Apple ordered by court to produce agreement with HTC

A court in California has ordered Apple to produce without delay an unredacted version of its recent patent agreement with HTC, after Samsung Electronics said the agreement was relevant to its patent infringement dispute with Apple.

The document will, however, be made available only for viewing by the attorneys in the patent lawsuit, Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division, wrote in an order on Wednesday.

HTC had earlier agreed to produce a version of its Patent License and Settlement Agreement (PLSA) with Apple, provided it was redacted to exclude the terms disclosing the consideration paid under the PLSA, including how the amounts were calculated. The redacted document was also to be marked "Highly Confidential --Attorneys' Eyes Only" as provided under a protective order entered by the court.

The compensation terms it seeks to redact are highly "competition-sensitive," HTC wrote in the filing.

Apple and HTC said earlier this month that they had settled all their outstanding patent disputes in a settlement that includes a 10-year agreement under which the companies will license current and future patents from each other. The terms of the settlement were kept confidential and not disclosed.

Samsung asked the court to compel Apple to produce a copy of its settlement and patent license agreement with HTC, as it almost certainly covers at least some of the patents in the suit. Apple's willingness to license patents in the suit may undermine its claim of irreparable harm and demonstrate that monetary remedies are adequate, Samsung said in a filing last week.(

The South Korean company asserted during a hearing that the financial terms of the agreement support its argument that a royalty is a more suitable alternative to a permanent injunction. The court has scheduled a hearing in December to decide on Apple's plea for a permanent injunction on the sale of some Samsung phones.

"Many third parties to this case have had their licensing agreements disclosed -- without any redaction of financial terms -- subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation because the confidential financial terms were clearly relevant to the dispute between Apple and Samsung," wrote Judge Grewal in his order. HTC is not entitled to special treatment, particularly as it has recognized the general sufficiency of the protective order and the integrity of Samsung's outside counsel, he added.

The court also agreed to Samsung's moves to compel further depositions of three of Apple's experts whose declarations accompany Apple's reply brief in its motion for a permanent injunction against Samsung. It also allowed Apple's request for two additional depositions if the court were to grant Samsung's request.

Disable Or Enable USB Storage In A Single Click With Phrozen Safe USB

People who frequently have to share their PCs, may often have faced the nuisance of unauthorized media, such as movies, photos, music etc., being transferred through a thumb drive, without their consent. Kids, in particular, aren’t usually wary about viruses and malware that a USB thumb drive may carry (especially if it’s being plugged into every other computer), and so might not be your non-techie roommate. Moreover, if you have some confidential files on your computer, you would be quite miffed to have them sneakily copied when you’re away. Likewise, people often want to restrict their computers to be used for file transferring and sharing through a USB flash due to various security reasons. Windows 7 doesn’t offer any option to write protect or disable USB storage medium temporarily, or even on permanent basis. Obviously, you can disable the USB ports in the BIOS, but then again, it would also disable your keyboard or mouse, should they support a USB connector. So what would do in such cumbersome situation? Phrozen Safe USB has an answer for you. This tiny little application lets you activate and deactivate USB storage within a single click. Keep reading for more details.

The tool has a mini console window, which, although not sporting many settings, easily lets you specify three different USB modes. The USB status drop down menu holds these modes. By default, it’s set to USB Devices fully operational. This means that any USB drive connected to your PC will be fully functional – you can write, read and delete the content stored in the drive.

The drop down menu also contains USB Devices in read only mode and USB Devices deactivated. When on read only mode, the connected device can be used to read any stored content, but it becomes write protected, so this in fact a handy solution to secure your files from being copied. The last of the trio is USB deactivated. When selected, any USB device connected to the PC won’t be recognized, while still keeping your USB mouse or keyboard, or any other device for that matter, completely operational. It should be noted that the any of three modes will work on devices connected afterwards, so it won’t have any effect on existing USBs.

When closed, the application is minimized to system tray. You can easily change USB modes from within the contextual menu.

During testing I noticed that all of the three USB modes work after quitting the application even from system tray. Phrozen Safe USB supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

How To Enable Windows 8 Store On Windows To Go PC

You may have thought that Windows 8 is all about tablets and desktops, and the integration between these two platforms, and of course, the all new Windows Modern UI. You’re right, actually; Microsoft has build the OS from ground up, but Windows 8 also includes some brilliant features that really enhance overall user experience. If you have been a Linux user, you may know that Linux distributions allow users to burn entire OS to optical disc and removable storage mediums, so that one can easily use the OS without having to install it on the auxiliary storage medium. Such feature has always remained absent from Windows since its inception. Unlike Windows 7, which lets user install XP mode to use Windows XP compatible applications, the Enterprise version of Windows 8 comes packed with Windows To Go feature.

This feature enables you to boot Windows 8 Enterprise from a USB flash drive or an external hard drive, providing a convenient option to temporarily run Windows 8 on a host PC. Even though Windows To Go offers a full-fledged desktop experience, Windows Store remains disabled by default. If you’re running Windows 8 Enterprise edition from a USB device, and want to enable Windows Store to install new apps, here’s how to do it.

The first step you need to do is open Local Group Policy Editor. Just move to the Start Screen (if you aren’t already there) and type ‘gpedit.msc’. The resulting app will instantly show up under Apps list to the left. Click it to open the Local Group Policy Editor.

Local Group Policy Editor holds various settings and options and is a place for tweaking with system security, administrative and maintenance policies. For enabling Store, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store location.

The Store policy folder houses a total of three policies. Right-click Allow Store to Install apps on Windows To Go workspaces and select Edit from the context menu.

A new window will pop up. To the left of this window, select Enabled option and click Apply to save your changes.

Once you’ve enabled the said option, close the local group policy editor. Now, use the Win+R hotkey combination to bring up Windows Run console. Type in gpupdate /force and hit Enter to apply the changes made to Windows 8 Store policy settings. After updating the policy, you will be able to use Windows Store and install new applications and updates.

Task Robot Is An Easy Task Automation Tool For Windows 8

Every once in a while, we come across a software that looks quite cheesy, but offers some features that we simply cannot resist giving it a try. Task automation and user assistance tools often lie among those applications (you probably have heard about Siri, right?). If you’re already using Windows 8, then you might want to take a look at Task Robot. The app can be downloaded for free from Windows Store and fully supports Windows 8’s Modern UI. Task Robot lets you set a list of tasks for the Wall-E like robot, so you don’t have to worry about some routine tasks, such as sending emails, looking for an app on Windows Store, perform mathematical calculations and so on. It’s a great multitasking app that leaves you with less the effort and more productivity. Although, it does not look different from what we have already seen in many similar offerings, the app is still fun to fiddle with.
The app shows a black chalkboard in the background, which acts as the central place to tell the application about a number of different task actions. All the tasks appear on this chalkboard. Additionally, you can define multiple tasks at once and execute all of them with a single click. The left sidebar contains five additional buttons including Tutorials, New, Load, Save, and Save as tile on Start Screen. The Save and Load functionality allows you to reuse previously performed tasks. You can always use the Tutorials option to get familiar with the application. To add a new task to the chalkboard, simply click the red button stating Click to choose what the robot should do. Task Robot
This will open the command panel. The command panel houses a multitude of tasks. For instance, it contains actions to manipulate text lines, write and send emails, show HTML source of a specified URL, perform mathematical calculations etc. Although the number of tasks that can be performed are quite limited, the app is being updated on a daily basis with the latest additions.
As stated earlier, all the task actions appear on the chalkboard. However, you need to specify some details in the pre-listed actions. For example, Search for ….. on the Windows Store requires you to input the item name that want the app to look for. Likewise, you need to enter the numbers that you wish to multiply. Once you’re ready, simply click GO!! to perform the actions in one go.
Task Robot works only on Windows 8. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions are supported.

Modern Reader Is An Exquisite Google Reader Client For Windows 8

RSS feeds provide an undisrupted route to keep a tab on your frequently visited websites. Different folks rely on different feeds readers, with Google Reader standing as one of the most popular sources amongst all. There are a bunch of different Google Reader clients available for download, some inheriting a clean interface while others focusing on features and settings. As Windows 8 is already in the offing (check our Windows 8 RTM hands-on), many Modern UI-based Google Readers are also taking a plunge into the Windows Store. Not a while ago, Fawad reviewed Flux for Windows 8, a tile-design Google Reader client for Microsoft’s latest OS. If you’re on a hunt for something even better, Modern Reader is definitely worth giving a try. This elegant Google Reader app for Windows 8 is a treat to the eyes and lets you easily manage and read all your feeds without accessing desktop, or web browser, for that matter. The interface looks exquisite, but is further customizable via few different selectable themes, the developer has thrown in. Let’s explore more past the jump.

Modern Reader can be easily grabbed from Windows Store. To do it, open the search pane (or simply type the app’s name). Windows 8 will instantly look for all matching queries, from wherein you can easily head over to Modern Reader in store section.

The interface of Modern Reader has three main columns. All the subscribed items appear to the left, while the mid section contains the feeds within the selected item. Selected feed can be easily read on the right panel. The scrolling works extremely well, and the text appears sharp and vivid, so fear absolutely no readability nuisance.

Right-clicking anywhere on the UI brings up the option bars to the top and bottom. These bars carry a number of navigation buttons, such as add feed, rename tag, hide nav, Web view, mark unread, start, mark all read, refresh, newest, all. Web view is an experimental feature that lets you display the content of the feed in webpage format within in the app.
As mentioned earlier, the application also includes a few extra themes for users. To change theme, pop up the Charms Bar, and click Settings, followed by Settings again. There are four different themes to select from; Creamsicle, Bubblegum, Classic and Midnight. In addition, you can change Text size or sign out of the application.

In a nutshell, Modern Reader is one of best Google Reader apps on Windows 8. It should be noted that the app is available both as Free and Paid ($1.49) versions. The only downside of free version is that it displays in-app Ads. Other than that, there are no limitations or functional variations. It works on both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 8.

Task Robot Is An Easy Task Automation Tool For Windows 8

Every once in a while, we come across a software that looks quite cheesy, but offers some features that we simply cannot resist giving it a try. Task automation and user assistance tools often lie among those applications (you probably have heard about Siri, right?). If you’re already using Windows 8, then you might want to take a look at Task Robot. The app can be downloaded for free from Windows Store and fully supports Windows 8’s Modern UI. Task Robot lets you set a list of tasks for the Wall-E like robot, so you don’t have to worry about some routine tasks, such as sending emails, looking for an app on Windows Store, perform mathematical calculations and so on. It’s a great multitasking app that leaves you with less the effort and more productivity. Although, it does not look different from what we have already seen in many similar offerings, the app is still fun to fiddle with.

The app shows a black chalkboard in the background, which acts as the central place to tell the application about a number of different task actions. All the tasks appear on this chalkboard. Additionally, you can define multiple tasks at once and execute all of them with a single click. The left sidebar contains five additional buttons including Tutorials, New, Load, Save, and Save as tile on Start Screen. The Save and Load functionality allows you to reuse previously performed tasks. You can always use the Tutorials option to get familiar with the application. To add a new task to the chalkboard, simply click the red button stating Click to choose what the robot should do. Task Robot

This will open the command panel. The command panel houses a multitude of tasks. For instance, it contains actions to manipulate text lines, write and send emails, show HTML source of a specified URL, perform mathematical calculations etc. Although the number of tasks that can be performed are quite limited, the app is being updated on a daily basis with the latest additions.

Task Robot_Tasks

As stated earlier, all the task actions appear on the chalkboard. However, you need to specify some details in the pre-listed actions. For example, Search for ….. on the Windows Store requires you to input the item name that want the app to look for. Likewise, you need to enter the numbers that you wish to multiply. Once you’re ready, simply click GO!! to perform the actions in one go.

Task Robot_Tasks added

Task Robot works only on Windows 8. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions are supported.

Clipboard History Brings Up ‘Clipboard Items Stack’ To Paste Text Anywhere

An application which can stack up clipboard items will help you to quickly paste selected items from clipboard. Windows native clipboard manager lacks this feature of holding text and gets quickly replaced whenever a new text snippet is copied. Clipboard History holds previously copied items so you can easily paste them in required workspace. Comparing with previously featured clipboard manager – Clipboard History (with same name), it comes with a long list of configurations to customize the way you copy and paste text. The application was developed to fulfill basic text copying needs, therefore, it can stack up only 20 text items. It comes with a registered hotkey – Caps Lock, to instantly bring up all the items which are residing in the clipboard manager. You can change the default hotkey and choose the most suitable key for pasting the text. Additionally, it allows you to edit and delete selected items from clipboard history for adding more items in the clipboard items list. You can save the most frequently used text snippets as stickies, so you can use them whenever you want.

After installing the application, you will see it in system tray. It is recommended to change the default preferences. Click Configure from system tray icon menu to bring up main configuration window.



In this window, you can delete sample clipboard items, edit them, or clear the list at once. The small window at right-side contains stickies – permanent clipboard items. A right-click on an item will let you edit, delete and change the order of stickies.  Underneath these two windows, you can enable/disable clipboard monitoring, make character ignore list, and register new hotkey combination.



Before closing down the Preferences window, don’t forget to enter 20 in Items to remember box for holding up to 20 clipboard text items. Now, when you use the defined hotkey combination, a list will pop-up with all the recently moved clipboard items. Just select the items which you want to paste in your workspace.



It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.