Category: I-phone

Back in August, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen formally sued 11 tech companies, including Apple, over the use of technologies for which he holds the patents. Now, Apple has joined Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and others in opposing the suit.

Google initially filed a motion to dismiss the claims on October 18th, stating that Allen’s company, Interval Research (which ceased operation in 2000), had failed to explain exactly how Google had supposedly violated its patents. Additionally, Google claims that Interval is lumping all 11 defendants together without demonstrating any “coordinated action.”

Apple joined Google and others on October 21st with its own filing, stating, “Interval has sued eleven major corporations and made the same bald assertions that each defendant infringes 197 claims in four patents. As the U.S. Supreme Court noted in Twombly, it is in this type of situation in which courts should use their ‘power to insist upon some specificity in pleading before allowing a potentially massive factual controversy to proceed.”

In other words, spill the goods or move on.

Allen’s suit identifies four specific patents, including one that determines how websites suggest products based upon customers’ recent searches, and another that lets users reading a news story quickly find related stores.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops.

Apple joins Facebook, Google, others to combat Paul Allen’s charges originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Sex Offender Tracker App (US$1.99), for the iPhone isn’t the first such app in the App Store (Offender Locator and Sex Offender Search are two others), but it is the first to use augmented reality. As an added bonus, it has Antoine Dodson‘s approval.

The app uses your GPS location and a national database to identify registered sex offenders in your area. The information is presented as an overlay on top of video of your location. Users can specify search criteria and opt for a list view if the augmented presentation is less than ideal.

It’s notable that BeenVerified, the company behind the app, is donating 5% of purchase proceeds to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network or RAINN. The app is compatible with iPhone 4 or 3GS and iOS 3.1 or later.

To see Dodson’s ad, click the link below.

Continue reading Sex Offender Tracker for iPhone keeps you in the know

Sex Offender Tracker for iPhone keeps you in the know originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pixelmator is a favorite Mac application around TUAW. The US$59 image editor is used by many of our bloggers to fix or manipulate the pictures you see here on the site.

We were thrilled to see that the Pixelmator team announced on their blog that they’ll be selling their application in the upcoming Mac App Store. The team says that they’re happy that they’ll be able to focus on continuing to make Pixelmator the top Mac image editor instead of spending time on figuring out ways to get the word out about their app or manage a web store to sell the product.

They’re also lovin’ the fact that they no longer have to work on developing and keeping up update and licensing systems, digital rights management, and similar time-consuming — but necessary — back-end systems. Now they can simply focus on Pixelmator and leave the rest to Apple.

It’s good to see that the Pixelmator Team is supportive of the Mac App Store, and we wish them continued success as they move into their new “home.”

Pixelmator setting up shop in the Mac App Store originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The New York Times reports that the iPad is catching on in Hollywood, attracting actors, writers, producers and other personalities looking to alter their workflow or even get in a few rounds of Angry Birds between takes.

The Times begins by describing a meeting between director JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof and producer Bob Orci (among others) about the upcoming Star Trek movie. As the group talked, Orci used is his iPad to flip through potential location photos, stills from the first movie and a picture of an actress under consideration. He told the Times, “When you’re carrying a little TV around, you bring the power of imagery to places that you don’t normally have it.”

Scenes like this are becoming increasingly common. The Times notes that former American Idol judge Paula Abdul has used an iPad to show off her new music video, while actress Julie Benz enjoys Angry Birds during downtime. “It’s perfect for the long hours here,” she said.

Apple is also enjoying a good amount of product placement lately, which the company claims it doesn’t pay for. A recent episode of NBC’s The Office had a character use his iPad to find the time, and ABC’s Modern Family devoted an entire episode around the tablet in March.. In fact, the Nielsen Company reports that Apple products have appeared about 2,438 times on television programs through September of this year. All of that adds up to buzz and free advertisement for Apple.

Hollywood’s love affair with the iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VLC, the free versatile video player beloved across the world and multiple operating systems, has been updated and is now available for the iPod touch and iPhone. The iPad app was released about a month ago but it is now a universal binary which runs on the iPhone 4, 3GS and “recent iPod touches.”

Videos can be added to your iOS device through iTunes. While VLC won’t play every video format, it plays a lot of them without requiring specific encoding for the iOS device you are on.

The update also makes it possible to delete files within the application, meaning that you no longer have to use iTunes. The release notes also say that the decoding will be faster and more extensions are recognized.

Grab it for free from the App Store.

VLC 1.1.0 now available for all iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A number of analysts are expecting inventory shortages to restrict holiday gadget sales. However, Forbes reports that Apple will be able to avoid the pinch.

Jason Busch, the founder and Managing Director of advisory firm Azul Partner, expects Apple to keep holiday shoppers happy for three main reasons.

Busch says that firstly, Apple has “superior” forecast accuracy than its competitors. Keeping a close eye on where their inventory is at all times, Apple is able to control the particulars accurately, although they don’t always get it right. For example, when a new iteration of a product is released — like the new MacBook Air — stock of the previous version will dry up in the weeks leading to that release, demonstrating Apple’s precision in inventory management.

Secondly, Busch says Apple is “at the top of the [inventory management] food chain” because of its sheer weight in the consumer electronics market. “Apple controls so much volume that it has greater influence over its suppliers, at multiple levels,” says Busch.

Finally, Apple can build strong lead times for its most popular products. For instance, the iPad was released in April allowing for strong supply chains to be established well before the expected holiday demand. Gartner supply chain analyst Mickey North Rizza affirms this by saying, “Because Apple brought out the iPad in April, they have had time to ramp things up. Apple’s efforts to build a supply chain for each product will continue to create a distinct advantage in the marketplace.”

With iPhone 4 and iPad supply shortages having been recently resolved, Apple smoothed the kinks in its related supply chain. Either way, if you’re looking to buy a loved one some Apple gear during this festive period, we’d recommend starting early, just to be on the safe side.

[via MacDailyNews]

Report: Apple’s inventory woes fixed for holiday shoppers originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As 2010 comes to a close, Verizon Wireless is rumored to be on a hiring spree prior to carrying the iPhone. CNET reports that the company is hiring “hundreds” of call center personnel, who will be trained to handle support calls for “personal computers and portable devices like MP3 players and smartphones.”

Of course, Apple, the iPhone and Verizon are never mentioned in this story, and any connection is based upon supposition. Customer service call center staffing companies Teleperformance and Ryla are said to be recruiting on behalf of a “major wireless cell phone service retailer.” Both companies have prior experience supporting Verizon and Teleperformance has worked with Apple.

Rumors of a Verizon iPhone have persisted for years. Last April, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, told Apple outright that Verizon wants to carry the iPhone on its network, and the Wall Street Journal suggested that it could happen just a few weeks ago.

[Via MacDailyNews]

Rumor: Verizon Wireless on a pre-iPhone hiring spree originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iconfactory has given a sneak peek at its upcoming Twitterrific version 4 for the Mac. There’s no information yet on pricing or release date, but it will require Snow Leopard “…because of some new features.”

The announcement includes a screenshot but not much more. In fact, if you look carefully you can see that the screenshot shows a DM from @twitterrific saying “Make sure you don’t show them everything in the screenshot, it’s always nice to have some surprises!” What a tease.

The announcement also reminds us that the ‘Factory has been hard at work on other apps, like Pickin’ Time and the recently released Take Five, not to mention the iPhone and iPad versions of Twitterrific.

If you missed last night’s Talkcast, Ged Maheux was our guest, and shared some of his initial thoughts about the Mac App Store. You can listen or download to the episode here.

Twitterrific was my first Twitter app and I still love it on the iPad, but the Mac version…well, the Mac version has gotten a bit long in the tooth. I can’t wait to see what gets done in version 4. Code faster, guys!

Iconfactory gives a sneak peek at Twitterrific 4 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Apple introduced the fourth generation iPhone last June, Steve Jobs made a lot of hay about the 326 pixel-per-inch density of its 960 x 640 Retina display. To date, that’s the highest pixel density found on any portable device, but it may not be for long.

Casio and Toppan have a joint venture called Ortustech that has just announced a 4.8-inch diagonal display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080. For the mathematically challenged among us, that works out to a massive 458 ppi density, meaning that no human (at least) is likely to be complaining about being able to see individual pixels.

The first applications for the new display are likely to be monitors for HDTV cameras and other equipment, with phones and game machines coming later. The current 4.8-inch size is definitely at the large end of the scale for a phone, so we may see a slightly smaller 720p variant of this technology in our pockets first.

[Source: New Launches via Electronista]

Ortustech launches 4.8-inch 1080p display originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While there is generally no arguing with the aesthetic qualities of products that come from Apple, that beauty does sometimes come at the expense of functionality. A case in point is the unfortunate trend to glossy screens on Apple’s portable computing devices. If all you do is gaze at your MacBook in a darkened space to watch movies, the shiny black screens look great. If on the other hand, like us, you need to actually get work done in a diverse range of environments, a matte screen that doesn’t constantly display your own mug is preferred.

While Apple offers optional matte screen on the larger 15 and 17-inch MacBook Pro, no such option is available on the new 11 and 13-inch Air models. Thankfully, the talented folks at TechRestore have come to the rescue with a retrofit. For US$249, TechRestore will replace the mirror on your slim new MacBook Air with a matte display that otherwise matches the specifications of the original. The display replacement service will be available soon, and TechRestore promises a 24-hour turnaround once they receive your machine.

Continue reading TechRestore takes some of the gloss off of new MacBook Air with matte screen option

TechRestore takes some of the gloss off of new MacBook Air with matte screen option originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s built-in QuickTime video player is fine if all you ever want to watch are files in the limited number of formats that it supports. However, if you need to playback files that are encoded in Xvid, DivX, WebM, or even the dreaded FLV, you’ll need something with a bit more capability. VLC is one choice that works great for playback of all of these various formats, but the Miro player has just been bumped to version 3.5, and it offers a number of capabilities that VLC can’t match.

In addition to being a multi-format video player, Miro is also a BitTorrent client that can subscribe to video feeds, automatically download new episodes, and add them to your library. Miro lets you organize your video content, create playlists, and automatically delete shows that have been watched.

There is even a built-in conversion tool that can export to MP3, MP4, Ogg Theora, or Ogg Vorbis, with presets to support both Apple and Android devices and the Sony PSP. Miro is open source and comes in OS X, Windows, and Linux versions.

[via Download Squad]

Download, play, and convert most video formats with Miro originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tiptop is a game that came out back in April of this year. It’s a take on the Lemmings genre (which asks you to guide little characters through a map to an exit), and it uses line drawing to create paths for the characters, leading them around obstacles or across gaps. The style of the game is nuts, with lots of silly abstract flourishes and jokes, and the action can get frantic at times.

The game is now a universal app, and the graphics have been updated as well. Both versions are free to download, though the app is really just a trial version, with only four levels to play. The rest of the game can be unlocked with a US$0.99 in-app purchase, so if you like the free content and want to get the whole thing, it won’t cost you any more than a buck.

TUAW’s Daily App: Tiptop originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We still don’t know what it’s for, and it hasn’t even officially opened yet, but multiple sources are claiming that Apple is already planning on doubling the size of its North Carolina data center. A local realtor informed Data Center Knowledge that “site work is being performed,” which seems to confirm rumors from the Charlotte Business Journal and All Things Digital from last week.

Much speculation has surrounded Apple’s intentions for the site since construction began in 2009. The most popular theory so far has been that Apple is planning on launching a streaming music service for iTunes, but with some music industry figures reluctant to even allow Apple to extend the length of its song previews, a subscription-based iTunes may still be far down the road. The data center should be opening soon (at least its first stage, by the sounds of things), so in theory, we should know what it’s for fairly soon, too.

[via MacRumors]

Apple may double the size of its North Carolina data center originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When iOS 4.2 gets rolled out to iPad users sometime in the coming weeks, the button on the side that, until now, has prevented the screen from swapping between portrait and landscape will become a mute switch, just like it is on the iPhone. However, since this is clearly a software-managed control rather than being hard-wired, some users were hoping that this might be configurable somewhere in the settings.

Unfortunately, Steve Jobs has made it clear to a 9to5Mac reader via email that no such user configurability will be a part of iOS 4.2. The decision has been made, and that’s that… or at least it is until some handy hacker finds a way to modify the iPad firmware after 4.2 gets jailbroken. Theoretically, someone could also create an app to provide that capability, but it too would have to be exclusive to jailbroken iPads — Apple doesn’t allow modification of hardware controls, as the developers of Camera+ learned recently.

iPad’s orientation lock to mute switch change will be permanent originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new critical security hole has been found in iOS 4 that lets you make calls and access contacts info from a password protected iPhone.The security hole bypasses iPhone’s passcode lock without any hack.

Video and instructions to reproduce it after the jump…

How it works:

• Lock your iPhone with a passcode
• Tap Emergency Call
• Enter a non-emergency number such as ###.
• Next tap the call button and immediately hit the lock button.

It should open up the Phone app where you can see all your contacts, call any number, recent call history, send emails, etc.

Watch the security flaw in action here.

I tried is on iPhone 4 4.1 and 3GS 4.0.1, yes, it works and its scary too. Apple has reportedly fixed the hole in iOS 4.2. via [9to5mac]