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‘If We Published Patents, It Would Be Farcical’

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-patents-2012-11

elon musk If We Published Patents, It Would Be Farcical

The patent system has been getting a lot of heat lately, especially with the high-profile fight between Apple and Samsung.

Superhero entrepreneur Elon Musk just avoids patents altogether with his high-tech space venture SpaceX

You would think you’d want to protect your intellectual property when you’re building complicated things like spaceships and innovating new technologies daily.

But Musk’s decision actually makes total sense. Why is that? Musk explains in a recent interview with Chris Anderson at Wired:

We have essentially no patents in SpaceX. Our primary long-term competition is in China,” said Musk in the interview. “If we published patents, it would be farcical, because the Chinese would just use them as a recipe book.”

There are plenty of big holes in patent law — especially international patent law. And in some cases, they’re totally bypassed anyway.

Thus, Musk’s only option is to go with the trade secret route. That should end up working for a company like SpaceX, but as patent fights ramp up, something has to be done.

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Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 news No Comments

Urban Outfitters Says It Will Never Buy Another Cash Register Again

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/urban-outfitters-replaces-all-cash-registers-with-ipads-2012-9

 Urban Outfitters Says It Will Never Buy Another Cash Register Again

Retailer Urban Outfitters had its first ever annual analyst day today.

You can listen to the whole presentation here, but about halfway through CIO Calvin Hollinger makes some interesting comments about the future of point-of-sales systems in retail.

Specifically, the company is going all Apple devices for its stores. Sales people will have iPod touches, and cash registers are being phased out in favor of iPads on a swivel.

In fact, he says: “Two or three weeks ago, we placed our very last register order… once we make sure this ipad works.. all stores will be equipped with iPod touches and iPads.”

iPads, he explained, cost about 1/5th as much as a cash register, and can be used for so much. As shown in the picture, they can be turned towards the customer, who can view content, put in personal information, use it as a gift registry and so forth.

What’s more, it makes a lot more sense from a space usage standpoint. An iPad on a swivel that’s not in use can quickly be taken off, with that space being used for packing or more merchandising or anything else.

SEE ALSO: The 29 best stocks in the market right now >

(Via @montoyan)

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Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 Uncategorized No Comments

Intel finishes crossing the Ivy Bridge with new desktop Core i3 models

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/04/intel-finishes-crossing-the-ivy-bridge-with-new-desktop-core-i3/

intel core i3 ivy bridge desktop Intel finishes crossing the Ivy Bridge with new desktop Core i3 models

Intel has been staggering the rollout of its Ivy Bridge processors over the space of nearly half a year, starting with its higher-end quad-core chips; it’s finally time for the company to complete the story and ship some budget Core i3 desktop parts. The semiconductor giant is coy about the new roster at this stage, but it does promise both regular (s-series) and low-power (t-series) Core i3 chips at clock speeds between 2.8GHz and 3.4GHz. If the past is an indicator, the new components will be mostly or exclusively dual-core and lack extras like Hyperthreading — they will get Intel’s newer integrated graphics and other perks through the upgrade, however. Bulk pricing and other details haven’t yet been aggregated in one place, although we’re seeing that even the faster 3.3GHz Core i3-3220 is selling at retail for $130. We wouldn’t expect anything from Intel’s new offerings to break the bank.

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Intel finishes crossing the Ivy Bridge with new desktop Core i3 models originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 news No Comments

Android back above 51 percent of US share, iOS still growing briskly

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/01/comscore-android-back-above-51-percent-of-us-share-ios-still-up/

comscore us phone share june 2012 Android back above 51 percent of US share, iOS still growing briskly

We’re starting to see a distinct shift in US smartphone market share that leaves Android having to share the spotlight. ComScore’s results for this past June have Google hitting a new high of 51.6 percent share, which still gives it something to crow about — that’s both a small increase over a month earlier and a return to the 51 percent mark. However, Android is still competing with an iOS platform that’s been growing at a healthy rate, reaching 32.4 percent of the American space. The fuel for both sides comes from an all too familiar decline in BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows share. Samsung is still in the top spot as far as manufacturers, although it’s shrinking where Apple and HTC are on the way up. We’ll be looking to see how much the Galaxy S III affects the numbers during the summer, but less patient observers can get the manufacturer results after the break and the full scoop on current market share at the source.

Continue reading ComScore: Android back above 51 percent of US share, iOS still growing briskly

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ComScore: Android back above 51 percent of US share, iOS still growing briskly originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, August 1st, 2012 Uncategorized No Comments

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.

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