Google

Chicago judge grants Apple access to Android development history

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 27, 2017

The patent battle between Apple and Samsung has seemingly taken a back seat to the iPhone-maker's worldwide war with Motorola Mobility. Apple knows that with Google acquiring MMI, it can finally take its beef with Android straight to Mountain View.

Google has so far managed to stay out of the many different patent wars involving its mobile OS and manufacturing partners — but that won't last for long. Reports are coming in today that Apple has just been granted access to Android's development history...

Android apps found to be more expensive than iOS apps

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

For those of you who might be under the impression that apps available on the iTunes App Store are more expensive than Android apps, research firm Canalys is out with a new study that proves otherwise.

Canalys found that on average, Android apps cost 2.5 times more than iPhone apps...

Is Motorola becoming a patent troll? Microsoft seems to think so

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Last week, Apple lodged a complaint against Motorola with the European Commission regarding FRAND abuse. Apple believes that Motorola is not making its standards-essentials patents available under Fair, Reasonable, and Non Discriminatory terms.

The truth is, Apple's right. Motorola is asking the iPhone-maker for a ridiculous 2.25% of Apple's wireless device sales in exchange for the use of its industry-standard patents. Is Motorola becoming a patent troll? Microsoft seems to think so...

Man sues Google for overriding Safari users’ privacy

Jake Smith ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

People went into quite the stir, after WSJ published an article reporting that Google had been overriding Safari's privacy settings to track user's web browsing habits. Google used many forms of trickery to bypass Apple's security settings, on both the desktop and iOS versions of Safari. Many users are questioning Google's tactics.

The whole ordeal is now entering court, as Business Week reports that an Illinois man is suing Google Inc. in a Delaware court...

US lawmakers want to look into Google’s iPhone tracking fiasco

Sébastien Page ∙ February 20, 2012

Last week Google was caught overriding Safari users' privacy settings, and now US lawmakers want the Federal Trade Commission to probe the company over it, as reported by Computer World:

Three lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether last week's report of privacy violations of Safari users by Google violated a consent agreement the company had reached with the FTC last year.

Google's alleged circumvention of do-not-track controls on Apple's Safari browser could have a wide sweeping impact because Safari is a major web browser used by millions of Americans, according to a letter to the FTC on Friday from Republican Representatives Cliff Stearns of Florida and Joe Barton of Texas, and Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts.

That's definitely something we'll be following.

Yet another way to search Google directly from Notification Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 17, 2012

The oddly named OpenURL NCWidget is yet another way to go about performing Google searches from Notification Center.

As you may already be aware of, there are already a couple of tweaks in the Cydia store to make searching from Notification Center a reality, but this one adds a few new features not found elsewhere...

Google caught overriding Safari users’ privacy settings

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 18, 2018

User privacy has been a hot button issue over the past few months thanks to high profile scandals like the CarrierIQ fallout, and the more recent Path debacle. And now it looks like we can add Google to the list of violators.

In a recent investigative report, The Wall Street Journal claims that the search giant has been intentionally overriding the privacy settings of both desktop and iOS Safari users to better track their web browsing activity...

Apple passes Google to take top spot in corporate reputation study

Cody Lee ∙ February 14, 2012

2012 has been pretty good to Apple thus far. Since the new year started, the company has announced record-breaking sales and revenue from its previous quarter, was named top smartphone manufacturer in the world, and has watched its stock price climb past $500 per share.

And then yesterday, the iPhone-makers received another accolade. According to the 2012 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, a survey that measures corporate reputation for US brands and companies, Apple is now the highest-regarded company in America...

EU and Justice Department give Google the green light for Motorola Mobility purchase

Sébastien Page ∙ February 13, 2012

From AllThingsD:

Google has gotten the all-clear from European Union regulators to buy Motorola Mobility, though officials remain concerned about how Google will use Motorola’s patent portfolio.

“This merger decision should not and will not mean that we are not concerned by the possibility that, once Google is the owner of this portfolio, Google can abuse these patents, linking some patents with its Android devices,” Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told reporters, according to Reuters. “This is our worry.”

Hours after the EU gave its agreement, the US Department of Justice gave its blessing as well:

With this, Google is one step closer to closing the deal, although they’re still waiting on approval from China, Taiwan, and Israel before the transaction can officially be completed.

World War III is just about to start, and it's all about patents!

Fight: Chrome for Android vs. Safari for iOS

Jake Smith ∙ February 9, 2012

The iPhone's browser, Safari, is considered to be one of the fastest and most stable mobile browsers out there. But since Google released their new Chrome for Android mobile browser last week (currently in beta), does Safari still defend its title?

The folks over at the popular Android blog, Android Central, took it in their hands to compare the two browsers...

Judge Interprets Key Realtime API Patent in Apple’s Favor

Cody Lee ∙ January 29, 2012

Apple has spent an estimated $100 million dollars on its so-called "war on Android." And so far it doesn't have much to show for it. Even its recent ITC court victory over HTC doesn't look like it will have much of an impact on anything.

But that could all change thanks to a recent interpretation of Apple's '263 patent by a high-ranking US judge. The patent covers realtime API — a key component in Android that would be extremely difficult to work around if a manufacturer was found guilty of infringing on it...

How to Add a Google Trends Stock Ticker to Your iPhone

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 29, 2012

Besides perhaps Twitter, Google Trends are a good way to gauge what's hot on the web, and now there's a pint-sized version for iPhone owners.

GTrends for Notification Center is a jailbreak widget that conveniently places a trending stock ticker into Notification Center.

You can even launch any of the top 20 trending topics directly from the widget, and use your own custom search queries.

GTrends is an interesting tool that allows you to easily keep your fingers on the pulse of the web...