The Blog

Week in Apple: post-Macworld|iWorld edition

This week, we wrapped up our coverage of the 2012 Macworld|iWorld conference in San Francisco just as Apple issued an update to Final Cut Pro X and gave the AirPort Utility an iOS makeover. Additionally, Tim Cook offered some strong words in response to doubts about Apple’s attitude toward worker conditions in China, Neil Young recounted stories about Steve Jobs working towards higher-quality music downloads, and more. Need a recap? You’re in the right place.

Rethinking iPhone UI and getting things done with Clear to-do app: Realmac is set to launch an iPhone to-do list app in a few weeks that breaks list making and maintaining down to the barest essentials, eschewing some common iPhone UI elements to make the app as simple as humanly possible.

LandingZone to ease docking for MacBook Air: A new Cupertino startup is launching a clever, well-designed docking solution for Apple’s MacBook Air. The first version is set to begin shipping by March, but a planned Thunderbolt-equipped version is on hold pending licensing approval from Intel.

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Tim Cook: Apple donated $50 million to hospitals, $50 million to Project(RED)

Apple has reportedly donated $50 million to Stanford University hospitals as part of its recent philanthropic strategy shift. The numbers were revealed during Apple’s recent Town Hall meeting with employees, according to sources speaking to The Verge, with $25 million each going to a new main hospital building and a new children’s hospital.

Apple often holds Town Hall meetings following major announcements or at the end of a particularly successful quarter in order to bring employees up to speed on the company and keep morale high. In this case, Apple CEO Tim Cook hosted a Town Hall meeting immediately following the announcement of the company’s first quarter 2012 results, which Apple described as the “highest quarterly revenue and earnings ever.”

According to The Verge, a decent chunk of the meeting was spent discussing the new philanthropic efforts introduced by Cook after he took Steve Jobs’ place as CEO. In an e-mail to employees last September, Cook said the company would begin matching employee donations to nonprofits up to $10,000 annually—a stark change from the Jobs-era Apple that appeared to rank charitable donations as a low priority. One thing Jobs did focus on, however, was Apple’s participation in the consumer-facing Product(RED) program aimed at AIDS education and research. On that front, Cook apparently told employees that Apple has given more than $50 million to that effort as well since the beginning of the partnership in 2006.

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Leaked Windows Phone 8 vid: Windows 8 kernel and integration, multiple cores

Windows Phone 8 will be based on the same kernel as Windows 8, and will support multicore processors, NFC, and full device encryption according to a leaked video seen by PocketNow. This in turn inspired Paul Thurrott to reveal a little more about the software too. In the video intended only for internal consumption by Microsoft and its partners, Joe Belfiore, director of the Windows Phone program, describes the extensive features that Windows Phone 8, codenamed “Apollo,” will contain.

Addressing widespread concerns about Windows Phone’s mid-range hardware specification, Apollo will support processors with up to four cores, four different (and unspecified) screen resolutions, NFC for contactless payment, and removable microSD storage.

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Apple Store employee reportedly being spied on via iMessage bug

The “iMessage bug” that causes text, video, and picture messages to go to the wrong phone has reportedly hit an Apple Store employee, and allegedly without his knowledge. According to a story over at Gizmodo, the staff of that site has been “spying” on the texts sent by someone who appears to work at an Apple Store thanks to the help of a reader whose son recently had his iPhone fixed by a store Genius. The employee’s text messages sent to and from his friends now appear to be going to the reader’s son’s phone, which not only include some racy sexts, but also some “interesting” photos.

First, the backstory for those of you catching up. In December, Ars discovered (thanks to the help of several readers) that iMessages could go to the wrong iPhones and expose huge swaths of your personal information to a stranger. At the time, the premise was that an iPhone stolen by a thief could be remote wiped by you and deactivated through your carrier, yet when you set up your new iPhone, the iMessages designated for you would go to both your new and old phone. This means that someone who steals your phone—or even just an innocent bystander who found it—could register your old phone under a new number and still send and receive iMessages as you. Several readers told us tales about this happening to them; one reader in particular explained how he had conversed directly with the possessor of his wife’s stolen phone, who was just as confused as he was.

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Etc: The Kinect for Windows and Kinect SDK have launched officially. The hardware costs $249, and the development license includes commercial usage.

The Kinect for Windows and Kinect SDK have launched officially. The hardware costs $249, and the development license includes commercial usage.

Read More:
Kinect SDK, Previous coverage

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Barnes & Noble faces setback in Microsoft antitrust complaint

Microsoft may have scored an early victory in its legal tussle with Barnes & Noble. The two companies are engaged in parallel battles, one via the Department of Justice, another via United States International Trade Commission. In March 2011, Microsoft accused Barnes & Noble of patent infringement with its NOOK and NOOK Color products; in retaliation, Barnes & Noble made a broad complaint claiming that Microsoft is being an abusive monopoly and that the patents are in any case irrelevant. That antitrust complaint looks likely to be rejected by the ITC, a decision that favors Microsoft.

The document dismissing the antitrust complaint is under seal; however, its title, “Initial Determination Granting Microsoft’s Motion for Summary Determination of Respondents’ First Affirmative Defense of Patent Misuse,” is public, with intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller certain that this means rejection of the claim. Mueller has been commissioned by Microsoft to conduct a study on the worldwide use of FRAND patents.

Microsoft has welcomed the ITC’s decision. “Today’s action by the ITC makes clear that Barnes & Noble’s patent misuse defense was meritless,” said deputy general counsel David Howard. Redmond remains open to offering licenses to the bookseller, adding it to the growing list of Android-using companies that pay a fee to Microsoft, with Howard adding, “We remain as open as ever to extending a license to Barnes & Noble, and invite them to join the many other major device makers in paying for the Microsoft-developed intellectual property they use in their devices.”

Barnes & Noble’s antitrust complaint was made as an affirmative defense against Microsoft’s action. Dismissal of this defense has looked likely since June, when ITC staff pointed out that patent law in general creates no obligation to offer licenses or make those licenses freely available. The Department of Justice may arrive at a different conclusion to the ITC.

The ITC action is still on-going, and with the antitrust defense dismissed will focus on the validity and applicability of the patents in question. Earlier this month, Microsoft removed one patent from the suit entirely, and also dropped several of the claims relating to the four remaining patents. In dropping the claims, Microsoft stipulated that the action was “not an admission as to the merits of any claim,” but rather was meant to “simplify the Investigation, streamline the hearing, and converse the Parties’ and Commission’s resources in consideration of the amount of time allotted for the hearing.”

The ITC trial will start on Monday, February 6th.

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Samsung in hot water with EU over 3G FRAND patent lawsuits

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has begun a formal investigation into Samsung’s strategy of using FRAND-encumbered patents related to 3G wireless networking standards in lawsuits. The announcement comes after the Commission began a preliminary inquiry into the matter last November and several courts in the EU have struck down Samsung’s attempts to use the patents against Apple.

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