Apple grappling for iPhone 5 domain name
Every morsel of iPhone 5 information is precious, especially when Apple becomes directly involved.
The company filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain name for iphone5.com, which is currently held by a group that's using it as a message board for discussions about the new iPhone.
Before the iPhone 4S reveal last year, it was generally expected that Apple would in fact announce the iPhone 5.
Instead, the new iPhone 4S was a minimal refinement of the iPhone 4, bringing few improvements besides the addition of Siri, suggesting that the next phone will be a more significant upgrade.
The name of Apple's new iPhone is as secret as every other scrap of information regarding the device, especially since the third iPad release turned out to be called simply the New iPad instead of the expected iPad 3.
But Wedbush analyst Scott Sutherland says that Apple would be wise to continue naming the iPhone family of devices sequentially.
"I think the new iPad has created some confusion with the name," Sutherland told TechRadar in an email, so Apple "may be smart to go to iPhone 5 especially after doing the 4S."
Apple's WIPO filing contains no clear indications that the phone will actually be called iPhone 5, and their attempted acquisition of the domain could simply be intended to prevent confusion.
Previous WIPO complaints allowed Apple to take control of similar domains, like iphone4s.com and even the more specific iphonesex4s.com, so if these past cases are any indication then Apple is likely to come out on top of iphone5.com, as well.
The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center handles thousands of domain name disputes every year, and there are laws against "cybersquatting" in many countries, including the U.S.
Other iPhone 5 rumors
Plenty of rumors popped up recently regarding the new iPhone 5 release date, specs and more.For one thing, the new iPhone could have a new dock connector and a larger, 4-inch display, making it taller but thinner than the iPhone 4S.
Other rumors point to a liquid metal casing on the new iPhone's back, making it stronger, thinner and lighter than older iPhones.
Still more speculation claims that the new iPhone will utilize in-cell touch panel technology, which would also provide for a slimmer design.
Whispers of a June release have been circulating for some time, though Sutherland thinks recent events point toward a fall iPhone 5 release date.
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AT&T announces Samsung Focus 2 available May 20
AT&T announced the Samsung Focus 2 - the next in Samsung's line of Windows Phones featuring 4G LTE support at a low cost.
The Focus 2 is Samsung's first 4G LTE Windows Phone, and only the third Windows Phone AT&T carries.
What's more, it will be 10.98mm thick and weigh about 4.3 ounces.
The smartphone features a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and runs on a 1.4GHz single core processor.
A 5-megapixel rear camera capable of HD 720p video recording rounds out the device, coupled with a front-facing VGA camera.
It will run on the latest Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, including all of the WP7 trimmings that go along with it.
Live Tiles will update on the phone's home screen in real-time, populated with updates from calendars, emails, and social media feeds.
It also includes built-in Bing search as well as Microsoft Office Mobile and SkyDrive for writing and accessing documents on the go.
Priced at only $49.99 with a two-year contract, the Samsung Focus 2 will be available starting May 20 in "glossy pure white" color.
Focus on price
So while the Focus 2's specs may not compete with the likes of the HTC Titan or Nokia Lumia 900, at that price it isn't exactly trying to.Instead, the Samsung Focus 2 is well positioned as the low cost alternative to flesh out AT&T's Windows Phone lineup.
"AT&T offers our customers the broadest Windows Phone portfolio of any carrier, with three 4G LTE Windows Phones - the only 4G LTE Windows Phones in the U.S. - now at a variety of price points and form factors," said AT&T Mobility senior VP Jeff Bradley.
"The Samsung Focus 2 brings the people-first Windows Phone interface together with AT&T's fast 4G LTE network for an unbeatable experience."
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Jury in Oracle-Google trial reach partial verdict favoring Oracle
Despite being given extra time to deliberate over the weekend, the jury has officially returned a partial verdict, unable to agree on one of the four questions being asked of them.
The jury has ruled in favor of Oracle in the copyright portion of the case, determining that Google did indeed infringe on Oracle's Java copyrights.
The question that hung them up, though, is whether Google's implementation of the Java APIs in their Android OS constitutes fair use.
Google has called for a mistrial, though the jury's deadlock could compromise Oracle's ability to claim damages despite Google's infringement even if the case continues as is.
"We appreciate the jury's efforts, and know that fair use and infringement are two sides of the same coin," Google said in a published report.
"The core issue is whether the APIs here are copyrightable, and that's for the court to decide. We expect to prevail on this issue and Oracle's other claims."
Google's attorney's will make their case for the mistrial on Tuesday and Thursday, so expect another update later this week.
Via CNET
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HTC One V is coming to US this summer, HTC confirms
Though HTC's One V smartphone launched in Europe in April, its release in North America has been under wraps until today.
In a press release sent out this morning, the manufacturer revealed more info about the U.S. One V release, stating that it will hit our shores this summer.
The HTC One V released outside the U.S. sports a 1GHz Snapdragon S3 processor, 5MP back-illuminated camera, 3.7-inch screen with an 800 x 480 resolution, and Beats Audio.
It also runs Android's Ice Cream Sandwich OS with HTC's Sense 4 UI overlay.
HTC isn't changing those specs for North America's version, so the One V will remain a step below its big brother, the superior but more expensive HTC One X.
We touted the One V as "a handset that will push the boundaries of the lower mid-level smartphone sector" with a "budget-friendly price tag," so it's one to watch out for this summer.
But on which carriers?
An HTC representative was unable to comment on any further details, including a more specific release date or info on which carriers will offer the One V.But an email sent out today indicates that the HTC One V will be available "through a variety of U.S. partners."
Those partners will likely include MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile and US Cellular, if past rumors are to be believed.
There are advantages and disadvantages to signing up with such smaller, regional carriers, especially for a less-powerful phone that will likely be free or quite cheap with a contract.
But the full details will apparently remain unknown until HTC decides otherwise.
via The Verge, PhoneScoop
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HTC announces Droid Incredible 4G LTE
HTC and Verizon have officially pulled back the curtain on the Droid Incredible 4G LTE.
The phone's features are unsurprisingly identical to the specs leaked by Verizon last month.
That means the device will feature a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, a 4-inch qHD Super LCD screen with a 960x540 resolution, a 1700 mAh removable battery, NFC support, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage that can be expanded by up to 32GB through a microSD card slot.
An 8-megapixel camera with LED flash is on its back, capable of recording 1080p HD videos, while a VGA camera is in front for video chat.
Music lovers will be pleased to note that Beats Audio is also featured. This enables richer sound for all of the phone's audio - from games to streaming music and video.
The Droid Incredible 4G LTE will also come pre-installed with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, along with the latest in HTC's Sense 4 GUI on top.
Of course, possibly the biggest feature is the support for Verizon's 4G LTE network.
That should give it an edge to compete similar devices that are technically its superior.
Competing Android smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and HTC's own One S and One X feature larger screens with higher resolution, with the One X and upcoming Galaxy S3 sporting more powerful quad-core processors as well.
HTC hush-hush on price
HTC refused to comment on the Droid Incredible 4G LTE's price and availability, telling TechRadar "specific release dates have not been announced," while Verizon said the device will be available "in the coming weeks."Verizon's leak last month suggested a $300 price tag with a two-year contract, putting it at the high end for Android 4.0 devices.
But, given how the rest of the leaked information panned out as true, there is little reason to doubt that it will be the final price.
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Rumor: 2012 MacBook Pro gets SSD disk, bigger battery
Months of rumors point to Apple releasing slim MacBook Pros this year from, perhaps even aping the look and feel of the company's MacBook Air notebook.
But what if the leading speculation is nothing more than false hope?
At least one recent report cites claims Apple's 2012 MacBook Pro line won't deviate too significantly from previous years - at least where size is concerned.
Regardless, the bulky optical disc drive appears to be history, but there could be a curious change taking up the same space.
Apple may use the space once occupied by its internal SuperDrive to include a solid-state storage drive dedicated to the operating system, with a second traditional hard drive for everything else.
Bigger is better?
So what happens to the space once occupied by the internal hard drive? Apple may include a significantly larger battery in its place - up to 30 percent larger, according to the tips we've been following.The combination of an SSD boot disk and increased battery size could be a powerful one, bringing the super-fast startup times and longer battery life of the MacBook Air, while retaining the beefier processor and larger screens craved by MacBook Pro users.
New MacBook Pro models are expected to arrive this summer, perhaps on the heels of OS X Mountain Lion, aka Mac OS X 10.8, which Apple promised for "late summer."
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Apple launches iOS 5.1.1 with AirPlay and HDR photo bug fixes
Apple has released its latest software update for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, with iOS 5.1.1 bringing a number of minor bug fixes.
The new version of the mobile OS can be downloaded over the air, and improves the reliability of the AirPlay video feature which was under-performing "in some circumstances."
iOS 5.1.1 also offers a fix to improve the "reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut."
Prelude to iOS 6?
The update also solves problems for users when switching between 2G and 3G networks, while issues syncing bookmarks and the Reading List using the Safari browser have also been addressed.Finally, iOS 5.1.1 puts paid to a pop-up message informing users a successful purchase has been unsuccessful.
The update comes amid reports that the launch of iOS 6 is little over a month away.
The company's annual WWDC developer's conference has been booked for June 11 in San Francisco and has often provided the venue for important software announcements.
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Evernote purchases Penultimate handwriting app
The beloved Evernote cloud-based note-taking service has moved to expand its empire by buying-up the Penultimate handwriting recognition app.
Evernote, which allows users to save notes and articles and access them on a multitude of devices, has promised to tightly integrate the two services.
The Penultimate app, renowned for its simplicity, will remain in existence and actually migrate to platforms beyond the iPad as part of the deal.
Evernote has also vowed not to mess with the popular service.
Evernote CEO Phil Libin said: "I've been in love with Penultimate since it first came out. The magic of the app is its simplicity, and we're going to keep it as is: really simple, really pure."
Partnership makes sense
Ben Zotto, who created Penultimate and will now join the Evernote staff to oversee the integration, added: "(The partnership) makes a lot of sense. Penultimate is only going to get better from here."A price was not disclosed, but Evernote certainly isn't short of cash as it continues to spend ahead of an expected IPO later this year.
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Apple to launch lower priced MacBook Air later this year?
Apple is looking to significantly lower the price of its base model MacBook Air with a new launch later this year, according to reports.
DigiTimes cites "sources from the upstream supply chain," to suggest that the company will introduce a more affordable notebook, perhaps as soon as the third quarter of 2012.
The new model would reportedly knock $200 (£120) off the cheapest model which currently stands at $999 (£849).
Intercepting the Ultrabook
Apple's idea, according to the report, could be to mute the impact of the Intel's Ultrabook drive, which aims to reach an average $699 (£431) asking price.With Windows 8 expected to give that sector a massive boost, a lower-priced MacBook Air could help to keep Apple's original ultra-slim offering on top of the pile.
Whether the new model will feature downgraded components or will just be a straight-up price cut, was not revealed.
Rumours have also persisted that Apple plans to launch a 15-inch MacBook Air later this year.
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Buying Guide: If you loved GTA, you'll love these iOS games
If you loved GTA, you'll love these iOS games
Even if you're a fan of the mighty Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise, you might be unaware that the original game's creators, DMA Design, once developed a not dissimilar free-roaming game for Nintendo entitled Body Harvest, but the plot hung on an alien invasion rather than thug life.We mention this only because GTA is such a hotchpotch of ideas and game styles that when considering what other games fans might like, the answer isn't necessarily clear cut.
Here we've decided to look broadly at sandbox-style crime games, regular crime games, quirky offshoots and sandbox-style games without any crime. By the end, there should be something here for just about anyone.
Unfortunately, the App Store isn't yet blessed with the original GTA or its sequel, but it does have the stupendously good Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (£6.99, iPhone; £6.99 iPad). Although viewed top down, the visuals are rendered in 3D with a rotatable camera, and the cel-shaded comicbook visuals give it a distinct look.
The basic gameplay, revolving around the activities of the disgraced son of a murdered Triad boss, is classic GTA, but with some clever platform-specific tweaks.
There are new minigames that take advantage of the touchscreen, and rather than just jumping into parked cars and driving off, you have to waggle a screwdriver in the ignition or hotwire the car. Brilliantly, you can even play your iTunes music over the car's 'radio' while driving around. Chinatown Wars is a must for GTA fans.
For proper old-school GTA action, two perfectly playable games draw inspiration from the original. In Car Jack Streets (£1.99, iPhone) you play the part of Randall, whose gambling debts owed to a crime boss have to be paid off by stealing cars, bank heists and other crimes. It's colourful and fun - only the slightly awkward controls let it down a bit.
If you fancy something similar but more gritty, Payback (£2.99, iPhone) is the way to go. It's not perfect, but it delivers a series of missions covering the gamut of criminal activity and the visuals have a pleasing depth. The story's disappointing, but if you need your criminal hit it's worth a look.
When GTA got really interesting, of course, was when it went all 3D and third-person in GTA 3, and it was with immense delight that we recently greeted the release of this iconic chapter of the series on our iOS devices. Grand Theft Auto 3 (£2.99, Universal) was an influential and controversial game, but it remains thoroughly entertaining.
There are three Gameloft Gangstar games on the App Store. The earliest is Gangstar: West Coast Hustle (£2.99, iPhone; £2.99, iPad), which is a fair approximation of a GTA game. Although it's sandbox and you can explore the city, there's not a great deal of reward in doing so; stick to the missions.
Gameloft's next iOS Gangstar outing, Gangstar: Miami Vindication (£4.99, iPhone; £4.99, iPad) is a less entertaining tale of a country boy who moves to the city to help his family. However, there are improvements over its predecessor: the visuals have received a fresh lick of paint, there are multiple vehicles to muck around in, there's a professional cast of voice actors and the game is just bigger.
Last and probably least is Gangstar Rio: City of Saints (£4.99, Universal). All the ingredients for a good sandbox game are there, but it doesn't hang together well and feels like the series has run out of ideas.
If your real-life criminal career is not working out and you're a bit skint, there are a couple of free-to-play apps that can give you the degenerate fix you crave. Urban Crime (Free, Universal) is a 'freemium' game from Gameloft that you can begin to explore free of charge, but that requires In-App Purchases if you wish to access all the features.
Unfortunately, this particular title is pretty much Gameloft's previous title, Miami Vindication, with the exact same city and graphical assets therein, but with the single-player story missions stripped out. There's a different play mechanic, insofar as this is about gaining experience and taking over gang turf, but it's poorly executed and a fairly lazy attempt to repurpose the developer's own game.
On the more casual side there's Crime City (Free, Universal). This is a cute and cartoony game with isometric visuals in which you simply visit various city locations committing crimes, garnering resources and building up your crime empire. Disposable fun.
Sticking with the underworld, but with a slight departure from the sandbox genre, a couple of games focus on the vehicular side of things. Vertigo Rogue (£1.99, Universal) is a fun if frustrating shoot-'em-up, involving taking out rival gang members from a chopper. The control system is a handful, but it's good fun nevertheless.
Driver (£1.99, iPhone) is a highly successful gaming franchise in its own right. This iOS port is deftly handled and despite the game showing its age slightly, it's rip-roaring fun.
If all this criminality is causing you to lose faith in humanity, might we recommend a brief stint playing on the side of the law, in Gameloft's 9mm (£4.99, Universal). It's more like the game Max Payne than GTA, with the cop protagonist blindly leaping into life-threatening situations while the slo-mo set pieces allow you to relish every moment of the violent, if rather silly, action. It's far from perfect, but diverting enough.
And finally… all this seediness, violence and generally uncouth behaviour has probably left a slightly bitter taste in your mouth, so why not clean the palette with a couple of sandbox games that deliver a similar style of gameplay, but in guilt-free fantasy settings.
The first, is the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Order & Chaos Online (£4.99, Universal). How is it similar to GTA, you ask? In it, you wander around, killing evil beasties for money, exploring your environment, getting missions (or quests) from local residents, then heading off to do their bidding for powerful rewards and to become stronger, better and more influential. When it comes down to it, the concepts are almost the same.
In a similar vein, but single player, try the basic-but-charming Ravensword: The Fallen King (£1.99, iPhone). Again, it's a 3D action adventure, set in a fantastical world, where you can hack and slash at enemies to your heart's content, safe in the knowledge they're only orcs and trolls and the like, and so don't really count as victims. Right?
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Opinion: The future internet is scary
The future internet looks scary
While preparing for the future, I'm trying to sensibly and soberly imagine the end-game when media corporations and the government run the internet the way they want to.I don't mean a nightmare scenario where RFID chips are secreted beneath eyelids at birth, or where cochlear implants whisper advertising into your brain 24 hours a day. I mean an imaginary but realistic portrayal of the kind of experience we'd have if the internet was no longer in the hands of us mavericks.
Let's start with the media industry. The average commercial DVD is a prime example of what might happen if these folks control more of the internet. Firstly, any convenience brought about by advancing technology becomes secondary to advertising revenue potential.
Forced advertising
There's no reason why a DVD can't instantly skip to the main feature, for example, yet few do. Instead, we suffer piracy warnings, reveal-all trailers, adverts for rubbish we don't need and worse, sometimes the pause and skip functions are disabled on our own hardware. Disney's FastPlay is the perfect case.Despite its name, it's designed to automatically start the advertising unless you're quick enough to hit the 'Main menu' button first, which is exactly what a room full of four-year-olds waiting for The Lion King can't do.
In the future, something similar to this DVD upgrade facility will be 'ported' to the internet, so that when you enter a URL for a site or follow a link, you'll have to wait for the advertising to finish. There will be no chance to skip, stop or open another window. The 'back' button will be disabled and your front-facing camera will be tracking your gaze.
Your privately hosted site will also be scanned for its use of commercial media, and if any is detected, more ads will be plastered over your carefully crafted CSS, just like Rumblefish does for YouTube today with a service it calls 'Friendly Music'.
Anti-piracy
This leads us to contemplate life on the internet after ACTA, or the inevitable secret version that will sneak into our laws while we're distracted by the Olympics or the Mayan end of the world.ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, would give acceding governments the protocol and the 'collective will' to protect their creative economies from the evils of digital piracy at both the hosting and ISP levels.
This will probably be accomplished through an independent consortium of impartial media industry experts.
They'll be able to do this by monitoring your online activity, by blocking websites and by criminalising entire housing estates full of teenage infringers. All of which sounds just as frightening as random settlement letters sent from renegade law firms.
Like Phorm's behavioural targeting for advertising, your day-to-day browsing would be secretly profiled, only this time, they'll be looking for the tell-tale traces of a freeloading pirate rather than potential Marmite lovers.
Fortunately we're all Europeans now, and ACTA itself is under attack by those who'd rather the internet remain neutral. It's hoped that this vision of the future will fade in the face of the European Court of Justice, just as Phorm did before the European Commission.
After a recent High Court ruling, it's probably too late for the Pirate Bay in the UK, which leads to the obvious question of what will happen to VPNs and clever reverse-DNS trickery, which are increasingly common methods of side-stepping geographically restricted content.
It's likely they'll be tarred as technologies only used by those with something to hide, and despite their many legitimate uses as privacy and security tools, they'll be outlawed (the same could be said of torrents, of course).
In the future, they'll probably need to be licenced by companies for legitimate use, leaving us with far fewer privacy options, less control and a much bleaker future for our children's freedom online.
But a failure to understand the way the internet works has never stopped policy makers before.
Rebellion
As Eric S Raymond puts it in his open letter to Chris Dodd (MPAA chairman and CEO): "We built the internet as a tool to make every individual human being on the planet more empowered. What the users do with the internet is up to them - not up to Hollywood, not up to politicians, and not even up to us who built it."Whatever else we internet geeks may disagree on among ourselves, we will not allow our gift of fire to be snuffed out by jealous gods."
Eric has hit upon the fundamental problem. No one is saying that piracy is right, or that content providers shouldn't try to limit their losses. But neither did anyone draw up rules for how the internet should or shouldn't be used.
People, companies and governments joined up because they wanted to be part of the global conversation, and they couldn't afford not to.
To turn around and demand changes to the nature of that conversation is wrong, and it's our responsibility to make sure it doesn't happen. Otherwise the internet will suffer the same fate as commercial DVDs and become yet another avenue for commercial snooping.
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Sprint CEO cuts $3.25 million from own salary
Sprint Nextel CEO Daniel Hesse said in a letter to the SEC that he would take a pay cut of $3.25 million dollars, effectively resetting his salary to 2010 levels (a humble $8.65 million per year).
The announcement comes on the heels of sour news about Sprint's $20 billion deal with Apple, brokered to boost service adoption by offering Sprint-enabled iPhones.
And while Sprint sold 1.5 million iPhones in the first quarter, adding 263,000 new subscribers to the network, the deal couldn't prevent a net loss of $863 million.
While Hesse hasn't commented directly as to the reason behind his pay cut, irate investors are likely behind the move.
Putting bucks back into the company coffers may turn the low tide of Sprint's equity, but it doesn't address the subsidy being paid to Apple for each iPhone sold (around 40 percent higher than other subsidy payments, or $200 per unit).
How Wall Street will interpret Hesse's sacrifice remains to be seen.
iPhone malaise
Earlier this year, Sprint committed to buying over 30 million next-generation iPhones as part of the $20 billion deal.This agreement, a guaranteed short-term loss for Sprint, was established only months after the company posted a Q4 $1.3 billion net loss.
Sprint outperformed its competitors in Q1 2012 iPhone sales, dropping only 17 percent from holiday highs.
However, the lagging Nextel unit of the company's business combined with the high subsidy rates continued to plunge the company (and its investors) into iPhone debt.
The company, and Hesse, are now betting big on the presumed 2012 iPhone 5 release.
If the investments, salary cuts, and temporary losses are going to pay off, the bump to a next-generation device would be prime time for a come-back.
For now, investors gambling money on Sprint's Apple bid will have to settle for a gesture of good will from the benevolent boss; Sprint's fiscal finish line on this deal is still a good dash away.
Via Reuters, Engadget
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