Tag: iPhone

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Apple Defends iOS Developers Against Threats From Lodsys.

“Good News iOS Developers!”

Actually it is good news for a lot more than iOS Developers. Apple has finally spoken out against Lodsys for threatening iOS Developers over some licensing issues.. MacWorld published the full text of the letter Apple Legal sent to Lodsys regarding its patent dispute with app developers.

Apple certainly took the time to review the matter, 10 days after Lodsys sent patent lawsuit threat to iOS Developers (Friday May the 13th, 2011). John Gruber of Daring Fireball seems to think that Apple is doing the right thing by carefully reviewing the matter and preparing an appropriate response.

This would be an interesting case to follow since Apple already licensed the patents in question from Lodsys.

First, Apple is licensed to all four of the patents in the Lodsys portfolio. As Lodsys itself advertises on its website, “Apple is licensed for its nameplate products and services.” See http://www.lodsys.com/blog.html (emphasis in original). Under its license, Apple is entitled to offer these licensed products and services to its customers and business partners, who, in turn, have the right to use them.

It would be interesting to know when Apple become licensed to Lodsys’ four patents; as Google and Microsoft do. Did Lodsys reach out to Apple, Google and Microsoft after iOS, Android and WP7 were released? How significant are these fours patents in the Lodsys portfolio?

It would be an even more interesting development if Apple, possibly joined by Google and Microsoft would seek to invalidate Lodsys’s patents in question.

If Lodsys were to prevail in their threats, it would set a scary precedence for Developers; Android, iOS and WP7.

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WordPress 2.8 for iOS.

WordPress 2.8 for iOS is now available at iTunes App Store.

New features:

  • Quick Photo button: only available on iPhone for now.
  • Stats
  • Added translations to Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Bosnian, Hebrew, German, Dutch, French and Croatian.

WordPress for iOS now has Stats feature just like its Android counterpart.

In addition to that, WordPress 2.8 for iOS could be the last version that supports iOS 3.x.

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About the iPhone after iPhone 4.

In the recent weeks there have been numerous rumors about the next iPhone, be it iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S. We first jokingly reported the so called iPhone 4.5 as an April Fools joke, in fact some of the “made-up” info indeed came from credible sources.

For what we already know about “the next iPhone” in addition to iPhone 5:

  • No, it will not be a “teardrop” design.
  • No NFC
  • No LTE

What we heard is that Apple would release the next iPhone before 2011 Holiday Season. Rest assure that Phil Schiller is not the one who told us this.

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Can we cross the bridge now?

Lodsys explains why it’s not after Apple but only the developers for In-App Purchasing. Apple is licensed to use their patent, as a matter of fact both Google and Microsoft are also licensed.

Lodys sets the licensing fees:

Lodsys is seeking 0.575% of US revenue over for the period of the notice letter to the expiration of the patent, plus applicable past usage.  So on an application that sells US$1m worth of sales in a year, the licensee would have an economic exposure of $5,750 per year.

Lodsys also mentions that it has been getting a lot of hate mails including some death threats.

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Related articles:

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so Apple, Google and Microsoft can cross the bridge, but not people who are riding with them?

This is what the iPad Auto-Correction thinks of Lodsys:

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Rage Against Patent Troll.

On Friday May 13th, 2011 some iOS App Developers revealed that they are being sued by Lodsys for In-App Purchases and Upgrade Links. This lawsuit baffles many developers since Developers are using API in iOS SDK provided by Apple for In-App Purchasing. Lodsys so far is suing the Developers, but not Apple.

Adam C. Engst provided a great analysis on the matter.

It’s entirely unclear why Lodsys has chosen this approach — their lawyers have undoubtedly read the iOS Developer Program License Agreement and know that the iOS developers can’t settle. And they’ve chosen such small targets that there’s no way they could even cover their legal fees with what they could squeeze out. The only strategy that makes sense is that by targeting small developers, they put additional pressure on Apple to settle quickly.

Apple should respond to this lawsuit even though it is not yet directed at them.

In the meantime, this is what the iPad think about Lodsys:

That makes a lot of sense.

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Not Anymore, You AT&T!

AT&T needs to update some of its Terms and Conditions. The last time I checked, AT&T is no longer Apple’s exclusive carrier partner for iPhone in the United States. Back in January 11th, 2011 Apple announced that iPhone 4 was coming to Verizon. iPhone 4 then made its official debut on Verizon network on February 10th, 2011.

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AT&T-Compatible Google Nexus S.

It took a few months for Google to release AT&T-compatible model following the initial release of Nexus One. I was also hoping for another AT&T-compatible model of Nexus S; the one featured on Google Nexus page is compatible with T-Mobile USA, but not AT&T 3G network. I remembered reading that there is an AT&T-compatible Nexus S model. After further searching and reading, I found the Nexus S I’ve been looking for. It is available through Amazon and Negri Electronics.

The AT&T-compatible supports the following radio frequencies: GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, 3G 850, 3G 1900 and 3G 2100.

Why AT&T you ask?
I prefer GSM-based phones because I can easily take out the SIM Card from one phone to the other; maintaining only one wireless phone account. Currently, only on AT&T I can use Nexus One, Palm Pre 2 and an iPhone.

I have yet bought the Nexus S.

Model number: I9020A
Comes in Black or White.