Motorola Mobility accused Apple in 2010 of infringing on six of its patents covering technology such as reducing signal noise and programming the device’s touch screen so a user’s head does not accidentally activate it while talking on the phone. The ITC ruled in April 2013 that Apple did not violate any of the six. The appeals court addressed just one of the six patents.
I would love to have a guitar made by Grover Jackson.
As home automation creeps into the mainstream, most products are still designed to solve individual problems, without an overarching control layer. There are lots of terrific one-off products, but they don’t play together. There’s no standard to which they all adhere.
There’s the terrific Nest thermostat and smoke detector. A number of door lock and alarm systems. Lighting systems, smart home appliances. Lots of great ideas, all paving their own, non-connected, way onto the internet of things. Appliance Hunter is the blog to check out when looking for an honest review of a major appliance you are considering to buy for your home.
Some might argue that there’s no need for a control layer or hub. Perhaps. But to me, this is one of those areas where Apple would shine, bringing something into our lives that changes our experience for the better but which we didn’t even realize could exist. Homeowners who are concerned with the security of their internet access and their online data may buy residential proxies.
> One effort comes from office supplies retailer Staples, which used CES to show a significantly expanded number of companies whose products work with the Staples Connect system for home automation, which it launched late in 2013. The system centers on a $99 “hub” that connects to a person’s Internet router and allows a Staples smartphone app to control thermostats, light bulbs, and security systems. > > At CES, Staples announced that products from an additional nine companies’ products would be compatible with the system. They include the Goji’s smart door lock and one from Withings, a company that makes Internet-connected health devices such as scales, and which at CES launched a new sleep-monitoring system called Aura.
I see this in much the same way as I saw the early MP3 players. A step in the right direction, but not quite the right solution. Interesting article, worth reading.
China implemented the video game ban in 2000. This, potentially, is a huge opportunity for the game industry.
China’s ruling State Council temporarily suspended the ban and may allow consoles to be made in the Shanghai free-trade zone, it said in a statement Jan. 6. Hardware manufacturers such as Nintendo Co., Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. (6758) could benefit from entering a $10 billion market dominated by online and personal computer games.
It’s a committee. And Disney. What could go wrong?
Before you grab your red lightsaber and misguidedly march down to Orlando to tell Disney to leave Star Wars alone, it’s worth keeping in mind that the best thing to come out of the Star Wars universe since The Empire Strikes Back is a video game from 2003. The universe could use some maintenance, and perhaps Disney could breathe some life back into it. We’re not yet sure exactly how Disney plans to tackle the canon; there are those who would prefer the entire expanded universe completely vaporized.
<sigh>.
You really need to watch the video to truly get this. This tech would replace the gorilla glass on your tablet. On demand from an app, physical, pressable buttons appear on the formerly flat surface of the tablet. Really interesting.
Wow. Yesterday, we posted this little doozy, Jim’s classic reaction to Google’s new default that allows people on Google+ to send you email, even if they don’t have your email address.
While digging into that story, I ran across this little gem (via FastCompany). Seems Thomas Gagnon got slapped with a restraining order by his former girlfriend. Then, a few weeks ago, she got a Google+ invite, attributed to him.
Gagnon, of 10 Wilson St., Beverly, was arrested Thursday evening at his home, 90 minutes after his former girlfriend went to the police station with a printed copy of the Google Plus invitation and the restraining order. Police agreed that the invitation violated the order, and obtained an arrest warrant.
Yikes! Gagnon claims he didn’t send the invite. Is it possible Google sent it on his behalf?
A status hearing in the case is set for Feb. 6.
Here’s hoping he’s got an attorney who knows his way around Google+.
U.S. Mac sales spiked 28.5 percent year over year in the just-concluded fourth quarter of calendar 2013, according to the latest figures from Gartner, giving Apple a 13.7 percent share of its home market while the rest of the industry continues to struggle.
I guess it’s a good time to own a Mac… and iPhone… and iPad.
Yes, I will take one of those.
Dante D’Orazio for The Verge:
Once the service goes live over the next few days, a new setting will appear in Gmail called “Email via Google+.” If you don’t want everyone on Google+ to be able to send you an email, you’ll have to opt out by selecting “no one” or choosing another option to limit the feature to people in certain circles.
Stop it!
Don Lehman is the Founder and Designer of More/Real. You can follow him on Twitter.
Today is the seventh anniversary of the iPhone. It’s one of those anniversaries that feels both shockingly long ago and not that long ago, but what it’s providing for me today is perspective.
The perspective comes from Las Vegas, where today also happens to be the second to last day of CES. This year’s show is notable for the amount of wearable tech that has been demonstrated and almost universally dismissed as “not ready”. It reminds me of exactly where we were in the years leading up to the iPhone, when the only thing that was working for smartphones was the idea.
In retrospect the iPhone is obvious, but from our current vantage point, wearable tech is anything but. We like the idea, but no one has nailed it yet. It sure isn’t for lack of effort, as this CES has demonstrated, but it shows the chasm between idea and execution and how hard it is to marry the two.
It also gives context to the Apple vs. Samsung fight and why Apple is so mad about having their “obvious” ideas used by a competitor. Apple bet the company on making a great smartphone. The issues they had to solve: Underpowered OSes, a new interface, battery life, what does the thing look like, what features should it have… Does this sound familiar? These are the exact—and I mean literally, the Exact. Same. Issues. that companies trying to make wearable devices are facing.
When Apple did nail it, their competition couldn’t believe they had actually done it. RIM’s executives ripped open an iPhone on launch day and were shocked at what they had found. Their solution to battery efficiency had been to use a small, low res screen (by today’s standards) with an OS designed to minimize battery usage. It was an elegant solution for the time and everyone else was copying their lead. Apple’s solution? Use a really big battery. Obvious. In retrospect.
What I’m saying is this: Let’s appreciate what these companies who are trying their hand at wearable tech are trying to do. This is really hard stuff. But let’s also appreciate that no one has figured it out yet. When someone does figure it out, it will feel obvious. And everyone else will quickly copy them, forgetting how hard it was to do in the first place.
I was there that day—it was amazing.
I’m not a lawyer, but there’s some good stuff in here.
Wall Street Journal:
TV is stuck in an innovation cul-de-sac. There are no new ideas in TV hardware that are worth paying for, so, thanks to competition and production efficiencies, good TVs keep getting cheaper. The cheaper they get, the more desperate TV makers become, filling their sets with more and more useless piffle.From 3D to 4K to curved screens to Sony’s strange “wedge-shaped” sets (don’t ask), we are witnessing an industry out of ideas, a business desperately casting about in the dark for something—anything—that might persuade us to part with our money.
For most of us, the TV we already have in our living rooms is perfectly good for what we watch. There’s little compelling in the offerings at this year’s CES.
Expect to see a host of new wearables from Samsung this year, including some that were designed, in part, in San Francisco.
Allow me to translate: We expect Apple to release wearables sometime this year. As soon as they do we will copy them in an undisclosed location in San Francisco.
I love the videos from CrazyRussianHacker. This is super easy. You’ll need 12 Q-tips, a hot glue gun, and some dish soap or bubble liquid. Got kids? They’ll love it!
This is a court case in Germany that has drawn a lot of international attention.
Germany’s Supreme Court has just handed down a landmark ruling on the liability of Internet subscribers in copyright disputes. Overturning an earlier decision by a lower court the Federal Court of Justice said that an account holder could not be held liable for piracy carried out by an adult family member if he had no reason to believe any was being carried out.
Not clear how this ruling will impact other countries, but it is a precedent.
Like a lot of you, I’m sure, I’ve been a Mac user since the beginning. True, I didn’t buy my first Mac until March of 1984, but that was purely lack of funds, not lack of desire.
And, in the blink of an eye, it’s 30 years later. Big wave of nostalgia.
On January 25, 2014, All Planet Studios, the Computer History Museum and Macworld/iWorld will be throwing a celebration at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif. The event will be held in the same 2,300-seat auditorium where Steve Jobs first introduced the Mac, though the space has since been renovated. Of course, you wouldn’t go just to see the auditorium, so the organizers have put together some fantastic panels.
Members of the original development team will be holding a series of discussions about the creation of the Macintosh from conception to the modern day. Using previously unreleased video, attendees will be taken back in time to experience those early days. And, in what is possibly the coolest aspect of the event, directer Ridley Scott will be on hand to discuss his iconic “1984” ad.
Daniel Kottke will be one of the main hosts of the event, with author Steven Levy, Randy Wigginton, George Crow, Rod Holt, Larry Tesler, Bill Fernandez, Bruce Horn, Ron Nicholson, Larry Kenyon, Jerry Manock, Donn Denman, Bill Bull, Martin Haeberli, Bryan Stearns, Bob Belleville, David Beaver, Sam Lyall, Carolyn Rose, Joe Sheldon, Debi Coleman, Brian Robertson and Pamela Wyman making appearances along with other original Macintosh team members.
Wow! This is a great group. Here’s the official link. You can buy your ticket on the site. All proceeds after expenses go to Coder Dojo, the open source, volunteer led, global movement of free coding clubs for young people.
Take a look and, if you’ve got some experience in this area, add to the thread.
About the size of a miniature ukulele, the Jivix JamStik features real strings that can be pressed, strummed, and bent, as well as piezo and infrared sensors so the Jamstik can be used as a MIDI controller. There’s even a GuitarHero-like tutorial to help you learn.
This has real possibilities. A travel guitar you can fit in your backpack. The JamStik is available for preorder, but be aware that this is an IndieGogo project, not yet a shipping product. That said, this was demoed on the floor of CES, so that gives me hope.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon will attend the session with in-house lawyers only, according to a Wednesday court filing. Their legal teams had met on January 6 to “discuss settlement opportunities,” the filing read.
Let me get this started: Stop stealing our shit you slimy bastards and we’ll stop winning lawsuits against you.
Someday I’m going to get these.
Nilai will be renamed, redesigned, and be completely open sourced. We’ll offer a fully hosted solution that people can use for both for free and for pay for but anyone that would like to they can download the application and run it themselves. We’re going to build it out in the open, which means that we’ll be publishing our roadmap, our internal discussions, our design mockups (both failures and successes), our business ideas, our marketing materials — anything and everything we can publish as early as we possibly can. In short, we’re going to rebuild Nilai into something new and do it in public.
Interesting. This comes from the folks who make the Barley CMS.
Jim and Dan talk about Canadian blizzards, Jim’s missing 2013 Mac Pro, the LaCie Fuel, Dropbox, DROPOUTJEEP, coding on an iPad, apps that Must Always Be Installed, Jim’s amazing new rig, and more.
Sponsored by Ting, Squarespace, and Freshbooks.
One of the best things I purchased for my guitar pedals.
Yeah, I did it. Enjoy.
Every year brings some new exciting things in design.
Some interesting thoughts from Om Malik on the Snapchat drama of late. I don’t know, I think they really screwed up, but maybe I’m in the minority.