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The Apple/Samsung patent war continues. This week the latest battleground is back in Australia where Samsung has filed a new claim saying Apple’s iPhone and iPad infringe upon its Australian patents. In an email to Bloomberg Samsung said that it filed the claim with the Federal Court of Australia. Specifically, Samsung alleges that both the iPhone and iPad violate its patents on wireless communications standards.

The Apple/Samsung litigation has become almost comical in its scope. The two companies are locked in litigation on four continents. Even when they aren’t fighting about patent violations, they’re fighting about advertising. Many in the industry and legal profession see this battle raging on for at least another year until the various courts around the world can rule on it. However, some also think that it would be in Apple’s and Samsung’s (mostly Samsung’s) best interest to come to a settlement that ends the litigation on all continents. Who knows if that will happen, but until then it’s a great time to be a patent lawyer.

[photo by fPat Murray]

Samsung files patent claims against Apple in Australia originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As 9to5Mac reports, there’s a brand new build of Lion 10.7.2 out there in the wild for developers, featuring focused work on iCloud, the Mac App Store, MobileMe, and a few other places like Mail, Spotlight, Time Machine, and even things like the AddressBook and graphics drivers.

This is build 11C57, coming only a few days after the last build, 11C55. We’d like to think that the increasing frequency of releases (along with the fact that there are no known issues in this build) means that a public release is right around the corner, but of course Apple is going to take its time. At any rate, devs, go check it out and make sure it’s ship shape so the rest of us can see it soon.

Developers get a new build of 10.7.2 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for Sept. 16, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld points out that Apple has added a new drop-down dialog box to the Mac App Store (above). It alerts customers who are about to purchase an app they’ve already got installed. While it doesn’t fix an ongoing issue, it’s at least a nice heads-up.

Software is being added to the Mac App Store all the time. Many are new titles while several have existed long before the store did. Today, customers who bought apps before the store debuted are faced with a dilemma: update that software manually or enjoy the benefits of the Mac App Store — like simple updating and easy multi-Mac installations — buy purchasing the app a second time.

While this warning hasn’t eliminated the problem, it does tip customers off to the fact that they’re about to pay for an app they already own.

Mac App Store now warns customers buying pre-installed apps originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

The good news: I just received an (legit) email saying I won a license for Sparrow!

The bad news: I paid for it LITERALLY 15 minutes ago.

I’m not about to ask for a refund. Oh well. I hope the developer does something great with his cut of my ten bucks.

Thoughts?

Your loving nephew,

Dave

Dear Dave,

If Sparrow was worth supporting before winning a copy, then it was worth supporting after. Don’t think about this as having picked up an extra tangible good that you didn’t need. Think about it as voting for the app’s continued development.

It’s seldom considered, but software developers cannot live on rainbows, hugs, and unicorn tears. Money creates the infrastructure that builds the apps you love. Without cash, there can’t be software.

By purchasing the app, you’re going to help place your vote for keeping it going in the long term — even if you missed out on a “deal.”

Hugs,

Auntie T.

Dear Aunt TUAW: I just bought an app and then won it originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple is shipping its new Apple Thunderbolt Displays. The displays were first introduced on July 20 when Apple said they would begin shipping in 60 days. Today AppleInsider reported that some of its readers have been notified that their units have shipped. That shouldn’t come as too much as a surprise, however, as just last week the displays were reportedly shipped out to Apple retail stores and resellers.

The new display is similar to Apple’s earlier Cinema LED Displays, but now comes in only one size — 27-inches — and includes a Thunderbolt port that lets you connect your Thunderbolt-equipped hardware. Besides a Thunderbolt port, the new display includes a FaceTime HD video camera, a 2.1 speaker system, integrated MagSafe charger, three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one Gigabit Ethernet port. The cost of the Thunderbolt Display is US$999.

Apple now shipping Thunderbolt displays originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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KCRW is a Los Angeles-based public radio station with a history of introducing new artists to listeners. Keeping with this tradition, the radio station now has an iPad app called Music Mine that’ll let you dig deep into their catalog and find new music.

Similar to other music apps like Bandito, Music Mine was developed by the Public Radio Exchange and powered by Echo Nest’s music intelligence engine. It’ll display up to 100 new artists at a time and link them to KCRW’s playlists. There’s also videos, photos and more from each artist. If you want to just listen to music, you can fire up the app and tune into KCRW directly. The Music Mine app is available for free from the App Store.

KCRW app launches music discovery originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My favorite games always have centered around solving mysteries and figuring out puzzles. These have ranged from Nintendo’s Professor Layton franchise to the classic game) where you play with a deck of cards.

Ramses II is a twist on the card game. The basics are the same: Items are placed under pyramids in a sumptuous Egyptian setting and a deck of cards is to the side. When a card is revealed, tap a pyramid to see if the match is underneath it. If not, you’ll either get a hallway leading to other cards, or the wrong item which means the card on the top of the deck goes out of play and your turn ends.

The game tosses in extra challenges on top of this. In solo-player mode, sandstorms are your enemy. Draw one in the deck, and the board spins around. In multiplayer mode, there are scorpions that force you to give a card to your opponent and superpowers that let you move multiple blocks and other options.

The game is good for either pass-and-play with family or friends, or playing alone. You can have the computer stand in for extra players if you’re by yourself, allowing the other options such as superpowers, scorpions and merciless duel to be unlocked. I preferred this mode rather than the regular solo mode as it made the game a lot more interesting and last longer.

Ramses II is available for the iPhone, but the iPad is where it shines with gorgeous graphics and a nice soundtrack that isn’t intrusive. An in-game list summarizes the different cards that can possibly come up. The one thing I couldn’t quite figure out was when you create a computer character what the slider in the middle is for. I’m guessing that it’s to toggle how difficult the AI is.

Ramses II is a great memory game and the iPad version is US$2.99 on the App Store.

Daily iPad App: Ramses II originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s that time of the year when the air turns crisp and cool and the leaves begin to change color. If you live in a seasonal part of the country like I do, I bet you can’t wait for the bright and vibrant fall colors to reach their peak. Here are five apps to help you plan an excellent leaf peeping adventure:

TreeID with Fall Foliage ($2.99)

TreeID is an iPhone application that lets you identify trees and pull up their name, scientific name, tree characteristics and location. The app has more than a hundred new trees and can identify fifty foliage trees.

Foliage Leaf Peepr (Free)

Foliage Leaf Peepr is an application developed for Yankee Magazine. It’ll let you rate the local foliage as the leaves progress from green to peak to gone. You can view these foliage ratings on an interactive foliage map hosted by Yankee Magazine. The map also displays photos uploaded to the map by users.

360 Panorama ($1.99)

360 Panorama is a photography app that takes panoramic pictures that extend up to 360 degrees. A versatile app, it takes horizontal and vertical photos so you can capture stunning photos of those patchwork-colored leaves. You can read our full review of 360 Panorama here.

MotionX GPS ($2.99)

MotionX GPS is an inexpensive GPS app that’ll track your location on a map. You can record or follow your tracks and share them when your journey is done. You can also share tracks and waypoints on social networks like Twitter or Facebook and send a geotagged photo or two. It’s an excellent app for marking where’ve you been so you keep track of the best leaf-peeping locations

IM+ Pro ($9.99)

When you’re admiring the bright gold and deep red leaves, you may want to share your beautiful photos or chat with your family and friends. With IM+, you can send an IM through a variety of services, post to Twitter or Facebook, or chat via Skype. It’s an all-in-one client that lets

Five apps for leaf peeping originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to iPhone 101, the series that explains the basics of iPhone operation. This time, its retrieving a deleted voice mail message.

One of the great features of the iPhone — that is, one that is actually related to having phone conversations — is Visual Voicemail. So long as your carrier (network provider) supports it, Visual Voicemail allows you to see your voicemail messages, similar to a list of text messages or emails. You can decide which messages you want to listen to, when you want to listen to them and scrub through the message to the important part you want to hear. In Apple’s own words, “Visual Voicemail on iPhone is still the biggest breakthrough in voicemail since, well, voicemail.”

It certainly has changed the way I use voicemail. Gone are the days of dialing in to a voicemail box and laboriously listening to all your messages in a row! But there’s one unsung, often overlooked feature of Visual Voicemail: recovering deleted voicemails.

If you’ve deleted a voicemail message that you really wish you hadn’t (say, the pin code for the alarm system at a guest house you’re staying at), simply swipe down your row of messages, all the way to the bottom of the list, and tap on “Deleted Messages.” So long as you haven’t come here before and tapped “Clear All,” all the messages you’ve ever deleted on your iPhone will be stored here. To recover your deleted voicemail, simply search for it in the list, select it and tap on “undelete.” The voicemail will pop into your normal voicemail list ready for you to listen to again.

iPhone 101: Recovering deleted voicemails originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last weekend, musician Stevie Wonder played a nightclub in Los Angeles. At one point during the set, the blind songsmith discussed the work he does with the United Nations, trying to make both the United States and other countries more accessible to persons with disabilities. While he said there was a lot of work left to do, he had nothing but praise for one company’s accessibility efforts.

“I want you all to give a hand to someone that you know whose health is very bad at this time. But for someone who, and his company, took the challenge in making his technology accessible to everyone, in the spirit of carrying and moving the world forward: Steve Jobs. Because there’s nothing on the iPhone or the iPad that you can do that I can’t do. As a matter of fact, I can be talking to you, you can be looking at me, and I can be doing whatever I need to do, and you won’t even know what I’m doing. Yeah!”

Apple has built an extensive suite of accessibility tools into its iOS devices to assist users with disabilities. A video of Wonder’s speech is embedded below, and his remarks about Apple start at about 4:38.

[via The Next Web]

Stevie Wonder praises iOS for accessibility originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to Nick Bilton at the New York Times, an unnamed Apple employee has confirmed to him that the next-gen iPhone announcement is “just weeks away.” The next-gen phone will be “fairly different from the iPhone 4.” Bilton’s source seems to confirm multiple rumors claiming the iPhone 5 will have a redesigned case in addition to an 8-megapixel camera and an A5 processor. It’s not clear whether it will be this generation of iPhone or the following one that adds integrated support for NFC, but Bilton suggests that the wireless payment technology is a high priority for Apple’s mobile strategy.

In the wake of a dramatic surge of Apple rumors over the past several months, The New York Times has maintained an excellent track record of anticipating product announcements with well-sourced reports, as has The Wall Street Journal. Of note, the info from the Times coincides with tips we’ve received from our own sources within Apple regarding possible retail vacation blackout dates in early- to mid-October.

Bilton also took note of the appearance and then disappearance of several purported iPhone 5 case designs, which showed a different device size and possible tapered edges; he pointed out that such ‘leaks’ are often mostly about publicity for the case manufacturer, and are rarely accidental. That’s why we opted not to write about the cases when they showed up earlier in the week: we didn’t think the manufacturer’s behavior with the case leak merited any additional publicity.

Here at TUAW, we do our best to sort out the wheat from the chaff when it comes to speculation and rumor; we aim to stay clear of third- or fourth-hand “in person” iPhone 5 sightings, and we don’t get all CSI on a blurrycam spyshot photo of a supposed iPhone 5 — unless it’s an obvious fake, in which case we’ll joyfully poke fun at it.

We’re a bit burnt out on rumors at this point, and we suspect many of our readers are, too. We’ll consider passing them along when they match up with what we know; when they don’t, we’ll let them be. And when we do corroborate rumors or publish a speculative tidbit (even one that contradicts the WSJ and NYT), that’s based on our independent sourcing or the reporting of a very short list of savvy & connected Apple watchers.

We consider The New York Times to be pretty reliable, so if Bilton says the next iPhone announcement may be just weeks away, that’s the next best thing to hearing it from Apple.

NYT: iPhone 5 announcement ‘just weeks away’ originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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