Kodak claims Apple has illegally used its digital images transmitting technology on its iPad 2, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the iPod Touch. As for HTC, Kodak brought similar charges against the Taiwanese company, but added another one related to the technology of taking still images from a video clip. Kodak insists that the HTC EVO View 4G, the Flyer, the Jetstream, the Vivid, the Amaze 4G, the Desire, the EVO Design 4G, the Hero S, the Rezound, the Rhyme, the Sensation 4G and the Wildfire S infringe its patents, but Windows Phone models are not discussed.

It should be stressed that Kodak is asking for monetary compensation and not the complete injunction of the mentioned two brands. Some say though, Kodak did this to gain attention for selling its patent portfolio in the hope to alleviate its dire financial situation.

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American company Qualcomm producing chips for mobile devices said there are already 15 handsets based on Qualcomm’s previous platforms with support for GLONASS. Moreover, if we add to the list the smartphones and tablets working on the newest platform of the company, the number of devices with GLONASS support will be counted by tens.

By saying previous platforms we mean Snapdragon S2 and S3. Each of them consists of a number of MSM and QSD chips. According to Qualcomm, these series of processors are installed in the BlackBerry Torch 9850 and the Bold 9930, the HTC Radar, the HTC Thunderbolt, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, the HTC MyTouch 4G, the HTC JetStream and so on.

However, this year Qualcomm introduced a device based on the new generation Snapdragon S4 platform also supporting GLONASS. In particular, it has been used in the Samsung Galaxy S II, the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Nokia Lumia 800. As you see Qualcomm is in a closest cooperation with GLONASS and do not get surprised if one day this system becomes a leader.

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IPCom was obviously much irrigated when it discovered HTC smartphones continue to be available from some German retailers in spite of the clear court injunction banning the sale of this manufacturer. IPCom then took the matter in its own hands and started to disseminate among those retailers a message urging them to stop selling HTC devices, or it would sue them in the court if they did not comply. HTC in its turn came to the help to the retailers and took this matter to a court. The court deliberated the matter and before finally solving this issue, adopted a decision, which now bans IPCom’s mentioned actions of threatening the retailers with a legal action.

Meanwhile, it is known IPCom has sent its grim letters to more than hundred German retailers, and it is now to be seen what this step can entail. Congratulations to HTC for this small victory.

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This year RIM’s shares have fallen in their cost by 70% and this explains why the company must find in the nearest future major solutions to overcome the crisis. One of the steps was revealed recently when RIM offered two leading companies – Samsung and HTC to use its BlackBerry OS on their respective smartphones. But both HTC and Samsung are quite content to cooperate and have such allies as Google with Android OS and Microsoft with its Windows Phone OS. Samsung in addition is preoccupied with its Bada OS, and would not think to be diverted at this point.

It is in this wake of events that an opportunity to buy RIM with its BlackBerry seems quite promising for Amazon, Nokia and Microsoft, who all expressed, in this or that way, their wish of Canadian takeover.

According to Wall Street Journal

The abovementioned list includes the HTC Vivid, the Salsa, the original Incredible and its follow-up Incredible S, the Desire S, the Sensation and finally, the tiny HTC Explorer. The source codes for the Desire S, the Incredible S, the HTC Explorer (Pico) and the Flyer were launched earlier. There were also source codes for the Sensation XL, HTC Rezound and the HTC Amaze 4G.

As you see the range of smartphones is different, and we can find both high-end and low-end handsets. Glad to see HTC doesn’t ignore its not that powerful smartphone users. Happily for them, due to custom ROMs in the near future they can even taste Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

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Mr. Chou particularly said the industry should not allow one company to use its powerful weapon to stop innovation and take it all. It is not fair, he added. It is not clear what Mr. Chou meant when he mentioned innovation since taking another’s personal intellectual property and using it for own profit does not in any way qualify as innovation. Android chief Andy Rubin in his turn confirmed that Apple’s preoccupation now is to “damage” as much as possible Google and Android, for at least in Asia, Apple is losing its markets to Android phones.

Anyway, obviously HTC will find a solution to this crisis, but also obvious is that Apple will not stop here and will continue using patent rights it owns to sue its competitors.

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In July HTC heard the Administrative Court judge Carl Charneski decided only two patents were infringed by HTC from the ten infringement claims brought against it by Apple. One of the infringements the court confirmed was a technology of push-to-talk on a phone number within email. But this is one of significant features of any Android smartphone. The court decided further, that the HTC smartphones, which have the technology infringing Apple’s patents, may not be imported in the country unless HTC modifies them technologically in a way as to avoid infringement.

HTC has announced they are content with the court proceedings and announced they will comply with the court’s recommendation and will completely remove the infringed component (patent 647 related to user interface) from all its devices. But the issue here is certainly not HTC, but Apple’s global fight against its number one “enemy” – Android.

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From all smartphone manufacturers, HTC appears in the worst situation related to CarrierIQ thing. In response to an inquiry by US senator Al Franken, who is also the Chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, HTC disclosed that 6.3 HTC handsets in the US have CarrierIQ inside them. But HTC also says it has nothing to do with information collection, and has installed this software as a contractual obligation with carriers, which are supposedly using it for solving service-related issues. All US carriers, except for Verizon, are mentioned as using CarrierIQ. Here is the detailed list of carriers and their consecutive devices “infected” with CarrierIQ.

• Sprint: the Snap (Windows Mobile), the Touch Pro 2 (Windows Mobile), the Hero, the EVO 4G, the EVO Shift 4G,the EVO 3D, the EVO Design 4G
• AT&T: the Vivid
• T-Mobile: the Amaze 4G

HTC announced it is currently in the process of making an update, which will remove this software from the mentioned devices.

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HTC explains this dramatic change by its recent move was due to the unusual competition situation in the market and slow global economic growth, but two analysts from Citigroup give their own different explanations. As Bloomberg announced earlier, Kevin Chang and Jonathan Gu stated in their research HTC’s low numbered fourth quarter is conditioned by the low quality of the products. They particularly said it “is driven more by inferior product than by macro reasons. We are most surprised by the lack of visibility and by how fast things deteriorate in the smartphone business.” The analysts reduced their recommendation on the stock to “sell” from “neutral” and cut their price estimate to NT$463.

Earlier HTC announced it is going to reevaluate $300 acquisition of 3S Graphics, after the latter could not win a patent suit against Apple. But HTC says it is confident this downward move is temporary and things will change in the first half of 2012.

Dock for the HTC Rezound differs with its stylish design. Unfortunately the manufacturer didn’t get the chance to create a fingerprint resistant device. Dock is designed for optimal functionality with a normal battery, and also with 2750 mAh extended batteries. If you use a case for the smartphone, you will be required to take it off for charging.

Another lacking detail of the device are the LED indicators that show the level of charging of the phone, but you can obviously observe it from your device.

The device can be connected to the docking station from the back with the help of ExtMicro-USB adapters.

The package comes with the docking station for the HTC Rezound, which can recharge both standard and advanced phone batteries, an ExtMicro-USB cable and an AC adapter.

The bottom of the device demonstrates the HTC logo and the model details, such as the input of 5VDC, the model number CR S590 and the part number 7910057-00M.

Via