Samsung counter-sues LG over OLED patents

LG filed a lawsuit against Samsung back in September alleging that Samsung's products infringed upon LG's patents concerning OLED technology, which was featured in televisions by both LG and Samsung back at CES 2012. The new TVs based upon this technology were due out this year, though neither company has released one as of yet.

The technology is used in Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Tab 7.7 and LG is looking to get those devices banned. When news of the lawsuit first broke, Samsung had no response, however, they have now responded to the lawsuit and are looking to get LG's patents disavowed.

Samsung is looking for the Seoul court to dismiss seven of LG's patents. Samsung argues that the OLED patents owned by LG don't feature the originality and innovation that a patent in South Korea requires. Both companies are at the forefront of OLED technology, so this is an obvious step to try to slow down the competition.

Microsoft looking to power data centers with sewage gas

Microsoft is looking to capture the energy in the gas produced by sewage and harness that otherwise wasted energy for data centers. Microsoft has just gotten approval to test out a new modular data center that will be powered by a biogas fuel cell. The fuel cell will be situated at a sewage plant in Wyoming.

"A person is consuming data and that person's waste is going to power the data center," Microsoft data center researcher Sean Parker told Technology Review. "It's been a mind shift...when we smell that methane at a water treatment plant, we realize we're smelling energy."

Supposedly this isn't just some project designed to make Microsoft appear "green" to the public. They actually seem genuinely interested in being able to co-locate smaller data centers around sources of biogas. This means datacenters could find their way to your local sewage system, farm, or landfill.

The only issue I foresee with locating data centers at farms and possibly other out of the way locations is that getting a fast internet connection to them could be tough. They will definitely need a fiber line, which could delay or increase costs for this new idea. If it proves successful, though, it will deal with all the excess methane being produced and might help fight global warming.

ITC taking another look at whether iOS devices infringe on Samsung's patents

The patent wars are in full force. Constant lawsuits between Samsung and Apple with others thrown in the mix make for a busy legal system. Back in September, the International Trade Commission ruled that Apple's iOS devices did not infringe on any of the patents that Samsung alleged they did.

The reason behind the ITC reevaluation isn't known, but it will give Samsung another chance to inflict some pain upon rival Apple. The ITC has the ability to prevent iOS devices from being imported, if they rule that the devices infringe on Samsung's intellectual property and patents.

The ruling is expected to come in January. Samsung will be attempting to tip the ITC scales in its favor, but it is not clear whether or not this is something they will be able to do. The original ITC finding was the second attempt by Samsung to block iOS devices. The first was the massive Apple v Samsung lawsuit, which saw a jury finding in favor of Apple to the tune of $1 billion.

'Karaoke' coming to Xbox 360 this holiday with hourly charges and SmartGlass integration

If there are two things I enjoy than life itself, it's singing karaoke and never leaving my home. Thanks to a new collaboration between Microsoft and The Karaoke Channel, I won't have to as the company will release a Karaoke application for the Xbox 360 this holiday season.

Karaoke will allow users to rock out by the hour as they'll need to purchase blocks of time, which are said to be two, six and 24-hours of time, although I'm sure the 24-hour block of time won't need to be used all at once or you could end up with no voice for days after your marathon performance. Players will also be given the opportunity to select a number of free karaoke tracks to sing through.

Apple opens eBay store to trial sell refurbished products

Interested in buying an Apple-refurbished product? Well, you can now do just that on eBay. Previously to buy an Apple product that had been factory refurbished, you had to go onto Apple's online store. A store on eBay is now selling these same exact products, at the same exact price, with everything being identical.

The store on eBay has no way to trace it back to Apple--its corporate info is hidden and there is no contact info. However, 9to5mac is reporting that they have learned that this store is, in fact, owned and run by Apple. It's essentially an Apple Store on eBay, but it only sells the refurbished products.

The biggest tell-tale sign is that the prices are exactly the same. That, combined with all of the extras offered with the product, really tell the story. However, 9to5mac says that not a single person at eBay would go on the record confirming that this is a store owned and run by Apple.

Google has your back when it comes to Thanksgiving, helps you save time and enjoy holiday

I'm all about Google. I love most of what they do, especially the little things such as this new Google page dedicated to helping you out with Thanksgiving. The new page that Google bills as a "one-stop-Google-shop" helps you by showing you how to search for recipes, see football highlights, and other cool things to help you save time this holiday season.

It walks you through some of the cool features offered by Google's search engine, such as it's ability to search recipes. The displayed recipes can then be adjust based upon calories, ingredients, and cook time to suit your specific needs. They also highlight some videos YouTube has available to help you with your cooking skills.

Google also highlights the shopping aspect of its search, and offers a new feature called shortlists. Google also has your back if you can't watch the football game live. A quick search will return live scores of almost any game you can think of. Finally, Google offers up Hangouts if you can't all meet up in the same house.

Check it out and make your Thanksgiving just a little bit easier.

Motorola RAZR i MT788 features 2GHz Intel Atom, will be available on China Mobile

Intel's working on getting into mobile devices, specifically smartphones and tablets, and this new Motorola device might just be the start of something big. The new Motorola RAZR i MT788 features an Intel Atom processor, 4.3-inch screen, front and rear cameras, and a microSD expansion slot all powered by Android 4.0.

The new device's atom is the Z2480, which is capable of running at 2GHz. The 4.3-inch screen features a resolution of 960 x 540, which is a bit low by today's standards. It's protected by Gorilla Glass and has a 1.3-megapixel camera sitting above. The flipside features an 8-megapixel camera.

The device is pretty similar to the Western version when seen on paper. However, the new device features a new case which looks identical to the XT788 on China Telecom. It also sports a smaller battery than the Western variant and lower internal memory. Price is not yet available, but it will be on sale in mid-December.

Oprah marketing fail: uses iPad to share love of Microsoft Surface tablet

Oprah loves the new Microsoft Surface tablet. She loves it so much that she's already bought 12 of them for Christmas gifts. She announced this revelation to the world through her Twitter yesterday. Only one problem: she used an iPad to post the tweet--and people are able to see this:

It's not that big of a deal, especially since it probably wasn't even Oprah who posted the tweet. But still, it's an avoidable mistake that could affect the Microsoft marketing deal they have going. It's definitely something that generates a laugh, like a Facebook post that says it was posted from mobile complaining about drivers who text and drive.

Enjoy it for what it's worth. The tweet is still visible on Oprah's Twitter, so they haven't caught word of this little oversight quite yet. It'll likely be removed sometime soon. Funny? Stupid mistake? What are your thoughts?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Nuketown 2025 pre-order bonus map playlist removed

One of the biggest selling points for Black Ops 2 fans to pre-order their game, aside from playing the latest and great Call of Duty game, had to have been the return of one of the most popular multiplayer maps in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Nuketown 2025. The pre-order bonus had its own playlist where players could play Nuketown to their heart's content with other Nuketown fans, but it looks like the plug has been pulled on the map's dedicated playlist as it no longer is available to play through matchmaking.

Confirmation of the playlist's removal came from the Twitter account of Treyarch's game design director, David Vonderhaar.

RumorTT: Apple OS X 10.9 to be named 'Lynx', last iteration of OS X

Rumor has it that the next version of Apple's Mac OS X, 10.9 to be exact, will be called Lynx. The OS X line of operating systems have been named after big cats and Apple is running out of big cats to name the operating system versions after. The current version of Mac OS X is called Mountain Lion. Leopard, Snow Leopard, and Lion have already been used.

That leaves really only two choices, out of the trademarked big cats that Apple got way back in 2003. The two unused trademarked big cats are "Lynx" and "Cougar." Here's the kicker: a cougar is just another name for Mountain Lion, so Apple would likely not use that name. This leaves the final name as Lynx.

Furthermore, a report has surfaced that Apple's internal papers say they are working on finalizing the name and that it will be Lynx. Of course, this is the part that should be taken with a grain of sand as it relies on "reliable sources" and other decidedly flaky sources. But, it does have some logic behind it.

Mac OS X 10.9 is expected sometime in the next two years, probably in the next year, if Apple keeps up the update schedule that they have been doing with the last two updates.

The start button could possibly come back to Windows 8, would make many people happy

Steven Sinofsky is out. Steve Ballmer personally fired Sinofsky, who was head of Microsoft's Windows division. He was the principle proponent and driving force behind the decision to remove the start button from Windows 8. He detailed his reasoning of why users should be forced to drop it cold-turkey.

But now that he is out, could the Windows Start Menu make a come back? Some factors point to yes. Stardock, makers of Start8, has distributed tens of thousands of free trials of Start8, a program which brings back a Windows 7-style Start Menu. Kris Kwilas, Stardocks vice president of technology:

We were having some success with word of mouth before the Windows 8 release, and since the release, the floodgates have been opened, and the demand is surprising even us. It tells me that early adopters of Windows 8 feel there's something missing -- a comfort factor for how they want to use their PCs, vs. how Microsoft has decided for them how they should use their computers.

Windows 8 has not been selling nearly as well as Microsoft, and OEMs, would like it to. Likely this is due, at least in part, to the lack of the familiar Start Button. Even as a PC person, Windows 8 was confusing for me. I had trouble figuring out how to turn it off--it literally took me 5+ minutes to do that simple task.

Would you upg

Apple shares jump over 6% today after getting hammered for several weeks

Apple's (AAPL) stock has jumped by over 6 percent today, bringing it's value up to $561.45 per share. This increase is in stark contrast to the past few weeks in which Apple stock had been in a near-continual state of decline and shed over 20 percent of its per-share value. The decline started shortly after the iPhone 5 announcement.

The value of the stock is still not close to the $700+ value it had reached two months ago, but it's better off than it had been. Stock prices have recovered due to strong sales of mobile devices in China, fresh rumors of a new iPhone 5 successor that is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2013, and Apple having the full catalog of AC/DC music on iTunes.

Several analysts still expect Apple stock to continue to increase, with most pegging the price around $760 in the next 12 months. One analyst, Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets, expects Apple to reach $1,111 a share in that same time period. He released a note saying the recent selling of Apple stock was "insanely insane."

Apple is definitely still a company to watch, though stock performance hasn't been as strong as it once was. We'll be sure to keep you up-to-date on all things Apple.

Intel's CEO Paul Otellini retiring in May, board has six months to find replacement

Over Intel's long history of 45 years, they have had just five CEOs. Paul Otellini has led the company for eight years now, but he has been involved in with the company for nearly 40 years, a long time by any measure. He has announced plans to retire in May of 2013, which gives the board of directors 6 months to find a suitable replacement.

"I've been privileged to lead one of the world's greatest companies," Otellini said. "After almost four decades with the company and eight years as CEO, it's time to move on and transfer Intel's helm to a new generation of leadership."

There are many qualified candidates, both inside the company and outside. A new candidate would likely be someone with a focus on mobile as that seems to be where all of the market is heading. Otellini is seen as the driving force behind reinventing the PC market with Intel's current focus on Ultrabooks, but it's not quite a cell phone or tablet.

"The board is grateful for his innumerable contributions to the company and his distinguished tenure as CEO over the last eight years."

The board of directors has also promoted three senior leaders. Renee James, Brian Krzanich, and Stacy Smith will now act as executive vice presidents for Intel. The three come from software, manufacturing, and Corporate Strategy, respectively.

'Gotham High' parody trailer injects Dark Knight characters into teen romantic comedy

When a movie series does as well as the recent Dark Knight movies, Hollywood tends to go the prequel route in order to tell another side of its blockbuster movies that couldn't be told before. Before something like that happens to this beloved franchise, movie clips TRAILERS decided to take it upon themselves to not only provide a gag prequel trailer to the Dark Knight series, but to make a really good one set in "Gotham High."

The mock trailer includes all of the notable characters from the Dark Knight series. You'll see Bruce Wayne, The Joker and even a 30-year old looking Harvey Dent. All of the footage has been taken from the earlier works of the actors who played those roles, and thankfully, many of them happened to come up the same route as you'll see a lot of school-related material here.

Wii U reportedly bricking after failed attempt to update

It's been nearly 36 hours since Nintendo's Wii U launched, which means users are bound to report issues as soon as they happen via social networks like Twitter and Facebook. One such complaint that is currently making the rounds is the extremely high possibility of Wii U owners bricking their console.

When new Wii U owners connect their console for the first time, they're going to be met with a rather large 5GB update, which enables the Wii U's online functionality, that can take nearly an hour to complete depending on your connection.

Suspect in JFK Airport iPad mini theft apprehended by FBI

It hasn't even been a week since criminals infiltrated Building 261 at JFK International Airport and stole approximately 3,600 iPad minis<">