Edible Apple

The FTC is reportedly looking into whether or not Google is improperly wielding the FRAND patents it acquired  as part of its Motorola buyout a few months ago.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a civil investigative demand, which is similar to a subpoena, to the owner of the Android mobile operating system as it scrutinizes whether Google is improperly blocking rivals’ access to patents for key smartphone technology, one of the people said.

The agency is also seeking information from companies including Microsoft Corp. and Apple as it investigates whether Google intends to license technology under patents that help operate 3G wireless, Wi-Fi and video streaming on fair and reasonable terms, another one of the people said. The people declined to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The FTC investigation is also taking a look at Motorola’s ongoing litigation, which predate its acquisition by Google, where it’s asserting standard essential patents against companies like Microsoft and Apple. Recall that standard essential patents must be licensed out to all-comers on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.

Following its acquisition of Motorola, Google made assurances that it will license Motorola’s standard essential patents out on fair and reasonable terms so I suppose the investigation will reveal if they’ve lived up to that promise.

via BusinessWeek

Well it looks like Apple has some more problems a’brewin over in Italy. You might remember that Apple last year was fined $1.2 million by Italian authorities for selling 2-year warranties to consumers even though EU law requires that 2 year warranties be provided at no charge.

Now Apple is looking at the prospect of its operations grinding to a halt in Italy after allegedly failing to comply with EU law. An Italian watchdog group claims that Apple still encourages customers to purchase 2 year Apple care protection without adequately explaining that they’re obligated to provide said care for free.

In addition to the threat of having its operations shut down, Apple may also face additional fines totaling approximately $377,000.

Apple now has 30 days to respond to the allegations.

via Reuters

According to ifoAppleStore, Apple is looking to slightly alter the layout of its Apple retail stores in response to growing demand for interaction with Apple Store geniuses.

The designers’ solution to Genius Bar crowds was to pivot the GB table by 90-degrees so that it’s perpendicular to the rear wall of the store, and to eliminate the iconic kids seats and tables. A photo of the new set-up has surfaced showing a tall, 10-foot long wood counter at the rear of a store, with black stools on both sides. The table is set about 15 inches out from the rear wall of the store to allow employees to move from one side to another.

With Apple securing two preliminary injunctions against Samsung products last week, it seems that Google is actively paying more attention to those legal proceedings than ever.

According to the Korea Times, Google and Samsung are now planning to work together to create more of a unified front against Apple’s patent infringement allegations.

This is the first time Samsung confirmed it is getting help from Google in its legal battle with Apple. Google is also supporting HTC, a Taiwanese smartphone maker and a major Android player, which is also in a legal dispute with Apple.

It had already expressed “deep regret’’ about the ruling from the San Jose court and claimed a different result will be reached when more evidence is presented…

“It’s too early to comment on our game plan (with Google) in the legal battle; but we will do our best to get more royalties from Apple, which has benefited from our technology,’’ said a Samsung insider.

As we’ve posited many times before, the difference between Samsung and Apple’s allegations is that Samsung’s patents at issue are subject to FRAND terms, meanig that they’re obligated to license them to Apple on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms because they relate to essential technological standards.

Apple’s patents, meanwhile, aren’t subject to any technological standard and Apple has no obligation to license them out to anyone at any price.

The Associated Press reports:

Apple has agreed to pay a Chinese company $60 million to settle a dispute over ownership of the iPad name, a court announced Monday, removing a potential obstacle to sales of the popular tablet computer in the key Chinese market.

Apple Inc. says it bought the global rights to the iPad name from Shenzhen Proview Technology in 2009 but Chinese authorities say the rights in China were never transferred. A Chinese court ruled in December that Proview still owned the name in China and the company asked Chinese authorities to seize iPads.

“The iPad dispute resolution is ended,” the Guangdong High People’s Court said in a statement. “Apple Inc. has transferred $60 million to the account of the Guangdong High Court as requested in the mediation letter.”

Five years ago today, Apple introduced the iPhone and completely changed the smartphone landscape forever. The iPhone’s place as a revolutionary product is secure and undisputed, but looking back, not everyone thought it had much of a chance. To wit, this now famous video of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer quickly dismissing the iPhone’s chances for success. Well to be honest, he mostly rags on the iPhone for its price and lack of a tactile keyboard.

“Right now we’re selling millions and millions of phones a year, Apple is selling zero phones a year.”

So Google earlier this week announced the Google Nexus 7, a homegrown Android tablet developed in conjunction with Asus. Priced at only $199 the Nexus 7 is a surefire Kindle Fire competitor and may even attract some folks who are hesitant about laying down extra cash for the iPad.

So how does the Nexus 7 measure up? Well, based on early reports, it seems to be a legit contendor.

Joshua Topolsky writes for The Verge:

Google’s Nexus 7 isn’t just an excellent tablet for $200. It’s an excellent tablet, period. In fact, it’s the first Android tablet that I can confidently recommend to buyers — and not just because it’s got a low price tag (though that certainly helps). It’s a well-designed, powerful, and useful product, with lots of bells and whistles that makes it feel like a device that should be more expensive than it is.

Aspyr announced as much with a press release:

The Biggest First-person Action Series of All Time Returns to the Mac

Call of Duty: Black Ops will take you behind enemy lines as a member of an elite special forces unit engaging in covert warfare, classified operations, and explosive conflicts across the globe. With access to exclusive weaponry and equipment, your actions will tip the balance during the most dangerous time period mankind has ever known.

Features:

Cinematic Single Player Campaign: An epic campaign and story that takes you to a variety of locations and conflicts all over the world where you will play as an elite Black Ops soldier in deniable operations where if you are caught, captured or killed, your country will disavow all knowledge of your existence.

Signature Multiplayer: Call of Duty’s signature multiplayer gameplay returns with new perks and killstreaks, deeper levels of character and weapon customization, and all new modes including:

Combat Training: Test your skill solo or Co-Op with friends against AI enemy players

Zombies!: Fan favorite Zombie mode debuts on the Mac providing endless hours of Zombie-slaying entertainment, solo or Co-Op

CNET reports:

Come Sunday, Apple will make good on a year-old promise: MobileMe, its paid cloud sync and storage service, will go dark.

That means files that users have stored on the service — as well as the sites they have published through Apple’s iWeb software — are going to disappear as well.

MobileMe users ought not to be surprised. The very same day that it named a replacement service, Apple said it would be closing up MobileMe. Since then, the company has steadily nudged people toward migrating their accounts to iCloud, which opened up last October.

Business Insider reports that Bertrand Serlet, formerly of NeXT and Apple, is covertly working on a new startup involving cloud computing. And the name of this stealth startup is called Upthere.

Job postings for design engineers started popping up towards the end of 2011, by which point the company described itself as being an early stage startup looking to build a cloud storage feature, with seven employees on staff.

Some of these job postings also allude to the fact that the startup was founded by high-profile ex-Apple employees.

“Our founders were key to building the world’s leading operating system (Mac OS X) and database (Oracle) and have a clear vision of core technology for a Cloud OS,” one posting notes.

We have since learned that this is a reference to Serlet (the brains behind Mac OS X) and Roger Bodamer, a former VP of product operations and development at Apple who previously worked at Oracle.

Apple’s press release on the matter reads:

Apple today announced that Bob Mansfield, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will retire and the role will be transitioned to Dan Riccio, Apple’s vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering, over several months. The entire hardware engineering team will continue to report to Mansfield until his departure.

“Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement.”

“Dan has been one of Bob’s key lieutenants for a very long time and is very well respected within Apple and by the industry,” added Cook. “Our hardware engineering team is the best engineering team on earth and will not miss a beat during the transition.”

Bloomberg reports that Apple is planning a major overhaul of iTunes in an effort to more closely integrate its iCloud service to enable users to better manage their media content files.

Apple will unveil the changes by year’s end, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The company will more closely integrate its iCloud file- storage service with iTunes so users can more seamlessly access and manage their music, videos and downloaded software apps across different Apple gadgets, the people said. Apple also plans new features for sharing music, the people said.

Also in the works are features which will help users more readily find new content they might be interested in.

One of the main ways Apple will attempt to improve discovery is by making it easier for people to share songs, a popular feature of Spotify Ltd.’s music-subscription service. Apple has been negotiating with major record labels for rights that would let a user listen to a song sent to them from a friend for free, one person said.

Apple also has announced tighter integration of social networks Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. in iTunes, allowing people to share what they are listening to.