Life :: Global: Leo Hickman | Bad weather puts paid to green shoots of growth

Excessive rain and very cold temperatures have hit fruit and vegetable growers. But summer fruits are still set for a bumper cropLife's little treats don't come much more satisfying than dipping the lightly steamed tip of the first asparagus of the season into the yolk of a soft-boiled egg.

Sadly, this spring's wacky weather has delayed such indulgences – air-freighted, all-year asparagus from Peru just doesn't offer the same frisson of anticipation – and it has led growers to announce that there will be a two-week delay to the traditional start of the season at the beginning of May.But asparagus is not the only vegetable (or fruit) that has been affected. Other crops are also struggling from the vagaries of the weather.Don Vaughan, a senior fruit adviser at Brogdale Farm, the home of the national fruit collection based in Kent, says  temperature is crucial for the "setting" of fruit trees, such as apples and pears: "The cool April has had a significant effect on bloom development. It might even lead to pollination being aborted in some locations. It's still early days to tell if harvests will be affected, though. If it quickly turns warm again, we might be OK, but I can't remember a spring like it.

"British Summer Fruits, a trade association that represents 90% of the berry growers in the UK, says its members have worked hard to safeguard their crops."Twenty years ago the summer strawberry crop would have been decimated by the recent inclement weather, but thanks to two decades of investment in protection from the elements, the entire crop is safe," says its chairman Laurence Olins.In fact, the combination of a warm March and wet April means the overall berry crop is actually expected to be 10% up on last year.

The supermarket chain Sainsbury's says that its diverse network of UK suppliers means that it hasn't experienced any major disruption to supplies. But to beat the inclement weather, it says it has been forced to use daffodil farmers from Cornwall to Scotland to maintain supplies. It says it does the same throughout the year to keep its shelves stocked with broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

However, it is possibly garden centres that deserve most sympathy. The Garden Centre Association says sales of plants are currently down 30%, with would-be gardeners forced to stare out of their windows instead of getting their hands muddy."Everything has ground to a halt," says its chief executive Phil Slinger. "On the plus side, garden centre cafes are reporting a roaring trade."

• Spring
• Spring food and drink
• Food & drink
• Food & drink industry
• Supermarkets
• Retail industry

Technology :: Mastercard details NFC PayPass Wallet Services

On May 7, Mastercardconfirmed the first details of their near field communication (NFC) payment service. Known as PayPass Wallet Services, the new global offering for banks, merchants, and other partners intends to make it easier to make purchases in stores or online both with a mobile phone as well as secure internet purchases.

The PayPass Wallet Service includes three linked parts. The Paypass Acceptance Network provides a universal way to help merchants accept electronic payments, whether by near field communication or online. PayPass Wallet is a digital solution enabling payment recipients to store the consumer's payment and shipping information in one convenient and secure online location. A PayPass API allows partners to integrate MasterCard's existing suite of checkout, fraud detection and authentication services with their own services both online and in a store.

Initial PayPass Wallet Service release will happen in the third quarter of 2012 in the USA, Canada, UK, and Australia. Additional markets and retailers will be added to the program over an unspecified time. Merchants involved in the rollout include American Airlines, Barnes & Noble, MLB Advanced Media, Newegg, Tiger Direct, and the Wine Enthusiast Companies.

Target and Walmart are rumored to have teamed up to examine a competing standard. Barclay's bank has rolled out a platform independent NFC sticker that can be stuck to any existing object, including the backs of cellphones. Rumors persist of an Apple NFC technology due to be installed in a future iPhone.

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/05/08/first.nfc.standard.amongst.multiple.vendors.banks/#ixzz1uH4Zkas3

Technology :: ITC judge throws out 3,000 pages of Apple attachments

A US-based International Trade Commission (ITC) judge has accused Apple of trying to get around a page-count limit in court filings in its dispute with Samsung and has struck some 3,000 pages of patent analysis the company produced. Instead, according to Administrative Law Judge E. James Gildea, Apple must submit a one-page table of its invalidity contentions as contained in the ITC rules by the end of business today (Tuesday).

The ruling came in the first of the two cases to be examined, Samsung's patent complaint against Apple. The Cupertino company had hoped to include the 3,000 pages of "limitations" (an element of a patent claim) as an attachment to its filing showing that Samsung's complaints were invalid, reports legal observer Florian Mueller, but the judge ruled that such invalidity analysis must be part of the pre-hearing brief itself rather than an add-on, thus requiring the one-page summary.

Bypassing page limits with attachments is not allowed under ITC rules, and other companies (such as Microsoft) have gotten dinged on the requirements before. Despite Microsoft's page-count violation, it eventually succeeded in its complaint against Motorola Mobility late last year.

Apple is hoping to show through detailed examples of prior art that Samsung's patent claims against it are invalid, and that it is abusing patents that are essential to various standards and thus should not be contestable. It will now have to re-file the analysis showing only the names of the inventors or authors of prior art in a table, and will undoubtedly have to cut down the claims to only the most important, as it now has to fit on a single page. For it's part, Samsung was able to produce a one-page chart of its own claims in accordance with the same rule.

A mistake like this one may cost Apple in the very high-stakes case before the ITC, as judges there have the power to issue import bans and even cease-and-desist orders on products they find to be in violation. In late July, the ITC agreed to examine Samsung's claims that several of Apple's iOS products violate their patents, while a few days later it also agreed to take on Apple's relatively similar complaint about Samsung's products. Apple has said the South Korean company "slavishly" copies the iPhone and iPad along with a number of software elements in its products.

Because ITC cases are generally resolved more quickly than conventional IP court cases, the decisions of the ITC can be used to force a settlement or bring lawsuits to a speedier end. Both companies are hoping to raise the stakes high enough that the other will be forced to settle, though Apple has shown no indication of being willing to reach an agreement with Samsung, its main rival in the smartphone arena. [via Florian Mueller]

Technology :: iPad 3 refunds for Australian buyers after Apple admits no 4G service

Apple has offered refunds to Australians who bought a new iPad 3 after the maker admitted it does not work on the country's 4G network.

Australia's consumer watchdog found Apple had misled customers with its recent promotion of the new "iPad with WiFi + 4G".



In a statement, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said Apple had "represented to Australian consumers that the product 'iPad with WiFi + 4G' can, with a sim card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case".

Australia does have 4G service on the Telstra network but the new iPad connects to 4G on the 700MHz and 2100Mhz frequencies, neither of which is used by Telstra.

The ACCC has taken Apple to court alleging its advertising broke four sections of Australian consumer law.

The new iPad is compatible with some 4G networks in the US and Canada. It is incompatible with all European 4G frequencies, including those proposed for the UK.

The ACCC is seeking a court order for Apple to publish corrective advertising on its website and in newspapers, and for Apple to stop branding it as "iPad with WiFi + 4G".

Australia was the first country to sell the new iPad, launching it on 16 March. The ACCC has said in court it wrote to Apple outlining its concerns the day before the launch.

Apple says it will place a clarifying statement at point of sale and send emails to customers offering them a refund if they bought the iPad 3 thinking it was compatible with Australia's 4G network. It is resisting an ACCC attempt to force it to put stickers on its packaging.

Telstra has not promoted the new iPad as 4G compatible. Instead it has marketed it as the "new Ipad on our data + tablet bundle".

Another major Australian carrier, Optus, advertises it as a Wi-Fi and 3G device.