June 20, 2011
With the announcement of iOS 5 at WWDC earlier this month, people got a view of what they can expect from Apple’s new mobile operating system. Features like AirPlay and iCloud have appealed to many, but Matthew Panzarino looked to Frasier Speirs, the Head of IT at Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland to get an educator’s view on the operating system.
While I still don’t think we can (or would want to) give younger children accounts, the ability to back up and sync an iPad wirelessly to iTunes means that we would no longer need a computer in every Primary classroom. One large-ish computer on the network running iTunes could theoretically serve as the backup machine for an entire Primary department’s iPads – with no intervention from the teacher. Huge win
An educator’s thoughts on using iOS 5 features in an iPad classroom | TNW
The patent infringement settlement between Apple and Nokia did more than stock Nokia’s pockets full of cash, it also gave the company some much needed time to change. Experts peg Apple’s one-time payment to Nokia at $650 million. Apple will also pay ongoing license fees.
“The payments from Apple may give Nokia more time to cope with a challenging portfolio transition before its capital structure, which is currently very strong, begins to erode,” Wolfgang Draack, Senior Vice President at Moody’s, said in a statement.
Apple deal could buy Nokia time to change: Moody’s | Reuters
The Wall Street Journal reports that Research In Motion (RIM) has lost another executive: this time it’s Brian Wallace, VP of Digital Marketing and Media. Wallace has left RIM for Samsung, which confirmed he’s joined the company.
“Mr. Wallace’s departure comes amid a time of turmoil for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM. The BlackBerry maker is bleeding market share in the U.S. as its aging product line struggles to compete against Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices powered by Google Inc.’s Android-operating system, such as Samsung’s Galaxy. Last week, RIM’s shares fell to five-year lows after the company issued disappointing second-quarter guidance and said it would begin reducing its head count.”
Wallace is the latest high-profile marketing executive to leave RIM. Since the start of the year company lost its chief marketing officer and its VP of “Brand Creativity.” What’s more, last week, one of the company’s three chief operating officers went on temporary medical leave.
Another senior RIM executive leaves BlackBerry maker | Wall Street Journal
One of the new features in Mac OS X Lion is called AirDrop. It allows users to easily transfer files to one another by simply dragging and dropping files on a user’s icon. As of today, Apple now owns the trademark.
The trademark application was submitted last year by Urban Airship, Inc and the AirDrop service was launched last year. The service was advertised as a way for Android app developers to easily promote their applications.
Apple trademarks AirDrop [TUAW]
Mobile app-maker Seesmic on Monday told its customers that it would stop developing its BlackBerry app as of June 30, 2011. (more…)
Skype, Microsoft or the employees themselves have decided to make some changes to the management structure of Skype. While Skype has confirmed the departures, a spokesperson would not say whether they had been laid off or if they resigned.
The departures included David Gurle, vice president and general manager for Skype for Business; Don Albert, vice president and general manager for the Americas and Advertising; Doug Bewsher, chief marketing officer; Christopher Dean, head of consumer market business development; Russ Shaw, vice president and general manager; and Anne Gillespie, head of human resources.
Skype executives depart after Microsoft buyout [Macworld]
With everything that’s been happening with RIM in the past little while, I thought this infographic was kind of cool. It was put together by the folks at Geekaphone and used with permission. (more…)
Phil Harrison, the man who launched the original Sony PlayStation console and later because president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Worldwide Studios, recently offered his vision of the future of gaming to Edge Magazine. And Harrison sees Apple as ground zero of future game industry growth.
At this trajectory, if you extrapolate the market-share gains that they are making, forward for ten years – if they carry on unrestrained in their growth, then there’s a pretty good chance that Apple will be the games industry.
Asked to explain, Harrison says his prediction is based on Apple’s understanding of “the end-to-end shopping experience:” devices, visibility of games on the platform, and ease of acquiring and loading those games through the App Store. He says that it “has been so elegantly built by Apple and they will continue to refine it.”
Phil Harrison on the future | Edge Magazine
If you’ve noticed more problems with BlackBerrys than usual, there may be a very simple explanation — RIM is forcing carriers to overlook major issues with the devices. (more…)
Lawyers for Apple and Samsung are in talks to end lawsuits from both companies claiming patent infringement by the other. (more…)
Withings on Monday announced the U.S. availability of its Connected Blood Pressure Monitor for iOS devices, including iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It costs $129. (more…)
An estimated crowd of 1 million showed up to help the Boston Bruins celebrate their first Stanley Cup in almost 40 years. (more…)
First it was Sony, and now Sega has its online customer database hacked. I guess if there is a positive side to this breach it’s that no credit card information was stolen when the accounts were hacked. According to Sega, payment information was stored with external service providers.
Information taken includes names, birth dates, e-mail addresses and passwords, according to e-mails sent by Sega to affected customers. The information taken was part of Sega’s “Sega Pass” system, a registered account system Sega maintains for customers interested in newsletters and other information, and used for registering some Sega games with online components.
Sega: 1.3 million customer records hacked, LulzSec promises retribution [ZDNet Gamification]
June 18, 2011
Dolby Laboratories filed a patent infringement lawsuit against RIM late in the week, adding to RIM’s already bad week. (more…)
The New York Post has gone from showing iPad users visiting its Web site an ad promoting its iPad app to blocking access altogether. (more…)
Apple will join Intel, Ericsson and Google in bidding for the patents being sold by bankrupt Canadian company Nortel. The patent sale will be held on June 27, 2011. There are reportedly about 6,000 patents and patent applications on the auction block.
The patents include intelligence on wireless Internet technology and social networking. Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy in January 2009, has already sold most of its physical assets.
Apple, Intel to vie for Nortel patents: report [Reuters]
Apple’s commercials are special. They make you think, understand, and connect with their devices like no other company can do. The newest television ad is no different. Dubbed “Now,” the new ad talks about all of the things that we can do now that the iPad 2 has arrived. (more…)
After reporting disappointing results for its fiscal first quarter, four analysts downgraded the company. One analyst said “it appears RIM has slipped into eroding mismanagement.” Large shareholders of the company’s stock are also demanding RIM split the CEO and chairman roles, which are currently shared between Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.
Northwest & Ethical Investments LP has called for RIM to separate the roles of chairman and CEO, and shareholders will vote on that question at the company’s shareholder meeting July 12, according to a RIM proxy statement last week. Separating the two posts does put the board in a better position “to ask the CEO the kind of hard questions they have to ask from time to time,” Robert Walker, vice president of ethical funds at Northwest & Ethical, said in an interview last week.
RIM Shareholder Ups Pressure as Stock Plunges [Bloomberg]
On of the most famous pictures from the Vancouver riots is a couple lying on the ground kissing with rioters and police around them. Now, the couple tell their story. (more…)
Nobody really knew the scale of Oracle’s patent lawsuit against Google, but this week the numbers came out, and they are huge. According to Oracle, damages it suffered due to the patent infringement by Google range between $1.4 billion to $6.1 billion.
Google’s letter complains about “an unprecedented fifty percent royalty rate” (on a certain base). Since a recent Oracle filing denies that claim, I hope that future filings by Oracle and/or Google will shed light on that particular question.
Oracle expert says Google owes between 1.4 and 6.1 billion dollars [FOSS Patents]
June 17, 2011
The Federal Trade Commission on Friday gave the thumbs-up to Microsoft’s bid to purchase Skype. The two companies announced the $8.5 billion cash sale in May. Microsoft said that Skype will support Microsoft devices including Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and others, and Microsoft will connect Skype with Linc, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities.
Microsoft’s interest in the money-losing, but popular service highlights a need to gain new customers for its Windows and Office software. Skype has 145 million users on average each month and has gained favor among small businesses.
Microsoft gets antitrust approval to buy Skype [Reuters]
I use my iPhone camera and video camera quite a bit, but if a newly discovered Apple patent is any indication, you may not be doing it at some venues for long. (more…)
Here’s something that I completely missed, but is certainly worth a mention — Marketcircle has updated Billings Pro and Billings Pro Touch adding support for Marketcircle Cloud. (more…)
Apple amended its complaint against Samsung, adding new devices it contends are infringing on its patents. Apple called Samsung’s attempt to get access to unreleased iOS devices as an “attempt to harass” and said those devices were irrelevant to this case.
In addition to the original 15 Samsung models cited in Apple’s lawsuit, the following models have been added: Droid Charge, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S (i9000), Gravity, Infuse 4G, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, Sidekick, Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Galaxy S II. Apple has also tweaked some of the patent claims included in the lawsuit, removing a few assertions and adding other patents to the mix.
Apple Adds New Samsung Products to Infringement Lawsuit, Strengthens Assertions [Mac Rumors]
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber and Instapaper founder Marco Arment took two prominent Web sites to task for recent articles they wrote. My interpretation of their critiques come down to one thing — honesty in publishing. Having a difference of opinion is fine and expected, but not being honest with your readers to make a company happy is not right.
Gruber on David Pogue’s New York Times piece suggesting we should “praise Google for its noble experiment” with the Samsung Chromebook:
Really? Why? Would everyone have praised Apple for its “noble experiment” if the $500 iPad had been too big and heavy, felt like it was worth only $180, and was “a 3.3-pound paperweight” when offline?
Marco Arment on Ars Technica’s review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:
Translation: Android tablets have managed to copy the iPad’s hardware well enough — the easy part — but have failed to provide good software and significant third-party app choice — the hard part.So, with similar hardware with similar capabilities selling at similar prices, why should someone choose an Android tablet over an iPad?
Update: Marco as posted an apology and explanation for his comments “An apology and clarification on ‘softball’ reviews“
It’s hard to tell how executives will react after delivering poor quarterly results, but praising themselves probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. (more…)
June 16, 2011
It is a sad day for many employees of RIM. During the company’s disastrous first quarter results, they learned some workers would be laid off. But it’s not the workers that are responsible for this mess. (more…)
RIM’s first quarter results are in and things don’t look good. (more…)
Apple is being sued for violating another “i” trademark — this time its for iBooks. (more…)
Feral Interactive announced Thursday plans to release a Macintosh conversion of the popular rally racing game Colin McRae: DiRT2 on July 21, 2011. The game will cost $39.9 and will be available in retail stores and for online download. (more…)
