Time changes how we look at things. This week, Apple filed suit against HTC, claiming the Taiwanese manufacturer of several models of Android phone is infringing on at least 20 Apple patents. Personally, I think some of these patents are enormously sketchy. This is Steve Jobs' statement about Apple suits against HTC two days ago:
We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or
we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it,"
said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think competition is healthy, but
competitors should create their own original technology, not steal
ours.
And this is a clip from the 1996 PBS special, Triumph of the Nerds, in which Jobs admits he "has been shameless about stealing great ideas":
Apple plans to perch on its $25 billion nest egg until it's ready to make "big, bold" risks, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said at the company's shareholder meeting, according to Bloomberg.
Apple shareholders re-approved the board of directors and Apple's proposed compensation plan.
"When you take risks, it's like jumping in the
air. When they don't work out, it's nice to know the ground is always
there," the chief executive said, according to Reuters.
Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook recently said that Apple has considered acquiring or merging with another large company, but that none have met its strategic or financial requirements.
""We don't let our money burn a hole in our
pocket," Cook said. And so unless we find something that really makes sense for
Apple shareholders, we're not going to do it ... If we find a large one,
we won't be shy about it, but we won't do it to do it."
Radio Shack plans to sell the iPhone in virtually all of its stores at the end of March, executives said in a conference call this week.
"We are currently implementing several hundred stores per week with a
plan to have the product available in about 3,000 stores by the end of
March," Julian Day, the company's chief executive, said in a fourth-quarter conference call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.
Radio Shack has relationships with all four major carriers, and in November 2009 said it would be carrying the iPhone at a limited number of company-owned stores in the New York City and Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan areas as a trial.
" I
would say that you are correct that we had rolled out only a few stores
during that quarter,' Day replied to an analyst question. "We just wanted to make sure we had absolutely
everything right, turned out we did. And we are now, as we said earlier,
going full ball, rolling that device out to our stores. But I confirm
that in last quarter, iPhone volumes did not have a significant effect
on our overall outcome for mobility."
But Day also couldn't quite say whether Radio Shack would be seen as a preferred partner for the iPhone, and whether it would receive any new revisions to the iPhone as soon as Apple announced them.
It was only a matter of time, right? Say what you will about
the decision making on the part of the happy couple, there are less scenic locales to tie the knot than beneath the big
glass cube on 59th st. in Manhattan.
That's precisely where Ya Ting Li and Joshua Li opted to exchange vows this
Valentine's Day.
The wedding was presided over by Henry Hu, wearing a black
turtle neck and reading from an iPhone. I'm pretty sure there were a few choice
Steve Jobs quotes in there, as well.
The ring bearer, according to Hu's YouTube page, was
supposed to be the couple's dog, who foiled plans by "acting wild." So things
didn't go perfectly--but they never really do in weddings, right?
We wish the happy couple well--at least until it comes time to
upgrade in two to three years. Video after the jump.
An iPhone insurance carrier by the name of Supercover Insurance said that as many as four in six claims are "suspicious," and that the rate gets worse whenever a new model appears on the market, according to Tom's Guide. The carrier said that it saw a 50 percent increase in claims during the 30 days following Apple's announcement of its latest iPhone 3GS model last summer.
"While most customers take out insurance because they value their iPhone, we started to notice increases in claims as new and upgraded iPhones were launched," said Carmi Korine, director of Supercover Insurance, in the report. "For short periods around new model or upgrade launches, claims to replace lost, stolen or damaged iPhones go through the roof."
In other words, some iPhone owners decide that they don't want to wait for their two-year contract to expire in order to get upgrade pricing, and don't want to pay full list for a new phone either--so they smash the phone, file a claim, and replace the phone with the latest model.
The carrier spokesperson said in the report that some destroyed phones received by the company were hit with a hammer at least six times, and one was even "dropped on the pavement and then run over by a car." (Sorry about that, guys--oh wait, that was a different phone.)
The Macworld Expo in San Francisco on Thursday served as the coming-out party for a number of startups in the Mac ecosystem.
IDG, which oversees the Macworld show as well as the DEMO conference, combined the two on Thursday at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Several startups presented new products, most of which centered about the iPhone. IDG identified each as the "best of show" for the conference.
Yapper appears to be the only totally new application that debuted in IDG's lineup. Yapper bills itself as "Your App Maker," and company executives presented it is an easy way to create an application for the Apple iTunes App Store. For $199 ($99 for Macworld attendees) users get access to the Web app, which appeared to offer drag-and-drop functionality for creating something like a mobile RSS reader (Chintu Parikh, who demonstrated the app, created an app for the Venture Beat Web site, which covers startups.)
QuickOffice Connect Suite, however, debuted "this week" in the App Store, so it, too, can be considered a new product.
AT&T and Sling Media have reached an agreement under which AT&T's 3G network will support the SlingPlayer mobile app.
Sling released its iPhone app in January 2009. In May, AT&T blocked it from its 3G network, citing bandwidth constraints, but allowed it on its Wi-Fi network. The two sides have now come to an agreement on the 3G front.
"Just as we've worked with Sling Media in this instance, we look forward to collaborating with other developers so that mobile customers can access a wider, more bandwidth-sensitive, and powerful range of applications in the future," Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said in a statement. "Collaboration with developers like Sling Media ensures that all apps are optimized for our 3G network to conserve wireless spectrum and reduce the risk that an app will cause such extreme levels of congestion that they disrupt the experience of other wireless customers."
AT&T said it had been testing Sling's 3G app since mid-December and recently notified Sling and Apple that its optimized app can run on the 3G network.
Apple certainly isn't the first company to launch or even talk about a tablet. Microsoft launched the concept in 2001, and since then we've seen perhaps dozens of devices based on the design, including a Dell prototype just a few weeks ago.
So there's no question that Apple isn't first to the market. What's unusual, however, is a claim that Apple actually copied an existing design.
That charge comes from the chief executive of Shenzhen Great Long Brother
Industrial Co., who claims that Apple copied the design of its P88 tablet. All this is being reported by the Shanghaiist blog, which also links to a Spanish-language report in El
Mundo, claiming that the company could sue Apple, if the iPad is ever brought to China.
"We are considering legal action, but we can not do much in the United States. But if Apple brings the iPad to China, we will be forced to denounce them, because it will certainly affect our sales," said Wu Xiaolong, the company's president said, in a statement translated by Google Translate.
"It is certainly our design. They've stolen because we present our p88 everyone six months ago at the IFA (International Electronics Fair in Berlin)," Wu Xiaolong added.
A lot of hot air? There was a great deal of concern about bringing the iPhone to China, potentially the world's largest market. This may be something to watch.
When Apple says AT&T exclusive, they mean AT&T exclusive. In a twist of the knife familiar to iPhone owners, the iPad won't run on T-Mobile's 3G network, even if you put a T-Mobile "Micro SIM" into it.
The reason, as usual, has to do with frequency bands. Apple advertises the iPad as running on UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 Mhz. T-Mobile's HSDPA network runs on the AWS band, at 1700 Mhz. No AWS band, no T-Mobile 3G.
The iPad will run on T-Mobile's EDGE network, which delivers speeds of about 120-200 kbps/sec. But that's pretty slow for Web browsing, as anyone who's had an iPhone stuck in EDGE mode knows.
Of course, T-Mobile users get the Google Nexus One, which won't work on AT&T's band. Until someone starts building chipsets that support both HSDPA bands - I haven't seen many of those yet - Americans are just going to have to remain used to their one-carrier phones.
AT&T is sorry that it has dropped the ball on its iPhone coverage, really it is. According to Apple chief operating officer Time Cook, the carrier is insisting that it is working to improve coverage in the face of declining customer satisfaction. The revelation came during Apple's earnings calls.
Said Cook,
We have personally reviewed these plans, and we have very high confidence that they will make significant progress toward fixing them," Cook said in a conference call.
The comment comes after mounting rumors that Apple will open its popular handset to more carriers--such as Verizon--during its announcement in San Francisco tomorrow.
AT&T today announced new, lower-cost unlimited plans in an attempt to match Verizon's moves to lower their monthly rates.
The cuts are dramatic, but they depend on what kind of phone you have. Feature phone customers will see unlimited talk plans dropped from $99.99 to $69.99 per month, with talk and text costing $89.99 per month. If you have a "quick messaging device" - a phone with a keyboard - you'll have to get the texting add-on.
Smartphone owners, including iPhone users, see unlimited voice and data plans drop from $129.99/month to $99.99/month - though that doesn't include texting, which can cost up to $20/month more.
This puts AT&T's plans on par with Verizon's, although both carriers are still more expensive than Sprint and T-Mobile. AT&T customers can change to any of the new plans without a penalty or contract extension starting Monday.
He may have co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs, but over the
past decade, Steve Wozniak has been making a name for himself for other reasons--like
dating Kathy Griffin, playing Segway polo, and competing on Dancing With the
Stars. There is, as the saying goes, no accounting for taste. So, what's the
Woz's latest love? Google's new Nexus One phone, apparently.
"In my life, I must have been through a hundred
different cell phones," Wozniak said in a recent interview. "That's a
serious estimate. I got my first one in the '90s, from Motorola. At one point,
I had a special VIP model that came in black and you couldn't get in the store."
His latest handset is the Nexus One. Wozniak also carries a
Motorola Droid around. And, of course, he still has a certain fondness for
Apple's iPhone--he currently has two of those.
Well, now that the Apple iSlate is finally out--wait, what? It's
not out yet? Then how come we've already moved on to the next iPhone? I always
figured the Internet only has room for one major Apple rumor at a time. Oh
well. A few months ahead of schedule, the speculation about the latest iPhone
refresh has begun.
According to the latest round of rumors, the new phone is
due out "as early as June," which squares with the phone's schedule in past
years--a schedule that's not likely to change much for the foreseeable future.
Also on the list is a better camera and "touch-sensitive casing," according to
reports by Bloomberg.
Robert Chen, the analyst quoted in the report, compares the
casing to that on the Magic Mouse. Otherwise, he says, most of the innovation
will occur on the software side--which again seems to square with past releases
of the phone.
At CES this week HyperMac, an external battery company, came armed with their entire lineup of brushed aluminum external batteries for the MacBook and MacBook Pro, but also announced a lineup of external batteries for the iPhone and iPod, complete with color cases that match the iPod model you own.
HyperMac made waves with its lineup of external batteries for the MacBook and MacBook Pro that can power a MacBook for between 20-30 hours beyond the life of the internal battery. With its new iPhone and iPod USB external batteries, HyperMac promises you can get hours of additional battery life on your iPod Touch, iPod Nano, or iPod Shuffle as well.
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