August 14, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The ‘460 patent protect elements of email and photo browsing in a camera-equipped device. Specifically, it covers three different functions: sending a text-only email, sending an email with an attached photo, and stepping through different photos in a gallery mode. According to Dr. Yang’s testimony, the iPhone 4, 3G, and 3GS — along with the iPad 2 and fourth-generation iPod touch — all infringe the patent on both iOS 4 and iOS 5.
It’ll be interesting to see how Apple argues this.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
A Samsung Electronics designer testified on Tuesday that she didn’t copy Apple when creating the icons for the Galaxy line of products. “Not at all,” senior user experience designer Jeeyuen Wang said, through an interpreter.
Oh, okay then, let’s just cancel this trial and move on because they look NOTHING LIKE APPLE’S.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
If you’re a Zappa fan, you’ll want to check this out.
After writing about how iPads and YourTeacher helped raise math scores by 49%, I decided to speak with YourTeacher CEO Charlie Hermes to find out more about his company, and what it’s like to publish textbooks on the iBookstore.
“iBookstore is a game changer,” Hermes told The Loop. “We have a depth of high-quality content and the iBookstore allows us to be on a level playing field with the big publishers. No other platform would allow us to have our textbooks on that level and give users a choice.”
YourTeacher has been around for a decade, specializing in helping students learn math, but it wasn’t until Apple released iBooks Author that they entered the digital publication market. Using their existing content, Hermes said they put together textbooks they thought would help kids learn in a better way.
While it would have been difficult, or nearly impossible, for a small company like YourTecacher to compete with the big textbook manufacturers, iBookstore has opened the door for companies of all sizes.
With a company tagline of “Your Personal Math Teacher” Hermes and business partner Mike Maggart took the idea of an interactive textbook and added a teacher. Using video in the textbooks, students can get help whenever they have a problem, and practice widgets let them know how they are doing as they make their way through the book.
“We don’t dwell on how interactive or how cool it is,” said Hermes. “We’ve just taken the teacher and built it into the textbook. It’s not about this incredible layer of interactivity, it’s about having a teacher there to help you if you need it.”
Of course, using technology in the classroom is not new. School districts have been buying laptops for students for over a decade, but they never lived up to the promise based on the feedback Hermes received.
“I think the whole iPad thing is different for kids and schools,” said Hermes. “The response has been so overwhelming and different from what we got with laptops. This is really changing things.”
With the iPad and iBookstore leading the way, Hermes believes we’ll see even more small publishers entering the market over the next 3 or 4 years.
“Apple took a sledgehammer to the old model,” said Hermes. “Now the consumer or school can test a free chapter from iBookstore and decide for themselves what they want to buy.”
Written by Peter Cohen
Dan Pearson for Gamesindustry.biz:
EA’s answer to Steam, digital distribution service Origin, will be coming to Mac, Android and Facebook soon, as well as smart TVs.
The news came from Peter Moore, EA’s COO, during his keynote speech at Gamescom, the annual video and computer game show in Cologne, Germany.
Origin lets users buy and download EA video games directly from EA, rather than going through another game store. At the moment it supports PC and console platforms, but EA is planning to expand its reach.
EA games are already available for the Mac through the Mac App Store and through other online stores; the company has worked extensively with TransGaming to produce Mac versions of some of its titles, which TransGaming sells through its own GameTree Mac online service. It’ll be interesting to see how or if EA expands its offerings with this move.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
An interesting look at dots and pixels as John Gruber makes his way from a Pac-Man coin-op machine to a Retina MacBook Pro.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
No idea how I’d ever use this, but it’s really cool.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
More than $60,000 worth of “computers and personal items” were allegedly stolen, but Flattery declined to say whether they belonged to Jobs, who died last year at the age of 56, or another family member.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
A classic comic from Joy of Tech.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Global BlackBerry sales tumbled 43 percent last quarter as RIM’s aging lineup of devices failed to match the consumer appeal of Android phones and Apple’s iPhone. BB10 will change RIM’s fortunes, Heins said today. “We’re here to win,” he said. “We’re not here to fight for third or fourth place.”
Maybe RIM is tired of Samsung getting all the attention and says stupid things to turn things around.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Rene Ritchie:
No one can look at Samsung’s mobile products over the last decade and not consider them anything other than a ruthless, relentless copy of everything popular that’s came before. It’s not that Samsung doesn’t continuously push the limits of hardware specifications and capabilities as much if not more than anyone else. They do. But they do so by systematically, institutionally copying what other vendors have already done first.
Rene just goes off on Samsung.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
A really nice message from Om Malik to John Gruber, congratulating him the 10 year anniversary of Daring Fireball.
Apple on Tuesday updated its retail store pages in Canada noting the opening of two stores on Saturday, August 18. One store will open in Coquitlam, British Columbia and the other in my hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The Halifax store is located at the Halifax Shopping Centre and will open at 9:30 am. The Coquitlam store is located at the Coquitlam Centre and will also open at 9:30 am local time.
The two openings this weekend will put Apple’s total Canadian retail stores at 25. The company’s total retail stores worldwide will stand at 375.
The new stores will continue Apple’s tradition of offering personalized service for customers purchasing products from the company. Services like Personal Setup, where Apple store employees help set up your iPhone, iPad, or Mac with email, iTunes accounts and other apps will be part of the store experience.
Apple has greatly expanded the number of services it offers customers since opening its first store. I’ve attended a number of store openings over the years, including New York’s 5th Avenue and SoHo locations, and the Palo Alto and San Jose stores. Since then Apple has added things like its $99 One to One program, allowing customers to get personal, group or open training sessions for a year.
Of course, both new stores will also feature the Genius Bar, a hallmark of Apple’s retail experience.
Update: The number of stores in Canada is 25, not 24 as previously stated.
Written by Peter Cohen
Klint Finley for TechCrunch:
But a new project called TOS;DR wants to change that. The site aims to give more power to users by summarizing terms of service, flagging potential issues and rating apps on a scale from A (the best) to E (the worst).
This is a great idea and I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before.
August 13, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
iNeedHelp sends your location via text message and email at the push of a button to your HelpList.
Seems ideal for children or senior citizens.
We’ve all heard how using an iPad in the classroom improves a child’s literacy scores and now a new study is showing the same is true for math students as well. Tools like an lcm calculator can greatly enhance this learning experience by providing instant and accurate solutions to complex problems. With just a few taps, students can quickly compute LCMs, helping them grasp mathematical concepts more efficiently. This real-time feedback fosters a deeper understanding, allows for more personalized learning, and gives students the confidence they need to excel in their mathematical studies.
App developer YourTeacher teamed up with KIPP Academy to test grade 8 students to see if their scores would improve after using an iPad. Students were provided with an iPad and the Algebra 1 iBook, available on iBookstore, to replace the traditional textbook.
The program is referred to as a flipped classroom — 80% of the iPad usage was outside the classroom, allowing teachers to focus on more advanced training and one-on-one help in the classroom.
The students were then tested using the KIPP Spring Common Assessment Test. The scores were compared to the students who didn’t have access to an iPad and the results speak for themselves.
“Overall, the percentage of students who rated either proficient or advanced (the ‘passing’ rate) was 49% percent higher in the ‘flipped classrooms’ using the iPads than in the traditional classrooms with no iPads,” according to the report. “The difference was most pronounced in the percentage of students rated as ‘advanced,’ which was 150% higher in the ‘flipped classrooms.’”
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Great article from Daniel Eran Dilger at AppleInsider.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Davin O’Dwyer for the Irish Times talking about his experience with a Samsung phone:
All the time I had it, I kept wondering who at Samsung let this thing out the door? Did anybody actually use it before it was released? And if so, what kind of contempt for their user did they have? Five minutes with that phone would have the jury awarding full damages to Apple, no doubt about it.
I love the Irish.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Objective-Cologne is an Objective-C & Cocoa community-organized conference taking place next month in Cologne Germany. Speakers include Mike Lee, Jason Harris and Ken Aspeslagh.
A great looking line-up of speakers. I wish I was going to Germany.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I love it when people are taken to task for avoiding questions they should answer.
I took a minute today to call John Gruber and congratulate him on his 10th anniversary of running Daring Fireball. John has had a tremendous influence on me as a writer and on my current business model.
When I first re-launched The Loop last September, I was worried that it would be too much like Daring Fireball. Obviously, the first call I made was to John to get his opinion. Not only was he open to the new design, he encouraged me to launch it. He also gave me advice on the money side of how The Loop could work.
Thanks John, for everything, including Daring Fireball.
Written by Shawn King
PC Mag:
While Apple could still make a physical TV, I think this move incorporating Hulu and Amazon is very telling of Apple’s future TV strategy. The key here is that for Apple’s current TV device to make money, it needs content. By biting the bullet and offering competing services to iTunes, the value proposition of an Apple TV device rises. Apple can now accelerate its TV plans through areas it excels in, namely software and human interfaces. I believe that it can do all that it wants to do in these areas through an external box that connects to a TV and delivers iTunes and its cloud services.The problem with TVs is that people buy them and hold on to them for five to seven years on average. While Apple could design a TV that could be upgraded in software, it makes more sense to create a sophisticated box that works with all televisions and allows the company to innovate around this model.
Bajarin has been around for a long time and is a smart guy. I’ve been saying the same thing about Apple’s direction with regards to the Apple TV set-top box but The Esteemed Publisher of The Loop still believes Apple will still produce an actual HD television set. Time will tell.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Florian Mueller on Apple’s victory in excluding the President of Samsung Telecommunications America, Dale Sohn. Samsung said Sohn “may testify regarding Samsung’s innovative technology and products,” but that wasn’t their original position:
An even bigger issue is that Samsung allegedly “fought tooth-and-nail to prevent Apple from taking Mr. Sohn’s deposition”, and in doing so, Samsung argued that Apple failed to show that Mr. Sohn had any unique “first-hand material knowledge”. Samsung had even denied that he had any “personal knowledge that is relevant to this case” and any “relationship to the accused products or the patents-in-suit other than [his] place atop Samsung’s organizational hierarchy”. The court finally granted an Apple motion to compel Mr. Sohn’s testimony, but was granted only three hours, which Apple considered insufficient, and only so late in the game that Apple was deprived of the opportunity to “to conduct any follow-up discovery in connection with [Mr. Sohn’s testimony]”.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Technologies the company has adopted protect Apple customers’ content so well that in many situations it’s impossible for law enforcement to perform forensic examinations of devices seized from criminals. Most significant is the increasing use of encryption, which is beginning to cause problems for law enforcement agencies when they encounter systems with encrypted drives. “I can tell you from the Department of Justice perspective, if that drive is encrypted, you’re done,” Ovie Carroll, director of the cyber-crime lab at the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section in the Department of Justice, said during his keynote address at the DFRWS computer forensics conference in Washington, D.C., last Monday. “When conducting criminal investigations, if you pull the power on a drive that is whole-disk encrypted you have lost any chance of recovering that data.”
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Matthew Panzarino:
The patents were apparently licensed to Microsoft with an “anti-cloning agreement” in place in order to stop Microsoft from turning out copies of the iPhone and iPad. Samsung and Apple have, notably, met several times to discuss licensing patents, but the design patents covering the ‘user experience’ of Apple’s tablets and phones were, according to Samsung, not on the table.
Nice, an anti-cloning agreement.
Written by Shawn King
Day4:
How easy is it to spread disinformation? One afternoon we sketched out a screw in our 3D program, a very strange screw where the head was neither a star, tracks, pentalobe or whatever, but a unique form, also very impractical. We rendered the image, put it in an email, sent it to ourselves, took a picture of the screen with the mail and anonymously uploaded the image to the forum Reddit with the text ”A friend took a photo a while ago at that fruit company, they are obviously even creating their own screws ”. Then we waited …
If you ever wonder where all these untrue Apple rumors come from, this will answer the question for at least some of them. It also shows how many web sites post “information” with little to no facts, research, details or common sense attached.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Bryan Beverly sent this to me this morning and it fits the Apple, Samsung trial so well.
“The more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterward.” — Arthur Koestler in The Act of Creation, 1964.
There are some people who believe Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung is all about rectangles and that Apple has no right to sue based on that criteria. That’s just false and I think I’ve found a way to explain it so everyone can understand.
Let’s look at this from the point of view of a musician. Everyone loves music, right?
If there’s a hit song on iTunes right now, is it okay if I learn how to play that song, copy down the lyrics and release the exact same song? Everyone would say no, that’s not okay. Even the most ardent Samsung supports would be aghast if they heard their favorite song copied and re-released.
But why? A song is just a collection of notes and words. What’s stopping me from taking those same notes and words and releasing a song? After all, musical notes and words are free for anyone to use, so copying that song and making a lot of money from should be just fine.
Except it’s not. What you would be copying is the way those notes and words were put together to create a song.
The iPhone and iPad are Apple’s songs. In fact, it could be said that Apple even created a few new instruments along the way.
Samsung didn’t just copy rectangles from Apple. They copied years of research in how to put together a hardware and software design that is new and fresh. It wasn’t done before and people loved it.
Using the music analogy, Apple had two blockbuster hit songs and Samsung stole them, note for note. That’s not right.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Maria Popova writing about how Hitchcock affected one child.
