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The escalating legal spat between Apple and Samsung has long prompted astonishment among industry watchers, given the two companies are so inter-dependent on each others’ business. Now, its been confirmed that – while Apple’s lawyers decry Samsung as an arch “copyist” and Samsung argues that the design language it’s accused of mimicking may only be as long-lived as a single generation or two of Apple hardware – high level executives from the firms are simultaneously holding secret talks. News of the negotiations was revealed during the court case itself, as an apparently frustrated Judge Lucy Koh demanded to know why Samsung and Apple couldn’t “all get along here,” Reuters reports. “I will send you with a box of chocolates, whatever” the judge told attorneys from the two firms, suggesting that an alternative route of dispute resolution might make more sense. In response, Harold McElhinny – one of Apple’s attorneys on the case – confirmed that not only had the ongoing quarrel been a top

Way back in late March of this year we talked a bit about some new incoming Olympus cameras that are the interchangeable lens type that are not DSLR cameras. The line was tipped to be the PEN Pro series. A bit more information on one of the cameras in the new line has landed including some brief hands on impressions from the source that was able to play with the thing. To start with, the official announcement date for all three of the new PEN Pro cameras is reportedly set for June 30. The new cameras will also be announced alongside new lenses for the series with a 12mm f/2.0 and a 45mm f/1.8. One of the key features of the new series of cameras is the blazing fast autofocus that is said to be faster than most DSLR cameras on the market. The sensor and image engine are also said to be new. The E-PM1 is the new camera that has been handled a bit by a source at 43rumors. This is the smallest of the three new cameras and the source says it is similar inside to the Panasonic XZ-1. The sour

Huawei has made its MediaPad tablet official, billing the slate as the world’s first 7-inch Android 3.2 Honeycomb model. Built around an IPS capacitive touchscreen, the 10.5mm thick MediaPad runs Qualcomm’s 1.2GHz dual-core processor and has twin cameras – a 5-megapixel autofocus unit on the back, supporting HD video recording, along with a 1.3-megapixel webcam up front for video calls – together with HSPA+ 14.4Mbps connectivity and an HDMI port. There’s also WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, support for 1080p Full HD playback and a battery which, Huawei reckons, is good for over six hours of battery life. That should put it roughly in line with the HTC Flyer, though of course the Flyer runs Gingerbread not Honeycomb. Huawei has also confirmed that Flash Player 10.3 is supported and that there’s 8GB of internal storage along with a microSD card slot. The Facebook and Twitter apps will be preloaded, as will Document To Go and Let’s Golf. Huawei will also be throwing in support for its Hispace clou

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet sounds really cool and is one of the tablet that a lot of people in the market are looking to as an alternative to the people iPad 2 tablet that is selling so well. The Tab 10.1 in WiFi only flavor is set to hit stores today nationwide for people that want one to pick up. If you are holding out until a Tab 10.1 with integrated 3G connectivity lands so you can get online wherever you may go your wait may not be that long. A new version of the Galaxy Tab has hit the FCC and it is packing in 3G connectivity. The information that the FCC has posted shows that the new version of the Tab is model GT-P7500 and pack in hardware supporting the GSM 850 and 1900 bands along with the WCDMA UMTS bands II and V. If you follow wireless tech much you will note that those are the bands that AT&T uses here in the US marking this new version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for AT&T. There is no word on when exactly the new tablet will turn up on AT&T but often the FCC

I have never been to jail before much less to prison so all I know about jail comes from TV. I had no idea that prisoners could have TVs in their cells like the one you see in the images below. For a short while back in the mid 80′s I remember all sorts of clear items on the market. In fact, I had this old push button telephone in my room that was clear and had brightly colored parts inside that you could see. I though that was the most awesome phone ever. Apparently, in prison clear stuff isn’t for the cool look at the parts style that the 80′s offered, but for the you can’t hide shivs and dope practical reality of prison. Check out the cool TV that has turned up on Etsy for instance. Apparently, the little clear cased 13-inch set is from Juillet Prison in Illinois. RCA made the TV specifically for the prison industry so the guards could see that no contraband was being stashed inside. It’s a 13-inch screen CRT set so no flat panel action. If you have an 80′s themed room in your home

Sega has confirmed that 1.3m users of its Sega Pass online network have had their personal information stolen, after the service was hacked last week. “We are deeply sorry for causing trouble to our customers” spokesperson Yoko Nagasawa told Reuters, ”we want to work on strengthening security.” Although credit card information is not among the looted haul, there’s plenty of information that could lead to phishing attempts or account hacks. Names, birth dates and email addresses of registered users have been taken, along with their passwords, albeit with the latter in encrypted form. Although no fraudulent payments can be made, online services which rely on date of birth password resetting might be susceptible to unofficial access; users could also be at risk of brute force attacks where common passwords are tried against a known email address. Sega Pass is currently offline, with a message on the site saying that it “is going through some improvements so is currently unavailable for ne

Facebook is believed to be readying a considerable play for the music and video market, with heavy integration between music services like Spotify and the social network. Set for launch at f8 2011, Facebook’s developer conference, according to GigaOm‘s sources the new push for social music will include partnerships with a range of streaming media services and a new “Music” tab leading to a brand new dashboard. This “Music Dashboard” will work alongside a persistent play/pause button at the bottom of the screen, roundabout where the Facebook Chat icon is currently. If you’re listening to music through one of the services Facebook has partnered with – and you’ve logged in via Facebook Connect – then the button will control the audio playing at that time. It will also control playback of a track discovered on Facebook. The site will keep a summary page of all the songs listened to on each service, along with the tracks you’ve listened to most frequently. In the Music Dashboard, meanwhile,

Apple is planning to release updated versions of its Mac mini and Mac Pro desktops in the first week of August, according to the latest leaks, with an update to Sandy Bridge 2011 Core processors and Thunderboltconnectivity. CNET TV’s Brian Tong says his insiders have confirmed that Apple is holding off on the new hardware until Mac OS X Lion is ready, with both the Mac mini and Mac pro being preloaded with the updated OS. The same sources apparently accurately predicted the details around Apple’s iMac launch in early May. TheMac Pro is long overdue an update, and various rumors are circulating around what the company may have done to the latest-gen hardware. Popular among graphics professionals, musicians and anybody else in need of high-performance crunching, there’s talk that the new Mac Pro could use a rack-mountable chassis and in effect replace both the previous desktop and Apple’s discontinued Xserve. As for the Mac Mini, that update is expected to be a more minor one, replacing

The incoming T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide has been caught in the wild once again, only this time around the photos are a whole lot less blurry. The QWERTY-blessed slider, TmoNews‘ tipster confirms, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense and is “much like the Sensation but with some specific myTouch features.” The keyboard comes in for some praise as well, described as “amazing”, while the phone itself is said to be “surprisingly fast.” Weight is a little greater than the T-Mobile G2, though the keyboard feel is on a par, while there’s an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and a dual-LED flash on the back. Formerly known by its codename, the HTC Doubleshot, the smartphone was spotted crossing the FCC at the start of the month. A July 6 release has been suggested, though not yet confirmed, by a leaked T-Mobile USA roadmap. Other specs are expected to include HSPA+ 4G and a dual-core processor.

Popular HTPC software provider SageTV has been acquired by Google, leading to speculation that the company’s media-center app could end up integrated into a future version of Google TV. SageTV offered a way to centralize media on a server computer or NAS, and then access it with software and hardware clients around the home. “By teaming up with Google,” SageTV CTO Jeffrey Kardatzke suggests, “we believe our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services.” That enthusiasm doesn’t appear to be contagious, however, at least among existing SageTV users. With the company’s online store already down – meaning they can no longer buy hardware and software direct – there aremany with concerns that SageTV will be lost amid the Google acquisitions. At the very least, functionality which SageTV has hitherto allowed – like DVD ripping – may not, it’s suggested, be so welcome under the new Google masters. Exactly what will happen to the

Game of Thrones  ended its freshman season with quite a bang, didn't it? The show certainly didn't bar anything in introducing us to the fantasy world of Westeros, but now that introductions are done, where do we go from here? Where will the characters that we've come to know and love (or know and hate) go in season two of  Game of Thrones ? The answers all lie in the second book of the series,  A Clash of Kings  -- but in case you're still a long way from reading that heavy tome, we've constructed a series of hints about where all your favorite characters will be going next year. Be warned: These hints are slightly spoilery and give some indication of what's on the way for next season.  And, if the book is any indication, you won't want to miss an episode of season two. Here's a little hint of where the show is going: Robb Stark , in the wake of his father's death, will become King in the North. He'll soon find out, though, that being king isn&

I love The Daily Show, but occasionally it frustrates me. Not the content; Stewart's writing team is usually sharp and poignant. No, my only source of disappointment is often with the guests -- or rather, the scheduling. A week that has four celebrity guests isn't any good to me, and a week that has four serious current events correspondents isn't that exciting either. Diversity is key, of course. Last week, which featured nonfiction author Alex Prud'homme on Monday, Super 8 director J.J. Abrams on Tuesday, and South Park/The Book of Mormon creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone on Wednesday was almost a perfect week, had it finished up with a more serious guest on Thursday (instead, no new Daily Show aired that day). Thankfully, this coming week of June 20 has a balanced guest schedule. Monday, June 20 will see Ray Nagin as the show's guest. Nagin is the former mayor of New Orleans, Lousiana, and has just written a new memoir titled Katrina's Secrets: The Storm

The Doctor Who series 6 trailer premiered all the way back in December, but even in the first half of the series, we still haven't even gotten through all the cool content it teased us with. The Nazis were present in the first shots of the trailer, but they won't be present until (presumably) the episode "Let's Kill Hitler," which airs in the fall. But there are monsters that they've shown us that we haven't seen hide nor creepy doll hair of yet either. Remember those scary little dolls lumbering around? Yeah, the ones who looked like a cross between The Strangers and Gremlins. Well, they'll be popping up in the fall, in an episode newly titled " Night Terrors. " The episode, previously titled "What Are Little Boys Made Of?," features a little boy named George who is scared of something in his cupboard (hint: it's these dolls). It's penned by Mark Gatiss. That might have some warning bells going off right there. Gatiss

This is it, Game of Thrones fans. The season finale. It seems so cruel after such a short season, but the hit HBO show will be concluding tonight. Fortunately, we know the show has already been renewed for season 2. We also know that production on season 2 will begin in a matter of weeks - on July 25 , actually - and that Game of Thrones will be making an appearance at Comic Con (with author George R.R. Martin moderating the panel). In anticipation of tonight's season finale, let me tell you what HBO gave as the official description: "A new king rises in the north; a Khaleesi finds new hope." Not very much information, right? Well, let's discuss what we know and what we can guess about tonight's season finale. The Starks: The big event in the last episode was the death of Eddard (Ned) Stark. There was a pretty big uproar after the death, but lest you think it was done for some reason to torture the fans, know that his death was in the book and was al

oday is the day we all should show our love and appreciation to our paps for everything he’s done for us. It is Father’s Day and hopefully many of you will be able to spend it with your Dad. I know I will be and for that I’m thankful. Enough of the mushy talk, we have a TV to give away! Today from SlashGear courtesy of Toshiba we are giving away a 24″ LED Flatscreen to a lucky father, keep reading to find out if you’ve won. First off Thank you to everyone that entered. If you haven’t been keeping up with SlashGear now is probably the time to start. We are giving this TV away today, we gave a Galaxy Tab 10.1 away earlier this week, and more goodies before that. If your not friends with SlashGear on Facebook you probably should be. Now its time we announce the winner. We had a really hard time deciding on who should receive this TV because we had so many great entries with thoughtful comments. Lets get right to it shall we — and the winner is …… Congrats to Alan Tong ! You are the luck

In my last column, I talked about some of the reasons good companies make bad products – and how sometimes, the products are fine, we’re just biased. Or that the product was made by engineers for engineers. Or that the CEO personally pushed for it and no one was willing to contradict him. Sadly, there are several other reasons why good companies make bad products. Our Customers Love It, So We’re Giving Them More of the Same

It’s Father’s Day and I wish dads out there a wonderful day with your sons and daughters. I never understood my father’s love as well as the sacrifices he made until the arrival of my daughter, Allison, a little over a year ago. That being said, it’s nice having one day out of year where dads all over the world are being shown how much they’re appreciated. Giving presents or a Father’s Day card is the norm and presents can range from a drawing to an expensive flatscreen TV. (photo credit: Daniel Lim )

The HTC EVO and its chanting followers is something we rarely see in the smartphone industry, back when it launched it had a very quick rise to fame. I mean it had that huge 4.3″ screen that made all the other phones around look tiny, it had 4G and it was fast. I can see why everyone fell in love with the original EVO and why its still selling like hot cakes, it is a sweet phone. Will the new HTC EVO 3D live up to the same fame — can it be everything and more? Read on to find out. Hardware

We just wanted to shout out a little reminder to everyone that we have a giveaway going on. We are giving away a Toshiba 24″ 1080p LED HDTV to one lucky father tomorrow. Have you entered yet? The rules are simple — just make sure you like our SlashGear Facebook Page then leave a comment saying both “SlashGear” and “Toshiba” as well as why you think your father should win and post it on our wall. You may have bought a shiny new smartphone for dad, or maybe you got him a gift card for his favorite store. I have a better idea — prepay for 6 months of Netflix for dad and send him a nice little Father’s Day card with all the details inside. Even if you already bought dad something for Father’s Day you better enter our giveaway, I mean who doesn’t want to win a 24″ LED TV right? In case you missed the original post you can find all the details on the 24″ TV giveaway by clicking here. Now hurry over to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SlashGear.com and enter before its to late. We will b

Nintendo made a surprising announcement recently that neither DVD nor Blu-ray will be making its way to the company’s upcoming Wii U console. As expected, fans on both sides of the debate jumped on the story. Some said that Nintendo’s decision to nix Blu-ray in the Wii U proved that the company just didn’t know what it was doing in the gaming space any longer. Those who came out in defense of Nintendo said it makes perfect sense, since streaming is the future, and the console will likely support Netflix and other similar services. Although I can see both sides of the argument, I’m a little perplexed by Nintendo’s decision to not offer Blu-ray in the Wii U. Yes, I understand the company’s licensing argument and I can see where streaming would be more important, but whether we like it or not, physical media isn’t going anywhere. And Blu-ray will be with us for the long haul. As far as I’m concerned, every next-generation console, including the Wii U, the PlayStation 4, and the Xbox 720 (

There aren't a lot of soundtracks that can take you into a different world. Most are designed to create emotion (see: Carter Burwell's brilliant score for Being John Malkovich), but only a few are able to mentally transport the listener into another realm entirely. Howard Shore's soundtracks for the Lord of the Rings trilogy mixes the film's sweet emotions with the ability to make me feel that I'm standing in the forest of Lothlorien, in the fields of Rohan, or in the blackness of Mordor. The Game of Thrones soundtrack doesn't quite hit the heights that Shore's Lord of the Rings soundtrack does, and at times it feels like it's trying. But, at its best moments (and there are quite a few in the soundtracks twenty-nine tracks), composer Ramin Djawadi crafts music that doesn't place you in this different world, but sends you soaring over it. The show's main title, the first track on the album, appears on the show set to the animation of Westeros a

There's nothing like a good Agatha Christie mystery, there really isn't. Despite all the intrigue and multiple deaths that occur throughout her stories, there's always something comforting about watching the stories play out, despite the fact that they all turn out the same way: somebody was guilty and the detective figured it out a long time ago. So The Pale Horse (out on DVD 6/21) is television's equivalent of popcorn -- delicious, but not very filling. The Pale Horse is an Agatha Christie novel that originally didn't include Miss Marple. Instead, it featured Mark Easterbrook as the main character. In this recent television adaptation, starring Julia McKenzie (Cranford, Fresh Fields) as Marple, she takes over the main role of solving the mystery, though Mark Easterbrook is a supporting character who helps Marple with the case. As expected, the episode packs quite the twist, but also has the strange element of witchcraft thrown into the mix. Of course, as wit

Every once in a while, you come across a viral video and wonder, 'Why didn't I think of that?' That was exactly my reaction to the new video that New York Magazine's Vulture created. It's a brilliant mash-up of HBO's freshman series Game of Thrones and CBS's hit sitcom Two and a Half Men. Its title? One and a Half Man. It stars the Game of Thrones characters Tyrion and Bronn. Tyrion is a highborn dwarf with a lot of money and quick wits; Bronn is the mercenary that Tyrion hires to protect him. They have an absolutely wonderful dynamic on the series, as highlighted in the drinking game scene from last week's episode "Baelor." It was a comedic scene and a serious scene at the same time, and perfectly highlighted them as potentially the best bromance on television. The trailer plays more like one for a really bad comedy flick, which is what makes it so darned brilliant. It has all the hallmarks of those early 2000s trailers -- a voiceover

Agatha Christie writes good mysteries, though they're often quite frustrating because they involve a twist that she makes impossible to see coming. If they were predictable, they wouldn't be as enjoyable, of course, but a mystery series is often at its best when you make the connection just before it's revealed onscreen. Not so with Marple, though it's still a lot of fun to watch, so long as aren't trying to sleuth the mystery out yourself. The fifth series of Agatha Christie's Marple comes to the U.S. on DVD Blu-ray Tuesday (6/21). The set includes four murder mysteries: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, The Secret of Chimneys, The Blue Geranium, and The Pale Horse (which will be getting its own individual DVD release, my review of which will be posted tomorrow). The mysteries themselves look fantastic in the crystal-clear Blu-ray set. The stories are very watchable though ultimately they're just fluff -- you're never bored while watching,

"An Edge of Your Seat Financial Thriller." Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? It's the tagline for Wired, a new British program that's being released on DVD in America for the first time on June 21. Surprisingly, it tells the truth. Wired is very much a cat-and-mouse game in which no one knows who is playing who. Newly promoted London banker Louise Evans is blackmailed into helping a bunch of ruthless killers pull off a multimillion pound scam. Everyone involved is guilty in some way or another, that becomes apparent from the start. The reason to watch this three-part miniseries is to find out who exactly is the most guilty. Wired's only flaw is that it focuses too much on the story and not enough on the characters. Most characters, including Louise, have painfully clear motivations that make the rest of their actions in the story terribly boring (Louise's motivational gimmick: she'll do anything to save her daughter). Only a few characters rem

Don't be fooled; Rocko's Modern Life is far superior to the breed of cartoons you see running on Nickelodeon today. I thought it would be along the lines of 'toons like The Fairly OddParents -- unintelligent brain candy. But what I found was something entirely different. Rocko (season one on DVD 6/21 from Shout! Factory) is a cartoon that manages to be hilarious on both levels, both adult and juvenile. It's really South Park for children. It's dark and full of cynicism. There are plenty of innuendos and just as much social commentary. Take, for instance, the episode titled "Skid Marks," which lampoons the media's obsession with law enforcement. A S.W.A.T. team, after being completely unnecessary at a scene, performs a dance routine back into their van. The show then cuts to a reporter, who looks at the camera and asks, "Weren't they great, folks?" I'm not saying it's South Park level social commentary, but it's the kids&