Qualcomm and doubleTwist bond over Android media streaming

As much as you might love using an Android phone, there are a couple of things even easier as with apples. Media Streaming is a good example, thanks to Apple’s AirPlay protocol.
This could change if a partnership project between the new chip maker Qualcomm and doubleTwist music player fruits. MagicPlay Together they have created a new open standard transmission protocol are waiting OEM incorporated in the next generation of Android smartphones and tablets.

MagicPlay technology is actually based on a concept called Wireless Qualcomm AllJoyn more, connecting compatible (read: Qualcomm) chips creating peer-to-peer short distances.
Wireless connectivity is something doubleTwist knows a thing or two about, having successfully created th AirTwist means wireless synchronization tool to complement standard doubleTwist media player for Android phones. AirTwist connects with a client installed on the PC and updates the media library on your phone, so you always have the most up to date music to listen to.
From here, Qualcomm will begin the uphill battle MagicPlay sell to manufacturers and trying to convince them to use in their applications MagicPlay media instead of the old (and clunkier) DLNA protocol and the new (and considerably more agile) Miracast.
Either way, it is a victory for consumers. After years of wishing the past and current droid could dock as the iPhone, which can finially see something similar to a standard that all manufacturers can adopt both phones and in your home theater and TV, too.

Apple left alone to fight ebook price fixing suit as Macmillan settles

Macmillan has joined the other major US publishers in settling the ebook price fixing lawsuit, filed by the Department of Justice, leaving Apple to fight the case alone.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple conspired with Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillian, Simon & Schuster and Penguin to prevent retailers like Amazon from lowering the prices of ebooks.

Three of the publishers immediately settled with the DoJ, when the suit was filed in April 2012, but Penguin, Macmillan and Apple had vowed to fight the allegations in court.

Penguin caved in and settled in December and now Macmillan has also yielded, claiming the cost of losing the case could have put it out of business.

Prices to come down immediately

Macmillan, owned by German company Holtzbrinck, said the decision was made “because the potential penalties became too high to risk even the possibility of an unfavorable outcome.”

The settlement will “immediately allow retailers to lower the prices consumers pay for Macmillan’s e-books,” DoJ lawyer Jamillia Ferris said.

With Macmillan out of the picture, Apple must now decide whether to stick to its guns and fight the case alone, or agree a settlement with the DoJ, which plans to continue its litigation against the company.

Via Bloomberg