Top Startup and Tech News Today: 7 Things You Missed Today

By Beth Kindig

Samsung insider claims peculiar Galaxy Round is just a prototype

The media has been buzzing about Samsung’s new “Galaxy Round,” the first curved smartphone to ever hit the market. But, an unnamed Samsung insider claims that the Galaxy Round is a pointless gimmick that Samsung released just for the media attention. They claim that the Samsung Galaxy Round is simply a prototype device that will have limited production and distribution even within Samsung’s home country of South Korea. The Samsung Galaxy Round, which was announced by Samsung earlier this month, features a curved 5.7 inch display. It comes with 3 GB of Ram, a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front camera, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

Samsung proposes five-year patent lawsuit hiatus to escape EU antitrust warnings

20 months ago, the European Commission launched a formal investigation into Samsung’s patent licensing practices. Now, Samsung believes that it has come up with a solution to their problem. Today, the European Commission has started asking for comments on Samsung’s proposal relating to the abuse of standard essential mobile patents. With this, Samsung will not seek an injunction against any company wishing to license its patent for the next five years. Samsung will also agree to a negotiation period of up to a year. After that time period, Samsung will rely on a court of arbitrator to draw up an agreement.

Apple Multi-touch patent upheld by US Patent and Trademark Office

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has upheld an Apple patent. This move could have consequences for companies like Samsung and Motorola. On September 4th 2013, the USPTO issued a certificate confirming the patentability of all 20 claims of a patent covering Multi-touch functionality, such as the ability of a device to interpret a “diagonal downward swipe” as a purely vertical gesture. It’s one of the patents at issue in the ITCs ruling to ban the import of some Samsung products. As result of that ruling, and this patent, Samsung will now have to ensure that the devices it sells in the US do not infringe on any of the patents within the previously mentioned case.

YouTube is going mobile first, too

Larry Page announced that 40% of Youtube’s traffic stems from mobile devices. This is up from the 25% number that we were given last year. YouTube confirms that this number is split between Mobile phone and Tablet computer traffic. However, mobile means less ad money. There are many ways to buy ads on the YouTube web page, but there is only way to do so on the YouTube app, which takes form in a skippable ad that viewers can, and most likely will, ignore. The result is fewer ad dollars per mobile view. The skippable ad is better for the user, and it might be better for the company in the long run, but for now, the large shift of users to a mobile platform just gives YouTube more reason to gripe.

Twitter considering dedicated private messaging app

Twitter is reportedly considering creating a standalone message app. Sources that are close to Twitter report that the company is considering taking its direct messaging service a step further and making it its own app. Facebook did something quite similar in the past. Sources also report that Twitter has been keeping a close eye on popular startup app Snapchat, and have met privately with employees from MessageMe. MessageMe reached 5 million users within 75 days of its launch. The news of a Twitter messaging app comes days after Twitter changed its direct messaging service to allow users to message others without having to follow them.

Future Sony Smartphones could recharge wirelessly in just an hour

Do you hate charging your phone? Is your Smartphone always dying? Are you frustrated with how slowly wireless charging works? Well, Sony Corporation think it’s solved this problem with its newest invention. The new unit, which is based on a forthcoming version of the Qi standard, claims to pump 10 to 16 watts of energy into your device, which means your smartphone should be fully charged within an hour. Unfortunately, this hardware won’t be available until Xperia phones until the second half of 2014.

AT&T prepping $5-per-day pass for data on Tablet computers

AT&T really wants you to start using Tablet computers. They are making a play to offer data to tablets users without forcing them to subscribe to a data plan. The plan so far is a $5/day cellular data pass for tablets. Wifi-only tablets make up most sales of AT&T, but with this plan, AT&T hopes to encourage the sale of data-enabled tablets. The daily $5 will give user access to 250 MB for the 24 hour of period. A payment of $25/day will give the user the option of 1 GB of data for use at any time over a three month period.

Author: Beth Kindig has published over 900 articles in the last 8 years exclusively on Technology and Startup companies. She has held product marketing and developer evangelist roles at tech companies representing products in data, security, internet of things, connected home, connected cars, encryption, mobile, health care, and Financial technology (Fintech).
Her tech articles have been featured in Venture Beat, AdExchanger, CitizenTekk, MediaPost and the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She has written over 30 reports and whitepapers on enterprise technologies. Beth has also been a speaker at Tech Week, Android Developers Conference, Advertising Week NYC, GamesBeat and more.

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