Apple injunction against Galaxy S III would give Samsung 'big problems'

Apple injunction against Galaxy S III would give Samsung 'big problems'

Apple's recent string of courtroom victories against rival Samsung are continued progress in the company's
"thermonuclear war" against Android. Its next target: the latest flagship Android smartphone, Samsung's Galaxy S III.

Apple initially tried to halt sales of the Galaxy S III with an injunction before it launched in the U.S. last month, but failed to halt the stateside debut of Samsung's latest smartphone. However, the Galaxy S III remains a courtroom target for Apple, and a victory halting its sale would leave Samsung with "big problems on its hands," analyst Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets said in a note to investors on Monday.

Apple has found success in the courtroom by focusing on four patents, though its recent success with Judge Lucy Koh against Samsung has stemmed largely from U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604, for a "universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system." Koh found that Apple is "likely to suffer irreparable harm" for any infringement on the '604 patent. The other three patents cited by Apple are:

• U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 for a "system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data." 
• U.S. Patent No. 8,074,172 for a "method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendations" or predictive text. 
•  U.S. Patent No. 8,046,721 for a system describing "unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image" or the "slideto unlock" function found on iOS device.

Last week, Apple won injunctions against both Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, and its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. White sees the victories as one step in Apple's lengthy battle against Android — a showdown he said the iPhone maker is "well prepared for," with $110.2 billion in net cash as of the second quarter of its fiscal year 2012.

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs vowed to biographer Walter Isaacson that his company would "destroy" Android, as he considered it to be a "stolen product." Jobs said he was "willing to thermonuclear war" and would have spent "every penny" that Apple had to "right this wrong."

While Apple's legal success against the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1 are important decisions, those devices are not major sellers at the same level as the newly released Galaxy S III. Samsung has already announced that it expects sales of the Galaxy S III to reach 10 million this month, even in the face of demand outstripping supply.


Apple failed to block the June 21 U.S. launch of the Galaxy S III because Koh said she couldn't fit the issue on her calendar on such short notice. The docket for the case between Apple and Samsung has become particularly crowded leading up to the official trial, which will begin at the end of this month.

Source: AppleInsider
Original Content: Apple injunction against Galaxy S III would give Samsung 'big problems'

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Apple considered physical keyboard for first iPhone

Ex-Apple executive Tony Fadell revealed that the company toyed with the idea of equipping the first iPhone with a physical keyboard, but ultimately settled on the intuitive multitouch design that changed the face of the game.

In a Friday interview with The Verge, the former iPod guru said that Apple narrowed down the original design to three prototypes before introducing the handset in January 2007.

Fadell, who officially left Apple in 2008 but was kept on the payroll as a special advisor to the late Steve Jobs until 2010, worked on 18 versions of the iPod as well as the iPhone up to the 3GS before leaving to start "smart thermostat" company Nest.

He notes that when Apple was readying its first handset, the final three designs were an iPod-phone hybrid, an undisclosed version also called "iPhone" and the final model that reached customers' hands.

When asked about his personal opinion, Fadell said that he recognized the potential of a virtual keyboard and would have waited for the technology instead of going with a hardware option. Jobs, who had the final say over what was released, apparently sided with Fadell and pointed out the lack of physical keys as being inherent to the now iconic design.

Before the iPhone's monolithic construction and screen-dominated face hit the market, the general trend was skewed toward QWERTY keyboards. At the time, Research in Motion dominated the sector, implementing physical keyboards in all of its designs including the lauded BlackBerry Pearl.

The overarching resistive touchscreen technology used in early smartphones was a major drawback for virtual keyboards which were far from intuitive and in many applications required a stylus. The iPhone brought capacitive touchscreens to the consumer, which allowed Apple to create a device that was not only sleek, but more user-friendly than its smartphone contemporaries. In addition, the extra real estate allowed larger displays to be used, which opened the door to totally new areas of device functionality like video and complex games.

After the iPhone debuted, the overall market began to pick up on multitouch screen tech and slowly moved away from physical keyboards. Some users still prefer the tactile feedback that a hardware solution provides, but the configurability, ease-of-use and eye-pleasing design of the virtual keyboard has won a strong following.

Source : AppleInsider
Original Content : Apple considered physical keyboard for first iPhone

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New aerial images of Apple's planned NC fuel cell, solar farms emerge

Pictures of the area surrounding Apple's iCloud datacenter in Maiden, North Carolina show that progress is being made in preparing land for the company's future biogas and solar farm energy arrays.

The images, captured by Wired in March and posted on Friday, show a large swath of cleared ground in front of Apple's datacenter that will presumably house the Bloom Energy fuel cells as well as 100 acres of freshly razed land that is expected to be used for a solar farm.

Apple will employ 24 Bloom Energy Servers using natural gas supplied by Piedmont Natural Gas and a 20-megawatt solar installation to power its massive $1 billion datacenter. Once finished, both of the energy sources will be the largest privately owned systems of their kind in the nation.

Opened in early 2011, Apple server facility supports its iTunes and iCloud services and is the nerve center of the iPhone 4S' Siri virtual assistant.

Reports estimate that the alternative power sources will begin operations later this year and will provide 9.8 percent of the energy required to run the 500,000 square-foot datacenter.

Source : AppleInsider
Original Content : New aerial images of Apple's planned NC fuel cell, solar farms emerge

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Apple interested in wireless power to charge devices on store shelves

Apple has shown interest in wirelessly powering and charging its portable devices, allowing products like the iPhone and iPad to be powered up while sealed in packaging and on display at a retail store.

The concept was detailed this week in a new patent application discovered by AppleInsider entitled "Active Electronic Media Packaging." It describes an active packaging system that would supply power and data to devices, allowing them to display content and show off features to customers while on display in a store.

The proposed invention aims to replace the typical labels and other advertising that is found on the outside of product packaging. Instead, Apple's method would let the product sell itself.

"Although typical packaging for an electronic media device may be designed to adequately protect the device from shock or damage, the packaging is extremely limited in other respects," the filing reads. "For example, the ability to fully view or interact with the electronic media device while still inside the packaging is severely limited in most packaging designs. Although unobtrusive packaging designs have been developed, these designs typically do not allow electronic media devices to be interacted with while inside the packaging."

In addition, most packages do not include some sort of external power source to make sure the device can be operational for the user to see and use.

Physically connecting a power supply to each package in a store could be a difficult task, and so one of Apple's proposed solutions is to use an RF power transmitter. The packaging itself could act as a receiver, and would provide power to a device like an iPhone or iPad.

The use of packaging to receive the wireless power would also negate the need for the device itself to be able to recharge wirelessly. This would avoid the need to increase the size of the device to add such technology.

The new packaging method with an external power supply would also allow Apple to conduct functionality like firmware or software upgrades directly in the store, while the product is still sealed.

The application, made public this week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, was first filed in December of 2011. It is credited to Michael Rosenblatt, a former new technologies manager at Apple, where his team filed 42 patent applications related to the iPhone and iPod, and saw 70 percent of their innovations adopted into products over a two-year span.

Source : AppleInsider
Original Content : Apple interested in wireless power to charge devices on store shelves

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Biographer says Steve Jobs was legitimately infuriated by Android

Biographer Walter Isaacson has disputed Google CEO Larry Page's assertion that Steve Jobs only said disparaging remarks about its Android mobile operating system to rally his own employees.

Page's comments came from an interview this week in which he said he believed Jobs's hatred of Android was merely "for show." The Google CEO suggested that the comments from Jobs served the best interests of Apple in giving its employees something to fight against.

Those comments were in contrast to what Jobs told Isaacson for his biography of the Apple co-founder. In their conversations, Jobs called Android a "stolen product," and vowed to use his "last dying breath" to "destroy" it.

After hearing Page's interpretation of Jobs's words, Isaacson spoke out this week in a speech at the Royal institution of Great Britain. Isaacson said he felt that Android had ripped off many of his ideas found in the iPhone and iPad, and that his ire was very real, according to Macworld.

"It's almost copied verbatim by Android," Isaacson said. "And they license it around promiscuously. And then Android starts surpassing Apple in market share, and this totally infuriated him. It wasn't a matter of money. He said, 'You can't pay me off, I'm here to destroy you.'"

The biographer also predicted that current Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook will use a different approach than Jobs, who vowed to "go thermonuclear war" to stop Android. Isaacson instead believes that Cook will eventually settle Apple's Android-related lawsuits.

A similar take was offered in a recent cover story by Bloomberg Businessweek, which revealed that Apple has communicated recently with Samsung about potentially settling the multitude of lawsuits between the two companies. Author Paul M. Barrett said Cook doesn't share Jobs's desire to "(lay) all foes to waste," and that he instead views the courtroom as a "necessary evil."

Apple has not sued Google directly over Android, but has taken on a number of Google's partners who ship devices running the Android mobile operating system. In addition to Samsung, other companies involved in litigation are HTC and and Motorola Mobility, the latter of which is owned by Google.

Source : AppleInsider
Original Content :  Biographer says Steve Jobs was legitimately infuriated by Android

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How Apple used a British shell company to snap up the iPad trademark from Proview

If you’re not familiar with the legal battle between Apple and Chinese company Proview over the trademark for the name ‘iPad’, it’s a pretty interesting read. Our latest post on the matter sums up the dispute well, but some interesting details were revealed today in an Proview press release and summarized by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt.

What happened was that roughly a month before the iPad was set to be released in 2010, Apple hired a british firm called Farncombe International to secure a trademark license for the name iPad. The trademark was then held by Proview, a Chinese company that made iMac-shaped monitors it called IPAD. To do this, Farncombe’s managing director, Graham Robinson, set up a shell company called — and this is rich — IP Application Development Limited. That’s IPAD Ltd..

Then Robinson used an alias to approach Proview with the premise that the company needed the acronym for its business. When queried about the nature of the fake company’s business, Robinson pleaded the fifth, but said that it would “not compete with proview.”

Apple purchased the trademark for £35,000 via the UK-based shell firm. Apple says it has evidence of emails that show confirmation of the deal directly from Proview staff.

Now, Proview is trying to claim that Apple committed fraud by concealment, inducement and intentional misrepresentation to grab the iPad name. This case is being brought against Apple in California, where it actually has already purchased the trademark from Fujitsu, who previously owned it stateside.

Interestingly, in China, Proview is taking a completely different tack, claiming that Apple was never issued the trademark at all. Apple says that the company is lying and that it has an email trail to prove that it owns the trademark.

Proview has been after Apple over the IPAD trademark for some time, and instituted efforts to get it back in October of 2010. That decision was appealed by Apple last month. More recently, it has come to light that a series of creditors, including the Bank of China, has owned Proview for some time and is pushing for a settlement in the ‘IPAD’ trademark case there.

Proview Chairman Yang Rongshan says that Apple didn’t do its due dilligence on the relationship between Proview, its creditors and the court before striking an agreement. Something he says means that Apple still needs to clear up by way of a settlement.

For its part, Apple has issued a statement, saying that it “bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter. Our case is still pending in mainland China.”

Source : TNW | Matthew Panzarino
Original Content : How Apple used a British shell company to snap up the iPad trademark from Proview

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Jailbreak for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S imminent

If you've been patiently waiting for a jailbreak solution for your A5-based device--in other words, your iPhone 4S or iPad 2--it should be exciting news that the jailbreak community has gotten its current program out of the sandbox stage, which generally signals an imminent release.

According to a tweet picked up by iDownloadBlog, hacker "planetbeing" has announced that the iPhone 4S/iPad 2 jailbreak has left the sandbox stage of development. He also states that the jailbreak is "turning out to be more complex than X-Gold 618."

X-Gold 618 was the baseband chip in the iPhone 4 that was cracked by planetbeing and "MuscleNerd."

The complicated nature of this particular jailbreak is not a surprise considering Apple blocked one of the popular methods of jailbreaking with the release of the iOS 5 update.

With the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 jailbreak on the horizon, are you planning on jailbreaking your device?

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The Best iPhone And iPad Apps You Missed This Week

Apps to help you take measurements around the house, Google Translate's new iPad app, and Samsung's iMessage-killer.

1. Instapad is a full-on Instagram client for iPad.

Instagram hasn't built an iPad app yet, so developer Red Foundry went ahead and built one for them.

While you can't upload pictures yet (due to limitations in the Instagram API), the app is still a great way to browse your Instagram feed, check notifications, and search for photos.

Price : Free


2. Measured is a swiss army knife for handymen.

Measured uses some very complex math and a few magic tricks to help you actually take measurements of distances, while looking at them through your iPhone.

Measured asks you to take a picture, walk a few steps, then take another picture. Using this information, combined with your shoe size (oddly enough) the app pretty accurately calculates measurements.


Price : $5.99


3. Square isn't the only mobile payments company on the scene.

Looking for an alternative to Square?

PayAnywhere will ship you a free reader and let you process credit card transactions right on your cell phone, but the cool thing about PayAnywhere is that you can even build its tools right into an app of your own.


Price : Free


4. Google Translate for iPad gets a new interface.

Google just launched Google Translate for iPad. While it's essentially the same app as before, it's been reformatted for the iPad's larger screen.

Price : Free






5. Clingle lets you leave hidden messages at specific places for friends to find.

Clingle is an audio and video check in app with a twist: you can leave hidden messages around the city for your friends.

When they're near a location, they activate the message, which might contain a note, video, or picture. Plus, there's an Explore section which contains deals and places to go near you.

Price : Free


6. Temple Run is the top free app in the App Store.

Temple Run is kind of like that one scene in Indiana Jones when Indy has to outrun the rolling boulder.

Avoid zombies, booby traps, and other obstacles just by swiping your finger.

Price : Free



7. Samsung's ChatON lets you text friends for free over your data plan.

ChatON is Samsung's version of iMessage, except it doesn't only work on iPhones.

It's a free chatting app that lets you text friends over your data network and hopefully cut down on pricey text messages.

Price : Free

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Apple wins $920K tax refund from 1989, loses appeal for overseas tax reprieve

Apple wins $920K tax refund from 1989, loses appeal for overseas tax reprieve

California's Supreme Court has affirmed a $920,000 tax refund for Apple dating back to 1989, but it refused to hear the company's request to lower its tax bill for income earned abroad.

The court upheld an appellate ruling earlier this week that returned $231,000 in taxes to Apple, along with $689,000 in interest, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The Franchise Tax Board was ordered to return the money because Apple should have been allowed to deduct interest from loans for its U.S. operations

However, the final ruling came as only a partial win, as the Supreme Court rejected Apple's request to reevaluate tax rates on foreign-earned income. After California reduced taxes on overseas income in 1989, the Cupertino, Calif., company sought to reclassify the status of income it received as dividends from its foreign holdings.

"Apple argued that its foreign dividends from that year should be attributed to income from previous years that had already been taxed," the report read.

But the appeals court sided with the tax board's assertion that companies should be taxed on foreign dividends from income generated that year.

Apple's lawyer warned the decision could have expensive ramifications in the future. "It creates some potential issues for companies that want to repatriate earnings from overseas," Jeffrey Vesely told the publication on Thursday.

According to the report, two organizations, the California Taxpayers Association and the Council on State Taxation in Washington, D.C., backed Apple in petitioning the state Supreme Court to hear the case.

The issue of overseas earnings has reached "heightened importance during our current economic climate, as it affects the ability of United States companies to bring billions of dollars of foreign earnings back into the United States economy," the California Taxpayers Association told the court.

Deputy Attorney General Kristian Whitten, speaking for the Franchise Tax Board, argued that Apple was "attempting to avoid, or at least indefinitely defer, the payment of tax on its remaining foreign-source income."

As the portion of Apple's income that it earns outside of the U.S. has surpassed its domestic earnings, the company has taken to lobbying for a tax holiday that would allow it to repatriate its cash with a reduced tax load. A consortium of companies, which includes Apple, has proposed a one-year break that would let companies pay just 5 percent to bring their money home, rather than the 35 percent tax rate they currently face.

Two-thirds of Apple's cash hoard, which reached $81 billion in the September 2010 quarter, is located offshore. The company's participation in the WIN America group fighting for the tax holiday has drawn the ire of a group opposing the proposed tax cuts. US Uncut staged several protests outside of Apple retail stores last year.

Source : AppleInsider | By Josh Ong
Original Content : Apple wins $920K tax refund from 1989, loses appeal for overseas tax reprieve

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iPad becomes newest weapon for Packers

Control over the DVD player used to be a nightly power struggle at the Driver household.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver didn't always win, either.

His children watch everything - "Cars 2," "Dolphin Tale" - whatever's current. The movies "go on and on and on," Driver said. He'd often take refuge in the basement to watch game film, and his son would follow.

"And then my son wants to play Madden on PS3," Driver said. "So then you have to give him the TV and go somewhere else. But then, he wants you to play with him."

Driver doesn't have those problems anymore. Like all of Green Bay's receivers, he's bringing his work home and seeing the results. The Packers tied an NFL record this season with 51 touchdowns through the air. Each week, the receivers find and exploit mismatches.

Their secret weapon? The iPad.

Like some other position groups, the Packers receivers watch film through an application on their personal iPad. Driver can spend time with his three kids and study film all at once.

"It makes it easy, it makes it easy," Driver said. "It's more convenient for me so I don't have to force a DVD in or say to my wife, 'Hey, babe, can I put a DVD in so I can watch film?' and she leaves up to the bedroom. I kind of like that intimate time with my whole family. I'm still able to sit there with my iPad."

Technology blended harmoniously with strategy. Coach Mike McCarthy has built this offense on abusing mismatches. He zigzags receivers across every possible contour of a defense and has arguably the best triggerman in the game. Green Bay went 15-1, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers likely will win most valuable player honors. But for this system to work, receivers must all be on the same page.

They don't necessarily need pre-snap audibles. They recognize coverages and - through football telepathy - adjust. This app fosters such synergy. It carefully categorizes film of each opponent. All receivers study what coverages a defense plays on first down, second down and third down.

Receivers stalk players for hours. They target a cornerback's tendencies in specific situations.

"You watch so much and watch the individual so much, you know his weaknesses," said James Jones, who caught 38 passes for 635 yards and seven touchdowns. "You know on certain routes you can do this to him and he can't cover that. From watching film, that's what we catch up on. We use some of that in our routes.

"You can say, 'OK, this guy, when he's in press coverage he likes to use his hands a lot. He likes to get his hands on you. And this guy, when he's in press coverage, he likes to mirror you and not put his hands on you.' It's 'OK, No. 29 is on me. He's going to put his hands on me. I have to be ready to knock his hands down. If I knock his hands down, he's in trouble.' "

Each Wednesday, the team loads film of that week's opponent onto the iPad app. From that point, it's up to the player. Coaches don't demand that receivers watch a certain amount of film. Jones says he invests four to five hours a day.

"This is your own preparation," Jones said. "When you leave the stadium, it's all on you. So if you want to prepare longer and get better, you do. If you don't, you don't. But everybody's a pro in here. They want to get better."

No, they didn't have these contraptions back in Edgar Bennett's day. When he played running back for the Packers in the mid-1990s, players toted home VHS tapes. Nothing was organized. Those held a small amount of footage that required constant rewinding and fast-forwarding to find certain plays. DVDs could hold more film, but even those remain finite.

That's what the wide receivers coach admires most about the iPad - the sheer wealth of film the app allows. They still have group meetings, of course. The receivers haven't gone 100% digital.

But now when the receivers reconvene, there are more advanced discussions about players and schemes.

"You go more in depth from that on a technique standpoint," Bennett said, "breaking it down from each position - what their linebackers are doing, what their D-Linemen are doing, what their perimeter guys, the DBs and safeties are doing.

"It's another way to stay mentally sharp off the field. You're focusing, you're ready to go."

Probably most important, players are more likely to watch film. The iPad is portable. As Bennett said, they don't need to lug around a television. Jones sets son "Little James" on his lap, and the two watch film together.

It has become a wallet, a cellphone, car keys. He brings it everywhere.

"On the plane. At the hotel. Wherever you go, you're taking this iPad with you," Jones said. "Wherever you go, you have game film with you. Even if it's before the game and A-Rod says, 'Man, did you see this play? Did you see that play?' And we can say, 'What play? Let's look at it.' It's a lot easier."

And a lot easier for Driver, too.

"I can still be in the conversation while I'm watching film," Driver said. "If I had to put a DVD in, my family's not going to sit and watch film with me. They're going to leave. It's hands on. The good thing about the iPad is it's all in one."

Source : JSOnline | By Tyler Dunne
Original Content : iPad becomes newest weapon for Packers

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