily. But a quick look at Uber’s terms of service reveal a number of disturbing provisions that should give any Uber user pause. Here are the key bits from Uber’s terms of service.

Terms of service

Unlike some other companies, Uber’s terms are still long and next to impenetrable – an odd move for a hot Silicon Valley startup. But there it is. In the future, I’d like to see Uber either trim out the legalese from its terms, or offer a summary of the key things users need to know before clicking “I agree.” For now, we’ll just have to do the summarizing for them.

Obvious and boring

A huge chunk of Uber’s terms are mostly useless for the average user. But they basically boil down to: You have to be 18-years-old or greater to use Uber; don’t use a stolen credit card to pay for your Uber rides; download Uber from either iTunes or Google Play; you’re responsible for the cost of SMS messages sent to and from Uber.

Giant thing about Apple

One of the largest sections in Uber’s terms has to do with Apple. Here’s what it basically says: Even though you may have downloaded Uber from Apple, the Cupertino giant has nothing to do with Uber, its services, or your experience with it.

Pricing

A key feature of Uber is that you pay for your ride directly through the app – even tip is included. Uber is responsible for negotiating the price of your fare with the cab company. And whatever the app tells you the price is, that’s what it is. Uber sometimes offers promotional deals to some customers. But if you don’t get one directly, you can’t have that deal.

Bad cabbies

If you take a gander at Uber’s array of customer service Twitter accounts (there’s a separate one for each city of operation), you’ll quickly find disgruntled people complaining about bad, rude, or dangerous cab drivers. Now, if you have a bad experience using Uber, contact the company immediately. (Find contact info here, for all cities.) Based on the conversations on Twitter, one can see that Uber has a pretty standard policy to reprimand or remove drivers from its ranks who treat customers badly. Also, if a driver simply doesn’t show up, but still charges you for the ride, tell Uber and they’ll probably refund you the money.

But here’s the thing: Uber’s terms make it clear that the company doesn’t have to do any of this. From the terms: “[Uber] WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO DISPUTES, NEGOTIATIONS OF DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND [cab drivers]. WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT PLAY ANY ROLE IN MANAGING PAYMENTS BETWEEN YOU AND THE THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE REGARDING SERVICES OFFERED VIA THE APPLICATION OR SERVICE (WITH ALL ITS IMPLICATIONS) RESTS SOLELY WITH YOU.”

It’s all on you. Got it?

Speaking of which, what the heck is this all about?

In a subsequent paragraph, Uber goes on to completely alleviate itself of any responsibility if you happen to get in the car with a crazy driver. From the terms:

“THE QUALITY OF THE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES SCHEDULED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR APPLICATION IS ENTIRELY THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE THIRD PARTY PROVIDER WHO ULTIMATELY PROVIDES SUCH TRANSPORTATION SERVICES TO YOU. YOU UNDERSTAND, THEREFORE, THAT BY USING THE APPLICATION AND THE SERVICE, YOU MAY BE EXPOSED TO TRANSPORTATION THAT IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS, OFFENSIVE, HARMFUL TO MINORS, UNSAFE OR OTHERWISE OBJECTIONABLE, AND THAT YOU USE THE APPLICATION AND THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK.” (Emphasis mine.)

Yikes! Of course, if someone gets kidnapped or raped as an indirect result of Uber, you better believe that the company is going to do whatever it can to make that problem go away. Failure to do so could easily result in Uber going out of business. Also, it should be noted that the risk of using Uber drivers is probably less than just calling up whatever random car service you happen to come across on Google, given the company’s high standards for drivers. Still, the language above has me officially freaked out.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/terms-conditions-uber/

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Life after silicon: How carbon nanotubes will power future gadgets

Researchers at IBM have detailed methods that could let chip designers move away from silicon transistors to smaller – and faster – carbon nanotubes.

For most of the last five decades, the processing hearts of all our computers, game consoles, smartphones, cars, media players and even alarm clocks have been made of silicon. No surprise: The namesake of Silicon Valley is cheap, readily available, and easily manipulated during manufacturing processes.

But scientists and researchers now believe silicon-based processors are reaching their limits. Physical laws limit how small silicon transistors can get before the signals they process just become a random electrical haze. That’s why new research from scientists at IBM seems to hold so much promise for the future of computing: They may have found a realistic way to ditch silicon in favor of carbon nanotubes.

Carbo-nano-what?

Carbon is one of the most versatile elements in nature, taking the form of everything from coal to pencil lead and diamonds. One of the forms it can take is graphene. You can think of graphene as a bit like molecular chicken wire: individual carbon atoms bond together in a hexagonal pattern, forming a sheet that can be just one atom thick. At a very basic level, a carbon nanotube is a sheet of graphene that’s rolled up and joined with itself to form a cylinder: The hexagonal structure of the carbon bonds means that tube can ideally be seamless — no point is weaker than any other — and the tubes can be very, very long — molecularly speaking, anyway. Carbon nanotubes have been constructed that are more than 100 million times longer than they are wide. Sure, that’s still tiny to you and me, but carbon nanotubes can be far larger than any other known cylindrical nanostructure — and that’s a tremendously useful characteristic if you’re trying to design very tiny things like processor chips.

Like silicon, carbon nanotubes are also semiconducting, and (in some cases, in theory) can be more than 1,000 times more conductive than copper. This makes them one of the very few nano-materials that could feasibly be used to replace silicon in chip design.

Creating order from chaos

Chip designers looking to use carbon nanotubes for processors face one major problem: how to manipulate them and lay them out in the kinds of tiny, very precise patterns needed for processors. Current chip manufacturers essentially create wafers of silicon embedded between layers of non-conductive material, then use chemicals or lasers and particle beam etching to trace out paths and individual transistors.

Transistors are the absolute heart of digital processors, acting at the gates that control the individual ones and zeros (or bits) that define digital technology. A single character in the most basic email message or text takes seven bits (or transistors) to represent; a single pixel in a digital photograph requires over 500 bits. Transistors are responsible for both memory (like RAM and flash storage), but (by switching on and off again to transform and manipulate data) for all execution and code running on a device.

The old-school etching approaches to making transistors wouldn’t work with nanotubes, but researchers at IBM came up with a new technique, reported in Nature Nanotechnology. First, the researchers made a traditional wafer, but with a layer of hafnium deposited on silicon. Next, they put the carbon nanotubes in a chemical that made them soluble in water. Finally, they dipped the hafnium wafer in the solution of nanotubes, then dipped the wafer in a second chemical that sticks to the hafnium and acts as a two-part epoxy to bind the nanotubes — but only to the areas of the wafer with exposed hafnium. The result? Carbon nanotubes neatly lined up on paths etched in a wafer — just the sort of thing you’d want for a chip. The IBM team was able to make both memory and microprocessor chips with more than 10,000 working transistors.

How tightly packed are the nanotubes? About one billion nanotubes per square centimeter. According to IBM materials scientist (and study co-author) James Hannon, the technique deposited one nanotube roughly every 150 to 200 nanometers. That’s not small enough for a realistic microprocessor, and it’s a far cry from 22 nanometer distances that have been used by memory manufacturers since 2008 (and which are currently mainstream in Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors), but Hannon told the BBC that represents a 100-fold improvement over previous efforts to pack nanotubes into chip-like configurations — and puts the technology within striking distance of silicon.

Nanotubes might power your future

Processors built using carbon nanotubes could be the breakthrough that enables digital technology to continue advancing at a steady pace. Since the development of the first integrated circuit in 1958, the number of transistors chipmakers have been able to cram into the same are has been doubled roughly every two years — a maxim known as Moore’s Law, named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. When Moore first articulated the idea back in 1965, nobody really thought the industry would be able to sustain that pace for long. Yet despite a few hiccups, engineers and researchers have largely been able to maintain that pace through innovations in chip manufacturing processes (like Intel’s “3D” tri-gate transistors and exotic new materials). The first integrated circuits contained only a few transistors; today, mainstream chips like Intel’s Ivy Bridge line carry as many as 1.4 billion.

Silicon hasn’t reached the end of the road yet; chipmakers already have the next generation or two of silicon chips planned out. After the current 22nm process, expect to see 14nm chips — switches are getting so small they can be meaningfully measured in individual atoms. That sets a startlingly high bar for the plants that make them, which would have to execute near atom-accurate operations billions of times for every single processor they produce. On the other hand, the techniques outlined by IBM’s nanotube research point toward self-assembling solutions where molecules wind up in the proper placed through chemical reactions.

In theory, processors built around carbon nanotubes could be considerably smaller than today’s transistor technology. Just like today’s processors, smaller means they consume less power. That means less heat and far longer battery life for mobile devices. Furthermore, the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes also means they can switch on and off faster than silicon-based transistors, meaning they could operate at significantly higher clock speeds than today’s chips. That’s a good thing: While Moore’s Law is still in force for transistor density, processor clock speeds have started to plateau in recent years, with chipmakers getting more performance out of chips by adding additional processor cores rather than making those cores run faster. Carbon nanotube processors could theoretically handle speeds as high as 8GHz or 9GHz and run at half or one third the power of today’s chips – at least in rough calculations.

So nanotube processors would be smaller, faster — and since they’re made of carbon, they’d be greener, right? Probably not. Although carbon nanotubes are certainly less damaging to the environment than many compounds and materials used in high-tech products, the process of manufacturing carbon nanotube processors isn’t likely to be inherently greener than making silicon wafers — and don’t expect the devices they power to be magically biodegradable.

Similarly, the chips will still be difficult to make and expensive. Just like today’s chips, the newest, fastest versions will only power the newest, flashiest, high-end devices — but those devices could be much smaller than today’s gizmos. For instance, with the iPhone 5 Apple has packed more processing power into a handset than it ever put into a PowerPC-based notebook. Extend trends like that, and you start to see tablets that only a few millimeters thick, technology that might be able to support things like bendable and flexible portable devices and wearable computing technology like Google Project Glass - with enough processing power to handle speech recognition, augmented reality, multitasking and high-end graphics — and batteries that last for days or even weeks.

When will they be on sale?

Carbon nanotube processors might prove to be the future of computing … but it’s going to be a long while before they appear retailer’s shelves. The process outlined by IBM still has to be considerably refined to make it practical in the real world. Assuming that can be done, existing chip manufacturing facilities will have to be converted to use the new processors, or (as likely) whole new chip fabrication facilities will have to be built. All in all, we’re probably looking at at least another decade before the technology is commercially viable. But, conveniently, that’s just about when silicon will probably hit the end of its feasible development.

[Images via Shutterstock / imredesiuk, Wikimedia Commons / AlexanderAlUS ]

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/carbon-nanotubes-could-power-the-next-generation-of-processors/

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Apple and HTC settle disputes with 10-year licensing agreement

No more litigation between Apple and HTC

HTC and Apple have resolved to shake hands on their global legal disputes and agree to a wide-ranging patent licensing deal.

In a surprise announcement, the warring smartphone giants issued a join press release confirming that all current lawsuits would be dropped under the ten year accord.

The agreement, the companies said, would cover current and future patents held by both companies.

HTC CEO Peter Chou said: "HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation."

His counterpart in Cupertino, Apple CEO Tim Cook added: "We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC. We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation."

New dawn rising?

The announcement comes just a couple of months after HTC said no settlement with Apple was in sight.

The end of legal proceedings between Apple and HTC could herald a new dawn of co-operation between tech companies when it comes to intellectual property.

The headlines in 2012 has been largely dominated by the bloody patent wars, so an end to the courtroom drama would surely be welcomed by everyone. Except the lawyers, obviously.

The terms of the settlement will remain private but a HTC representative told The Verge that he doesn't expect the deal to negatively affect the company's bottom line.

Source : http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/apple-and-htc-settle-disputes-with-10-year-licensing-agreement-1111697

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