iPhone-a-Holic: June 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

ValleyRocket.com Announces a New iPhone and iPad App Development Initiative ... - San Francisco Chronicle (press release)

ValleyRocket.com is experiencing tremendous growth in iPhone App Development, and the Development Team has a full schedule of work ahead. Keeping to the nonconventional approach to business, company officials decide to offer positions to qualified teens, thus creating a mutually beneficial relationship.

Greenville, SC (PRWEB) June 30, 2012

ValleyRocket.com interns will benefit from working in a company atmosphere, where they will be given deadlines and get to work on actual projects such as the Daily Commute iPhone App, not just basic housekeeping tasks. Daily Commute is built for the iPhone allowing commuters to gather statistical information about their commutes and arrive to work on time. The interns will learn all aspects of the development process, and will be trained in mobile app and web development.

The internship work will directly contribute updates to apps already launched such as the Alpha Calc iPhone Calculator App. The interns in this program will gain a new perspective on what it takes to build or update software applications in a team environment where code is written and shared amongst other members. This is not quite as easy as one person writing a small application by themselves and submitting it to the App Store. Merging code and communicating with the team can be a very difficult task. By working together the interns will gain a new perspective on how to accomplish these tasks and successfully build mobile applications for the general public to use.

The internship program is in place to offer a unique opportunity to train the next generation of software and mobile app developers. ValleyRocket.com believes that the next â€œbigâ€ idea is out there waiting to be discovered, perhaps by a teenager who was given the chance to be inspired. By allowing young minds to be creative and express their ideas, these internships provide a platform for growth and innovation.

ValleyRocket.com was founded on the premise of having fun while building quality mobile applications. Company President and co-founder, Bobby Wilson, says that â€œThe key to our success is working with positive people who love what they do.â€

Launched in 2011, and almost one year old, ValleyRocket.com has positioned itself in the world of mobile app development with success in an extremely competitive market. What sets it apart from similar companies is the vision of hiring quality interns, who learn and grow with the company. They get an opportunity to learn the business side of company operations, while enhancing their skills as programmers.

About ValleyRocket.com:
ValleyRocket.com is a tech startup founded in 2011 based out of Greenville South Carolina. The companyâ€™s focus is to build mobile applications starting with the iPhone and iPad and moving to other mobile platforms such as Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. ValleyRocket.com has several applications already in the Apple App Store and has several more in development which will be launching in the Summer and Fall of 2012.

The current application portfolio consists of the following:
The Daily Commute iPhone App is designed for commuters who travel to and from work every day and want to make better decisions concerning when they should leave to get to work on time. The app gathers statistical information and gets smarter the more that use it.

The Alpha Calc Calculator iPhone App is designed to for the iPhone. The app reimagines the classic interface to take advantage of the features offered by the iPhone. These features include: custom buttons, swipe, calculation history and many more. The upcoming release will offer a Universal version which will work with the iPad and take advantage of the Retina Display.

The Shortcut IQ iPhone App is designed to help users of Apple products. It is a shortcut reference guide for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and much more. Future versions will include shortcuts for more applications along with a Universal version support the iPad and Retina display.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebiphoneapp/internships/prweb9660465.htm

Unlock iPhone 4S 4 3GS 3G Jailbreak iOS 5.0 / 5.0.1 / 5.1 / 5.1.1 Pro Version ! - The Sudbury Star

You can fiind the best tools to Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs on www.Unlock-The-Iphone.us Is very simple to Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs with the help of this tool.I managed to Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs and I have to say that is working greatThe current situation around the Jailbreak is somewhat complicated since Apple released the update to iPhone OS 5.1, and more recently to IOS 5.1.1Users who have the Jailbreak Untethered in the previous version (IOS 5.0.1) and have upgraded the system will have lost the unlock because Apple closed the exploit to Jailbreak in newer versions. Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs However if you still have updated the possibility of Tethered Jailbreak or to downgrade. Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs.

To Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs Visit The Official Website : www.Unlock-The-Iphone.us

Jailbreak IOS 6 beta 2: Tethered is now available. It's amazing how fast they work from the Dev Team, but by now we have almost used to it and we are not aware of the wonder that is. I say this because just hours after the Cupertino release new versions of its system, the Dev team puts in our hands the jailbreak logically adapted to them and I get to tell the news as soon as possible. If when the first beta of iPhone OS 6 had their jailbreak really soon (although with certain aspects still to be completed), Beta 2 is to be expected. I tell you.

To Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs Visit The Official Website : www.Unlock-The-Iphone.us

The arrival of the beta 2 of iPhone OS 6 for developers has been good news for many and a source of jobs for others. Of course the Dev Team got down to work to get your jailbreak and have confirmed they have available the new version of Redsn0w (0.9.13dev2) to do.Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gsNot far from the first news of this kind we put into your hands. At the time I discussed the availability of Untethered jailbreak with IOS 5.1 for the new iPhone and of course when he got his first iOS 6 in beta, we announced that the jailbreak was available in only 24 hours. However, development was incomplete and as I explained at the time still had to adapt it to Cydia.

Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gsNow we return to jailbreaks after learning that the IOS 6 beta 2 is available, as announced from the Dev Team. Again we must say that does not install Cydia and has its 'buts', to call in some way. Works with Geohot Limera1n exploit, so it will only be compatible with A4 or higher processor, one of the problems we've been finding lately when making jailbreaks. That means we have to have one of the following devices to benefit from the new addition: iPod Touch 4G, iPhone 3G or iPhone 4.Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gs.For if not clear, or if anyone has not concluded, we are faced with the tethered jailbreak, ie which does not exceed the device reset. Remember that you can connect it to the boot process with Redsn0w Just Boot.Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 4s/4/3gsWhat do you think the speed of the Dev Team? Were you expecting the arrival of this jailbreak? As always, I invite you to comment.

ValleyRocket.com Announces a New iPhone and iPad App Development Initiative ... - Virtual-Strategy Magazine

Greenville, SC (PRWEB) June 30, 2012

Apple's iconic iPhone turns 5 - Sacramento Bee

SAN JOSE, Calif -- SAN JOSE, Calif. - Even more than the introduction of the personal computer, the iPhone has upended the technological world order and revolutionized how people manage their daily lives.

And as of Friday, it's just 5 years old.

"There has been no other device that has changed social and technological life in such a short time," said Clifford Nass, a Stanford University sociologist and psychologist who studies how technology impacts society. "There has been nothing like it in the world."

First put on the market June 29, 2007, the iPhone created a platform that has inspired thousands of developers from around the world to write apps that enable users to organize their lives in ways most people couldn't imagine before 2007 - allowing them to get minute-by-minute news updates, find places to eat, get directions and locate friends no matter where they are. For its latest model, the iPhone 4S, Apple added voice recognition technology named Siri, which serves as a digital assistant that answers questions and sends emails on voice command.

"It's breathtaking innovation that cannot be overstated," summed up Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo.

When Apple first unveiled the iPhone, though, many failed to see the technological tsunami it would trigger. Some analysts called it "overhyped." Others saw it more as a toy than serious computing device like RIM's BlackBerry, so beloved by its users that they jokingly referred to it as the "CrackBerry" because of its addictive features. On Thursday, RIM announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs by the end of its fiscal year after another dismal quarter of plunging revenue. Nokia, meanwhile, has announced it will slash 10,000 jobs by 2013.

"Both of those companies - Nokia and RIM - are facing extinction," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu.

Other companies, from Japan's Sony to Taiwan's HTC to Microsoft, also have failed to keep up with Apple, which now garners about 75 percent of the smartphone market profits and has sold 218 million iPhones, said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst.

Apple took its first step away from being simply a computer company with the iPod digital music player. But it was the iPhone that made Apple "the most valuable company in the world," noted Needham analyst Charles Wolf.

For its fiscal 2007 year, Apple reported $24.6 billion in revenue. For its current fiscal year, Wu predicts the company will hit $160 billion in sales - a 550 percent increase that is directly related to the success of the iPhone. The iPhone not only juiced sales of Apple's Macintosh computers but also played a critical role in the 2010 launch of the iPad, which now dominates the tablet market as competitors struggle to match its popularity.

"Even Steve Jobs, I would guess, did not appreciate the sheer magnitude of what he unleashed," Saffo said of the late Apple co-founder.

As an "intimate" pocket computer, the iPhone allows users to remain constantly connected with friends and family wherever they go through texting and social media apps, but it also has become a barrier to human interactions, Nass said. Loaded with games, news apps, music and video, it can lead people to be disengaged with those around them, he said.

The iPhone also can be addictive, said Cynthia Jones, a 48-year-old San Jose teacher who complains she can't live without hers, which she says has both enriched and diminished her life.

Jones says the device allows her to keep in touch with family and friends through testing, emails and phone calls, but also leaves her no down time.

"Everyone now is completely engulfed in their iPhones and it seems like nobody's talking to each other anymore," Jones said. "It has changed our whole sense of time. There's no more relaxing with the iPhone around because people are always on their phones, constantly doing things."

Many experts say it's still far too early to fully assess the iPhone's legacy. Although Apple's move into the smartphone market unseated powerful rivals, the company faces fierce competition from new competitors, especially Samsung, whose devices run on Google's Android mobile operating system.

Android, which runs on dozens of other competing gadgets from numerous companies, dominates the smartphone industry with 61 percent of the market, according to researcher IDC. Apple has about 20 percent market share, the researcher reports.

Apple, though, has never worried about what everyone else is doing.

"Apple has always viewed the world in its own way," Wu said. "Now the world sees it their way."

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

â€¢ Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

â€¢ Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

â€¢ Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

â€¢ Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.

â€¢ Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

â€¢ Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

â€¢ Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

â€¢ Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

â€¢ Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.

No, the iPhone Isn't the Most Disruptive Product in History - The Atlantic

On the occasion of the iPhone's 5th birthday this week, Henry Blodget called it the "the most successful and disruptive product in history." That is fine as far as birthday hyperbole goes, but it's not true.Â

Is the iPhone extraordinary? Yes, it is extraordinary. Blodget is excellent on this point. The little black brick with a glass window took down Palm, destroyed RIM, and created a business worth $30 billion of profit per year, making it bigger than Microsoft, rivaling Google, and nearing the realm of Exxon. This is one product we're talking about, mind you. The ripple effects in the App Economy, which was shocked into life by the iPhone, accounts for another $20 billion in annual revenue, and has created as many as half a million jobs in the U.S.

But let's be prudent: This is not the most disruptive product in the history of the world. It didn't kill tens of millions of people and reshape foreign policy for the next infinity years, like the nuclear bomb. Its effect on American industry will almost certainly never rival that of the cotton gin, whose invention led to the quintupling of southern slaves and reshaped the global cotton trade, not to mention a century-plus of southern history. Let's not even start with the steam engine and its industrial-revolution cousins, which together threw 10 millennia of economic stagnation out the window and delivered consistent and global rising incomes for the first time in human history. (I'm even tempted to point out that the iPhone might not even be the most disruptive technology with the world "phone" in it.)

In an update to his post, Blodget writes:

Several readers have suggested that "the wheel," "the cotton gin," "the computer," and several other products are more disruptive and successful than the iPhone. To which I say... yes, but not in 5 years.

This issue of the speed of technological diffusion reminds me of one of my favorite chapters from A Farewell to Alms, a book I promise I'll eventually stop citing. If the iPhone is indeed the fastest most-disruptive technology in history, it is winning an unfair race against every other invention in history. Two-thirds of Apple's revenue comes from outside the United States. In historical context, this is a remarkable fact. It is possible, not merely because the product is so universally applicable, but also because of a global supply chain that didn't exist a few decades ago. As Gregory Clark has shown, for most of human history, as clever people have been inventing things, their new ideas could travel no faster than horses or ships could carry them. Research by Richard Duncan-Jones showed that information of major world events moved at an average of 1 mile-per-hour for most of the last 2000 years, from the Roman Empire to the early American empire, until the invention of the telegraph for the first time allowed complex information to move faster that people (speaking of disruptive!). In other words, if an "iPhone" fell through a worm-hole onto the head of some Spanish guy in 1000 AD, news of this incredible event wouldn't even reach China for five months.

For this reason (and because there was no such thing as an airplane in the 18th century) the most famous inventions of the industrial revolution some took DECADES to gain a foothold in other countries. The cotton mill, invented in 1771, took 20 years to get to the United States, Clark writes. Watt's steam engine took 30 years to get to India. The steam railway, invented in 1825, reached the U.S. by 1830, but history doesn't show its adoption in Sweden or Portugal for another 30 years. Part of this lag was trade laws and a protectionist British government, which clung jealously to its tech talent. But even with spies lurking around the factories of London, it still took several decades for the most disruptive technologies in millennia just to cross the the English Channel and North Sea!

In other words, to praise the speed of the iPhone's adoption is really to praise other disruptive technologies -- the telegraph, the airplane, the intermodal container -- that make the immediate worldwide adoption of new products possible. To call the iPhone the fastest most-disruptive technology in history is really just another way of calling it the most recent most-disruptive technology in history. No shame there, but let's share the love with the other disruptors.

Apple scores second courtroom win vs Samsung - Chicago Tribune

June 29, 2012|Dan Levine | Reuters

(STEPHENâ€¦)

SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday granted Apple Inc's request for a pre-trial injunction against the sale of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's <005930.KS> Galaxy Nexus phone, handing the iPhone maker its second legal victory against Samsung in a week.

Apple and Samsung, the world's largest consumer electronics corporations, are waging legal war in several countries, accusing each other of patent violations as they vie for supremacy in a fast-growing market for mobile devices.

Friday's decision, by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, comes days after she also slapped a pre-trial ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, a tablet computer that runs on Google Inc's Android and goes toe-to-toe with the iPad.

The back-to-back triumphs - significant because pre-trial injunctions are rarely granted - meant Apple had a better week in court than last week, when Chicago federal court judge Richard Posner ruled the iPhone maker could not pursue an injunction against Google's Motorola Mobility, effectively ending that case.

"Apple has made a clear showing that, in the absence of a preliminary injunction, it is likely to lose substantial market share in the smartphone market and to lose substantial downstream sales of future smartphone purchases and tag-along products," Judge Koh said in Friday's ruling.

Koh scheduled a hearing on Monday to consider whether to put the Galaxy Nexus injunction on hold pending appeal. And she said in court that she might rule on Sunday whether or to similarly put on hold the earlier injunction on the Galaxy Tab.

Apple has waged an international patent war since 2010 as it seeks to limit the growth of Google's Android system, the world's most-used mobile operating platform. Opponents of Apple say it is using patents too aggressively in a bid to stamp out competition.

Spokeswoman Kristin Huguet reiterated her previous statement, accusing Samsung of copying the look and feel of its products.

Samsung said in a statement that it is "disappointed" in the decision. "We will take all available measures, including legal action, to ensure the Galaxy Nexus remains available to consumers," the statement added

As a condition of the injunction, Apple was ordered to post a bond of more than $95 million, to secure payment of damages sustained by Samsung should the injunction be deemed a wrongful decision later. The order shall become effective upon posting of the bond.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 12-00630.

(Reporting By Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta; Editing by Edwin Chan, Carol Bishopric and Richard Chang)

Battle plan: Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Google - msnbc.com

41 min.

Devin Coldewey

In the last few weeks,Â the tech industry'sÂ biggest players have shown off their newest software and hardware, all aiming to make big moves before the end of the year. Apple has iOS 6 and the new MacBook Pros, Microsoft unveiled the new Surface and is preparing Windows 8 for launch, and Google has shown off the new version of Android and entered the tablet game.

It should be much more exciting than last year. What did 2011 have? A spec bump on the iPhone and iPad, a slow warming to the Windows Phone ecosystem, and theÂ lackluster launches of a social network and (failed)Â desktop platformÂ by Google. By comparison, 2012 should be a battle royale.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal, but that doesn't grant reporters privileged access to Microsoft products and services, nor does it influence their opinion of them.)

Let's look at what each company has in store:

Apple
Big changes are afoot this year: a truly new iPhone is expected, sure, but June's announcements already telegraphed their intentions: a return to the high end, and freezing out Google.

After aggressively pricing almost all their hardware via partnerships and ruthless negotiation with manufacturers, Apple has managed to push its products down from luxury to the mainstream. The iPhone is now considered a standard device, and the MacBook Air, once incredibly overpriced, is now setting the bar for PC laptops.

This has given Apple the market share to start selling extremely expensive things again, starting with the RetinaÂ MacBook Pro. Soon there will likely be a 13-inch version as well, and they will both sell like hotcakesÂ â€" even at around $2,000 per unit. The cheapest new iPhone will probably still cost $200 to consumers, but only because Verizon and AT&T will have no choice but to subsidize it.

iOS 6 is on its way as well, and it's evident that Apple is using its mobile platform as both carrot and stick. Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and more are getting the red carpet treatment, integrated right into the OS. But Google is getting the cold shoulder as Apple moves to its own maps and tries to get users to ask Siri instead of Google.

What could go wrong? If Google'sÂ Android OSÂ was more mature and more evenly upgraded (that is, less "fragmented"), itÂ could pose a threat to Apple's near-monopoly in the hugely profitable paid-apps ecosystem. And Apple is still lagging behind in cloud services, losing out on many fronts â€" includingÂ file sharing and storage, streaming media,Â email and Web apps â€"Â to Google, Microsoft, and smaller companies. Apple can only keep you attached to their services if those services are competitive, and the competition is moving faster than they are. And be honest: iOS and OS X are both starting to look a bit old.

Microsoft
The yearÂ 2012 will be looked on as a watershed moment in the company's history: Windows 8 is the biggest change ever made to the world's most popular OS, and opinions are in no way unanimous on the new look and feel. But Microsoft hopes to build on their success in the living room and make Windows and Xbox an ecosystem families and friends can live in, not just a set of isolated products.

The Surface tablet is Microsoft's way of telling the world that it's ready to move on from theÂ desktops and laptops that put the company where it is today. And Windows Phone 8 is Microsoft learning from its mobile OSÂ mistakes and saying "this time for real." The next Xbox isn't ready, but you'd better believe it's being conceived as the third piece in this puzzle.

Connecting the TV, PC and mobile (the so-called "three screens" strategy) has ever been a hope of Microsoft's, but it's not until now that the company's had the presence on the TV, the credibility on mobile, and the audacity to actually change what constitutes a PC. This year and the next will be a crucible for the company as it is forced to abandon traditions and partners, but if it's going to remain a force in consumer tech, these are necessary steps.

Plenty could go awry, though, and if one piece fails, the others are weakened. Windows 8 could fail to gain traction as a replacement for Windows 7, to which many millions of people and companies have only recently switched. Leaving behind 10 or 20 years of applications and hardware isn't something small businesses and casual computer users are likely to do.

Similarly, Windows Phone 8 will have a lot to prove when it debuts, first because the platform may have lost the support of many early adopters by not fullyÂ upgrading devices currently running Windows Phone 7 and 7.5, and second because Microsoft may simply not have the superstar hardware that will be needed to take consumers' eyes off the next iPhone.

Google
The challenge Google will be facing is presenting a single aspect to the consumer. There are 10 different versions of Android out there by 10 different manufacturers, all getting updates at the whim of the carriers.Â Meanwhile, theÂ Chrome browserÂ is coming out for iPad, and yet Google is making its own laptop OS and its ownÂ Android tablets, and trying to one-up Facebook with a proprietary social network,Â too? Every corner of the tech world seems to have a different Google, focused on a different task. Android 4.1 is the company's way of roping everything back together.

With one OS for tablets and phones, a plea to developers and partners to get on board, and a new tablet that sets a high bar for a budget product, Google is trying to unify a core brand after its initial meteoric rise and sprawl.

Another goal seems to be having one big Google that looks more or less the same wherever you go, and from whichever device you use. Chrome syncs tabs between devices, sure, but ultimately what Google wants is for you to think of Google as a place, not a set of services and websites. One place that you can view from multiple windowsÂ â€" your phone, your TV, your PC and, at some point, your vision overlay device, such as Google Glass.

In order for that to happen, though, Google has to make its world look, act and respond in a similar way no matter where you are. No small task when there are huge differences in interface, connectivity and screen size. Not to mention hardware partners like Samsung and HTC putting custom interfaces all over the place. (Those overlays are probably not going to survive for much longer, by the way.)

Unfortunately for Google, too much of this is out of the company's control. The very nature of open systems like Android prevents Google from yielding to this kind of unifying influence, and companies may (as Amazon did) simply take what they want and tell Google to go fly a kite. So Google needs cooperation from its friends in turning its patchwork systems and platforms into a single powerful, useful and affordable one.

What will happen?
How it will likely play out is this: Google and Microsoft will both take a hit as they regroup and put their weight behind their new unifying efforts. This will be because they have to build up brand and trust over again.

Meanwhile Apple will continue to dominate in hardware, selling iOS and OS X devices by the million, but even its most dedicated customers must acknowledge that both operating systems aren't as fresh as they used to be.

So while it'll be another year of big sales for Apple, you'll see a creeping discontent with its software offerings. A full overhaul will be due â€" maybe even overdue â€" by June of next year, when Apple again gathers its global cadre of developers. But by that time, who knows? Maybe Google and Microsoft will have gotten their acts together, and the sparks of their own reinventions will be catching fire.

MacOS KenDensed: Patent Ping Pong & Happy Birthday, iPhone - The Mac Observer

Ken Ray, Man About Town Apple had a interesting week in court seeing its patent infringement fight with Motorola tossed out, winning an injunction against Samsungâ€™s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, and hearing the ITC will review a ruling that could potentially lead to an iPhone and iPad sales block in the United States. Itâ€™s also the fifth birthday of Appleâ€™s popular iPhone, and Mac OS Kenâ€™s Ken Ray took a few moments to reminisce.

Posnerâ€™s Big Goodbye
The Apple versus Motorola case is officially over, at least as far as Judge Richard Posner is concerned.

AllThingsD says Judge Posner dismissed the case from his court last Friday, saying neither Moto nor the all-things-iMaker had been able to prove damages. Additionally the piece says Posner dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning they can appeal the case to a higher court, but they canâ€™t come bother him with it again.

Quoting his ruling,

It would be ridiculous to dismiss a suit for failure to prove damages and allow the plaintiff to refile the suit so that he could have a second chance to prove damages â€¦ This case is therefore dismissed with prejudice; a separate order to that effect is being entered today.

And so, the piece says, â€œfor Posner, Apple versus Motorola is finally over. But the companiesâ€™ pitched battle continues to rage on, with litigation pending in the

What the world needs now is another lawsuit between Apple and a competing smartphone maker. At least Apple legal thinks so.

And so, Electronista says, Apple last Thursday filed a lawsuit against Taiwanese phone-maker HTC in a Virginia court accusing the company of anticompetitive behavior and abuse of â€œfair, reasonable and non-discriminatoryâ€ licensing terms on standards-essential patents.

Hard to see how Apple could lose this one. According to Electronista, â€œThe counterclaim â€¦ involves patents covering the â€œ4Gâ€ LTE protocol â€¦ [that] have been described by HTC itself as standards-essentialâ€ in a complaint it filed against Apple last summer. HTC went on to claim â€œthat Apple devices contain baseband chips that implement the LTE standardâ€¦â€ which sort of makes the technology sound â€œstandards-essential.â€

No date has been set for the case against HTC in Virginia.

The ITCâ€™s Do Over
While a U.S. without iPhones and iPads may seem unthinkable at this point in time, itâ€™s not impossible. Well, itâ€™s possible that new ones might have a hard time getting into the country.

Bloomberg says the U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to review a ruling against Apple in a patent dispute between the Cupertino-company and Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility.

Earlier this year, ITC Judge Thomas Pender ruled that Apple did infringe a MotoMo-held patent relating to the industry standard for 3G technology used by most phones, and if this sounds familiar, it should. This was the patent infringement â€" or at least the type of patent infringement â€" Judge Richard Posner threw out of his court last week, saying Motorola couldnâ€™t block sales of a product that used standards-essential patents.

Bloomberg says, â€œThe U.S. Federal Trade Commission, members of Congress and Microsoft â€¦ have filed papers supporting Appleâ€™s argument that import bans should not be imposed on such patents. Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone service provider, and No. 2 AT&T â€¦ filed papers making similar arguments.â€

Should the ITC review go against Apple, the piece says it could lead to an import block on the iPhone and the iPad plus cellular. One hates to guess, but it seems more likely that theyâ€™ll just agree with everyone except Motorola Mobility instead.

A final ruling on the issue is expected on August 24th.

Denied: Galaxy Tab 10.1
Great big goings on in the Apple v. Samsung case.

AllThingsD says U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh has granted Appleâ€™s request for a preliminary injunction against sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the states.

Quoting her ruling,

Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products â€¦ While Samsung will certainly suffer lost sales from the issuance of an injunction, the hardship to Apple of having to directly compete with Samsungâ€™s infringing products outweighs Samsungâ€™s harm in light of the previous findings by the Court.

Whatâ€™s interesting about that ruling: she didnâ€™t used to think so.

A separate piece on the case from Electronista says Judge Koh denied Appleâ€™s first request for a preliminary injunction against the device, though that decision overturned on appeal. But they didnâ€™t actually issue the injunction, sending it back to her to do.

Court fights are funny.

Apple was happy to comment, with spokesperson Kristin Huguet saying, â€œItâ€™s no coincidence that Samsungâ€™s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging â€¦ This kind of blatant copying is wrong and, as weâ€™ve said many times before, we need to protect Appleâ€™s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.â€

Samsung, on the other hand, not so happy to comment.

Things happened more quickly in the injunction case than just about anyone saw. Apple hadnâ€™t said whether it would pony up the $2.6-million bond to make the preliminary injunction official, though itâ€™s possible that they didnâ€™t say because they were too busy doing it.

Putting up the money, I mean. Notâ€¦ doing it.

From AppleInsider, â€œAlmost immediately after the company won an injunction against Samsungâ€™s Galaxy Tab 10.1, Apple posted the necessary $2.6 million bond to block sales of the iPad competitor in the U.S.â€

According to the piece, the money means the injunction is in effect. Samsung now has to cease sales of the tablet in the states or face sanctions for contempt of court.

Hello, Nexus 7
Iâ€™ve thought for a while now that The Telegraph out of the UK was down on Apple. Their headlines about the company always seem so negative. But Iâ€™m beginning to think itâ€™s not Apple the paper is down on, but technology or tech companies in general.

Their headline about Googleâ€™s brand new Nexus 7 tablet: â€œGoogle tablet: an admission of failure against the Apple iPad.â€

I say, that glass is frightfully half empty.

Yes, Google did announce what some might refer to as an iPad killer, though it seems more immediately aimed at Amazonâ€™s Kindle Fire or other Android-based tablets with its 7-inch form factor and its $199 sale price.

According to The Telegraph, the â€œNexusâ€ tablet is â€œan admission that Android has failed to make an impact on Appleâ€™s iPad.â€

Iâ€™d love to give you a better idea of what the paper thought of Googleâ€™s Nexus tablet, but the bulk of the piece was devoted to what a suck-fest tablet makers besides Apple have made of making tablets.

So weâ€™ll go to The Mac Observer, which says, â€œThe device runs Android 4.1, called Jelly Bean, and it features a quad-core Tegra 3 processor and a 12-core graphics processor. The device has a resolution of 1280 x 800 â€¦ or 720p in high definition parlance.â€

Itâ€™s got an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a digital compass, a compass in the stock, and up to 8 hours of batter life. The piece says â€œIt also includes near field communications (NFC) capabilities, and has a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera.â€

While Asus is the tabletâ€™s developer and manufacturer, the Nexus is being marketed as a Google device.

Itâ€™ll come with built-in access to all of content available through Google Play, including movies, TV shows, apps, ebooks, magazines, and music.

$199 for the 8-gigabyte model, though an extra 50-bucksâ€™ll get buyers an extra 8 gigabytes. And, for a limited time, people who buy one will get a $25 credit good towards Google Play content, which most people forget Google actually sells.

Pre-orders began yesterday, with delivery expected to start in mid-July.

Happy Birthday, iPhone
And finally this week, itâ€™s the 5th anniversary of the launch of the iPhone.

After months of build-up from its announcement at Macworld 2007, the lines were atrocious, the prices ridiculous, there was no app storeâ€¦ and boy did they go quickly.

I didnâ€™t line up that first night. Ended up taking me two weeks to get my first iPhone.

We called it the â€œJesus phoneâ€ and while we were kidding, I donâ€™t think we were wrong. I canâ€™t remember who said it first, but I do remember what they said: That in the world of mobile telephony we were looking at a BC/AD moment, when cellphones would be judged as before iPhone or after iPhone.

People said it was over priced. People said it would fail. Now try to find a smartphone that has not been shaped by it in some way.

Wanna talk money?

iMore has Strategy Analytics figuring that since its official launch five years ago, â€œApple has generated $150 billion in revenue from their smartphone lineup.â€ And that does not take into account the iPod touch and the iPad, both of which owe most of what they are to what it was first.

Want some more staggering stats?

BusinessInsider has a few, like Appleâ€™s iPhone business is now bigger than Microsoft. One part of Appleâ€™s business â€" a large part, to be sure â€" but one part of Appleâ€™s business. Bigger than Microsoft.

â€œThe iPhone has destroyed at least three huge companies in the past five years, and has deeply wounded others,â€ according to the piece. â€œThanks to the iPhone, Palm is toast. Research in Motion is toast. Nokia is toast. Microsoft is reeling. Formerly dominant global hardware makers like HP and Dell are reeling. The whole PC-industrial complex is reeling.â€

Itâ€™s created an entirely new industry and ecosystem, the App Economy, creating â€œjobs and careers for hundreds of thousands of developers, designers, and other professionals.â€

It has changed what people expect a phone to be, as I mentioned earlier, and itâ€™s made Apple â€œthe most valuable and profitable company in the world.â€

Not bad, for a five-year-old.

So, do that little guy a favor. Bake it a cake. And if you donâ€™t know how, thereâ€™s an app for that. Make it a drink. And if you donâ€™t know how, thereâ€™s an app for that. Take it someplace fun. And if you donâ€™t know where, you know how to find it.

Or, if you really want to appreciate it, put it down for 24 hours. Okay 12 hours should be enough, actually. Okay, six. Okay, never mind. Try instead to remember what phones didnâ€™t do before this one, even if you donâ€™t have an iPhone

Then, if you do have an iPhone, hold it up to your face and sing happy birthday. Donâ€™t worry about looking stupid. People will just think youâ€™re singing to someone on the other end of the phone.

And if you havenâ€™t named your iPhone, for Peteâ€™s sake go ahead and do it. Itâ€™s five years old. Itâ€™s about time you give it a name.

Ken Ray has been in and out of tech news since 1998, writing, producing and presenting for the magazine â€œGlobal Technology Business,â€ BusinessRadio 1220/KBPA in San Francisco, TechTV Radio, and â€œRob Black and Your Moneyâ€ on KRON 4 in San Francisco. He hosts a few podcasts on Apple news and news related to Apple news, including â€œMac OS Kenâ€ since 2006, and the call-in show â€œMac OS Ken: Liveâ€ since 2010. He also used to make bread pudding, but hasnâ€™t in quite a while.

Google releases Chrome browser for iPhone, iPad - Chicago Daily Herald

Article posted: 6/30/2012 7:25 AM

By Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO â€" Googleâ€™s Chrome browser can now be used to surf the Web on the iPhone and iPad.

The Chrome application released Thursday is the latest volley in the escalating rivalry between Google Inc. and Apple Inc., which makes those two popular mobile devices. The announcement highlighted the second day of Google I/O, an annual conference that the company hosts in San Francisco for computer programmers around the world.

Googleâ€™s attempt to supplant Appleâ€™s own Safari browser comes a day after it unveiled plans to sell a low-priced tablet computer to compete against the iPad and Amazon.com Inc.â€™s Kindle Fire.

If Chrome turns out to be a hit on Appleâ€™s mobile devices, it could help boost Googleâ€™s profits, even though itâ€™s free, because Google now shares some advertising revenue with Apple in exchange for Apple building the Google search engine into the mobile version of Safari.

Google wonâ€™t have to pay commissions on revenue generated from searches done through Chrome.

Macquarie Capital analyst Ben Schachter estimates that Google relinquishes up to 60 percent of the advertising revenue flowing from mobile searches on Safari.

The arrival of Chrome on Appleâ€™s mobile operating system comes a month after Yahoo Inc. released a browser called Axis for the iPhone and iPad.

Unlike Axis, however, Chrome already is one of the most popular alternatives to Microsoft Corp.â€™s Internet Explorer on traditional computers. Google said Thursday that Chrome now has 310 million active users, up from 160 million a year ago.

Since Google released the browser in 2008, Chrome also has become the foundation for an operating system powering a line of lightweight laptops that debuted last year. The so-called Chromebooks, which had been sold only online, will be available in 100 Best Buy stores in the U.S. beginning Thursday.

Last month, Google announced its plan to rely on Best Buy to sell the machines, which so far havenâ€™t made much of a dent in the personal computer market.

ways the iPhone changed our lives - CNN

iPhone went on sale June 29, 2007, when Nokia and BlackBerry ruled the phone world
Despite its hefty price tag ($600 for the basic model), the iPhone was an immediate hit
The phone helped pioneer touchscreen interfaces, mobile apps, smartphone addiction

(CNN) -- On June 28, 2007, Nokia was the top selling mobile-phone company in the world, people stopped working when they left their computers, Android phones didn't exist, and high-powered executives were addicted to thumbing on their BlackBerrys.

The next day, Apple's first iPhone went on sale.

At $600, it was a luxury item at first. But five years later, the phone's dramatic impact can be seen in our daily lives, schools, factories and boardrooms. To date, more than 217 million iPhones have been sold, and they're being used by construction workers to read blueprints, doctors to diagnose patients, governments to improve services and parents to quiet their kids in restaurants.

To ring in its 5th birthday, here are five ways the iPhone has made a mark on the world.

2007: First iPhone announcement

The true cost of an iPhone

Photos: Our mobile 'addiction'

The original iPhone cost $600 or higher and came with only a handful of pre-loaded apps.

A new way of interacting with computers

In 2007, we were a nation of skilled texters, banging out OMG-filled coded messages at lightning speeds on numerical keypads and physical keyboards. The iPhone was lacking either of those, instead offering a nothing-but-screen keyboard.

It was a classic Apple move toward dead-simple usability, and it helped bring a slice of computing to a whole new audience, including technophobes, kids, senior citizens and people with visual or hearing impairments.

Suddenly, users could navigate their phones with a few swipes of the finger. Kids intuitively seemed to know how to use it. And the phone ushered in a new wave of touchscreen devices.

The telephone has come a long way from the 1930s, when rotary dial models such as the one pictured here were popular, to the iPhones and BlackBerrys we carry today. Click through to see a visual history of the telephone.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the liquid transmitter circa 1876.

This phone box in Southwark Bridge, London, features a wall-mounted phone with separate mouthpiece and receiver from 1924.

The rotary phone in this 1930s Reading, Pennsylvania, police box could be usd to summon police, ambulance or fire services at a moment's notice.

Rotary dial telephones with separate mouthpieces and receivers are commonly reffered to as "candlestick" phones. This model from the mid-1930s features the rotary dial in the shaft of the telephone, rather than the base-dial models with which most people are familiar.

This 1950s rotary phone features an attached mouthpiece and receiver.

Men of the English Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry call their loved ones after being told to prepare for duty in the Suez Canal Zone in 1956. Payphones were common up until the cell phones became popular and affordable.

Some of the first push-button phones are pictured here in 1971.

Franck Piccard of France talks on his mobile phone after the Mens Super G Slalom event at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta.

This model of mobile phone was marketed by Racal-Vodac Limited of Newbury, Berkshire, England, in 1997, to serve dual roles as a mobile unit installed in a car or as a portable unit. The unit was sold with a battery charger and extension antenna for use in areas with poor reception.

Cell phone manufacturers made great strides between 1997 and 2004. The Palm Treo 600 smartphone, pictured here in 2004, integrated telephone with e-mail and Internet browsing capabilities.

Motorola's MPx wireless device, released in the second half of 2004, took the smartphone to a new level with Wi-Fi capabilites and a fully functional keyboard.

The first generation Apple iPhone, released on June 29, 2007, had people lining up for days before and after its release. It was an advancement in the world of smartphones, incorporating a touchscreen, apps, telephone, e-mail and a host of other features.

The iPhone 4S, released on October 14, 2011, expanded on the iPhone's innovations with the addition of groundbreaking retina diplay technology and SIRI.

The BlackBerry Bold 9930, shown here, continues a long line of BlackBerry devices so popular they have commonly been dubbed "crackberries." They are also popular smartphones for business applications because of their fully functional keyboards and advanced e-mail capabilities.

The original Motorola Droid was the thinnest of its kind at its 2011 release. Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx, on display at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, has a longer battery life than previous models.

A visual history of the telephone

Photos: A visual history of the telephone

After the hefty price tag, the lack of a physical keyboard was the first complaint many reviewers lodged against the iPhone. It didn't scare off consumers, though, and Apple sold a million iPhones in less than three months. Typing speeds on the iPhone still may not rival a pair of BlackBerry thumbs at their peak, but predictive-text software, spell check and, later, cut and paste have made it a usable alternative.

In October, Apple tried to shake up input again with the introduction of the Siri voice-assistant feature. The voice-recognition technology encouraged users to speak commands and questions instead of of tapping them in on the screen.

Rise of the app

Number of iPhone models: 5 (original, 3, 3GS, 4, 4S)

First iPhone in space: July 8, 2011, aboard the space shuttle Atlantis

Most expensive iPhone: $9.3 million iPhone 4S Elite Gold

Number of countries selling the iPhone: 105

U.S. adults online who have an iPhone: 18%

Cost of materials in a 16GB iPhone 4S: $188

Top phone vendors worldwide: Samsung (29%) followed by Apple (23.1%)

The iPhone's killer feature was not that tough, expansive glass touchscreen. It was the mobile operating system, iOS, and the tightly controlled App Store released a year later in 2008 that made the iPhone into, well, whatever you wanted it to be.

The original device was useful enough: It shipped with a built-in Apple apps for checking the Internet, weather, e-mail, texts, stocks, calendars and the time. But when the App Store opened, people suddenly had access to a stockpile of well-designed third-party apps, and developers were able to build an astonishing variety of custom apps.

With the right app, an iPhone could track the sun, sync shopping lists, be a drum machine, take restaurant reservations, be a cash register. Meanwhile, Apple's TV ads made "there's an app for that" into a catchphase and a headline cliche.

In classic Steve Jobs style, Apple took complete control of the sales and app-approval ecosystem. Apps have to be approved by Apple before they can be sold, meaning fewer spam apps and viruses make it through to consumers. It also means the company can reject apps as it pleases -- say, when a feature competes with an Apple product -- to the occasional displeasure of the developer community.

The App Store has also created a new mini-economy. Apple has paid out more than $5 billion to developers, and that's after taking a 30% cut off all app sales for itself. Today, there are more than 650,000 mobile apps available in the App Store, ranging from free to $1,000 for specialized business applications.

24/7 Internet

The iPhone ushered in an age of all Internet, all the time. For better or worse, it's blurred the lines between work and home lives, made communication a round-the-clock habit and led to a host of new rules about when and how it's appropriate to use smartphones (not while walking, driving, playing trivia or on a date, please).

The phone, whose price soon dropped to $200 or less with a two-year wireless contract, gave users instant access to a multitude of ways to communicate: texts, e-mail, Twitter, Instagram, Grindr, Foursquare, Facebook, FaceTime. There's even a so-so phone on there. Mobile phones had limited Internet access before the iPhone, but the device's browser was a huge improvement, displaying webpages more like they actually looked on a desktop computer.

All this connectivity brought a new disorder: smartphone addiction. A recent study by gadget-resale site Gazelle found that 15% of respondents would rather give up sex than go without their iPhones for a weekend. That type of titillating stat is not surprising to anyone for whom the iPhone is the last thing they see at night and first thing they check in the morning.

Supply-chain activism

As Apple grew from underdog into the largest company in the world by market cap (it made $108 billion in 2011), its manufacturing chain was pushed to greater and greater limits -- and into the spotlight. The Foxconn plants in China that produce Apple's iPhones, iPads and other products were called out in the press and by activist groups for poor working conditions, long hours and low wages.

While bad press for Apple, the controversy drew much-needed attention to electronics supply chains. The Foxconn plant was called out for producing Apple products, although it also assembles products for other major electronics companies including Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Intel.

To quell the backlash, major tech companies are feeling the pressure and changing how they operate. When he took over as Apple CEO, Tim Cook agreed to allow a third party, the Fair Labor Association, audit its China factories and address any issues that were found. And just this week, Google unveiled a media-streaming device, the Nexus Q, which is made in the U.S.

An industry revived

The iPhone may have helped kill the BlackBerry, but it gave birth to a new beefed-up genre of mobile devices. Google went on to release its own more developer-friendly mobile operating system, Android. Microsoft threw its hat into the ring with Windows Phone OS. Most major mobile phone companies now produce touchscreen smartphones.

Some might say the iPhone and its cousin, the iPod Touch, helped spawn the larger iPad, with its identical touchscreen interface. That hit device was birthed in 2010 and quickly created a new gadget market, leaving rivals scrambling to catch up. Now Amazon, Google and Microsoft all have new or forthcoming tablets.

The iPhone's popularity as a portable gaming device -- oh, how we love flinging virtual birds at virtual pigs! -- also helped usher in a new era of mobile gaming.

Five years after the iPhone hit the market -- and the culture -- the tech industry as a whole is thriving and innovating. It probably won't be another five years before the next big thing shakes up technology again.

Pages

Saturday, June 30, 2012