Boot up: Windows 8, Tech City's retort, Han gets bought, iPad's cool factor and more

January 2007:

Both [Jeff] Han and [Steve] Jobs were showing off "multitouch" screens. But what makes those two demonstrations, 11 months apart, so remarkable is that they use two different technologies, on two screens of such different sizes, to identically dramatic effect. The upshot: this could be the start of a revolution in how we interact with computers.

Five years later...

Microsoft acquires multitouch company Perceptive Pixel >> The Verge

Steve Ballmer has just announced Microsoft's acquisition of Perceptive Pixel, a company focused on research, development, and production of multitouch interfaces. The company is perhaps best known for the 82-inch multitouch display that Microsoft demoed at MWC. Jeff Han, Perceptive Pixel founder and new Microsoft employee, says the display is the "world's largest true multitouch and stylus display," capable of supporting "hundreds of touch inputs simultaneously."

Ballmer calls Perceptive Pixel's portfolio "fairly revolutionary," but acknowledges there's a "lot of work to be done to bring the price down."

Jeff Han, who showed off his amazing touchscreen table (not tablet) at TED in 2006.

Windows 7 hits 630m licenses sold, now running on 50% of enterprise desktops >> The Verge

As Microsoft looks to Windows 8 for its tablet plans, CEO Steve Ballmer revealed that the upgrade will cap an "epic year" for Microsoft. "Windows 8 is the biggest deal for our company in at least 17 years," he said during a keynote appearance today.

In other words, the biggest since Windows 95. Why didn't he just say that?

HTC shares drop to two-year low after weak Q2 results >> CNA ENGLISH NEWS

Credit Suisse said HTC's launch of the flagship model One series failed to help it regain market share.

The rating company estimated HTC to have a 6.4% global smartphone market share in the second quarter of this year, compared with a 6.6% global market share in the fourth quarter of 2011 and an 11.4% share when the company was at its height.

Andr... Samsung is winning!

Samsung v Apple in UK high court: full ruling >> Bailii

The "iPad is cooler than Galaxy" ruling (sweets and smacks for everyone) in full. To begin:

Samsung contends that its tablets do not infringe. It submits that when the registered design is understood in its proper context, bearing in mind the existing design corpus and the degree of freedom of the designer, the overall impression the Apple design produces on the informed user is a different one from that produced by any of the three Samsung tablets.

Apple does not agree. It agrees that the registered design must be understood properly bearing in mind the existing design corpus and the degree of freedom of the designer but contends that when that exercise is carried out, the result is that the overall impression produced on the informed user by each Samsung tablet is not a different one from that produced by the registered design.

Set some time aside for this one, but the punch is at the end.

Chutzpam >> Talking Points Memo Editors Blog

Josh Marshal:

if you run a website there's the dreaded scourge of 'comment spam'. You've seen it. People who go into comments and post totally off-topic comments with links to this or that commercial site. "So, hey, you're talking about health care reform and mandates, but check out the great Refi i just got at scamrefi.com!!!"

Clearly, the folks who do this for a living are shameless and awful. But this morning I learned they're striving for even greater levels of shamelessness and actually achieving it.

Today's helping of karma with a side order of belly laughs.

There are real achievements at Silicon Roundabout | Monty's Outlook

Dan Crow, CTO of Songkick:

I left the UK in 1996, despairing of finding technologists and business people interested in building world-beating companies.

After 13 years in the US, I returned to find that there are real, meaningful companies building great technology right here in London. Perhaps [Telegraph head of blogs Damian] Thompson [who said Tech City is full of handout-seeking inconsequential flops] should look come see what's really happening in Silicon Roundabout? I think he will be surprised.

Thompson claims nothing of worth has been produced by Silicon Roundabout, and compares the area unfavorably with Cambridge and the M4 corridor. Of course there are great success stories that have come out of those areas.

ARM Holdings, founded in 1990, makes the chip designs at the heart of many mobile devices; Autonomy, founded in 1996, was recently sold to HP for $10bn.

Perhaps it is a little unrealistic to expect similar levels of success from a group of companies many of which are less than three years old. But even so, there have been notable successes.

An effortless putdown.

Orange mobile database flaw affects 26 million in France - ComputerworldUK.com

France Télécom's French mobile network, Orange, crashed last Friday afternoon, leaving many of its 26 million subscribers unable to make and receive calls until early Saturday morning local time. The company has promised to compensate customers with free calls, text messages or data for a day, and a ticket to the movies.

Le ouch. Also a reminder that you do want to have some sort of backup connectivity at times. The fault was due to databases getting out of sync.

such of Mozilla's leadership -- including that of the Thunderbird team -- has come to the conclusion that on-going stability is the most important thing, and that continued innovation in Thunderbird is not a priority for Mozilla's product efforts.