Categoria: 01 – Curiosidades na Internet

Wireless power company WiTricity announced on Thursday that it has entered an intellectual property licensing agreement with Toyota(s tm). The auto-maker will “offer wireless charging power capture devices on their future rechargeable hybrid electric and battery electric vehicles,” meaning that its cars won’t need to be physically plugged in for a re-charge. Instead, using WiTricity’s technology, the vehicles will get their battery charge without wires, presumably through a charging pad on the ground under the vehicle.

The embedded DRAM chip for the Wii U is considered to be the heart of the console and is manufactured at Renesas Electronics plant at Tsuruoka.  Several sources are reporting that Sony is in talks with Renesas to acquire the Tsuruoka plant. This acquisition shouldn’t cause Nintendo too many problems in the short-term even if production of the chip at Tsuruoka were to be halted. In August, Renesas Electronics expected to close the plant due to the sluggish sales of the Wii U, which ultimately caused a decline in production of the chip.

Thanks, Adam

In early 2012, Google(s goog) swept Oracle in what the presiding judge described as the “World Series” of intellectual property trials, leading the court to declare that Oracle(s orcl) could not assert copyright over Java APIs, aka application programming interfaces.

Now, a rematch is underway in Washington, D.C. where an appeals court is indicating that it could rule in Oracle’s favor and, in doing so, pour legal cement on a basic building block of web architecture.

If you’re unfamiliar with the case, the key issue is whether or not APIs —  structural pieces of software that let different programs talk to each other — qualify for copyright protection. In the original trial, US District Judge William Alsup, who is well-versed in California tech issues, said that APIs are not eligible for protection on the grounds that they are a basic idea, not a form of creative expression.

During a Washington hearing…

Well all that bitching and moaning paid off. Twitter, which has taken tons of fire for its lack of female executives, has named former Pearson PLC CEO Marjorie Scardino to its board.

Scardino — who, as I type this, has 475 Twitter followers — clearly has tons of media credibility: she was also CEO of The Economist Group. But it’s hard not to see this as window dressing. Scardino will replace David Rosenblatt on the board’s audit committee. Twitter’s 8K filing with the news is here.

Feature photo courtesy of Joi Ito.

Club Nintendo Japan has added Animal Crossing magnets to its slew of rewards. The items display the faces of two characters from Animal Crossing: New Leaf – secretary Isabelle and her brother Digby, who’s also in charge of the Happy Home Showcase. The set of two can be redeemed by members of Club Nintendo Japan for 250 points.