spain
Latest
Apple loses iPad design lawsuit against NT-K
Apple has lost an iPad design infringement lawsuit it brought against the small Spanish tablet maker, Nuevas Tecnologías y Energías Catalá. Nuevas created an Android-powered tablet called the nt-k Pad, which Apple believed was a knock off of the iPad. Interestingly, Apple filed not just a commercial lawsuit, but a criminal one against the company too. As noted by FOSS Patents: Apple accused nt-k in November 2010 of "copying" the iPad and went straight for a customs ban. As a result, Spanish customs seized shipments from China containing nt-k's Android-based tablet. The little company temporarily appeared on an EU-wide list of product pirates, but worst of all, after some correspondence between the two companies, Apple also brought criminal charges on December 9, 2010 (as it had previously threatened in writing). From the front, the nt-k does resemble the iPad, but with more buttons. However, there's no way anyone could mistake it for Apple's device once they saw the back of it and noticed its rather thick bulk. The Spanish court ruled that there wasn't "sufficient justification" for the case and threw it out of court. Yesterday, Nuevas posted a blog (Google translation) on their website that they had defeated Apple and now they are suing the Cupertino company for monetary damage compensation, lost profits, and "moral damages." The company is also urging the Spanish courts to pursue an antitrust investigation against Apple.
iPad rental business is booming in Madrid, Spain
PadInTheCity is a company offering up an intriguing proposition: Rent a 3G iPad while you happen to be touring around the city of Madrid, Spain. I do happen to be traveling to Europe next year, and while I just bought an iPad for myself, I can see the benefit of not only being able to carry an iPad around, but also a 3G iPad already configured to work with the local wireless networks. PadInTheCity charges 25 Euros, or about $35, a day to rent the iPad, and they'll even deliver it to your hotel and pay for all the data you use in the same period. The company is also targeting hotels and events, perhaps renting iPads to conference attendees, or setting them up for hotel guests when they buy certain packages. Each iPad is equipped with a certain number of apps set up for feeding users information about the area, but it's not clear if users can add their own on if needed. It's quite an idea, and apparently business is going great in Madrid so far. Apple has even forwarded a few customers on to the company, and in one or two years, PadInTheCity plans to have outlets in places like London and New York, and hopes to "talk about profits." I don't know yet what my plans are in Europe next year, but if I make my way down to Madrid, maybe I'll check the service out.
eT-shirt from España looks after your heart, minds its bedside manners (video)
Spain -- the land of pasión, jamón ibérico and flamenco is throwing a stylish solución towards the medical community's way. Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have created an intelligent eT-shirt (looks more like a tank top to us) for biomonitoring of hospital patients. The wearable, washable chaleco is embedded with electrodes that monitor its wearer's vitals, and a removable thermometer and accelerometer for the collection of temperature and positioning data. A separate in-pocket GPS dongle is also used to locate individuals "within a two-meter margin of error," but the team plans to incorporate this localizer directly into the shirt in future iterations. Tested at the Cardiology unit of Madrid's Hospital Universitario La Paz, the collaborative LOBIN (Locating & Biomonitoring by means of Wireless Networks in Hospitals) project prototype could help reduce in-patient stays, delivering SMS alerts to off-site, connected medical staffs. No word on whether this'll be offered in S, M, L or XL, but hey, at least that black is slimming. ¿Hablas español? Pues, skip past the break for a video tour of the form-fitting device.
Google expands Voice Actions across Europe, with multi-language support (video)
Android users across Europe are waking up to some bonnes nouvelles this morning, because Google has now expanded its Voice Actions service to France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Beginning today, loquacious smartphone and tablet users will be able to place calls, send texts and conduct Google searches by speaking into their devices. All you have to do is press the microphone button on your home screen's Google search field and open the Voice Search app, or simply press the physical search button on your handset to bring up the "Speak Now" field. From there, you can begin chattering away in French, German, Italian, Spanish and real British English. Interested parties running Android 2.2 or above can get started by downloading the Voice Search app from the source link below, or by checking out Google's demo video, after the break.
US judge won't return seized URL to Rojadirecta.com, absolutamente no
Welcome to the homepage of popular sports streaming and p2p site Rojadirecta.com. Why all the birdy logos and harsh words about going to prison? Well, it's a convoluted story, which began when a whole bunch of sports sites -- including Rojadirecta -- were summarily seized by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, based on "probable cause to believe" they'd been involved in copyright infringement. Awkwardly, the Spanish owners of this particular site had already been cleared of any wrongdoing by courts in Spain, but this counted for nada because their .com URL was American. So, their one hope was to convince a US judge that the seizure violated the First Amendment and should be overturned. This case won support from freedom of speech activists like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but on Thursday it finally failed. The presiding judge ruled that no rights had been violated, because Rojadirecta could easily set up shop at a non-US address and continue to function. Bad news indeed for the Spaniards -- maybe they should move to the UK, where due process takes a whole lot longer.
TiVo is set for a September launch in Spain with ONO
International expansion plans for TiVo don't stop with the UK, as it will be a key part of Spanish cable operator ONO's new high definition service that launches in September. Gizmo Lovers points out an article detailing the ten channel package that will kick things off, including Fox, Sony TV, MTV Live, TVE and Gol TV. While there's still not a lot of details available about the boxes themselves, our friends at Engadget Spanish also have information on the Cisco hardware that will get all of that HD flowing from the head end, and are probably a good place to keep an eye on if you're waiting for this TiVo to arrive.
Netflix coming to Spain and the UK next year?
File this one in the unconfirmed-but-hopeful file, as Variety has it on good authority that Netflix could be making its first foray into European waters as early as Q1 2012. After taking Latin America by storm (and subsequently storming the wallets of plain 'ole Americans), the company is purportedly lining up Spain and the United Kingdom for its next trick. Unnamed sources at "leading European film distributors" have confirmed that representatives from the company were looking to "put roots down" in both of those nations as soon as next year, and while Netflix itself is refusing to comment, it's certainly a tale that's easy to believe. 'Course, breaking into the UK market won't be as easy as it has been in other nations -- Lovefilm already has a firm grip on the local rental market, but as your favorite capitalist always says, there's never not room for increased competition. We'll keep you posted. [Thanks, Eric]
Google Maps brings live traffic coverage to 13 European countries, makes work weeks even shorter
The next time you head out for a leisurely Sunday drive along the autobahn, you might wanna take a minute to consult Google Maps' live traffic feature, now available in Germany and 12 other nations across Europe. Announced earlier this week, the new addition offers regularly updated coverage of all highways and major thoroughfares in countries like Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while bringing more detailed street-level data to users in the UK. Europe's road warriors will also be able to use a legend to learn about traffic patterns at specific times or days of the week, making it even easier for you to micro-manage your summer getaway to the Swiss Alps. Learning how to fit all your luggage into the back of a Twingo, however, is another matter altogether.
Three suspected members of Anonymous arrested in Spain
The long arm of the law may have finally caught up with some of the hackers behind the recent (and seemingly endless) PSN outage. Authorities in Spain say they have arrested three members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous and seized at least one computer used in the attacks on Sony. Those arrested are believed to have been important in coordinating the group's activities in the country and to have distributed the Loic DDoS tool to others. Now, of course, the Spanish government will have to be on high alert -- if we know one thing about Anonymous, it's that it is not trigger shy when it comes to exacting revenge.
Three arrests made in connection with PSN hack
The New York Times reports that the Spanish police have picked up three suspects in connection with the PSN hack that brought the network down over the last month and a half. The arrests include one man in the city of Gijón who allegedly had a computer in his house that was used to attack PSN. The same computer was reportedly involved in attacks on Spanish banks and other entities. The other two arrests took place in Valencia and Barcelona, but no further information was provided. Spain's National Police, according to NYT, claim that the three suspects were part of the "local leadership" of the hacking group Anonymous, and that the police found its suspects by analyzing chat logs and web pages. The arrests were made as part of an investigation that began in October of last year following a hack on the Spanish Ministry of Culture website. Anonymous has previously denied official involvement with the PSN hack, though some members have speculated that the attackers were likely connected to the group. [Thanks, David!]
Nokia's online stores go offline in France and Spain (update: Netherlands too)
Nokia's "around breakeven" outlook announced earlier today is discouraging at best, and now it looks like the company has begun shuttering online stores in response to growing competition from resellers, which offer lower prices on the same hardware. So far, online stores in France and Spain have been replaced with a closure notice, so customers in those countries will need to turn to third-party vendors to get their smartphone fix. European online stores in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, and the UK remain open for business, but low online sales figures (and the inevitable death of Symbian) mean we may see more countries falling offline in the near future. "Prices are too subsidized by the carriers and sales were low, so they will keep providing support," a representative from Nokia Spain told us today, so as expected, the shutdown only affects sales operations -- of course, you'll still be able to turn to your local Nokia site for support. Update: The Netherlands store is closed too [Thanks, Reppu]
Motorola Xoom, LG Optimus Pad, Acer Iconia A100, and ASUS Eee Pad get Euro retailer pricing
The Carphone Warehouse, known under the brand name of Phone House across Europe, has revealed its future pricing for a quartet of Android Honeycomb tablets in the latest version of its device catalog. The 7-inch Acer Iconia A100 scoops the prize for being most affordable with a €349 sticker, while the 10-inch Xoom's €699 price is confirmed and the 8.9-inch Optimus Pad gets its lowest pricing yet, at a still unaffordable €849. The Eee Pad on display here isn't explicitly named, but we suspect it to be the 10.1-inch Transformer, packing a dual-core Tegra 2 and running version 3.0 of Android -- just like all the others in this group. Oddly enough, these are all detailed in the March version of the document, but unless we're sorely mistaken, none of these tablets has yet reached the stage of general availability in Europe. Well, at least it lets us know how much each one will cost when they do eventually hit retail. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sony Ericsson Spain confirms Xperia Play for €649 on April 1st
Apparently in an effort to reduce confusion and settle the situation once and for all, Sony Ericsson's Spanish outpost has taken to the wires today to clarify the pricing and availability situation of the Xperia Play there: €649 off contract and unlocked (which works out to roughly $907) on April 1st. That more or less lines up with what we've been hearing in other European locales, though in Spain, Vodafone will have a 15-day exclusive on the white model -- other carriers will only have access to black at first, and none of the carriers have come clean with on-contract pricing details just yet. Clearly, $900 is an enormously tough sell, but a weak dollar never helps these situations -- we'll need to wait for word on the US retail picture before we've got the whole story.
Researchers claim discovery of lost city of Atlantis, conveniently located in southern Spain
We had to do a double take when we read this headline from Reuters, but sure enough, it's not April1st yet and its writers don't seem to be joking: the location of the lost city of Atlantis has finally been discovered. Such is the bold claim from an international team of researchers, dreamers and intrepid adventurers. With the use of ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography, they've unearthed evidence to suggest that a spot on the southern coast of Spain, just north of Cadiz, played host to what may have been human society's first metropolis. One of the reasons why it's taken archaeologists so long to pinpoint its whereabouts may be the fact that it lies 60 miles inland, where you wouldn't really expect it to be susceptible to the effects of tidal waves (which is what Plato's account of the ancient city identified as its demise). A National Geographic documentary on the subject will be broadcast this evening where we may learn more about what was discovered, the methods for doing so, and the gorgeous tans those scientists built up in sunny Spain.
HTC ChaCha to be known as ChaChaCha in Spain, somebody didn't do enough market research
As it turns out, the word "chacha" is used as a term of disparagement in the Spanish language. Coincidentally, perhaps after somebody hit HTC's marketing genii with a Spanish phrasebook, the HTC ChaCha will hereafter be known as the ChaChaCha in the land of sun, sand and siestas. This follows mobile search engine ChaCha suing for trademark infringement a couple of days ago and serves as an instructive example of why one should do one's market research before deciding to use one's internal codenames as retail product nomenclature.
BMW's visions for future mobility look as ridiculous as they are impractical
Turns out we were way off on this whole car of tomorrow business. According to BMW the car of tomorrow is a form-fitting suit with unflattering horizontal lines and ball-bearing shoes. Or, maybe it's a kind of bat winged jacket that attaches to a collapsible scooter... thing. That one's called Flymag, pictured above, which converts into a backpack and apparently makes you FOF when you sit on it. These concepts and more are courtesy of FDI, the International Design School in Barcelona, and are on display through the end of this month at Rambla de Catalunya. Go see them now before they're relegated to the annals of yesterday's crazy visions for tomorrow. %Gallery-115029%
Vintcase: An iPad case Indiana Jones would want to own
Here at TUAW, we see an endless parade of iPad and iPhone cases. I mean, seriously -- if I see another carbon copy plastic or silicone case for an iPad, I may toss my breakfast. So when someone sends me something a bit out of the ordinary, I'll usually take notice. That was the situation when I received an email a few weeks ago from a gentleman who pointed me to the website for his company, Vintcase. In his email, he said that they made "the most beautiful, awesome, gorgeous, amazing, classy and wonderful iPad case made on Earth (and beyond)." All hyperbole aside, a look at the website revealed a very beautiful leather case that reminded me of one of those satchels that Indiana Jones might carry his travel papers in. Vintcase shipped a case from Ubrique, Spain, one of the pueblos blancos (white towns) in Andalusia where leatherwork is an art. The case came in a nicely wrapped box (check it out in the gallery below) and when I opened it, my senses were overloaded. The fragrance and soft touch of the leather are amazing, so much so that it's hard to believe that this is an iPad case and not a fashion statement. It does work quite well as an iPad case, and it's something that will age beautifully as it picks up scuffs, stains, and other marks of character. The best thing about the Vintcase? It's relatively inexpensive, at US$99, when you consider the quality of the product. A case like this will last for years, and hopefully the next generations of iPads will slip right into it. If you're looking for a well-made iPad case with character, something that isn't just another piece of plastic stamped out of a machine, look no further than the Vintcase. %Gallery-114852%
Spanish neighborhood receiving video game street names
If you happened to be visiting the new neighborhood of Arcosur, located in Zaragoza, Spain, this past weekend, you would have played witness to a truly ... unique sight. This past Saturday, one of the first streets in the still-under-construction suburb received a moniker: Avenida de Super Mario Bros., which, as the Spanish-speakers and context clue-users among you probably figured out, translates to Super Mario Bros. Avenue. Present at the unveiling was the titular plumber himself, as well as the neighborhood's new residents, who sported fake black mustaches in solidarity. The name was chosen by said residents in an online poll -- and it isn't the only gaming-themed name which won out. Future boulevards in the community will be named after Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Invaders and The Legend of Zelda. This is all very cool -- but we're still holding out hope for an Alleyway Alleyway. Is it too late for a write-in ballot? [Image credit: VicioJuegos]
Spain, Portugal vow to kill off roaming fees
The European Union has been trying to put a tight lid on roaming charges between its member nations for some time (just imagine if you paid roaming fees on interstate travel, Americans!), but it's been slow going -- though there are new per-minute caps in place this year, the fact that the concept of roaming exists at all, particularly when only a handful of companies control all of Europe's wireless landscape, is a little crazy. Well, Europeans, we might recommend using your friends in Spain and Portugal as shining examples of how you can live in a roaming-free future, because the friendly neighbors have agreed in principle to eliminate roaming charges as part of a broader plan to improve Spanish-Portuguese trade. Details have yet to be hammered out -- and therefore, affected carriers aren't yet commenting -- but if this works well, we can only hope the love will spread Europe-wide on the double.
Samsung Focus and Omnia 7 are ready to rock with Windows Phone 7
Samsung's i8910 HD-based Windows Phone 7 prototype has probably been the single most publicly-recognizable face of the platform this year, so it should come as little surprise that the Korean giant has come out swinging with production hardware today -- and fortunately, the pair of retail models look nothing (well, very little) like the proto. The Focus is the phone we've been calling the i917 Cetus in leaks, a curvy, glossy slate with a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display (presumably ripped right out of the Galaxy S line), a 5 megapixel camera, and support for microSD expansion up to 32GB; it'll be hitting AT&T in the States. The Omnia 7 is the second model, launching on Orange, SFR, Movistar, and T-Mobile across Europe with the same Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon processor (rare for a Samsung, by the way), 5 megapixel cam, and either 8GB or 16GB on board. Expect both of these to launch in time for the holidays; in fact, the Focus can be yours on AT&T come November 8 for $199.99. Follow the break for Samsung's Omnia 7 press release.
