Wednesday
Samsung denied seeing the next iPhone and iPad, Apple denied banning Samsung's new gear
In a Solomon decision that restores our trust in the justice system, some of Apple's and Samsung's more outrageous requests in their ongoing legal battle were denied.
Samsung was said to "overreach" in its request to see the next iPhone and the next iPad for possible patent infringements. That must have come as an answer to the Samsung "harassing" Apple comment. The court said that while the idea of "parity" is understandable, given that Apple was granted the permission to see the Samsung Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 last week, these are now on sale nationwide anyway, whereas the next iPhone and iPad have not been even announced yet. And the above sentence in legalese:
"It is true that if Apple eventually introduces an iPhone 5 or an iPad 3 that diverges from the overall consistent look of the existing iPhone or iPad products, Apple might not be able to claim trade dress protection as to its entire line of products. As discussed above, however, Apple’s decision to limit its claims to its trademarks and trade dress as embodied in products currently in the market is not unreasonable, and Samsung points to no authority suggesting that the Court must look ahead to unreleased, and possibly not-yet-developed, products in order to evaluate the overall look of an existing product line.Finally, the Court notes that the relative burden of producing unreleased products may be somewhat greater for Apple than for Samsung. When the Court considered the potential prejudice to Samsung of producing unreleased product samples, the Court emphasized that Samsung had already released significant information about its forthcoming products into the public domain.Indeed, in addition to the images and information released to the media, Samsung had recently released 5,000 samples of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 to members of the public.Considering that images, descriptions, and actual samples of Samsung’s forthcoming products were already publicly available, the Court found that the burden to Samsung of producing the latest iterations of those products, along with their packaging, was minimal. In contrast, Apple maintains a strict policy of not commenting on future products and takes extensive measures to protect information about its unreleased products. Unlike Samsung,Apple has not publicly announced or described the products Samsung seeks to obtain. Instead,Apple closely guards this information as a trade secret. However, while this difference carries some weight, the Court agrees with Samsung that the strict protective order required by the Court and stipulated to by the parties would provide adequate protection to both parties. Apple’s contention that this protective order is sufficient for Samsung, but not for Apple, is not well-taken.The Court will not assume that outside counsel and experts who agree to strict confidentiality will nevertheless leak information about Apple’s products, nor will the Court assume that Apple would face greater harm from the release of confidential information than would Samsung."
The court, on the other hand, denied Apple's request for the allegedly-infringing Samsung gear to be banned from selling nationwide, thus evening things out, and wiping everybody's tears.
iPhone 4 becomes the most popular camera on Flickr
The iPhone 4 has just become the most popular camera on Flickr beating the Nikon D90 who long held the crown and made us wonder about all the possible reasons behind it. A look at Flickr's stats shows that its professional and semi-professional DSLRs that occupy the rankings as the Canon EOS 5D Mark II comes third, followed by the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi and the Canon EOS Rebel T1i. One thing is evident – the iPhone 4 has a far inferior camera than all of them.
But strangely even with its comparatively humble 5 megapixel snapper, it has managed to outpace the rest with a whopping 4844 average daily users and over 9 million uploaded photos. The reason? The most obvious one is sharing – publishing a picture from the iPhone is a breeze as it only takes a couple of taps, while the rest of the cameras - despite their much better sensors – lack the opportunity to instantly post images to the web.
The second reason is of course availability as a phone is always around allowing for spontaneous shots, while you don't always have your camera around. Looking at the general picture, you'd notice that it's actually the iPhone 3G which has recorded the biggest total in terms of pictures taken among iDevices with over 35 million for its couple of years of existence.
The browser wars have a new winner after major updates to platforms
Just a couple of months ago, Microsoft bragged with the performance of its IE9 browser after it blew competition out of the water in a browser benchmark fight plotted by Redmond itself. But two months later, iOS 5 is official, and we have a whole new ball game. Running Mobile Safari on an iPhone 4 updated to a beta of iOS 5 shows that there's a new winner in the browser battle.
Safari scored a whopping 31fps despite the fact that it runs on a handset with a higher resolution, dwarfing the 26fps result on the WP7 handset and the 15fps on Android. The iPhone 4 sports a screen rendering 640x960 pixels in comparison to the respective Windows Phone device which only had to support 480x800 pixels. Initially, Microsoft's browser claimed to succeed due to its hardware accelerated HTML5, but while Redmond's new platform is about to use new hardware, the iPhone 4 manages to outscore with its year-old silicon.
Tuesday
Apple Revolutionizes Video Editing With Final Cut Pro X
CUPERTINO, California-June 21, 2011-Apple® today announced Final Cut Pro® X, a revolutionary new version of the world's most popular Pro video editing software which completely reinvents video editing with a Magnetic Timeline that lets you edit on a flexible, trackless canvas; Content Auto-Analysis that categorizes your content upon import by shot type, media and people; and background rendering that allows you to work without interruption. Built on a modern 64-bit architecture, Final Cut Pro X is available from the Mac® App Store™ for $299.99.
"Final Cut Pro X is the biggest advance in Pro video editing since the original Final Cut Pro," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "We have shown it to many of the world's best Pro editors, and their jaws have dropped."
"I'm blown away by what Apple has done with Final Cut Pro," said Angus Wall, Academy Award-winning film editor. "Final Cut Pro X is incredibly modern and fast, but most importantly it lets you focus on telling your story in the most creative way, while it actively manages all of the technical details."
At the heart of Final Cut Pro X is the Magnetic Timeline, a trackless approach to editing your footage that lets you add and arrange clips wherever you want them, while other clips instantly slide out of the way. You can use Clip Connections to link primary story clips to other elements like titles and sound effects, so they stay in perfect sync when you move them. You can even combine related story elements into a Compound Clip that can be edited as a single clip. The groundbreaking new Auditions feature lets you swap between a collection of clips to instantly compare alternate takes.
Content Auto-Analysis scans your media on import and tags your content with useful information. Final Cut Pro X then uses that information to dynamically organize your clips into Smart Collections, so you can easily find the clips you want by close up, medium and wide shots as well as media type and the number of people in the shot. You can also tag parts of clips with Range-based keywords to add custom search criteria to your media.
Completely rebuilt from the ground up, Final Cut Pro X is a 64-bit app that takes full advantage of the latest Mac hardware and software so you never have to wait for the next edit, even if you're working with 4K video. Final Cut Pro X uses multi-threaded processing and the GPU on your graphics card for blazing fast background rendering and superb real-time playback performance. Additionally, a ColorSync-managed color pipeline ensures color consistency from import to output.
Final Cut Pro X also includes powerful tools for audio editing and color correction, and is complemented by two companion apps, Motion 5 for professional motion graphics and Compressor 4 for advanced media encoding, available from the Mac App Store for $49.99 each.
Pricing & Availability
Final Cut Pro X is available today for $299.99 from the Mac App Store. Motion 5 and Compressor 4 are available today for $49.99 each from the Mac App Store. Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Pro X can be found at www.apple.com/finalcutpro.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
Nokia refreshes its C2 lineup with three affordable Series 40 handsets
The C2-03 is a dual-band 900/1800 MHz handset coming with an Easy Swap SIM slot on the left side of the phone allowing you to quickly change SIM cards without having to remove the battery first. In addition, now you can also get Nokia Maps on Series 40 with offline maps, all for free. Thirdly, the phone will ship with a reworked Nokia Browser squeezing data before it reaches your device for quicker browsing speeds.
The Nokia C2-03 features a 2.6-inch display with a resolution of 240x320 pixels with 65k colors. It also comes with a 2-megapixel camera and 10MB of internal memory expandable to 32 gigs via microSD cards.
At the same time, the C2-03 packs a capable battery providing you with up to 5 hours of talk time and nearly 400 hours in standby mode. The dimensions of the handset are 4.05 x 2.02 x 0.67” (103 x 51.4 x 17mm) and it tips the scales at 4.16oz (118g). The Nokia C2-03 price is set at $110 (77 euro), but it might vary in India, China, SEAP, Eurasia and MEA, the markets for this device.
The other two of the crew are nearly identical: the Nokia C2-02 is the single SIM version with a similar feature set, but also push messaging options and included IM providers, while the Nokia C2-06 brings a set of fresh colors with a clean, smooth finish.
Nokia's N9 official
The entire thing measures 116.45- x 61.2- x 7.6-12.1mm and weighs 135 grams, with a battery capable of lasting up to 50 hours (music), 4.5 hours (720p video), or between seven and 11 hours (GSM yappin'). You'll also get gratis turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance in Maps, a dedicated Drive app, proximity sensor and a choice of hue: black, cyan, and magenta. Other hardware specs include 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, an ambient light sensor, compass, orientation sensor, a micro SIM slot, tethering support and a 3.5mm "AV connector." It'll be humming along on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, with apps being compliant with Qt 4.7 and HTML5 support bundled in.
As for software? Aside from Angry Birds Magic, Galaxy on Fire 2, Real Golf 2011 and OpenGL ES 2.0, those who take the plunge will be greeted with a Webkit2-based browser, pinch-to-zoom support, unified notifications for Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds in the Events view as well as social networking profiles and status updates merged into phone contacts. MeeGo touts a user interface simplified to three home views -- events, applications and open apps -- with a swipe gesture able to take you back to the home view. For those looking to expand upon what's loaded from the factory, Ovi Store access is included, but we've no idea what kind of pricing will be affixed.
Symbian Anna to be available by the end of August
New phones will ship with Symbian Anna straight from the factory, of course, but existing handsets might not get the firmware update until the end of August, according to the press release. Not that once Anna is out there won't be custom ways to get it on your phone, but still, it's nicer to get the official stuff. We also know that the camera-centric Nokia N8 will be getting a special Symbian Anna version that will officially introduce 30fps and continuous autofocus to the handset, as Nokia's camera guru Damian Dinning intended.
Future versions of Symbian are all supposed to carry women's names, and be alphabetical, i.e. this one is Anna, the next one, which should be arriving October/November is dubbed Belle, and so on. For Symbian Belle Nokia UK said that if you like Android, you'll like this one too - from what we've seen so far, it has back, search and context menu buttons just like Google's OS, but we don't have many details on how exactly the notifications are handled.
Nokia also reiterated its commitment to Symbian, saying that in the next 12 months we will be seeing not less than 10 new devices with Symbian onboard, so there will be enough bread left in the platform for developers, especially considering the prices of the applications in Ovi Store.
BMW electric vehicle Android app learns from your driving patterns
BMW is no stranger to integrating smartphones in its products, or using your iPhone, BlackBerry or Android device to provide Roadside Assistance.
It now takes the relationship between the BMW car driver and their smartphone to the next level, by outing the BMW EVolve app.
The goal by launching the app, which analyzes your driving patterns, is to determine if a BMW ActiveE, the company's all-electric vehicle, or some other upcoming engineering marvel, will be a good fit for your driving habits.
You can log on to a dedicated website, and submit the results to BMW's servers, while the car maker is calling all app users its Collective Engineers, who are helping it shape up the electric vehicles of tomorrow.
Monday
Samsung Galaxy S II ad teaches you to dance with your fingers
We've seen a couple of them Samsung Galaxy S II commercials, but this one has actually turned viral in the couple of days since it's been out, so it's definitely worth checking out. Actually, it makes you forget it's a phone ad for a second, which generally speaking should not be a good thing for the promoted Galaxy S II, but this case might be an exception.
The commercial invites you to “Unleash your fingers” and gives you a whole new perspective of how much more you can do with your fingers.
Nokia rolls the iron shutters down: “it's Apple-style secrecy right now”
"The iron shutters are down around development – it’s “Apple-style” secrecy right now," a Nokia employee shared with SlashGear. The new Nokia Windows Phone device needs not only the specs, but also the flare of an exciting launch. Apple has probably been the best example in the industry, mastering its launches and managing to get customers involved and waiting for new products:
“If we can build the same hype around our first Windows Phone as Apple does about iPhone…” another Nokia employee voiced his hope that the company could release a product inspiring long lines.
But while Windows Phone rules the high-end segment, mid-range and low-end handsets are still to come with Nokia's Symbian platform. The operating system got an overhaul with the Symbian Anna update bringing portrait QWERTY input, a new Browser 7.3 with support for HTML5 and brand new looks, but expectations for the next update, Belle, are even higher. "If you like Android then you’ll love Symbian Belle," Nokia staff was upbeat about the future.
Sunday
Wednesday
Google announces Search by Image and Voice Search for desktop, revamped mobile search
Google's done a ton of talking about search at its Inside Search event today, and two of the biggest new developments are on the desktop. It's just announced that Android-style Voice Search is headed to Chrome (with support for English only, initially), and that it will be joined by a new Search by Image feature (also available in Chrome, or Firefox with an extension). To use that latter feature, you simply drag and drop an image or cut and paste an image URL in the search box, and then Google tries its best to recognize it and deliver relevant results -- including identifying the location in an old vacation photo, for instance (though Google notes it isn't doing face recognition). Both features will be rolling out over the next few days, but you can get a glimpse of them now in the demo videos after the break.
Sunday
Did Apple steal the Wi-Fi Sync feature for iOS 5 from a developer whose similar app was rejected?
When Apple recently introduced iOS 5, it mentioned a new feature called "Wi-Fi Sync". This allows an iOS user with a device connected to a power source to automatically sync and back-up the device to iTunes via a Wi-Fi connection. To University of Birmingham student Greg Hughes, this sounded awfully familiar. Hughes had submitted an app to the App Store with the same exact name and practically the same logo that Apple rolled out earlier last week. Unfortunately, Apple had rejected the submission.
After rejecting Hughes' app for the App Store, an Apple representative called to tell him that while the app technically did not break any rules, it did "encroach upon the boundaries" of what can be offered in the App Store. Hughes didn't drop the project, instead he listed his app in the Cydia store aimed at jail-broken devices and sold over 50,000 copies of his "Wi-Fi Sync".
Greg Hughes, developer of the rejected "Wi-Fi Sync" with his logo(on top) and Apple's logo
When the student learned about Apple's introduction of its "Wi-Fi Sync", he was shocked and surprised. Hughes had been selling his version of "Wi-Fi Sync for a year. Apple had known about his software and he felt that the Cupertino-based firm had "pinched it for iOS 5". And while the App Store representative he spoke on the phone with last year had told him how impressed with his work the iPhone engineering team was, Hughes has received some legal advice and plans on defending himself and his work.
As the App Store continues to grow, it might be harder and harder for Apple to avoid stepping on the toes of small developers like Greg Hughes, which makes this a legal matter to watch as it moves through the legal system. If it does become a lawsuit,we would not be surprised to see Apple offer a settlement to make it go away.
iCloud Communications sues Apple for obvious reasons
You probably know the drill by now -- Cupertino introduces a new product with a name that ostensibly belongs to someone else, and for better or worse that someone decides to take Apple to court. Today, it's iCloud Communications charging out of the left corner to sock Apple's iCloud square in the wallet. Arizona-based iCloud Communications appears to be a VoIP equipment and service provider, though in court documents it claims to be a cloud computing company as well, and claims that it's been using the term iCloud (and the above logo) to sell such services since 2005. It's asking the court to destroy all iCloud marketing materials, pay damages and even invalidate the iCloud trademark that Apple bought from Xcerion -- the only registered iCloud trademark so far -- but what's probably going to actually happen here is a nice little settlement out of court.