San Jose
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Google reportedly halts construction of its giant San Jose campus
Google is said to have stopped construction of its massive San Jose campus, in part due to job cuts.
Lyft brings shared rides back to more cities, including San Francisco
Riders in San Jose, Denver, Las Vegas and Atlanta can also once again split the cost of trips with strangers.
San Jose approves massive Google 'Downtown West' project
After nearly four years of securing community buy-in, Google's plan for a San Jose campus is moving forward.
Google unveils plans for its huge environmentally friendly San Jose campus
Google has given us a glimpse of its San Jose campus, and based on the renders and details it has released, it won’t look anything like a corporate facility once it’s done. Unlike other campuses that are closed off, the one in San Jose was designed to be a true part of the city. Half of the 80 acres it will occupy is reserved for residential spaces and other amenities that will be open to local residents.
Mercedes and Bosch commence self-driving trials in San Jose
Do you know the way to San Jose? It doesn't matter if you're in a self-driving car. As they previewed earlier this year, Bosch and Mercedes-Benz have commenced trials for an automated ride-hailing service in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose. To start with, autonomous S-Class Mercedes-Benz vehicles (with safety drivers at the wheel) will shuttle "a select group of users" between North San Jose and downtown.
Google reveals plans to build 20,000 Bay Area homes
Google says it'll invest in thousands of new homes in the Bay Area over the next decade, in the hopes of helping many of its employees and other residents find an affordable place to live in one of the planet's most expensive regions. CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post that Google plans to repurpose at least $750 million worth of land it owns for residential housing. Through this, the company hopes to "support the development of at least 15,000 new homes at all income levels in the Bay Area, including housing options for middle and low-income families."
Apple v. Samsung jury finds Apple's patents valid, awards it nearly $1.05 billion in damages
The federal court jury in the patent infringement lawsuit between Apple and Samsung has presented its verdict after deliberating for just 21 hours and 37 minutes following the three week trial. This particular case started with Apple's lawsuit last April and now the jury's decision is that Samsung did infringe on Apple's '381 bounceback patent with all 21 of its products in question. For the '915 patent on pinch-and-zoom, the jury ruled all but three of the devices listed infringed, and more damningly, found that Samsung executives either knew or should have known their products infringed on the listed patents. The jury has also found against Samsung when it comes to Apple's contours on the back of the iPhone and its home screen GUI. The Galaxy Tab, was found not to have infringed upon Apple's iPad design patents. The bad news for Samsung continued however, as the jury decided that not only did it willfully infringe on five of the seven Apple patents, but also upheld their validity when it came to utility, design and trade dress. The amount of the damages against Samsung is in: $1,051,855,000.00 (see below). That's less than half of the $2.5 billion it was seeking, but still more than enough to put an exclamation point on this victory for the team from Cupertino. The final number is $1,049,343,540, after the judge found an issue with how the jury applied damages for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE and Intercept. The jury also ruled that Apple did not infringe upon Samsung's patents with the iPhone 3G and 3GS, and has awarded it zero dollars in damage. We'll have more information for you as it become available. Update: Both companies have released statements on the matter, with Apple stating via the New York Times the ruling sends a loud and clear message that "stealing isn't right." Samsung has its own viewpoint calling this "a loss for the American consumer" that will lead to fewer choices, less innovation and high prices. You can see both in their entirety after the break.
Google Maps adds live traffic for over 130 cities, boosts existing coverage
Google has expanded its Maps traffic coverage before, but rarely on a grand scale. The search giant isn't standing on tradition this time: it just flipped on live traffic data for at least the major roads in over 130 cities. Most of the coverage centers around smaller cities in the US, although Google is tipping its hat to Latin America with first-time support for Bogota, San Jose (in Costa Rica) and Panama City. Coverage has also been improved in a dozen other countries worldwide. While the widened reach still won't ease the burden of anyone already caught in a traffic jam, any democratization of smarter driving directions is good in our book.
Samsung drops Apple countersuit -- Apple's still got a bone to pick
Back in April, Samsung slapped back at Apple's claims of patent infringement with a healthy helping of ten claims of its own. Now Bloomberg is reporting that Samsung quietly dropped its countersuit against the Cupertino-based company on June 30th, in an attempt "to streamline the legal proceedings." Of course that doesn't mean the saga is over: Apple's smartphone infringement accusations stand, as do legal battles in South Korea, Japan, Germany, and the UK. Samsung says it will also continue to fight Apple's accusations in the US in the form of a counter-claim. One down, one to go?Update: To clarify, this does not mean that Samsung has abandoned its own infringement claims against Apple. Those claims have been rolled into counter-claims in the original suit.
Steve Jobs conceived of "statement HQ" for Apple in 1983
The mothership campus Steve Jobs envisions for Cupertino is not the first statement headquarters he has pursued. Back in 1983, Jobs eyed Coyote Valley, San Jose for a world-class campus. Former San Jose mayor Tom McEnery tells the story of a meeting he had with a young Steve Jobs. Jobs saw the Coyote Valley location from a helicopter and selected the grassy property for Apple's next home. Soon the property belonged to Apple, and a rough draft of the plans was sketched on a piece of paper. Jobs hired well-known architect I.M. Pei to build the campus and preserve the pastoral quality of the land. Unfortunately, politics and the economy hindered Jobs' dream. This location was one of San Jose's last undeveloped parcels of land, and its repurposing was the topic of hot debate. At the same time, the economy went belly up and Jobs was removed from the company. McEnery tried to re-kindle interest in the Apple campus with CEO John Sculley, but the idea fizzled and Apple eventually sold the property. [Via MacObserver]
Record number of aircraft 'laser events' gives us one more reason to hate LA
Are you that kid aiming his father's laser pointer at people walking along city sidewalks? Yeah, well stop it -- now. What you might consider a harmless prank can have serious repercussions when aimed at the cockpit of an approaching jetliner. What seems like good fun at the time can temporarily blind a pilot attempting to land nearly a million pounds of life, metal, and fuel. According to the numbers just released by the FAA, 2010 saw a record number of reports of lasers pointed at aircraft -- "almost double" the number of reports from 2009. Of the 2,800 incidents reported nationwide, the Los Angeles area reported the most with 201 incidents, followed by Chicago (98), Phoenix (80, half of which were probably UFO related), and San Jose (80 -- nerds!). Top 20 list after the break.
Report from the iPadDevCamp
I was just at the eBay/Paypal campus in San Jose last week for 360iDev, but I wasn't able to stay for the iPadDevCamp that went down there last weekend; it featured one of the first big gatherings of iPad developers. Fortunately, GigaOm's David Klein did stay, and he brings us a nice report of the goings-on there. He touches on a wide range of topics, from all of the fascinating apps being developed to fun live events like Rana Sobhany (one of the panelists at 360iDev) mixing the turntables with two iPads. You can read through all of Klein's impressions on the apps that he saw, but I'll pick out a few that seem interesting to me. Audiotorium is a note-taking app that picks up audio while you write along (and it's on the App Store right now), Relay connects your iPad and your computer almost like magic, and there were a few apps that used the iPhone as a controller, including a three-iPad-and-one-iPhone slot machine (pull the iPhone and the three iPads "spin" symbols) and a game called Tank or Die that used the iPhone to control tanks on the iPad. It's good to hear that there's a lot of creativity coming out of the iPad dev community already. Hopefully we'll see some of these prototype apps in the store soon.
360iDev: The future of Jason Citron's OpenFeint
OpenFeint's VP of Engineering, Jakob Wilkerson, took the stage here at 360iDev in San Jose to talk about something most people might not have expected: Game Center. Ever since Apple's official social gaming network was announced last week, the question's been in the air about what will happen to all of those unofficial gaming networks, of which OpenFeint is the largest. Wilkerson took the news in stride, however. As CEO Jason Citron told us last week, OpenFeint isn't going anywhere, and as you can see from their chart above, OpenFeint still believes that they can build more social game services, in the form of OpenFeint X, on top of Apple's official offerings. Wilkerson talked about Game Center in terms of potential; he used examples from OpenFeint to explain how implementing leaderboards and friends lists in the right ways can really open up player interest in a game. OpenFeint often talks internally about bringing, both, hardcore and casual game players into the fold, and their different online features target those various audiences. We also got a chance to talk to Citron again regarding his thinking about OpenFeint so far, and what the company plans to do when Apple unveils its official plan. Read on for more.
360iDev: Brent Simmons on NetNewsWire for iPad and iPhone OS 4.0
The iPhone is home to a lot of great new developers, but it's also the new home for a lot of old-school Mac guys as well; Brent Simmons is of the second kind. His NetNewsWire is a classic Mac app that's been remade for the iPhone, and now the iPad, with the clean, quick simplicity that Simmons' work is known for. We caught up with him right after his "Best Practices for Content Apps" talk here at 360iDev in San Jose, CA this week, and had a quick chat about how the iPad version of NetNewsWire is doing. Jenny Blumberg of NewsGator's developer support team also joined us. Simmons told us both how the iPad version of his app has made more money than you'd expect, and what he's most excited about from Apple's iPhone OS 4.0 announcement last week. Read on for more.
AT&T's fridge even more rotten than its 3G streaming limits
Look we're all guilty of generating a little fridge-fuzz now and again. A practice that's disgusting at home turns downright antisocial at the office. Or near-fatal if you work at AT&T's San Jose office where a dirty fridge sent 7 people to the hospital yesterday. The incident started when an office refrigerator was found unplugged and stuffed with moldy food. While cleaning the fridge, the combination of chemical solvents with neatly labeled cups of rotting yoghurt and pork-roast parfaits created a cloud of toxic fumes that prompted a 911 call and the dispatch of a hazmat team. 28 people in total were treated for nausea and vomiting. AT&T: More SARS in more places.
ESA 'applauds' game pirate imprisonment
It's hard to convey the sound of two hands clapping through a press release, but the ESA has managed to do just that. Celebrating the recent 10-month jail sentence of Khuong Van Truong, a San Jose resident caught with "11,000 bootleg video games, 4,000 DVDs and 300 audio CDs," the ESA has released a statement today lauding the California courts which sentenced the man."We applaud the work of both the San Jose Police Department and the Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney for their hard work and dedication to bringing this game pirate to justice," the statement reads. Van Truong was arrested last year after his two-year-old son was found wandering around a busy intersection. When police brought the chiild home, they discovered a large piracy operation as well as a variety of illegal drugs. Here's hoping Van Truong's family can take the child into custody during the sentence.
Space Observer to innocently watch you at San Jose's airport
It's every child's dream to one day walk through a trio of space robot legs as entering Silicon Valley, and if a proposed art project goes through, said dream will become a reality for budding tech superstars who land in Mineta San Jose International Airport. The $300,000 initiative would see a so-called Space Observer built and showcased prominently in the venue, allowing patrons to walk underneath its two-story-tall body and emit all sorts of "oohs" and "ahhs." The monolithic space robot would sport three legs and propeller-tipped kinetic camera arms, the latter of which would collect live video to be displayed on embedded monitors within its body. San Jose Public Art Director Barbara Goldstein has already stated that "it won't follow you anywhere," but it's not like she really has the power to control what this obviously sentient creature does / doesn't do.
Vandals take down Internet, emergency, and voice services in California
Feeling vulnerable? Maybe you should. Apparently, taking down the Internet, ATMs, and landline and wireless phone services is as easy as crawling down a few strategically located manholes and hacking through some fiber optic cables. Police in California suspect exactly that after "vandals" cut a total of 10 fiber optic cables (each containing between 48 and 360 fibers) at 4 locations on Thursday morning. The AT&T and Sprint cables knocked "tens of thousands" of San Francisco, Bay Area residents off the grid including an additional 52,000 Verizon landline and wireless customers. San Jose spokesman, Sgt. Ronnie Lopez, says that Vandals somehow managed to thwart the safeguards securing this important element of the US infrastructure. "The manhole covers are heavy," he said, "and would take quite an effort to lift, perhaps even requiring a tool." Amazing. There's been plenty of speculation that disgruntled members of the Communication Workers of America union are to blame after its contract with AT&T expired amid "strike-threatened contract negotiations" over the weekend -- something CWA officials adamantly deny. And they should... everyone knows that kidnapping corporate bosses is the hot new trend for curing the gruntles. AT&T is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the vandals.[Via SFGate]Update: Seems that reward is now up to $250,000. Tempting, no?
Tesla Motors to build new HQ, factory in San Jose
It's no surprise to see Tesla Motors giving even more attention to California -- after all, Los Angeles is home to its very first dealership -- and as soon as the requisite approvals go through, San Jose will become the site of its new headquarters and factory. Both facilities will be located on around 90 acres of land near Highway 237 in North San Jose, and early reports peg the city giving Tesla a 40-year lease with the first decade being "rent-free." The Golden State is also stepping in to provide a sweet tax-free rent-to-buy deal on the factory equipment, and in the end, the two projects could generate around 1,000 direct or indirect jobs. One question, Tesla: how's the employee discount?
San Jose's Tech Museum looks for virtual exhibits in Second Life
The Tech Museum in San Jose is worth the trip alone. Always chock-full of fantastic and informative exhibits and events, it's the go-to place for the rare combination of education and entertainment that neither preaches nor panders. As befitting such a forward-looking institution, The Tech has created a virtual museum location in Second Life. Further, they're accepting submissions for exhibits for that virtual space. From the press release:' The virtual Tech ... will begin accepting exhibits immediately as part of an exhibition design competition around the theme of "Art, Film, and Music." The Tech plans to replicate a number of the winning exhibits in its real-world museum in San Jose. A world-class panel of experts will review the virtual exhibits in Second Life, awarding prizes to winning projects for the physical museum. Winners will be announced in connection with the 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, produced by ZER01: The Art and Technology Network, in June 2008.'Additionally, there will be cash prizes for certain categories of exhibits. Exhibits created through the Tech Virtual site, and installed in the physical location will, if chosen, receive $5,000. If you think you've got a good idea for an exhibit, go check out the Tech Virtual, and send your ideas in -- everything's shared under the Creative Commons license, so be advised before you go in. Get thinkin'!
