Apple and Amazon have taken off the gloves back in 2011, apparently deciding the 'App Store' name is big enough for both companies. An Oakland, California district court pulled the plug on the dispute at the request of the two app providers. The decision to walk away from just who owns the 'App Store' title follows Apple agreeing not to sue Amazon, according to a report this morning...
Boston University (BU) could reap $75 million in a patent-infringement lawsuit filed against Apple Tuesday. The lawsuit centers on a patent filed in 1995 by a university professor which the school charges is used by the iPhone 5, iPad and MacBook Air.
The university has filed eight "identical" lawsuits against other device makers, including Samsung and Amazon. To bolster its argument that Apple should pay, the school is set to claim it is already receiving licensing fees for using the patent, according to a local report...
Good news for those how prefer to get their entertainment from Amazon instead iTunes. In a newest update to its Instant Video streaming iOS app, the online retail giant has enabled personalized recommendations for movies and television shows based on your past viewing habits, while enhancing the experience with a handy new navigation bar.
Of course, in order to take advantage of the app you'll need to be subscribed to Amazon's Prime, a $79 a year membership which gives you unlimited access to thousands of titles and over 140,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store, with support for Watchlists, offline viewing and more...
Amazon's Cloud Drive Photos app debuted in May, giving iDevice owners an easy way to browse image files stored in their Amazon cloud storage.
Among other features, the iPhone/iPad application allows for downloading of individual images straight to your iDevice. You can also batch-upload your on-device snaps up to the cloud, useful if you want to keep your photos securely backed up in the cloud (and trust Amazon with your data - okay, that was a joke).
Unfortunately, the app doesn't support background network activity, and that's a shame as quiting it or even receiving a phone call stops any upload in progress. Amazon finally saw to that, having updated Cloud Drive Photos with support for Background Save feature, along with other improvements...
Under questioning by U.S. government lawyers, an Apple executive testified that the company owns about 20 percent of the U.S. e-book market - double the figure many observers had assumed.
The surprising percentage was revealed as the head of the company's iBookstore service refuted government charges of conspiracy to set e-book prices.
During the sixth day of testimony in the Department of Justice's lawsuit against Apple, company director Keith Moerer said iBookstore grabbed twenty percent of e-book sales soon after opening, a figure it continues to hold. Additionally, he said iBookstore sales increased 100 percent in 2012 with more than a hundred million customers...
Amazon has today released an update for its native Kindle iOS app, bringing the e-reader client to version 3.8. The update includes a mix of a handful of new features and numerous bug fixes and improvements.
Perhaps the most prominent enhancement in today's release is the new line spacing options. You can now adjust the page layout to display text in one of three different spacing settings: normal, loose and tight...
The online retail giant Amazon today launched a new sign-in service and an accompanying software development kit (SDK) for both Android and iOS app developers. The feature allows programmers to write apps letting folks login to apps, games, and web sites using their Amazon.com credentials. The Amazon sign-in taps the over 200 million active accounts hosted by "one of the most reputable companies in the United States," as the promo clip puts it...
More than $1 trillion leaked from the tax coffers of EU member states each year, an amount large enough to prompt European leaders Wednesday to hold a summit on reforming corporate taxes. The move follows high-profile investigations showing Apple and other tech giants used European countries to avoid paying taxes in their home countries.
Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook testified before a Senate subcommittee investigating how the iPhone maker used a hole in Ireland's tax laws to lower its U.S. tax burden on $74 billion held overseas...
Folks who keep their music, photos, documents and other stuff stored in the Amazon cloud are aware of the online retailer's dedicated iOS software aptly named Cloud Player which can stream songs from your cloud locker to your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.
Although Amazon has yet to release the official Cloud Drive app for Apple's mobile platform (it's available on OS X), today it inched toward that goal by releasing a brand new photo management application for iOS.
As the name suggests, the Amazon Cloud Drive Photos application lets you browse image files stored in your Amazon cloud storage, download individual images to your iPhone or iPad, upload on-device images to keep them securely backed up in the cloud and more...
Now that Facebook has finally fulfilled the prophecies, and entered the smartphone market, all eyes are on Amazon. The online retail giant has also long been rumored to be looking to get into the space with its own handset.
And today comes a new report that adds weight to the story. Citing sources familiar with the company's plans, The WSJ says Amazon is working on a number of new hardware products, including a glasses-free 3D smartphone...
Not to be outdone by the popular Swedish streaming music startup Spotify, which a month ago updated its mobile client with support for Ford's SYNC AppLink platform, the online retail giant Amazon today issued a similar update to its Cloud Player mobile app.
The app integrates with AppLink vehicles so you can control music playback using your voice and the steering wheel buttons.
Other changes new accessibility features via improved support for the iOS VoiceOver features and an "improved experience" when adding songs to a playlist...
Well, this is certainly noteworthy. According to the third annual report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) titled "Who Has Your Back?", gadget giant Apple along with carriers AT&T and Verizon, Google's rival Yahoo and the forgotten social network MySpace all are very likely to give in to Uncle Sam's data demands.
Specifically, Apple and Yahoo scored one out of six possible stars, with Verizon and Yahoo rather ingloriously earning zero stars each. These companies' weak safeguard implementation does little to circumvent data demands and protect your private information from the government's prying eyes.
Whereas Apple and Yahoo only fight for users' privacy rights in Congress, companies like Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Dropbox go to great lengths to ensure privacy of your data, earning four out of six stars each...