02/09, 11:40pm
Eolas sees web patent lawsuit claim tossed
Eolas' attempt to patent the "interactive web" may have been dealt a permanent blow after a jury in the normally patent lawsuit-friendly town of Tyler, Texas ruled that the patent was invalid. The decision negated both any attempts at claiming damages and also negated three future trials. The rejection came in part after testimony from the spiritual creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, as well as individual creators whose work predated that of Eolas owner Michael Doyle.
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02/06, 3:40pm
Google denied appeal on mail shwoing patent issue
Google on Monday lost an appeal trying to keep an incriminating e-mail out of Oracle's lawsuit over Android patents and copyrights. The court rejected Google's view that engineer Tim Lindholm's message, which told top staff that they needed a Java license for Android, was subject to attorney-client privilege. Lindholm had been talking to regular Google employees and not lawyers, the federal appeals court said, making it a valid part of discovery.
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01/31, 8:40pm
Tensions between 2 giants continue
A California Superior Court Judge has thrown out a suit over a settlement between HP and Oracle over Oracle's hiring away then HP CEO Mark Hurd. Oracle had claimed that HP has tricked it into the settlement by withholding information about its intentions to bring in a new CEO, Leo Apotheker. Oracle considered Apotheker as "toxic" to any relationship between the two companies.
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01/18, 11:25am
Orcale claims Google making steep Android profit
Oracle has put out an unofficial estimate of Google's possible damages claimed it was making over $10 million a year from each day it sells Android. Going from Google mobile VP Andy Rubin's claims of 700,000 activations per day and assuming $14 in ad revenue from each device, Oracle assumed Google was making eight-digit revenue just from ads alone, according to a copy of statements obtained by Florian Mueller. This didn't include Android Market, exclusive hardware deals, or "other Android-related services," the database veteran said.
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01/17, 8:00am
Oracle ordered to lower Android lawsuit damages
Oracle's already delayed trial against Google for alleged copyright and patent violations in Android has been set back indefinitely in an attempt to lower damage requests. Judge William Alsup ruled late last week that he wouldn't set a trial date until Oracle sets a "proper damages methodology." He wanted the company to go lower than what it wanted following tossed patent claims and accused Oracle of being interested solely in high damages worth billions rather than compensation for actual losses.
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01/04, 3:05pm
Oracle gets trial date for Google lawsuit
Oracle's delayed trial against Google received a more definitive date from Judge William Alsup on Wednesday. The trial will start no earlier than the morning of March 19, roughly five months after the target date. The Northern District of California court had already ruled that the trial would be split into three parts dealing with copyright, then patents, and finally all remaining issues.
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12/27, 11:15am
USPTO gives Google a break on key patent
The US Patent and Trademark Office gave Google a rare break late last week in further scaling back Oracle's limited patent claims in a lawsuit over Android's code. A total of 17 of the 21 claims of the patent were rejected, including one claim that Oracle had been leveling against Google. Oracle has until February 20 to challenge the rejection.
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12/18, 6:15pm
BT says Android and more violate its patents
British Telecom has continued its legal campaigns in technology by suing Google for allegedly infringing on its patents in an action filed on Thursday. The Delaware-based complaint, caught by Florian Mueller, accused Google of violating six patents for telecoms and navigation through its development of Android, Google Maps, and related services like AdMob, Google+, Places, and even basic search. BT considers the supposed violations "willful" and is asking for tripled damages as a result.
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12/06, 5:45pm
Oracle may not get as much as hoped from Android
Judge William Alsup on Tuesday threw out some of Oracle's damage claims against Google for allegedly violating Java copyrights and patents with Android. He gave an initial favor to five of Google's eight objections for a tentative order that would go ahead unchanged on December 20 if there were no objections. Among the objections were potentially broad strokes in lumping all patents together for damages.
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11/08, 9:45am
Google chair has no plans for Android royalties
Google chairman Eric Schmidt in a Korean media event promised that Android would stay free to license. In spite of pressure for patent licenses from Microsoft and Oracle, partners wouldn't be charged directly by Google as Microsoft does with Windows Phone. He didn't say, however, whether Google would provide any help to companies being made to pay higher royalties in patent disputes that touch on Android itself, not their specific software additions.
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11/07, 7:20pm
HP taps bank to consider exiting webOS for good
HP is seriously exploring the possibility of selling the webOS division outright, four insiders said Monday night. The company has brought on Bank of America Merrill Lynch to decide whether or not it makes sense to sell the group, the sources told Reuters. An asking price might run into the "hundreds of millions" of dollars, which would see HP take a loss on its $1.2 billion Palm buyout but still command significant interest.
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10/26, 7:10pm
Oracle won't challenge Google on Java in 2011
Judge William Alsup gave Google a brief reprieve Wednesday after he delayed Oracle's lawsuit over Java in Android until 2012. The proposed shift moved it past the original Halloween start date to sometime that would "not be in 2011." A first trial phase would focus on copyright disputes, while the second would focus on patents, and a third would cover all remaining issues, such as the ultimate damages.
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10/20, 7:45pm
Oracle cleared for key evidence in Android lawsuit
Oracle obtained a key ruling Thursday after Judge William Alsup determined that it was allowed to use internal Google e-mail admitting patent problems in Android as evidence in its lawsuit over Java copyrights and patents. Alsup determined that Google had "failed to identify any aspect" of Oracle's demand that was either mistaken or illegal. Attorney-client privilege didn't cover the messages, he said.
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10/14, 7:05am
Google CEO attacks Microsoft, Apple, Oracle
During yesterday’s Google conference call, CEO and co-founder Larry Page took some time out to answer a number of questions. Chief among them, were his thoughts on the various patent disputes currently plaguing the company’s Android platform. When it came to Microsoft, he did not mince his words and attacked the Redmond based software giant claiming that it is hassling its own partners.
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10/08, 2:10pm
Oracle-Google lawsuit sees testimony of top execs
Both Google and Oracle will have to bring out some of their top current and former executives to testify in the ongoing lawsuit over Android's use of Java patents. Along with Google's Larry Page, its chairman and one-time Sun CTO Eric Schmidt is also being called by Oracle and fill in details on negotiations with Sun and later Oracle over Java as well as the business strategy for Android. Java pioneer and recent Google worker James Gosling is being asked to talk about Java's invention and patents, and the author of a potentially condemning Google e-mail, Tim Lindholm, is being asked in hopes of pushing him to admit Google ignored needed patent deals.
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09/25, 11:30am
Apple to unveil iPhone 5 at own campus
Apple's October 4 iPhone 5 event will take place on Apple's own campus, insiders tipped off on Sunday. Breaking with Apple's 'tradition' of unveiling new iOS devices at larger venues like the Moscone Center or the Yerba Buena Center, it will host the event at the Town Hall theater on Apple's campus, AllThingsD heard. No explanation was given as to why, although it's not likely to have been a long-term, intentional choice.
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09/22, 7:05pm
Oracle focues on past damages in Android dispute
Oracle in documents posted Thursday claimed that its real issue in its dispute over copyrights and patents in Android wasn't its damage requests but to stop Android itself. It argued that Android's just-in-time engine was an "incompatible clone of Java" and that the real issue was Google's damage to the code, which was supposed to be truly cross-platform. Any royalties for future damages would have to come after the case, Oracle said in a copy of the document obtained by Florian Mueller.
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09/22, 12:45pm
Google and Oracle may see 3rd, 4th settlement days
Google and Oracle are likely to have a third or possibly fourth day of required settlement talks after deadlocked negotiations continued on for a second day, according to orders from presiding Magistrate Judge Grewal. Attorneys from both sides are to call the judge on Thursday and determine when "further discussions" will take place. The presences of Google CEO Larry Page and his Oracle equivalent Larry Ellison is also now optional, as Grewal wanted to know if either side thought the executives would be needed.
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09/21, 4:30pm
Google filing details alleged Oracle price values
Oracle wants a minimum of $2 billion in damages for alleged violations of Java's copyrights and patents in Android, Google said in a court filing. The company wanted $1.2 billion for perceived damages in 2012 as well as past and future payments. As Oracle wants payments to go out as far as 2025, however, the tally could be much higher.
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09/20, 9:25pm
Google and Oracle have no deal in talks so far
The CEOs of Google and Oracle made no progress in forced settlement talks, tipsters from the courtroom mentioned Tuesday. Oracle's CEO, Larry Ellison, still insists that Google owes billions of dollars in Java licenses, AllThingsD heard. Google head Larry Page, meanwhile, believes the value is "excessive" and may be clinging to the view that Google may owe a much smaller $100 million.
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09/15, 7:40pm
Google loses most of summary judgment vs Oracle
Google faced a major setback to its defense against Oracle's lawsuit over Java in Android after Judge William Alsup tossed out most of Google's motions to dismiss parts of the case. The court denied all but one of Google's summary judgment requests over the copyright claims. Judge Alsup only agreed with Google that the names of files and sub-elements like classes weren't copyrightable.
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09/10, 1:30am
Page and Ellison must visit settlement meeting
Google chief Larry Page and his Oracle counterpart Larry Ellison were ordered on Friday to attend a special settlement meeting previously called for in Oracle's lawsuit over Java use in Android. The September 19 gathering, ordered by Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal, will include other executives but will require the two CEOs at a minimum. It followed after private mediation hit an impasse and the judge in the main case, William Alsup, called for court oversight to help force a resolution.
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09/07, 2:55pm
Google testimony may show Java copied directly
Newly public elements from Oracle's lawsuit against Google have uncovered testimony that Google may have lifted some code from Sun's Java implementation. Former Sun engineer and Google's Chief Java Architect Joshua Bloch said it was "likely" based on code structure that he had accessed Sun code and used it to make a system sort borrowed from the Python language, TimSort. He downplayed it as only reproducing a "little function" and said it was important that it behave in the same way, according to a discovery by Florian Mueller.
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09/02, 11:05pm
Oracle and Google may spend 2 days settling case
Oracle and Google may have no choice but to spend one to two days doing nothing but negotiating a settlement in Oracle's ongoing lawsuit over Java use in Android. Judge William Alsup said he was "inclined' to make the two discuss a deal in front of a federal Magistrate Judge with their "top executive officers," possibly involving Oracle chief Larry Ellison and his Google counterpart Larry Page. Lawyers for both teams had until September 7 to comment and pick relevant leaders for talks.
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08/30, 5:50pm
James Gosling out from Google after a few months
Java's key pioneer, James Gosling, posted a surprise on Tuesday that he had already left Google. Having just signed on in March, he was leaving to join Liquid Robotics, a company making underwater robots that scour data and upload it online through a cellular or satellite link. Gosling stressed that the abrupt exit was due to his interest in the project and not the looming dangers of the Oracle lawsuit over Java in Android.
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08/15, 10:00am
Google talks Android defense, Motorola Google TV
Google during the call for its buyout of Motorola hinted that it was confident about its ability to defend Android against patent complaints. The company declined to talk about its exact strategy but said it was now in a "very good position" to protect the entire ecosystem. The $12.5 billion deal gives it access to 17,000 existing and 7,500 in-progress patents, giving it more clout than if it had bought the collective Novell and Nortel patents.
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08/05, 5:40pm
Oracle may get Motorola to testify in Google case
Oracle may get Motorola to join Larry Page in testifying as part of its lawsuit against Google over Java patent use in Android. The database firm late this week motioned a Chicago court for rights to depose Motorola for evidence. The testimony would gauge whether the code Motorola uses the allegedly infringing patents in the source code it gets from Google as well as whether Motorola was using the Android dx tool.
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08/03, 4:00pm
Claims 'hostile' campaign against Android
Google senior VP and chief legal officer David Drummond has published an open letter criticizing the rush on patents in the mobile industry. "Android is on fire," he writes. "More than 550,000 Android devices are activated every day, through a network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers. Android and other platforms are competing hard against each other, and that’s yielding cool new devices and amazing mobile apps for consumers. But Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents."
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07/23, 1:35pm
Oracle deletes pro-Android Java posts
Oracle has tried to cover up some of Sun's support of Android in its attempts to back its lawsuit against Google. The company deleted a blog post from 2007 (cached) from the then head of Sun, Jonathan Schwartz, not only accepted Google's use of Java in Android but gave "heartfelt congratulations" for its use. Visiting the direct link now produces a 404 error.
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07/22, 10:35am
Oracle can depose Google CEO in Android lawsuit
An updated court order in Oracle's lawsuit will have Google CEO Larry Page testify in the case. Oracle will have two hours to question the co-founder in hopes of getting clues as to the wilfulness of any patent infringement in Android as well as how valuable the mobile OS is to Google. Page likely had to help negotiate for using Java in Android and could be important to the case, Oracle claimed.
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07/21, 11:40pm
Judge says 6b too much for Oracle-Google lawsuit
Judge William Alsup in a court hearing Thursday hinted that Oracle would have to scale back the multi-billion dollar damage claims against Google in its patent lawsuit over Android's use of Java. He argued that an attorney making "$700 an hour" had invented the damage amounts, which at their extreme end would hit $6 billion. He was equally frustrated with Oracle's rapidly shrinking claims as to what Google was actually infringing in Android's Java engine as it had started from 123 and was now likely to go below 25.
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07/20, 8:10pm
Google hopes to speed along Oracle Java suit
Google in a joint reply Wednesday gave signs that it was willing to settle Oracle's lawsuit over Java in Android. After repeatedly trying to reject any claims, Google asked for the case claims to be narrowed down so it could negotiate an "informal resolution," or a settlement. It's unclear whether Oracle was at all receptive to the idea.
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07/15, 12:20am
Oracle claims Page handled Java negotiations
As the ongoing legal battle between Oracle and Google continues to unfold, the former company has asked the court for permission to personally involve Google CEO Larry Page in the proceedings. The request calls for Page's deposition, claiming Google's co-founder drove the decision making that led the search giant to acquire Android.
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06/29, 9:50pm
Oracle defends expert opinion
Oracle has narrowed down its damage claim, which now sits at $2.6 billion, in its ongoing legal battle with Google over Java technology. The search giant recently filed a motion arguing that Oracle's damages expert and the original damages report should be excluded from further proceedings. The filing claimed that Oracle's damages estimate spanned between $1.4 billion and $6.1 billion.
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06/23, 12:00pm
Four more patents still subject to review
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) dealt Oracle another blow in its legal battle with Google over Java use the Android OS. Oracle has asked the USPTO to reexamine seven patents, that the company holds regarding Java, and verify their validity. The patent office has ruled that 17 out of 21 claims in one patent are not enforceable.
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06/15, 6:35pm
HP sues Oracle for threatening to drop Itanium
HP on Wednesday night said it had sued Oracle over its decision to drop Itanium support for its database apps. The PC builder contended that Oracle was breaking "legally binding commitments" to keep supporting servers and workstations based on Intel's 64-bit pro hardware. HP was equally convinced that Oracle was engaging in an anti-competitive strategy that pushed HP users over to Oracle's own systems to keep going.
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05/05, 12:55pm
Oracle forced to scale back patent claims
Oracle faced a major setback in its Java patent lawsuit versus Google on Thursday after the court forced it to scale back the number of claims. Judge William Alsup ordered the company to drop the number of claims leveled against Android from 132 to just three as it was simply "too much." Oracle would also be banned from bringing any of those claims back except for a new product, which could exempt Android altogether.
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04/30, 5:15pm
Gartner breaks down 2010 desktop OS share by cash
A unique breakdown of the OS market by revenue share published by Gartner on Wednesday has revealed moves up in revenue market share by Apple, Microsoft, and some Linux developers last year. Windows as expected stayed on top and gained share by its cash intake, up almost nine points to 78.6 percent and $23.85 billion dollars' worth of sales. Apple only moved up a tenth of a point to 1.7 percent total share, but the growth had it moving twice as quickly and jumping 15.8 percent to $520 million.
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04/21, 7:00am
DOJ ensures that Linux license remains unchanged
The Department of Justice has stepped in to regulate patent sales arising from the buy out of Novell. Novell agreed to be bought out by Attachmate, a group of private-equity firms for $2.2 billion in November. However, CPTN Holdings, a separate holding company owned by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and EMC, had sought to buy some of Novell’s patents in a move that would have threatened the ability of the open source Linux operating system to continue to develop server, desktop and mobile operating systems. The revised arrangements mean that the critical patents CPTN had sought to purchase will now remain under the GNU General Public License.
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04/14, 8:55pm
Formal press release highlights discontent
HP's dispute with Oracle over the future of Intel's Itanium platform continues to smolder, as HP has highlighted discontent among its customer base. The company posted a press release quoting frustrated customers that are concerned that Oracle has decided to cease further development of Itanium software, which is currently used in HP's Integrity servers.
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04/05, 7:55am
NASDAQ to rebalance Apple stock weight
NASDAQ OMX said Tuesday it would rebalance its NASDAQ-100 stock index to reduce Apple's weight on the market. As of May 2, AAPL will move from its large 20.5 percent of the index to 12.3 percent while other companies will get more influence, including Google (5.8 percent), Intel (4.2 percent), Microsoft (8.3 percent), and Oracle (6.7 percent). The aim is to give Apple a ratio relative to its size and not simply the number of shares.
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03/28, 2:20pm
Google recruits Java maker Gosling in Android move
Java's core creator James Gosling revealed on Monday that he was joining Google. He didn't know what his efforts would focus on but did anticipate it would be a "bit of everything." The new, unnamed position took effect the same day.
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03/24, 7:10pm
BlackBerry PlayBook adds Android app support
RIM along with its latest results confirmed that it would support Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook. The seven-inch tablet will have a Java engine that not only supports legacy BlackBerry Java apps but those running Android 2.3. The apps will need "players" to work but just need to be repackaged to be downloadable through BlackBerry App World.
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03/23, 9:50pm
Oracle defends its original statements, blasts HP
What started as a seemingly minor report regarding the possible end of life for Intel's Itanium server chips, Intel and HP have quickly denied the assertions and Oracle has accused HP of duping its customers. Intel CEO Paul Otellini chimed in to reaffirm the company's commitment to the platform, while promising at least two more generations.
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03/03, 12:35pm
Cites doubled profits, iPad 2 event
For a fourth year in a row, Fortune has once again identified Apple as its Most Admired company in the world. Apple has an overall score of 8.16. "The company's blistering pace of new product releases has continued to set the bar high for tech companies across the board," Fortune writes.
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02/22, 11:50am
Google denied summary judgment vs. Oracle
Google lost another strategic battle in defending itself against Oracle's Android lawsuit. The Northern District of California court judge denied an attempt by Google to have a summary judgment that would have said Android wasn't copying Oracle's Java technology. The judge determined that there wasn't reason to "engage in a summary judgment battle." He gave Google an opening to try again, but only if the evidence discovery process gave it new reasons to file for a judgment again.
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02/18, 12:35pm
Jobs, Zuckerberg get prominent seats
Several major US technology executives have been officially photographed with President Obama at a dinner meeting on Thursday night. As expected, three people on the guest list included Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Jobs and Zuckerberg were notably given the most prominent positions during the dinner, seated directly to the left and right of the President.
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02/10, 4:25pm
PlayBook now said likely to support Android apps
Rumors that RIM would have the BlackBerry PlayBook run Android apps gained credibility with corroborating claims on Thursday. The company is said developing an extension for the second half of the year that would let the tablet run apps for Google's platform along with its own. It was originally to have been outsourced but is now being developed in-house, Bloomberg heard.
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02/09, 1:30pm
Oracle accuses Google of deceiving users
Oracle in a memo sent to a District of Northern California court accused Google of directly deceiving Android users. The statement argued not only that Google's objections were unnecessarily prolonging the case but that it was misleading those running Android just what was involved. It implied that Google was either not ready to take legal responsibility for who owned Android patents or that it was simply hoping open-source exempted it from any fault if a phone designer or a user violated the patents.
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01/26, 1:40pm
BlackBerry and PlayBook mya get Android app extra
An unusual but reportedly multi-sourced rumor has suggested that RIM might graft Android app compatibility on to its BlackBerry phones and the BlackBerry PlayBook. While officially planning to put a Java virtual machine on the PlayBook, it's believed by BGR to be "very much considering" Google's Dalvik engine from Android 2.2 and later as the basis. The trick could let it run at least some Android apps run and lure customers away who would otherwise have used a pure Android tablet.
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