- apple-list - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

FYI: Mac trojan pretends to be Flash Player Installer
by billing 01 Oct '11

01 Oct '11

[NOTE: for information about antivirus/antimalware at the University of Manitoba, please visit: http://umanitoba.ca/computing/ist/security/kaspersky-antivirus.html] ...from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/mac-trojan-pretends-to-be-flash-p… Mac trojan pretends to be Flash Player Installer to get in the door By Jacqui Cheng | Published 4 days ago Hot on the heels of last week's Mac malware posing as a PDF is a new piece of malware posing as something even more insidious: a Flash player installer. Security firm Intego was the first to post about the new malware on its blog, noting that although the company has only received one report so far from a user who downloaded it, the malware does exist in the wild and may trick Mac users who don't yet have Flash installed. The malware in question is a trojan horse called Flashback (OSX/flashback.A); users may end up acquiring it by clicking a link on a malicious website to download or install Flash player. If those users also have their Safari settings to automatically open safe files (which .pkg and .mkpg files are considered to be), an installer will show up on their desktops as if they are legitimately installing Flash. Continuing through the installation process will result in the trojan deactivating certain types of security software (Intego specifically noted that the popular Little Snitch would be affected) and installing a dynamic loader library (dyld) with that can auto-launch, "allowing it to inject code into applications the user launched." The trojan then reports back to a remote server about the user's MAC address and allows the server to detect whether the Mac in question has been infected or not. The threat is currently marked as "low," but Mac users are advised to follow safe security practices—don't open files or attachments that you don't remember downloading, and turn off Safari's setting for opening safe files automatically. It's also worth noting that Apple now updates its malware definition file on a daily basis, and has already updated it to address the PDF trojan discussed last week. If you haven't already scoured the Internet for a malicious version of the Flash installer, then it's likely Apple will have added the new malware to the file by the time you run into it.

1 0

INTEREST: Samsung blinks....
by billing 01 Oct '11

01 Oct '11

..... in a kind of "aggressive/passive" way.... ...from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/samsung-lawsuits-against-apple-ov… September 23, 2011 [...] Samsung senior vice president Lee Younghee in a recent interview with the Associated Press [...] characterized Samsung's legal maneuvers against Apple since Apple launched a massive lawsuit against the company's Galaxy-branded devices in April as "passive." Now, however, Samsung "[will] be pursuing our rights for this in a more aggressive way from now on," Lee said. [...] ...from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/samsung-to-ditch-two-multitouch-f… Samsung to Apple: we'll ditch Galaxy Tab 10.1 features to sell in Australia By Chris Foresman | Published September 30. 2011 Samsung has agreed to make a number of changes to its Galaxy Tab 10.1 to keep the devices from getting banned for sale in Australia before the holiday shopping season. During hearings in Sydney, lawyers for the company agreed to remove two multitouch features patented by Apple in order to get the device on the market as soon as possible. On Friday, Samsung also offered Apple a proposed settlement agreement, which would let Samsung sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as soon as next week. Apple and Samsung are currently embroiled in as many as 23 lawsuits globally after Apple accused Samsungof "slavishly copying" its designs for the iPhone and iPad in its Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablets. Apple has been been requesting preliminary injunctions in a number of markets where it has filed claims against Samsung, including the US, the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia. So far, Apple has been awarded preliminary injunctions against the Galaxy Tab in Germany and against some Galaxy S smartphones in The Netherlands. The hearings this week in Australia concern Apple's request for a preliminary injunction there, which could be decided as early as next week. Throughout the proceedings, the numerous claims Apple brought were essentially reduced to three patent infringement issues, including two for certain multitouch-related features and one that relates to how multitouch-capable touchscreens are manufactured. Samsung agreed on Thursday to remove features that use certain heuristics to filter out "accidental" touch input as well as the "zoom bounce" effect that the iPhone uses when zooming past the minimum or maximum zoom level. On Friday, Samsung told the court that it also made proposed settlement offer to Apple. The settlement, if Apple agrees to forgo its request for a preliminary injunction, would allow Samsung to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as early as next week. The details haven't been made public, but it could at least bring a temporary truce while Apple presses for a full hearing by the end of the year. Apple's attorneys said of the proposed agreement that "[o]ur friend's inconvenience would be minimised and we would be comforted." The hearing will continue again on Tuesday, and the judge has encouraged Apple and Samsung to settle the issue before her final decision is entered tentatively by the end of next week.

1 0

INTEREST: Gartner Group: "Apple’s design team is unparalleled in the industry..."
by billing 30 Sep '11

30 Sep '11

...from: http://www.macworld.com/article/161951/2011/08/what_jobss_departure_means_f… What Jobs's departure means for the mobile industry by Matt Hamblen, Computerworld Aug 25, 2011 5:01 pm Editor's Note: This story is excerpted from Computerworld. For more Mac coverage, visitComputerworld's Macintosh Knowledge Center. The iPhone. The iPad. Both iconic Apple products have soared in global popularity. Both have led to a mobile computing movement started, arguably, when the iPhone first appeared in 2007. Perhaps it is more properly called a minor revolution that has forced the public to question its reliance on desktop and laptop computers. Both products had Steve Jobs as the motivating spark behind their development. Now that he has resigned as CEO, probably due to lingering health concerns, can his fire still burn inside Apple’s engineers, designers and marketers? Jobs stays on as Apple’s board chairman, with former chief operating officer Tim Cook installed as CEO. But is that enough to keep Apple on top with alluring new product designs and technology marvels, much less the business savvy to work with carriers and manufacturers globally? “His departure will affect parts of the [mobile computing] industry dramatically,” independent analyst Jeffrey Kagan said in an email. “Remember, it was Apple that was the leader in changing the music business [with iTunes], the smartphone business, and Apple invented the [touchscreen] tablet computer business. Much of that came from Steve Jobs’ vision.” Magical products from a magic maker Many will recall that Apple is the company whose CEO called the iPad “magical” in January 2010. The touchpad device has easily captured the global media tablet market, with more than a 70% share, according to IDC. What perhaps best captures Jobs’ impact on Apple, and his imprint on the entire mobile computing industry, is the way he put everything together in a company: brilliant marketing, combined with the ability to find creative managers and designers to do all the heavy lifting. The first-generation touchscreen iPhone was inspired in its design and software function, but Jobs clearly understood the need to sell the device around the globe. Setting up manufacturing, marketing and business agreements with hundreds of global carriers (most speaking different languages) is plain hard work, and it takes a capable manager to find the right people and keep the effort thriving. Analysts noted that it took Research in Motion more than a decade to set up the global carrier agreements to sell BlackBerry smartphones that Jobs and Apple were able to put in place in less than half the time. Leveraging the powerful carriers In 2007, Jobs was especially shrewd in negotiating with powerful carriers around the world to provide wireless service for the iPhone. Jobs and his team initially set up an exclusive iPhone deal with AT&T that took advantage of the carrier’s universal GSM network (useful for later expansion of the iPhone abroad), while forcing CDMA provider and staunch competitor Verizon Wireless (and lesser competitor Sprint) to sweat it out for years. Verizon finally got a CDMA iPhone 4 in February, while Sprint is reportedly getting an iPhone in the fall. “Jobs changed the way that phone makers interact with carriers,” Kagan noted. “Before the iPhone, carriers ruled. Now, Apple and Google rule.” No big opportunity for Apple rivals Five industry analysts interviewed after the Jobs resignation mostly said Jobs and Cook, his successor, can continue to inspire and motivate the Apple team during this transition period and beyond. They also said the near-term won’t necessarily be a time for Google, Android manufacturers and Android developers to seize the market advantage. Much the same view was held about Microsoftwith its big ambitions but tiny market share with Windows Phone mobile operating system and its prospects for Windows 8 on tablets. Research in Motion might have the most to gain from a leadership shift at Apple, because with its latest innovations to the Blackberry, especially the upcoming QNX OS. RIM’s smartphones and itsPlayBook tablet have struggled to compete with the iPhone, the iPad, and Android products, and the Blackberry maker has lost some of its vaunted smartphone market share which was first focused on business users, analysts noted. “Competitors who think they can exploit Jobs’ departure … are making a mistake,” said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg in an email. “Apple’s design team is unparalleled in the industry and will likely continue thriving under the leadership of Jonathan Ive,” Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design. Apple’s iPhone, iPad brain trust continues Ive was described by BusinessWeek in 2006 as the “man behind Apple’s design magic.” He and Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS software (the operating system for the iPhone and iPad), have often appeared onstage with Jobs to introduce a next-generation iPhone or iPad. They are sometimes referred to as the brain trust behind the iPad and iPhone. The real question for Apple is how well they will work together with Cook at the helm, some analysts said. However, Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said he doesn’t believe there’s “any real change that will result from the departure of Jobs. He has set up the teams and staffed them with people who know how to move forward … Cook has a record of being able to run the company.” Gold said makers of the Android platform, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and others “have an opportunity to catch up, but I don’t think that would be directly related to Jobs’ leaving.” Gold wished Jobs good health, and said he hoped he can stay as chairman a long while to keep inspiring the company. “CEO transitions for founders are fairly common,” he said. “Strong personalities move on. Some seem to have little effect on the company’s market position and some don’t. In the case of Apple, Jobs has set up a mechanism that allows Apple to move forward without him at the helm day to day.” Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst based in Europe, also said she saw little impact from the Jobs’ departure as CEO. “As far as I’m concerned, tomorrow will be business as usual in Cupertino. Apple continues to be the benchmark,” she said. “Competitors will be foolish to think that they can take advantage of any momentary loss of direction.” She added: “There is no question that Steve’s charisma will be hard, if not impossible, to replace, but there is more to Apple than Steve Jobs as far as product design, planning and execution.” Kagan, the independent analyst, said even though Jobs has been a key ingredient behind the iPhone and iPad, the entire company has had years to prepare for his departure, since the time Jobs was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004. “If Jobs resigned six years ago, his departure would have been an earthquake,” Kagan said. “This time, they have been preparing, so it may just be a tremor.” Still, it is easy to wonder what could happen, Kagan said. “Steve Jobs drove much of the change in the mobile industry,” Kagan said. “What could have changed that won’t change now, going forward? Good question. We may never know.”

1 0

INTEREST: Art on a shoestring; well, a $2.99 iPod app, at any rate...
by billing 27 Sep '11

27 Sep '11

The following pictures were created on an iPod Touch..... (well, OK,the one on the left was an iPad... but it could have been done on an iPod Touch or iPhone, at least, Mr. Yamaoka could do it...) ...from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/8776362/Digital-pai… Japanese artist Seikou Yamaoka creates complex and beautiful digital paintings on his iPod Touch during his commute to work. This amazing time-lapse video reveals the striking image of a woman 'painted' over three and half hours using the £1.99 app ArtStudio. https://www.youtube.com/user/yamaz0714#p/u/4/8AJdsgvo0Bo Japanese commuter paints iPod art on train to work Artist creates a complex and beautiful digital painting on his iPod Touch during his commute to work. 12:19PM BST 20 Sep 2011 Using just his finger tips and a cheap application, Seikou Yamaoka carefully builds up strokes of colour on a 3.5-inch screen to create an image more resembling an oil painting than a digital artwork. Speeded up footage reveals the developing image of a Japanese woman 'painted' over three and half hours using the £1.99 ArtStudio app. The first iPod Touch was released in by Apple in September 2007 and more than 60 million devices have been sold to date. - - - - - - - = - - - - - - - - - You can see his YouTube channel with many more videos of his drawings at: https://www.youtube.com/user/yamaz0714 The iTunes App Store link to the free ArtStudio Lite: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/artstudio-draw-paint-edit/id395508420?mt=8 .....to the full version of ArtStudio: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/artstudio-for-ipad-draw-paint/id364017607?mt… ArtStudio Features: FEATURES: - SUPPORT FOR ANY DEVICE ORIENTATION - available canvas sizes: 768x1024, 768x768, 1024x1024, 2048x2048 (iPad2 only), CUSTOM - 30 BRUSHES including pencils, brushes, WET BRUSH, eraser, smudge tool, bucket fill (simple/smart, eraser), gradient fill, glow, tube, airbrush, blur/sharpen, 1px and many more… - CUSTOM BRUSHES - just start new image with size 128x128px, and save it as custom brush! - SELECT TOOL (rect/ellipse/lasso/magic wand/by color, add/sub/intersect, contract/expand/round corners/border/...) - TEXT TOOL (44 fonts, settings: normal/bold/italic, left/center/right alignment, size, opacity, color) - CLONE TOOL - slots to SAVE 20 BRUSH PRESETS with names - 17 DRAWING LESSONS (animals, human, 3d, perspective) - DODGE/BURN - lots of brush settings: size, opacity, fadeout, spacing, jitter, speed-based thickness, hard-edge, incremental and more - real-time preview for all brushes - simulated brush pressure - line smoothing, antialiasing - symmetric drawing - horizontal and vertical - shapes: lines, rectangles, ellipses, polygons (open, closed) - quality and performance unmatched by any other app in the app store - 6 LAYERS with options: add/new / delete / reorder / duplicate / merge / clear / transparency / visibility - LAYER MASKS - layer transformations: ROTATE/MOVE/SCALE/FLIP with multi-touch - image transformations: rotate left/right, flip horizontal/vertical - 9 layer blending modes: normal, multiply, add, screen, overlay, hue, saturation, color, value, difference - preserve transparency layer mode (so you can draw only on the visible contents of a layer) - copy/paste layer between projects - file sharing - transfer projects between ArtStudio for iPad and iPhone - clipboard support - copy/paste images (with transparency) from ArtStudio to other apps and vice-versa. - multi-touch navigation with unlimited zoom - tap-and-hold to enable eyedropper - advanced color editing with real-time colorized RGB sliders - UNDO/REDO system, with almost infinite number of steps - image resize, change canvas size, crop - filters: gaussian blur, sharpen, pixelize, add border, vignette, noise, color-to-alpha, posterize, edge detect, sepia and more... - adjustments: brightness/contrast/exposure(gamma); hue/saturation/lightness; red/green/blue; colorize - load/save/export to iphone gallery / import from gallery / send by e-mail - export to PSD - additional "QUICK MENU" with the most frequently used functions, displayed after three-finger tap - thousands of beautiful paintings in ONLINE GALLERY - Video Output - after you connect your iPad to TV or VGA adaptor, the canvas will be mirrored to external screen. Two settings available: "panscan" and "show pan/zoom also on external screen"

1 0

INTEREST: first there was SETI@Home; then predicting protein structure....
by billing 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

...then SETI@home became the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). Now "crowd sourcing" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_source) takes on the AIDS virus... and cracks it..... FTW! (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/for_the_win) You remember the SETI@home project. Ordinary people would offer up CPU cycles on their computers to analyze "pictures" of the heavens looking for signs of extra-terrestrial life: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ For various technical and security reasons, this grew into the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) which now encompasses SETI@home as well as over 40 other "crowd sourced" analysis projects. Stanford released the Folding@Home project was started in 2001 to help scientists studying diseases by simply running a piece of software. Folding@home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved. In 2008 FoldIt (a protein folding game) was developed by doctoral student Seth Cooper and postdoctoral researcher Adrien Treuille, both in computer science and engineering, working with Zoran Popovic, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering; David Baker, a UW professor of biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; and David Salesin, a UW professor of computer science and engineering. Professional game designers provided advice during the game's creation. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508122520.htm "The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems." Now, it seems, FoldIt gamers have, well, see for yourself: ...from: http://gizmodo.com/5841782/gamers-crack-code-that-could-lead-to-new-aids-tr… http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/online-gamers-crack-aids-enzyme-pu… TOP STORIES SCIENCE Gamers Crack Code That Could Lead to New AIDS Treatments Scientists spent a decade trying—and failing—to map the structure of an enzyme that could help solve a crucial part of the AIDS puzzle. It took online gamers all of three weeks. The enzyme in question is the Mason-Pfizer monkey virus retroviral protease, and researchers have been seeking ways of deactivating it as a way of developing new anti-HIV drugs. Unfortunately, the conventional efforts of computers and scientists have come up short for years. Enter: Foldit. Foldit was developed in 2008 as a means of discovering the structures of various proteins and amino acids—something computers can't do very well—by turning it into a game. By inputting the experimental coordinates for the monkey virus enzyme, gamers—most of whom didn't have a background in molecular biology—were able to accurately predict the structure of the protein, allowing scientists to pinpoint locations to stop the virus' growth. The study, published in Nature Structure & Molecular Biology, details how incredible a step this is towards developing more effective therapies for HIV/AIDS patients. It's also an important precedent that lays the groundwork for scientists and lay people to work together to solve new problems and save lives. Which is very exciting.

1 0

INTEREST: "Oh, bother": Samsung sues iPhone 5
by billing 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

....from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/19/samsung-moves-to-block-iphone-5-in-korea… Samsung moves to block iPhone 5 in Korea, expands its anti-Apple offensive By Terrence O'Brien posted Sep 19th 2011 12:01PM Well, since Samsung couldn't get an early peek at the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, the company has simply decided to take a page from Apple's playbook. A senior exec told The Korea Times it plans to file a request to block the sale of the upcoming iOS handset in its Korean homeland the moment the device is announced. According to the Times, the anonymous exec said it would leverage its wireless technology patents and demand that Apple either remove the telecommunications features -- turning the iPhone into an iPod touch -- or simply be banished from the Korean market. The knock-down-drag-out war between the two companies has only seemed to escalate in recent weeks, as Sammy has taken a much morecombative and offensive approach. We can only hope the two get tired of divvying up the globe and declare a draw in this game of patent Risk.

1 0

INTEREST: Apple and Google and HTML5 and Android
by billing 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

....from: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/16/google_html5_effort_stinks/ Google shamed by Apple in race to HTML5 Now that's embarrassing By Matt Asay • Get more from this author Posted in Mobile, 16th September 2011 04:23 GMT Open...and Shut If ever there were a company made to beat Apple in mobile, it's Google. Apple, with its rigid devotion to a native app experience, is the perfect target for Google, king of the web. After all, the web and its rising standard, HTML5, threaten to cut Apple's estimated operating profit growth by 30 per cent over the next four years, according to Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, as app developers write browser-based apps that span devices. The problem, however, is that Google is showing itself to be a poor standard-bearer for HTML5, given its Janus-faced mobile strategy that Android largely dictates. Google should be the industry's standard bearer for HTML5, given its web DNA and the opportunity to unseat Apple using the disruptive web. But HTML5 isn't going to topple Apple anytime soon, if for no other reason than no Apple competitor supports HTML5 on its devices as well as Apple does. By a considerable margin. Part of the reason HTML5 apps perform much better on Apple devices is because Apple long ago invested in hardware acceleration, whereas Google only got around to it in version 3.0 of Android. And then there's just general browser performance. On the desktop, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or even Microsoft Internet Explorer regularly trounce Apple's Safari in performance tests, as well as extensibility of the browser through plug-ins and extensions. But in mobile, Apple's Safari blows everyone else away, as recent research shows. In other words, even the web is better on Apple devices, despite Apple's preference for native apps. Google should be doing better. Perhaps the reason it isn't comes down to a confused mobile strategy. On the desktop, its strategy is clear: all web, all the time. Google has invested in Google Docs, Picasa, Gmail, YouTube, and a wide array of other services that live on the web. In mobile, however, Google's approach is much less clear, an opacity likely spawned by Android's surprising success. Yes, Google has rolled out several new apps (Google+, Music Beta, etc.) that live in the browser, and have no native app equivalent. But Google also has a stringent devotion to Android, which has often been slow to adopt technology that embraces HTML5 (see hardware acceleration commentary above), and which depends for its success on the same model that Apple does: a native app store. Except that Apple doesn't really rely on the App Store for its revenue. Not directly, anyway. Despite the significant success of Apple's App Store, the revenue it brings in is a rounding error on Apple's income statement. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has estimated that the App Store accounts for a mere 1 per cent of Apple's gross profit since it launched. Even if that number has gone up in the year since Munster first announced his estimate, it still would pale in comparison to the money Apple makes in its core business: hardware. The better Apple's support for native apps, the more devices it sells. The better its support for HTML5, the more devices Apple sells, too. Either way, Apple wins. (And promises to continue to win as it has serious economies of scale compared to its hardware competitors,as John Gruber posits.) Google, meanwhile, has no such clarity in its mobile business. Google wants to play it both ways - native (Android) and HTML5 (Chrome) - but HTML5 is too often the ugly stepchild in a company that should be trumpeting web standards in every single thing it does. Google has for years stated that Android is just a transition OS on the way to a glorious browser-based future, but its actions suggest it may be addicted to Android's success. I'm not suggesting this from some big policy moves that Google has announced, but rather as an employee of a company that works with Apple, Google, and others on HTML5. There are pockets within Google that absolutely love HTML5, but it is the Android team that gets the most airtime. Advertising should be to Google as hardware is to Apple, but in my experience Android obstructs Google's interest in working with the web, rather than accelerating it. Contrast this with Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, and others who have clear strategies around HTML5 and, hence, are able to promote it without being contradicted by their own successes in native. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Android is, after all, flying high in smartphones, even if it has yet to catch fire in tablets. Perhaps Google doesn't really need to embrace the web to win in mobile. I can't see Google beating Apple at its own native app game and, given Google's web DNA, I can't see its employees wanting to. Google needs to get its mobile story straight, and that story is going to sound a lot more consistent coming from Google's lips if it's consistently HTML5. Matt Asay is senior vice president of business development at Strobe, a startup that offers an open source framework for building mobile apps. He was formerly chief operating officer of Ubuntu commercial operation Canonical. With more than a decade spent in open source, Asay served as Alfresco's general manager for the Americas and vice president of business development, and he helped put Novell on its open source track. Asay is an emeritus board member of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). His column, Open...and Shut, appears twice a week on The Register.

1 0

INTEREST: SEC - Google outbid itself by 33 percent in Motorola Mobility acquisition
by billing 15 Sep '11

15 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/14/google-outbid-itself-by-33-percent-in-mo… http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-13/google-bid-for-motorola-mobilit… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576569152330382810.h… http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1495569/000119312511225797/dex21.htm Google outbid itself by 33 percent in Motorola Mobility acquisition, SEC filing reveals By Amar Toor posted Sep 14th 2011 at 4:45AM Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility is already starting to lose that new car smell, but a fresh batch of financial details has now emerged, providing deeper insight into how the deal actually went down. According to an SEC filing that Motorola Mobility released yesterday, Google made an initial offer of $30 per share on August 1st, but soon raised that bid to $37 per share on August 9th, after Moto and its advisers asked for $43.50. On that same day, Google again raised its offer to $40 per share, even though Motorola wasn't accepting bids from other firms, for fear that a public auction would jeopardize its sale. This 33 percent increase ultimately added some $3 billion to the pot, bringing the final price tag to $12.5 billion. A Mountain View spokeswoman declined to comment on the negotiations, though its aggressive bidding suggests that the search giant desperately wanted the deal to go through. The documents also reveal that patent-related issues were at the forefront of discussions from the very beginning, when Google's Senior Vice President Andy Rubin met with Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha to talk about their mutual concerns, way back in July. According to the Wall Street Journal, these talks eventually convinced Jha that his company would be better off under Google's stewardship, amid fears that Moto could get swallowed by the stormy seas of patent litigation -- anxieties that the exec made all too apparentjust four days before the merger was announced. You can dig through the full SEC filing at the source link below.

1 0

INTEREST: What Apple did for paper publishing coming to e-pubs...
by billing 13 Sep '11

13 Sep '11

Apple's LaserWriter (released over a quarter of a century ago in March, 1985) delivered text and graphics print quality approaching that of the professional printing press. It was the partnership of Apple's LaserWriter with PageMaker from Aldus coupled with Adobe's PostScript page description language that gave rise to desktop publishing revolutionizing the making of a printed document "for the rest of us". Eventually Adobe took over PageMaker and by 2004 had morphed it into Adobe InDesign. Now Apple and Adobe are pairing up again (despite what you've heard about Apple's take on Adobe's FLASH: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ and http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/04/29/live-blogging-the-journals-interview…) perhaps to make (or remake) e-publishing just as dramatically: ...from: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/09/adobe-updates-publishing-tools-to… iOS: NewsStand: http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/features.html#newsstand iOS 5 Newsstand could see influx of content thanks to Adobe tools By Chris Foresman | Published 5 days ago Adobe has decided to embrace the new Newsstand feature coming to iOS devices as part of the iOS 5 update. Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite will be capable of generating applications and subscription content that fully integrates with Newsstand, the company announced on Wednesday, allowing publishers to utilize Adobe's tools when creating subscription content for the iPhone and iPad. Apple Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall briefly demoed Newsstand in June when Apple announced the iOS 5 update. Newsstand essentially functions as a special folder on the home screen that automatically collects apps that offer access to subscription-based content, like magazines and newspapers. The apps' icons are then displayed on a virtual wooden shelf instead of the usual folder view. Apple's NewsstandKit APIs enable publishers to build apps compatible with Newsstand, allowing them to automatically push new content to the apps in the background as it becomes available. Cover art for new issues will automatically update as well, and will be displayed on the virtual shelf. Basically, users can always be sure they have the latest content, and can even get notifications when the latest issue is available to read. Adobe's Digital Publishing Suite is a set of tools that allows publishers to build iOS apps for downloading and viewing content created with InDesign and other Adobe content creation software. When iOS 5 is released—likely sometime in the next few weeks—Digital Publishing Suite will fully support NewsstandKit APIs for automatic content downloads, cover icons, and push notifications. Apps crated with Digital Publishing Suite will also be automatically recognized and added to iOS 5's Newsstand. Adobe noted that Digital Publishing Suite can also generate apps compatible with Android and BlackBerry tablets as well, though Newsstand support is unique to iOS devices. How publishers will react to Apple's subscription payment rules is still unknown, however. The company originally planned to force publishers to offer subscriptions via Apple's in-app purchasing mechanism at prices that matched outside subscription offers. However, many publishers balked at giving Apple a 30 percent cut of subscription revenue. The company later made a compromise, allowing freedom in pricing as long as apps didn't contain outside links to pay-for content. Financial Times decided to kill its iPad app in favor of an HTML5 Web app instead of giving in to Apple's subscription rules. Fashion and design magazine Clear, however, appears to be embracing the native app approach. "Tablet devices are changing publishing forever," Clear publisher and creative director Emin Kadi said in a statement. "Now, with [Adobe Digital Publishing Suite] support for iOS 5 Newsstand subscriptions, we will be able to further monetize our digital editions and make our content more discoverable."

1 0

probably low INTEREST: Google gives HTC patents; HTC sues Apple
by billing 12 Sep '11

12 Sep '11

[NOTE: for a diagram of some of the mess that follows, please see http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2011/08/mobilepatents.jpg although it's not much easier to follow ::-( <deep breath ON> early 2005'ish: Google begins writing Android (the OS they are currently licencing for smart phones and tablets) and Chrome (the OS not the browser) to be used as a stand-alone OS on a computer instead of Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, UNIX, etc. Part of this development is done using the JAVA programming language which was owned by SUN Microsystems. October, 2005: Google's Android "boss" says that Google should use JAVA for Android and seems to imply, use it even without and agreement with SUN Microsystems for the use of JAVA. http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/07/judge-orders-overhaul-of-oracles.ht… ......Google faces the problem that the judge [Judge Alsup] appears increasingly suspicious (if not already convinced) of Google having committed willful infringement because of a problematic attitude toward other companies' intellectual property rights. Judge [Alsup] suspects Google of having preferred "to roll the dice on possible litigation rather than to pay a fair price". In connection with the theories Google presented, the judge refers to one (even in a headline) as "Google's Soviet-style negotiation", defined as "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable". In that context, the judge suspects the following attitude: "Google may have simply been brazen, preferring to roll the dice on possible litigation rather than to pay a fair price." That kind of statement reflects extremely unfavorably on Google. It's exactly the kind of basis on which the judge might consider an injunction [of Android] a highly appropriate remedy, and a tripling of the base damages amount, too. One of the most interesting passages in today's order quotes from an October 2005 email by Google's Android boss Andy Rubin: "If Sun doesn't want to work with us, we have two options: 1) Abandon our work and adopt [Microsoft] CLR VM and C# language - or - 2) Do Java anyway and defend our decision, perhaps making enemies along the way" 2006: Canadian company Wi-Lan wades in by suing Apple, HTC, Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Kyocera, Novatel Wireless, Alcatel-Lucent, Dell, and Sierra Wireless. (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392383,00.asp) [NOTE: you can see their 3 offerings - INVESTOR & COMPANIES, LICENSEES, and INVESTORS - on their web site: http://www.wi-lan.com/ It appears as though they do not manufacture any "products" anymore.] April 20, 2009: "Oracle buys Sun Microsystems" http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/018363 After which, Oracle owns JAVA. early 2010'ish: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/oracle-and-google-keep-wrangling-ov… Court documents show that Google was again investigating doing away with the need for JAVA within Android and Chrome. It was determined that could not be done. Licencing JAVA is again discussed. "What we've actually been asked to do (by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin]) is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome. We've been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need." March 10, 2010: (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20079905-94/itc-says-htc-violating-two-of-…) Apple filed complaint alleging that many of the Taiwanese company HTC's Andriod products had violated 10 Apple-owned patents. A loss carries the threat that HTC's products would be banned from coming into the U.S.A. August, 2010: Oracle sues Google for violating Oracle patents and copyrights on JAVA in Android and Chrome. Oracle says Google has been using JAVA without a licence. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-16/oracle-seeking-billions-of-dollars… Oracle is seeking as much as $6.1 billion in damages in a patent- and copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google that claims the search-engine company’s Android software uses technology related to the Java programming language, according to court papers. ... Sun Microsystems Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, got Java when it bought Sun Microsystems in January 2010. The company sued Google [in] August, seeking a court ruling that would ban further use of its intellectual property and force the destruction of all products that violate Java-related copyrights on the code, documentation and specifications. Google, based in Mountain View, California, said in court filings that the patents are invalid and not infringed and that users of the Android platform have a license to any patents in the case. It said Oracle made general copyright-infringement claims with nothing to back them up. August 19, 2010: "Why Oracle was right to sue Google" http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/why-oracle-was-right-sue-google-… The tech industry loves a good vendor slugfest, and the upcoming legal battle between Google and Oracle has all the makings of a truly spectacular one. At issue is Dalvik, the unique, Java-based runtime at the heart of Google's Android smartphone OS. Oracle, which gained stewardship of the Java platform when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2009, claims Dalvik knowingly, willfully, and deliberately infringes on Java intellectual property. ... Bloggers, pundits, and developers wasted no time decrying [Oracle's] suit. Farata Systems' Anatole Tartakovsky wrote, "Oracle managers are clearly out of their minds." PC World's Tony Bradley described Oracle as a patent troll, while others made unflattering comparisons to the SCO Group. InfoWorld's own editor in chief, Eric Knorr, compared Oracle to Darth Vader and to Batman's nemesis the Joker in the same column. Such knee-jerk reactions are misguided. Google is no Luke Skywalker, and its handling of Java has been questionable at best. Ironically, few companies have been as outspoken on the issue of Sun's failed leadership as Google. Speaking at the Red Hat Middleware 2020 virtual conference in April [of 2010], Google chief Java architect Josh Bloch described the platform as "rudderless" and called on Oracle to take a lead role in steering its future direction. "Technical and licensing disputes over the last few years have been highly detrimental. They've sapped the energy of the community and caused plenty of bad press," Bloch said. ... And the Android development platform is [...] a hodgepodge of classes drawn from stock Java, the Apache Foundation, and Google's own contributions. This was no accident. In a blog post, Java creator James Gosling recalls Sun's early talks with Google and how the search giant was more interested in "disrupting Apple's trajectory" with Android than in upholding Java's core principle of interoperability -- despite Sun's strong objections. How would Sun benefit from Android? It wouldn't: "Google did have a financial model that benefited themselves," Gosling writes, noting "they weren't about to share." ... The greatest challenge to [JAVA originally] came in the late 1990s, when Microsoft tried to splinter the Java community by offering a Windows-only version of the language. Sun took the issue to the courts, arguing that Microsoft's implementation violated the Java license agreement. When the dust finally cleared in 2001, Microsoft had agreed to scupper its Java work and pay Sun $20 million in damages. "Now if Microsoft wants to use Java, they will have to use the same Java everyone else does," Sun vice president Rich Green said at the time. Should not Google be held to the same standard? Oracle thinks so, and like Sun of old, it has chosen a legal remedy. ... What happens next? Google claims Oracle's actions are "an attack on the Java community," but that would only be true if Google were promoting Java. ... April 4, 2011: Patents and innovation: Posted by Kent Walker, Google's Senior Vice President & General Counsel http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/patents-and-innovation.html (emphasis added) The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology. The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It's for these reasons that Google haslong argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole. But as things stand today, one of a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories. So after a lot of thought, we’ve decided to bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio in the company’s bankruptcy auction. Today, Nortel selected our bid as the “stalking-horse bid," which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community—which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome—continue to innovate. In the absence of meaningful reform, we believe it's the best long-term solution for Google, our users and our partners. April 15, 2011: (http://www.apple.com/pr/pdf/110415samsungcomplaint.pdf) Apple brings a complaint against the Korean company Samsung saying it's Andriod products violate 16 Apple-owned utility, design, and trade-dress patents which include things like the Multi-Touch™ gestures for scrolling, pinch-zoom, and the like including the way documents "bounce back" when a user scrolls too far; the design of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. for things like the design and layout of the screen and case; as well as the distinctive user interface and packing for which Apple describes the shape and appearance of these devices (and their packaging) as being "radically different from the devices that preceded it." - See some examples at the end of this message - Apr 22, 2011: "Why Samsung Took the Apple Patent Battle International" (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/226027/why_samsung_took_the_a…): "It is no surprise that Samsung retaliated against Apple's claims of patent infringement with some patent accusations of its own, but the fact that Samsung chose to file lawsuits internationally against Apple in three different countries (The Netherlands, Germany, South Korea) seems a bit perplexing.... Why wouldn't Samsung simply countersue Apple in the US District Court of Northern California where Apple filed its lawsuit against Samsung in the first place? ... [According to] Florian Mueller, a technology patent and intellectual property expert, "...recent cases before the ITC don't seem to be going the way the litigants intended, so Samsung might see the ITC as being too risky. Rather than bog things down in US federal courts, though, Samsung opted to take the battle international. Some courts may also afford a political or psychological advantage for an "underdog" competitor being oppressed by an American tech giant like Apple. Mueller notes that an international, multi-jurisdictional legal battle can be a logistical nightmare, and consume considerable resources, but global players like Apple and Samsung have the skills, resources, and lawyers on retainer to take the challenge on." ... [BTW, for those keeping score, there are now 19 ongoing lawsuits at this stage taking place in 12 courts in 9 countries on 4 continents; it seems evenly distributed with 10 originating at Apple and 9 originating at Samsung: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/apple-vs-samsung-list-of-all-19.html June 31, 2011: "Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Sony consortium beats Google for Nortel patents" (http://www.macworld.com/article/160911/2011/07/nortel_patents.html) "Google, which offered $900 million for the patents in April, was not among the winning bidders.... In a blog post in April, [Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel] said Google was bidding for the Nortel patents as it hoped the portfolio would create a disincentive for others to sue Google, and also help the company, its partners and the open source community, which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome, continue to innovate. Having a formidable patent portfolio is one of a company’s best defences against an explosion in patent litigation that threatens to stifle innovation, he added. "We believe the consortium is in the best position to utilize the patents in a manner that will be favorable to the industry long term", Ericsson said. July 1, 2011: "Google bid "pi" for Nortel patents and lost" http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/02/us-dealtalk-nortel-google-idUSTRE… (Reuters) - At the auction for Nortel Networks' wireless patents this week, Google's bids were mystifying, such as $1,902,160,540 and $2,614,972,128. Math whizzes might recognize these numbers as Brun's constant and Meissel-Mertens constant, but it puzzled many of the people involved in the auction, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation on Friday. "Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers," one of the sources said. "It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi," the source said, adding the bid was $3.14159 billion. "Either they were supremely confident or they were bored." It was not clear what strategy Google was employing, whether it wanted to confuse rival bidders, intimidate them, or simply express the irreverence that is part and parcel of its corporate persona. Whatever its reasons, Google's shenanigans did not work. A group of six companies -- Apple, Microsoft, RIM, EMC, Ericsson and Sony -- won the auction of 6,000 Nortel patents and patent applications with a $4.5 billion bid. The final figure was three times the amount expected by some analysts -- a sign of the lengths to which Google's rivals were willing to go to get their hands on the treasure trove of wireless technology, and thwart the Internet powerhouse's mobile ambitions. Google had been expected to emerge victorious after it set a $900 million stalking horse bid in April. But the auction that started on Monday and saw 20 rounds of bids over four long days ultimately hit a price that became too much even for Google, the sources said. The Internet company might have had $36.7 billion in cash as of March 31, but it was only willing to go up to $4 billion for these patents, one person said. July 15, 2011: "[The U.S. International Trade Commission says HTC's Android-based Galaxy devices are violating two of Apple's patents" (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20079905-94/itc-says-htc-violating-two-of-…) ...in judgement of the March 10, 2010 complaint by Apple. July 21, 2011: Tim Lindholm, a Google engineer involved with Android and Chrome development using JAVA (and a former Sun employee) was deposed at the Oracle/Google trial testifying that he sent the above email where he states, 'We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java". His testimony becomes part of the court records in this case and a printed copy of the email was shown to the court and to Oracle's lawyers. July 26, 2011: "An Apple/HTC patent deal could signal big trouble for Android" (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/an-applehtc-patent-deal-could-signal-big…): "Earlier this month the ITC (International Trade Commission) ruled that HTC['s Android-based Galaxy devices were] infringing on two of Apple’s patents. That’s a big deal for Apple, but it’s also a big deal for the Android platform as a whole since it is likely that these patents apply to every Android device out there. That’s a very big deal. "...HTC isn’t defenceless ... given that HTC has something that Apple wants (at least it’ll be HTC’s when its buyout of [patents belonging to the company] S3 is complete) then a settlement seems far more likely. "If Apple and HTC can reach a deal through both having technology that the other side wants to license, where does that leave all the other OEMs out there? Also, where does that leave Android? In trouble, that’s where it leaves [Android]... remember that Android is at the center of 49 federal and ITC infringement suits, so it’s likely that things are going to get worse before they get better. starting in July, 2011 - August 15, 2011: Authorities Find Another 22 Fake Apple Stores in China (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/fake-chinese-apple-stores-china,news-12165.html) When more than 20 fake Apple stores are discovered in various cities in mainland China, Apple China complained to China's Administration for Industry and Commerce for unfair competition and violating its registered trademark. "...even the employees thought they were working for Cupertino." August 3, 2011: Google complains of patent attacks upon Android from Apple, Microsoft http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/08/03/google_complains_of_patent_at… Google's chief legal officer has posted a public blog entry complaining that Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and others are waging an "organized campaign" against its Android operating system "waged through bogus patents." The complaint, entitled "When patents attack Android," accuses Apple and Microsoft of "banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents to make sure Google didn’t get them." It also describes the $15 per phone patent royalties that Android licensee HTC agreed to pay Microsoft as a conspiracy to "make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Mobile." August 4, 2011: Microsoft says Google refused to join the Novell patent consortium http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/08/04/microsoft_says_google_refused… In response to a public complaint by Google accusing Apple and Microsoft of a patent-wielding conspiracy to hold back its Android platform, Microsoft's general counsel has pointed out that Google rebuffed an invitation to join the consortium, apparently with the hope of obtaining all of the Novell patents for itself. ... However, the CPTN consortium of companies (including Apple and Microsoft) that bid for the Novell patents are themselves competitors in the mobile space, but have stated that they jointly bid on the patents to prevent the portfolio of intellectual property from falling into the hands of a patent troll that could work to derail the entire industry with years of lawsuits. Additionally, according to Brad Smith, the general counsel of Microsoft, Google refused to join the group bidding on the Novell patents, instead bidding separately for the collection of patents in hopes that it could win them all for itself, just as had earlier done on a portfolio of around 1,000 patents from IBM. In a tweet, Smith stated, "Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no." Google's chief legal officer David Drummond took the similar Rockstar consortium to task for "escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth," complaining that "Microsoft and Apple’s winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion," without also noting that Google itself had been involved in raising the ultimate price of the patents far higher than any patent troll could ever pay, after refusing to join the consortium in the first place. August 5, 2011: in the period since Tim Lindholm's testimony on July 21, Google withdrew the evidence of the email in which Mr. Lindholm says, "What we've actually been asked to do (by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin]) is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome. We've been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need." So, Oracle files a motion about to obtain that email. The motion can be read at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/61754518/11-08-05-Oracle-Google-Joint-Letter-Re-L… but, basically, Oracle is asking Judge D. M. Ryu to compel Google to produce the documents testified to by Mr. Lindholm. Google claims lawyer/client confidentiality. August 6, 2011: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/oracle-and-google-keep-wrangling-ov… Judge Alsup -- the federal judge presiding over the main Oracle/Google litigation -- attaches a great deal of importance to that particular document - [the Lindholm document]. At a recent hearing, he essentially said that a good trial lawyer would just need that document "and the Magna Carta" to win this case on Oracle's behalf and have Google found to infringe Oracle's rights willfully. The judge told Google that "you are going to be on the losing end of this document" with "profound implications for a permanent injunction". Let me add that a finding of willful infringement would not only make an injunction much more likely than otherwise. It can also result in a tripling of whatever damages will be awarded. August 16, 2011: "HTC sues Apple over everything" (http://gigaom.com/apple/htc-sues-apple-over-everything/): "HTC has asked the U.S. District Court in Delaware to ban the import and sale of [Macs, iPads, iPhones, iPods, AirPort, Time Capsule and Apple TV because they infringe on three patents it owns] and has asked for compensatory damages as well. Because it has accused Apple of willfully infringing on its patents, it wants three times the compensatory damages. This type of lawsuit has lately become standard operating procedure in the mobile world, but now even products that are not mobile devices are getting swept up in the ongoing mobile patent wars." August 26, 2011: Google denied in latest attempt to bar controversial [Lindholm] e-mail http://itgovernment.computerworld.com/patent/36162/google-denied-latest-att… August 31, 2011: (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hqVJQWeYFLBTE4Q_qQywiuHl…) (http://www.ipe.org.cn/ and http://www.ipe.org.cn/En/) The mainland Chinese environment watch-dog group "Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs" (IPE) says "factories it believes are contracted to make Apple products are engaging in rampant pollution, and accused the US technology giant of turning a blind eye." IPE confirm it has "received an email from Apple on Wednesday[, August 31, 2011] asking for direct talks, an unusual move for the technology giant and an indication of how damaging the allegations could be." Last week of August/First week of September, 2011: "Google provides to HTC ammo in Apple patent fight" http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkwamtz8UbUK0NSEXDWDlE5p… "Google last week transferred to HTC a set of patents that the Taiwan-based company used to amend intellectual property infringement complaints against iPhone maker Apple in the United States. [Google] confirmed selling the patents to HTC but referred additional questions to the smartphone maker - [HTC]. "In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in the state of Delaware, the Taiwanese smartphone maker charged that Apple violated three HTC-held patents in its Macintosh computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads and other products. HTC asked the court for damages and to bar Apple from importing into the United States any devices found to be infringing the patents. "We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones," HTC general counsel Grace Lei said. "This is the third case before the ITC in which Apple is infringing our intellectual property," Lei said. "Apple needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its products." "Some of the nine patents that HTC reportedly bought from Google had belonged to Motorola Mobility, which Google last month said that it is buying for $12.5 billion in cash. "Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google's patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies," Google chief executive Larry Page said when the Motorola Mobility buy was announced September 6, 2011: ClassCo sues Apple, HP, Huawei, LG, ZTE, HTC, RIM and Samsung over patents relating to handling "caller ID". - [NOTE: they *do* appear to manufacture at least one product: http://www.classco.com/] September 9, 2011: (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-09/apple-wins-ruling-for-german-samsu…) Apple Wins Court Ruling to Ban German Sales of Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1 "Apple won a ruling over sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S, S II and Ace smartphones in the Netherlands last month. Samsung filed a lawsuit in London against Apple on Sept. 7"..... "“The crucial issue was whether the Galaxy tablet looked like the drawings registered as a design right,” said [Presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann]. “Also, our case had nothing to do with trademarks or patents for technology. The court is of the opinion that Apple’s minimalistic design isn’t the only technical solution to make a tablet computer, other designs are possible. For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks like the design Apple has protected in Europe." ...and more to come... September 9, 2011: Intel Said to Weigh InterDigital [Patent] Bid http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-09/intel-said-to-weigh-interdigital-b… "Intel Corp. (INTC) is among companies considering submitting bids for InterDigital Inc.’s patent portfolio this month, while Google Inc. (GOOG)is losing interest in the assets, said people with knowledge of the matter. "Intel, Samsung Electronics Co., Ericsson AB and HTC Corp. (2498), are reviewing confidential InterDigital data as they weigh offers for the company’s assets, said the people, who declined to be identified because talks are private. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) have also looked, one person said. First-round bids are due in two weeks, and bidders have been asked to indicate initial interest in the coming days, the person said. "Some buyers may team up on proposals, the person said. Google is backing away from an offer after agreeing to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion last month to gain patents and a hardware business, the people said." <breath easily AGAIN> iOS (mainly iPhone) Galaxy family (mainly Galaxy S II) Box Screen …from: http://images.apple.com/au/education/ipodtouch-iphone/images/glance_iphone3… …from: http://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-vibrant-aka-galaxy-s-images-leak-20100… A Google search shows this picture used to also be at http://www.samsung.com/hk/ htmlnews/2010_jun/galaxys_2.jpg … this is the new image at that link now: Sometimes the following is the picture that shows up on the ‘net for a Galaxy S II: Icons Phone calls: Music: Notes: EMail: Camera: Settings: Contacts: Maps: Or or .. or .. Maps:

1 0

INTEREST: perhaps you've noticed this new Safari 5.1 behaviour: RELOADING...
by billing 11 Sep '11

11 Sep '11

Basically it means that Safari will outright crash and then quit fewer times; instead it will recover somewhat gracefully by reloading *all* the web pages instead of crashing completely because of one bad page or plugin..... ...or some variant thereof... from: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3198617?start=0&tstart=0 Jul 31, 2011 6:13 AM To understand why this comes up you need to understand how the Safari processes have been redesigned for version 5.1 Historically plugins have been a leading cause of many a Safari crash. So in Safari 4 Apple seperated Safari into 2 processes - one of Safari itself and it's renderer and the other for it's plugins to run in. This meant that if the plugin crashed it Safari would in theory continue to function. This of course ignored the other ways in which a web page can crash a browser so in Safari 5.1 Apple separated things even further. Now Safari is separated into 3 processes - The Safari app comprimising of the windows , menus , tabs , bookmarks and URLs of what's loaded in each tab/window , our old friend from above WebkitPluginAgent and a new process just for the web page renderer. This new process is called "Safari Web Content" What your seeing here is when the Safari Web Content process crashes on the content of a page for any reason. Safari can detect when this happens and automatically restarts the process. When you click back into a window or tab where you had web page stuff loaded before it gets reloaded.

1 0

INTERST: Apple Inc's Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive
by billing 11 Sep '11

11 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/25/tim-cook-who-is-apples-new-ceo/ Tim Cook: Who is Apple's new CEO? By Brian Heater posted Aug 25th 2011 at 12:00PM Tim Cook is no dark horse. He's no outsider either. And while most of us were caught a bit off guard when Apple announced Steve Jobs's resignation last night, none were too surprised when the 50-year-old executive was formally named his replacement. It's a role for which Cook has been groomed for some time now, even temporarily stepping into the position in 2004, 2009 and early 2011, as Jobs took leave in order to tend to his ongoing health problems. Cook has been with Apple for the lion's share of Jobs's second coming, joining the company in 1998. At the time, Cook was six months into a stint at Compaq, serving as Vice President, Corporate Materials. Prior to his brief run there he was the COO of Intelligent Electronics and spent a far longer 12-year stretch at IBM, serving as the Director of North American Fulfillment at the time of his exit. Cook did his undergrad at Auburn University, earning a BS in industrial engineering, going on to get an MBA at Duke University half a decade later. Tim Cook has sent a letter to the company's staff this morning, thanking his predecessor, and predicting bright things for Apple's future. Team: I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I've ever made and it's been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve's optimism for Apple's bright future. Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve's ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman. I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple's unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that-it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do. I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is. Tim = - = - = - = - = ...from Bloomberg News: Jobs’s Departure as CEO Puts Product Vision in Hands of Ive Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Jobs’s departure as chief executive officer this week leaves Apple Inc. without the full- time attention of its technology visionary, putting pressure on head product designer Jonathan Ive to fill that gap. While new CEO Tim Cook comes from an operations background, Ive has been Jobs’s foremost creative partner within Apple, said Eric Chan, who runs Ecco Design Inc., an industrial design firm. Ive, who goes by Jony, oversaw the exacting development that led to devices such as the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. “You need the combination of the chemistry that Jonathan and Steve have,” Chan said. “They have trust and they have the kind of quality vision that you need. They push each other.” The company aims to prove it can still churn out successful products without as much oversight from Jobs, who is now serving as chairman. Ive drew inspiration from the former CEO’s legendary attention to detail and aesthetic sense -- something that Cook hasn’t had to demonstrate in his previous roles. “The greatness of Apple has a lot to do with Steve’s commitment to design -- the willingness to spend amounts of money on design that would be crazy to most other companies,” said Robert Brunner, a former Apple design chief who hired Ive. “There’s no better place to be to do great design. If Steve drops out of the picture, will Tim have the same religion?” Close Relationship Jobs and Ive honed a close working relationship since the British native began running Apple’s design in the late 1990s. In a typical scenario, Jobs or one of Apple’s engineers would come up with a concept. Jobs would then commission Ive, 44, to produce a variety of prototypes to turn the idea into a physical model. Since his return to Apple in 1997, Jobs frequently disappeared into the design studio Ive shares with his team of designers. Once Jobs made his choice, Ive oversaw the painstaking development that led to Apple’s computers and devices. While each process was different -- the team visited a confectioner to perfect the candy-colored enclosure on the iMac -- Ive consistently created products that were functional, reliable and melded with Apple’s software. If Jobs steps aside altogether, it raises the possibility that Ive may leave Apple as well, said Brunner, who now runs a design company called Ammunition LLC. That would make it harder for Cook to preserve the company’s product vision. Nothing to Prove “Jony doesn’t have anything else to prove at Apple, and he’s made a lot of money,” Brunner said. Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment on Ive’s plans. The company has no additional personnel changes to announce, he said. A design prodigy who won a British student award twice while attending Northumbria University in the 1980s, Ive is quiet and avoids cameras but shares Jobs’s intensity for creating stylish products. His goal, he said in a 2006 speech, “is not self-expression. It’s to make something that looks like it wasn’t really designed at all -- because it’s inevitable.” That’s been the case since his college days, said Clive Grinyer, who went to school with him. Grinyer recalls visiting Ive’s apartment, and being shocked to see hundreds of foam models of a single product. Each one was good enough to have been the final product, he said. “They all looked bloody good to me,” said Grinyer, who later formed a design firm with Ive called Tangerine. “He doesn’t rest on his laurels. He does everything to the nth degree.” Designing Toilets In 1992, Ive moved from projects like designing toilets at Tangerine to Apple. He no longer wanted to sell his services to clients who then refused to let him turn his ideas into reality. By the time he was put in charge of Apple’s design effort in 1996, the company was struggling and he once again was spending much of his time lobbying executives for resources, said former Apple designer Thomas Meyerhoffer. That changed when Jobs returned to the helm in 1997. He needed the yet-to-be-released iMac to be a hit. To make sure it stood out, Jobs approved Ive’s plan to use a candy-colored translucent plastic enclosure -- a major expense given rapidly falling prices for computers at the time. In the years since, Ive and his team have achieved rarified status at Apple. They do their work in a lab deep within Apple’s Infinite Loop campus. Filled with expensive prototyping equipment -- often with music playing -- the room is locked off from all but the highest-ranking executives. While industrial design is seen as cost to be minimized at many companies, Ive has latitude to specify features that require his team and Apple’s hardware engineers to create new production techniques. ‘Antennagate’ Often they work well, as with the unibody design that helps make Apple’s laptops thinner. On some occasions, Jobs has demanded things that Ive’s team can’t execute perfectly, as occurred when Apple designed the antenna of the iPhone 4 into the bezel of the device. Some consumers complained of dropped calls when they held the bezel in certain ways, setting off an imbroglio known as “Antennagate.” Apple’s approach to design goes beyond cosmetics. Ive is known to travel to Asia for weeks, studying intricacies of metal-bending equipment, Meyerhoffer said. The result is that Apple’s products have unique shapes, textures and thinness. The solid feel of products such as the iPhone is due in part to Ive’s insistence on miniscule tolerances -- the tiny gaps around each part and screw in a product. Choosing Your Victories Like Jobs, he is private, living a low-key existence with his wife, a historian he’s known since childhood. While he matches Jobs’s passion for products, he’s not widely regarded as a CEO candidate. Ive lacks operations, marketing and sales skills, something he doesn’t regret, he said in the 2006 speech. “Victories from your ability to sell are very short-lived,” Ive said. “Victories from things you’ve really worked hard at can have a lasting impact.” The question now is whether Cook will make design as high a priority as in the past, said Meyerhoffer, who is head of his own firm in Montara, California. Cook -- who has spent 13 years at Apple, six of them as chief operating officer -- reassured employees in a memo yesterday that “Apple is not going to change.” “I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values,” he said in the memo. “Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that -- it is in our DNA.” Still, Cook is a spreadsheet junkie and operations wonk, who may be more likely to pinch pennies on a new iPad enclosure or iPhone, Meyerhoffer said. “Even a subtle shift might unsettle the balance,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Burrows in San Francisco at pburrows(a)bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5(a)bloomberg.net Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://m.bloomberg.com/iphone/

1 0

INTEREST: Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia
by billing 11 Sep '11

11 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/09/apple-tops-j-d-power-customer-satisfacti… Apple tops J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey, grim reading for RIM and Nokia By Sharif Sakr posted Sep 9th 2011 9:22AM Not only is Apple shipping the most smartphones, it's also shipping the best smartphones -- if you believe the stats in J.D. Power and Associates' latest US customer satisfaction survey. It gave the iPhone a score of 838, versus HTC's handsets in second place with 801 and an industry average of 788. Sammy got a disappointing 777, but we guess it might have fared better if the Galaxy S II had been quicker to cross the Atlantic. Hapless RIM got shunted into fifth place, having come second in 2010. You'll find plenty more factoids in the PR after the break, including evidence that people just love 4G. Well, we could have told you that. Show full PR text J.D. Power and Associates Reports: The Right Blend of Design and Technology is Critical to Creating an Exceptional User Experience with Smartphones and Traditional Mobile Devices Apple Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Smartphone Manufacturers, While Samsung Ranks Highest among Traditional Mobile Phone Manufacturers WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 8 September 2011 - Overall satisfaction with smartphones and traditional mobile phones is considerably higher for devices that are a specific size and weight and are equipped with the latest technological advancements, such as high-quality display screens, faster processing speeds, longer battery life and touch screen capabilities, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 2 and the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 2, both released today. Satisfaction with both smartphones and traditional or "feature" phones is greatly impacted by the physical design and dimensions of the device. For example, satisfaction ratings are highest (8.1 on a 10-point scale) when the weight of the smartphone device does not exceed 5 ounces. In comparison, satisfaction averages 7.6 for smartphone devices that are 5 ounces or heavier. The same scenario holds true for feature phones, for which satisfaction with the weight of the device peaks between 3 and 3.5 ounces, and drops considerably when the feature phone weighs 4 ounces or more. The width and thickness of the smartphone device are also critical in maximizing the ownership experience, and echo the old adage that "thinner is better" holds true. Overall physical design satisfaction is highest (852 on a 1,000-point scale) for smartphones that are less than 0.45 inches wide. In comparison, satisfaction averages 783 for smartphones that are 0.65 inches wide or wider. Technology advancements also impact the experience of mobile devices in a number of areas. For example, touch screen-only smartphones generate considerably higher satisfaction with ease of operation (817 points) than either QWERTY-only based devices or those that have both a touch screen and QWERTY functions (785 and 782 points, respectively). In addition, faster processing speeds, higher computer chip bit rates and the most advanced display screens (such as Super AMOLED vs. older LCD-based screens) all add significantly to user satisfaction. Even the number of megapixels found in camera-enabled mobile devices influences the ownership experience. In general, the higher the number of megapixels, the higher the satisfaction with camera picture and video quality. However, devices with at least 5 megapixels achieve nearly as high a satisfaction score as those smartphones with 8 megapixels or more. "It's not unexpected that satisfaction is higher for devices that have new technological advances or features," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. "Having the right combination of physical dimensions and operating functions and features for both smartphones and traditionally equipped devices is key to creating an exceptional ownership experience with each type of wireless device." These two studies have been updated to measure customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets and smartphones among owners who have used their current mobile phone for less than one year by examining several key factors. In order of importance, the key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are: performance (31%); ease of operation (24%); physical design (24%); and features (20%). For smartphones, the key factors are: performance (35%); ease of operation (24%); features (21%); and physical design (20%). For a sixth consecutive time, Apple ranks highest among manufacturers of smartphones in customer satisfaction. Apple achieves a score of 838 and performs well in all factors, particularly in ease of operation and features. HTC (801) follows Apple in the smartphone rankings. Samsung ranks highest in overall customer satisfaction with traditional handsets with a score of 718. Samsung performs well in three factors: performance, ease of operation and features. LG (717), Sanyo (716) and Sony Ericsson (709) follow Samsung in the traditional handset rankings. The studies also find the following key wireless handset usage patterns: • The price of a traditional wireless mobile phone continues to decline and averages $71 in 2011, compared with an average of $81 at the beginning of 2009. The decline is primarily due to discounts provided by handset providers and wireless service carriers to incentivize sales. Currently, 42 percent of owners report having received a free mobile phone when subscribing to a wireless service. • Mobile applications continue to enhance the smartphone user experience. More than two-thirds of owners say they have downloaded games and social networking applications to their device. More than one-half (54%) say they have downloaded entertainment-oriented applications, while 52 percent indicate having downloaded travel software, such as maps and weather applications. This indicates that smartphone owners are continuing to integrate their device usage into both their business and personal lives. • Customers are highly satisfied with 4G-capable devices. Satisfaction among customers using 4G-capable phones averages 819, compared with 786 among customers using phones with 3G capability. Owners of 4G devices are also more active in terms of calling, texting and browsing the Internet. The 2011 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study-Volume 2 and the 2011 U.S. Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Satisfaction Study-Volume 2 are based on experiences reported by 6,898 smartphone owners and 8,775 traditional mobile phone owners. Both studies were fielded between January and June 2011. For more information on customer satisfaction with wireless service, wireless retail sales, cell phone handsets, customer care, prepaid wireless service and business wireless service, please visit JDPower.com. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

1 0

INTEREST: Amazon.com coming to a 7-Eleven? Someday. Soon?
by billing 06 Sep '11

06 Sep '11

...from: http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/09/02/090211-tech-technews-amazon-lockers/ Convenience store A new locker system from Amazon sends your deliveries to 7-Eleven BY MATT HICKEY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011 You’re at work and your cellphone rings. It’s the delivery guy and he has your Amazon purchase ready to be dropped off. (Yes, the new shower curtain!) But you’re chained to your desk and can’t get home to sign for it. And forget about having it sent to the office — if the mailroom doesn’t lose it, the package will be undoubtedly delivered on a weekend when you’re not around. First World problems! But nestled in the back of a 7-Eleven store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood is a prototype delivery locker from Amazon that may solve this nightmare scenario. According to a source with knowledge of the project, the idea is simple: these nondescript boxes will be in 7-Eleven stores across the country and act as a sort of P.O. box for Amazon purchases. Once a customer makes a buy on Amazon’s website he can select a 7-Eleven close to work, or on the way home and have the package dropped off there. When the package is actually delivered, the customer receives an email notification along with a bar code to his smartphone and heads to the 7-Eleven. There he’ll stand in front of the locker system, which looks like the offspring between an ATM machine and a safety deposit box. The machine will scan the bar code on his handset to receive a PIN number. He’ll punch that PIN number and retrieve the package. The source told The Daily that Amazon is currently in early testing stages of the system. If it is successful, the lockers could be in place at 7-Elevens across the U.S. by next summer. Amazon had no comment about the locker system. ...and from: http://www.engadget.com/page/2/ http://www.geekwire.com/2011/confirmed-amazons-delivery-locker-7eleven Amazon's 7-Eleven lockers are very real, very gray, slated for Friday activation By Amar Toor posted Sep 6th 2011 at 10:18AM After an arduous expedition that must've lasted hours, an intrepid frontiersman in the Seattle area has finally unearthed the Holy Grail of convenience store cubbies -- Amazon's elusive delivery locker, at 7-Eleven. GeekWire's John Cook discovered the prototype lockers at a 7-Eleven in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, where store clerks told him that the system wouldn't be activated until Friday. According to Cook's description, the setup consists of about 40 different sized containers, centered around a keypad and monitor (neither of which was illuminated during his visit). All told, the array of P.O. Box-style cabinets stands about seven feet tall and is completely devoid of Amazon branding. The in-store pick-up program may roll out of a nationwide basis next summer, but you can check out a photographic sneak preview at the source link, below.

1 0

INTEREST: HP's webOS global business unit split outlined in leaked HP documents
by billing 05 Sep '11

05 Sep '11

...from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/03/webos-global-business-unit-split-outline… http://www.precentral.net/hp-splitting-webos-gbu-two-software-headed-office… webOS global business unit split outlined in leaked HP documents By Christopher Trout posted Sep 3rd 2011 at 5:23PM It's been just over two weeks since HP announced plans to discontinue production of its webOS devices, and speculation over the future of the platform is still going strong. Just this week, Samsung CEO Choi Gee Sung put to rest rumors of a webOS deal, and now two leaked missives from inside HP show plans to split the webOS global business unit in two. According to letters apparently from Todd Bradley and Shane Robison, webOS software will find a new home in the outfit's Office of Strategy and Technology, while the hardware division will remain with the Personal Systems Group. One of these letters from Tom Bradley explains the split: The pan-HP charter of OS&T provides a broad view of how we can optimize our technologies. In fact, it has proven to be a successful incubator of technologies; it is home to a team of senior technology experts devoted exclusively to exploring longer-term strategies for our technologies. The second missive, from Shane Robison, goes on to say that "webOS software is still a great asset." None of this should come as a surprise, as our interview with Stephen DeWitt reiterated the company's dedication to the webOS platform, while HP's recent ads hocking PSG show the outfit's intentions to spin-off its PC business. Now the question is, who has the bones to make it happen? For the full-length leaks hit the source link below.

1 0

INTEREST: TV for iPad2 - only Europe for now
by billing 05 Sep '11

05 Sep '11

.....from: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/04/elgato-eyetv-mobile-eyes-on-video/ [video at link above] Elgato EyeTV Mobile eyes-on (video) By Dana Wollman posted Sep 4th 2011 2:32PM Elgato's been experimenting with live TV on the iPad for over a year now, but until now, that meant streaming programs that were already broadcast online anyway -- a mighty large limitation, wouldn't you say? This week, though, the company announced EyeTV Mobile, a TV tuner that plugs into the iPad 2's 30-pin connector, allowing it to pull in broadcast television. We just happened to stumble on Elgato's booth here at IFA and treated ourselves to a short TV break. The tuner, which fits easily in the palm of your hand when the antenna is collapsed, only allows you to draw in signals using the DVB-T standard, so make no mistake this is a product just for our European readers. (Although Elgato says it hopes to release something similar in Japan.) Even more than the hardware or the programming selection (fútbol, anyone?), we remain impressed by the free EyeTV iOS app, whose interface is pretty much the same as the HDHomeRun for iPad app, with the ability to swipe the screen to change channels and, in this case, save your location. It'll be available across the pond for €99.95 / £99.95 at the end of this month. Until then (or if you're just stuck in the states), check out our hands-on photos and a video.

1 0

INTEREST: Bloomberg News: "...from Moses to Aaron"
by billing 05 Sep '11

05 Sep '11

Mr. Jonathan Gabay (founder of http://www.brandforensics.co.uk/) gives his insights (with some hyperbolic comparisons) about the future of Apple Inc. as Tim Cooks takes over after the resignation of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilbfnkZmrAE&feature=relmfu ...then, Eric Jackson (founder of http://www.ironfirecapital.com - a long/short and corporate governance-focused investment firm) talks about Steve Jobs's resignation as chief executive officer of Apple Inc. and the outlook for the company with Tim Cook, Jon Ive, & company at the helm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hTQXnv5xfQ&feature=relmfu

1 0

INTEREST: Oh, what a tangled web.....
by billing 25 Aug '11

25 Aug '11

...we weave when first we try to protect our IP (intellectual property).... Google's recent claim of Microsoft and others ganging up on Android seems to have a little merit. The company with the biggest bullseye on it at the moment when it comes to "being sued" would appear to be Apple, according to Reuters graphic wizards..... ....from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/15/idUS372198947920110815 http://www.reuters.com/article/interactive/idUS372198947920110815?view=small

4 4

INTEREST: mobile phone malware: more to come
by billing 12 Aug '11

12 Aug '11

...from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/08/08/technology-smartphone-se… Smartphone malware infections soaring The Associated Press Posted: Aug 8, 2011 9:04 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 8, 2011 9:04 AM ET Read 144comments144 The German government warned Apple about the urgency of the threat posed by a security hole in Apple Inc.'s iPhones discovered a month ago. (Reuters) Security experts say attacks on smartphones are growing fast — and attackers are becoming smarter about developing new techniques. "We're in the experimental stage of mobile malware where the bad guys are starting to develop their business models," said Kevin Mahaffey, co-founder of Lookout Inc., a San Francisco-based maker of mobile security software. Wrong-doers have infected PCs with malicious software, or malware, for decades. Now, they are fast moving to smartphones as the devices become a vital part of everyday life. Last week, security researchers uncovered yet another strain of malicious software aimed at smartphones that run Google's popular Android operating system. The application not only logs details about incoming and outgoing phone calls, it also records those calls. That came a month after researchers discovered a security hole in Apple Inc.'s iPhones, which prompted the German government to warn Apple about the urgency of the threat. Some 38 per cent of American adults now own an iPhone, BlackBerry or other mobile phone that runs the Android, Windows or WebOS operating systems, according to data from Nielsen. That's up from just six per cent who owned a smartphone in 2007 when the iPhone was released and catalyzed the industry. The smartphone's usefulness, allowing people to organize their digital lives with one device, is also its allure to criminals. All at once, smartphones have become wallets, email lockboxes, photo albums and Rolodexes. And because owners are directly billed for services bought with smartphones, they open up new angles for financial attacks. The worst programs cause a phone to rack up unwanted service charges, record calls, intercept text messages and even dump emails, photos and other private content directly onto criminals' servers. Evidence of this hacker invasion is starting to emerge. Lookout says it now detects thousands of attempted infections each day on mobile phones running its security software. In January, there were just a few hundred detections a day. The number of detections is nearly doubling every few months. As many as one million people were hit by mobile malware in the first half of 2011. Google Inc. has removed about 100 malicious applications from its Android Market app store. One particularly harmful app was downloaded more than 260,000 times before it was removed. Android is the world's most popular smartphone operating software with more than 135 million users worldwide. Symantec Corp., the world's biggest security software maker, is also seeing a jump. Last year, the company identified just five examples of malware unique to Android. So far this year, it's seen 19. Of course, that number pales compared with the hundreds of thousands of new strains targeting PCs every year, but experts say it's only a matter of time before criminals catch up. "Bad guys go where the money is," said Charlie Miller, principal research consultant with the Accuvant Inc. security firm, and a prominent hacker of mobile devices. "As more and more people use phones and keep data on phones, and PCs aren't as relevant, the bad guys are going to follow that. The bad guys are smart. They know when it makes sense to switch." When it comes to security, smartphones share a problem with PCs: Infections are typically the responsibility of the user to fix, if the problem is discovered at all. The emergence in early July of a previously unknown security hole in Apple Inc.'s iPhones and iPads cast a spotlight on mobile security. Users downloaded a program that allowed them to run unauthorized programs on their devices. But the program could also be used to help criminals co-opt iPhones. Apple has since issued a fix. It was the second time this year that the iPhone's security was called into question. In April the company changed its handling of location data after a privacy outcry that landed an executive in front of Congress. Researchers had discovered that iPhones stored the data for a year or more in unencrypted form, making them vulnerable to hacking. Apple CEO Steve Jobs emerged from medical leave to personally address the issue. The iPhone gets outsize attention because it basically invented the consumer smartphone industry when it was introduced in 2007. But Apple doesn't license its software to other phone manufacturers. Google gives Android to phone makers for free. So, Android phones are growing faster. As a result, Google's Android Market is a crucial pathway for hacking attacks. The app store is a lightly curated online bazaar for applications that, unlike Apple's App Store, doesn't require that developers submit their programs for pre-approval. Android malware strains skyrocket Lookout says it has seen more unique strains of Android malware in the past month than it did in all of last year. One strain seen earlier this year, called DroidDream, was downloaded more than 260,000 times before Google removed it, though additional variants keep appearing. Lookout says about 100 apps have been removed from the Android Market so far, a figure Google didn't dispute. Malicious applications often masquerade as legitimate ones, such as games, calculators or pornographic photos and videos. They can appear in advertising links inside other applications. Their moneymaking schemes include new approaches that are impossible on PCs. One recent malicious app secretly subscribed victims up to a service that sends quizzes via text message. The pay service was charged to the victims' phone bills, which is presumably how the criminals got paid. They may have created the service or been hired by the creator to sign people up. Since malware can intercept text messages, it's likely the victims never saw the messages — just the charges. A different piece of malware logs a person's incoming text messages and replies to them with spam and malicious links. Most mobile malware, however, keep their intentions hidden. Some apps set up a connection between the phone and a server under a criminal's control, which is used to send instructions. Google points out that Android security features are designed to limit the interaction between applications and a user's data, and developers can be blocked. Users also are guilty of blithely click through warnings about what personal information an application will access. iPhone malware rare Malicious programs for the iPhone have been rare. In large part, that's because Apple requires that it examine each application before it goes online. Still, the recent security incidents underline the threat even to the most seemingly secure devices. A pair of computer worms targeting the iPhone appeared in 2009. Both affected only iPhones that were modified, or "jailbroken," to run unauthorized programs. And Apple has dealt with legitimate applications that overreached and collected more personal data than they should have, which led to the Cupertino, Calif.-based company demanding changes. "Apple takes security very seriously," spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said in July. "We have a very thorough approval process and review every app. We also check the identities of every developer and if we ever find anything malicious, the developer will be removed from the iPhone Developer Program and their apps can be removed from the App Store." Phishing works well on mobile users A criminal doesn't even need to tailor his attacks to a mobile phone. Standard email-based "phishing" attacks — tricking people into visiting sites that look legitimate — work well on mobile users. In fact, mobile users can be more susceptible to phishing attacks than PC users. The small screens make it hard to see the full internet address of a site you're visiting, and websites and mobile applications working in tandem train users to perform the risky behaviour of entering passwords after following links, new research from the University of California at Berkeley has found. The study found that the links within applications could be convincingly imitated, according to the authors, Adrienne Porter Felt, a Ph.D. student, and David Wagner, a computer science professor. They found that "attackers can spoof legitimate applications with high accuracy, suggesting that the risk of phishing attacks on mobile platforms is greater than has previously been appreciated." A separate study released earlier this year by Trusteer, a Boston-based software and services firm focused on banking security, found that mobile users who visit phishing sites are three times more likely to submit their usernames and passwords than desktop PC users. Mobile users are "always on" and respond to emails faster, in the first few hours before phishing sites are taken down, and email formats make it hard to tell who's sending a message, Trusteer found. Still, mobile users have an inherent advantage over PC users: Mobile software is being written with the benefit of decades of perspective on the flaws that have made PCs insecure. But smartphone demand is exploding, with market research firm IDC predicting that some 472 million smartphones will be shipped this year, compared with 362 million PCs. As a result, the design deterrents aren't likely to be enough to keep crooks away from the trough. "It's going to be a problem," Miller said. "Everywhere people have gone, bad guys have followed."

1 0

INTEREST: University of Wisconsin hacked: 75, 000 social security numbers exposed
by billing 11 Aug '11

11 Aug '11

...from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/university-of-wisconsin-hacked-75000-… University of Wisconsin hacked: 75,000 social security numbers, student names exposed By Zack Whittaker | August 11, 2011, 5:06am PDT Summary: The University of Wisconsin is investigating a breach which may have exposed 75,000 social security numbers of students and staff. The University of Wisconsin’s Milwaukee campus has been subject to a malware attack, which has exposed names and social security numbers of students — past and present — and staff alike. Malware was discovered on a database server, which contained 75,000 social security numbers, and was shut down immediately after the malware was found. While law enforcement and school investigators have yet to find evidence that data was stolen, the university sent out a letter to those who may have been affected by the breach. In a statement, the vice-chancellor — the university boss — believes that the motive was theft of research project data; data and research programmes the university itself excels in. Staff found back-door malware, which can scan and view documents on a server, which is used by many of the university’s departments to store crucial research. One of the concerns is that the malware could have had access to other servers, indicating the likelihood of a wider hack. The malware is thought to have been installed on May 25th, and local and federal law enforcement were called in to investigate. On June 30th, however, it was discovered that the database containing social security numbers was compromised, also. University officials, via a notice on their website, warn students to monitor their financial informationand credit card statements to be on the safe side. This news comes only days after it was discovered that users’ data, including social security numbers — predictable in nature — can be taken from sites like Facebook and other publicly government sites. While data in this case may not have been downloaded — only exposed to hackers by malware — it once again calls questions on the data that universities have on its students. It is, however, another reminder to users of Facebook and other social networking sites not to make birthday and date of birth data available on the web. While though it may be benign on in singular form, hacks like these, which include your full name, make you even more vulnerable to identity theft and bank account hacks more likely.

1 0

INTEREST: Google: now you can see.... now you can't...
by billing 08 Aug '11

08 Aug '11

...from: http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/08/oracle-and-google-keep-wrangling-ov… AUG 6, 2011 Oracle and Google keep wrangling over potentially impactful Lindholm draft email Florian Mueller [...] Around midnight Friday/Saturday, several new documents related to this case were filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and the most important one of those filings is a joint letter by Oracle and Google concerning the so-called Lindholm email. [...] Judge Alsup -- the federal judge presiding over this litigation -- attaches a great deal of importance to that particular document. At a recent hearing, he essentially said that a good trial lawyer would just need that document "and the Magna Carta" (arguably the origin of common law) to win this case on Oracle's behalf and have Google found to infringe Oracle's rights willfully. The judge told Google that "you are going to be on the losing end of this document" with "profound implications for a permanent injunction". Let me add that a finding of willful infringement would not only make an injunction much more likely than otherwise. It can also result in a tripling of whatever damages will be awarded. The two potential killer emails: the Lindholm draft email and the Rubin email This is the content of the Lindholm draft email: "What we've actually been asked to do (by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin]) is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome. We've been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need. [...] [a second email message -] a certain email written by Android founder Andy Rubin may be even more revealing. In that one, Rubin outlined two options, the second one of which was apparently chosen: it amounted to going ahead with Java on an unlicensed basis, despite being fully aware of the risk of blowback at a later point in time ("Do Java anyway and defend our decision, perhaps making enemies along the way"). The Rubin email is almost five years older than the Lindholm email. At the time of the Rubin email, Android had not been released yet, but quite some development work had already been done at that point, so if the Android team had decided to switch to a non-Java programming language, it would have had to rewrite large parts of its software (the Rubin email describes this as "[a]bandon our work and [switch to .NET/C#]". By contrast, the Lindholm email was written in August 2010, shortly before Oracle's lawsuit against Google. At that point, the Android team had already developed far more Java-related code than five years earlier, but even more importantly, a huge number of Android applications had already been written in Java. Android's developers were way beyond the point of no return, and the assessment that all other alternatives "suck" has to be seen in light of that circumstance. There were significant switching costs (including a very significant delay) at the time of the Rubin email, but switching costs at the time of the Lindholm draft email were prohibitive. It's certainly remarkable that those two emails show a consistent attitude: the Android team basically says "let's just infringe" whenever an intellectual property issue comes up. If they did this to Oracle, what about the intellectual property of other companies like Apple, Microsoft,eBay and Skyhook? [...] Willful infringement reduces all assertions of antitrust violations to absurdity On Wednesday, Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, posted to Google's corporate blog an article entitled "When patents attack Android". That one contains a number of antitrust allegations (without any evidence presented so far) against Apple, Microsoft, Oracle "and others" asserting intellectual property rights against Android. Any claim that other companies act anticompetitively is completely undermined by a finding of willful infringement. It's not just a credibility issue such as in connection with Google's newly-minted general criticism of software patents. It's worse than that. Antitrust law simply wasn't designed to provide immunity to reckless infringers who just decide to infringe rather than rewrite code to adopt a different programming language. [...] Decision should be handed shortly I'm sure the court will decide very quickly -- in light of the upcoming deposition of Mr. Lindholm -- on the issues raised by the new joint letter. Google's lawyers may have a point if it's true that the Lindholm document is actually just an auto-saved draft of an email that ultimately was protected by the attorney-client privilege. But so far the court doesn't seem to buy Google's arguments that the Lindholm draft email is subject to the attorney-client privilege. The truth is out there anyway. The question is only whether this particular piece of evidence will have legal weight. Wayne Billing Classroom Technology Support Audio Visual and Classroom Technology Support 130 Machray Hall Building 474-6649 474-7625 (fax) Wayne_Billing(a)umanitoba.ca

1 0

INTEREST: Google's misfire....
by billing 05 Aug '11

05 Aug '11

...from: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/04/googles-patent-problem/ Why Did Google Blog About Patents Today? Because The Nortel Loss Was Just The Beginning. MG SIEGLER posted 11 hours ago40 Comments As you’ve undoubtedly seen by now, Google decided to go on the offensive today with regard to patents. No, they didn’t go after any company for violating their patents. Nor did they spend billions acquiring new ones. Instead, David Drummond, Google’s SVP and Chief Legal Officer, took to the Google Blog to lash out at Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, and others for using “bogus patents” to attack their Android mobile platform. But why now? In the past, Google has remained fairly mum on the topic. And they certainly weren’t calling out rivals by name. They’ve talked generally about the broken patent system, and even did a post explaining why they were willing to spend big money on the Nortel patents — for defensive purposes. But those approaches haven’t worked. Google is now arguably more vulnerable than they’ve ever been. And the stakes are about to go even higher. When Google lost the Nortel bidding, they’re believed to have bid north of $4 billion before dropping out. Apple, backing Rockstar Bidco, eventually won with a bid of $4.5 billion. Now a battle for an even bigger treasure of patents looms. Both Apple and Google have been looking into making bids to acquire InterDigital, according to multiple reports. Samsung is also now looking to get into the action as well, Bloomberg reports today. You can bet Microsoft is sniffing around as well. Whereas the Nortel win granted Apple, Micrsoft, RIM, and the other consortium partners access to over 6,000 mobile patents, InterDigital holds around 8,800 patents in the same space. In other words, this latest battle is going to be insane. We’re looking at $5 billion easy, and likely even higher, based on the Nortel deal. Google is clearly willing to pay to acquire patents, but they’ve reiterated time and time again that they won’t overpay for them. “This anti-competitive strategy is also escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they’re really worth. Microsoft and Apple’s winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion,” Dummond wrote today. Of course, Drummond failed to mention Google’s own $4 billion+ bid on those same patents. It just happened to be a losing one. (He failed to mention something else too.) The $4 billion+ bid was likely well out of Google’s comfort zone, but they knew they had to win. Well, at least until they realized they likely couldn’t win against Apple, Microsoft, etc. The same is likely to be true here. And Google knows it. They have nearly $40 billion in cash and cash equivalents to spend. But Apple has almost double that. And if Apple teams up with Microsoft again, they’ll have over $100 billion in buying power. At the end of the day, Google will not be able to out-bid Apple, and they’re running out of options. Google’s official line is that there are plenty of patent opportunities out there. And the truth is that there are a lot — look at the deal they reportedly just did with IBM, for example. But that deal was for only 1,000 or so patents. This effectively doubled Google’s arsenal. But they’re still nowhere near Apple’s 10,000+ patents after the Nortel deal. And Microsoft should be well over 20,000 now. If Apple or Microsoft get another 8,800+ from InterDigital… It’s massive deals like these that Google needs to be going after. And there aren’t too many of them. Google’s only play is try to acquire enough patents to work towards a mutual assured destruction agreement with their rivals. But again, that’s going to be hard given who they’re going up against. This leaves three options: 1) appeal to the courts. 2) appeal to the public for support. 3) pray. Today’s blog post was Google moving on to option 2. Option 3 may be just around the corner… = - = - = - = - = ...and the other thing not mentioned... ...from: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/03/microsoft-just-kicked-google-in-the-nuts/ Google Threw A Punch, Microsoft Fires Back With A Missile MG SIEGLER posted 14 hours ago107 Comments Earlier today, Google came out swinging. Seemingly sick of being continuously slapped in the face by the patent issue, Google’s SVP and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, wrote a blog post calling out several of Google’s rivals for attempting to use “bogus patents” to destroy Android. Chief among the rivals called out was Microsoft. Drummond noted that the software giant had been getting in bed with other rivals to hurt Google. Among the accusations was that Microsoft teamed up with Apple to buy Novell’s old patents, implying that they did so in order to keep them away from Google. Microsoft didn’t take too kindly to that remark. “Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no,” Brad Smith, Microsoft General Counsel tweeted out in response. Damn. Shit just got real. Just in case that wasn’t enough, Frank Shaw, Microsoft Head of Communications, followed up with the real heat-seeker. “Free advice for David Drummond – next time check with Kent Walker before you blog. ,” Shaw tweeted, referring to another Google SVP and General Counsel. Attached to that tweet was the picture of an email Walker apparently sent to Smith on October 28, 2010. It reads as follows: Brad – Sorry for the delay in getting back to you — I came down with a 24-hour bug on the way back from San Antonio. After talking with people here, it sounds as though for various reasons a joint bid wouldn’t be advisable for us on this one. But I appreciate your flagging it, and we’re open to discussing other similar opportunities in the future. I hope the rest of your travels go well, and I look forward to seeing you again soon. – Kent While it’s only one instance, this really does undercut Google’s entire argument. Google was attempting to set up a pattern of Microsoft teaming up with other Google rivals to damage them. But the first instance listed was actually the result of Google turning Microsoft down, as the email shows. That does not look good for Google. Does that mean Google’s totally wrong and Microsoft is totally right? Of course not. But it sure makes Google look pretty stupid. And it reinforces something that many observers think about Google’s position here: that they simply weren’t taking the patent situation too seriously until recently, and now they’re all up in arms about it. God I love it when Google and Microsoft take these fights to the streets. @BradSmi Brad Smith Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no. about 19 hours ago via webReplyRetweetFavorite @fxshaw Frank X. Shaw Free advice for David Drummond – next time check with Kent Walker before you blog. http://t.co/PfKle9H

1 0

INTEREST: Apple holding more cash than USA
by billing 04 Aug '11

04 Aug '11

...from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14340470 29 July 2011 Last updated at 08:55 ET Apple holding more cash than USA Continue reading the main story Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government. US President Barack Obama is known to be an iPad owner, along with 28 million other people Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (£45.3bn). Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn. The US House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill to raise the country's debt ceiling, allowing it to borrow more money to cover spending commitments. If it fails to extend the current limit of $14.3 trillion dollars, the federal government could find itself struggling to make payments, and risks the loss of its AAA credit rating. The United States is currently spending around $200bn more than it collects in revenue every month. Apple, on the other hand, is making money hand over fist, according to its financial results. In the three months ending 25 June, net income was 125% higher than a year earlier at $7.31bn. Spending spree With more than $75bn either sitting in the bank or in easily accessible assets, there has been enormous speculation about what the company will do with the money. "Apple keeps its cards close to its chest," said Daniel Ashdown, an analyst at Juniper Research. Industry watchers believe that it is building up a war chest to be used for strategic acquisitions of other businesses, and to secure technology patents. Bookstore Barnes and Noble and the online movie site Netflix have both been tipped as possible targets, said Mr Ashdown. The company may also have its eye on smaller firms that develop systems Apple might want to add to its devices, such as voice recognition. Apple dipped into some of its reserves recently when it teamed-up with Microsoft to buy a batch of patents from defunct Canadian firm Nortel. The bidding consortium shelled out $4.5bn for more than 6,000 patents.

1 0

INTEREST: Why Apple Can Produce Tablets for
by billing 03 Aug '11

03 Aug '11

...from: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-ipad-2-tablet-xoom-galaxy-tab,13157.… Why Apple Can Produce Tablets for Less Money 5:00 PM - August 2, 2011 by Douglas Perry - source: IHS IHS* (http://www.ihs.com/about/index.aspx)released a report that describes some of the reasons why Apple has critical advantages in designing the iPad and why it may be able to keep those advantages in the foreseeable time. The market research firm believes that Apple's control over the entire platform, especially the software provides it with a unique opportunity to design tailored hardware that deliver cost and integration scenarios its rivals cannot achieve. “Apple takes a vertically integrated approach to its products, from the operating system to the user interface, to the hardware design, down to the selection of individual parts used in the device,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst, competitive analysis, at IHS. “For example, Apple even uses its own applications processor design in both the iPad and iPad 2. In contrast, Android tablet makers buy those capabilities from the likes of Nvidia, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. This gives Apple greater control in multiple areas of product development.” For example, IHS said that Apple's ability to control the OS enables the company to reduce cost by limiting the quantity of memory in the iPad. The current-generation iPad 2 uses 512 MB SDRAM, while its rivals use 1 GB. "This memory density reduction results in a nearly $14 reduction in the bill of materials of the iPad 2 compared to other tablets, the market research firm noted. “Since Apple controls both the operating system and hardware design of the iPad, it is able to attain design efficiencies that other tablet manufacturers cannot,” Lam said. “These efficiencies become obvious in areas like the memory and the battery, where Apple maintains advantages in cost, space savings and performance compared with every competitor in the business.” *IHS is a global information company with world-class experts in the pivotal areas shaping today’s business landscape: energy, economics, geopolitical risk, sustainability and supply chain management. We employ more than 5,100 people in more than 30 countries around the world.

1 0

INTEREST: new type of Android malware: records phone calls
by billing 03 Aug '11

03 Aug '11

...from: http://community.ca.com/blogs/securityadvisor/archive/2011/08/01/a-trojan-s… A Trojan spying on your conversations Published: August 01 2011, 12:11 AM by Dinesh Venkatesan We have been recently blogging about many Android malware as the threat landscape has been witnessing an increasing trend in targeting the mobile platforms and today we have received an Android package to our collection and observed that this piece of malware walks an additional mile by having a neat configuration and has a capability to record the telephonic conversation the infected victim makes. In one of our earlier blogs, we have demonstrated how a Trojan logs all the details of incoming/outgoing calls and call duration in a text file. This Trojan is more advanced as it records the conversation itself in “amr” format. Also it has got many other malicious activities that we have seen in many of the earlier malware incidents targeted for Android platform. Hence, in this blog, we will demonstrate this particular conversation recording payload of the malware. Fig.1: Permissions needed by the “app”. It is always recommended to have a logical decision making before allowing an app to have certain permissions. Once the malware is installed in the victim device, it drops a “configuration” file that contains key information about the remote server and the parameters. Fig.2 shows the contents of this file. Fig.2: The config information To see the payload in action, the Trojan is installed in a controlled environment with two mobile emulators running along with simulated internet services. Fig.3: Making a phone call from the victim device to trigger the payload. As the converstation goes on, the Trojan stores the recorded call in a directory shangzhou/callrecord in the SDCard. Fig.4 is the snapshot of the directory structure in SDCard. Fig.4: the recorded file in amr file format. As it is already widely acknowledged that this year is the year of mobile malware, we advice the smartphone users to be more logical and exercise the basic security principles while surfing and installing any applications. Share this post: EmailShare Leave a comment By: Dinesh Venkatesan Dinesh has been part of HCL Technologies from March 2006. He has started his career in HCL's Security Solutions group and later moved to CA-ISBU where he specialized in Anti-Malware Research. His major research areas are: Parasitic file infection, Botnets, Cross platform threats, Mobile threats

1 0