Apple Patents Curves Nokia Goes Android Dell Sells Chromebook Tech News Digest

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Apple Patents Curves Nokia Goes Android Dell Sells Chromebook Tech News Digest

Apple patents curves, Nokia's Android handset revealed, Dell joins Chromebook party, Twitter named best technology company to work for, Google opens Street View to everyone, and Mad Catz releases Android console. Today in Tech News Digest, Apple patents curves, Nokia's new Android handset is revealed, Dell joins the Chromebook party, Twitter is named the best technology company to work for, Google opens Street View to everyone, Mad Catz releases its Android console, and the Department of Defense releases games designed to find software bugs.

Apple Has Curves

Apple has been awarded a patent for manufacturing curved touchscreens. The U.S. patent, , was first filed in 2010, with the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) only now getting around to awarding it to Cupertino. Curved touchscreens are just starting to enter the consumer market, with Samsung and LG among the companies using them on mobile devices. However, this patent covers a new technique for manufacturing curved touchscreens and touch surfaces; one which Apple clearly thinks is superior to those currently being used. There is no clear indication in the patent that this technique will be used for a consumer product, but it's entirely possible this could be used for a or iPad. It's also easy to predict this patent will form the basis for a future legal battle between Apple and A.N. Other.

Nokia Invades Android With Normandy

Nokia has an Android handset in the works, at least according to sources talking to . As the embedded tweet shows, well-known phone leaker posted a picture of the alleged device in November. Normandy, as it's currently codenamed, will reportedly run a forked version of Android capable of handling popular Android apps. This device is being targeted at low-end users, but while Nokia insiders are claiming it's "full steam ahead" on Normandy, we cannot see Microsoft pushing an Android phone once its acquisition of Nokia's handset business is completed. Surely that would be nothing but bad for Windows Phone.

Dell Joins Chromebook Party

Dell is the latest company to jump on the Chromebook bandwagon, with its (no relation to the ) being aimed at schools. This is likely to be just the first in a line of Dell Chromebooks, with future iterations aimed at consumers and business customers. No wonder .

Twitter Is Best In Tech

Twitter has the best technology company to work for by career website Glassdoor. Twitter beat LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and eBay, amongst others. Facebook was demoted to third after winning the crown for three years in a row. Apple could only make it to 16th place, while Microsoft is nowhere to be seen.

Google Opens Street View To Everyone

Google has up to everyone, with Street View vistas enabled for anyone using Google’s technology on either an Android phone or dSLR camera. Images can be uploaded to where a new feature enables them to be stitched together to form 360-degree views of locations. Unfortunately this does require you to leave the house, at least temporarily.

Mad Catz Finds Its Mojo

Madcatz has joined the growing market for Android gaming consoles -- which already includes the , amongst others -- with the Mojo micro-console for Android. Mojo is powered by stock Android Jellybean and a Tegra 4 processor, and features 16GB of internal storage, WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0. All Android apps and games are available on the device, which currently costs $249.99.

DoD Turns Bug Hunting Into A Game

And finally, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense, has turned its hunt for software bugs into a game. In fact, Verigames [Broken URL Removed] currently features five different games you can play on the Web. The games use the open-source code in DoD applications to generate objects which players explore and interact with. The players merely see these playable games, but researchers at the government agency can use the data to find bugs in the software. Everyone's a winner. Except the bad guys, hopefully.

Tech News Digest… Breaking News Into Bite-Sized Chunks

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