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Posts tagged with "iPhone"

Jury Finds Mostly Against Samsung, Apple Entitled To Damages Of $1.049 Billion

The jury sitting on the Apple and Samsung trial in California has largely found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple’s intellectual property. The nine jurors unanimously came to agreement, largely finding in Apple’s favour and thus awarding Apple $1.049 billion in damages.

Apple was succesful on a number of claims it put to the jury, but not necessarily against all the phones and tablets that Apple claimed to infringe. One such claim that Apple was particularly succesful in claiming ingringement was the notorious ‘bounce-back’ patent in which the jury found every one of the accused devices infringed on - similarly with Apple’s scrolling and two finger gestures, the jury agreed that nearly all the devices did infringe the patent.

But Apple certainly wasn’t succesful on every front, and one notable area in which the jury did not agree with Apple was in regards to the claim that Samsung’s patents were invalid. In fact the jury didn’t find a single patent, on either side, was invalid.

When the verdict was read, there was minor mistake in the damages calculation that lead the jury to go back and reconsider the decision. It had arisen when Samsung pointed out that the jury had awarded damages for some devices that the jury had said didn’t infringe.

[via AllThingsD, The Verge]

Next: Injunction Hearings

Now that the jury’s verdict has been handed down, the next step will be a preliminary hearing on injunctions. Apple will have to file its requests by August 27th (this coming Monday), at which point Samsung will have two weeks to respond. The actual hearing will be held on September 20th.

[via The Verge]

Samsung Responds To Verdict

Today’s verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices. It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies. Consumers have the right to choices, and they know what they are buying when they purchase Samsung products. This is not the final word in this case or in battles being waged in courts and tribunals around the world, some of which have already rejected many of Apple’s claims. Samsung will continue to innovate and offer choices for the consumer.

[via The Verge]

Apple Responds To Verdict

We are grateful to the jury for their service and for investing the time to listen to our story and we were thrilled to be able to finally tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than even we knew. The lawsuits between Apple and Samsung were about much more than patents or money. They were about values. At Apple, we value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. We make these products to delight our customers, not for our competitors to flagrantly copy. We applaud the court for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.

[via AllThingsD]

Tim Cook Emails Apple Employees

Today was an important day for Apple and for innovators everywhere.
Many of you have been closely following the trial against Samsung in San Jose for the past few weeks. We chose legal action very reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying our work. For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It’s about values. We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the jury who invested their time in listening to our story. We were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than we knew.
The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.
I am very proud of the work that each of you do.
Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens.
Tim

[via 9to5 Mac]

Microsoft Responds To Verdict?

 


[via The Verge]

Flip’s Escape Offers Tons Of Pixel Fun For iOS

Last week, Shaun Inman (creator of the popular statistics and RSS server software Mint and Fever)’s newest game, Flip’s Escape, got approved by Apple. It ties in with the loose storyline of The Last Rocket after escaping from the collapsing factory. Flip, the rocket you play the game as, needs to flee from the shockwave which resulted from a large explosion. At the same time Flip has to avoid colliding with asteroids during his epic escape. Read more

Review: Things 2 With Cloud Sync

Things by Cultured Code, a developer company based in Stuttgart, Germany, has been around since the day the App Store and iOS 2.0 were unveiled. The app is famous for its minimalist, iconic interface and features which are a perfect mix of simplicity and serious business from the very first version on. It’s the perfect example for the ethos of “If 1.0 sucks, all other versions will suck as well”, it was done right the day it came out.

Yet, the first Things just didn’t work for me — I don’t know why, but it didn’t stick. I’ve never tried out other solutions, neither complex workhorse that is OmniFocus, nor have I tried a basic to-do app like Remember The Milk. The last three years, I was a Simplenote guy. I’m really into minimalism; in fact, that’s the reason why I initially desperately wanted to try out Things. But Simplenote worked better than Things for me. You could paste anything into it and the new content would be immediately available across all your devices, and on the web. My notes were always with me. And after I found Notational Velocity for Mac, a Simplenote desktop client, I completely stopped searching for other solutions.

But now, Things have changed. After over a year of beta testing, Things 2 with Cloud sync has finally arrived, and besides its big syncing feature, it’s got a bunch of other cool refinements and new possibilities along the way. Read more

Ecoute Is The Best Music Player For iOS. Period.

Since I started to write about UI design and iOS apps again 5 months ago, I became more and more disappointed with the native music player on my iPod touch. During my research, I found many innovative modifications of the iOS table view, and I often wished that Apple will integrate some of them into their system apps, especially their music player. But since Apple is a company that believes in radical minimalism and coherence throughout its ecosystem, this never happened and also won’t likely happen in the future. I tried out many alternatives like GoodMusic, but no app was able to satisfy both my design and usability needs on my iPod touch. Until yesterday. Yesterday, Pixiapps released Ecoute for iOS.

Ecoute for Mac has been the app Pixiapps focused on during the last years. It is a minimalist, easy to use iTunes replacement with iconic UI and many cool hotkey and playback features. I’m still an iTunes guy, because I need a reliable solution for managing my over-1100-record digital music collection. But Ecoute for Mac was the first app which really made me think about switching my desktop music player. And now, Ecoute debuts on the iPhone. Although the app is promoted as “Ecoute for iOS”, there is no iPad version available yet. For me this is not really a problem — I like the semi-skeuomorphic design of the iPad music player very much and was never seriously thinking about replacing it. But when I opened up Ecoute on my iPod for the first time, I immediately knew that this was exactly what I’ve been searching for. I basically want three things in a mobile music player: easy navigation, intelligent gesture integration for flawless in-app movement, and a focus on album artwork. Except for some flaws in terms of navigation, Ecoute measures up to all these requirements. Read more

#MacStoriesDeals - Tuesday

Independence Day in the USA is tomorrow (July 4th) and there are many great deals rolling in! Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on hardware, iOS, and Mac apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!
Read more

Five

It’s easy to look back at five years of iPhone and say that it was just about technology.

Five years ago, the original iPhone launched in the United States to much hype and a slightly different world. Apple was a much smaller company; Obama wasn’t President of the United States; R.E.M. were still together. The interface design behind the iPhone was, too, a little different than the bits we touch and swipe today. Both Ars Technica and Macworld have published solid retrospectives about the past five years.

The iPhone has created an economy that’s spurring the creation of jobs and new positions all over the globe. It reignited the mobile phone industry, and, in one fell swoop, turned competitors upside down as they struggled to keep their eyes open to the new wind blowing in their direction. The App Store didn’t launch until 2008, but its numbers are the very example of the software revolution spearheaded by the iPhone.

Unlike most inventions of modern history, though, the iPhone created a culture. And that’s because – unlike the ATM or the cordless telephone – the iPhone brought people together. By allowing developers to craft software for consumers willing to pay for it, the iPhone took down the wall between creation and consumption – the virtual barrier that normally separates an inventor from people using a product.

Both sides affected by this change – developers and users – ultimately became the starting point, the goal, and the focus.

The iPhone is about the people.

Like any other company looking for a profit, Apple has always needed to make money with the iPhone. But, after five years, I like to think that there can be a good cause behind profit and industry strategies – that there can be a purpose to “make great products”. And maybe I’m wrong, but I believe the iPhone has proved to be one of those major changes that have made people’s lives better. By combining breakthrough hardware design with the human touch, iPhone didn’t just change the way people communicate, work, and play: it saved lives, improved workplaces, told stories.

Sometimes there’s more to progress than just technology.

[image credit: Flickr]

Apple Wins Preliminary Injunction Against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 In The US

Apple has today won a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US, just a day before Google’s I/O conference begins. Issued by US Disctrict Judge Lucy Koh, it means that Samsung can no longer sell their tablet in the United States.

Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products. While Samsung will certainly suffer lost sales from the issuance of an injunction, the hardship to Apple of having to directly compete with Samsung’s infringing products outweighs Samsung’s harm in light of the previous findings by the Court.

The judgment from Judge Koh also came before Friday’s hearing that was meant to cover the preliminary injunction. She said in her order that the strength of Apple’s case left her no choice but to grant the injunction, deciding she didn’t need to hear further arguments on the issue in Friday’s hearing. As noted by AllThingsD, she had previously denied a preliminary injunction request against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 by Apple back in December.

Once Apple fronts up with a $2.6 million bond (for Samsung if it is later ruled the injunction should not have been granted), the order will become effective. Speaking to an Apple representative, AllThingsD got a familiar statement on the matter:

“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging

[via AllThingsD]

Review of WTHR - A Simpler, More Beautiful Weather App

I admit it, I have a bit of a fetish for weather apps. My taste in them is a bit different than all the other categories because I am a data geek when it comes to what’s happening outside. Apps like WeatherSnitch do a great job showing you a lot of info on a small screen but many don’t present them to the user very effectively. Until Dark Sky for iPhone came out, I didn’t think I could use a weather app that focused on the important details instead of all of them. Since then I have changed the way I use weather apps and rely on Dark Sky for short forecasts / radar and iOS’ built-in Weather app for extended forecasts until today.

WTHR is a brand new weather app from David Elgena. He wanted to build a weather app based on Dieter Rams’ 10 principles of design so the user could stop wasting time staring at weather radars and atmospheric pressure readings and spend more time enjoying what’s happening outside. WTHR started as a mockup on Dribbble about a month ago and received a lot of attention there. More mockups and a programmer later, WTHR was submitted to Apple and is available today.

WTHR is one of the best looking weather apps available — I love the style and simplicity of it. I appreciate that it hides the status bar to give your entire iPhone the look of being a handheld weather device with zero distraction. Launch the app, watch the animations, get your forecast and go. Some people may not like the color scheme but if you know Dieter Rams’ designs you understand where the colors come from. When you launch the app, it asks for your location then the UI presents the weather data in a retro-futuristic style. There’s only 2 buttons to interact with, one to refresh the forecast and the other to flip from Celcius to Fahrenheit. The refresh animation is great and the spinning notification in the 7-day forecast almost looks like a Rams dial. Underneath the current forecast is a 7 day extended forecast. All the weather icons are Adam Whitcroft’s wonderful Climacons which look perfect to the stylings of WTHR.

David Elgena told me that they are already working on future updates to include, but not complicate, more features and data like multiple locations and a dark mode. “My intentions with WTHR was really to create something as beautiful as the device that hosts them… and I do believe that even UI designers and app developers could gain inspiration from Dieter Ram’s product designs. Too often we load digital products with features and hidden or hard to use interfaces because we are suddenly given this almost infinitely layered product, the real discipline is control. There is no difference from when Dieter Rams was designing his first clock face…to an app on the iPhone. I look forward to creating more apps in the future…and continually improving upon WTHR.”

The lack of contrast in the 7-day forecast can make you squint a bit — an option to switch to a 5-day forecast could help. I’m glad the app icon wasn’t designed with the same skeuomorphism in mind, as I am not a fan of doing this in iOS because it clashes too much with most other icons. International iOS users – don’t worry, WTHR uses a global geo-location weather API so no one is exempt from using this great app. The weather data is a little different than what iOS uses but only a few degrees at times as Federico noticed in Italy. WTHR has gained a spot on my home screen with its beautiful, focused purpose. WTHR is available for 99¢ via the App Store.

Kickstarter: TAKTIK - A Premium Protection System for the iPhone

Many people take their iPhone protection very seriously. With cases like OtterBox and Griffin’s Armored case, there are some nice options available. LUNATIK, the makers of the TikTok+LunaTik watch, have started a new Kickstarter campaign to target these users with a new case called TAKTIK.

The design of the TAKTIK was injected from the TikTok+LunaTik and the LUNATIK Touch Pen with its hard lines and tactical feel. To take the rigidness of the case to the extreme, they have also included a Gorilla Glass lens (for an extra $25) for ultimate screen protection. The case itself has a shockproof suspension system with great iconic aesthetics. The TAKTIK also has GORE acoustic port covers to protect your iPhone from liquids, sand, dirt, etc. It has a nifty little patent-pending Silence Switch that only requires one fingertip to activate; there’s even a lanyard loop to fasten your iPhone safely to you. Videos after the break. Read more