Category Archives: News
Motorola wants 2.25 percent of Apple sales to license patents
The ongoing patent spat between Motorola and Apple has reached an interesting crossroads.
Just recently a German court granted an injunction against sales of many of Apple’s 3G-bearing products, including older model iPhones and the iPad. That injunction held for less than a day, however, pending further review of Motorola’s claims against Apple.
Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents found new information that suggests Motorola has offered to end the patent dispute and license its wireless patents to Apple — in exchange for 2.25 percent of Apple’s sales. It’s unclear whether this is a percentage of all Apple revenues or, more likely, a percentage of sales of devices which contain a 3G antenna and therefore potentially fall under the umbrella of Motorola’s patent claims.
In either case, Mueller finds the 2.25 percent shakedown “excessive,” and it only takes a glance at Apple’s latest quarterly earnings statement to see that Apple finds it pretty excessive, too.
Former Apple employee recounts how Jobs motivated iPhone team
Bob Borchers used to be an iPhone product marketing engineer for Apple. Part of the team that brought the first iPhone to market in 2007, he’s now a venture capitalist with Opus Capital.
Borchers recently gave a talk to students at a California school talking about the thought processes that were involved in the iPhone’s development.
Borchers says that Steve Jobs didn’t have a specific device in mind, but instead gave the team a mission: create a phone that people would love so much that they’d never leave the house without it.
Borchers believes that Apple has been so wildly successful with the iPhone because the company focused on fundamentals — breaking the rules, but in an exceptionally well manner; paying attention to details; and making people focus on the relationship they have with their device.
iBackFlip Somersault available for preorder; watch creator explain improvements
I met up with the guys behind iBackflip while at Macworld, and was impressed with their passion for design.
Their first iBackflip was a pretty straightforward flip-down arm sling for the iPad. Using Velcro, it offered a basic black design and minimal extras. The new iBackflip Somersault, now available for pre-order, is a thoroughly updated version. At $99, I got to see one of the final versions, fresh from their factory.
The Somersault’s main feature is the ability to position the iPad in front of you while being securely fastened to your body via an ample sling.
The flip-down panel securing the iPad is no longer Velcro, it is a sturdy YKK zipper now, and the iPad is more securely fastened in its own pocket.
Apple TV now offers Genius recommendations for movies, TV shows
A silent update to the backend has introduced Genius recommendations for movies and TV shows to the Apple TV.
No user action is required to access the new feature, as it’s not part of a device firmware update. Instead, Apple has updated its own servers to send this information to the Apple TV from its iTunes Store equivalent.
Based on AppleInsider’s screenshots of the updated Apple TV UI, this feature appears essentially identical to the Genius recommendation features already present in iTunes on the Mac and iOS devices.
Apple sends takedown notice about customer support email
If you’ve ever corresponded with Apple Support (or any major customer support outlet, really), you might have seen that little notice at the bottom of the email that says any conversation included “may be privileged and may contain confidential information.”
Most of the time, that’s just a weak move to try and cover up any issues that customer support may cause.
But in Apple’s case, they sometimes try to take it seriously. David Bowles is a blogger who had an issue with his Thunderbolt display warranty, and when he corresponded with Apple about it, he posted it on the Go Inside magazine website.
Just a little while after that, however, he received an email from Apple’s tech support notifying him that they’d seen the “confidential” information posted online, and telling him that he should take it all down, under threat of “further action” (whatever that may be).
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