Samsung drops attempt to ban Apple sales in Europe

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Korea's Samsung Electronics on Tuesday said it would drop law suits aimed at banning the sale of Apple Inc. products in Europe just a day after scoring a victory in a battle in the United States with the maker of iPhones.

Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers, have been locked in patent disputes in at least 10 countries over the last 18 months since Apple sued Samsung, saying the Korean firm copied its best-selling iPhone and iPad.

On Tuesday, Samsung said it was dropping an attempt to stop the sale of some Apple products in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands, though it did not say it would halt its court battle for compensation.

"Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court," the company said in a statement.

A spokesman for Apple declined to comment on Samsung's decision.

The decision comes a day after a judge rejected Apple Inc's request for a ban on the sale of Samsung Electronics' smartphones in the United States.

In August, Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages after a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.

In January, the European Commission opened an investigation into whether Samsung Electronics has distorted competition in the European mobile device market, breaking EU antitrust rules.

(Reporting by Simon Johnson, additional reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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Windows already threatening iPhone in Southern Europe

DEAR ABBY: While searching for two of my husband's childhood friends, with his knowledge, I believe I may have found a child he doesn't know is his. I'm not positive that the child is his, but the time frame and location indicate that he could be, and there's a strong resemblance to my husband's brother. (I have seen photos on the Internet.) I am curious whether my hunch is correct, but I'm afraid of asking the questions, not knowing how they would be received. My husband is a kind and caring person, a great husband and father. ...

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A Russian island encircled by Europe: Kaliningrad's dual existence

On the banks of the Pregolya River in the city of Kaliningrad sits the commercial development known as Fish Village. It is a smallish complex of boutique hotels and eateries, with names like Kaiserhof and Hofburg written in Cyrillic script. The buildings themselves are knockoffs of medieval German architecture, not typically found elsewhere in Russia.

But Kaliningrad is not a typical Russian city. For 700 years, it was Königsberg, a city at the eastern frontier of German-speaking lands and later the capital of East Prussia in Bismarck's Germany. But its annexation by the Soviet Union – and the USSR's subsequent collapse – transformed the region, leaving it between two worlds: politically Russian, but geographically – and historically – European.

"I am proud to be born in such a rich place in terms of history," says Marina Karlova, a student in Kaliningrad.

Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

Ms. Karlova's sentiments are common for young people in Kaliningrad, but represent a marked change for a region that Soviet Russia once tried to rid of its German heritage.

After World War II, the Soviets seized most of East Prussia, renaming the city and region Kaliningrad and expelling its remaining German population to make way for Russian settlers. The medieval cityscape, destroyed by the war, was rebuilt with massive apartment blocks and statues of Lenin and Marx.

But as the Soviet system became less rigid, academics, writers, and everyday citizens began to take serious interest in Kaliningrad's past. The last bit of the medieval city, the Königsberg Cathedral, was refurbished and finally completed in 2005, the 750th anniversary of the city's founding.

In 1992, the dissolution of the Soviet Union left Kaliningrad a Russian island in Europe, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. But it also left Kaliningraders free to embrace the area's history.

Post-Soviet capitalist Kaliningrad has found Königsberg to be a useful theme, rehabilitating old structures and creating new projects like Fish Village to boost tourism. The remaining German architecture, Soviet-era construction, and new faux-German structures have left a uniquely eccentric cityscape.

Because Kaliningrad is surrounded by the European Union, travel largely requires a visa. Gdansk and Berlin are common destinations, helping Kaliningraders feel as European as Russian.

"I've been to some other parts of Russia, and I can tell that we are doing well in comparison with them," Karlova says. "As for being European, primarily this means being richer, more educated, more successful. I think people in my region are more like that."

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HTC Butterfly smartphone now pre-order in Europe

Just officially intros few days ago, the HTC Butterfly smartphone is already listed for pre-order in Europe. The Expansys France, Germany, Italy, and UK have started taking pre-order for this HTC product (SIM free) but the price and shipping date is still unknown at moment. The Butterfly is known as the HTC Droid DNA in the US (Verizon), while in Japan is called the HTC J Butterfly.

Running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, the HTC Butterfly / Droid DNA smartphone sports a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of onboard storage.
The Butterfly by HTC provides a 5-inch touchscreen display with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution (Full HD), and Corning Gorilla Glass 2. This phone has also brings an 8MP camera on the back with ImageSense, a front-facing 2.1MP camera, Beats Audio, and a 2,020 mAh li-polymer battery.
As connectivity term, it has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, and A-GPS GLONASS. Weighing 140 grams (with battery), its dimensions are 143 x 70.5 x 9.08 mm.

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A Russian island encircled by Europe: Kaliningrad's dual existence

On the banks of the Pregolya River in the city of Kaliningrad sits the commercial development known as Fish Village. It is a smallish complex of boutique hotels and eateries, with names like Kaiserhof and Hofburg written in Cyrillic script. The buildings themselves are knockoffs of medieval German architecture, not typically found elsewhere in Russia.

But Kaliningrad is not a typical Russian city. For 700 years, it was Königsberg, a city at the eastern frontier of German-speaking lands and later the capital of East Prussia in Bismarck's Germany. But its annexation by the Soviet Union – and the USSR's subsequent collapse – transformed the region, leaving it between two worlds: politically Russian, but geographically – and historically – European.

"I am proud to be born in such a rich place in terms of history," says Marina Karlova, a student in Kaliningrad.

Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

Ms. Karlova's sentiments are common for young people in Kaliningrad, but represent a marked change for a region that Soviet Russia once tried to rid of its German heritage.

After World War II, the Soviets seized most of East Prussia, renaming the city and region Kaliningrad and expelling its remaining German population to make way for Russian settlers. The medieval cityscape, destroyed by the war, was rebuilt with massive apartment blocks and statues of Lenin and Marx.

But as the Soviet system became less rigid, academics, writers, and everyday citizens began to take serious interest in Kaliningrad's past. The last bit of the medieval city, the Königsberg Cathedral, was refurbished and finally completed in 2005, the 750th anniversary of the city's founding.

In 1992, the dissolution of the Soviet Union left Kaliningrad a Russian island in Europe, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. But it also left Kaliningraders free to embrace the area's history.

Post-Soviet capitalist Kaliningrad has found Königsberg to be a useful theme, rehabilitating old structures and creating new projects like Fish Village to boost tourism. The remaining German architecture, Soviet-era construction, and new faux-German structures have left a uniquely eccentric cityscape.

Because Kaliningrad is surrounded by the European Union, travel largely requires a visa. Gdansk and Berlin are common destinations, helping Kaliningraders feel as European as Russian.

"I've been to some other parts of Russia, and I can tell that we are doing well in comparison with them," Karlova says. "As for being European, primarily this means being richer, more educated, more successful. I think people in my region are more like that."

RELATED: Baltic nations offer ex-Soviet states a Western model

Related stories

Read this story at csmonitor.com

Become a part of the Monitor community

View the original article here

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