The legal battle between Samsung and Apple is nothing new, as the two companies have been duking it out in court for quite sometime. Both companies are ordered to meet with each other to talk out a deal tomorrow. Not surprisingly, Samsung chief JK Shin is looking to resolve the differences between his company and Apple and is looking towards negotiating with them reports Reuters. One of the ways he suggested is a cross-licensing deal: “There is still a big gap in the patent war with Apple but we still have several negotiation options including cross-licensing.”

Headed to the US today, Shin is accompanied by chief executive Choi Gee-sung. Both will be meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook and co. in a San Francisco court tomorrow to try to hammer out a negotiation.

The interesting part of this whole kerfuffle is that Samsung is a key supplier for many parts that Apple uses in its products. South Korean-based Samsung even has a factory in Austin, Texas dedicated to making chips for Apple’s iOS devices. However even giving each other their business, the two companies’ relationship isn’t very good. Samsung is one of the most popular manufacturers of Android handsets, leaving both Apple and Samsung suing each other to try to back up their respective devices.

We’ll be covering anything that comes out of the court tomorrow, but don’t expect the two companies to strike a deal very quickly, as it looks like it’s going to take quite a bit to settle their differences. 

Shin also discussed the 4G chip shortage that his company has been experiencing over the past few months to reporters today. He said that he expects it to continue into the fourth quarter of this year, possibly ruling out Apple using Samsung’s chip in the sixth-generation iPhone. Instead, Apple may opt to use Qualcomm’s new chip which offers support for many different bands worldwide — including the world’s largest carrier, China Mobile, who is currently in talks with Apple to carry the iPhone.

After nearly 24 hours of fighting fatigue and crafting code, our Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon is finally drawing to a close. Not a moment too soon — I think some of our hackers are about ready to keel over at this point.

Nevertheless, we just got an eyeful of 92 projects that our wonderful hackers have been slaving away on through the night, but there are only three teams that will be able to show off their work at on the main Disrupt stage this Wednesday afternoon. In addition to that, our API sponsors — about.me, CityGrid, Microsoft BizSpark, Mobli and OpenTok — have offered up prizes of their own to the groups that made best use of their services, so there will be plenty of winners here today.

Our panel of judges have carefully sifted through these 92 submissions, but who exactly decided the fates of these hackers? The panel of judges include Tarikh Korula of Mahaya, Christina Cacioppo of Union Square Ventures, Kip Voytek of MDC Partners, David Tisch of TechStars, Dinesh Moorjani of Hatch Labs, Nora Abousteit of Kollabora, and Dave Jagoda of Andreessen Horowitz.

So, without further ado, meet our newest Hackathon winners!

Thingscription

A service that tracks user impressions to figure out what products to offer as a recurring subscription to customers.

PoachBase

A recruiting service that uses Crunchbase data to determine which startups may soon fold, and who’s worth swiping away from them.

Practikhan

A platform that lets teachers create their own online quizzes to share with their students.

After nearly 24 hours of fighting fatigue and crafting code, our Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon is finally drawing to a close. Not a moment too soon — I think some of our hackers are about ready to keel over at this point.

Nevertheless, we just got an eyeful of 92 projects that our wonderful hackers have been slaving away on through the night, but there are only three teams that will be able to show off their work at on the main Disrupt stage this Wednesday afternoon. In addition to that, our API sponsors — about.me, CityGrid, Microsoft BizSpark, Mobli and OpenTok — have offered up prizes of their own to the groups that made best use of their services, so there will be plenty of winners here today.

Our panel of judges have carefully sifted through these 92 submissions, but who exactly decided the fates of these hackers? The panel of judges include Tarikh Korula of Mahaya, Christina Cacioppo of Union Square Ventures, Kip Voytek of MDC Partners, David Tisch of TechStars, Dinesh Moorjani of Hatch Labs, Nora Abousteit of Kollabora, and Dave Jagoda of Andreessen Horowitz.

So, without further ado, meet our newest Hackathon winners!

Thingscription

A service that tracks user impressions to figure out what products to offer as a recurring subscription to customers.

PoachBase

A recruiting service that uses Crunchbase data to determine which startups may soon fold, and who’s worth swiping away from them.

Practikhan

A platform that lets teachers create their own online quizzes to share with their students.

A temporary solution to the drama that unfolded this morning when Twitter was blocked in Pakistan — some believe over representations of the Prophet Mohammed and Twitter’s refusal to block these images; and some believe while it was testing an image filtering service. Whatever it was, the site is now back up –after an order from Prime Minister.

Pakistan’s Express Tribune is reporting that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made the decision after the site was down for the day on a mandate from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. But it is still not clear why the authorities shut down access in the first place.

As we reported earlier today, some reports — still unconfirmed directly by any Pakistani authorities (we have reached out on this) — said that the government was concerned about images of the Prophet that were being tweeted as part of an activist campaign in support of the freedom of expression among Muslims and in Muslim countries.

A move to quash sites that facilitate Muslim activism is not unprecedented, so it is very plausible here. However, others have raised an issue about whether it might be something else: they allege that authorities were testing an image-blocking service. In other words: potentially equally restrictive, but different from the specific Prophet drawing campaign.

The whole event sparked off a huge amount of negative response both within Pakistan and further afield. In the country itself, more technically savvy / better equipped users were able to continue accessing the site: it still worked on the Opera Mini browser via the mobile internet, according to several reports. But otherwise, access across the country was denied.

Since we still don’t know why accesses was denied in the first place, it’s hard to say whether the public outcry had a role to play here. Nevertheless, it’s a very encouraging sign when you see people coming together so quickly around an issue.

We’ll continue trying to figure out what exactly happened and for those in Pakistan returning to the Twitterverse, welcome back!

[Image: TakeBackPakistan, Flickr]

A temporary solution to the drama that unfolded this morning when Twitter was blocked in Pakistan — some believe over representations of the Prophet Mohammed and Twitter’s refusal to block these images; and some believe while it was testing an image filtering service. Whatever it was, the site is now back up –after an order from Prime Minister.

Pakistan’s Express Tribune is reporting that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani made the decision after the site was down for the day on a mandate from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. But it is still not clear why the authorities shut down access in the first place.

As we reported earlier today, some reports — still unconfirmed directly by any Pakistani authorities (we have reached out on this) — said that the government was concerned about images of the Prophet that were being tweeted as part of an activist campaign in support of the freedom of expression among Muslims and in Muslim countries.

A move to quash sites that facilitate Muslim activism is not unprecedented, so it is very plausible here. However, others have raised an issue about whether it might be something else: they allege that authorities were testing an image-blocking service. In other words: potentially equally restrictive, but different from the specific Prophet drawing campaign.

The whole event sparked off a huge amount of negative response both within Pakistan and further afield. In the country itself, more technically savvy / better equipped users were able to continue accessing the site: it still worked on the Opera Mini browser via the mobile internet, according to several reports. But otherwise, access across the country was denied.

Since we still don’t know why accesses was denied in the first place, it’s hard to say whether the public outcry had a role to play here. Nevertheless, it’s a very encouraging sign when you see people coming together so quickly around an issue.

We’ll continue trying to figure out what exactly happened and for those in Pakistan returning to the Twitterverse, welcome back!

[Image: TakeBackPakistan, Flickr]

Teaching kids – especially little girls – about electronics is a hard job. First, there’s the electricity. Then there’s the sense that soldering, wiring, and lining up LEDs is considerably less fun than watching Tangled. This project, called Roominate, aims to change the way girls think about electricity.

The kit consists of a set of tiny furniture with built-in wires and switches. You can wire up your dollhouse however you like, adding lamps and switches. $49 gets you one regular room and $95 gets you a “duplex.”

They’ve hit $13,000 of a $26,000 target and it it helps little girls think more clearly about science and electronics, I’m totally backing it. The project ends on June 16 so there’s still plenty of time to slowly replace the Barbie Dream House with a decidedly more DIY dollhouse.

Project Page

Teaching kids – especially little girls – about electronics is a hard job. First, there’s the electricity. Then there’s the sense that soldering, wiring, and lining up LEDs is considerably less fun than watching Tangled. This project, called Roominate, aims to change the way girls think about electricity.

The kit consists of a set of tiny furniture with built-in wires and switches. You can wire up your dollhouse however you like, adding lamps and switches. $49 gets you one regular room and $95 gets you a “duplex.”

They’ve hit $13,000 of a $26,000 target and it it helps little girls think more clearly about science and electronics, I’m totally backing it. The project ends on June 16 so there’s still plenty of time to slowly replace the Barbie Dream House with a decidedly more DIY dollhouse.

Project Page

A mere 24 hours ago, coders started hacking with hopes and dreams of building the next great app or program. Many participants stayed overnight, fueled on gumption and Red Bull. Others cut out early, apparently satisfied with their creation. But they’re all back now, waiting to present on our massive Disrupt stage. Watch it live!

Update: The presentations are over! The judges are deliberating and will soon announce the winner. Standby.

More Hackathon Coverage!

• The Disrupt 2012 NYC Hackathon Is Officially On!
• The Art Of Expression: T-Shirts Of The Disrupt NYC 2012 Hackathon
• The Disrupt NYC Hackathon: We’re 8 Hours In
• Meet The Disrupt NY 2012 Hackathon Hackers
• This City Never Sleeps, And Neither Do The Hackers

There have been a lot of complaints voiced over the last couple of years from people who wish entrepreneurs would address the world’s “real problems” or do “something bigger” rather than create “me too” applications and websites. I’m not a fan of that sentiment but that’s really a whole other post I need to write. In all honesty, there’s a place and need in the world for all sorts of business visions – big and small.

And after watching a “big vision” TED talk from a few years ago, it has changed my life. Jane McGonigal presented this idea: Millions of people around the world are becoming gaming and computer virtuosos. Through video games, people journey to alternate “worlds” where they have epic journeys and become heroes. What if we tapped into that talent and desire for a world changing quest to change our own? What if we changed the idea behind gaming completely to create games that directly had a real world impact?

While at a recent Wild-Aid fundraising event, I was thumbing through the live auctions and found a company called The Blu that is trying to do just that. Created by Academy Award winner Andy Jones (for Avatar), a digital whale named “Big Blu” takes followers on a journey through a digital ocean that the creators hope will teach us all about our underwater counterparts and why we might want to save whales and their underwater friends. I was intrigued, and the whale, in fact, sold for a whopping $10,000. Proceeds go towards both the team behind Big Blu Wild-Aid’s outreach efforts.

Having been so enthralled by the concept, I was determined to meet the founders, so I sent this tweet:

Within 10 minutes, they were at my table. We chatted about the broader goals of The Blu and we talked about Jane’s vision, which they shared. The Blu is a beautiful digital ocean with revenue sharing for both the digital artists that create the fish and ocean life and the partner ocean conservation organizations around the world that support the educational mission. It’s not exactly a game, but it is a real-time immersive experience that by itself is a big idea and can become much bigger.

Revenue sharing with non-profits through games is not a new idea. Zynga raised millions for Haiti and has had other such fund-raising initiatives behind their games, but this is one of the first games/platforms that I’ve seen that specifically is targeting changing something tangible in the real world, and where the product experience is truly aligned with that mission.

Towards the end of our discussion, it occurred to me that they should talk to Dr. Sylvia Earle. She’s a personal hero of mine and this seemed right up her alley with what she’s trying to accomplish. Dr. Sylvia Earle won the TED Prize for her wish to protect our oceans. Sylvia has spent over 50 years exploring and working on ocean exploration and conservation. She spearheaded the Google Ocean initiative to help go beneath the water’s surface in order to help give the world access to what she sees on her regular ocean dives, so that we can help her in her quest to save it.

They were already on it; I had somehow stumbled into a breaking story.

Sylvia teamed up with Sir Richard Branson, Jackson Browne, Dr. Rita Colwell, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Graeme Kelleher, Sven Lindblad, Her Majesty Queen Noor, Nainoa Thompson, Ted Turner, Captain Don Walsh, Neil Young and Gigi Brisson (the founder) to create the Ocean Elders, a group based off Richard Branson’s idea of elders who help guide world leaders and world issues, but specifically focused on the ocean.

These elders are going to get on The Blu, June 8th, in honor of World Oceans Day and interact with members during the launch (remember the digital whale?) into the digital wild. You can ask live questions and join them on their mission to save the ocean.

From their press release they are going to send out after this post:

 What: OceanElders, WildAid, and theBlu.com are holding a global online celebration at theblu.com, in honor of World Oceans Day, June 8, 2012. Entitled, “If You Love The Ocean, Download It!” Interested parties are encouraged to start registering immediately to ensure best interaction with the celebrities and leading ocean advocates expected to participate.

I’m so excited about this. I’ve downloaded The Blu and it runs as a screen saver so you are constantly reminded of our beautiful and bountiful ocean that is sometimes too out of sight and out of mind. I plan on sponsoring loads of little digital fish and I will follow the company closely to see how they evolve.

Even though 70% of the earth’s surface is water, if you took all of it and put it in a sphere of its own, it is quite small in comparison to the Earth. 860 miles in diameter, it is one of the single most important resources to our planet and human-kind, yet no one owns any of it and therefore it has very little protection. Thank you team Blu for dreaming big and using the virtual metaphor to make preservation of the ocean more real.