Apple

EU ends e-book Apple probe, opening door to cheaper Kindle books

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 13, 2012

It looks like another win by Amazon against so-called "agency" pricing model employed by Apple's iBookstore and other digital bookstores. Following the lead of a US court, the European Union (EU) Thursday announced that the iPhone maker along with four publishers will relent after all.

Specifically, Apple and publishers reportedly have agreed to lower e-book prices on competing stores, including the Kindle store operated by Seattle-based Amazon. Apple, along with Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan, signed the agreement because it wanted to avoid fines that could have topped an astounding $15 billion.

As part of the settlement, Apple's so-called "most-favored nation" clause - that barred publishers from offering lower prices on competing stores - gets suspended for five years...

UK’s Everything Everywhere announces LTE expansion to 17 new markets by March 2013

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 13, 2012

Everything Everywhere (EE), a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Télécom’s Orange, launched UK's first commercial 4G LTE network on October 30 and today the company has announced a network expansion to seventeen new markets in the country, to be finished by March of next year.

The carrier powers UK's sole 4G LTE network so would-be iPhone buyers should be delighted to learn that its 4G density is “being increased on a daily basis"...

Amazon opens Kindle store in China with iOS and Android apps

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

When it comes to China, much of the conversation centers on smartphones and tablets. Amazon is attempting to change that picture, opening a Kindle store to compete against home-grown e-book companies. One problem: there isn't a Chinese-language Kindle available, yet.

So, Amazon, which competes against Apple, is offering iOS e-reading applications, as well as versions for Android devices. Although Chinese regulators approved the Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire in June, Amazon is still working on content deals with Chinese publishers.

Apparently, the aim of the store is to establish the Amazon Kindle brand name. Local e-commerce giant China Dangdang has offered ebooks since 2011, building a library of 100,000 titles, reports say...

Apple found guilty of infringing 3 patent troll MobileMedia’s ‘inventions’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 29, 2017

This just in: Bloomberg tweets that a U.S. court has found Apple's iPhone to infringe three patents owned by MobileMedia Ideas, owned jointly by Nokia, Sony and Denver-based patent licensing firm MPEG LA. Basically your typical patent troll, MobileMedia commands a treasure trove of 300 patents. Most of their filings were originally granted to Sony and Nokia so the two don't have to get their hands dirty in direct litigation.

Now, Mobilemedia last month sued Apple over the iPhone call rejection and screen rotation features. It originally filed a complaint in Delaware in 2010 based on 14 patents in total, taking its case to trial after the number of patents was whittled to three: one for the camera phone and others for call handling and call rejection.

The screen rotation invention was originally granted to Sony in 1999, but Apple pointed to prior art such as patent No. 6,563,535 which covers displaying images right-side-up “regardless of the orientation of the image or the physical orientation” of the device...

Samsung’s chief strategist loves his Apple gadgets

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 13, 2012

Young Sohn is Samsung's chief strategy office. By virtue of his position, the executive is privy to the South Korea conglomerate's market strategy, future products and business dealings.

It goes without saying we were a little shocked (positively) learning that he also happens to be an Apple user, and by choice, too.

His entire household is full of Apple devices and Sohn had no problem admitting that, in his view, Apple designs the world's most-integrated devices. He also praises Cupertino firm's iCloud service and the iTunes ecosystem as he also happens to be a great believer in worry-free computing...

Google Maps becomes the App Store’s top free iPhone app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 20, 2017

Google released its native Maps iOS app last night and, perhaps predictably, already the much-expected software has surged to become the top free iPhone app on the App Store. This just goes to illustrate that competition is a good thing and how eager people have been to have that native mapping experience from Google on their iPhones.

The program features a sleek interface and features missing from Apple's in-house offering, namely the excellent Street View and public transit directions, in addition to a number of the usual features ranging from Zagat restaurant reviews and turn-by-turn navigation, local Google search and more...

As rivalry with Samsung and Google intensifies, all eyes are on iTV

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Here's the latest on the Apple television front: it will certainly be announced in the next three years and it will look like, well, something. But whenever and whatever Apple unveils, rivals are sure to copy it. So says venture capitalist, the founder of Netscape and one of the early architects of the web, Marc Andreessen.

Andreessen, who sits on the board of Facebook and HP, is just the latest voice in what's become a deafening roar of rumor, leaks and knowledgeable guesses surrounding talk that Apple will get into the television business. Somehow. Sometime...

Australian police: flawed Google Maps putting people’s lives at risk, too

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

Look, digital maps are imperfect - some more than the others. Australian police earlier in the week issued a public safety warning over a major flaw in Apple Maps which incorrectly put the town of Mildura in the middle of Australia’s Murray Sunset National Park.

It wasn't Apple's fault entirely as the company was working on data from The Australian Gazetteer, a company run by the Geosciences Australia agency which supplies Gazetteer with mapping data sourced from the state of Victoria itself.

And now, we learn that the police in Colac, west of Melbourne, warn of safety concerns from Google Maps. Ouch!

RadioShack price-matches Best Buy, knocks $50 off iPhone 4S/5 on any carrier

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

RadioShack previously lowered its asking prices for the iPhone 5 by a cool $25, but that was only for the AT&T version of the popular handset. Sweetening its holiday deal, the American franchise of electronics retail stores has now shaved $50 off both the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, regardless of your preferred carrier. The retailer is basically price-matching Best Buy's promotion where they also knocked $50 off all iPhone 5 models. Go past the fold for additional terms and conditions...

Microsoft turns to retailers to help flagging Surface sales

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 12, 2012

Microsoft's Surface tablet just isn't selling. But the company knows - or thinks it does - the reason. The problem with sales is that the Surface just isn't available in enough stores, the software giant turned tablet maker says. Currently, the Surface is mainly sold in about three dozen Microsoft's own retail outlets in the country.

After being stung by reports that its tablet wasn't even selling in Microsoft-owned stores (are you reading this, Oprah Winfrey?), the company announced it will put the Surface on the shelves of third-party retailers, such as Staples. If 'build it and they will come' isn't working, will 'stock it and they will buy' be any better?

Samsung dissing Apple’s Maps in Sidney

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

You can't blame Samsung's marketing team for pouncing on Apple's every misstep. Remember the Apple Maps snafu in Australia that led to the police issuing a public warning advising against using the mapping product because it incorrectly placed the town of Mildura in the middle of Australia’s Murray Sunset National Park? Seen at the top is a new display banner found on Sydney’s George Street.

A mud-soaked SUV and a sign that reads “Oops, should have got a Samsung Galaxy S III. Get navigation you can trust” really needs no description. The wrong data Samsung's ad is referring to was supplied by the Australian government, iDB reported yesterday, and was incorrectly rendered in other mapping products...

Project Azalea: a $10 billion Apple mobile chip plant

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 12, 2012

We've suspected for a while now that Apple's been making moves ultimately aimed at taking its chip contract elsewhere. Clearly Apple ain't interested (any longer than it needs to) in letting Samsung enjoy an early peek at the technological solutions developed for the engine that drives its iPhones and iPads.

Currently, all of Apple's in-house designed A-series processors are being built exclusively by Samsung in its $14 billion chip plant in Austin, Texas.

The iPhone maker was also rumored to be contemplating a switch to Intel's x86 mobile chips for iPads, as outrageous as the very thought of it may seem.

But what if Tim Cook and his newly-minted chief of Technologies and long-time hardware expert Bob Mansfield have a radical solution in mind? A report Wednesday has it that the California firm could be seeking to invest up to ten billion dollars into a dedicated chip fab in New York, presumably in order to take control of its silicon destiny...