Jobs: the iPad begat the iPhone, not the other way around
Apple CEO Steve Jobs appeared on stage at All Things D's D8 conference Tuesday night, less than a week before his scheduled keynote at WWDC. During his frank talk with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Jobs revealed a number of juicy tidbits about how Apple is run, the company's relationship with Google, the leaked iPhone prototype, and (of course) the iPad. He did not, however, let anything slip about upcoming announcements—that is reserved for next week.
One of the most interesting tidbits from the talk was Jobs' acknowledgment that the idea for the iPad came before the iPhone, even though it was the phone that managed to make it to market first. "I’ll tell you a secret. It actually started with the tablet first," Jobs said. "I had this idea about having a glass display, a multitouch display you could type on with your fingers. I asked our folks: could we come up with a multitouch display that we could type on? And six months later, they came back with this prototype display. And I gave it to one of our really brilliant UI guys and he called me back a few weeks later and had intertial scrolling working and I thought, ‘my God, we can build a phone with this!’ So we put the tablet on the shelf... and we went to work on the iPhone."
Jobs didn't say much about why Apple decided to pursue the phone angle first, but it was likely due to a combination of a less-mature tablet market and a smartphone space ripe for the picking. This admission fits with what many of us at Ars have felt since the iPad launch: that the iPhone is more of a miniature iPad than the other way around.
Jobs also acknowledged that the lost iPhone prototype was indeed from Apple (no surprise there) and said that the company decided to pursue legal options based on Apple's "core values." He compared the whole incident to "extortion" (on Gizmodo's part) several times and said there was still some debate as to whether the phone was stolen out of the Apple engineer's bag or whether it was lost at the bar. During another part of the interview, Jobs told Swisher that he didn't want to see us "descend into a nation of bloggers."
When it came to Google, Jobs offered a very nuanced response. He told Swisher that Google decided to compete with Apple more and more, giving an indirect indication that he wasn't excited about the situation. Despite this, Jobs said he was happy with Google's products on the iPhone and iPad and reiterated that Apple just wants to offer a combination of the best products—part of the reason why Apple is not currently offering Flash support on those devices. "Right now, we have the better product," he said of the iPhone with Google Maps.
In addition to the interview with the D8 crew, Jobs also took a handful of questions from the audience on topics like dropped calls on AT&T (Apple is "doing everything we can do"), HDCP on Mac hardware ("we didn't invent the stuff"), and social gaming on the iPhone and iPod touch. Jobs indicated that the TV model is still a difficult one to change and once again acknowledged the Apple TV's "hobby" status—perhaps those recent rumors about a streaming Apple TV service are further off than we thought—but stopped short of writing it off completely. As longtime Apple watchers know, the company has a habit of trashing the existing status quo just before coming out with something to fill that exact space; perhaps we'll find out whether Apple has something up its sleeve in a few more days.
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We don't know our Internet speed, but we like it anyway
A new survey indicates that most Americans are pretty clueless when it comes to the speed of their Internet subscription. Four out of five have absolutely no idea what it is.
"When asked to specify their home internet connection speed, described as 'the download or downstream speed of your connection per second,' the vast majority of home broadband users in the United States cannot identify it," reports the Federal Communications Commission's latest consumer survey.
But apparently this did not stop that same vast majority of consumers who answered the agency's questionnaire from reporting that they were either "very satisfied" (50 percent) or "somewhat satisfied" (41 percent) with their connections. Despite the fact that they couldn't even disclose the speed of that very or somewhat satisfying link, 71 percent assured the government that their connection is "as fast as the provider promises at least most of the time."
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Mozilla to weave sync features into next version of Firefox
Mozilla has announced plans to integrate cloud synchronization features into an upcoming major version of the Firefox Web browser. The functionality is based on Weave, an experimental add-on that was incubated in Mozilla Labs.
The Weave project was originally launched in 2007 to support bookmark synchronization. It has gained many compelling features over the years, including a mobile version and support for accessing remote tabs. Mozilla has decided that Weave is finally ready to emerge from the lab and become an official part of the organization's open source Web browser.
To signify official support, Mozilla has renamed the Weave add-on, which is now called Firefox Sync. The new version of the add-on also has improved support for remote tab access and a more streamlined sign-up process. Users who want the synchronization features today can install the add-on in the current stable version of Firefox.
Browser synchronization is not new; there are a number of popular third-party add-ons for Firefox that have offered similar functionality since before Weave existed. What differentiates Mozilla's sync offering from the alternatives is that it is both open and secure. The user's data is fully encrypted by default before it is transmitted to the servers, which means that it is not accessible to Mozilla itself and will not be readable if the organization's servers are ever compromised.
Mozilla recently published documentation that describes how third-party applications can securely synchronize their own data on top of the service or securely access the user's Firefox data. Because the data is all encrypted, client applications will need to obtain a key from the user.
Mozilla developed an iPhone application that is designed to interoperate with the sync service. It demonstrates how the sync APIs can make the user's bookmarks accessible on practically any programmable platform or device.
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Google blocks Tetris clones from Android market
The classic block game Tetris has frequently been the subject of legal disputes. The rights to the trademark are currently held by The Tetris Company, a corporation located in Hawaii that licenses the name to other parties. The Tetris Company, which routinely threatens legal action against clones of the popular game, has sent a DMCA takedown notice to Google, prompting the search giant to remove 35 Tetris-like games from the Android market.
Several of the games that were removed from the market were not actually using the trademarked Tetris name or any artwork from the original game—they merely had gameplay mechanics that resembled the Russian classic. In previous Tetris licensing enforcement efforts that have resulted in actual litigation, The Tetris Company has argued that clones infringe on the game's trade dress, which is protected under the Lanham Act.
Trade dress relates to the likeness of a product and aims to block the creation of knock-off products that bear sufficient similarity to be mistaken for the original. It's important to note that trade dress protections are not like design patents, because functional design elements are explicitly not covered.
Google isn't the first handset maker to make unauthorized versions of the block game disappear. Apple has also banned several Tetris clones from its own App Store. At this time, there appear to be several Tetris clones still available in the Android market, but it's unclear whether they will endure.
The removal of popular Tetris clones from the Android market is particularly frustrating for users, because the official Tetris game is awful. Developed by EA with a license from The Tetris Company, it is a poorly-executed port from the feature phone version and doesn't even fill the screen on my Nexus One.
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Mac OS X and Linux are no magic security bullet for Google
The Financial Times reported last night that Google was going to phase out internal use of Microsoft Windows due to security concerns. The migration away from Windows is reported to have started in January, motivated by the Chinese Aurora attacks on the company that exploited a flaw in Internet Explorer 6.
In the story, the FT said that new Google employees would be given the choice between systems using Mac OS X and Linux. Windows machines will only be available with CIO approval. This would put an end to the existing policy, whereby employees were generally free to pick the platform that they preferred. Google has refused to comment.
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Chicago Transit Authority cannot ban M-rated game ads
The Chicago Transit Authority banned advertisements of Mature or Adults Only-rated games on public transportation after a controversial decision to remove Grand Theft Auto IV ads, but the Entertainment Software Association won a preliminary injunction against the ordinance in the beginning of the year. Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, has handed down a final ruling: the CTA cannot ban ads from games rated Mature or above.
"Defendant CTA, and its respective officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys... are permanently enjoined and restrained from enforcing or directing the enforcement of Ordinance No. 008-147 in any respect," the ruling states. The CTA has also agreed "not to appeal or otherwise attack the validity or enforceability of the Consent Judgment and Permanent Injunction." In other words, you're not going to hear the CTA loudly disagree with this judgment.
The ESA is likewise "authorized to seek to enforce the terms of this Consent Judgment and Permanent Injunction," and is entitled to attorney's fees and court costs if the CTA fails to comply with the judgment.
This is another clear ruling that proves the law takes a dim view of placing restrictions on gaming content that don't exist for other forms of expression.
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Publishers want universal e-books; won't cooperate to get them
The industry-wide struggle over e-book formats continues, despite the fact that publishers are inundated with choices over how and where to distribute their e-books. In fact, such a wide selection is part of the reason why publishers are up in arms over the lack of a good universal option: they don't want to have to choose between Amazon, Apple, and Barnes and Noble; nor do they want to spend the extra time and resources trying to do all three. They want to choose one format and have it be available everywhere, but the industry may be standing in its own way before a widely accepted universal format becomes available.
There are already several open e-book formats out there—ePub and MobiPocket are just a couple. The major e-book devices even support them; with a little bit of effort, you can get an ePub version of a book onto your Kindle or iPad in no time. The problem is the "effort" part—e-book sellers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple heavily market their own stores and make it even easier for customers to simply buy the proprietary formats.
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The RIAA? Amateurs. Here's how you sue 14,000+ P2P users
The big music labels and movie studios have stepped back from the lawsuit business. The MPAA's abortive campaign against individual file-swappers ended years ago, while the RIAA's more widely publicized (and criticized) years-long campaign against P2P swappers ended over a year ago.
So why have P2P lawsuits against individuals spiked dramatically in 2010? It's all thanks to the US Copyright Group, a set of lawyers who have turned P2P prosecution into revenue generation in order to "SAVE CINEMA." The model couldn't be simpler: find an indie filmmaker; convince the production company to let you sue individual "John Does" for no charge; send out subpoenas to reveal each Doe's identity; demand that each person pay $1,500 to $2,500 to make the lawsuit go away; set up a website to accept checks and credit cards; split the revenue with the filmmaker.
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Spyware trojan hitching ride on third-party Mac screensavers
Mac security firm Intego has issued a warning about a Mac twist on a two-year-old Windows spyware app that sends a variety of potentially sensitive information to external servers. Dubbed "OSX/OpinionSpy," the spyware is installed along with a number of widely available third-party Mac OS X screensaver modules, as well as with at least one shareware tool to strip audio tracks from Flash videos.
OSXOpinionSpy, aka PremierOpinion, claims in some cases to be a tool to help collect browsing habits for "market research," while in other cases it installs without any notification. The application runs in the background with root permissions, opening an HTTP backdoor. It scans any attached volumes, sending encrypted information to a number of servers, and can also examine packets coming and going from an infected Mac, potentially grabbing information from other computers on a local network. Finally, it injects code into running versions of Safari, Firefox and iChat, sending a variety of information—e-mail addresses, iChat message headers and URLs, as well as other data—back to command servers.
Intego warns that, given the scope of data that the application collects, it could include a variety of sensitive information. "This data may include personal data, such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers, web browser bookmarks, history and much more," according to a statement released by Intego.
The spyware is downloaded and installed by the installers for MishInc FLV To Mp3, as well as a few dozen screensaver modules made by 7art-screensavers. All of these also appear on common Mac OS X shareware sites like MacUpdate and Softpedia.
Removing the original application won't remove the spyware; Intego's VirusBarrier has been updated to identify and remove it, however. Your safest course of action is to be cautious when installing software from unknown sources. Aside from healthy skepticism, though, an up-to-date malware scanner may be the only tool that can protect you from such spyware that masquerades as legitimate software. As the Mac platform increases in popularity, such malware has the potential to become more widespread.
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Internet Explorer best at losing, gaining market share
As of April, fewer than 6 out of 10 people use Internet Explorer. The browser trends that we've noted over the past several months are continuing with no sign of alteration: IE continues to slip, Firefox and Opera are fairly static, Safari is very slowly moving forward, and Chrome is pushing ahead at breakneck speeds. If we take a closer look at IE, though, we see that version 8 of Microsoft's browser is actually growing faster than Chrome, but it's still not enough to counter the overall decaying of IE.
During May, only Internet Explorer and Firefox failed to show positive growth.
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Small-scale biodiversity needs randomness and productivity
Biodiversity is the result of a marriage between randomness and productivity, according to a study recently published in Science. A researcher placed different levels of nutrient supplements in artificial ponds to see how they influenced the ecosystems that developed in them. He found that the most productive ponds turned out to be not only more diverse than less productive ponds, but that there were multiple routes to diversity, all of which involved a few random events.
At large scales, scientists know that a system's productivity directly correlates with its biodiversity—a fertile environment with lots of resources and nutrients allows many different species to flourish. But researchers have long been unsure if this relationship held for local environments, because their resource and nutrient profiles are so similar. For example, a jungle and desert provide obvious ways to compare the productivity-diversity relationship; two different puddles down the street from each other, not so much.
To get a better idea of how diversity and productivity work on a small scale, a scientist from Washington University in St. Louis divided 45 ponds into three groups, and fed each group different levels of nutrients to enhance productivity. Over the course of two years, he randomly introduced different species to the ponds, while allowing other plants and animals to colonize the sites on their own. The ecosystems ran for a total of 7 years.
He found that ponds with the highest levels of nutrients gave randomly introduced species a toehold that allowed them to thrive and fit into the ecosystem. Because of this, not only was each highly productive pond diverse, but the collection of species each pond supported was distinct from the other ponds.
At the other end of the productivity spectrum, random species introductions often didn't take in low-nutrient ponds. In the end, these held a far less diverse set of hardy species; the intermediate-productivity ponds had middling amounts of diversity. So even at small scales, productivity lets randomness flourish, preserving and creating diversity. Watch out for that axiom at your next company meeting.
Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1187820 (About DOIs).
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Intel fashions supercomputing phoenix from ashes of Larrabee
In an announcement at the International Supercomputing Conference, Intel provided further details on the many-core chip that it hinted at earlier in the month. The first product based on the new design will be codenamed Knight's Corner, and will debut at 22nm with around 50 x86 cores on the same die. Developer kits, which include a prototype of the design called Knight's Ferry, have been shipping to select partners for a while now, and will ship more broadly in the second half of the year. When Intel moves to 22nm in 2011, Knight's Corner will make its official debut.
Knight's Corner will be the first product to implement Intel's Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture, a many-core x86 architecture that draws on ideas from Larrabee, the Terascale program, and the Single-Chip Cloud Computer (SCCC) project. Though there aren't any details of the microarchitecture of the cores in the product, it seems fairly clear that these are basically the same in-order, Pentium-class, vector-heavy cores that Larrabee used. Anand says he has heard that the vector hardware was left in the cores, which makes sense if they're aiming it at high-performance computing (HPC). Then there's this otherwise very confused PC World article, where the writer obviously heard something about a 512-bit vector unit. It makes sense that Intel would leave the vector hardware in the cores, since this product is aimed at HPC.
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SOE makes Star Wars free with online Clone Wars Adventures
Star Wars Galaxies may have been a major disappointment, but Sony Online Entertainment managed to rebound from that game and develop the surprisingly fun, family-friendly MMO Free Realms. Now SOE will take a second stab at George Lucas' world with Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures.
Based on the successful Clone Wars animated TV series, Clone Wars Adventures will be a free-to-play MMO that, like Free Realms, will be targeted at a younger audience. The virtual world will let players take on the role of a Jedi, Padawan, or Clone Trooper and will feature popular characters like Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda. The game will also feature a number of minigames, ranging from lightsaber duels to speeder bike racing. Players can also decorate their own living space, customize a droid companion, pilot a spaceship, and play an in-game collectible card game.
Though free to play, Clone Wars Adventures will also feature a monthly subscription option, which takes the game "to the next level." What exactly that means has yet to be revealed. There will also be microtransactions for purchasing additional items.
"Clone Wars Adventures is the ultimate destination for fans of The Clone Wars series and will bring the action and excitement of the show to players online so they can experience The Clone Wars universe firsthand" SOE president John Smedley said. "We've worked with LucasArts and Lucasfilm to create a virtual world that is seamlessly integrated with the TV series and a true extension of the show. It's also just flat-out fun to play."
Free Realms has been a big hit for SOE, with more than 10 million players. And with the Clone Wars license—which is hugely popular with kids—Clone Wars Adventures has the potential to be even bigger. The game will be launching this fall.
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Detector finally catches neutrinos in act of flavor changing
Over the weekend, a detector in the Gran Sasso facility in Italy detected a single tau neutrino in a beam that should have been purely muon neutrinos. That may not sound like a stunning turn of events, but it's actually yet another demonstration that the Standard Model of physics, which explains the behavior of elementary particles, doesn't quite explain everything. It's also the product of decades of somewhat confusing physics along with an experimental setup that involves shooting a beam of particles through hundreds of kilometers of the Earth's crust, only to have most of them go undetected. Welcome to the very strange world of the neutrino.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting had an entire session on neutrinos, and Fermilab's Kurt Riesselmann introduced it by asking everyone to hold out their hand for three seconds. During that time, a trillion neutrinos would pass through the space occupied by your hand. Despite these massive quantities, Riesselmann said, a typical human would have a grand total of three neutrinos actually collide with an atom in their bodies over the course of an entire lifetime.
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More details about the next-gen iPhone leak as WWDC looms
As we close in on WWDC, which kicks off with a Steve Jobs keynote on June 7, more details about the next revision of the iPhone continue to leak. The supposed display and aluminum chassis have been throughly examined, while Chinese manufacturers claim to have cases ready for sale. Also, the latest beta of iPhone OS 4.0 has a working implementation of Places in the Photos app, similar to the feature that appeared on the iPad this year and iPhoto '09 last year.
Czech site Super iPhone put what is believed to be the display of the next iPhone under a microscope, and compared it to current iPhone and iPod touch models as well as the Google Nexus one. The analysis suggests the next iPhone will have a wide viewing angle IPS LCD display, much like that found in the iPad. The resolution should also be 960 x 640 pixels, as is widely rumored. The benefit here is that current iPhone apps can be pixel-doubled to fit the screen with no apparent difference in quality. However, apps that are built to take advantage of the higher resolution will look even better. In particular, the 320ppi density should make text extremely sharp, even at small point sizes.
iPhone Portugal—currently offline with its ISP reporting the site's account as "suspended"—got its hands on what are purported to be the machined aluminum and plastic inner chassis for the next-gen iPhone. These frames were reportedly purchased in China, and it's not known if they are authentic or not. However, the site claimed the quality and workmanship led them to believe the parts are the real McCoy. The site created lengthy videos comparing the frames to the iPhone 3GS and iPad—from what we have seen from the videos and earlier leaks, the parts do appear to be legitimate.
Unsurprisingly, Chinese manufacturers are already claiming to have cases for the new iPhone ready for sale. MacRumors points out that these cases are likely designed around leaked prototypes or parts, which has happened in the past. The tactic backfired last year, however, when an updated iPod touch shipped without the camera which some prototypes had.
Finally, AppleInsider has screenshots detailing the recently activated Places feature set to debut for iPhones and iPod touches in iPhone OS 4.0. The feature had already been promised for the update, but it wasn't functional until the most recent developer beta. Places will show a Google map with pins indicating where particular images were taken, essentially identical to features found in the iPad's Photos app and on iPhone '09. As expected, Faces and Events will also likely appear in the final version, expected to be revealed in full next week during WWDC.
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NHL Slapshot comes to Wii, brings Gretzky and plastic stick
Despite the obvious potential for a great hockey game on the Wii, EA Sports has yet to test its footing on Nintendo's rink. Until now. The company has taken the wraps off of its first Wii hockey title, NHL Slapshot, which will feature none other than Wayne Gretzky on the cover. And it comes with a plastic hockey stick.
Not only will Gretzky grace the cover of NHL Slapshot, The Great One will also be available as a playable character in the game as well. Few details about the game have been revealed; aside from Gretzky's likeness, the other major selling point for the game appears to be the hockey stick peripheral, which is a plastic shell housing both the Wii remote and Nunchuk.
"Making our games as close to the real thing has always been our focus," David Littman, creative director of the game, explained. "Now we are giving them an actual plastic hockey stick that the Wii remote and Nunchuk controllers plug into. Players can then use the new NHL Slapshot hockey stick to do all the moves in the game."
Many gamers, particularly Wii owners, are already overrun with plastic peripherals, which could make NHL Slapshot and its hockey stick a bit of a tough sell. Then again, if done right, slapping around a virtual puck could be great fun.
The game is currently in development at EA Canada and is slated for a September release.
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