Apple considers buying another $5 billion in patents

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;"> <div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;"> <img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="52" mce_src="http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6743/interdigitalpatents.jpg" src="http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6743/interdigitalpatents.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; height: 86px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 8px auto; max-width: 640px; width: 465px;" width="279" /></div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is considering buying InterDigital's patent portfolio, which is worth up to US$5 billion. The patents cover a wide range of mobile technologies used to transfer information over high-speed mobile phone networks. Just last month, Apple was the leader of a consortium that bought Nortel's patent portfolio for $4.5 billion.</div> <div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"> The ownership of patents is becoming a key issue to smartphone manufacturers as sales skyrocket. Major tech companies all want a piece of the same pie and Apple isn't alone in its interest of InterDigital's patents. Bloomberg says that Samsung has also been invited to bid on InterDigital's portfolio. Given that Samsung and Apple are locked up in patent lawsuits, it's possible that this could turn into a heated bidding war, possibly inflating the estimated $5 billion price.</div> </div> </span></div>

Apple considers buying another $5 billion in patents

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is considering buying InterDigital's patent portfolio, which is worth up to US$5 billion. The pat...

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Tweet marks successful white space trial

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="90" src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/8936/tvaerial200200.jpg" width="120" /></p><br/>Trials to use the "white space" frequencies to carry data have been successful in the UK, with Cambridge Consultants confirming that it has sent a tweet in the unused spectrum between TV channels.<br/><br/>The White Space frequency is seen as an area of the spectrum that can be tapped into to help in the struggle to provide rural areas with broadband coverage.<br/><br/>The trial was carried out in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, and as well as showing that social media tools could run, also underlined that this kind of technology can be used without causing interference on television channels.<br/><br/><strong>Pioneering</strong><br/><br/>Richard Traherne, head of wireless at Cambridge Consultants, commented: "We believe that White Space, as a pioneering cognitive radio wireless technology, has the potential to change the way that people communicate, especially in rural areas.<br/><br/>"It has a wide range of applications, from healthcare to home working, and we expect to see these and other exciting applications emerge in the near future."<br/><br/>Apparently the village of Cottenham was picked because of a 'lack of wireless provision and availability of spectrum'.<br/><br/>"The network was tested using a range of social media tools, marking the first time White Space spectrum has been used in this way," added Cambridge Consultants' release.

Tweet marks successful white space trial

Trials to use the "white space" frequencies to carry data have been successful in the UK, with Cambridge Consultants confirming th...

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