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Yesterday's Stadia news has some fearing for the future of the platform. While the company hasn't announced that it's killing Stadia itself, some wonder if this step away from first-party games could be the beginning of the end. But it's the licensing news that's the most important detail: Google is opening itself up to a pivot that could be an incredibly smart move. In the long run, Stadia's original business model may have been doomed to fail.
Google Images rolls out search filter for Creative Commons and commercial licensing
With easy links to license details and purchasing
You've probably lifted a picture from Google Images and dropped it into a school project or a presentation for work. But if you work in media — as I do for Android Police — you need to be sure that you have the rights to use the photos that you want. Now, Google is implementing new badges and filters in image search to make licensable assets easier to find.
According to a report published by ZDNet today, Microsoft has just made a whole pile of its IP available in a "royalty-free and unrestricted license" by joining the Open Invention Network (OIN), a shared defensive patent pool launched to protect Linux. By pledging these patents to the group, Android OEM members of the pool should have that same royalty-free access to the relevant patents, which cover Linux and Android-related technologies.
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- Google has begun distribution of a new Play Store release that appears to fully restore license verification functionality. Play Store v10.7.19 is available now, and multiple reports confirm that it resolves this recently-introduced bug.
Creating (and maintaining) a great app can require a ton of work, so we're happy to compensate developers for all that effort by shelling over a few bucks for their content in the Play Store. But while many app-makers rely on this income stream, a new bug that's popped up in a recent Play Store update threatens to toss a wrench in the works, interfering with how apps can verify paid licenses.
One of the biggest hurdles you can run into when starting a company is the issue of patents. Often larger companies don't like the competition whether or not they actually have a patent on your technology. There's right and wrong, but independent of the merit of a case brought against you, it doesn't matter if you can't defend yourself. Now Google and Intertrust are launching a new service called PatentShield that provides startups with access to a patent portfolio from contributing companies like Google, giving them a means of defending patent-based attacks with their own.
Did you think the Angry Birds movie was an insane bit of zealous over-licensing at the peak of a mobile gaming fad? You ain't seen nothing yet. According to IGN, Cut The Rope developer ZeptoLab has partnered with production company Blockade Entertainment to create a computer animated movie based on the game's adorable monster protagonist Om Nom. Om Nom: The Movie is currently scheduled to release in 2016, notably the same year that the Angry Birds movie will hit theaters.
Since the recent update to MX Player, many users are running into a new problem: there's no sound in certain videos. It turns out the latest release of the popular video player removed support for two audio codecs: AC3 and MLP. Unfortunately, it seems this is a result of licensing issues, meaning MX Player will no longer ship with built-in support to play these audio formats. However, there is a simple workaround that will get things working again with relatively little hassle.
Following its similar deal with Samsung earlier this year, Google has just entered a cross-licensing patent agreement with South Korea's second largest smartphone manufacturer, LG Electronics. The deal covers both companies' current patents and those filed over the next ten years. The patents in question span "a broad range of products and technologies" as per LG's press release.
Google Is Not The Only Company To Sign A Cross-Licensing Patent Deal With Cisco - Now So Has Samsung
It wasn't that long ago when Google announced that it had entered a cross-licensing deal with Samsung, and just two days ago, it entered one with Cisco as well. Not to be left out, Samsung announced today that it, too, had signed a deal with Cisco. As a part of this deal, both companies will have access to the other's patent portfolios for the next ten years.
Through its official global blog, Samsung today announced a new patent licensing deal reached with Google, whereby both companies will have access to each other's existing patents and those filed over the next ten years, covering "a broad range of technologies and business areas."
It would appear that the patent battle between HTC and Apple, which has been going on since early 2010, is finally closed, with the two companies agreeing to opt for a ten-year licensing agreement.
Chances are, most of you only ever hear about Epix in an article discussing streaming rights (like this one). Epix is an online streaming video service a la Netflix that you can only get access to if you have a cable bundle that includes the site. Or, you know, if you have Netflix. For now anyway. The real value of Epix is the stable of movie rights it brings to the table, and now the joint venture is sharing its media library with Amazon Instant Video for all of the online retail giant's Prime customers.
Yesterday, Microsoft announced its latest Android licensing deal with Taiwanese manufacturer Compal, marking the company's tenth such agreement to date. While such a small manufacturer in terms of market share makes little overall difference in Microsoft's profits derived from Android, its deals with HTC and Samsung, combined with various smaller manufacturers like Compal, means it now receives royalties from over half of all Android smartphones sold in the US (the figure may be even larger on a global scale).
It certainly seems like it. Yesterday, Microsoft announced via blog that it had concluded negotiations with Samsung and reached a licensing deal for the same seven patents it previously licensed to HTC for Android (along with other, smaller Android manufacturers). There were rumblings about just what royalty rate Samsung is paying, but the guess is anywhere from $5 to $15 per handset (it's likely on a percentage-of-MSRP basis - so think about 1-3% per $500 MSRP phone).
Android's latest indirect legal tussle to come to a head, a patent suit between HTC and Apple, was ruled on last week by the US ITC (Court of International Trade) - finding the Taiwanese manufacture liable for two counts of patent infringement. This news has spread like wildfire through every corner of the tech blog world. But is there really anything that's changed right now (or even in the near future) because of the outcome of this suit? Not really, no. Even the long-term, worst-case-scenario implications aren't exactly terrifying - and here's why.
You've all probably heard bits and pieces of news about a company called Lodsys in the last couple of weeks, (they've been "patent trolling" iOS app developers) even if you don't really keep up on all things fruit-related. If you're not familiar with the story, let me give you a quick rundown.
Last month, Microsoft took bookseller Barnes & Noble, the company responsible for the Nook and Nook Color, to court over some patents infringed because B&N used the Android operating system in the Nook and Nook Color. This is definitely nothing new in the world of mobile devices. It happens all the time, especially with companies like Apple and Microsoft trying to take complete dominance of every arena they enter. That's not the big story here. The big story is the extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY douche-tastic way Microsoft is trying to attack Android with these patents.
