While other manufacturers might tart up their headphones with loud colors, obnoxious logos and frills, the Klipsch Image One ($150) drops all extraneous nonsense in favor of making you happy through its three impressive strengths: perfomance, comfort and portability — a triple threat that makes these headphones a contender for best traveling companion.  Read more...

Earlier this month we reported Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Chief Gee-Sung Choi had agreed to an Alternative Dispute Resolution with Judge Lucy Koh in a California district court. The agreement, described as “semi voluntary” by media covering the case, would see the two CEOs and their legal counsels meet within 90 days for court-moderated, patent related settlement talks. According to a new report from Foss Patents, Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero, the judge overseeing the settlement talks, has now scheduled the meeting for May 21-22:
The meetings will take place in a San Francisco courthouse, while the litigation itself is before the San Jose division of the court… one of the things Magistrate Judge Spero wants the parties to do is to provide a settlement statement until May 9 including, among other things, “a candid evaluation of the parties’ likelihood of prevailing on the claims and defenses”
Not surprisingly, the mediation and statements submitted by both companies throughout the process will apparently remain confidential. In the report, while noting pending disputes between the two companies exist in as many as ten countries, Foss Patents broke down how the court’s decisions could impact as many as 31 countries:

Anyway, with Apple’s infringement action in Spain, it’s a fact that offensive lawsuits between the two players are now pending in ten countries, but by another count, the number is actually — don’t be shocked — 31. Here’s why: Apple’s lawsuit in Alicante will relate to the entire European Union, which currently has 27 member states. Previously, there were infringement lawsuits in five of those countries (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Netherlands) and in four non-EU countries (United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia). 27 EU member states + 4 non-EU-member-states = 31.
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Samsung just officially denied any involvement with the “Wake Up” protest held outside of an Australian Apple Store earlier this week.
According to SlashGear, the company stepped forth today and rebuffed any ties to the affair: ”Samsung Electronics Australia has nothing to do with the ‘Wake-Up Campaign’.”
For currently unknown reasons, a puzzling demonstration with anti-Apple cues occurred outside an Apple Store in Sydney April 22. A black bus boasted the phrase “WAKE UP” and a slew of paid picketers with coordinating signs paraded along George Street while chanting, “Wake up!”
The staged fuss accompanied a series of billboards posted around the city, as well as “WAKE UP” written on the bottom of Bondi Ice Bergs’ pool, and a baffling website with a focal point countdown at wake-up-australia.com.au. The URL is registered to ad agency New Dialogue, which underwent rebranding and now goes by the name “Tongue.”  

Meanwhile, Samsung hosted a teaser website last week at tgeltaayehxnx.com (an anagram for “the new galaxy”) that contained a countdown similar to Tongue’s. The South Korea-based manufacturer redirected users to thenextgalaxy.com after the clock ran out last Monday. Samsung placed a video on the new page that assured users its next Galaxy device will “stand out from everyone else,” and then the video panned to a horde of sheep for the closing frame. The ad (below) is a dig at iPhone users who are often scorned as “iSheep” due to killjoy’s that claim they blindly follow Apple.  Read more...