Covering OS X & iOS.
HP decided it wanted to be a player in the mobile handheld space, and they made a smart acquisition.
From the Press Release:
Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.
I bet he sticks around about 3 months.
AT&T has posted a PDF detailing the terms/conditions of 3G data service for the iPad 3G.
Category: News
Many of you will remember years ago when Microsoft was so afraid of Linux, it threatened to sue any company that used it with patent infringement. These threats resulted in many companies, including Novell, to set up cross-licensing agreements with Microsoft. These agreements were basically agreements that said if “you license this technology from Microsoft, we won’t sue you for patent infringement”.
Down late in the mobile game, Microsoft is going back to that play, now with Android as the target. And can you blame them? It worked the last time, and they were in a position of dominance with Windows versus Linux. In the mobile space, they are getting creamed by the iPhone and Android. And Microsoft’s answer to both those threats won’t be out until the 4th quarter of this year.
So Microsoft has exerted patent pressure on it’s cheating lover, HTC. HTC was once the top producer of smart phones running the Microsoft Mobile OS. Now, they are one of the top producers of Android phones.
Under this “agreement”, Microsoft will receive royalties from HTC for using the Android OS on their phones. Think about that for a second. Android is open source. Google doesn’t require any licensing fees or royalties when a company uses Android. Of course, Google is usually the default search provider on these devices, and receives most of its compensation from that service. But the precedent here is huge. HTC now pays Microsoft for the privelege of using Google’s operating system on it’s phones.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I can’t believe that Google will let this go unanswered. Android has just started to pick up steam in the mobile arena, and this precedent could turn off a lot of hardware manufacturers from going the Android route on their products.
Of course, the big winner here is Apple. Having it’s two other rivals fighting each other means that they aren’t directing their resources at fighting Apple.
Category: News
WWDC has been finally announced. June 7th – June 11th @ the Moscone West. With only 40 days from announcement to event, there isn’t much time for developers to make arrangements for this years event.
This year Apple is offering five technology tracks:
There’s an expectation that Apple will debut the next iPhone at WWDC, but I wouldn’t bank on it. Apple has an event scheduled for late june at Yerba Buena Gardens, and that venue/date will probably serve as the launch event.
The more concerning issue is the lack of Mac focus at this years event. The Mac is shut out of the Apple Design Awards, and there aren’t many conferences that are Mac specific this year. The question is whether this is a one year fluke, since Mac OS X 10.7 is nowhere near being ready to preview, or is this the start of Apple’s planned Mac desktop obsolescence?
You would think with a headline like that (courtesy of the Telegraph in the UK) that the iPad has somehow been compromised. Think again:
Security experts have warned that Apple iPad users are being targeted by cyber criminals. Hackers are trying to dupe iPad owners in to downloading a fake iTunes update on their Windows computer, which, when installed, creates a backdoor for cyber criminals, allowing them to remotely access the machine or even use the computer to send spam messages.
So Windows users who are falling prey to fake dialog boxes telling them to upgrade iTunes are the real problem here. The kicker is the final line in the article:
The company also emphasised that the iPad itself remained unaffected by the Trojan.
So the Hackers are really targeting iTunes with a message that mentions the iPad, but the iPad itself isn’t targeted. Who writes these headlines, and are they ever vetted for truth or relevance. Apparently not.
Category: Links
I’ll have a write up later today on the app. I’ve been beta testing Transmit 4 for a couple of months now, and can tell you it is the best FTP client – on any platform – hands down.
Category: Software
Last Friday night, California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team entered editor Jason Chen’s home without him present, seizing four computers and two servers. They did so using a warrant by Judge of Superior Court of San Mateo. According to Gaby Darbyshire, COO of Gawker Media LLC, the search warrant to remove these computers was invalid under section 1524(g) of the California Penal Code.
Payback is a bitch.
Category: Links
Awesome spreadsheet from Kyle Conroy that shows what you could have earned if you purchased Apple stock instead of an Apple product when that product was released.
In 1997 I purchased a G3/266 Minitower. Had I bought Apple stock with that same $3000 at that time, that stock would now be worth $173,980.73. Enough to buy a house.
Damn, I feel stupid.
Category: Links
Great looking app that allows for exactly what the title says: Wi-Fi sync from your computer to your iPad/iPod. Of course, this app still needs to make it through Apple’s approval process. So, I wouldn’t get too excited for it. Still, maybe the publicity of having this app out in the wild will apply pressure to Apple to bring this feature to the iPhone OS.
We can dream, right?
Category: Links
Slideshow from Drew Houston, CEO of Dropbox, on the lessons they learned as they ramped up their service.
If you aren’t using Dropbox, you are really missing out on an amazing service. Everything that MobileMe gets wrong, Dropbox gets right.
Category: News
A user of Macs since they had silly names like Performa and Centris, Theodore Lee is a techie who prides himself on his vast knowledge of all things Apple. OS X Factor was started in 2001 (originally as macosxcentric), and continues to churn out tips, tutorials, reviews and commentary on the tech sector.
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