The complaint at the U.S. International Trade Commission claims infringement of seven Motorola Mobility patents on features including location reminders, e-mail notification and phone/video players, Motorola Mobility said today. The case seeks a ban on U.S. imports of devices including the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. Apple’s products are made in Asia.
“We would like to settle these patent matters, but Apple’s unwillingness to work out a license leaves us little choice but to defend ourselves and our engineers’ innovations,” Motorola Mobility said in an e-mailed statement.
Just a reminder of how crazy the current patent war is.
They’re more in a dictatorship mode where they say, ‘This is what you have to do or you don’t get the iPhone.’ Being arrogant with your partners in big markets doesn’t pay off.Vasyl Latsanych, Vice President of Marketing at Russian mobile carrier OAO Mobile TeleSystems • Offering his employers’ explanation for the iPhone’s extremely high price — which have reportedly topped $1000 at times — compared to other smartphones available in Russia. As the author also notes, the majority Russian consumers do not sign long term contracts for mobile service, removing any incentive for carriers themselves to help subsidize the high cost of some devices. Think this is the sort of thing investor’s were worried about last week when asking Apple CEO Tim Cook about entry barriers in emerging markets? source (via • follow)
Here are a couple of iPhone prototypes from 2006, images of which surfaced as a result of the current Apple vs. Samsung trial. Does the one on the left look familiar? On top of this, did you know that one of the design inspirations for Apple was Sony? Seriously.
Is Apple’s iPhone slimming back even more? The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is working with multiple companies on a new display for the planned iPhone 5 which combines the touch input and display into a single piece of LCD — which has the side effects of making the screen thinner and simplifying the supply chain Apple uses to create the devices. They have to keep up — their chief cell phone competition, Samsung, is coming up with some screen innovations of its own on its Android devices. (graphic via WSJ)
BlackBerrys were in fact considered in the survey but given very few respondents reported being a BlackBerry user, their numbers were not statistically relevant. Of those considering themselves smartphone owners, only 9 percent reported being BlackBerry users.Tucked away in this Obvious Survey is Obvious post over at POLITICO, which shows President Barack Obama has a commanding 49-31 percent lead over Mitt Romney among iPhone/Android users, is one of the saddest statistics about Research in Motion we’ve ever come across (via hypervocal)
![Uh-oh: Facebook mobile apps modifying users’ address books
You might want to uninstall the Facebook app: There are reports that Facebook’s iPhone, Android and Blackberry apps are infiltrating the address book that comes preinstalled on these devices, erasing contacts’ email addresses, and replacing them with their Facebook address (you know, the [name]@facebook.com email address that everyone’s given and many don’t use). This is bad enough, but to make matters worse, the @facebook.com addresses —which are supposed to redirect to users’ Facebook inboxes — apparently aren’t working all that great. The end result is that emails sent by many well-intentioned mobile users are disappearing into the abyss, irretrievable by their intended recipients. Presumably, affected users are also losing the real email addresses of their friends. This is, to put it lightly, completely inexcusable, and it doesn’t take too much thinking to conjure up many, many disastrous scenarios that could result from a reckless policy like this. (Photo: AP; Clarification: the iOS danger is specifically related to version 6, which is in beta, though if you have an Android or Blackberry device, this is an issue now. Thanks to ligerxx for reaching out.) source
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You might want to uninstall the Facebook app: There are reports that Facebook’s iPhone, Android and Blackberry apps are infiltrating the address book that comes preinstalled on these devices, erasing contacts’ email addresses, and replacing them with their Facebook address (you know, the [name]@facebook.com email address that everyone’s given and many don’t use). This is bad enough, but to make matters worse, the @facebook.com addresses —which are supposed to redirect to users’ Facebook inboxes — apparently aren’t working all that great. The end result is that emails sent by many well-intentioned mobile users are disappearing into the abyss, irretrievable by their intended recipients. Presumably, affected users are also losing the real email addresses of their friends. This is, to put it lightly, completely inexcusable, and it doesn’t take too much thinking to conjure up many, many disastrous scenarios that could result from a reckless policy like this. (Photo: AP; Clarification: the iOS danger is specifically related to version 6, which is in beta, though if you have an Android or Blackberry device, this is an issue now. Thanks to ligerxx for reaching out.) source
Why has the Facebook app been so slow? Because the current version of the app is nothing more than a web browser inside an Objective-C shell. Stuff is being constantly pulled from the web, hence the lag time.Gizmodo’s Casey Chan • Explaining the main problem with Facebook’s iPhone app — it’s not really a native app, so it’s slow. But this is apparently changing, according to Nick Bilton of the NY Times, who says a fully-native app is coming — and it’s fast.
We never talked about him going back to Iran or anything like that. He was just speaking full-fledged Farsi and the representative came back and denied our sale. I would say if you’re trying to buy an iPhone, don’t tell them anything about Iran.Atlanta resident Zack Jafarzadeh • Commenting on a recent trip to the Apple Store in Atlanta’s Perimeter Mall, when a friend wanted to purchase a new iPhone. Jafarzadeh’s story came to light after another Apple Store customer, University of Georgia student Sahar Sabet, contacted her local news station after being denied a new iPad for the same reason, citing State Department regulations and the fractured relations between the two countries. (She later got an apology after calling customer service.) Apple has not commented on the policy, or the story, at this time, though two Islamic-American groups have condemned the practice. source (via • follow)
Here’s the full list of devices that will be compatible with iOS 6 when it releases this fall.
Ever forgot to return a call that you received while in a meeting? Now, you’ll have the ability to quickly respond to inconvenient calls with short texts, or set a quick reminder to return the call once you’re available again.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Now, if you’re sitting here using your Mac and your phone buzzes with a new message, you can just respond on your Mac.Senior VP of Mac OS Engineering Craig Federighi - Announcing one of OS X’s more exciting new features
Sweet burn! #amercia
Yelp, you clever bastards. (some context, since some of you were confused last time we brought up this topic)
Is this the new, bigger iPhone we’ve been hearing rumors about? 9to5Mac and Engadget certainly seem to think so. Each site received photos from an outside source, iFixyouri and uBreakiFix, which claimed to show the back casing of Apple’s latest iPhone. With the leaks coming hot on the heels of leaked images of the purported taller iPod Touch surfacing, do you think the iPhone/iPod redesign will be part of Tim Cook’s keynote speech next month? (Photo via 9to5Mac) source
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