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Help NASA name its Mars 2020 rover
NASA's Mars 2020 rover is beginning to take shape. Earlier this month, crews installed some of its legs and six of its wheels. Now, the vehicle needs a name, and for that, NASA is turning to students. Beginning in fall 2019, NASA will run a nationwide "Name the Rover" contest open to K-12 students in the US. The spacecraft will need a name by July 2020, when it's expected to launch.
Judges ruling on secret telecoms cases found to own Verizon stock
It looks as if the judges who operate the gateway between the NSA and the cable companies may not be as impartial as their job description requires them to. An investigation by Vice has revealed that several judges who sit on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are also Verizon shareholders. Big Red, of course, has previously tried to fight metadata collection, but isn't entitled to have a say, or participate in these secret hearings. Naturally, judges are bound by a conflict of interest law that requires them to step away from any case where their judgment could be materially affected, which may not apply in this situation. Still, it doesn't seem the wisest thing to do if you're trying to maintain an unimpeachable reputation for fairness, does it?
Court upholds Apple victory in Cover Flow, Spotlight, Time Machine patents
An appeals court in Washington has upheld a recent Apple victory on a number of different patents for features in the OS X operating system, including things like Cover Flow, Spotlight search and Time Machine. A company called Mirror Worlds is trying to get a judgment that Apple infringed on its patents with those features, but after initially winning damages of more than $625 million in a jury case, Apple was able to get the decision appealed and wiped the initial ruling clean. Now, an appeals court has denied Mirror Worlds' appeal, leaving Apple the victor, at least until another appeal is filed and run through the courts yet again. Apple's been doing well for itself in patent cases lately -- this ruling follows a huge decision a little while ago that earned Apple a whopping $1.05 billion in damages. That case is also probably set to be appealed by Samsung, as these companies will use whatever tactics they can to try and avoid paying out these huge sums of money.
Judge denies Apple's bid to move Kodak suit to new court
Apple has suffered another setback in its attempts to stop the bankrupt Kodak from auctioning off a series of patents. After Apple's previous attempt to stop the auction wholesale failed, the company appealed to try to move the case from bankruptcy court to a local district court, which Apple said would be more experienced and better equipped to handle a case like this. But last week, a judge in the case denied Apple's request for a change of venue, cutting off one more argument from Apple against these patents being auctioned off. This case has been a messy one. Kodak has filed complaints in the case that have been dismissed by the judges involved. In the end, it might all be a moot point anyway. If Apple can't stop the sale of Kodak's patents, it could simply buy them, and Kodak has already accused Apple of trying to bring the patents' sale price down by questioning their legality. The auction is currently set to take place next month.
Atari Dev Challenge finalists announced, voting now open
Atari has announced the finalists in its ongoing dev challenge contest, in which developers from around the Internet have pitched updates to the classic Pong game for the iOS and Android App Stores, with the winners to be published and rev-shared by Atari itself. All of those finalists look pretty interesting -- they almost all have gone with a relatively classic take on the game (which is what Atari told us they were looking for), although all of them have updated the old ball-and-paddle gameplay to be a little more complicated. These finalists are all guaranteed a revenue share agreement with Atari to have their titles published, but we still need to decide who's getting the cash prizes for the best entry. And by we, I mean both you and me. You get to vote on Atari's page (over on the side, you can put a star rating up for each different finalist in the contest), and I, Mike Schramm, am serving as a judge in the competition along with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, Pocket God creator Dave Castelnuovo, developer David Whatley, and a few other folks selected by Atari. The judge's ratings and user ratings are all being thrown into one big pot, and then the winners of the various cash prizes will be announced on August 2nd. It's cool to finally see some actual games coming out of this competition after so long. I'm hoping we judges will get a chance to play all of the finalists soon, and then we'll see the final results in a little over a month.
ITC judge rules against Apple in patent infringement case, Kodak smiles
The International Trade Commission has weighed in on one half of the ongoing Apple-Kodak legal saga, ruling in favor of the team from Rochester. In a decision handed down yesterday, ITC Judge Robert Rogers determined that Apple's allegations of patent infringement are unfounded, adding that one of the company's patents is invalid. At issue are two digital camera technologies owned by Apple. One allows a camera to process multiple photos at the same time, while the other enables users to simultaneously adjust an image's balance, color and resolution. Apple claimed that Kodak illegally used these mechanisms in its Z-series, M-series, C-series, and Slice cameras, in addition to some video cameras. Judge Rogers clearly disagreed, though he won't be able to publicly explain his reasoning until both sides have had enough time to review confidential documents. Rogers' decision will also be subject to review by the full ITC, which is expected to issue a yea or nay on September 19th. A Kodak spokesman said the company is understandably "pleased" by the decision, but it won't have much time to rest on its laurels. On May 23rd, the ITC will announce a decision in a patent lawsuit that Kodak filed against both Apple and RIM, way back in January 2010. Stay tuned.
Time Warner goes to court over iPad streaming app
And they're off! I thought it was weird that Time Warner was pushing so hard to get streaming cable channels on its new iPad app, but apparently it's ready to back up that stance. The company has just dropped a request for a declaratory judgement on a US District Court, asking the courts to rule on whether it can or can't show cable subscription channels on the iPad. There's more information on the official blog: Time Warner's current interpretation is that the iPad is just like any other TV screen in the house, and since you can already stream Time Warner's content to multiple TVs, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to stream it off to your iPad if you want as well. Sounds reasonable to us, but Time Warner has officially asked the courts for agreement. As Time Warner says itself, this request wouldn't have been filed if it had any inclination it was wrong. Essentially, it's for the providers who have been fighting to keep their content off of TW's app -- if Time Warner gets the ruling it wants, those companies won't have a proverbial leg to stand on. Time Warner says that a resolution should be out soon, and when it is, we'll likely see Time Warner's customers get those channels back that were lost before.
Fallen Earth dev blog explains game's post-apocalyptic religious zealotry
Fallen Earth is a massively multiplayer online game currently in development where, in the wake of nuclear and viral armageddon, humanity's survivors are left to fend for themselves in the wasteland. The scenario painted by Fallen Earth's lore is that the world's established religions have largely burned away or decayed along with most of the human race. What's left are sects whose experiences and hardships in watching the world die are reflected in their belief systems, extreme views that come in various flavors of post-apocalyptic zealotry. As Fallen Earth subscribers, the players will align themselves with certain belief systems when creating their characters, affecting their outlook on the aftermath. In a WarCry exclusive, Fallen Earth writer Grace Hagood explains the game's religious and pseudo-religious elements, and some of the fanaticism embodied by these groups. She writes, "Let's face it: religion is a touchy subject. A lot of game designers would rather steer clear of including religion in their work. However, a game like Fallen Earth, set in a future based on extrapolations of current society, can't ignore the reality of religious extremism. What we can do, though, is use our particular (and sometimes peculiar) filters to present religious fanaticism in a post-apocalyptic framework."
Leaf Trombone out now in the App Store
I've been down on the fine folks at Smule in the past -- I've said that their app Ocarina seems kind of silly (even if people have created some pretty awesome stuff with it and other less annoying music apps). And about the only thing they could have done to make it up to me was to develop some sort of super massively multiplayer music app, some app in which you could play a tune and have it sent all around the world. So I guess I have to call off my pretend grudge against them once and for all, because that's exactly what they did: Leaf Trombone: World Stage is in the App Store right now.This is, of course, the app with the strange name that we saw at Apple's iPhone 3.0 demo. It features a Chinese leaf-type instrument that sounds, as you can hear above, like a trombone. But the World Stage part is the most interesting -- Smule has set up a way to share the songs you play in the app with people around the world, and the people who hear your work can send back short messages and emotes to say how they felt. It's an interesting idea -- kind of combines what they were trying to do with Zephyr into a more Ocarina-like app.At just 99 cents, there will undoubtedly be lots of musicians out there picking it up. And while the video above is... cute... we're sure there'll be some even better stuff to listen to soon.
Chinese software dishes out criminal court verdicts
Apparently our pals over in the Chinese judicial system are getting challenged by technology these days. No, they haven't invented lawyerbots yet (though some of the nursebots we've seen could wield a gavel), but they're getting closer. A new software app implemented in the Zichuan District Court in China's Shangdong province, gives suggestions on "proper verdicts" in criminal cases. This software is apparently going to be used to curb the problem that some Chinese judges have become too subjective, undertrained, and in many cases, corrupt. Maybe in the US we could speed up our own backlog of judicial proceedings simply by outsourcing our judges to China, too. We're sure that would go over well with our litigious society -- we can smell the briefs being drafted already.[Via The Register]
