Nokia Normandy budget Android phone leaked again in new purported render

Nokia may not have officially revealed plans for making Android devices, but rumours about the company's first Android-powered smartphone, thought to be codenamed Normandy, are buzzing again.
@evleaks has posted a render showing Nokia's alleged first Android smartphone, Normandy in various colour variants. The tweet reads, "Nokia Normandy, 2013" and includes the purported render of the device. The tweet also indicates that Nokia might launch the alleged Normandy by end of this year.
The Nokia Normandy's leaked render shows the yet-to-announced device sporting a similar design to the Asha touch range of phones. There is a physical back button on the front panel of the alleged Normandy, as seen in leaked render. The rear panel is seen with the camera accompanied by the Nokia logo branding in the middle. The rumoured Nokia Normandy can be expected to come in Black, Cyan, Mint Green, Red, Yellow and White colours, if the leaked render is believed.
If the rumours turn out to be true, Nokia, which has been supporting the Windows Phone platform like a lone ranger, might be finally changing gears and entering Android segment with its first device.
Earlier, a report had claimed that the Finnish handset maker might launch the Normandy in 2014 and described the Nokia Normandy efforts as 'full steam ahead'. The report also revealed that Nokia, following the lead of Amazon, has been working on a fully-tailored or forked version of Android, like the software on the online retail giant's Kindle Fire tablet range.
Further, the alleged Nokia Normandy has been said to be targeted at the low-cost segment as an Asha-equivalent smartphone, but with access to more traditional smartphone apps - a benefit that the report suggested has been missing in Nokia's dated Series 40-based Asha phones.
As of now, there is no clarity whether the alleged Nokia Normandy Android phone is real or just a rumour. However, contradicting the rumours about a Nokia Android phone, Stephen Elop, the former CEO of Nokia had said in July that the company made the right decision by choosing Windows Phone over Android.

Google asks US court to rule that Android has not infringed Rockstar patents

Google has asked a court in California to rule that it does not directly or indirectly infringe seven patents of Rockstar Consortium, after the Microsoft, Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony backed patent firm sued seven of Google’s Android partners in a court in Texas.
The lawsuits filed in October in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, have placed a cloud on the Android platform, threatened Google’s business and relationships with its customers and partners and its sales of Nexus-branded Android devices, and created a justiciable controversy between Google and Rockstar, Google wrote in a complaint this week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Rockstar acquired Nortel Networks’ patents for US$4.5 billion after outbidding Google in 2011. It filed lawsuits in October against Samsung Electronics, HTC and five other companies alleging infringement of some or all of seven patents.
Samsung’s Mobile Hotspot feature, which allows sharing of a mobile device’s data connection with other devices by turning it into a wireless access point, is alleged to infringe claims of U.S. Patent No. 6,128,298 (“the ‘298 patent”) entitled “Internet Protocol Filter,” for example.
Describing the lawsuits by Rockstar as “Android OEM actions,” Google said in its filing that Rockstar has asserted its patents only against “certain mobile communication devices having a version (or an adaption thereof) of [the] Android operating system.” Each of the “Android OEM Defendants” also makes other products that do not use Google’s Android platform, Google added. Rockstar has also alleged patent infringement by Nexus 7, a device offered for sale by Google and built by Asus, one of the “Android OEM Defendants,” according to the filing.
Google claims that its Android platform and the Nexus 5, 7 and 10 devices it sells directly or indirectly do not infringe any claim of the seven patents in the suit. It has asked the court for a declaration that both Android and the Nexus devices do not infringe Rockstar’s patents.
The Internet company has described Rockstar as a firm that “produces no products and practices no patents” in its filing. “Instead, Rockstar employs a staff of engineers in Ontario, Canada, who examine other companies’ successful products to find anything that Rockstar might use to demand and extract licenses to its patents under threat of litigation.”
Google said the California court had jurisdiction as, among other reasons, Rockstar’s shareholders like Apple in Cupertino, California, “direct and participate in Rockstar’s licensing and enforcement efforts against companies in California.”
In a separate action, Rockstar and subsidiary NetStar Technologies have alleged that Google has infringed seven other patents acquired from Nortel. The patents, all titled “Associative Search Engine,” relate to an invention used to provide advertisements based on users’ search terms. Google has asked for a 30-day extension of time to file its response to the complaint, which was granted by the court in Texas. Advertisements around search terms is a key component of Google’s business.

src : http://www.pcworld.com/article/2083040/google-asks-us-court-to-rule-that-android-has-not-infringed-rockstar-patents.html

Simple tips that can make your new Android phone better

Did you find a new Android phone among your holiday gifts? Well here’s another gift: Five of them, actually. These tips and apps will make that new Android phone even better.

don’t know how many people found an Android smartphone among their holiday gifts although I suspect it was more than a few. There’s no lack of good options available from Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola and others. No matter what Android phone you might have unwrapped, however, there are a few easy things you can do to make the experience a great one.

1. Find a keyboard that works the way you do. I actually like the stock Google keyboard that comes with Android, but everyone is different. Luckily, Android lets you install and use the keyboard — or keyboards, for that matter — you prefer. A quick search in the Google Play store will get you started but most people can’t go wrong with SwiftKey.