The decision follows an opposing verdict earlier this month, in which the jury in the long-running infringement case found that certain components of Android APIs had too close of a resemblance to code used in Oracle’s Java programming tools. However, the jury ended up splitting on the notion of whether or not Google could in fact claim fair use in its defense (which could have then led to a mistrial.)

The jury’s decision was obviously a laborious one, following two years of a legal back-and-forth between the two tech giants. Oracle had initially filed the lawsuit back in August 2010, in which the company asserted that Android infringed on Java patents that Oracle acquired as a result of its purchase of Sun Microsystems. Google responded by saying that, at the time of development, it was not aware of Sun’s patents and that Android was in fact free to use.

Of course, that decision was only the first act in the three-part deliberations, in which the copyright infringement issues were to be followed by consideration of Oracle’s patent infringement claims (the focus of today’s hearing) and, finally, the damages Google might be liable for were it found found to infringe.

However, much of that speculation was rendered moot today, as a week of deliberation came to a close today at the U.S. District Court of Northern California, with the jury unanimously declaring that Google did not in fact infringe on the six claims set forth by Oracle in regard to U.S. Patent RE 38,104 as well as the two claims regarding U.S. Patent 6,061,520.

Of course, this does not mean that the whole case has been decided; instead, the decision marks the end of the trial’s second phase, which, again, focused solely on Oracle’s claims of patent infringement.

While the jury had previously found that Google was in violation of Oracle’s copyrights, as stated above, it could not come to a unanimous decision on the issue of fair use. Meaning that, although Oracle ostensibly “won” its copyright case, it effectively has a hold on its ability to collect on any of the $1 billion in copyright damages it is seeking from Google — a conclusion that was supported by the tweets of legal reporter Ginny LaRoe, who attended today’s hearing.

The guy in the video first uses the hammer to smack some nails against the screen, and then uses the handset itself as a hammer to push the nail into some wood. Pretty impressive, even though you can't exactly see clearly if the screen wasn't marked.. but taking a beating like that and not shattering is impressive itself.

See the very impressive video after the break.

This news comes as a possible third strike to a game that has already suffered much bad press regarding its launch day woes with servers not prepared to handle the load, and the long-awaited real money auction house being postponed indefinitely. If these events become widespread across more of Battle.net, it could be the worst setback yet for the single player game that requires an 'always online connection' to protect players from the onslaught of hacker theivery.  

Blizzard has released an official statment in regard to the alleged account compromises and you can read it after the break.

Battle.net® Account Security & Diablo® III

We'd like to take a moment to address the recent reports that suggested that Battle.net® and Diablo® III may have been compromised. Historically, the release of a new game — such a World of Warcraft® expansion — will result in an increase in reports of individual account compromises, and that's exactly what we're seeing now with Diablo III. We know how frustrating it can be to become the victim of account theft, and as always, we're dedicated to doing everything we can to help our players keep their Battle.net accounts safe — and we appreciate everyone who's doing their part to help protect their accounts as well. You can read about ways to help keep your account secure, along with some of the internal and external measures we have in place to help us achieve our security goals, at our account security website here: www.battle.net/security.

We also wanted to reassure you that the Battle.net Authenticator and Battle.net Mobile Authenticator (a free app for iPhone and Android devices) continue to be some of the most effective measures we offer to help players protect themselves against account compromises, and we encourage everyone to take advantage of them. In addition, we also recently introduced a new service called Battle.net SMS Protect™, which allows you to use your text-enabled cell phone to unlock a locked Battle.net account, recover your account name, approve a password reset, or remove a lost Authenticator. Optionally, you can set up the Battle.net SMS Protect system to send you a text message whenever important changes occur on your account.

For more information on the Authenticator, visit http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battle-net-authenticator-faq

For more on the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, visit http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battle-net-mobile-authenticator-faq

For more on Battle.net SMS Protect, visit http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battlenet-sms-protect

We also have other measures built into Battle.net to help protect players. Occasionally, when Battle.net detects unusual login activity that differs from your normal behavior — such as logging in from an unfamiliar location — we may prompt you for additional information (such as the answer to one of your security questions) and/or require you to perform a password reset through the Battle.net website. World of Warcraft players might be familiar with this security method already, and Diablo III players may begin to encounter it as well.

As always, if you think you've been the victim of an account compromise, head to the "Help! I've Been Hacked!" tool at http://us.battle.net/en/security/help for assistance.

We have got some unhappy guys out there. They were hoping for Facebook to be considerably better. I bet there are a lot of disappointed people in the market.

On planet Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D. is in possession of a cube of seemingly unlimited energy known only as the tesseract. A source of unlimited energy as you can imagine might be rather unstable, and the tesseract is like a wildfire. A fire that villain Loki, THOR’S adopted brother from Asgard, is looking to obtain for himself in order to dominate all the life on planet earth followed by destroying all of humanity itself. But, if the avengers: Ironman, THOR, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow have anything to say about it, he’s not just going to be handed the Earth no matter how powerful he is. Still, are the avengers strong enough to stop him…?

The Avengers is a film I love for many reasons but for one grand reason is because it’s a film that hits the ground running. It doesn’t waste any time telling the story and bringing the characters to life, but with that said this film takes a rather unexpected approach when it contemplates the bond and unity of a group of indeed heroes but also that when something as monumental as the Earth being in danger of extermination by force might just make them question their ties, whatever those might be. This is a group of heroes that might as well be enemies. Upon meeting each other they are hostile, defensive, and are set in their own ways. This however leads to a major theme in the movie which is that there are events in life that are much bigger than you. This is particularly utilized with genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist Ironman who is forced to abandon the intense pride he possesses and join the rest of the group. And my does he ever. (You’ll see why).

In a lot of superhero movies there is that portion whether it be great or small about the philosophy involved in being a hero, sacrificing and abandoning all worldly possessions to save whatever may need saving, in this case, the Earth. Director Joss Whedon who also worked on the screenplay does a magnificent job in conveying the thoughts, emotions, and ideals of each of our heroes, ranging from leading by example to even in a crisis questioning what is at hand and who to follow. I say this because for starters the screenplay impressed me immensely by the powers of persuasion it conveyed through the monstrous villain Loki, able to turn our heroes against each other and make them question their place in the scheme of everything happening. It’s not easy being a superhero, it’s a full time, exhausting, and thankless job. This though leads me into another terrific, as well as primary theme of the movie: The world needs heroes.

This is what you take away from The Avengers. On screen people are dying, buildings are being obliterated, and heroes and villains rule the sky. This city though, New York to be exact, may be only able to watch in horror and anticipation as our heroes fight to defend them, but that’s just it, they didn’t ask to be defended, they just are. That’s what a hero does, he or she doesn’t ask if they can save your life, they just do, for they are the ones who are self-sacrificing, unselfish, and people who are born of the earth and walk the streets. Now obviously THOR is an exception, but he’s still a hero and a primary one in this case as he holds the films emotionality point together, being Loki’s brother. Even his brother in his mass murdering of citizens mainly because it thrills him, THOR is still in defense of his brother, reminding all of us who are ecstatic to watch villains get theirs that they people just as we are, and that if we cannot forgive them, how could we forgive ourselves?

Now Geeks, it’s pretty clear to me that this film has an ample noble side to it, conveying the strength and resolve of heroes, or superheroes, but I’d like to comment also on just how funny this movie was at times. I found myself at one point bursting out laughing, (I had the whole theater to back me up, yeah the theater was totally full) when what I believe might just be my favorite scene in the whole movie. Now for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, I won’t go into detail; all I can say though is that it has to do with Loki, and the Hulk. Aside from this though, the script offers a lot of humor in light of the gravity of events in this film, as well as sophistication, rich themes, and powerhouse action, Again, well done Joss Whedon, and Zak Penn, Jack Kirby, and of course Mr. Stan Lee.

So Geeks, even though I don’t believe I need to say it I will regardless. I recommend this movie entirely, for it is a film that is intense, gripping, exciting, and highly satisfying. The summer movies are here everyone, and The Avengers, while perhaps a little early, was very much the perfect way to get the list started!

(Side note here Geeks, if you need a little encouragement to go see The Avengers, there within is a new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises which is excellent, and the best, (in my opinion) trailer for maybe all of 2012, Prometheus!)  



Mozilla is creating quite a buzz this morning over Microsoft's new Windows RT (the variety designed to run on ARM processors). It's claiming that only the Internet Explorer browser will run under the much more (in computing terms) privileged Windows Classic environment. It claims this effectively makes IE the only fully functioning browser on the platform, with everything else being denied access to key computing functions (running as a Metro app). Mozilla argues that if IE can run in Windows (rather than Metro) on ARM, then there's no reason why the other browsers can't. Mozilla then goes on to extend an invitation to Microsoft to "remain firm on its user choice principles". Meanwhile it's not just the Moz that has taken umbrage at the move, with CNET reporting that Google also isn't happy with the situation, saying "We share the concerns Mozilla has raised regarding the Windows 8 environment restricting user choice and innovation." We'll have to wait and see what Microsoft's take on the matter is, but for now it looks like the browser wars are back on.

Bioshock Infinite won't be coming until February 26, 2013, a roughly four month delay spurred by the need to make a number of "tweaks and improvements" to the upcoming Irrational Games title, the studio announced today.

When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing. Since then, we've come to realize that some specific tweaks and improvements will make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need, we've decided to move the game's release to February 26, 2013. We wanted to let our loyal (and very patient!) fans know this as soon as possible.

The third title in the Bioshock series was initially scheduled to release this fall, in October, however in an official statement, studio head Ken Levine explained further:

I won't kid you:BioShock Infinite is a very big game.

The original Bioshock was also delayed for several months as its original ship date drew near as we all remember. Levine goes on to say:

Because the Big Daddies weren't the Big Daddies you've since come to know and love. Because Andrew Ryan's golf club didn't have exactly the right swing. Because Rapture needed one more coat of grimy Art Deco. The same principle now applies to BioShock Infinite. 

What does this mean for you? It means a bit more waiting, but more importantly, it means an even better BioShock Infinite. The great can be made greater, and we owe it to both ourselves and to you, our fans, to take this opportunity. Irrational Games is one of those rare developers lucky enough to ask the people who sign the checks: 'Hey, can we have a few more of those checks?

Irrational Games will also hold off on showing Bioshock Infinite at this year's E3 and GamesCom.

We are also going to hold off on showing BioShock Infinite at the big events of the summer, like E3 and GamesCom. That way, the next time you see our game, it will be essentially the product we intend to put in the box. Preparing for these events takes time away from development, time we're going to use instead to get the best version of Infiniteinto your hands in February.

Bioshock Infinite follows former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt to a sky-city called Columbia where he must rescue a young woman imprisoned there since childhood. The game is in development for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships. We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumours or speculation.