Geeks are Sexy Technology News » Apple

Apple’s grand Frand demands

JLister — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:00:44 +0000

Apple has asked European officials to make changes that could reduce the number of lawsuits in the mobile tech industry. But while the changes are arguably valid, it’s notable that they are largely beneficial to Apple itself.

The call comes in a letter to the European Telecommunications Standard Institute, sent last November but only just made public. It specifically covers patents that relate to telecommunications standards such as 3G. Firms that work together to develop such standards agree to the principle that any resulting patents should be made available for other firms to license on a “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” (Frand) basis. The logic is that this gives greater incentive to work on standards, which in turn helps the market grow and benefits all concerned.

As we noted recently, the European Union is formally investigating whether Samsung has not only breached these principles but is unfairly attempting to enforce the patents as part of the ongoing barrage of lawsuits back and forth between Apple and Android manufacturers.

A similar lawsuit saw Motorola get an injunction this week that banned Apple from selling 3G-enabled devices in Germany, only for Apple to persuade a court to almost immediately put the ban on hold pending legal arguments about whether Motorola had breached FRAND principles. The two sides each claim the other failed to negotiate a licensing deal in good faith.

Apple’s letter to the ETSI says the Frand system needs more consistent and transparent rules. It’s suggesting three formal additions to the principles:

Royalty rates should take into account the relative scale and importance of the company’s patents in question compared to those across the entire industry.
Royalty payments should be calculated by applying the percentage figure to the cost of the relevant components, not the total value of the device.
Patent owners should agree not to seek injunctions for patents that are covered by Frand principles.

The big problem with the call is that although Apple has formally signed up to follow Frand principles, it has very little involvement in developing communications standards (or standards generally, as those attempting to develop a standard charger socket for cellphones in Europe discovered.) That means that however reasonable its suggestions may be, they all work in Apple’s favor while being a mixed bag for its rivals.

Psycho Siri Says: It is futile for you to run and hide [Video]

Geeks are Sexy — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:53 +0000

iPhone users, beware: You better all switch to an android-based phone soon else something like this could very well happen to you in the near future. You’ve been warned.

[Andrewmfilms]

Siri Helps Owner Do Push-Ups [VIdeo]

Geeks are Sexy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:00:01 +0000

Siri here. I believed that since my owner had no brains, he might have some brawn. Unfortunately, that was too optimistic.

[Via]

Android Users’ Bathroom and Bedroom Secrets Revealed

JLister — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:51 +0000

Android users in North America are more likely than other handset owners to put out on a first date. But if you do find yourself benefiting from that statistic, another finding means you might want to be wary of touching your new buddy’s handset.

The first stats come from dating site Match.com. It conducted a survey but hasn’t yet released the full data, so it’s worth bearing in mind that the closeness of some of the stats may well mean there’s little statistical significance in the “rankings”. But let’s not allow that to spoil the stereotyping.

The survey, of people who are currently single, found 62% of Android users have slept with someone on the first date, compared with 57% for iPhones and 48% for BlackBerry. There’s no figure for Windows, but then again if you set your heart on a Windows Phone 7 handset, you’re probably used to delayed gratification.

Of the respondents, Android users were also most likely to have had a one night stand. It may well be that the smartphone is a correlation red herring: Android users are also most likely by some distance (72% compared with 58% for iPhone and 50% for Blackberry) to have used an online dating site, which could be a better indication of sealing the deal on day one.

Meanwhile another survey suggests Android users are most likely (87%) to have used their smartphone while on the toilet, with BlackBerry (84%) a solid number two and iPhone coming last at 77%. That may well back-up a recent British study that found 92% people had some form of bacteria on their phones, with 16% of handsets harboring E.coli.

Overall people were most likely to be texting (67%), with 63% taking calls but only 41% making calls. A mere 38% said they’d used the web while in their porcelain office, though these figures don’t appear to include tablet users, which would surely boost the numbers.

Rather bizarrely, just 20 percent of women and 30 percent of men agreed that “I don’t go to the bathroom without my mobile phone.” The female figure I can understand given the use of handbags, but aside from getting up in the middle of the night, I can’t believe that many men ever have their phones anywhere but in their pocket.

Samsung patent lawsuits may be unlawful

JLister — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:26 +0000

We’re well used to tech companies suing one another for patent violations (and likely passing the legal bills on to us in higher prices.) But now the tables may have turned, with the European Union investigating whether Samsung misuses its own patents.

In recent years, Samsung and Apple in particular have been engaged in a patent war of attrition, both suing one another in several countries, as well as using the newer tactic of trying to get the United States International Trade Commission to block imports of the relevant devices.

It’s only fair to note that the legal action has been far from one-sided. One lawsuit by Apple over the Galaxy Tab effectively argued that if you produce a tablet, you need to make it a colorful pyramid with dozens of buttons to avoid infringement.

However, the formal EU investigation covers events dating back to the development of the 3G standard. While helping set up the standard in Europe — a standard that allowed Samsung, like other companies, to benefit from the smartphone boom — manufacturers agreed to license the patented technologies they developed relating to the standards.

That agreement recognizes the rights held by companies in their patents, but says they must license them to rival companies in a “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” manner. These rules only apply to patents specifically linked to the 3G standards.

After a preliminary investigation, the EU now believes Samsung may have breached those rules: indeed, that rather than licensing the patents as required, it’s used them as a weapon in lawsuits. Officials believe this may constitute an unfair attempt to distort the market by making it harder for the rival firms to compete.

Patent expert Florian Mueller notes that the opening of a formal investigation likely means the EU has received hard evidence of potential abuse during its initial probe. Mueller also notes that Apple shouldn’t fear a similar investigation for the simple reason that it rarely if ever takes part in standards development, let alone agrees to related licensing terms.

It appears the investigation is being made a priority to avoid the risk that Samsung prevails in one of the lawsuits, only for EU officials to decide too late that such lawsuits should never have been brought.

Tech Giants Accused of Recruitment Collusion

JLister — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:00:41 +0000

The case against major tech firms that allegedly colluded to keep engineer salaries down looks to have become a lot stronger with the publication of e-mails between the companies. It’s for a civil court to decide whether the agreement between companies such as Apple and Google was unlawful, but it now appears incontrovertible that such an agreement existed,

There’s already been an investigation by the US Justice Department that concluded in an 2010 agreement signed by Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit (an accounting software developer) and Pixar. The firms said that in the future they would not make deals to refrain from approaching one another’s staff with offers of employment. Of course, while the firms promised they wouldn’t do so in the future, they weren’t officially acknowledging having done so in the past.

The question of what happened in the past is the heart of an ongoing lawsuit brought by five software engineers who believe that anti-poaching deals between the companies restricted their negotiating power. They are looking for the case to be granted class action status.

It should be noted the allegation is not that all six firms made a comprehensive pact, rather than there were a series of bilateral agreements between various combinations of the companies, as demonstrated in the image above, provided by the plaintiff’s lawyers.

The e-mails published this week include Steve Jobs telling Google chief Eric Schmidt (who was at the time an Apple board member) that a Google employee had attempted to recruit an Apple employee. Jobs noted “I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this.” Schmidt passed on the message and it appears the Google worker who tried to arrange the poaching was fired on the spot.

An even more incriminating document revealed by the plaintiffs is a note from Intel’s chief executive referring to a deal with Google, but noting “Let me clarify. We have nothing signed. We have a handshake ‘no recruit’ between Eric and myself. I would not like this broadly known.”

The evidence also includes a message from Palm’s chief executive to Steve Jobs, publication of which confirms a previous rumor that Jobs had offered a no-poaching deal and that Palm had rejected it on the grounds that it would be “likely illegal.”

Christmas Gadget Explosion is Thankfully Figurative

JLister — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:00:09 +0000

Despite the hard economic times, it appears it was a bumper Christmas for sellers of handheld gadgets. The number of Americans owning tablet computers and e-readers appears to have almost doubled in the space of a few weeks.

According to the latest figures from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the proportion of US adults owning a tablet computer rose from 10% in mid-December to 19% in early January. The figures for e-readers were exactly the same.

The pre-Christmas survey was of just under three thousand people, while the January figures come from two surveys totaling 2,000 people. As with all such surveys, extrapolating to the national population is far from flawless. The statistical margin of error in this case means there’s a 95% chance that the actual nationwide rise for each type of gadget was somewhere between as narrow as a leap from 12% to 16.6% and as wide as moving from 8% to 21.4%.

Whatever the true figures, there has clearly been a significant rise in ownership that, given the timescale, is likely a combination of direct gifts, people spending cash or store voucher given as a gift, and people who had long-planned to buy one of the gadgets but held back to make sure they didn’t get it as a Christmas gift.

The survey didn’t ask about brands, though the authors speculate it’s the result of both Amazon and Barnes & Noble introducing low-priced tablets and slashing the costs of their e-readers. It may well be this was just the usual boost in sales caused by lower prices, but may also have meant the gadgets fell into more Xmas gift budgets.

Another noticeable trend (albeit much more vulnerable to the margin of error) came with people who owned both types of gadget. In December, when tablets and e-books were each at 10%, the proportion of people who owned both types was 18%, suggesting the vast majority were owned by major tech lovers.

For the January figures, with each category at 19%, the proportion owning both was 29%. That certainly ties in with a lot of people getting one of the gadgets for the first time.

The survey also looked at demographics. With tablets, a slight imbalance in favor of males has now evened out, which certainly fits in with a more stereotypical early adopter theory. With e-readers, there’s now a clear gender gap opening up, with 16% ownership amongst men and 21% amongst women.

Perhaps more surprisingly, ownership of both tablets and e-readers is proportionally more common amongst African American and Hispanic people, though not by a significant margin. That mirrors the pattern with smartphones, where one explanation is that they are more likely to be used as a substitute for a fixed-line phone service or a computer, particularly among those living in short-term rentals.

Honest iPhone Wallpapers [Pic]

Geeks are Sexy — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

[Source: Behance | Via MUO]

New Overpriced Concept Toilet: The iPoo

Geeks are Sexy — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:00:51 +0000

Imagined by Milos Paripovic, the iPoo is a concept toilet that was designed with the basic functionality of a toilet in mind, but mixed in with the elegance and price tag of an Apple product.

Unlike some Apple products, this toilet fully supports Flush.
This toilet has exactly the same function as any other toilet and costs only twice as much for the same performance; but you will agree it is all about style and taste, and you will look a lot cooler in your friends’ eyes when you say you use the iPoo toilet instead of throwing your excrement through the bathroom WINDOWS.

Click to Embiggen!

[iPoo]

How To Troll Mac Users

Geeks are Sexy — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

[Via MUO]

Went to the Apple Store Today [Pic]

Geeks are Sexy — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:00:07 +0000

Picture taken with a $600 Facebook phone machine.

[Via 9Gag]

Apple busted for dubious Applecare selling

JLister — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:00:56 +0000

Apple has been fined more than a million dollars in Italy for misleading customers about their warranty rights.

Italian law says customers are legally entitled to a free two-year warranty and technical support on electronic goods. However, Apple staff kept quiet about this when selling to customers, instead detailing Apple’s standard one-year warranty and then encouraging them to take out Applecare, an extended warranty. They didn’t inform customers that the first year of Applecare would overlap with the second year of the statutory warranty period.

Italy’s Antitrust Authority fined Apple’s Italian subsidiaries a total of 900,000 euros (US$1.2 million): 400,000 euros for failing to provide the full two-year warranty as standard, and a further 500,000 euros for selling Applecare in a misleading manner. The 400,000 euro fine was slightly lower to recognize that Apple has taken steps to better highlight the statutory rights since coming under investigation.

The company must publish details of the ruling on its website and now has 90 days to revise the literature for Applecare to make clear that customers automatically get two-years coverage without charge.

Apple hasn’t yet commented on the ruling, or whether it will change the time at which Applecare kicks in for the Italian market.

Another Italian electronics retailer, Comet, escaped fines over similar breaches. The Antitrust Authority noted that Comet had begun fully informing customers of the two-year warranty before it began formal proceedings and simply ruled that Comet be bound to stick to this change of policy.