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Standards-essential patents are patents that have been pledged by the patent holder to be included within a standard. This includes everything from SIM cards to radio chipsets to what constitutes various flavors of 3G, 4G, and other wireless protocols. In exchange for being part of the standard, the patent holder agrees to charge fair, reasonable,…

Amazon said to be designing its own smartphoneNews of Amazon’s plans comes courtesy of unnamed sources tipping off Bloomberg. Other unnamed sources claim Amazon has been working to buy up patents to defend itself should competitors like Apple threaten litigation over patent infringement.Much like the Kindle product line, including the Kindle Fire, a smartphone could…

Apple won an injunction in June after a federal judge ruled that Apple was likely to prove that Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1 both infringed on an Apple patent, and that the validity of the patent would be upheld. It was the first significant win for any of the Apple vs. Android court…

Apple Configurator, released in March 2012, is a recent addition to the Apple lineup of apps. Designed for enterprise use where iOS devices are issued to employees, it allows IT departments to manage default settings and installed apps, restoration options, and other issues affecting fleets of iOS devices.Patch notes for the release, according to Apple…

According to Mr. Cringely, some ten minutes of the interview was used in Triumph, which is an excellent look at early history of Silicon Valley and the birth of the personal computer. When announcing this project, he said that the rest of the interview was long considered lost until the passing of Steve Jobs in…

Apple won the preliminary injunction in late June and quickly posted the US$2.6 million bond to put the ban into effect. Samsung responded by filing an appeal, although as of today that didn’t pan out.Samsung loses fight to lift Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunctionSamsung has been dealing with other blows in its patent fight with Apple…

The fast tracking law was passed last fall in an attempt to improve the job market in California. The legislation does not shortcut the environmental review process, but does allow for a speedier judicial review of projects that meet certain qualifications. Essentially, if there are any challenges to the environmental impact report, the law allows for…

While the popularity of Apple Stores and their Genius Bars steadily increases, the space available to accommodate customers in a given location may not. Apple appears to be trying out a different layout to gain space for the Genius Bar while working within the existing square footage of the store. Rotated Genius Bar layout. Courtesy ifoAppleStore.com.Rotating the…

New Patent Office Locations The move comes amidst a major expansion in the number of patents being applied for, especially by companies based in Silicon Valley. The USPTO said that it hopes the new offices will help cut down on the backlog of patent applications being generated every year. The agency has heretofore been based…

Apple settles iPad trademark dispute with ProviewThe fight between the two companies started in 2011 iver who actually owned the trademark on the iPad name in China. Apple claimed it legitimately purchased the rights to the iPad name from Proview before launching its popular multimedia tablet, but Proview said it didn’t authorize any trademark deal.Proview…

Prior to working for Apple, Ms. Rafael worked for Cisco from 2003 to 2006 as the Principal Accounting Officer, and from 2006 to 2007 as Vice President and Corporate Controller. Prior to that, she worked Aspect Communications, Escalate Corporation, Silicon Graphics, and Sun.Ms. Rafael isn’t the only executive retiring from the company in the coming…

ThisLife ThisLife (free) is the latest new service to take its shot at Flickr, the aging king of the hill of online photo storage and sharing, and it does some pretty interesting things.Manage your online photos with ThisLife For starters, ThisLife lets you collect all your photos and videos from your cameras, iPhoto, and even social…

_________________________ When Apple introduced the iPad in 2010, it was clearly the byproduct of an inspiration that there have come to be two distinct activities associated with personal computing equipment. There is what we call the consumption activities (browsing, shopping, music, movies and games, for example) and the creation part (writing, graphics, web design, coding,…

Reno gambles on Apple with data center tax incentivesApple’s proposed data center will cover 350 acres, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, for cloud-based services. The center will eventually include 41 fulltime employees, 200 long-term contract employees, and will create 580 construction jobs.The data center is expected to bring in some $343 million in economic activity…

Accordingly, we offer you the following spec shootout between the new iPad, Surface for Windows RT, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and the Google Nexus 7. Due to limitations in space, we have to omit the Nook Color Tablet, though that device is popular with the same market that is also interested in the Kindle Fire. The…

Guess what? This is not the future. You can do this today — via any of several iOS apps that support this sort of remote access. My personal favorite continues to be Splashtop Remote Desktop. Today, the makers of Splashtop Remote Desktop announced an upgrade to Splashtop 2. Splashtop 2 retains all the features that…

It’s evident that it’ll give you a lot of data at a glance, but those fields do interesting things if you click on them, too. The most obvious example is the zoom controller, which is first in the list; use this to change how your document appears on-screen. This is great if you have trouble…

I find all this somewhat amusing and depressing because all I can think is “…and you’re SURPRISED by this?” If you have even a conceptual grasp of sandboxing, the fact that TextExpander’s new version won’t be in the Mac App Store should be about as surprising that one won’t find daisies growing in a tar…

Apple made the move earlier in June, but is just now gaining attention. Sophos’s NakedSecurity blog noted the difference on June 14th, and that comment was widely picked on Monday. Writing for the site, Graham Cluley said, “A recent analysis by Sophos found that 2.7% (one in 36) of Macs which downloaded our free anti-virus…

You Gotta Have Faith… Apple’s whole widget business model, wherein it owns the hardware and the software, was, for a long time, a disadvantage in the PC market. In the 1990s, Apple lost market share quarter after quarter, and year after year, in part because Microsoft’s open licensing ecosystem allowed PC licensees to clobber Apple…

______________ One of the things we know about the Mac App Store, from interviewing developers, is that many new or inexperienced customers look at the MAS first for solutions to their problems. It’s a convenient and trustworthy watering hole, and it provides many developers with incremental revenue. Historically, many experienced customers know how to go…

Their analysis showed the iPad consuming 12 kWh annually. And while costs will vary depending on location, they determined that to be worth $1.36 for the year. They also measured the energy consumption of an iPhone 3G, which came to 2.2 kWh per year for a total of $0.25. Compare that to a 60W CFL…

Acer Founder Stan Shih Photo Credit: Rico Shen under Creative Common License Speech bubble courtesy of Shutterstock Smart-ass mock quote courtesy of Bryan Chaffin DigiTimes reported that Mr. Shih posited that Microsoft is merely trying to help expand demand for Windows 8-powered tablets, and that once it has done so by investing untold millions into…

WSB-TV News Report Apple has not released a statement on the issue, and it has so far not commented to NPR, the above-mentioned Atlanta TV station, and other mainstream media outlets looking for comment. According to Sahar Sabet, the Atlanta resident who was refused sale of an iPad, the Apple Store employee cited Apple’s Export…