Google sells patents to HTC, HTC uses them to sue Apple

According to Bloomberg, Google — who previously never missed an occasion to whine about patents and patent litigation — seems to have been quietly buying patents of its very own from Palm, Motorola, and Openwave Systems, then sold them to HTC so HTC to use them to sue Apple. Pretty slick.

The lawsuit contends the Mac computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, iCloud and iTunes are infringing patents for a way to upgrade software wirelessly; a way to transfer data between a microprocessor and a support chip; a method to store user preferences, and a way to provide consistent contact between application software and a radio modem.

HTC also amended a complaint with the International Trade Commission today, adding five of the former Google patents to a case that targets many of the same products. Three of those patents Google bought from Openwave and two others had been owned by Palm, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) last year.

Apple originally sued HTC, and HTC has countersued before. The part that caught my eye is that HTC says they “will continue to protect its patented inventions” when Google just bought said inventions for HTC last week? Apple buys patents as well, from Fingerworks for multitouch to Nortel for LTE, and no doubt won’t waste any time asserting them, it’s just interesting wording on HTC’s part.

With Apple still suing Android manufacturers instead of Google directly, and Google now supplying arms to those manufacturers instead of going after Apple directly, one thing is for certain — we’re going to need a lot of popcorn.

[Bloomberg]

Twitter designer finds Facebook for iPhone imitation decidedly unflattering

Facebook for iPhone, which previously took heat for making their Places icon a little too 4-squared, is now being called out by mobile designer Bryan Haggerty for copying Twitter‘s photo sharing UI.

Seriously Facebook? http://pic.twitter.com/0ifNsdY

Ok Facebook, enough with the flattery. http://pic.twitter.com/vSyHdpH

Though TechCrunch points out Haggerty was at LinkedIn when LinkedIn’s mobile app looked a lot like Facebook. Twitter for iPhone is no stranger to flattery, however, as back when it was still Tweetie, it’s “pull to refresh” feature was so intuitive it quickly spread to other apps and even web frameworks.

At a certain point, a “best” way of doing something gets discovered and for the sake of consistency and user friendliness, it makes more sense for that “best” way to become a standard. (See Lotus vs. Excel). Whether or not the Twitter photo sharing UI qualifies as something so good it should become a standard, we’ll have to wait and see.

[@bhaggs via TechCrunch]

Found Footage: Verizon’s iPad 2 Commercial

width="640" height="390" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0">name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aKBebh_3Ub8?version=3&hl=en_US" />name="allowfullscreen" value="true" />width="640" height="390" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aKBebh_3Ub8?version=3&hl=en_US" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" />

You don’t often see non-Apple ads for Apple products, and here’s why. Verizon’s ad for the iPad 2 with 3G shows exactly how well Apple knows what it’s doing when it comes to advertising. Rather than the emotive and touching iPad 2 ads we’re used to from Apple, we get this clunky thing which is exactly like so many other gadget ads on the TV.

Not to mention I’d be extremely unimpressed if someone pulled out an iPad while around the campfire to tweet and take a picture.

[via href="http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/06/verizon-airs-their-own-ipad-2-ad-showcases-3g-connectivity/">9to5]

Indiana lawmakers consider adopting iPads

Indiana lawmakers are now considering buying iPads for their 50 senators and 100 representatives. Many schools and government bodies have already implemented iPads to replace certain physical media such as textbooks.

Republican State Senator Brandt Hershman says he already uses an iPad for personal and business use and that it may allow for more transparency in the legislative process. It could also allow easier communication and response from local government.

Given I live in Indiana and own a tech based company, it’s great to see our local government adopting technology and keeping up with it. Not only does electronic media provide a great way to help the environment by eliminating paper waste but it also shows that technology is an important part of our society. The fact that our local government is starting to acknowledge that and is trying to use it in a more efficient way is definitely a step in the right direction.

[The Loop]

Week in iPhone for September 7, 2011

Missed a compelling piece of iPhone news, a great review, or a killer how-to? We’re not collecting absolutely everything in iPhone here — you can hit up TiPb.com/iPhone for that! — but we’re carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here for your review.

And hey! — these double as show notes for our iPhone Live! podcast tonight at 9pm Eastern. So join us at TiPb.com/live and follow along!

PostSecret Hits The App Store

href="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mzl.nlzyckex.320x480-75.jpg">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23508" title="mzl.nlzyckex.320x480-75" src="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mzl.nlzyckex.320x480-75.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="480" />

href="http://www.postsecret.com/">PostSecret has been a runaway hit for years, a heartfelt collection of postcards that are anonymously sent, revealing everyone’s most inner and personal secrets — href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/postsecret/id457456040?mt=8">and now it’s out for the iPhone. In addition to letting you look at the postcards mailed to the website, the mobile version lets you share secrets directly and anonymously, as well as search for ones from your school or city.

I’ll be interested to see if the system gets overrun by fake entries now — by making people make/buy a postcard and then physically send it in, there was a barrier to entry to people just doing it for their own amusement, and made the resulting secrets at least a little more likely to be true. This app means anyone can instantly and freely share anything, and I’m curious to see if it’ll open up the doors to the trolls.

[via href="http://appshopper.com/blog/2011/09/06/postsecret-comes-to-the-iphone/">AppShopper]

 

Adobe Adds Newsstand Support For Digital Publishing Suite

One of the lesser discussed features of iOS 5 is href="http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#newsstand">Newsstand, a place for gathering together all your newspaper and magazine subscriptions (those that are willing to give Apple a 30% cut, anyway). href="http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201109/090711AdobeDPSiOS5Newsstand.html">Adobe’s just announced that they’ll add support for Newsstand in Adobe® Digital Publishing Suite “ soon after Apple releases iOS 5 and the Newsstand application.”

The Digital Publishing Suite will allow content to be published as a digital edition for Newsstand on iOS, Android tablets and the BlackBerry Playbook.

“Digital Publishing Suite support for Newsstand will provide Adobe’s publishing customers the ability to deliver engaging content directly to the digital doorstep of subscribers on their iPads,” said Todd Teresi, vice president and general manager, Media Solutions, Adobe. “Adobe technology is fundamental to the transformation taking place across publishing and now readers will be able to easily obtain their magazine and newspaper subscriptions in one location and get access to the latest issue as soon as it is published, further accelerating magazine adoption on tablet devices.”

Before you decide to pick this up for publishing a new version of that old punk zine you worked on in the early 90s, keep in mind this software ain’t cheap. The professional edition goes for $495 and and the enterprise edition $3,995. Per month. You need some deep pockets to use this stuff.

The one other thing I really hope they can do is squeeze down the size of magazine files on the iPad. Some of them clock in at hundreds of megs per download, a frankly ludicrous size to download on a monthly/weekly basis.

[via href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/09/07/adobe_adding_support_for_ios_5_newsstand_to_digital_publishing_suite.html">AppleInsider]

Apple Sends Near-Final iOS 5 To Carriers For Testing

href="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-07-at-9.26.34-AM.jpg">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23513" title="Screen Shot 2011-09-07 at 9.26.34 AM" src="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-07-at-9.26.34-AM.jpg" alt="" width="254" height="257" />

One of the later stages of the testing for iOS involves shipping the beta out to the carriers to make sure they don’t see any major problems on their end, and href="http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/06/near-final-ios-5-build-reaches-late-carrier-testing-carriers-begin-support-training/">rumor has it that Apple has just done exactly that. 9to5 Mac is reporting that the carriers are now being trained up on iOS 5 and iCloud, and that they’ve been given “near-final builds of iOS 5 for final testing.”

According to their sources, FaceTime over 3G is up and working, and Nuance’s speech-to-text is integrated.

It’s looking more and more like the final release of iOS 5 is just around the corner. Keep your eyes peeled folks, we’re not far away now.

Is This The First Photo Taken With An iPhone 5?

style="text-align: center;">style="text-align: left;">href="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/5964416157_9b03e754f1_b.jpg">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-23519" title="5964416157_9b03e754f1_b" src="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/5964416157_9b03e754f1_b.jpg" alt="" width="599" height="614" />This photo looks pretty standard, right? Just some guy snapping a picture of a rather delicious looking sushi plate. Not so fast, it looks like there might be a bit more going on here, href="http://pocketnow.com/iphone/iphone-5-first-test-photo">as spotted by PocketNow. They went diving into the EXIF data — the information embedded into your photographs that explain a bit about the camera it was taken with — and they think it might have been taken with the iPhone 5.

style="text-align: left;">While the EXIF says it was photographed with an iPhone 4, the image was cropped down to 2235×2291 (5 megapixels) and was originally 3264×2448 (8 megapixels). The iPhone 4′s lens is  3.85mm f/2.8, and this photograph was taken with a 4.3mm f/2.4 lens.

style="text-align: left;">Not only that, but the GPS data points to the Apple Campus in Cupertino, and the shot was taken by href="http://www.flickr.com/people/tosha/">Anton D’Auria, an Apple employee.

style="text-align: left;">The original is href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tosha/5964416157/in/photostream">still on Flickr but has had all this info stripped from it and is no longer available for download, but PocketNow href="http://pocketnow.com/images/Evan/5964416157_2df3c21568_o.jpg">thankfully saved it.

style="text-align: left;">Now, this EXIF data could easily be faked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was taken with the iPhone 5.

Netflix has begun enforcing one movie stream at a time policy [Updated: Maybe not]

It seems like September 1 not only saw Netflix‘s new, controversial price plans go into effect, but it also saw them begin to enforce their “one movie stream at a time” policy, which means you can no longer have one video going on your iPhone and another on your iPad or Apple TV. Stop the Cap! breaks down your choices moving forward.

People don’t mind paying a fair price for a fair service, but they general don’t like feeling nickel and dimed. If the streams are all going to the same IP address, it seems excessive (or it seems like it’s lacking a simple option to have a multi-stream account.) Anything that results in user frustration isn’t good, not for us and not for Netflix.

Which way are you leaning?

UPDATE: Engadget says it might just be a glitch.

According to spokesman Steve Swasey, the policy is still the same and no Netflix member is limited to less than two streams at once. The messages people are seeing indicating otherwise? An “error” the company is correcting.

[Stop the Cap! via Mashable, Engadget. Thanks excaliburca!]

Dexim launches iOS controlled Monster Truck RC vehicle

Well known accessory manufacturer Dexim has released a remote controlled monster truck with an iOS twist. This particular monster truck is controlled solely with your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The RF controlled monster truck comes with a small transmitter that connects to the 30 pin dock connector on your device. You can then control the truck using two methods. The first is a traditional on screen touch control panel. The second option is where the fun really starts; it uses the inbuilt gyroscope allowing you to tilt a compatible device and the truck responds to the direction of the tilt. The truck is even rechargeable via USB and has three inbuilt preset stations allow you to automatically ZigZag, Spin or Dance your vehicle to music.

The Monster Truck is available to order now for $69 and the companion AppSpeed app is a free download from the App Store. You can check out a video showing the Monster Truck via the link below. It looks like a lot of fun and the price doesn’t seem to high either. I could fancy one of these for Christmas!

[Dexim]

Is this an iPhone 5 camera test photo?

Pocket Now has found what they think is an iPhone 5 camera test photo taken by an Apple engineer. What makes them so suspicious?

This (very attractive) photo claims to have been taken by an iPhone 4, but the rest of its EXIF data tells a different story: although the image has been cropped to 2235×2291 (5.12 megapixels), the original picture was a much larger 3264×2448 — or just shy of eight megapixels. What’s more, the lens was recorded as a 4.3mm f/2.4, which is closer to that of a point-and-shoot than the iPhone 4′s actual 3.85mm f/2.8.

iPhone 5 has long been rumored to be getting an 8 megapixel camera, lets just hope Apple keeps prioritizing photons over size and we get a great sensor to go with it.

[Pocket Now]

Daily Deal: Marware SportGrip for AT&T iPhone 4 for only $6.95

For today only, the TiPb Store has the Marware SportGrip for AT&T iPhone 4 on sale for only $6.95 — that’s a whopping 65% off. Black, white, pink, red, or blue. Awesome case in awesome colors — Get it before it’s gone!

Shop Marware SportGrip for AT&T iPhone 4 now!

New Cydia App CardSwitcher Offers webOS-like Multitasking in iOS

href="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-07-at-10.47.16-AM.png">src="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Screen-Shot-2011-09-07-at-10.47.16-AM.png" alt="webOS multi-tasking in iOS" title="Screen Shot 2011-09-07 at 10.47.16 AM" width="239" height="348" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-23516" />

The implementation of multi-tasking in webOS is fabulous. The closest thing in iOS is switching between open web pages in Safari. iOS 5 won’t offer any significant improvements in how iOS handles multi-tasking. A new app titled CardSwitcher, aims to change how iOS handles multitasking and looks to offer a similar experience to how it’s handled in webOS. Users can initiate a card view and then move between those cards to access a particular app.

The developer promises it will be available in the CydiaStore shortly for $1.99. Of course, it requires that you’re iPhone is jailbroken.

width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UQlcM4m-n_g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Thanks href="http://twitter.com/mikecane">@mikecane

Adobe Digital Publishing Suite getting ready for iOS 5 Newsstand

Adobe announced today that their Digital Publishing Suite will support iOS 5′s new Newsstand feature sometime after launch.

Publishers will be able to use Digital Publishing Suite to create files that are detected by Newsstand and automatically downloaded to the Newsstand shelf, eliminating long download times which can present a barrier to reading content on iPad devices. Applications built with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and enabled for Newsstand will allow publishers to better merchandise their content with support for Newsstand push notifications and icon covers displayed on the Newsstand shelf, reflecting the latest issue of the magazine or newspaper.

Newsstand collects all subscription content into one special icon on the iOS 5 home screen and should be available when Apple ships the new version of iOS this October.

[Adobe]

App Giveaway: Fluke HD for iPad

Fluke HD is a board game for the iPad. It has recently been updated with a classic board theme.

This is a fun little board game! The premise is very simple, so even kids can play. The goal is to get all your tokens to the finish line by rolling the dice. If you’re lucky, you’ll land on a teleport to move forward and if you’re not so lucky, you’ll teleport backwards or get your token knocked off by another player.

Rediscover the joy of board games on the iPad with Fluke HD. Download this visually vibrant and action filled game today to play with your friends, family, or loved ones. Fluke HD represents a digital twist on the board game genre with gameplay in the vein of classics such as Snakes & Ladders, Sorry! and Ludo.

The update includes:

The good folks at Local Aliens LLC have given us 5 promo codes to giveaway to our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

Fluke HD is available on the iPad for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Wednesday, September 7

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

Tiny Invaders: You control the fun-loving tentacled aliens as they jump from host to host, secretly controlling the minds of people all across the country. Can you help the tiny team achieve their ultimate target: the President of the United States? [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

AppZapp HD: The Bargain-Guide for the AppStore – never miss a sale again. AppZapp will instantly inform you about price drops by push or eMail. [Free for iPad - App Store link]

TRVL free Travel Magazine: Offers readers a blend of breathtaking photography and intriguing stories, with each issue presenting a location-specific look at some of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating destinations. [Free for iPad - App Store link]

PixyMe: Allows you to incorporate a person’s name directly into an image with amazing realism, making it look as if it was part of the original photograph. [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

Florida Lobbyist Directory: A source of easy-to-access information regarding Florida lobbyists and their clients. Keep tabs on changes in lobbyists’ registration and be on rapid alert when a company or industry suits up to fight or pass legislation! [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apple Store, carrier store staff beginning iOS 5 and iCloud training?

Mark Gurman over at 9to5Mac has sources familiar with people who know about Apple Store and carrier partner training, and they’re showing and telling him that iOS 5 and iCloud training has begun.

Apple Stores usually only begin their training of new software in the couple of weeks leading up to a respective product launch (obviously this time around could be different, though). Apple beginning their iOS 5 training within the last few days could mean a launch sooner than the recently rumored dates of mid-to-late October.

In addition to store employee training, carriers are also getting special versions of iOS 5 software.

Separately, Apple’s most prominent carrier partners have been seeded near-final builds of iOS 5 for final testing. This build is newer than the betas seeded to developers and includes some unique features. According to a source testing this build, FaceTime over 3G is active. According to this source, testers are being instructed that 3G FaceTime testing is a high priority.

Their versions also reportedly running Apple’s new Nuance-powered speech-to-text feature, though NOT the full on SIRI-powered Assistant feature that’s also been rumored for iOS 5.

Apple could still be working on it, could have shelved it, or could be keeping it exclusively for new iPhone 5

[9to5Mac, x2]

FireCore updates aTV Flash with music playback and cloud backup [jailbreak]

FireCore has announced a major update to its aTV Flash (black) software that runs on jailbroken second generation Apple TV’s. The update (beta 7) now includes music playback, cloud backup and even Last.fm powered artist slideshows.

• A new music player has been built into Media Player, which allows you to stream most music file types from a Mac, PC or NAS drive without using iTunes. During playback, album art, track info, and artist images will automatically be downloaded from Last.fm. Artist images are used in slideshows that can be viewed while music is playing in the background. Support for folder playlists is also included.

• New cloud backup feature that provides a way to easily backup all your 3rd party (FireCore, XBMC, Plex, etc…) settings and data to the cloud. Once backed up, a list of your previously saved backups will be available allowing you to to easily restore one of them if needed. Backups are stored securely in the cloud and will remain linked to the AppleTV’s serial number – this means they will always be available even if you update or restore your AppleTV.

• Media Player now features three distinct options for viewing different types of metadata. The the left (<<) and right (>>) buttons can be used to cycle through the views when browsing through your media.

If you’re already running a version of aTV Flash (black) the new Beta 7 version can be installed through the Maintenance –> Manage Extras menu on your Apple TV.

Does anyone still jailbreak their Apple TV? What is the main reason you do it?

[FireCore]