The Verdict is out and Samsung took a major hit, for $1Billion and that could triple in Damages. The verdict didn’t take too long at all, the lawyers have been bickering for months on every little detail but Apple pulled the final punches and sealed the deal for Samsung. Lets not kid ourselves Samsung did copy a bit, but not so much that they would damage iPhone’s profit, and I think they should have paid some licensing fees, but $1Billion is a bit over the top in this case. But in reality Samsung has been the only major competitor against Apple and they have improved because of that, they may have copied a few designs initially but Samsung has developed its own line which has taken off and they are still a major contender in the market.

Apple is even looking to ban the sale of several of Samsung’s products in the US, The Verge.

This will have a bit of a slow down for some companies since a lot of companies (HTC, Google, Motorola, LG, …) are in court battles with Apple over different and similar patent issues. Some cases they will win and some they will lose, but I still think that Apple does see Android as a threat but they are more then confident of their product and I can’t blame them. Still I think that Android has reached a point where it is on par with Apple even with its defects, and Apple does have its own issues, but lets see where this verdict will take us next.

But you can’t get to the long run without paying attention to the short run. Samsung’s decision to ape Apple wasn’t the most graceful strategy in tech history. But faced with an emergency—a “crisis of design”—copying was the best Samsung could do. And it paid off handsomely.

This article in Pandodaily puts things in perspective, at how things developed in the telecom industry and how the major providers have changed drastically since 2007 and what might take place in the near future. Everyone remembers the battle between Nokia & Sony-Ericsson for supremacy, and those days have gone by so quickly, with different players at the table and Apple at the head.

Group On has been talked about for the last two years, the next big thing in the web, the ones who refused Google, the ones who are going to take to the next level. I didn’t get how exactly they were making money or what they were doing, and then they got a lot of negative press, they lost their top management within months and the CEO and Chairman were till their messing about. From the hype of being of an untouchable company turning down a Google buyout of $6 Billion and then falling from grace with the expectations for its market cap had fallen from $30 billion to closer to $10 billion. There is big story behind the scenes, check out the story from Gawker from the link below.

Link: Gawker

Now this is a very interersting list of politicians, a few numbers seem off because they don’t really make a lot of sense but they might only be off by a few billion. Some of them say they are verified by Forbes but I don’t have a clue how Forbes would even be able to verify some of them as they have assets unknown to people.

• 10 Silvio Berlusconi – The Prime Minister Of Italy – $9 Billion
• 9 Hans-Adam II, The Prince of Liechtenstein $7.6 billion
• 8 Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the current President of the United Arab Emirates $18 billion
• 7 Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born, Indian President of the Indian National Congress $19 billion
• 6 Hassanal Bolkiah, Sutan of Brunei $20 billion
• 5 King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz $21 billion
• 4 Bhumiboi Adulyadej, Monarch-King of Thailand $35 billion
• 3 Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin $40 billion
• 2 Hosni Mubarak, the former President of Egypt $70 billion
• 1 Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum who is the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates $80 Billion

Link: LuxuryLaunches

Saudi princes do travel with very large entourages and I always think that Waleed Bin Talal is a bit on the more sensible side. It seems being at the top of the business ladder in the middle east he needs quite of people to keep his affairs in order.

The rich have their way of living and in order to look so prim and proper at all times, anywhere they are found, requires utmost maintenance. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud is no exception and has announced, as means of proof against some harsh accusations, his 26-member entourage. And they are – a private physician, assistant manager of his palaces, private assistant, executive assistant, personal affairs manager, two personal affairs assistants, manager of protocol department, manager travel and external affairs, assistant manager telecommunications, private affairs for the Princess, her beautician, athletic trainer, two private security details, assistant head of the Audio Visual Department, the Prince’s personal hairdresser and two guys listed as “companions”.

Link: LuxuryLaunches

Companies are suing each other left right and center, all I know is that I don’t want my product not to be available because of these crazy patent wars, everyone is suing everyone, but this is an excellent visual map of the Patent Cold War by Reuters. Apple is shooting in every direction possible, lets see how this all works out.

Link: Gizmodo

There has been a lot of discussion about the world islands and other projects in Dubai. Nakheel is in charge of this project and several others, and many of them have been put on hold. Dubai has done an amazing job of completing these over the top projects which have put it on the map and created a huge tourism industry. Due to over leveraging and banks no longer extending loans Nakheel has had to prioritize projects over others, and there has been a lot of rumors over The World Islands. The Palm in my opinion is a very successful project and a testament to their amazing projects. Too bad the Islands didn’t work out the way they expected but overall I still think Dubai has taken the right road to build up its city and industry. The crash it suffered was a set back but it can only go up from here. I’m looking forward to seeing what other projects they have ahead of them.

Link: Luxist

Now this is an interesting development, it seems that the article published by the Kuwait times was a mistake. I previously posted about the article about a week ago, and I was infuriated, I couldn’t believe that could be enforced or let alone happen in Kuwait. Well I am thankful that it was a mistake based on Kuwait Times’ retraction below and I hope a law such as this is never even considered. Check out the article in the ArabTimes talking specifically about Photography and our Civil Liberties. Link: ArabTimes

On Saturday, November 20, 2010 the Kuwait Times published an article titled ‘Multi ministry camera ban frustrates artists’ in which incorrect information was provided. The newspaper regrets failing to verify the information. The article wrongly stated that a ban on DSLR cameras was implemented by the Ministries of Information, Social Affairs and Finance. This information is false. In a follow up investigation, it was proved that no such ban has been issued. We regret this error and deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Thank you Moayad

KUWAIT: After the ban three ministries placed on photography, most Kuwaiti youth are a bit confused about what to do with their cameras if they can’t use them in public and why such laws were implemented in the first place. The Ministry of Information, Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Finance recently came to the conclusion that photography should be used for journalism purposes only. This has resulted in the ban of Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLRs) in public, on the streets and in malls

Shock and disappointment are the only two words that can describe how I feel when I read the title. A lot of countries have problems in the Middle East and our problems in Kuwait are piling up, but I always have hope, that things will get better that there will be a point for things to turn around. At this point I don’t think we can he any lower, we have hit rock bottom when three Ministries who have nothing to do with each other can decide to just Ban Photography of all kinds. And this is assuming that the law is enacted already, I hope it is not and still there is a chance to have it repelled. I always thought that Kuwait always had something to look forward to, to move ahead, even when we haven’t any major projects for the past decade, the nonstop cases of corruption and nobody getting prosecuted. The one thing I thought we had and that I am proud of is our Civil Liberties, and we pride ourselves with it. When Saudi Arabia is on an uphill battle trying to improve people’s lives and gain more freedom we are heading in the opposite direction. I always wondered what the thought was behind UAE blocking Flickr but now we have surpassed both Emirates and Saudi with the most idiotic law possible. Banning it in public places, in streets, and in malls, doesn’t this law sound illegal to anyone, and malls are private entities so it is illegal for such a law to affect them in this way. So what is the punishment for breaking this law? Getting thrown in jail? I honestly won’t be stopping my photography missions in Kuwait anytime soon. If you are against then please make your voice heard!

Link: KuwaitTimes

There is a lot going on about the safety of the A380 and the reason for the failure of the engine on the Qantas A380 is still unknown but whats shocking is that the blades went through the wings and so the passengers and crew were lucky. Some airlines aren’t grounding their planes like Emirates and Singapore, but Qantas grounded their planes until this investigation is completed. They have a problem with the Rolls Royce Trent 900 engine, they still don’t know the main reason for the failure, the second is that parts fly out the back end and punctured the wings. Usually the front end of the engine can contain the blades if something goes wrong, but it seems part flew out the back end which didn’t contain the parts and damaged the wings, in principle if an engine is damaged its supposed to be designed in a way to contain the damage and not damage the rest of the plane.

When purchasing the A380s from Airbus you get two choices of engines, either a Rolls Royce Trent 900 or a GE and Pratt & Whitney GP7200. There are three airplane engine manufacturers in the world; GE, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls Royce. Pratt & Whitney and GE decided on a joint venture to develop the engine for the Airbus 380. So in this case the GP7200 has no issues and all the A380s ordered by Emirates have the GE and Pratt & Whitney GP7200 so there is no reason to ground those planes. So the A380s from Emirates are safe to fly but I heard business class service in the planes isn’t too good and its understaffed, too many passengers and too few crew.

Link: Gizmodo

There are new reports surfacing about a possible cover-up of a conspiracy of the US Government in the events leading up to the 9/11 attacks. According to several reports online, it all started when the US government blocked the release of this book by Anthony Shaffer who worked at the Pentagon before 9/11. You can read all the comments on Amazon from people that bought the book but it was never delivered to them.

Shaffer reveals in his book that the invasion of Afghanistan was planned a year before the 9/11, Bin Laden was a CIA asset, paid and trained by the CIA when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in the 70’s 80’s (reference: Charlie Wilson’s War) and most likely died early 2002 of kidney failure. An apparent conclusion is that the “War on Terror” is fake and mostly staged. The US, UK and Israeli intelligence have been attempting to infiltrate the so called Muslim Terror cells for decades and set them up. The “terror scare” is used to justify the “perpetual State of War” in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan and have replaced the “Cold War with the complicity of US mainstream media.

You can even check the links in Amazon with people saying they allowed the REDACTED format for security reasons, so they basically removed any incriminating information from the book. 9/11 was a tragedy but not everything is what it seems, there seems to be more going then a lot people knew or at least had the evidence to prove it.