Intel Claims Next Chip Will Run Your Laptop For 24 Hours On One Battery Charge [PCs]

I can't wait for 2013. That's the year where Intel's Haswell architecture arrives, bringing three very important things. One, the ability to run your laptop for 24 hours on one charge. Heaven. Two, 10 days on "connected standby."

And three: This 22-nanometer 3D-transistor architecture consumes so little power—20 times less than their current gear—that it can run on a solar cell. That's exactly what they demonstrated at the Intel's Developer Forum today: a Haswell-based Windows computer running entirely off a solar cell that was being exposed to a light bulb. Imagine that. Basically, your computer would be able to run indefinitely without ever having to power off, even if you run out of battery power to run the machine's display. I'm impressed.

That's why you can also have ten days of connected standby with your computer connected to a wireless network. That means putting the display to sleep but have the machine continuously connected to the Internet for ten days, grabbing email, tweets, or synchronizing files down from the cloud. I don't know about you, but this low power peace of mind is one of the things that I like most about these new chips.

Before 2013's Haswell comes Ivy Bridge in 2012, which will also reduce power and support DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 3.2 directly on the chip, as well as 4K high definition video playback. [Anandtech, Marketwatch, Forbes, Ventura Beat, Cnet, Sweclockers]

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Apple Claims Android Started With Them [Patents]

In the early 1990s, Android head honcho Andy Rubin worked as a low-level Apple engineer. And that, according Apple's latest ITC filing, is grounds enough for them to potentially block Android in the US.

It sounds far-fetched; the bulk of Android's foundational work was completed in the mid-to-late 90s, when Rubin was at General Magic and Danger (the company Google eventually bought, primarily for the operating system). But while extreme, the reasoning may not be as crazy as it sounds, according to FOSS Patents:

Apple now asserts—in a filing with the ITC, which means Apple has a legal obligation to make truthful representations of fact—that Rubin's superiors at Apple were the inventors of that realtime API patent and he worked for them at the very time they made that invention. He worked as a low-level engineer while the inventors were senior people. It's possible that he then contributed to the implementation of the claimed invention.

The implications of this—other than that Apple is being even more aggressive than previously imagined in its suits against HTC and other Android OEMs—are that if Apple were to sue Google directly over this particular patent, the could conceivably get an injunction. Against the entire platform. As well as lots, and lots, and lots, of money.

That's another case somewhere further down the line, if it happens at all. For now, just know that Apple's bringing in the heavy legal artillery—and they might just have a point. [FOSS Patents]

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Lawsuit Claims Microsoft Is Tracking Every Windows Phone Even if You Opt Out [Microsoft]

Microsoft is tracking your Windows Phone, and there's nothing you can do about it. A lawsuit filed in Seattle is claiming that Windows Phone's camera app tracks your location and sends it to Microsoft, even if you opt out. We contacted Microsoft and they refused to comment.

Earlier this year, when the Internet was losing its mind about Apple storing your location data on a hidden file on the iPhone 4, Microsoft told us that it only stores your last known location as a single data point that it erases as soon as it stores a new one. Which is probably true! But tracking your users after they've specifically opted out of the service is pretty serious, and we're still waiting on a straight answer from Microsoft on this mess. [Reuters via BGR]

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