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There is some good news for Apple and the iPad in China. The Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court ruled in favor of Apple and denied an injunction request from Proview that would have banned sales of the tablet device in the Chinese city. Both the local Xinmin Evening News and Reuters confirmed this decision.

This Shanghai ruling is a win for Apple, but a bigger decision, that could decide the fate of the iPad in China, looms ahead of the Cupertino company. Apple recently lost a case in this battle when the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court sided with Proview and its claim to the iPad trademark. Apple appealed to the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong and hearings in this trial will begin on February 29th. If Apple loses this case, it could put ownership of the iPad name into the hands of Proview.

Apple has been fighting with Proview international over the rights to the iPad name in China. Proview owned a trademark for the iPad name and sold it to Apple in 2009 through the UK-based IP Application Development Ltd. Apple bought the rights to the name from Proview’s Taiwan subsidiary.

On paper, it appears to be a straightforward deal, but bankruptcy claims and internal company politics complicate the matter. Proview Shenzhen agrees that its Taiwanese subsidiary sold the iPad trademark to Apple, but claims the offshoot didn’t have the right to sell the name.

According to a Bloomberg report, Proview founder Rowell Yang also claims the company was in bankruptcy at the time and needed bank approval to sell any assets, including the iPad trademark. The Bank of China is supposedly a Proview creditor and would have been involved indirectly in this sale.

Proview has halted sales of the iPad in a few Chinese cities and is looking to expand this ban to other locations. It also asked China Customs to stop both the export and import of the iPad. If an export ban is upheld, iPad sales globally could come to a screeching halt.

Shanghai court sides with Apple, iPad sales to continue originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this week, ABC News aired a Nightline report that explored the Shenzhen Foxconn factory where Apple products are assembled. Now, Apple, Foxconn, and the Fair Labor Association (FLA) have all issued statements in response to the report.

At one point, Nightline reporter Bill Weir asked Foxconn line worker Zhou Xiao Ying about her job at the plant. She reported (via translation) that she carves the aluminum shavings from 6000 iPad logos per day, which Apple corrected.

“In manufacturing parlance this is called deburring,” Apple said. “Her line processes 3,000 units per shift, with two shifts per day for a total of 6,000. A single operator at Ms. Zhou’s station would deburr 3,000 iPads in a shift.”

Foxconn and the FLA also offered corrections to the report. The former addressed the question of pay, noting that, “We have over 75 percent of the employees in the category of earning at least 2,200 RMB ($349/month) basic compensation standard. That means they are earning 13.75 RMB ($2.18) per hour. If they work overtime on the weekend, they will earn 27 RMB ($4.28) per hour. In order to reach 3500 to be taxable, they will have to work 47 OT hours to reach 3,500.”

The FLA noted that discussions with Apple actually started back in 2007, not when it recently joined.

Apple responds to ABC News’ Foxconn report originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I saw Smappsoft’s Pokertini in development at Macworld | iWorld, and now it’s out and available in the App Store. It’s a freemium take on video poker, so your feelings on this game will probably revolve around that one. Those who enjoy playing video poker (where you get five cards, and get to hold or pass on them for one more draw, trying to make the best hand you can) will enjoy Pokertini. Smappsoft has put a few twists on the game as well, but unfortunately none of them are all that strong.

The biggest difference between this game and Vegas is that you have a shared bet across three different hands, and before the second draw, you can move your bet around between the three. That means that you can pile up on hands that look like they might turn out well, which is a good idea in theory. In practice, however (and maybe I’m just unlucky), I tend to bet on hands that promise big but don’t deliver, meaning I lose my money anyway. Placing the bets just right can help, but it’s still a gamble most of the time.

There are also “twists” that you can buy with coins that will do things like block certain cards from showing up or shake up the hands you’re playing. That seems like a good idea, but is less intriguing then you’d think. The coins come from your total, and they only add more randomness to the proceedings. If they were more powerful (like buying you an ace or guaranteeing a card you want), they might be more interesting, but then of course they’d always make you money, giving you no reason to buy coins from the in-app purchases.

The app also has ads sitting right on top of the main gameplay space, which is a little much, given that those in-app purchases are on offer as well. Smappsoft obviously has to make money, but the ads make the whole experience a little too garish (so much so that they’ve been cut out of the screenshots in the App Store). The whole idea of tying fake coins to real money feels a little strange in general. Maybe if they’d left the gameplay alone, and had in-app purchases for less gameplay-specific items like themes or card art, the whole thing would sit better.

Given those issues, I do like a good game of video poker, and Pokertini definitely has that at its core. If you’re also a video poker fan, the game is definitely worth a download, and you get 1000 coins for free to gamble away. It’s a shame that the game is more focused on monetization and less on fun. Yes, every developer wants to make money, but the best freemium titles on the App Store have shown that if you provide fun first and then hook up in-app purchases, there’s plenty of money to be had.

Daily iPad App: Pokertini brings freemium video poker to iOS originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A couple of weeks ago, a russian designer named designer Anton Repponen had shared a beautiful retro concept iOS 86 theme for iPhone conceptualizing what an iPhone iOS would look like if released…

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Some readers might remember the recent debates regarding the privacy policies of mobile applications, or those unfamiliar with the story, a few apps were collecting the private data of their uses without their knowledge or consent.

Now California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has announced  an agreement with Apple and five other tech companies including Google, Amazon, HP, RIM, and Microsoft, that will see all companies implementing new standards for displaying privacy policies for apps that collect personal data.  The press release described the agreement:

The agreement with the platforms is designed to ensure that mobile apps comply with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. The Act requires operators of commercial web sites and online services, including mobile apps, who collect personally identifiable information about Californians to conspicuously post a privacy policy.

What is good for the users is that the new agreement will force Apple and the other companies to implement a method of displaying a privacy policy to the user before an app is downloaded. According to information released by the Attorney General, he plans to meet with the companies in six months to assess the progress of the agreement, Attorney General Harris said the following  about the agreement:

  “Your personal privacy should not be the cost of using mobile apps, but all too often it is..This agreement strengthens the privacy protections of California consumers and of millions of people around the globe who use mobile apps. By ensuring that mobile apps have privacy policies, we create more transparency and give mobile users more informed control over who accesses their personal information and how it is used. California has a unique commitment to protecting the privacy of our residents. Our constitution directly guarantees a right to privacy, and we will defend it. Forging this common statement of mobile privacy principles shows the power of collaboration — among government, industry and consumers — to create solutions to problems no one group can tackle alone.”

Those interested can find the full PRESS RELEASE HERE

I think almost everyone developing for iOS devices – except maybe those who were Mac developers before the iPhone came out – has at one point become frustrated with the Xcode IDE to the point where they began looking for alternatives.

Jetbrains is a company that has gained quite a following because of their intelligent IDE’s.  I hadn’t really considered looking at their AppCode IDE for Objective-C development – mainly because of the licensing fee vs. Xcode being free for iOS developers.

However, when I noticed the free trial, and lower prices for indie developers ($99) I decided to look for further info, and came across a nice comparison from developer Yoni Tsafir.

You can find Yoni’s review here where he compares many different aspects such as refactoring, disaster recovery, code completion, and real time code correction in depth with a lot of nice diagrams.

Overall it looks like AppCode is definitely worth trying out

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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Some time ago I mentioned a library created to make use of the iCade and iControlpad controllers within iOS games easier.

Jacob Gunderson has taken the iCade and iControlpad control library by Stuart Carnie and created an in-depth step tutorial demonstrating how to use the that library in the creation of a game with iCade enabled controls – covering everything from pairing up the iCade with your iPad through the creation of a HUD in Cocos2D showing the activated controls.

You can find the tutorial along with an example project here.

I’m not sure if supporting the iCade will provide a big sales boost, but every little bit counts!

©2012 iPhone, iOS 5, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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