As usual, the race to hype this dispute as a bitter standoff between two tech giants desperate to destroy one another has all but ignored the reality of how patents — especially wireless patents — are licensed, what Nokia’s actually asking for, and how it might go about getting it. And as you know, we just don’t do things that way, so we’ve asked our old friend Mathew Gavronski, a patent attorney in the Chicago office of Michael Best & Friedrich, to help us sort things out and figure out what’s really going on here — read on for more.
In a nutshell, Nokia believes Apple is infringing on 10 patents that are core to GSM/UTMS/Wi-Fi. All the other major players have paid up. Apple hasn’t. Apple may believe the patent fees are already paid by the manufacturer of the components they bought for the iPhone, or they may just be using the legal system as way to negotiate a lower ultimate licensing fee from Nokia.
If the area interests you, check out the whole analysis and then let us know what you think!
According to Business Insider, the mythical iTablet is imminent due to the unnamed, unverified, unspecified travel of someone at Apple who does… something:
a source tells us a system integration engineer friend of his at Apple has been ramping up his travels back and forth between China lately, broadcasting word of his travels over the Internet.
A friend of a friend — no names! — asked TiPb what will end up being more ridiculous, iPhone rumors or iTablet rumors. We answered — yes!
Anyone have an iTablet case (with or without camera hole!) they want to leak our way?
To go along with the shiny new iTunes 9.0.2 and Apple TV 3.0 software released today, Apple has also bumped their Remote app [Free - iTunes link] to version 1.3.2, which:
“provides bug fixes and compatibility with iTunes 9 and Apple TV 3″
If you have an Apple TV and haven’t tried the latest version of Apple’s Remote app, download load it and do it. The lag for Wi-Fi to connect between sessions is annoying (though you can disable auto-lock, burn battery, and stay connected if you choose), but using the iPhone or iPod touch as a slick touch surface controller… gesture bliss.
AppleInsider is reporting that the car kit will not be compatible with the iPod touch and first-generation iPhone 2G. This is a complete turn around from early reports from TomTom claiming since the car kit contained it’s own GPS, you could indeed use the TomTom App Store software/car kit combo with an iPod Touch and first-generation iPhone.
TomTom’s car kit for iPhone has been in the news countless times the past few months and here it is once again. This news should sadden many iPod touch/First-generation iPhone 2G owners who have been waiting for this often delayed accessory to be released. It was first slated to come out this past summer, which was then pushed back to October and now will not be shipped until November.
“The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interface that gives you instant access to your favorite content,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and with Apple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras, Genius Mixes and Internet radio.”
It also looks like Apple has (finally!) done right and — like every other product — moved user content above for-sale content. That’s right, it looks like our videos and music, and not iTunes Store stuff, is on top, baby!
I’m downloading it now and will be back later with my thoughts, but if you’re already rocking it, roll a comment our way and let us know what you think!
Apple this afternoon released a point update to iTunes, bringing the latest version to 9.0.2.
iTunes 9.0.2 adds support for Apple TV software version 3.0, adds an option for a dark background for Grid View, and improves support for accessibility.
Needless to say, according to our friends at PreCentral.net, it also kills Palm Pre webOS sync dead. Again.
Check Apple’s Software Update to get your copy, and let us know if you find any other goodies!
Streaming music has gotten pretty popular among iPhone owners and today we’d like to introduce you to one more option, Lala.
Lala gives you the ability to listen to any song for free one time. If you happen to like the song you pay $0.10 for unlimited listening. And at $0.10 per “Web Song” you can pretty much purchase a full album for a single dollar. That may not convince all of you but Lala has one more trick up it’s sleeve — you can upload your entire music library from your computer to the cloud for you to stream back to your iPhone, completely free. Lose you data connection for some reason? No worries as Lala uses caching to save your music. Exactly how much is cached is not known just yet but it’s a nice feature regardless.
This is definitely an app worth taking a closer look at when it hits the App Store. It should be free to download and you can expect to see it available within the next few weeks.
MacRumors has been tipped that users attempting to make purchases in iTunes today are being greeted with new Terms of Service (TOS) which include the following, tantalizing line:
The Terms of Sale have been revised to clarify that you can now use iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras on Apple TV with software version 3.0 or higher.
Apple TV was introduced in 2006 and re-introduced alongside the original iPhone at Macworld 2007. It was bumped to OS 2.0 at Macworld 2008 when video rentals were introduced. Then… incremental updates only. The debut of iTunes LP and iTunes Extras at the Apple 2009 Music Event, in their Apple TV-friendly 720p format hinted at an update, and now let’s hope Apple is finally ready to deliver it. (Along with their fancy new remote?)
Let’s also hope Mac OS X’s Front Row, currently languishing with an Apple TV 1.0 era interface gets a similar upgrade. Beyond 2.0 for real parity would be nice, especially considering the Mac Mini is marketed, in part, as an entertainment center. Right Apple?
How important is the iPhone to Apple’s business going forward? See the chart above, prepared by Fortune. Up from 5.7% in 2008 to 18.5% in 2009.
We’re going to say “very” and “increasingly”. Daring Fireball highlights how Apple goes about ensuring that “increasingly” part, riffing off The Loop’s reminder of when Apple killed the iPod mini at the height of its popularity and replaced it with the iPod nano:
You know who thinks the iPhone 3GS stinks? Steve Jobs. No one is working harder on an “iPhone 3GS killer” than Apple.
Given that competition is ramping up (see Android Central’s coverage of Droid Day, CrackBerry’s BlackBerry Storm2 watch, and Nokia Experts’ massive N900 guide), is that internal drive still enough?
TechCrunch has posted an interesting photo and write up of the Apple Tablet that never was — the Pen Mac, unreleased in favor of the PDA-style Newton back in 1990.
The Pen Mac was a fully functional Mac computer (it even played the Mac startup chime) with a pen based touch screen. The screen itself was identical to the Mac Portable, but with the addition of pen touch. And of course the case was a lot smaller than the Mac Portable. The Pen Mac was supposedly not much more than one inch thick. Users could plug in a keyboard and mouse or easier input.
So, it happened before will it happen again? From Newton to iPod touch. From Pen Mac to… iTablet? We’ll have to wait for 2010 to find out.
