App developers are withdrawing their products for sale from the US versions of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market for fear of being sued by companies which own software patents – just as a Mumbai-based company has made a wide-ranging claim against Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo and a number of other companies over Twitter-style feeds, for which it claims it has applied for a patent.
I think people and companies should be able to protect their ideas, but some of these patents are just crazy. I’m not sure what the solution is, but something has to be done.
Borders, which employs about 10,700 people, scrapped a bankruptcy-court auction scheduled for Tuesday amid the dearth of bids.The chain said it will ask a judge Thursday to approve a sale to liquidators led by Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers Group.
Very sad to see Borders close for good, but the company dug its own grave when it stopped doing one thing well – selling books – and started doing several things poorly (selling DVDs, audio CDs, stuffed toys, coffee, pastries, games, etc.). It’ll be interesting to see how Barnes & Noble continues to manage its transition to e-books, which it says are selling quite well (thanks to its own branded Nook devices).
The Omni Group on Monday announced the release of OmniPlan 2.0, a new version of its project management software for Mac OS X. It costs $199; upgrades from the previous release are available. (more…)
That being said what I feel the real issue behind the lawsuits is that Android is free. It’s obviously one thing to infringe on a companies inventions or innovations and then sell them but its another entirely to infringe on someones inventions and innovations and give them away for free. It sends the message that those innovations aren’t even worth enough to ask someone to pay for them.
We are told the handset will retail for no more than $350 without contract. Ready for the really interesting part? It’s entirely possible that the low-cost iPhone will in fact be the iPhone 3GS. We reported that we were able to independently confirm that the iPhone 5 featured a radical new design, however this source of ours isn’t quite sure that will be the next iPhone. Whether it’s the iPhone 4S or 5, it will be coming out or “at least announced by the end of Summer, late August-ish.”
I think it’s pretty safe to say at this point that nobody really knows what’s going to happen with the next iPhone. Well played Apple.
Potential buyers for TiVo include Microsoft (MSFT) and Google. Microsoft has wanted to offer a set-top box and have a presence in television systems through cable operators, says Tony Wible of Janney Montgomery Scott, who estimates a takeover price of $17 a share. TiVo’s television search capability would appeal to Google as it tries to gain a foothold in living rooms with Google TV, which lets users search online video and other content on their TV screens. It also would complement the company’s acquisition last month of SageTV, a DVR software maker to be integrated with Google TV, Harding says.
People have been saying for years that it would be nice to see Apple buy Tivo, but they just don’t seem to be beyond that “hobby” stage with television yet.
The sad part about Microsoft or Google buying Tivo is that they would offer more of the same.
The opinion column that follows doesn’t live up to the proud tradition and our best intentions for BYTE. It not only lacks the deep and authoritative technical content that we want BYTE to be known for, but it also doesn’t reflect the community’s views on Apple. Although there are plenty of people who don’t like Apple products, and some who have had bad experiences with Apple, those are the exception, not the rule.
After publishing an article called “The Crucible: A Sobering Look At Apple,” Byte retracted the piece and said it would redouble its “efforts to employ even tighter controls in our editing content before it gets published.”
Personally, I think it’s a good call from Byte. They admitted it was a mistake, so now we’ll wait and see how future stories read.
Stock prices go up and down constantly, but Apple hit a milestone today closing at an all time high. The stock shot up $7.15 or 2 percent to close at $364.92. The stock is continuing its climb in after-hours trading going up $0.12 to $365.04.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup final takes place this weekend in Frankfurt, Germany with the United States taking on Japan. I decided to put together some apps to help you get the most from the experience. (more…)
Apple on Friday released iOS 4.3.4 – new software for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It’s available for download and installation through iTunes. (more…)
Just insert the material you want a pick out of into the DIY Guitar Pick Punch, and … well … squeeze. Instant guitar pick! Make them out of expired credit cards, those grocery store club cards, plastic packaging material, and more! Hey, want to get super DIY-y? Then punch a few thin picks and glue them together into the ultimate pick of density.
Kelly Guimont sent this to me this morning. It’s like a hole puncher, but for guitar picks. Personally, I buy bags of my favorite picks (Tortex 1.0), but if you’re the DIY type, this would be perfect.
Walt Basil emailed me this morning letting me know about this cool video posted by our friends at TUAW. The guy put his iPhone 4 inside the guitar and filmed the strings moving. Like my wife said, you can see the music coming off the strings.
“Mike Lazaridis couldn’t imagine that consumers would be spending hours watching and streaming video to their devices, he couldn’t understand it,” the former exec continued. This is why we don’t see RIM excelling in spaces like camera technology, or displays — because the company never even attempted to anticipate the smartphone trends we’re seeing today. “RIM is a reactionary company.”
BGR’s Jonathan Geller takes an inside look at RIM and the culture at the company. Former executives describe Mike Lazaridis as being paranoid and having lost his touch and vision. He walks around RIM headquarters with bodyguards — seriously Mike?
And this is the guy the shareholders want running the company. This is an eye-opening story.
“Amazon.com Inc. plans to introduce a tablet computer before October, said people familiar with the matter, in a move that will heighten the online retailer’s rivalry with Apple Inc.”
This Wall Street Journal article has Yukari Iwatani Kane’s byline on it, and she has a lot of credibility in tech reporting. According to the report, it’ll be a color Android-based tablet designed to compete more against the iPad and Android-based tablets than Amazon’s Kindle does. (via The Next Web)
Game developer Positech Games is following up their successful game Gratuitous Space Battles with Gratuitous Tank Battles. The game is in development for Mac OS X and Windows, and is due out later this year. (more…)
Karelia Software has updated its Sandvox Web site creation software to version 2.1. The update is compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion.” Sandvox 2 costs $77. (more…)
RIM’s co-CEOs narrowly missed facing a forced shareholder vote on whether they should keep their co-Chairman titles at the company’s annual meeting. However, when you think about it, the proposal really has no teeth anyway. (more…)
“It was probably going to kill all three of us. I had time to visually see the hand grenade. And I figure it’s got about a 4½-second fuse, depending on how long it has been in the elements and the weather and everything and how long the pin has been pulled. I figure if you have time to see it, you have time to kick it, throw it, just get it out there.”
I can’t even begin to imagine the horrors soldiers go through during conflict, but I salute you all.
After a pitiful year full of mismanagement, failed product launches and a falling stock price, I was sure that RIM shareholders would hold those responsible accountable. Apparently not. (more…)
The numbers were off but the news was right: Electronic Arts (EA) has purchased casual game publisher PopCap Games for $650 million. The deal is expected to close in August. (more…)
Apple, under the direction of Steve Jobs, has taken a unique approach to Wall Street and Apple’s share price. On May 26th, 2010, Apple overtook Microsoft in market capitalization and became the largest technology company in the world. Less than a week later, Kara Swisher asked him about the monumental event during an interview at the 8th annual All Things Digital Conference. Even though Steve called it a “surreal” moment for “those of us that have been in the industry a long time,” he also noted that it “doesn’t matter very much” because “it’s not what’s important” since “it’s not why any of our customers buy our products.” In a 2008 interview he did with Fortune magazine, he explained what is important at Apple: “We just want to make great products.”
Apple is one of the smartest run businesses in the world, but I’ve always had the feeling the Steve Jobs was making products that he wanted to use himself. The other side of that coin is a company that makes products to meet budget constraints or delivery deadlines.
Last November when we launched our $7.99 unlimited streaming plan, DVDs by mail was treated as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan. At the time, we didn’t anticipate offering DVD only plans. Since then we have realized that there is still a very large continuing demand for DVDs both from our existing members as well as non-members. Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs. Creating an unlimited DVDs by mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs by mail offering. Reflecting our confidence that DVDs by mail is a long-term business for us, we are also establishing a separate and distinct management team solely focused on DVDs by mail, led by Andy Rendich, our Chief Service and Operations Officer and an 11 year veteran of Netflix.
Personally, I only stream videos from Netflix, so this price change doesn’t really affect me. The streaming plan is still $7.99 and Netflix is still the best, so I’ll be sticking with it.
