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Best of Smartphone Experts, 7 Mar 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
March 8, 2010
March 6, 2010
Skype pulled from Nokia’s Ovi store in the US, Verizon Wireless to blame?
Skype users that own a Symbian-powered Nokia handset will have to go the extra mile to install Skype on their handset. As noticed following Wednesday’s debut of Skype in the Ovi store, Skype is reportedly not available for Nokia owners in the US. In response to an email from Venture Beat, Sravanthi Agrawal, a member of Skpye’s corporate communications team, said the following:
“Skype has made a decision in the United States to not promote the Skype for Symbian app through the Ovi Store. We did this so that we could drive more attention to the recently announced Skype and Verizon Wireless agreement. This was a marketing decision — plain and simple.
“Skype users in the U.S can still download Symbian by going directly to Skype.com.”
The supposed reason behind this removal is not surprising considering the controversy over the removal of the Windows Mobile version of Skype from Skype’s website, the removal of Skype from the Android Market, and the rumored delay of the 3G-enabled version of Skype for the iPhone. Unless this policy changes or is revealed to be incorrect, anyone unduly affected will have to search a little harder to find a version of Skype to install on their handset or sign up with Verizon Wireless.
More here:
Skype pulled from Nokia’s Ovi store in the US, Verizon Wireless to blame?
MobileTechRoundup show #199, iPhone out, Palm in, Devour thoughts
Posted by Matthew Miller @ 5:26 pm
Categories: Android, Apple, Google, HTC, Palm, Podcast, T-Mobile, Verizon, WebOS, iPhone
Tags: MobileTechRoundup, Apple iPhone, Palm Inc., Smart Phone, Apple Inc., James, Kevin, Smart Phones, 3G, Cellular Phones
Listen here (MP3, 32.3 MB, 35:10 minutes)
Subscribe to the show with this link (RSS)
We missed recording last week while I was up on a shipcheck in Alaska, but James, Kevin, and I were able to record MobileTechRoundup show #199 today thanks in part to my Nokia N900 and T-Mobile 3G data connection. Kevin talked about no longer having an Apple iPhone, while I no longer have the Overdrive and moved to the Verizon Palm Pre Plus. James has the Motorola Devour and offered some initial thoughts on the device. We couldn’t avoid talking about the Apple lawsuit against HTC and sure hope it doesn’t have a negative impact on the smartphone world. Kevin has the Dell Mini10 with Intel N450 and talked a bit about his experiences with it.
The rest is here:
MobileTechRoundup show #199, iPhone out, Palm in, Devour thoughts
March 5, 2010
Mobile ‘time of turmoil’: Where do the students stand?
Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 8:11 am
Categories: Adobe, Apple, Gratuitous rant, Hardware, Legal and political, Microsoft, Mobile computing, Productivity, Social networking, University, University fun
Tags: Research In Motion Ltd., Phone, Microsoft Silverlight, Mobile, Student, Apple Inc., RIM BlackBerry, Microsoft Corp., Business User, Mobile Industry
The mobile market is in a mess at the moment. Apple is suing HTC, Nokia and Apple are slapping each other with lawsuits and Microsoft is always being shafted by somebody. It’s all getting very messy as they bring out competing devices with no major differentiating factors. The mobile industry is in turmoil, yet it carries on ticking over somehow.
Business users are not happy as Microsoft has broken backwards compatibility between Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile 6.5, meaning the applications for 6.5 will not work on 7. Yet with this, 7 will open up a whole range of other technologies such as Silverlight and XNA, meaning these new phones could well be more appealing to the younger demographic.
Silverlight, being the main competitor to Flash, is at least making an appearance on mobile devices. Flash won’t be installed as per default on the iPad but Adobe is working hard to try and support it. Meanwhile, the iPhone still doesn’t support Flash (but might soon) but Microsoft is trying to get Silverlight on there, even though Ballmer says “don’t bet on it”.
Yet, on the other hand, Microsoft said Flash will not be on Windows Phone 7 devices, as the two competitors continue to spit the dummy at each other. Apple at the moment is being stubborn as a mule, whereas Research in Motion, the BlackBerry manufacturer, is bumbling along ignorant of everybody else while it tries to snap up both Flash and Silverlight for its handsets.
It’s all very confusing. All the aforementioned companies are engaging in fistycuffs while Research in Motion is in the corner crying, overwhelmed with all the commotion yet feeling equally left out.
Where do the students stand in all of this? Apple loves that the iPhone has been so popular with students, but had no idea it was going to be. Microsoft is aiming their new “Pink” phone in students’ direction but the software capabilities aren’t hugely clear yet. And Research in Motion is pleased but surprised at the shift in demographics as students increasingly want and buy BlackBerry handsets.
Students want very few things in a mobile device. Aesthetics aren’t as important as they used to be but messaging is more important than anything else out there. BlackBerry Messenger seems to be the killer feature for the device which is why so many students are going BlackBerry.
Application support made the iPhone immensely popular, but also seems to be unique (or relatively affluent) with the iPhone. As BlackBerry and Windows Mobile (including Phone 7) devices either have a lacking or no marketplace to download free applications, this drags them way behind Apple.
Forget the Android. I have one friend who has an Android phone and he threw it against the wall in a fit of anger after a week of owning it. And this man, rest assured, is the most laid back, calm and non-violent gentleman I have ever known.
The QWERTY keyboard is one of the main things that grabs the attention of the student nowadays. As Microsoft’s Pink phone seems to have this, it could well make it a popular choice once it decides to show the light of day.
But frankly, I’m banging my head against a brick wall because Microsoft, RIM, Apple, and all the other major mobile corporations just don’t make it clear that they even care what students think. But with this wave of new design prototypes and detail focused on multiple communications, I’m starting to think otherwise.
Originally posted here:
Mobile ‘time of turmoil’: Where do the students stand?
iPad: Pre-orders start March 12th, available April 3rd
Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 5:54 am
Categories: Apple
Tags: Apple Inc., iPad Available, iBookstore, Wireless LANs, 3G, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology
Your wait is almost over! Official word from Apple on iPad availability.
Summary:
- Pre-orders begin March 12
- US availability of WiFi-only models April 3, WiFi + 3G late april
- In Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, all models will be available from late April
iPad Available in US on April 3
Pre-Order on March 12
CUPERTINO, Calif., March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.
Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.
“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”
Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds-thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook-and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*
iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.
The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world’s largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers are already creating exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.
The new iBooks app for iPad includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile product. The iBookstore will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.
The iTunes® Store gives iPad users access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 films including over 2,500 in stunning high definition. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.
Pricing & Availability
iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.
iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.
The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US on April 3, with additional countries added later this year.
*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
© 2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Multi-Touch, iPhone, iPod touch, iTunes and Apple Store are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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iPad: Pre-orders start March 12th, available April 3rd
March 3, 2010
Skype for Symbian lands on Ovi Store = more than 200 million possible users
Pretty huge news in our book: Skype has published a free mobile application for Symbian in the Ovi Store, basically enabling over 200 million Nokia handset users to easily download the program and start making free Skype-to-Skype calls from their phones.
If I were a carrier, I’d probably be feeling rather nervous right now – and / or infuriated.
Skype for Symbian, which you can also download the app straight from the Skype website, will run on any Nokia smartphone using Symbian^1, the latest version of the Symbian platform.
It’s not the Skype wasn’t already available for Symbian, but its appearance in the Ovi Store will certainly increase awareness of its existence – as well as that of the Ovi Store, for that matter.
We recently reported that Nokia’s Ovi Store now serves more than 1 million downloads per day, and if the success of the Skype app for the iPhone is any indication, the addition of Skype will lift those numbers up significantly.
It does everything you’d want a Skype app to do, as it supports free calls to other Skype users over Wi-Fi and 3G, instant messaging, picture and video sharing – the whole nine yards.
This is the long list of phones that can now accommodate the installation of the Skype Mobile app: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320.
Skype says it will even be updating the app soon to make it function on Symbian mobiles from other handset makers, including Sony Ericsson.
View post:
Skype for Symbian lands on Ovi Store = more than 200 million possible users
Apple’s patent slap on Android & HTC products may be the tip of the legal iceberg
Posted by David Morgenstern @ 8:30 pm
Categories: AAPL, Google, Legal, iPhone 3GS, iPhone OS 3.0
Tags: High Tech Computer Corp., Patent, Apple Inc., Dutta, David Morgenstern
In the world of legal rights, whether patent or copyrights, the owner must defend its rights or lose them. According to Apple’s patent complaint filed on Tuesday, Cupertino has other actions already moving along in the courts.
On Page 24 of the complaint in the section titled Related Litigation, Apple mentions a number of other legal moves:
82. At present, the ‘705, ‘263, ‘136, ‘187, and RDE ‘486 patents are the subject of an investigation (instituted on February 24, 2010) by the United States International Trade Commission in In the Matter of Certain Mobile Communications and Computer Devices and Components Thereof, Investigation No. 337-TA-704. At present, these patents are also the subject of counterclaims by Apple (filed on February 24, 2010) to a patent infringement complaint brought by the Respondent Nokia in Nokia Corp. v. Apple Inc. (On December 29, 2009), Civil Action 09-1002-GMS, currently pending in the District of Delaware.
83. Concurrent with the filing of this complaint, Complaintants will file a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware accusing the respondents of infringing the asserted patents.
Apple is countersuing Nokia and hittlng at Google over patents. The latter complaint can be found on Scribid here.
Meanwhile over at Betanews, there’s an interesting rundown of the complaint that concludes with an analysis of a 2009 blog post by programmer Koushik Dutta that compared Android Dalvik virtual machine’s “inefficient” handling of processes with the open-source Mono.
Dutta’s explanation, in summary, appears to contrast the architecture of operating systems that adopt the principle of minimizing their memory footprints (Android) against those that take the more direct approach of suspending some apps for others to run (iPhone). Here’s where it is important to note that Apple does not appear to be defending its iPhone, but rather technologies that are actually more relevant to MacOS.
Nevertheless, it may be the very inefficiencies that Dutta pointed out, that could be Android’s saving grace in its upcoming battle against Apple. If Android is indeed as inefficient as some say it is, it may not be violating anyone’s patent at all.
I don’t buy it, but that will be for the court to decide. Certainly, Apple’s actions have been in the works for a long while. And the company’s hardware and software gurus have had a good long while to break down Android’s memory handling.
Perhaps there’s a lesson here in Apple’s legal history. After Apple sued Microsoft over the look-and-feel of the Mac OS in 1988 — the copyright filing that Apple eventually lost — Xerox dogpiled with a lawsuit claiming that Apple had stolen its Star GUI and used its interface elements in the Lisa and Mac OSes. And Apple did. Steve Jobs and other members of the development teams made a field trip to PARC and were shown the Star computers.
However, this case was dismissed because too long of a time had passed between the release of the Mac and the litigation. The statute of limitations had expired.
Apple appears to have learned that timing lesson and appears to be suing and countersuing early and often. This may be only the beginning of Apple’s protection of its iTurf.
Note: The button at the top of the story is from my personal collection. I received it at a Berkeley Macintosh Users Group meeting on the Cal campus in 1988 in the days following Apple’s copyright suit against Microsoft.
Read the rest here:
Apple’s patent slap on Android & HTC products may be the tip of the legal iceberg
March 2, 2010
Nokia Ovi store now seeing 22 app downloads per second, plus other stats
If you’re trying to keep track of how all the app stores are performing in relation to each other (or are otherwise just a stats geek), this one ought to make your day. Nokia has just released a pocketful of statistics regarding their app store, Ovi, detailing just how well it was doing as of the end of February.
The Stats:
- Each registered user has downloaded an average 12 apps since the store launched in May. That seems a bit low, considering that the Ovi Store launched over 9 months ago.
- Ovi Store is now supported on over 100 devices (60+ of which are Symbian-based). The Ovi store sees the most downloads from Nokia’s touch handsets, like the N97, 5800 XpressMusic, and 5530 XpressMusic.
- New user registrations and downloads both doubled in February as compared to January
- The top downloading countries (in alphabetical order): France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UK & Vietnam.
- On average, the Ovi Store is hitting around 1.5 million downloads each day — which, when broken down, works out to 22 applications download each and every second, around the clock.
Solely for the sake of perspective: between September of 2009 and January of 2010, the iPhone App Store averaged about 30.5 million application downloads per day, or 350 per second. In other words, the App Store is pushing out downloads at about 16 times the average rate of the Ovi Store — but, being that Apple’s store launched in July of 2008, it also had nearly a full year head start.
So what do you think – given Nokia’s hardware presence around the world whilst factoring in the relative newness of their App Store, how do you think Ovi is doing?
View post:
Nokia Ovi store now seeing 22 app downloads per second, plus other stats
After Nokia, Apple Sues HTC
Apple Inc. announced in a press release this morning that they have filed an official lawsuit against HTC Corporation, one of the main distributors of Android and Windows Mobile devices.
According to Apple, HTC is infringing on as much as 20 of their patents “related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.” The patents vary from the simple idea of an unlock screen to, more interestingly, the ability of a Object-Oriented System to multitask.
The list of infringements is fairly similar to the one Apple filed against Nokia last December, so while many see in this a direct attack at Google and the Android (HTC makes the Nexus One), it could be just some more corporate hardball.
The only slight difference between the two cases is who took care of the official statement. Nokia only got Bruce Sewell, Apple’s General Counsel and senior vice president, saying:
Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours
While for HTC, Steve Jobs apparently wrote the pitch himself:
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. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.
Or did he?
Anyway, this most likely won’t be going anywhere, as usual.
[via Gizmodo]
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- $320 Profit Per iPhone, Or How Apple Became The World’s Most Profitable Handset Manufacturer
Originally posted here:
After Nokia, Apple Sues HTC
Apple Sues HTC Over iPhone
While Tuesdays are known for Apple product launches, today the company announced not a new Mac but a lawsuit over patent infringement related to the iPhone. The target was mobile phone maker HTC, and none other than Steve Jobs was making the accusations.
“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.”
At issue are some 20 patents relating to the “iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware,” though specifics have not yet been divulged, nor has there been a response from HTC. More details will undoubtedly be made public as the lawsuit proceeds in both the U.S. District Court in Delaware and with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Nonetheless, the accusation of intellectual property theft over handheld device patents sounds oddly familiar, except it wasn’t Apple making the accusation recently, but Nokia.
In December, Nokia sued Apple over patents relating to standards covering “wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption,” accusing Apple of “attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation.” Apple promptly countersued, General Counsel Bruce Sewell also using the S-Word, stating that “other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.”
If this all sounds harsh, it is. The flurry of patent lawsuits and counter-lawsuits is something of an anomaly, in that companies like Apple, HTC, and Nokia normally use their massive patent portfolios to protect themselves from litigation. It’s like the concept of nuclear weapon stockpiles and mutually assured destruction (MAD), but with lawyers. What’s got Apple and others pushing the red button now is nothing less than the future of personal computing. As portability moves from the laptop to the handheld, companies like Apple apparently feel the potential legal fallout is worth the risk.
Excerpt from:
Apple Sues HTC Over iPhone