Nokia and Samsung Extend Patent Agreement

A number of people had been wondering about the patent agreement between Samsung and Nokia that was about to expire. There was considerable speculation about whether the deal would continue or ended once and for all. However, it seems that the two technology companies have decided to carry on the mutually benefitting agreement. It was announced by the Finnish phone maker, Nokia Corp today that Samsung Electronics has extended its patent deal with them for another five years to come. The expiry date of the patent deal was at the end of this year. Nonetheless, the revised deal means that starting on 1st of January 2014, Samsung will be paying Nokia a greater amount than before.

Nokia provided this information and stated that the exact amount to be paid would be settled in a binding arbitration finally and this would conclude at the end of the year 2015. A statement was made by the Chief Intellectual Property Officer of Nokia Corp, Paul Melin, in which he said that the agreement and extension of arbitration is simply a hallmark of the construction resolution of settling licensing disputes and would end up saving considerable costs associated with transaction for both the parties involved.

There had been some murmurs when Nokia had announced in September that it would be selling off its handset business to none other than Microsoft Corp. But, the company had also announced that it would not be giving off its patent portfolio and would retain its ownership. The company said today that it sees plenty of opportunity for creating value by making investments in innovation and the company would achieve this by managing its licensing activities and its patent portfolio actively. Furthermore, the struggling Finnish company could benefit from the licensing fee that it would obtain from the South Korean giant because Samsung Electronics is the number one phone maker in the world.

Nevertheless, Nokia and Samsung have had a testy relationship for the most part. In the continuing patent suit between Apple and Samsung, it was revealed last month that Samsung insiders had had access to some confidential information and documents that pertained to Apple Inc. These documents included the patent deals of Apple with companies like Ericsson, Nokia, Phillips and Sharp. As per the court filings, licensing had been discussed on June 4th by Dr. Seungho Ahn of Samsung Electronics and Paul Melin of Nokia Corp.

Melin stated that Ahn had admitted that they had seen the terms of the deal that had been signed between Apple and Nokia. He had tried to coerce Melin to sign a similar deal with Samsung and this act had not been appreciated or well received by the court. In other news regarding patent licensing, it was also reported that last week, in the UK, Nokia had managed to win a patent battle that it was raging against Taiwanese manufacturer HTC. It had been decided by the patent court in London that Nokia’s accusation regarding HTC’s infringement of ‘Modulator structure for a transmitter and a mobile station’ was quite accurate.

Taking Advantage of Car Rental Companies in Corfu

If you are in Corfu, you will see koscarrental.com as your best source to find a Corfu car rental because most of the biggest car rental companies in the area are registered on this platform. It is always hard to find cheap car rentals in a place where you have never been before. Everyone will think of taking advantage of the situation and from the fact that you are in that city for the first time. However, a good car rental booking service makes it easier for you to find cheaper car rentals in Corfu.

It is true that in order to enjoy and experience the best of any place in the world is important to go for the right accommodation and good transportation. These are the two things that if not selected carefully, you might not be able to enjoy your tour at all. If you are here in Corfu to have some fun while experiencing the true history of the area, you definitely want to go for the right vehicle to travel around.

The car rental services here have all the different kinds and types of cars available in their fleet. So, regardless of the type of vehicle you need in Corfu; you can always log on to our website without hesitating for a moment. You might be in Corfu with your family and looking for a family car that’s not only big but is also safe and secure. The car rental companies here do offer such vehicles in their collection. In case, you are looking for a vehicle for one person only, you will have the best options in this city. The car rental service providers in Corfu never compromise on the quality of their service and the condition of their vehicles.

The car rental companies in Corfu know that their vehicles are like their workers and they have to take care of them in order to impress their customers and stay in business. So, if you are in Corfu to enjoy the beautiful beaches or to indulge into the history of Greece, a good accommodation and a fine transport are the things you must pay careful attention to. Check out the rates of accommodations and vehicles at different websites and if you are ready, do the booking online. There is a chance of saving up to 40% on car rentals in Corfu if you do the booking online. So, without any more waiting to do, just go ahead and start looking for the right vehicle that will best serve you on your tour to Corfu in Greece.

Google’s Schmidt Condemns NSA Spying

According to the Chairman of Google Inc., Eric Schmidt, the recent revelations that have been made regarding the alleged eavesdropping operations conducted by National Security Agency are simply ‘outrageous’ and may even be termed illegal in some circumstances. This week, Schmidt simply unleashed on the NSA while he was weighing in with Wall Street Journal this week and he was angered at the reports that the intelligence gathering agency of the United States had simply infiltrated communication links between the data centers that were operated by its competing search engine Yahoo and that of Google Inc. as well.

Leaked documentation had been published by the Wall Street Journal days earlier, which was credited to Edward Snowden, the intelligence contractor who had turned into a whistleblower. In the documentation, allegations were made against the NSA stating that it had tapped into the unencrypted data streams that existed between the centers and the private and confidential data of millions of customers had been intercepted in this way. Schmidt, who has served as the chairman for the Silicon Valley search engine giant for more than a decade said that this act on behalf of the NSA was simply outrageous.

He said that it wasn’t acceptable for the intelligence agency to pursue its mission by taking such steps because this violated the privacy of individuals. He also said that these revelations meant that there were perhaps more to come. Since June, classified NSA documents are being constantly published by the major media outlets that are spread all over the globe as revealed by Mr. Snowden. These documents have informed the world regarding the various spy programs that are conducted by the US government, but have an impact on the entire world. Also, previous documentation had revealed that an operation called PRISM had been followed when Google’s networks were used for collecting data.

However, the latest leaks suggested that yet another NSA surveillance program had been carried out when communications that had passed between different communication centers had been compromised. Last week, it had been stated that the NSA conducted a program called the MUSCULAR for breaking the links between data centers of Yahoo and Google secretly, but in conjunction with Britain’s Government Communication Headquarters. Unbeknownst to the companies in question, millions of records had been collected in this way. It was also said that Google had only recently started encrypting these links, but Yahoo has not shown any signs of beginning encryption.

In the meanwhile, even Twitter had announced that it would be encrypting its messages and other companies are going down the same path in order to prevent government spying. David Drummond, the Chief Legal Officer of Google said that company had always been worried about the kind of snooping that was done through MUSCULAR. Google’s Schmidt said that they were understanding of the government’s need to conduct intelligence gathering operations to prevent terrorism, if the latest revelations were true, then they were simply unnecessary and outrageous because they infringed on the privacy rights of every innocent individual.

Plunging Sales Cause Net Loss in Q3 For Nokia

The handset division of Nokia Corp may have been sold to Microsoft Corp, but that’s not helping it stop the sales plunge. The company was forced to report a loss in the third quarter, but there was a surge in the share price because the company had given a positive outlook regarding the continuing operations, especially the networks unit. Last year, the company had reported a net loss of 969 million euros in the third quarter as compared to 91 million euros that it had to bear this year. The revenue of the company totaled about 5.6 billion euros, which indicated a 20% decline.

However, the struggling company reported that the net profit of its network operations had grown about 33% and it was expecting to have a positive operating margin in the last quarter of about 12%. According to expectations, there will be a solid net sales growth for the company. Instead of causing a decline in the share price, Nokia’s shares actually rose by nearly 7%. In the third quarter, the Finnish company had managed to sell about 8.8 million smartphone and all of them were Lumia products. Moreover, this was an increase in smartphone sales for about 40%.

Last year, the company had managed to sell about 6.3 million smartphones in the third quarter. Nonetheless, Lumia products were less than 3 million back then. The surprising thing was that there was an increase in demand for Lumia products this year, which has always remained one of the toughest markets for the handset maker. But, this rise in sales was not enough for the company to give a positive outlook about the devices and services unit that the company has sold to the software giant Microsoft Corp for about $7.2 billion, which the company will show in the fourth quarter as discontinued operations.

The Finnish firm was more upbeat regarding its existing operations that include Nokia Solution Networks, HERE mapping services and also the Advanced Technologies Unit. It was stated by the CFO of the firm that the company would be in a better position after the devices and service unit would be removed officially because its net sales had fallen by about 19% and had become 2.9 billion euros because the company had only managed to sell about 64.6 million devices in comparison to the 83 million that it had sold a year earlier.

The CFO further added that the company was planning to make further investments in the growth of its mapping and location services. The company managed to retain its number 2 spot in the mobile phone sales having a 15.5% global market share that became possible mainly because of its line of non-smartphones that the company still sells in emerging markets. The company wasn’t able to fare well in emerging markets. The sales of the company lagged well behind that of Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics as it sold only nine million units as compared to the 33.8 and 88 million that were sold by the smartphone giants.

Skype Spy Monitor – Keep Watching Your Children & Spouse

If you are trying to spy on your employees or anyone else, who is found cheating already, then Skype Spy Monitor will be best tool in 2013 to get the best results. Sometimes it is very necessary to spy on people. May be you are just looking after your spouse or children, so you have to do it. On the other hand, it will be a great tool for the people who are involved crime investigation. Skype Spy Monitor secretly saves all outgoing and incoming video, voice as well as text chats. It works as an intelligent Skype Monitor which can save the exact messages which will include not only names but also emails along with their timestamps of the chats. It will include complete conversation from the both ends. Skype Spy Monitor has ability to receive and record the entire conversation even user has disabled archive of the Skype’s History. Of course, it will be running in an invisible mode and user will never be able to figure out if something is working on the back end. You will be receiving all these messages through
an email or you can set up web page and you can check them by opening that page.

Significant Features of Skype Spy Monitor

• Skype Spy Monitor will be observing and saving every version of chat on Skype messenger. For video chats, it will keep on capturing snapshots of the screen after regular intervals. You will be allowed to setup the time interval to take these snapshots. It will be just working as hidden camera watching the screen of user’s computer.
• It completely works in stealth mode. While running on Windows Operating System, it will not be showing up in the Task List. Definitely, it will not be showing up any icon on the screen and you can make it invisible in uninstall entry as well.
• You have already made your monitoring invisible but if you are confident enough to unhide it then, you can make it password protected. You can apply some password so that no one will be able to check the recorded messages.
• Skype Spy Monitor shows you the reports in HTML format so you should be able examine all the saved logs and reports on your local computer.
• You can setup your Skype Spy Monitor to send the log reports after every hour to some FTP or Email server. It will compress the recorded files in a ZIP file which will significantly decrease the size of report. It will make the delivery of report pretty easy through email.
• There is a Task Scheduler which is the essential part of this software application. You can schedule the tasks for Skype Spy Monitor to start the monitoring at different timings. Otherwise, simply set it up to start monitoring as soon as the Windows Operating System is started up.
• This is very easy to use software application. You quickly install through its Start Wizard. It also has been provided with a Control Panel, which will help you to alter its settings.

Monitoring of Activities on Computer System – Power Spy is Ready to Help

Your computer is used by different other people and you are always worried about the activities going on your computer when you are away from your desk. Especially, if you are working in some office and your colleagues are habitual to use your computer without any permission in your absence then you must have to do something to catch them or at least find out what they are doing on your computer most of the time. If this computer is only assigned to you to do your official work then it is your right and it should be legal to monitor the activities of other people on your computer system.

Power Spy is application what exactly you are looking for. It can monitor the activities on your computer very secretly. This monitoring will be done in stealth mode so that user will never be able to detect the monitoring activity at all. You will be able to monitor the outgoing as well as incoming traffic which includes chats and IMS through different websites or messengers. It is capable to monitor the activities on MSN, Skype, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook, ICQ, TenCent QQ, AOL, GADU GADU and other messengers. It will be able to record the websites which have been visited, emails sent/read, opened documents, activities on clipboard, typed passwords and applications which have been executed on your system. Power Spy Software will serve as your surveillance camera which will keep taking the snapshots of your monitor screen after regular intervals.

In your absence, when anyone will start up your computer, Power Spy Software will start working automatically and invisibly. When you login back into your system and want to check the recorded activities. You can use your Hotkey which will unhide the Control Panel of the Power Spy. You can check all the reports directly on your computer or this application can send you all the reports through email as well. You can set up the report timing or intervals through the control panel. So it is not necessary to login back into your system to check the reports, you can check the reports from any remote location via email.

Power Spy is equipped with very powerful tools to monitor the activities on any computer. You can get the snapshots of the screen after every second. It will save the taken snapshot in JPEG format and it will be saved as an image on the computer hard drive. Remember that it will be hidden, so there is no chance to be caught by the user. Power Spy will stop taking the screenshots when user goes idle. If you want to know about each step of the activities then you can move on step by step. Otherwise you can enjoy the Slide Show as well. Power Spy will be able to save the user name and password which will be the part of reports. It can record each and every keystroke from the system which can exclude the specific keys such as numeric keys.

Movies That Will Become TV Shows

Two very popular movies from the 90’s are coming back in the form of TV shows. NBC is working on a half-hour comedy based on the iconic movie Reality Bites, while FX has closed a deal to turn make an hour long drama series based on the Oscar-winning film Fargo.

The movie Reality Bites was about a group of loser friends who struggle with their careers and love life after graduating from college. The TV show, just like the movie, will take place in Houston in the early ‘90s. The main character will be Lelania Pierce (played by Winona Ryder in the movie), who has just graduated from college and lives with her slacker buddies. So it seems to be that this sitcom will be a lot like Friends, Happy Endings or Girls.

Ben Stiller, who produced the film, will produce the show through his shingle Red Hour Films; and Helen Childress (writer of the movie) is going to write the script of the show’s pilot episode.

On the other hand, the film Fargo was a dark comedy about a fake crime that went horribly wrong. Frances McDormand (who won an Oscar for her performance) played a pregnant police chief from Minnesota trying to find two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) who killed a policeman and staged the kidnapping of a car salesman’s wife.

The TV Show will be a miniseries of ten episodes that will air for FX. John Landgraf, president of FX, stated that the show will be "remarkably true to the film,", in spite of the fact that there are no plans to include existing characters. He also said that the writer, Noah Hawley, has “invented a new version of Fargo that’s its own thing, but that’s true to the spirit of the original,".

Joel and Ethan Coen, who directed the film Fargo, will be the executive producers of the miniseries. Billy Bob Thornton (a frequent collaborator of the Coens) will star the TV version, playing a rootless con artist. Bob Odenkirk (Famous for playing Sail in Breaking Bad) and Glenn Howerton (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) have joined the show as well. Other actors with roles in this miniseries are Oliver Pratt, Kate Walsh, Martin Freeman, Colin Hanks, Adam Goldberg and Allison Tolman.

In 1997, actress Kathy Bates attempted to adapt “Fargo” to the small screen. She directed a pilot with Eddie Falco playing Marge McDormand. But that pilot was not picked up. Instead, it aired as a TV movie in 2003.

Taking successful movies to the small screen is something that has certainly been done before. Movies like Clueless, Clerks and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer became were turned into TV shows, the latest being the most successful one.  The big question is… can Reality Bites and Fargo be positively translated to the current style of TV? Time will tell. 

Masters Of Sex Review

On September 29th Masters of Sex made its debut on Showtime and it was seen by 1 millions of viewers.
The show tells the true story of Dr. William Masters and Virginia “Gini” Johnson. William (played by Michael Sheen) is a brilliant obstetrician and fertility specialist who wants to study sex scientifically. In spite of his intelligence, he’s socially inept. He has a wife who adores him and with who he has bad sex from time to time. On the other hand, Gini (played by Lizzy Caplan) is sassy woman who is light-years ahead of her times. There’s practically nothing she wouldn’t do in bed. She has mind-blowing sex with men she doesn’t love. William hires her to work with him in a sex study. The two of them plan to observe individuals pleasuring themselves and couples engaging in intercourse. In such an unorthodox way, they would make groundbreaking discoveries such as the fact the women are capable of multiple orgasms.  They would also establish the Human sexual response cycle.

Beautiful actress Caitlin Fitzgerald also stars. She plays Libby, William’s sweet and submissive wife, the archetype of a woman in the 50’s.  She goes as far as to call her husband “daddy” all the time, displaying the typical submission of wives of that era. It might be difficult for modern women to fully comprehend her and the other female characters. One tends to relate more with Gini. But it’s very interesting to see such an accurate portrayal of how life was like for women back then.

Another main character is Dr. Austin Langham, a womanizer played by Teddy Sears. Nicholas D’Agosto stars as Dr. Ethan Hass. Ethan is a young doctor, William’s protégé, who has a brief but intense sexual relationship with Gini. He gets obsessed with Gini and is brokenhearted when he finds out that Gini was only interested in sex and doesn’t love him.  

The story was taken from real life. Michelle Ashford indeed developed the plot basing on Thomas Maier's biography Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love. In real life, William divorced Libby and married Gini in 1971. Ultimately, William and Gini got divorced in 1992.  He died due to Parkinson’s disease in 2001. She passed away last July at the age of 88.

Since the premiere, Masters of Sex received a lot of praise from the critics. Most people agree that the show is seductive and shows impeccable period décor, great acting and a skillful direction. Basing on 32 reviews, Metacritic gave the series 85 points out of 100, while Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 89% approval rating, basing on 42 reviews. “I enjoy the acting of Caplan and Sheen and the side storylines are interesting..in that they help viewers understand Masters' and Johnson's back story”, said a fan who identified himself as emo_ville2002.

To the fans’ delight, it was announced on October 22nd that the show was renewed for a second season that will air next year.

Tax Objection against Wage Garnishment

Paying tax is a legal requirement for individuals, businesses and corporations that are reporting an income. Failure to pay taxes can lead to difficult consequences for the taxpayer. The taxation authorities of the particular country can take voluntary and involuntary enforcement action for collecting the taxes due to them. One of the methods used by them for satisfying the debts related to federal and state taxes is wage garnishing. The employer of the taxpayer is ordered by the taxation authority to deduct a portion of their paycheck for satisfying their taxation debt. However, this can create hardship for the taxpayer and increase their financial burden.

It is possible for individuals to make a tax objection against wage garnishment they consider the debt invalid or they do not agree with the amount of debt that has been specified. Objection can also be made in circumstances when this act will result in extreme hardship for the taxpayer and their family as a whole. A judge has to hear the objection made against wage garnishment. The notification letter of this garnishment should provide complete details about the background and current circumstances and people have to take several steps, depending on the type of garnishment and objection being made.

The first step that should be taken is that the taxpayer should start addressing their letter to the rightful and proper authorities. The wage garnishment notice will provide the information about the authority in question. If this information is not provided, the organization imposing the garnishment can be contacted for inquiring about the right authorities. The objection made against the wage garnishment should be explained in detail. The letter should comprise of specific facts and figures and should have proper evidence instead of pleas of understanding. Apart from that, taxpayers can also provide additional information for backing their case.

This includes providing their account number and other pertinent information that can be useful in identifying the case of the individual. If possible, individuals should also make an offer of settling their debt with reasonable payments. However, they should not how much and when they will be able to pay. All the necessary documentation and forms that are attached with the wage garnishment letter should be filled. In the case that tax objection is made against the amount of validity of the debt, payment documentation and statements should be attached such as canceled checks.

If financial hardship is the reason for the objection being made, attaching the recent documentation of expenses such as car payments, utilities, medical bills, mortgage, credit card payments and insurance payments and also the recent paycheck stubs is recommended. Businesses should consider filing for bankruptcy in the case where tax debts are overwhelming and garnishment is making the situation worse. This can provide tax refunds to individuals. However, some tax debts cannot be discharged by bankruptcy either. In this scenario, the only option available is to make a tax objection and provide proper proof of hardship. Different standards are used for determining hardships so people should have enough proof to back their claim.

Facebook Removes Decapitation Video after Backlash

After the largest social network was criticized by David Cameron for lifting the ban on violent films, Facebook decided to change its approach. Prime Minister David Cameron had dubbed the social media giant as ‘irresponsible’ because it had posted videos that depicted beheadings. The issue had been ‘reexamined’ by Facebook, after which it had concluded that video showing beheading and decapitation glorified violence in an improper and irresponsible manner. Moreover, the social network also asserted that it would strengthen the enforcement of policies that were concerned with the removal of posts, which celebrated violence and also to check if graphic content and similar videos were shared in a responsible manner or not.

This includes giving warnings to users about their content or prohibiting underage viewers to access such content. The move was greatly welcomed by Mr. Cameron, but he also added that he would be waiting to see if this tactic was good enough to ensure that children were being protected against exposure to such gory movies and videos. He had conveyed this message via Twitter. A storm had been sparked by social network Facebook when it had temporarily decided to lift a ban that had been imposed on videos of beheading in May. The social media giant had used the excuse that its website was used by people worldwide for sharing events that happened in different areas.

A video that had shown the beheading of a video by a Mexican drug cartel had sparked such response from the people. But, it had been removed now. The company also mentioned that it would be removing all posts and images concerned with beheading, but has been advised by the critics to rethink their decision. Mr. Cameron said that it was irresponsible on the part of the social network to post such content without giving any warning or assuring parents. Now, Facebook has clarified its policy. It said that content was shared by people for the purpose of raising awareness amongst others.

It asserted that this awareness involved sharing images and videos about different acts of violence and terrorism and the primary purpose is to condemn these acts. The social network doesn’t allow people to post such content for the purpose of celebrating it or for getting sadistic pleasure. Therefore, in order to combat this rising glorification of such contemptible and violent content, Facebook is attempting to strengthen its policies. The social network outlined that it reviews content when it’s reported and takes a very close look at the context that surrounds an image or video. If it has a negative impact, the said content is removed.

The network also said that they also checked that whether the person sharing such content was being responsible or not. This refers to the fact if warnings are being provided with the content and an age-appropriate audience is mentioned. Based on these standards, reports of graphic content have been reexamined and concluded that it is celebrating violence. This has led to its removal from the social network.