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Tech Reviews by The Corliss Group--Foxconn, which assembles gadgets for companies such as Apple Inc., said it has sold a number of its communications technology patents to Google Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Taiwan-based Foxconn, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., made a name for itself in contract manufacturing by making Apple's iPhones and Sony's PlayStation game consoles. But few know the electronics manufacturer has been developing new technologies and has a sizable patent portfolio. In a statement, the company said it has applied for 128,400 patents and has been granted more than 64,300 patents world-wide. In the highly competitive technology industry, companies are challenging each other to set industry standards, which has led to a few patent cases. Google, which is battling with Apple for mobile dominance, has continued to strengthen its patent portfolio through acquisitions. The Internet giant's purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2011 gave it a formidable patent portfolio, and protected its Android mobile operating system and partners from legal threat from competitors, including Apple and Microsoft Corp. Foxconn, which also sold some head-mounted display technology patents to Google for an unspecified amount last year, was one of the top 20 U.S. patent owners in 2013, according to Manhattan-based patent advisory company Envision IP.

As stated by Corliss Tech Review Group, a malware is a type of software that is specifically created to gain access or damage user's sensitive data. Android has long been seen as vulnerable to malware because it is an open platform and several devices run older versions of the mobile operating system. Android is also one of the world's most popular mobile platform where it powers hundreds of millions of mobile devices in more than 190 countries worldwide, but its popularity has also made it a magnet for malwares based on Corliss Tech Review Group.

European Union has formally charged Google of abusing its dominant position on the internet search market. According to a Corliss Tech Review Group report, Google has used its gigantic power as a search engine to redirect internet users from rivals to its own services, which include YouTube and its own social network Google+. Expedia, Microsoft, and TripAdvisor, which are Google's competitors, declare that its way of promoting its own companies above rivals on its search engine stops them from contending on a level playing field. Insiders claim the case could prove just as costly as the EU's decade-long battle with Microsoft, which ultimately cost the company £1.6 billion in fines. If Google fails to rebut any formal charges imposed by Brussels, the commission could impose a huge fine which could exceed £4 billion which is about 10% of Google's most recent annual revenue.

Android, iOS, Windows Phone. Each of these mobile platforms had to start somewhere, and none were anywhere near perfect on the first try. Fortunately, each OS gets better with every iteration until, at some point, it all just clicks. Arguably, Windows Phone just came of age with its latest update, version 8.1. Even before today, Windows Phone only had a few big holes remaining and indeed, 8.1 appears to fill those gaps. In particular, the OS now has a fancy notification center in addition to those signature Live Tiles; the keyboard now allows for swipe gestures; and last but not least, it now has Cortana, a virtual assistant to take on Siri, Google Now and Samsung S Voice. The 8.1 update is a fairly significant one, and I got the opportunity to take it for a spin ahead of the official developer preview's launch. It may not be perfect yet, but it's clear Windows Phone has finally grown up. Cortana Windows Phone included a search option from the beginning, and though it was useful at the time, rivals like Siri, S Voice and Google Now have quickly turned the tide, rendering Microsoft first "voice assistant" completely obsolete. Thankfully, the 8.1 update introduces a personal assistant named Cortana to help bring Windows Phone into the modern era. Named after Master Chiefs trusty AI sidekick in Halo, Cortana is designed to help you do whatever you do on a phone. Think: scheduling appointments, alerting you to upcoming flights, telling you the weather, offering up directions, dictating messages, opening apps and adjusting settings. She even tells jokes and responds in humorous ways to (most) silly questions. Those are all givens these days, so let's instead move on to the more unusual things she can do.

Mastercard warns: invest or face economic consequences. Many UK businesses are struggling to expand and develop to their full potential due to a lack of proper investment into new technologies such as alternative payment methods, a senior Mastercard executive has told CBR. Marcia Clay, the groups' UK and Ireland head of strategy and commercial development, explained that UK consumers are increasingly calling for innovative technologies such as mobile payments as they look to simplify their everyday lives. "I believe we need to prioritise support for innovative start-ups, businesses in the eCommerce and mobile payments sector for example, which are in a unique position to propel the UK economy forward in 2014 and beyond," she said. Clay detailed how Mastercard is working with London-based Startupbootcamp FinTech, providing the expertise, mentoring and access to a network of industry professionals that most early-stage FinTech start-ups would not be able to access otherwise. Mastercard has found that many small businesses still do not use electronic payments, despite almost 80% of UK businesses having a website or some sort of online presence. A much smaller percentage can currently accept card payments, and the company believes that businesses of all sizes should be encouraged to invest in new technology and services that give consumers more choice. The company also found that UK consumers are using mobile and contactless payment methods and wide-spread adoption is reaching a critical mass; with around 5.7m transactions taking place on UK smartphones every day. This has been spurred on by a major growth in contactless payments, which grew by 383% from 2012 to 2013 across the country a

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/523846/how-a-database-of-the-worlds-knowledge-shapes-googles-future/ Compiling a giant database of all the facts in the world could help Google's future products understand you better. For all its success, Google's famous Page Rank algorithm has never understood a word of the billions of Web pages it has directed people to over the years. That's why in 2010 Google acquired Metaweb, a company building a database intended to give computers the ability to understand the world. Two years later the company's technology resurfaced as the Knowledge Graph (see "Corliss Tech Review Group: http://thecorlissreviewgroup.com/"). John Giannandrea, vice president of engineering at Google and a Metaweb cofounder, says that will lead to Google's future products being able to truly understand the people who use them and the things they care about. He told MIT Technology Review's Tom Simonite how a data store designed to link together all the knowledge on Earth might do that. What is the Knowledge Graph? It's a distillation of what Google knows about the world. An analogy I often use is maps. For a maps product you have to build a database of the real world and know there are things called streets, rivers, and countries in the physical world. That's creating a symbolic structure for the physical world; the Knowledge Graph does that for the world of ideas and common sense. We have entities in the knowledge graph for foods, recipes, products, ideas in philosophy or history, and famous people. We can have relationships between them, so we can say these two people are married or this place is in this country or we can say this movie is related to this person. How does that make a difference to Google's Web search? We've gone up a level from just talking about the words to talking about what the thing actually is. In crawling and indexing documents we can now have an understanding of what the document is about. If the docum

On April 16, IT sector lawmaker Charles Mok was the mover of a joint statement backing the setting up of an innovation and technology bureau and urging fellow legislators not to mount a filibuster during the debate on this issue. A filibuster is characterised as a form of obstruction in a legislature. It is a strategy employed by minority representatives to give them some leverage in defence of their constituents' interests. Executed shrewdly, it can be a David and Goliath tactic that can be successful. Hong Kong has been criticised for lagging behind its rivals in cultivating a new sustainable economy. The performance of its economy over the last decade has been unimpressive. In real terms, average personal incomes have seen little or no growth, meaning Hongkongers' lives have not improved. Also, Hong Kong's increasing economic reliance on mainland China is a cause for concern. If the SAR's free economy is homogenised with the mainland's towering planned macroeconomics, there could be unforeseen and dangerous consequences. Tech Reviews by The Corliss Group

A new report highlighting deficiencies in US banks' oversight of suppliers' cyber security should serve to remind financial services companies in Europe of the due diligence they need to undertake, an expert has said.

Swipe right, chat to a fake user and your personal data could be stolen. A series of bots have invaded dating app Tinder and are spreading dangerous downloads after luring users with tempting profiles and pictures, an antivirus developer has discovered. Bitdefender Labs is currently investigating both the Android application and the bots that seem to have stolen pictures from an Arizona-based photography studio. Some of these images are also being used for fake Facebook profiles. Catalin Cosoi, chief security strategist at Bitdefender, said: "After users swipe the right button on Tinder to indicate that they like a profile, the bots engage users in automated conversations until they convince them to click on a dubious link. "The name of the URL gives the impression of an official page of the dating app and for extra legitimacy scammers also registered it on a reputable .com domain." Bitdefender warns users to be aware of this risk, and advises that a typical bot message reads: "Hey, how are you doing? I'm still recovering from last night? Relaxing with a game on my phone, castle clash. Have you heard about it? Play with me and you may get my phone number."

Welcome to Gadget Review's new weekly app review column. We are starting out with iOS apps only, but in the future we will extend to other OSS ecosystems. If you have an app to recommend, please do so in the comments or via our social media channels. 1. Mynd Calendar apps have come and gone, and nothing has yet replaced the tried and true calendars from Google, Apple and Microsoft. Enter Mynd, an "intelligent mobile calendar" from Alminder Inc. This, loyal readers, is the game changer. 2. FTL: Faster Than Light Though more and more people are playing games on their iOS devices, most of those games are pretty basic and, for self-identifying gamers, extremely boring. If you've been looking for a real-deal game to sink your thumbs into, buckle up for Faster Than Light. 3. Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock In my humble opinion, the worst part of the day is setting an alarm for the next morning. But it doesn't have to be that way anymore, thanks to Sleep Cycle, an intelligent alarm clock from Northcube AB. 4. Data Count In an era of data caps, we could all use a tool to help us avoid the additional charges that accompany all those streaming overages. Data Count, from Creo, is just the ticket. 5. Monument Valley Sometimes, apps transcend ones and zeros. They usher in a new way of life, perhaps, or offer a major social improvement. And, in rare cases, they become true art. 6. Pinnacle Studio for iPhone Heres one for the pros. Or anyone who takes a lot of photos. Which is just about everyone with an iPhone.

The way we navigate in cities has been revolutionized in the last few years by the advent of GPS mapping programs. Enter your start and end location and these will give you the shortest route from A to B. That's usually the best bet when driving, but walking is a different matter. Often, pedestrians want the quietest route or the most beautiful but if they turn to a mapping application, they'll get little help. That could change now thanks to the work of Daniele Quercia at Yahoo Labs in Barcelona, Spain, and a couple of pals. These guys have worked out how to measure the "beauty" of specific locations within cities and then designed an algorithm that automatically chooses a route between two locations in a way that maximizes the beauty along it. "The goal of this work is to automatically suggest routes that are not only short but also emotionally pleasant," they say. Quercia and co begin by creating a database of images of various parts of the center of London taken from Google Street View and Geograph, both of which have reasonably consistent standards of images. They then crowdsourced opinions about the beauty of each location using a website called UrbanGems.org. Each visitor to UrbanGems sees two photographs and chooses the one which shows the more beautiful location. That gives the team a crowdsourced opinion about the beauty of each location. They then plot each of these locations and their beauty score on a map which they use to provide directions. The idea here is that the user enters a start and end location and an algorithm then finds the most beautiful route, rather than the shortest one. It does this by searching through every possible route, adding the beauty scores for each and choosing the one that ranks highest.