Are iOS 5 Improvements Borrowed From Other OS?

Apple has just revealed the new features of iOS 5 and one thing has become obvious to everybody: the company’s novelties are not that new, other operating systems have already been offering them individually, Apple has just put them together in a single OS.
Notifications:
Android has always had the upper hand over iOS in terms of notifications. Apple drew some inspiration from Android and has brought notifications that no longer stop active apps.
Camera opens from lock-screen:
Users will now be happier since they can launch the camera app straight from the lockscreen and start taking photos almost immediately. Yes, Windows Phone 7 included this feature before iOS.

Over-the-air updates:
iOS users will finally be able to use the over-the-air update feature and download the latest updates directly on their iOS gadgets. You've guessed it: Android and Nokia offered this feature long before Apple.
iMessage:
iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users will be able to use their devices to send messages and see when somebody is typing in real time. Since the whole iOS family is now compatible with iMessage, many BlackBerry Messenger fans might switch to iOS.
Wireless media sync with Zune:
iOS users will be able to use Zune to sync all the media content wirelessly. It appears that Apple has realized the potential of this underdog and decided to use it.

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Bikini Created With 3D Printer

3D printing is on the rise, with complex objects made from multiple materials being formed, but it is still a niche industry. Continuum Fashion aims to change that by using the niche technology to produce clothes with mass appeal, starting with a 3D printed bikini.

This new product from the fashion house, dubbed N12, is built from hundreds of tiny disks joined together through a 3D printing process. The name N12 has been derived from that of the Nylon 12, which is used throughout the fabrication of this tiny, glamorous garment.

Amazingly, the hundreds of 0.7 mm thick disks which comprise the bikini are not held together with sewing.

“Designing the bikini was an endeavor of pushing the capabilities of the machine as well as working with constraints," said Continuum co-founder Jenna Fizel, TG Daily reports.

"A bikini was the natural choice to start with for 3D printed fashion, due to the low amount of material needed. The printer also has a set bounding box, and our original bikini design exactly fit within the print area in a single piece.”

3D printing promises to make it easy to mass produce any design from a wide array of materials when the technology finishes maturing, a time that could be closer than many realise.

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Microsoft Must Pay I4i $300 Million For Patent Infringement

Microsoft suffered a major setback on Thursday when the US Supreme Court ruled against the company in a patent-infringement hearing.

This loss in the legal battle against I4i, a small, Toronto-based company will reportedly cost the software behemoth almost $300 million. Even more significant than the $300 million loss is the potential impact of the verdict on its Word software, which will need to remove the offending software unless Microsoft can come to a licensing agreement with I4i.

The court decided to turn down the calls from Microsoft to lower the standards of the long standing “clear and convincing evidence” that defendants of patent-infringement cases need to present to the court.

"We're very pleased that the court did the right thing," and that the decision was unanimous,” Michel Vulpe, I4i's founder and chief technology officer told Reuters.

Kevin Kutz, a Microsoft spokesman expressed the company’s disappointment saying: “While the outcome is not what we had hoped for, we will continue to advocate for changes to the law that will prevent abuse of the patent system and protect inventors who hold patents representing true innovation,’’ The Boston Globe reports.

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Anonymous Launches Multiple DDoS Attacks Against Turkey

Hactivist group Anonymous announced on Thursday that it has launched multiple Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on a number of Turkish government websites as a part of their protest against the government's plans to impose internet filtering.

The timing of the attack was also notable, as the country heads for parliamentary elections to be held on June 12.

Towards the latter half of Thursday, the website of the internet regulatory board of Turkey, Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığ, who came up with the internet filtering plan, went offline.

“Over the last few years, we have seen how the Turkish government has tightened the grip on the Internet. It has blocked thousands of websites and blogs while abusive legal proceedings against online journalists persists,” Anonymous said in a statement.

“We call on all internet users worldwide to support freedom of speech by pushing the Turkish government to stop these foolish policies,” it added

However, the attack failed to amuse hacker groups within Turkey who are now threatening to hack Anonymous websites. Shortly after the attacks Anonymous’ own news site reportedly went offline, which, many people suspect, was caused by counter attacks from hacker groups in Turkey.

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Anonymous Tells NATO: This Is No Longer Your World

The hacker collective Anonymous has warned NATO not to challenge it after the organisation released a report on the hacktivist group.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization had released a report in which it painted Anonymous as a threat to government organisations all over the world. NATO said that the group was gaining sophistication and could eventually hack into sensitive government networks.

The report also highlighted Anon’s involvement in attacking websites of companies that had cooperated in a campaign to isolate WikiLeaks. The group was responsible for bringing down services offered by PayPal, Amazon, Visa and MasterCard.

Meanwhile, Anonymous in both a video and an online post warned NATO not to challenge it, claiming that it is impossible to defeat it.

“Do not make the mistake of challenging Anonymous. Do not make the mistake of believing you can behead a headless snake. If you slice off one head of Hydra, ten more heads will grow in its place. If you cut down one Anon, ten more will join us purely out of anger at your trampling of dissent,” Anonymous said.

“Your only chance of defeating the movement which binds all of us is to accept it. This is no longer your world. It is our world - the people's world.”

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Sony Playstation Vita Memory Sticks Appear Online

Sony is still keen to launch proprietary storage standards despite the issues encountered with UMD and will be introducing a new memory card for the Playstation Vita, the successor to the PSP.

Neogaf managed to get hold of a picture - from E3 - showing four memory cards with sizes ranging from 4GB to 32GB and carrying the PSVITA logo; although they do look a lot like microSD cards, they're unlikely to be compatible.

Strangely enough, the cards will fit into Playstation card cases that look a lot like SD cards; furthermore back in March only 2GB or 4GB storage capacities were mentioned with up to 10 per cent of the space reserved for patches and game data.

Vita gaming consoles will not be region-locked which means that gamers will be able to download gaming content from the PSP store and use them anywhere in theory.

The console will be out later this year and will come with a massive 5-inch OLED multi touch capacitive screen, a quad core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore SoC, two cameras, Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and a few more features that make it look a lot like a smartphone.

It's arguably not the first time that Sony has delved into the murky world of proprietary storage formats; although it first publicly demonstrated the compact disc back in 1976, which is the forefather of the DVD and the likes, it also tried to get the Minidisc, the Universal Media Disc, the DAT and the memory stick, all of which have ultimately failed.

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