15
Jun
2010
Legal Drama: ITC Investigates Apple on HTC Claims
The International Trade Commission has announced that investigations on Apple are currently underway following a recent complaint by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC.
Last May, after signing an agreement with Microsoft regarding the use of MS patents, HTC launched a formal patent infringement lawsuit against Cupertino based Apple regarding patents for 5 various technologies that are being infringed by the makers of the iPhone and the iPad.
The news came as to no surprise as everyone already expected HTC to file a counter lawsuit against Apple. Earlier this year, Apple had filed a lawsuit against HTC regarding 20 software and hardware patents. The lawsuit itself did not make mention of Google or the Android operating system, but it was confirmed that the mobile phones concerned were mostly Android devices (and a couple of WinMo phones as well).
Many saw Apple’s lawsuit as an attack on their rival Google. As many already know, Google and HTC go way back as partners in the development of the Android operating system. By crippling HTC, Apple stood to gain plenty by cutting off one of the largest manufacturers of Google Android handsets.
On the other hand, no one was really surprised by Apple’s hard edged approach when it came to using their legal capabilities. The company has already locked horns last year with Nokia in a lawsuit-counter-lawsuit legal dispute. Also, they used their influence to have the home of tech blogger Jason Chen raided by REACT operatives in the hunt for the prototype iPhone 4 which was left in a bar.
Despite Apple’s reputation as a legal bully, tables have been turned a little this year with most companies now filing cases against Apple. Elan Microelectronics, HTC and Nokia are all confirmed to have filed their own individual patent infringement lawsuits against the Cupertino based electronics manufacturer.
13
Jun
2010
Orange Provides Live Football: Anytime, Anywhere
Sure, we all know how easy it is to grab all the hottest news bit and video clips on a mobile phone. With all the apps that feature the World Cup, staying on top of the match results is a breeze.
But that is not the issue if you are stuck under the sun. For one reason or another, most people find themselves under direct sunlight, and when this happens at a time when you would want to be watching the live streaming match on your smart phone –the glare will keep you from seeing anything at all.
Most iPhone and iPad owners have already accepted the fact that their devices are completely worthless under direct sunlight. Most of the technology that is used for the surface of touch screens is simply not made to handle direct sunlight.
This is where Orange Mobile’s visor comes in. Yes, the mobile network operator has decided to come out with its own anti-glare visor that would provide users with a way to keep the sun’s glare from their mobile phone while still allowing people to see the screen comfortably. Best of all, the visor is completely free.
Anyone interested in the visor just needs to go to the Orange official website and download the PDF of the visor. There are also instructions for anyone who needs extra help figuring it out. After getting the PDF simply print it and cut out the visor. Assembling it is simply a matter of folding and cutting properly –afterwards, it is ready to be mounted on a mobile phone.
According to Orange, this visor is the perfect add on to their Mobile TV promos that would give subscribers access to all the live game feeds from the World Cup. Alternatively, Orange users can also download the free Orange Football Live application.
3
Jun
2010
Twitting Astronaut is Coming Home
Soichi Noguchi is a Japanese astronaut, and he has become quite the internet phenomenon thanks to his totally out of this world Tweets during his NASA mission. The man has been acclaimed worldwide for the amazing images that he took from outer space, with images of famous cities, major landmarks and even the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been recently announced that Soichi has finished his mission and is on the way back to Earth by the end of the week –just in time to buy the newly launched iPad released last Friday.
Known on Twitter as “Astro_Soichi”, Noguchi has become well known for his amusing one-liners and very eye-catching photographs. Of course, the big bonus with Noguchi’s images is that the perspective and view from outer space provides an all new look at the once commonly seen vistas of Mount Fuji, the Red Sea and others.
The Japanese astronaut has been able to go online straight from outer space thanks to a new form of technology developed by NASA. Originally, astronauts had to send their messages to mission control where it would be posted on Twitter by NASA personnel. With the new technology, astronauts could now post content directly online without any need for a third party to help out.
The new technology is called Crew Support LAN and is probably the most impressive form of wireless internet technology. Basically, the internet access piggybacks on the existing lines of communication from the space station to mission control. While the technology is impressive, they still have limited access to the internet –videoconferencing is reported to be available for limited periods only.
Thanks to Twitter’s new file hosting service, many Twitter users are now able to upload images and post links straight from their Tweets. The service has been long demanded by many users –especially those who love to upload images straight from mobile phones. At the rate that users have been uploading, it has been estimated that Twitpic will soon overtake the volume of images hosted on sites such as Flickr and Photobucket.
2
Jun
2010
Apple Tablet Pre Orders Ship Early
It seems like Apple
has decided to be a little lenient with the shipping of the Apple iPad in the UK. We are still reeling from the news several weeks ago that Steve Jobs fired an employee for actually showing an iPad tablet to Steve Wozniak just a few minutes away from the allowed time.
For whatever reason the folks at Apple decided to, many new iPad buyers are certainly thankful that they will no longer have to wait until June 7 before their purchased tablet gets shipped.
Originally, the Apple iPad was supposed to have been launched all over the world last April, but problems with meeting the demands for the US market for the touch screen tablet proved to be a daunting task for Apple that they had to push the worldwide launch back by a full month in order for the company to produce enough units to satisfy the market needs.
While already disappointing, the news was further made worse by the fact that there have been some reports that pre-orders of the iPad would not be accommodated until June 7.
Fortunately, for many pre-order customers, it appears that the iPad launch played out slightly differently. The tablet device has started to get shipped out yesterday and several customers have already received their tablets. According to one customer, the UPS deliveryman stated that there was actually plenty of iPads that were being shipped that very day.
The iPad is Apple’s very first touch screen tablet device and many have considered it to be a giant iPod Touch. In addition to being able to browse the internet and run iTunes apps, the iPad is also equipped with media playback capabilities and eBook support. The tablet comes with a 1GHz CPU and a 9.7 inch capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.
26
May
2010
Lining Up for the iPad
With a launch date still unconfirmed, it would not be a good idea to start camping out in front of stores just to get your hands on the latest Apple touch screen tablet device. Still, if you really have to own the tablet on the very first day that comes out, it might be a great thing to know beforehand that Apple’s retail outlets will not be the only places in the UK where the much anticipated gadget will be available.
Major retail company DSGi has announced that they will be offering the Apple iPad in their online and retail stores once the device is available. This means that in addition to Apple’s outlets, you can also opt to head over to the nearest PC World or Curry’s store to get the tablet. There are 139 stores to choose from across the UK –though stocks per each store are still an unknown quantity.
Hopefully, Apple is more prepared to meet the global demands for the iPad as opposed to their sales performance in the United States (while the device easily reached 1 million in the first month of sales, they stocks quickly run out –forcing the worldwide launch date to be pushed back by a full month).
The iPad comes with an impressively large 9.7 inch capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. It also has multi touch support and an accelerometer. Overall, it is a great tool for browsing the internet as most websites are more easily navigated by touch. The device is light and easy to carry, the iPad makes for an excellent book reader as well.
Browsing the internet and reading eBooks are not the only functions available on the iPad; you can also play media files such as music and video as well as run iPod Touch and iPhone apps as well.
20
May
2010
Amazon’s New Kindle: What Will It Be?
It seems that Amazon has taken a serious blow in terms of Kindle sales performance; the electronic eBook reader has been seeing less and less sales recently and market analysts are pointing at the Apple iPad touch screen tablet as the main cause.
The iPad was launched in the US last April 3 and has been selling well. So well in fact that Apple has had to delay the worldwide launch from end of April to end of May, and just recently, it has been hinted at the official Apple online store that the date may be moved to June 7.
Naturally, the iPad is a significantly superior device over the Kindle. The mere fact that the touch screen tablet does so many other things besides eBook reading is already makes this a one sided comparison –add in the fact that the iPad is actually a better eBook reader as compared to the Kindle (the Apple eBook reader app provides a better reading experience by actually emulating the feel of having a real book more than the very electronic experience provided by the Kindle).
It has been reported that Amazon is now opening up plenty of job opportunities for people who would like to test and prepare ‘new products’. While it has not been confirmed as to what these products would be, it does coincide with Amazon’s plans to upgrade their eBook reader.
The question now is: what will we expect? Obviously, no matter how impressive the new Kindle will be, it cannot possibly compete with the iPad and the upcoming Android tablet from Google in terms of sales. But it might have better hardware. Obviously, the new eBook reader from Amazon will target a very specific niche –Kindle members, and many of whom are already iPad owners as well. So far, Amazon has yet to make a comment, but there are already rumors that the new device might be announced before the end of this year.
28
Apr
2010
Apps Get Vetoed for Having “Pad” in their Name
Guess what, Apple developers. There is now another issue that may just force you to shell out for brand new marketing. More specifically, if you are a developer that has the term “Pad” in one of your existing apps, you better go for a name change. Apple has just claimed dibs on the term and it is now theirs. Now any dev who will be submitting an app would have the door slammed to their faces.
Those who have previously filed an application and even those who have already sold their app in the Apple Store will most probably receive a notice from Apple informing them of the major change in plans. Well, more specifically, a change that may just cost “tens of thousands of dollars”. This was the case for ContactPad’s creator Jesse Waites as well as Chris Ostmo, the guy who gave the world JournalPad (and of course the JournalPad Bible Edition).
The letter told them to refrain from the use of Apple’s trademark terms. Which is a bit confusing since it is not really found in the official “Apple Trademark List”. The only terms that came contained the Pad term were iPad and MacPAD.
It is also not included in the official Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights, which was a page referred to in the notice.
When the JournalPad dev and APPideas founder Chris Ostmo sent an inquiry regarding the new rule, Steve Jobs only had this to say:
“It’s just common sense to not use another company’s trademarks in your app name.”
This is very interesting, considering the fact that the trademark is nowhere to be found in their legal lists. How are app developers supposed to anticipate rule changes now? Apple really needs to be transparent, because unlike them, these guys do not think a marketing overhaul is a snap of the finger.
13
Apr
2010
Apple iPhone to Run More than One App
If you own an Apple iPhone and have managed to avoid reading all the big news in the past couple of weeks, then you might be happy to know that Apple has finally enabled multitasking with the new iPhone operating system version 4.0. It is a big change for Apple who has consistently avoided not giving the feature to its devices. Even the recently launch Apple iPad touch screen tablet lacks multitasking capabilities.
The new feature can be accessed by tapping the home button twice to bring up a list of running applications. Up to four programs can be run at the same time –many believe that the limit was imposed in order to keep the device running at an optimum speed despite the hardware resources being split up. In any cases, users are advised to expect some slowdown due to the change.
Apple also announced that they will be adding in several new features as well. The icon limit has been increased from less than two hundred to over two thousand. If the thought of having to scroll over hundreds of icons scares you, fear not. The expansion is achieved by the use of folders which will be where the additional icons (or existing ones) can be stored.
Another major change is with the iPhone’s all black background. Background image changing is a simple feature, but it is still something that Apple users have been begging for.
Among all the new features, there is one addition that does make users a little wary –iAds. According to Steve Jobs, the new feature will change the way ads are used in mobile phones. Of course, anything that incorporates advertising content in apps is hardly a welcome thing for consumers.
Read the rest of the story about multitasking and other new iPhone features at Times Online UK.
9
Apr
2010
Apple Block Out UK Access to the iPad
The Apple iPad has had a very successful launch last weekend. The US-only launch saw thousands of buyers lining up to purchase the device on the first day of sales. Add in everyone who pre-ordered the touch screen tablet and you have got a very successful gadget launch that has surpassed the predicted sale figures.
Anyway, if you have been itching to get your hands on the iPad and cannot wait for the international launch of the tablet this coming April 24, then you might be considering having an iPad shipped over as soon as possible.
Well, this will indeed get you the brand new tablet from Apple, but you will not be able to download applications unless you create a dummy account with a US based address and zip code. The reason for this is that Apple has been pretty keen on making the early-launch a US-only thing, which means that access of iPads to the iTunes site from outside the country will not be possible. This means accessing apps will be a feature you will have to do without for a while. Purchasing an app would not only require a US based address, but a US credit card as well.
Considering that the iPad is launching worldwide in a span of a few weeks, the lack of store access is not that big of a problem. The device still functions great as a web browser if that is your main thing. For eBook reading however, the apps are still locked out.
Speaking of the iPad, it turns out that the device has been having some WiFi connectivity issues. While Apple has identified the source of the problem and has laid out a quick fix, they have yet to release an official patch that would make things okay for everyone.
Read more about the Appstore region lock at Pocket Lint.
7
Apr
2010
Apple iPad coming to the UK
We already know that it will be hitting UK shores within this month, and considering how much excitement that the iPad tablet is drumming up in the United States, it comes as to no surprise that the folks at Apple are very happy, so happy that they finally announced the official date for the UK and international release of the touch screen tablet: April 24.
Despite the fact that the launch is a good three weeks after the US release, it gives Apple plenty of time to either sort out initial problems with the device or at the very least, warn us about possible things that we will have to put up with.
Take the case of the iPad WiFi capabilities. So far, it turns out that there are a significant number of people who are complaining about their iPad’s inability to stay logged into a network or in some cases, have problems connecting at all. The situation for many has been isolated to being a problem with the iPad device and not the network or WiFi router as other devices in the vicinity are able to stay connected without any problems (and coincidentally, the other devices used were also Apple gadgets).
On the other hand, there is an avalanche of positive reviews in regards to the iPad. Many are praising the device’s touch screen user interface as the best thing that has happened to the internet. Combining large screen resolution (1024 x 768 pixels) with touch screen controls turns web browsing into a very intuitive experience even for people unfamiliar with computers. Other functions such as eBook reading, media playback, games, maps and even photo browsing function great despite the device lacking basic features such as Flash support, multitasking and a USB slot.
Find out more about the Apple iPad’s UK launch date at V3 UK.
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