Assuming there are any MacLife.com readers out there today who aren’t skipping work or school to go see The Avengers, the tech world is still churning up news on this fabulous Friday. Exploding iPhones, iPhoto map attribution, FTC fines, Walmart pricing goofs and even a Slippery Seal make up the news for this Friday, May 4, 2012 — so assemble your own avengers and get to reading, won’t you?
Apple released the first update to its iPhoto for iOS app earlier this week, but it didn’t arrive with much in the way of new features. According to Talking Points Memo, the update did make some folks at OpenStreetMap quite happy, however. As you may recall, a minor controversy erupted after iPhoto was released when users discovered that Apple had tossed out Google’s map service in favor of the open-source OpenStreetMap — without giving the non-profit organization credit. Almost two months later, the situation has been rectified with the May 1 update to version 1.0.1, in which Apple now properly attributes the maps to OpenStreetMap. “Obviously we’d rather that Apple had attributed right from the start, but nonetheless this is a big step forward,” OpenStreetMap Foundation board member Richard Fairhurst told TPM. “If the biggest computer company in the world, one with a perfectionist instinct, feels that OpenStreetMap data meets its needs and is happy to publicly attribute us, then that’s a great vote of confidence in our community’s work.”
Remember the story about the iPhone 4 that suffered a bad case of spontaneous gadget combustion aboard an airplane that had just landed in Sydney, Australia last November? MacRumors is reporting that a subsequent investigation of the handset reveals that a lost screw used during a screen replacement was to blame. “The phone was sent to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as part of an investigation into the matter, which has now revealed that a misplaced screw punctured the battery casing, leading to a short circuit that caused the battery to overheat,” ZDNet.com.au reports. “The screw that caused the issue was the result of a botched screen-replacement job from a non-authorised service centre. A screw from the bottom of the unit, adjacent to the 30-pin connector, found its way into the handset, and caused the battery compartment to puncture as a result.” Apple will be quite happy to hear those findings, we’re sure.
Bloomberg is reporting that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is negotiating with Google, who “deceived consumers and violated terms of a consent decree signed with the commission last year when it planted so-called cookies on Safari, bypassing Apple software’s privacy settings,” a person familiar with the matter revealed today. While the FTC had no comment, Google could face a fine of more than million as the government steps up enforcement of internet privacy. The consent decree signed last year by Google confesses to using “deceptive tactics,” including violations of its own privacy policy by introducing Buzz in 2010. The fines could amount to ,000 per day, per violation — which could wind up being a big chunk of change, even for Google.
On Thursday, Cult of Mac reported that the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S appeared to be getting a significant price drop at Walmart — from to in the case of the former and from 8 to 4 for the latter. Before you pack up the kids and head to the nearest Wally World in search of a deal, you should know that the prices were in error, which the retail chain has sadly confirmed in a statement today. “Yesterday, we experienced a pricing error in limited stores,” explains Walmart. “This has been addressed and the normal prices are in effect.” The news isn’t all bad, since Apple’s handsets can still be had pretty cheaply at Walmart (with a two-year agreement, naturally). Why, look at that three-year-old iPhone 3GS: It’s a mere 97 cents. “Save money, live better” indeed…
Rock Out Apps has introduced Slippery Seal, a new App Store game for kids which offers equal helpings of fun alongside eco-friendly education. The game follows the exploits of Slippery the Harbor Seal as he swims from San Francisco to Alaska in a side-scrolling adventure. Along the way, the seal finds plenty of yummy clams to keep up his strength for the journey home — but can Slippery fend off equally hungry creatures looking to make a meal out of him? Slippery Seal includes 10 beautiful Pacific Coast Highway locales and the 99-cent game is compatible with all devices running iOS 4.1 or later; a free version with the first two levels is also available from the App Store.
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It’s been a crazy, whirlwind day here at MacLife.com, with Apple’s insanely great fiscal second quarter, Google Drive and all kinds of other cool stuff vying for the hearts and minds of tech fans everywhere. Can you think of a better way to cap off the day than to kick back with a nice recap of some other stories you may have missed? We didn’t think so. Without further ado, here’s the latest for Tuesday, April 24, 2012.
Just ahead of its Google Drive cloud storage launch today, Google snuck a curious item into its Play Store: An unlocked, contract-free Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which now makes up the sole item in a new “Shop Devices” category. Of course, this isn’t the first time Google has tried pimping its own hardware — the original Nexus One was sold online but quickly snuffed out, apparently to appease U.S. carriers at a time when Android desperately needed a boost on their shelves. Although the Galaxy Nexus is a few months old now, it remains one of the best Android handsets on the market, offering a completely pure Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich experience. At 9, the handset is a good bargain for those in the market for an unlocked handset, and thanks to its pentaband antenna, owners will enjoy HSPA+ data from either AT&T or T-Mobile while in the U.S., while using it almost anywhere in the world with GSM to boot.
Apple’s iPad trademark rift with Proview is still raging in China, but the news isn’t looking good. Macworld is reporting that Fu Shuangjian, vice minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), has gone on record claiming that “Apple does not have ownership of the iPad trademark in China,” an ominous sign that authorities in the country may be playing favorites with local companies. The SAIC enforces trademark laws in China, but has promised to abide by a higher court decision yet to come. “Due to the impact of this case, and because the court’s final decision will determine ownership of the iPad trademark rights, SAIC will carefully deal with this case,” Fu explained at a press conference on Tuesday. Failure to win that court ruling could result in fines for Apple or worse yet, a ban on the iPad from the Chinese market, where Cupertino has seen explosive growth with its products.
It’s been a busy week for cloud storage companies, with Microsoft revamping SkyDrive on Monday and Google Drive launching earlier today. Hardware storage provider LaCie is hoping they won’t be forgotten, announcing a 3GB bump for the company’s Wuala cloud storage, which brings the service up to the same level as Google Drive. “Three years ago Wuala and LaCie joined forces. To celebrate the anniversary of this notable event, Wuala increases included storage from 2GB to 5GB.” Wuala announced on their blog. “If you are already using Wuala, your new storage quota will be available over the next few hours. All you have to do is to sign into your account again to see your updated storage.” Of course, if 5GB still isn’t enough, Wuala will be happy to sell you even more…
The Mozilla Blog is touting a new Firefox update, so it’s time to toss out that crusty old Firefox 11 and say hello to Firefox 12, which debuted today for Mac, Windows and Linux. It’s not a huge update for end users, but promises to make future updates easier, specifically by removing the user account control dialog pop-up that frustrates so many Windows users. Once you’ve said “Yes” once, you’ll never have to see the UAC prompt again. Developers will also be pleased with Firefox 12, which promises more than 85 improvements to Mozilla’s built-in tools: “For example, developers no longer need to reload the page to see messages in the Web Console, and Scratchpad adds Find and Jump to Line commands to the editor. Our improvements touched on every one of the built-in tools.” For what it’s worth, installing Firefox 12 on our iMac cleared up some odd quirks we were experiencing with Firefox 11, so there’s certainly no harm in giving it a go if you’re in the same boat.
Now here’s a curious item: Amazon has released Mac and PC Send to Kindle apps for aiding Kindle owners in getting their personal documents onto their device. The app allows for drag and drop onto the Send to Kindle icon in the Dock, but Mac users can also send documents from any application with a Print menu as well. Finally, users can also control-click one or more documents via the Finder or simply open the Send to Kindle app to send them. Send to Kindle should be perfect for Mac users who want to archive their documents in their Kindle library, where they can be downloaded conveniently at any time. Send to Kindle for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or higher and is available to download now from Amazon’s website.
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In what has to be one of the worst-kept secrets in Google history, the search giant finally opened the garage doors and let Google Drive go for a spin onto computers and Android devices, with an iOS client yet to come.
The Google Official Blog has announced the availability of Google Drive, the company’s new cloud storage service. There’s little doubt that the crew in Mountain Drive is taking direct aim at the likes of Dropbox, SugarSync and even Microsoft’s SkyDrive, which only yesterday unleashed its own client software for OS X Lion.
“Today, we’re introducing Google Drive — a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff,” the blog reveals. “Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.”
As widely predicted, Google Drive matches Dropbox with a free 5GB storage allotment out of the gate, but Google has done one better by integrating your existing Google Docs account right into the Drive service. That means wherever you install the Drive client software — for now, Mac, Windows or Android — your Docs will be available will be available for real-time collaboration with others.
Of course, Google Drive isn’t simply a host for Docs — like Dropbox, you can toss any files you’d like into the dedicated folder on your computer or mobile device, which gets tossed up into the cloud and available from anywhere, including a web browser if that’s all you have access to.
Search is also a big part of Google Drive — not surprising considering that’s how Google made a name for itself. Text in scanned documents will be recognized using optical character recognition (OCR) so you’ll never have to worry about finding something.
So what if 5GB isn’t enough for you? Users can upgrade to 25GB for a mere .49 per month, 100GB for .99 per month or a whopping 1TB for .99 per month — and paid accounts will also have their related Gmail account storage bumped to 25GB at the same time.
The only thing missing for now is a companion iOS app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. If you’re holding out hope that it will be launching today, we’d say don’t hold your breath: Google’s blog claims “we’re also working hard on a Drive app for your iOS devices,” which certainly doesn’t sound like it will be launching anytime soon. Bummer…
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It has been a long a winding road to get here, but after two years of failed settlement talks and pre-trial motions, Oracle began its infringement and copyright lawsuit against Google this week in a U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Many believed a deal would have been reached long ago, preventing all of this drama. Yet there they were, the two tech giants hauling each other’s CEOs up to the stand for public spectacle. Ugly.
Money, basically. In January 2010, Oracle finalized a deal to buy Sun Microsystems, including the Java computer programming language and all of its related technology. Just seven months later, on August 12, 2010, Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the Android operating system infringed on patented Java technology. However, Google let it be known that before Oracle bought them, Sun was a huge supporter of Android, and that the Java programming language was open source and free to use.
(Photo by Oracle)
Like most things in life, however, and all things in regards to intellectual property, the devil is in the details. According to the official response Google filed with the court, Sun only “released some but not all of the source code for Java SE” to the public in 2006 and 2007, and that “Sun also released the specifications for Sun’s Java platform, including Sun’s Java virtual machine, under a free-of-charge license” that allowed “developers to create ‘clean room’ implementations of Sun’s Java specifications.” If any of those implementations met specifications, Sun would issue a Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) to the developer. However, the “TCKs were only available from Sun, initially were not available as open source, were provided solely at Sun’s discretion, and included several restrictions, such as additional licensing terms and fees.”
Google used Java to develop Android, claiming it may have been open-source, even though it never fully was. Oracle bought Sun and demanded that Google pay for a license to use Java and, when Google refused, filed the lawsuit. But surely, since Google is aware it used Sun-then-Oracle technology that wasn’t really free to use they would be able to reach a settlement agreeent, right? Wrong.
Oracle and Google have met in settlement talks twice now, and both times failed to reach an agreement. The big sticking point is the number of zeros on the check Google is going to write to Oracle. Oracle originally asked for billion, and then .6 billion in June of 2011. In July of 2011 the judge presiding over the case, Judge William Alsup, stated that if Google is found liable, they would owe Oracle “probably in the millions, maybe in the billions.” Some legal experts contend that Google is on the hook for around 0 million.
Google threw down an offer to pay only .8 million plus some residuals.
It’s all about the Benjamins.
So, when two parties attempt to negotiate, and the difference on the bargaining table is roughly ,000,900,907, that’s when a trial happens.
It appears Google is indeed infringing on Oracle’s patents, and there is a huge chasm between what they are willing to pay for a license and what Oracle wants to charge. In such cases, it is not uncommon for the company being infringed upon — in this case, Oracle — to ask the court for an injunction barring the sale of the infringing product. This is a huge request with massive implications, so while the court is considering an injection, often a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) is requested to halt the sale of the products immediately until things can be sorted out.
Clearly, a TRO against Android devices would send shockwaves through the mobile device industry. Is it possible it could come to that? Yes, but it is unlikely. As Mike Shea, Managing Partner for Direct Access Partners LLC told us, “Seeing as how Android OS is currently found in 50% of all smartphones sold these days, I would think it unlikely a judge is going to issue that TRO.”
You worried, bro?
Judge Alsup doesn’t want to take Android devices off the shelves, Google certain doesn’t want that outcome, and most likely Oracle does not, either. “Let’s remember, at the end of the day, this is about money; it’s about licensing fees,” said Shea. “If Oracle wins, Google will owe them money — quite a bit of money. Since Google happens to have quite a bit of money, my guess is they start accruing for the possibility of either a settlement or a loss, and we all move on.”
One company that may not mind seeing Android devices whisked off the shelves is Apple. The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared war on Google, claiming that the Android operating system was a “stolen product.” Apple is currently embroiled in dozens of lawsuits with companies that manufacture Android devices, like Samsung, Motorola, and HTC. A big ruling against Google in this Oracle case could add quite a bit of support to Apple’s claim that Android is sitting on a throne of lies, and that Google has a history of lifting intellectual property from other companies.
Aside from helping build their legal arguments against Android, Apple could also stand to benefit from the opportunity to move a lot of product in the wake left from a TRO against Android devices. “If Oracle were somehow to get a TRO prohibiting the Android system from being used in smartphones coming to market, and Apple were to have the capacity to ramp up production, they could clearly grab some market share,” explains Shea.
Just as the Mayans predicted.
Competition is good for everyone, though. We certainly would not want to see Android devices removed from the marketplace, although if they could stop borrowing so heavily from other companies that might be nice. Well, at least Windows Phone would get a chance.
Adrian writes the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. Follow him on Twitter, or subscribe to him on Facebook.
Verizon Wireless customers often feel like they live in some kind of safe haven from the evils of Ma Bell (i.e., AT&T) — that is, until the Big Red carrier starts acting just like their competitor. The upgrade fee has clearly irritated their most loyal users, but given how AT&T charges for the same thing, this controversy is likely to fade away until you actually have to fork over for a lust worthy phone. But that day isn’t today, so sit back and lower your blood pressure with some tech news for Wednesday, April 11, 2012.
You may not be using Google+, but that doesn’t mean the search giant isn’t continually making improvements to it in your absence. The Google Official Blog today announced “a simpler, more beautiful” Google+ with enhanced navigation controls. Apps can now be dragged up or down to put them in the order you prefer, while hovering over certain apps reveals a new set of quick actions. The folks in Mountain View are also sprucing the joint up with “full bleed photos and videos that’ll make you really proud to post,” “a stream of conversation ‘cards’ that make it easier to scan and join discussions” and “an activity drawer that highlights the community around your content.” Last but not least, Google+ Hangouts gets a dedicated page with an always-updated list of invitations from the people in your Circles and a rotating billboard of popular hangouts. Are these changes enough to make you give up Facebook yet?
April is Autism Awareness Month, and developer iStoryTime is doing its part to contribute by making its Meet Biscuit storybook app free through Sunday, April 15 on both iOS and Android. “We believe digital devices such as the iPad, iPhone and other devices are great tools to enhance the learning process,” said Graham Farrar, founder of iStoryTime. “The fact that we’ve received a large amount of feedback from parents with autistic children makes us feel that our efforts in reinventing the art of storytelling is making a positive difference.” Biscuit, a little yellow puppy, is a longtime family favorite with over 16 million copies in print, and the app includes a storybook as well as digital coloring book, memory game (iOS version only) and puzzle ready made for little fingers. Meet Biscuit is an 80.7MB download from the App Store and the universal app is compatible with all devices running iOS 4.3 or later.
Apparently seizing upon an opportunity since Apple is dragging their feet getting their own solution pushed out, Russian antivirus film Kaspersky Labs has released the Flashfake Removal Tool. According to MacRumors, the free Mac app “quickly and easily detects and removes the malware,” which is said to have afflicted upwards of 600,000 computers worldwide. The Mac-based tool follows Kaspersky’s release yesterday of a free web-based checker, which uses your computer’s UUID “to see if it has registered on the firm’s servers as an infected machine.” F-Secure, the company who first sounded the alarm on the Flashback trojan malware, is also offered their own free Flashback Removal app — so there’s no shortage of ways to get rid of this sucker way before Apple gets its act together.
MacLife recently reviewed the nifty iStopMotion for iPad app, and one of the few complaints we focused on is how difficult it was to keep the tablet steady while you’re animating. Developer Boinx Software must have been reading our minds, because this week they’ve pushed out version 1.3, adding the ability to “now use the headset remote play/pause button to capture, both in iStopMotion and the iStopMotion Remote Camera app.” Awesome idea! The app has also been localized for French, Japanese and Chinese users and includes a new spinner in the top bar so you’ll know when the app is busy performing lengthy operations. Users creating larger movies will find the app now works a lot smoother overall, and some additional Retina Display graphics have been in thrown in for good measure as well. The update is free for existing users and .99 for new buyers, now available in the App Store.
Hope you’re not a Verizon Wireless customer ready to upgrade your tired old cell phone. According to Reuters, Big Red will start charging customers per upgrade on top of the cost of the hardware itself, which is being at least partially blamed on high subsidies paid to Apple for each iPhone sold by the carrier. “Carriers pay such subsidies because devices like the iPhone help to attract new customers and boost revenue,” the report reveals. “However, upgrades can be less attractive to operators because despite paying a subsidy for the new device, mobile companies often get no extra revenue from existing customers who switch phones.” The fee won’t kick in until April 22, so we wouldn’t wait much longer to grab that smartphone you’ve been lusting after — and take heart, because rival AT&T already socks its customers with a upgrade fee. Ouch!
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