The Little App Factory seems to have a big problem on their hands. The company received a letter from Baker & McKenzie, representing Apple, asking that The Little App Factory change the name of one of their most successful applications. Why? It has the word iPod in it.
iRip (formally known as iPodRip) was originally written in 2003 at the MacHack developer conference in order to fulfill an obvious problem with the iPod. Basically, iRip lets your copy and transfer your songs from iPod and iPhone to your computer. The app itself has been downloaded more then five million times, and has helped users transfer more then one billion songs to their computer.
As many of you are aware, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple last week in the Federal District Court in Delaware. Nokia’s complaint alleges that Apple has infringed on 10 of Nokia’s patents for various, “fundamental” GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies. In particular, the patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption. Nokia believes that all 10 patents have been infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced back in 2007.
This brings up the question: Why wait until now, Nokia, to sue Apple? Clearly, without speaking directly to Nokia’s legal team, all of the following is pure (albeit educated) conjecture. Nonetheless, with intellectual property (i.e. copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets) becoming increasingly important and relevant to (technology) companies around the globe, it is worth taking a few minutes to explore some of the possible motives/strategies behind Nokia’s latest legal muscle flexing.
Oh, U.S. Senate. Just when we thought you had turned your collective attention to the plethora of incredibly important issues to tackle (read: healthcare, 2 wars, global warming, education, etc), you go and pass the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009.
Way back in February, when iPhone OS 3.1 was but a distant “dream,” we posted 8 Little Things We Still Can’t Stand About the iPhone. More than half a year has passed and we can finally knock #7, “Arranging applications sucks something terrible,” off the list with the release of iPhone OS 3.1.
Looks like the never-ending “sync war” between Apple and Palm continues to rage on. According to numerous PreCentral forum contributors, iTunes 9 does NOT sync with their beloved Pres. What now, Palm?
I recently had the privilege to interview Jordan Rudess from the progressive rock/metal band, Dream Theater, while the band was on tour. Not only is Jordan an amazing keyboard player, but he also is a big geek. So like most musicians, he combined his passion for music and technology, and released an application to the App Store. His first application is called JR Hexatone [App Store link], is a 6-directional drum machine / melodic sequence generator for the iPhone/iPod Touch. What’s more cool is that Jordan actually uses the app while playing during shows and recordings. JR Hexatone is just the first of many apps to come from Jordan.
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Have you ever wanted to rearrange your applications on your iPhone, but ended up messing up pages of apps? Well, now there is a solution for that, and it’s called Movement. Movement essentially lets your rearrange all of your applications on your iPhone or iPod Touch, straight from your Mac. Seems too good to be true, right? Of course, there’s a catch. It requires a jailbroken iPhone.
IDFusion Software, the company behind Bodega, today announces the first public release of Bodega, a free application store for Mac applications. Bodega is a free download, for both users and developers, and creates simple process for people to discover great, new and old software, while also giving the developers an alternative way to sell their applications.
The Bodega storefront also gives users links to press articles and blog postings, so they can see what writers have to say about the app. Bodega lets users purchase directly from developers as well. If the application is a paid app, you can download a free trial for most applications. If you are a developer, and would like to be included in the Bodega Store, IDFusion Software has setup a developer area with all the information needed.
As we move farther and farther into the digital age, we begin to see some serious problems with an all-digital lifestyle. Take parking meters, for example. As much as a pain as it is to root under your car seat looking for loose change to feed the meter, there aren’t too many ways to avoid actually putting money into a traditional meter. (Or maybe there are. I haven’t bothered to investigate, since I don’t currently own a vehicle.) Newer electronic parking meters, though, can be pretty easily subverted, as demonstrated at the Black Hat conference this week.
On Wednesday, CTIA – The Wireless Association released its Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey results for 2008.
According to the Survey, Americans sent over 1 Trillion text messages in 2008, almost triple the number (363 million) from 2007. That works out to roughly 3.5 billion txts per day, or almost 13 messages per wireless user (the survey reports that there are “more than 270 million wireless users” in the US) per day.
Although Nokia had previously promised to bring its gaming service to the firm’s hot N73 (they’ve sold roughly 20 million of these badboys), as of today, all bets are off.
The iPhone 3.0 Announcement has come to an (abrupt) end. So how did Apple fare according to our Scorecard? Well, as you can see there is still room for improvement, but slighty better than expected – 75 out of 120 possible points. Here is the specific point breakdown:
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Apple published a support bulletin recently, finally disclosing what it’s going to take to replace those Macbook Pro batteries.
It can be done, but not by the end user, and not for free. If you take it into your local Apple store (with an appointment) it’ll be a same day process. If you ship it in, expect a 3-4 week delay. Either way, it’s going to cost you $179 to get it done. Ouch.
D-Link announced two new products today, something they are calling a “networked video recorder,” or NVR, system. This is intended mainly for small business surveillance, however I’m sure there would be some crossover to the home market.
Time to run like crazy to your local Best Buy. Turns out that from now until December 31st, you like can get a iPhone for about $10 less then from the Apple store.
It’s true, anything can be improved. Some clever designer has created what could be the penultimate kitchen gadget. The digital spoon.
The issue is, while for general cooking, you can use volume measuring. Normally, just using that one cup measure isn’t going to cause problems. However when you get into more gourmet usage of high end spices, it just doesn’t cut it. So you need to start measuring by weight.
So instead of busting out the coke scales, you can use the digital spoon. It provides accuracy up to the nearest 10th of a gram. Perfect gift for the kitchen obsessed.
[via Wired]
Turns out the iPod is being used by soliders for psychological operations in Iraq. A very creative solider used his iPod and a loudspeaker to broadcast Iraqi pop music while on an operation to distribute food.
Another soldier is using a transmitter to do the same thing. The transmitter and iPod use a very low powered system (normally used for rescue beacons) to transmit a pro-coalition message along with Iraqi pop-music. Religious extremeists in the area have recently cracked down on the transmission of certain types of music, so the broadcasts are more then likely welcome in the area.
[via Wired]
[Image via: Bluewave on Flickr]
Apple’s shares took a little bit of a hit today, after a Wall Street analyst lowered his rating in the short term on their stock.
The analyst said that while Apple is still strong, in the short term they may find it difficult to reach sales targets on the MacBook Pro, and the ever popular iPods. He also said that it’s appearing unlikely that Apple will release a new product at MacWorld this year, which would further reduce short term gains.
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Good news for older gamers: that secret desire to rush your enemies’ base can be healthy! A study published in the medical journal Psychology & Aging shows that playing games like Rise of Nations and other real-time strategy titles can actually help elderly gamers maintain or improve their ability to reason, and help them with short term memory.
To me, this seems like a great thing. Now you have a reason to buy grandpa a copy of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Or buy grandma a DS and a copy of Age of Empires. Or just play Starcraft until you get old.
I’ve always been impressed by hardware hackers. Whether it’s a simple DIY digital picture frame, or a full-scale conversion of a gasoline car to electric, there’s something about the “can do” spirit of these guys that really impresses me. I marvel at the stuff in Make Magazine on a regular basis.
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