We’ve been reporting on International Trade Commission decisions for what seems like forever, but it appears that one of them is finally making an impact — two of HTC’s latest handsets are being “indefinitely delayed” by U.S. customs as the result of an ITC ban Apple won against the handset manufacturer late last year.
The Verge is reporting that the HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have both fallen victim to an import delay by U.S. Customs “for potentially infringing an Apple patent.” As a result, the new handsets have been “indefinitely delayed” until Customs can investigate the situation further.
The move is likely to come as bad news to Android lovers ready to wrap their fingers around these handsets — the One X is currently out of stock from AT&T’s website and the situation appears grim as to when further units may arrive in retail stores.
The import delay is the result of a “wide-ranging exclusion order” won by Apple last December by the International Trade Commission (ITC), who found that “Android’s messaging app and browser infringed upon Apple patent #5,946,647, which covers automatically converting things like phone numbers and email addresses into actionable links that open a menu of options.”
Although a ban of infringing devices was delayed while HTC could figure out a workaround, that delay ended on April 19. HTC has likely fixed the problem with the One X and Evo 4G LTE, but the ITC order is fairly broad and prohibits importation of any “personal data and mobile communications devices” made by HTC.
Needless to say, HTC isn’t very happy about the delay, but appears confident that Customs will move quickly to clear the blockade.
“The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order,” the company said in an official statement. “We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.”
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It’s the last full week of April, and you know what that means — well, nothing really. We’re in a desert lately when it comes to juicy Apple rumors and no one seems to know what’s going on with new MacBooks, the annual WWDC show or much of anything else out of Cupertino, but that isn’t stopping the rumor sites from digging as deeply as they can. Let’s take a look at what’s new for Monday, April 23, 2012!
The cloud has had a busy day, first with Adobe making its Creative Cloud offering official, followed by Microsoft essentially rebooting its own SkyDrive with a new version 2.0. As part of the revamp, the iOS SkyDrive app got a universal makeover with native iPad support (including the new iPad’s Retina Display), the ability to upload multiple photos or videos, easy links to share with friends and file management skills. But the story doesn’t end there — Microsoft has also introduced preview versions of a desktop app for the Mac, available to OS X Lion users, which integrates SkyDrive into the desktop similar to Dropbox and competing services. The only downside of this change is that Microsoft is getting stingier with storage — where Windows Live and Hotmail accounts used to get 25GB free, users who haven’t actively used their storage will be downgraded along with new users to 7GB. Thankfully, this is easily rectified for existing users by visiting your SkyDrive storage management options and accepting Redmond’s kindly offer to get a free upgrade back to 25GB — or even buy more storage, should you need it.
The Feds continue to pressure Apple over ebook pricing, with the recent antitrust lawsuit kicking things up a notch or three. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s response is that books, magazines and newspapers shouldn’t be treated any differently than apps — Cupertino gets a 30 percent cut of them all, and the company refuses to simply settle the lawsuit the way publishers Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster have. “I don’t think you understand,” explained Apple iTunes boss Eddy Cue. “We can’t treat newspapers or magazines any differently than we treat FarmVille.” Of course, that hasn’t stopped publishers from pushing for more favorable terms anyway, despite Amazon clearly being the real monopoly for publishers thanks to its lock-in with the Kindle format.
The dust has barely settled on Microsoft’s purchase of billion worth of patents from AOL earlier this month, and already roughly two-thirds of them are getting snapped up by Facebook. According to AllThingsD, Microsoft has cut a deal with Facebook worth 0 million, which will put more than 600 of the former AOL patents into the social networking giant’s hands. That leaves around 265 patents remaining in Microsoft’s hands, while recouping more than half of the cost of the earlier deal. Given that Yahoo sued Facebook last month over 10 patents they claim infringement on, the deal is probably not much of a coincidence. The deal also includes a license to “approximately 650 AOL patents and applications that will be now be owned by Facebook” in Microsoft’s case, as well as a license to “approximately 300 patents that AOL did not sell in its auction.”
We’re in a definite downturn when it comes to Apple product rumors as the masses wait for whatever is coming down the pipeline next, so a number of websites have been quick to poke around looking for any signs of things to come. One such item popped up today on AppleBitch.com, claiming that the iPhone’s familiar home button may get a facelift when the next model arrives later in the year. The buttons were discovered on TVC-Mall.com, a Chinese supplier site based out of Shenzhen that claims to be selling “iPhone 5 replacement parts.” While it’s quite likely that Apple has indeed locked their iPhone 5 (or is that “new iPhone”?) designs by now and pieces of it may be floating around, we’ll still file this rumor in the “grain of salt” category until we see what CEO Tim Cook and friends have to announce.
If you downloaded the Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 2 released on April 12, you may have noticed a thorny problem affecting the database for Outlook users. (Users of the cheaper Home & Student Edition that doesn’t come with Outlook are immune from this, of course.) On Friday, Microsoft pulled the troubled update from their AutoUpdate service, while documenting a fix for afflicted users in a blog post. “Our goal is provide the simplest update experience for everyone — so we have temporarily stopped pushing out the SP2 update through Microsoft AutoUpdate while we investigate the issue,” the Mac team noted. A manual update remains available for download, but Microsoft encourages most users to wait for a corrected update to hit the pipelines.
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There’s a new wrinkle in the ongoing patent wars, which finds Google’s new BFF Motorola Mobility in hot water with the European Commission — with two investigations now underway after complaints by Apple and Microsoft.
AppleInsider is reporting on the European Commission’s announcement today that two formal investigations have been opened against Motorola Mobility over complaints they are “abusing its standard-essential patents” in the European Union. The companies behind the complaints are none other than Apple and Microsoft.
The iOS and Windows Phone makers allege “potential unfair licensing practices” against Motorola Mobility, who is in the midst of being snapped up by search giant Google. The European Commission will investigate whether or not Motorola “has failed to honor the commitments it has made to standard setting organizations.”
“In these commitments, Motorola engaged to license those standard-essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms,” a statement from the European Commission said on Tuesday. “The Commission will examine whether Motorola’s behaviour amounts to an abuse of a dominant market position prohibited by Article 102 on the Treaty of the Functioning EU.”
Patent expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents also weighed in on the announcement, claiming “the launch of formal investigations (as opposed to merely preliminary ones) is a key step that follows a reasonably thorough (even though only initial) assessment of the issues.”
The announcement is considered a sign that European Commission Vice President Joaquin Almunia intends to “fight for FRAND licensing harder than any of his predecessors did.”
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March is rapidly winding to a close, but it continues to be an eventful month full of software updates (Retina Display and otherwise) and Apple-centric news galore, which today includes the release of audit results from Apple’s controversial manufacturing at Foxconn, as well as a detailed study on Cupertino’s tactical moves in the smartphone patent wars against Android. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get to reading the news for this Thursday, March 29, 2012.
The day of reckoning has finally arrived for Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest suppliers in China. According to ABC News, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) has released the results of their independent investigation, which finds “serious and pressing noncompliances” where iPhones, iPads and MacBooks are being manufactured. “Workers’ hours and overtime payment issues are the main focus of the 13-page report,” ABC News reveals. “Within the last 12 months, at all three of Apple’s Foxconn factories — Guanian, Longhua, and Chengdu — the average employee worked over 60 hours per week, the FLA found. The legal limit is 49 hours per week, including overtime.” Changes to these policies are expected to be felt in the bottom line of all companies involved — including both Foxconn and Apple. “I know they will do this because we will monitor it,” explained FLA president and CEO Auret van Heerden. “And they have made this commitment publicly now. It is such a high profile and major commitment, there is no way they wouldn’t do it.” The report completes a month-long investigation which included interviews with 35,000 Foxconn workers selected at random. For their part, Foxconn has agreed to bring their factories into full compliance by next sunny summer, which will result in a significant decrease in overtime for workers there.
Well, that was fast. Just yesterday, we reported that Apple was fast-tracking a new update to iPhoto that promised to improve overall stability as well as address an issue that could cause the application to quit unexpectedly on systems with multiple user accounts. And guess what? Cupertino just pressed the launch buttons on iPhoto 9.2.3, which is now available via Software Update or directly from the company’s support website. Those of you hoping for any last-minute goodies to get added to the update might be disappointed, but go install it anyway — software updates always make us feel like we’re getting something new.
Almost everyone is feeling the fatigue of these ongoing patent disputes over smartphone technology. While former CEO Steve Jobs promised to wage “thermonuclear war” against Android — calling it “stolen” technology — it appears his successor may be approaching the problem with a lighter touch. Bloomberg Businessweek has published a fascinating cover story called “Apple’s War on Android” which sheds new light on Cupertino’s patent battles against competitors HTC, Motorola and Samsung. As it turns out, Apple may be throwing good money after bad, with Stanford University law professor Mark Lemley noting that these battles have cost everyone involved more than 0 million thus far, with little to show for it. Most tellingly, it appears Apple CEO Tim Cook may be changing tactics, abandoning Jobs’ all or nothing strategy in favor of getting things resolved more peacefully. “People familiar with the situation, however, note that top-level executives at both Apple and Samsung have communicated lately about potential settlement options,” the report reveals. “Apple CEO Tim Cook does not seem to share his predecessor’s passion about laying all foes to waste. Cook appears to view litigation as a necessary evil, not a vehicle of cosmic revenge.” While that may be the case, the patent wars show no sign of letting up anytime soon, and ultimately we’re all the worse for it.
No one likes to see layoffs, but in the case of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, it was just a matter of time. According to The Globe and Mail, CEO Thorsten Heins is making his first cuts as RIM’s new boss ahead of fourth-quarter and year-end financial results due today, and he’s starting at the top. “Lots of high level people within RIM were let go today,” a source close to the company revealed. “Quite a few. Big shake up.” On the chopping block are “RIM executives at the senior vice-president and vice-president levels,” but sales and marketing positions are also being targeted for additional layoffs. BGR is reporting that RIM shipped 11.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and more than 500,000 PlayBook tablets last quarter, but confirmed lower than anticipated adjusted net income of 80¢ per share on revenue of .2 billion, while Wall Street was hoping for 81¢ per share and .54 billion. RIM’s fourth-quarter profit is 0 million against .08 billion in sales. Finally, the report revels that co-founder Jim Balsillie is not only stepping down as director but also leaving the company entirely. Unfortunately for RIM, they’ve still got a way to go before those BlackBerry 10 models launch later this year…
If ever there were an iPad game that could benefit from the newest model’s Retina Display, it would be Ticket to Ride, the board game from publisher Days of Wonder. Featuring original, rich and highly textured maps and artwork, Ticket to Ride version 1.3.3 introduces just the ticket (pun intended) for users, with new high resolution maps that utilize “the same high-fidelity, finely detailed paper textures and beautiful background illustrations featured in the real world Ticket to Ride board game.” Days of Wonder claims the update marks the first Retina Display ready board game to be released for the new iPad, and judging from the side-by-side comparison provided to MacLife.com (and shown above), the Retina maps may be even more detailed than the print versions, if that’s possible! Ticket to Ride 1.3.3 is now available in the App Store for .99, or as a free update for existing users; the game is compatible with all iPads running iOS 4.2 or later, although only the new iPad will truly benefit from all 173MB of that download.
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How about that OS X Mountain Lion, huh? Apple skipped past the rumors and leaks and went straight to this morning’s surprise announcement, which just goes to show that ol’ Cupertino still has it in them to pull a rabbit out of the hat now and again. While OS X Mountain Lion is understandably the big news of the day, there were a few other things also going on, so let’s skip straight to the news for Thursday, February 16, 2012, shall we…?
In a day already overloaded with news about Apple’s forthcoming OS X Mountain Lion comes this little nugget from MacRumors: Apparently, the new Gatekeeper feature is already included with the existing OS X Lion 10.7.3 for developers who want to flip the switch and test it out. “Mac OS X users will soon have the option of turning on Gatekeeper, a new Mac OS X security feature,” Apple has instructed developers. “When a user does this, the system provides an additional measure of safety: it blocks that user from opening newly-downloaded applications that are not Developer ID–signed. In this scenario, the same user is easily able to launch downloaded applications that are Developer ID–signed.” According to MacRumors, the Gatekeeper feature can be activated simply by opening Terminal and running the command “sudo spctl –enable” — or alternately, be turned off by replacing “enable” with “disable.” But as the report notes, there’s no advantage to end users for turning the feature on at this time, since developers have yet to issue any updates to take advantage of it.
Foss Patents is reporting that a German court has ruled in Apple’s favor in a patent dispute with Motorola Mobility. The key victory is a European patent Apple holds for the company’s “slide to unlock” feature, patent number EP1964022. According to patent expert Florian Mueller, the court found Apple the victor on two out of three points: “Apple won on the two that Motorola’s smartphones implement,” the report reveals. “It did not prevail on the third one, which the Xoom tablet uses. That implementation is very similar to what I have on my Samsung Galaxy Note: the user has to make a swiping gesture from the inside of a circle to the outside. It requires a relatively large screen to work somewhat well, but even then it’s not very intuitive.” While Motorola plans to appeal the decision, it is Mueller’s belief that the appeal is unlikely to succeed — which could spell big trouble for the company’s European sales, at least until the offending feature is revised.
Analysts may be wringing their hands wondering if Amazon’s new 9 Kindle Fire tablet will consume some of the iPad’s traction, but judging from a report by CNNMoney’s Apple 2.0 blog, Apple may be its own competition. iSuppli issued a report today that shows Amazon’s Kindle Fire managed to nab 14 percent of the worldwide tablet market in the final three months of 2011, with 3.9 million units sold since its mid-November debut. Sounds great until you compare that to the 15.4 million iPad units sold during the same timeframe, which puts Apple’s tablet at 57 percent of the market. More curiously, iSuppli cites the iPhone 4S as a “shiny new alternative” to the iPad, rather than the more obvious Kindle Fire — meaning Apple’s main competition is itself, not a bad problem to have.
Almost as fascinating as the surprise announcement of OS X Mountain Lion this morning is reading Daring Fireball scribe John Gruber’s account of how Apple conducted private, one-on-one “product briefings” with journalists, who found out about the new version before developers. The result was quite effective: There were no rumors and no leaks about the new version of OS X, and apparently not even accurate guesses as to what the next version would be called. “We’re starting to do some things differently,” Apple senior VP Phil Schiller told Gruber in a New York City product briefing about a week ago. No more Moscone West, no more Yerba Buena Center — just Schiller, two marketing and PR guys from Apple and the journalist themselves. OS X will now get the same annual upgrade treatment as iOS, and the company will save the big dog and pony shows for major events — presumably there will be one in early March for the iPad 3, although it’s anyone’s guess. “My gut feeling though, is this,” Gruber writes. “Apple didn’t want to hold an event to announce Mountain Lion because those press events are precious.” Judging from the spotlight being thrown on OS X Mountain Lion across the internet today, Apple’s new “think different” approach seems to be working…
With so many people using Twitter on mobile devices — and most of those likely using a native app — it’s easy to forget that the company has been in the midst of overhauling the web version, which was first announced back in December. Now, the Twitter Blog is announcing that the transition is complete, and the swanky new Twitter website is finally available to one and all, rather than being exclusive to mobile devices and the official iOS and Android apps. To recap, the new features include the ability to click on any tweet in your timeline to expand its contents, Connect and Discover menu options, embedding tweets on your website and plenty of new shortcuts. That’s assuming anyone is still actually using the website…
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