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…)
N3V Games’ Trainz Simulator is now available for download from Macgamestore.com. It costs $49.95. (more…)
Apple has offered up details for this year’s Back to School promotion for students interested in buying a new computer. (more…)
June 15, 2011
I honestly didn’t think I’d be saying this, but the Boston Bruins have won the 2011 Stanley Cup. (more…)
The PR firm responsible for Duke Nukem got itself in hot water today as it made veiled threats to Web sites who delivered poor reviews of the game. (From what I’ve seen, that would be all of them). It got so bad that 2K Games fired the PR firm this afternoon.
That is, until the Redner Group’s official Twitter account posted something you almost never see: an open threat stating that outlets who reviewed Duke Nukem Forever poorly may not receive review copies of games in the future. Anyone who has done this job for any amount of time has suffered through a dry spell after giving a publisher a bad review, but this is the first time the threat of a blacklist has been made public.
Duke Nukem’s PR threatens to punish sites that run negative reviews [Ars Technica]
Japanese game developer Cave is known for making frentically-paced and gorgeous-looking “bullet hell” shooters. Nowhere is this more evident than in Deathsmiles, a “Gothic Lolita”-themed shooter that’s headed to the iPhone. The forthcoming iPhone version will get a new character and some unique additional content not found in the previously-released Xbox 360 version. (more…)
A new report from Millennial Media on Tuesday shows that Apple is doing very well in mobile ad revenue — in fact, it’s leading all manufacturers. (more…)
Apple has posted an update to AirPort Utility, the software Macs (and Windows PCs) use to control AirPort Extreme Base Stations and AirPort Express devices. (more…)
June 14, 2011
Rumors of an iPad 3 release started early in 2011, even before the iPad 2 was released. Taiwan’s Economic Daily continued the speculation on Tuesday. (more…)
If you are wondering about the difference between an unlocked phone and a jailbroken phone, you should have a look at TUAW’s unlocked iPhone 4 FAQ. There’s a lot of useful information, from basic explanations to new pricing plans from AT&T. Certainly worth a look.
Unlocked iPhone FAQ, including AT&T plan info [TUAW]
No matter how much Google does to convince consumers it is good and open, continued reports of malware will hurt its reputation. Google already had to remove apps containing malware once and a report in May said malware on the store grew 400 percent. Now, Google removes more malware.
Unlike other code embedded in apps that have appeared in the market, Plankton doesn’t rely on a vulnerability to “root,” or gain complete control of the smartphone, said Brandt. Once the victim has installed the bogus app, however, Plankton can call in other files from the hacker-controlled server, including ones that would exploit one or more unpatched Android bugs.
Google pulls more malware from Android Market [Macworld]
GPS maker Garmin has just shifted the landscape of GPS software for iOS devices. The company announced Tuesday that it has acquired privately-held Navigon AG, makers of GPS software for iPhone. Terms of the deal were not revealed. (more…)
Apple Vice President Ron Johnson will leave the company and take over as the CEO of JC Penney. (more…)
When Apple introduced iCloud at last week’s Worldwide Developer Conference, there were no discussions about a Web-based interface for the service, which lead some to believe that there wouldn’t be one. I don’t believe this is the case. (more…)
Apple on Tuesday began selling an unlocked version of its iPhone 4 from its online store. (more…)
After announcing its iCloud service last week at WWDC, Apple was slapped with a lawsuit from Arizona-based iCloud Communications. Apple bought iCloud.com from Xcerion and has 11 applications registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Apple also owns the existing U.S. trademark formerly registered to Xcerion. However, that may not be enough.
“If iCloud Communications’ claims are accurate — that it’s used the mark since 2005, and used it widely — Brad Salai, a partner with Harter Secrest & Emery, said Apple would likely settle the dispute out of court. “It’s speculative, but if what iCloud Communications alleges is true, then Apple will be forced to settle,” Salai said.”
Apple likely to settle iCloud trademark lawsuit, says legal expert [Computerworld]
Apple and Nokia ended their back and forth patent lawsuits on Tuesday with Nokia coming out the victor. (more…)
June 13, 2011
Sometimes I think people just don’t pay attention. A major event like WWDC comes, Apple introduces some great products, and still some people think there is little innovation. (more…)
Analyst Gene Munster surveyed 45 Apple developers at last week’s WWDC to find out how many developed on other platforms. While the number of developers he spoke with is quite small (considering there were 5,000 registered for the event), there are some interesting results.
Only 7% are also developing apps for the Mac, down from 50% in 2008.Nearly half (47%) write apps for Android, 36% for Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry, 13% for Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Phone 7 and 7% for Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) WebOS.
iOS developer survey: 47% are on Android too, only 7% on Mac [Fortune]
RIM may want people to compare its PlayBook tablet to the iPad, but journalists have a less complimentary comparison for the device. (more…)
Amuse updated its Mac OS X app, My Living Desktop, fixing a few bugs and adding support for Apple’s Mac OS X Lion. (more…)
