Displaying items by tag: Apple

It has not even been a month since the announcement of HP’s decision to kill off the mobile operating system it bought from Palm WebOS. Now we hear that HTC could be considering buying this operating system from HP and starting its own mobile OS. If they do this it would put them in competition with a few companies that they have a long standing relationship with. I am also pretty sure that Google and Microsoft might think twice about stepping in to help (well ok help more) them in their ongoing (never ending) patent battle with Apple if they suddenly found themselves cut out  of some of the business they get from HTC.

We also hate to say this but WebOS was not that much of a hit on the market. It had an impact at a time when Android was in its infancy, iOS sill did not have copy and paste and Windows Mobile OS 6… well we all remember WinMobile 6.  We also think that now is not the time for HTC to be diving into this as they have quite a few fish in the pan already. The financial impact of buying WebOS, then developing it into something that is marketable and then pushing these products onto a market that is split into roughly two houses (Google and Apple) could end up being too much for the embattled company.

We really hope this is nothing more than a rumor and that HTC remains dedicated to making hardware and does not try to branch out and become its own channel.

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Looks like Adobe has found a way to enable Flash content on iOS devices without needing the blessing of the JobsMob. Using a technology that is not really new, but has been upgraded to allow a more seamless streaming of content to devices with no support, Adobe hopes to allow millions of iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users to enjoy the virtues of its Flash Media Encoding. All that has to happen is for content developers to purchase an Adobe Flash Media Server (Version 4.5) and Adobe Flash Access 3.0. When combined these two take the rendering load off of the mobile device by pre-rendering the video on the server and then streaming the content to the device at the other end.

With the iPhone now reaching out to more and more carriers in the US this is something that was bound to happen. Of course, most of the carriers in the US are going to be capping their data plans which might make this complicated for some iPhone owners. There is also the $4,500 per system license fee that Adobe is asking just for the Media Server. Either way, although it is now perfectly possible to enjoy Flash content on an iOS device, we have a feeling that adoption of this technology will be very slow indeed.

Source bgr.com

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It is a sad day when our lawmakers call a bill designed to trample innovation “reform”, but this is what has happened with the latest version of the “America Invents” act. The new bill has just passed the Senate and is expected to be signed into Law by President Obama in the near future. Now you might be wondering what I am talking about with this new bill. The new bill sponsored by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy has been lobbied for by the big corporations like Microsoft, Apple and others that tend to use concept patents as weapons to stifle competition instead of real and working inventions. These same companies also tend to “borrow” ideas, names and concepts from different places (like Apples use of the name iPhone which was owned by Cisco at the time).  

What Apple and others have asked for (and gotten) is a change from first-to-invent to first-to-file. Basically what is happening here is that you do not actually have to produce anything anymore. All you have to have is a mountain of lawyers that can force any “concept” you want through the patent office.  On top of all of that they have gotten a flat fee for Patents (although the fee is not actually known yet) which (so far) the Patent Office will get most of. However, that could change as Congress has a way of dipping into this money (having diverted about $900 Million in the last couple of years).  They did tack on a review process for people to dispute patent that have been granted, but the time window for this is only 90 days from the date it is granted. Really the window should be more like one year, but that will never happen.  There were some attempts to make this a real reform bill; some were asking for an outright ban on any diversion of funds, but the Bill’s sponsor said that anything like that would make the bill unlikely to pass (which shows you where some minds in Congress are). Some members of Congress are crowing as if they have just made sweeping reform when all they have done is encourage patent trolling.  

Source PCWold

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As there is so much news about who Apple is suing and who, in return, is suing Apple right back we are going to combine some news today. First up is an interesting piece where we find HTC has filed a new suit against Apple based on some patents that were formerly owned by one time bosom buddy Google. Remember that long ago time when Eric Schmidt sat on the Google board and things seemed so cozy between the two.  Now things are different and these two companies now sit on opposite sides of the market. However, where Apple wants it all (they really do want to control everything about their products) Google is willing to work with others (for now).

The suit that HTC has filed is based on Patents that were transferred to them from Google just days ago (September 1st). These were originally from multiple companies such as Palm and Motorola. This is the strongest show of support from Google since the Apple legal team began its campaign against Android. It may also be an indication that Google is getting ready to wade into the party. After all, the advertising giant recently bought Motorola and now has its stable of patents to bring to bear on Apple. Things are certainly going to heat up soon and with the last few “less than expected” verdicts handed down to Apple competitors in the EU we might indeed be seeing a shifting in the never ending patent wars over smart phones and tablets.

Moving on to the next item that we found interesting; we come to another Judge using that rarest of abilities; common sense. Here we find that Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett has told Apple that they cannot show that Samsung’s products can potentially hurt sales unless Apple is willing to show their exact sales numbers. This is something that Apple has never liked to do. They will hint at things, make indirect claims but it is usually up to the press to try and ferret out the information based on other factors that can be tracked. However, because of this policy of secrecy Apple may lose out one way or the other. If they reveal the numbers and they show that Samsung is not hurting them in the US or EU these exact numbers can be leaked to the rest of the world and it would set a precedent that might have echoes around the globe. It would be really a pain if Apple had to actually prove things instead of just claiming them and having done with it.

Sources CNET and Fudzilla

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A man in Bernal Heights might have had his home searched by Apple Employees who were masquerading as police. According to SFWeekly Sergio Calderón is the person whose home was searched. Calderón’s story, if true, is extremely concerning and raises questions about what Apple will do to get its way.

Calderón says that in July six people (four men and two women) wearing badges showed up at his door saying they were from the San Francisco Police Department. The “Police” claimed they had traced the phone to Calderón’s home via GPS and also asked him if he had been to Cava 22 (the site where the phone was believed to have been lost).

Apparently the “police” also threatened to call INS on Calderón’s family (even though Calderón is an American Citizen and his visiting family members are all here legally). One of the investigators even offered a $300 reward for the return of the phone (which Calderón says he knows nothing about). The thing that makes things even more odd about this story is that one of the “police” who called himself Tony gave Calderón a plain card with a phone number on it. Calderón gave this number to SFWeekly who called it and found that it was a phone number to Apple. This number was answered by a man named Anthony Colon who is currently employed by Apple and a Senior Investigator.

As the plot thickens the SFPD first said they had no knowledge of any search at that location, but now are saying they did assist Apple in searching a house in July.

SFWeekly has more information including the linked-in and facebook pages for “Tony”. This one will be interesting to follow up on, if Apple really did misrepresent themselves it is very concerning as it shows they are willing to stop at nothing to get what they want (regardless of what laws they break). Plus when you add this to the falsified evidence Apple presented in the EU we have to wonder about how concerned they are with the consumer…

Source SFWeekly

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In the recent patent wars between Apple and, well just about everyone else you hear a lot about Prior Art.  This is when someone can point to something that was created or in use before the item in question was patented. For example, if I tried to patent a circular disk intended to hold data, video or music I would not get it because of the CD-ROM, the DVD-RROM etc. So what about Apple’s recent legal action against Samsung? They claimed that the Tab 10.1 was a copy of the iPad and violated their patent.  However, there is plenty or prior art to invalidate the concept design patent for the iPad.

One of the funniest that Samsung has brought to bear in the case is a screen shot taken from the Stanley Kubrick Movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” where two of the astronauts are sitting watching a video feed on a tablet device.  Now Apple fans will say that Apple is allowed to patent this because Mr Kubrick did not! So since they (Apple) spent their hard earned money to take this concept and make it real they deserve the patent.  Well there are two problems with that argument. First of all there were real tablets in existence before the iPad was even put to paper. But the second and one that I find the most ironic is that every movie is by its nature copyrighted. So images, concepts and ideas are considered the property of the copyright holder. This means that Apple violated Copyright when they designed the iPad.
Something to think about while we all wait for more interesting news.

Source CNET

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Apple’s legacy of patent lawsuits might be coming unraveled in the EU. Although the California based company did get an injunction on Samsung selling the Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Ace it only barely managed that one. The issue that got Samsung caught was the “way” you scroll through the Photo Application on the listed phones. Oddly enough the application in question is not a Samsung app but the default photo app that is released with Android 2.3 (which is the default OS on the phones in question).

Not affected by the ruling were the Galaxy Tab and Tab 10.1 which come with a different flavor of Android. The Judge also appear to have rejected the claim that Samsung copied Apple in the design of the Galaxy Tab and the Galaxy S. More than likely this decision was influenced by the fact that the evidence used to support this fantasy of Apple’s was falsified intentionally or not.

Apple also took a blow in that the Judge ruled that Patent No. 1,964,022 is now null and void in the EU. This means that Apple can no longer use it in any legal actions. Patent 1,964,022 cover the “slide to unlock” feature that Apple uses on the iPhone.  Samsung has said that they will replace the software that is in violation of Apple’s patent and then begin selling the phones in the EU again. Apparently investors feel that Samsung will do just fine as Samsung’s stock went up after the verdict while Apple’s fell on the announcement of Steve Jobs’ resignation.

The fact that Samsung is conceding and changing the one application (that is not even theirs) could be an indication that they may have some counter suits of their own planned for Apple and want to remove any bargaining chips from the table before they fire back. Things could get messy for Apple in the next few months especially if the courts in the EU decide to do anything about all that falsified evidence, maybe at Samsung’s request…

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In a shocking story Steve Jobs announced that he is resigning and will be replaced by Tim Cook (former COO (Chief Operating Officer).  However, while Jobs is leaving the top job at Apple he will remain as Chairman for the company.

Although this is surprising the writing has been on the wall for some time. Jobs has had more than his share of health concerns this last year and he even alluded to it in his resignation letter.

The announcement resulted in a 5% drop in stock when trading picked up after the announcement.The Apple board and staff praised Jobs saying that he has been the guiding force behind their rise to prominence in the tech market. During Jobs’ second reign as CEO he has helped create such iconic devices as the iPad, iPhone and even the whole iDevice Eco System. Critics have called him arrogant and short sighted in his hatred of Adobe’s Flash and in the way he sometimes pushes for products (and patents) that are often questionable.

Although he is staying on as chairman it is important to note that since Tim Cook has been running the company while Jobs is out on Medical Leave Apple has entered more lawsuits and found itself under the legal microscope for potential falsification of evidence.

Source CNN

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Apple is famous for many things. They are famous for making the iPhone and iPad, they are famous for their never ending stream of patents for things that already exist and last but not least they are famous for making sure that you cannot use their mobile products without their approval. You see if you buy an iDevice your core file system is pretty much locked down. Now there are ways to get into the file system and move things around, but it can get messy and things do not always make the transition intact. The other side of this is that there is no way to add more storage to any of their products. It is not like an Android or Windows based tablet with an SD card slot or USB ports. So what can you do if you bought one of the 16GB non-3G iPads or if you only own the iPad touch? Kingston has an answer for you. Kingston has put their expertise in making flash drives to good use and attached a flash drive to a wireless controller that can also act as a wireless bridge. They are calling it the Wi-Drive and when you pair this up with the WiDrive app from the AppStore you might just have a relatively low cost answer to a lot of people’s needs. So follow along as we take a look at the $180 32GB Wi-Drive on a first generation iPad.

Ok, I could not let this one pass. After hearing about the first instance of inaccurate evidence presented by Apple in court. I honestly thought that occurrence might have been nothing more that old images or an accident involving someone trying to fit both pictures in the same space. However, now we hear about another case where Apple has done exactly the same thing. This time the case in question is in the Netherlands where Apple is trying to get a permanent ban AND a recall of all Galaxy Smart Phones and tablets.

At this point it seems that Apple is willing to lie, cheat and maybe even steal to get what they want (market dominance). I certainly hope that the courts hold Apple responsible on both counts. It is very clear that Apple feels it is above the law in the US where they have led a charmed life with the Patent office and the US International Trade Commission. Now they are taking this to the EU where they managed to get an ex-parte, non-hearing preliminary ban on the Tab 10.1 with inaccurate images as evidence. Thankfully, as of this writing the ban has been lifted (citing jurisdiction issues) in all countries in the EU except Germany. With mounting proof of falsified (or at least wildly inaccurate) visual evidence being used by Apple we would certainly hope these injunction requests are dropped for good and Apple required to face the consequences of their actions.

Source ITWorld.
Picture credit WebWereld.