AllThingsD » iPod touch

Running With Friends Adds a Dash of Diversity to Zynga's Mobile Games Catalog

Eric Johnson — Thu, 09 May 2013 05:00:51 +0000

To date, all of Zynga’s “With Friends” mobile games have been social twists on word and puzzle classics like Scrabble and Hangman.

But on the heels of runaway hits like Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers, the company is off to the races, hoping to give those single-player phenomena a multiplayer-focused run for their money.

(Pardon the barrage of running puns.)

The company’s latest game is Running With Friends, a smart twist on the popular endless-runner genre. As with other games, you swipe on the touchscreen to avoid obstacles, collect powerups and move your character around the screen: Left and right to change into one of three “lanes,” up to jump and down to slide.

The twist comes in the form of some familiar multiplayer features that Zynga has built around this tried-and-true formula. This is asynchronous multiplayer, meaning you can challenge someone to a race without needing to play at the same time as your opponent to compete (as is the case in other “With Friends” titles).

Developed in partnership with Twisted Metal and God of War creators Eat Sleep Play, the game just looks good — the bright Subway Surfers-esque 3-D graphics are streets ahead of the other titles in Zynga’s existing lineup.

Factoring in a bit of luck from a pregame slot-machine spin, Running With Friends awards points to players based on how far they can run and how many bonus items they pick up along the way. And if one of your opponents has run the same obstacles as you already, the game remembers how they moved, sort of like the “ghost” mode in Mario Kart.

That means you might see your friends on the track and can shove them out of the way with a swipe — which, let’s be honest, is pretty fun.

The game is iOS-only to start (so, available on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch), but Zynga’s mobile SVP Travis Boatman told AllThingsD that the company will likely do what it has done with previous games like Zynga Poker and Words With Friends: See how the game does, improve it and then roll it out to other platforms, one at a time.

Yahoo Quickly Plugs Summly's Tech Into Its iOS App

John Paczkowski — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:39:00 +0000

Not even a month has passed since Yahoo announced its $30 million acquisition of news summarization app Summly, and already the company is making good use of its algorithmic summation technology.

On Monday, Yahoo rolled out a new version of its flagship mobile app for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Its marquee feature: Quick news-story summaries delivered via Summly’s natural-language algorithms.

There are other improvements onboard as well, including better video and image search, and enhanced personalization. But the Summly integration is the big deal here, and not only for its inclusion, but just how quickly Yahoo pulled it off. Obviously, development of the new app was well under way before the Summly acquisition, but the speed with which Yahoo was able to integrate the startup’s technology into the app is impressive indeed, and suggests that Yahoo has become a bit more nimble under new CEO Marissa Mayer.

Groupon Expands Square-Like Mobile Payments Service to Android

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:48:20 +0000

Groupon said this morning that its mobile payments service is now available to Android users, after launching first on the iPhone in September.

The service allows merchants to accept credit cards and debit cards by swiping them through a card reader attached to a mobile device, like an iPhone or iPod touch or Android device.

While payments has become a very hot space over the past year, with many companies providing card readers for mobile devices, what Groupon hopes will stand out about its service is the price.

Participating Groupon merchants will be charged as little as 1.8 percent, plus 15 cents per transaction, compared to Square, which charges 2.75 percent per transaction, or a flat rate of $275 a month. As with the iPhone offering, Groupon is also guaranteeing Android users the lowest overall rates.

Aside from price, Groupon also benefits from having a sales team, which is already calling on thousands of small- to medium-sized merchants across the U.S.

The payments service is complementary to a point-of-sale solution Groupon is selling, called Breadcrumb, which is being aimed at cafes, bars and restaurants.

Groupon’s goal for both Breadcrumb and Groupon Payments is to cut costs for merchants who are used to paying high prices for low-tech, antiquated systems. In return, Groupon hopes to create a closer bond with merchants that will encourage them — or potentially require them — to run coupons in the future.

But it’s a long-term bet that could mean not generating a lot of additional revenue on a standalone basis. As CEO Andrew Mason has said before, he believes these services will sell more Groupons — but may not be wildly profitable.

This morning, Groupon’s stock was trading at $5.16 a share, down three cents. The stock has rebounded some since it was trading at its all-time low of $2.60 a share in November.

Can a Touchscreen Replace a Mouse?

Walter S. Mossberg — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 21:42:47 +0000

I’ll be buying several new Windows 8 PCs this year, all with touchscreens. Touchscreens are new to me. When using spreadsheet and word processor programs, does the touchscreen completely replace the mouse?

If you are thinking about Microsoft Office programs, I’d say no. While the forthcoming 2013 version of Office is designed to allow the use of touch instead of the mouse and keyboard, I have found in my tests that the icons and text are too small for that to work comfortably, at least on a desktop or laptop, and I still prefer the mouse and keyboard. In fact, this is a key reason Microsoft itself makes keyboard covers for its Surface tablet.

Does the new Google Maps app for Apple devices work on the iPod touch? Can I download maps in advance on my touch for use offline?

Though Google says the app is “optimized” for the iPhone 5, it also says it will work on the third, fourth and fifth generation iPod touch, as well as on the iPad and on older iPhones. Note, however, that turn-by-turn navigation likely won’t work because Google says that requires GPS, which the touch lacks. As for downloading maps for offline use, Google hasn’t made this feature available yet for Apple devices.

My father gave me several hundred slides that we’d like to scan and convert to digital format. Would you be willing to suggest a couple of reputable companies for this service?

One good choice is PeggyBank, which I reviewed recently here: http://tinyurl.com/bmkqdav.

Another I have tested successfully would be YesVideo, at http://tinyurl.com/aeqjng7.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

We're Holiday Shopping Online With iPads for iPads

Kara Swisher — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 18:00:16 +0000

With all the hyped hullabaloo around just how mobile-icious we are this holiday season — yes, it’s up, but it is also a retailer-cooked trend that reporters grab onto amid the news drought of the Thanksgiving weekend — one of the many statistics spewed out by a variety of sources was rather interesting.

According to IBM, in a report titled “The iPad Factor”:

“The [Apple] iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and [Google] Android 5.5 percent. The iPad dominated tablet traffic at 88.3 percent followed by the Barnes & Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent.”

And, over at eBay and its PayPal unit — which spewed out all kinds of data on mobile transactions that showed volume was between two and three times greater, mostly on Apple devices — the company noted that one of its bestselling items on Black Friday was the iPad 2, selling 250 per hour from 12 am to 8 am PT.

That tracks on an earlier survey by Nielsen with 48 percent of U.S. children 6 to 12 years old asking for the iPad, followed by iPod touch (36 percent), iPad mini (36 percent) and iPhone (33 percent).

Presumably, which will be used to order more.

Here’s a lovely IBM chart explaining it all:

IBM Holiday Benchmark Infographic BF2012

Samsung Wants iPad Mini Added to Apple Suit

John Paczkowski — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 09:06:03 +0000

Now that Samsung has succeeded in having the iPhone 5 added to its upcoming patent infringement suit with Apple, it is petitioning the court to add the company’s latest iPads and iPod touch, as well.

In a motion filed just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, Samsung filed a motion to include Apple’s fourth-generation iPad and iPad mini in its growing list of iOS devices that allegedly infringe its patents.

“Good cause exists to amend Samsung’s contentions because Apple’s new products were not yet available when Samsung submitted its original contentions on June 15, 2012 or its first Motion to supplement its infringement contentions on October 1, 2012,” Samsung said in its motion. “… The iPod Touch 5, iPad 4, and iPad Mini have the same accused functionality as the versions of the iPod Touch and iPad that are already part of this case. As such, the proof of infringement of the patents-in-suit by the iPod Touch 5, iPad 4, and iPad Mini will be substantially the same as for other Apple devices already accused of infringement in this litigation.”

In other words, if earlier versions of Apple’s iOS devices infringe Samsung’s patents, then newer versions are likely to infringe them, too.

A reasonable enough argument. And one that Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal seems predisposed to grant. Indeed, when he agreed to add the iPhone 5 last week, he also warned Apple against fighting future requests to add its new iPads.

Said Grewal, “Given the early stage of this litigation and the reasoning of this order, the court notes that Apple should think twice before opposing similar amendments reflecting other newly released products — e.g. the iPad 4 and iPad mini — that Samsung may propose in the near future.”

Belkin Says It's Lightning Fast With New iPhone Accessories

Ina Fried — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:12:50 +0000

Apple’s move to a new connector isn’t just annoying for those of us with a million docks, speakers, car chargers and other add-ons.

It’s also a huge challenge for the companies that make those accessories. Although there are plenty of cases and other non-electrical add-ons for the new iPhones, iPads and iPods, the move away from the dock connector has all but stalled the market for plug-in accessories.

Until now, anyway.

Belkin said on Monday that it will have both a car charger and a dock that work with Apple’s new Lightning connector ready by mid-month. Both will sell for $30, about the same as Apple charges just for a cord that allows older accessories to work with the new connection.

When Apple made the move away from the old 30-pin connection, it said that it would work with peripheral makers to create officially sanctioned Lightning accessories. (Some unofficial ones have already cropped up, but given the highly sophisticated nature of the new connector, buyer beware on those.)

That Belkin is first out of the gate should not come as a surprise to Apple historians. As Belkin itself notes, the company was early with products that plugged into the original dock connector.

“Belkin was the first third-party manufacturer to develop accessories for the 30-pin connector back in 2003, and we are thrilled to be first to market again with solutions for the new Lightning connector,” Belkin General Manager Martin Avila said in a statement.

But Belkin’s history actually predates even that. Belkin helped Apple with the first-ever iPod accessories. Even before there was a dock connector, Belkin helped Apple with a microphone that plugged into the top of the early iPod.

It's an iStorm: Scott Forstall Out at Apple, Along With Retail Head, as Other Top Execs Get Promotions

Kara Swisher — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:10:44 +0000

Big management shifts at Apple are now taking place.

Scott Forstall, the man in charge of its iOS mobile software efforts and a major and longtime executive at the tech giant, is leaving next year and will remain an adviser to CEO Tim Cook until then.

In addition, new retail head John Browett is headed out the door.

As part of the move, Apple noted that four key execs — Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi — would “add responsibilities to their roles.”

Ive gets “Human Interface”; Cue will take over Maps and Siri voice recognition responsibilities; Mansfield will run a new unit called Technologies, “which combines all of Apple’s wireless teams across the company in one organization”; and Federighi gets the big job of iOS and OS X.

More to come on what happened, but Forstall’s departure is very big news and a drastic move for such an important player in the tech space.

He had big fans and also many detractors for his sharp-edged personality, as well as what some described as exhibiting “growing open challenges” to Cook himself. Forstall had previously been called “CEO-in-waiting” in one media account in Fortune.

In addition, numerous sources noted persistent tension between Forstall and several other key execs, especially the powerful design chief Ive.

Veiled internal politics at Apple aside, Forstall has been a key part of Apple’s success over the last decade, especially in the development iPad and the iPhone.

Recently, there has been some level of ire at Apple over the troubled rollout of its own mapping software and the replacement of Google’s popular service, which was Forstall’s responsibility. (No, this move does not mean everyone gets Google mapping back, as one person asked me.)

Browett’s leaving is a little less of a surprise. Since he got the job, he has alienated many within the highly successful retail organization at Apple, many sources said.

His departure comes less than one year after the former Dixons CEO was hired by Apple to succeed Ron Johnson, who left for J.C. Penney in November 2011. Recently he’s been criticized by some Apple Store employees for unfriendly policy changes aimed at increasing Apple’s retail profit margins.

More to come, obvi, but here is the official press release from Apple, which it put out with the most understated title of all time:

Apple Announces Changes to Increase Collaboration Across Hardware, Software & Services

Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi Add Responsibilities to Their Roles

CUPERTINO, California — October 29, 2012 — Apple® today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company’s world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.

“We are in one of the most prolific periods of innovation and new products in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The amazing products that we’ve introduced in September and October, iPhone 5, iOS 6, iPad mini, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPod touch, iPod nano and many of our applications, could only have been created at Apple and are the direct result of our relentless focus on tightly integrating world-class hardware, software and services.”

Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design. His incredible design aesthetic has been the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple’s products for more than a decade.

Eddy Cue will take on the additional responsibility of Siri® and Maps, placing all of our online services in one group. This organization has overseen major successes such as the iTunes Store®, the App Store℠, the iBookstore℠ and iCloud®. This group has an excellent track record of building and strengthening Apple’s online services to meet and exceed the high expectations of our customers.

Craig Federighi will lead both iOS and OS X®. Apple has the most advanced mobile and desktop operating systems, and this move brings together the OS teams to make it even easier to deliver the best technology and user experience innovations to both platforms.

Bob Mansfield will lead a new group, Technologies, which combines all of Apple’s wireless teams across the company in one organization, fostering innovation in this area at an even higher level. This organization will also include the semiconductor teams, who have ambitious plans for the future.

Additionally, John Browett is leaving Apple. A search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook. Apple’s Retail organization has an incredibly strong network of leaders at the store and regional level who will continue the excellent work that has been done over the past decade to revolutionize retailing with unique, innovative services for customers.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

With New Sizes and Features, iPods Grow Up

Katherine Boehret — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:57:48 +0000

If you missed Apple’s new iPod lineup among the frenzy that surrounded last month’s iPhone 5 announcement, you aren’t alone. But these were the first new iPods from Apple in two years.

This week, I found out how much the iPod family has matured since 2010. I tested the new $299-and-up iPod touch and the $149 iPod nano. These are very different products, but they both carry Apple’s simple touch interface. And both make good gifts because they won’t saddle the recipient with monthly phone bills: The iPod touch runs on Wi-Fi and the iPod nano doesn’t wirelessly connect to the Internet.

[ See post to watch video ]

First things first: What’s new? The iPod touch screen now has the same screen as the iPhone 5: A four-inch Retina display with sharp, bright colors. The previous iPod touch was thin, but at 0.24 inch thick and 3.1 ounces, this new one almost feels like a mock-up of an iPod touch. Its notably improved camera now includes a flash, as well as image stabilization and face detection. And it runs iOS 6, the latest operating system from Apple, so it has features like panorama for photos, full Facebook integration, iMessage and Passbook.

Meanwhile, the iPod nano, which is somewhat of an Apple wild child because of its ever-morphing shape and size, has sloughed off its predecessor’s square shape for a return to the rectangle. A 2.5-inch screen and small Home button take up the face of this 1.1-ounce, seventh-generation iPod nano. It resembles a teensy iPhone that a squirrel could use. A new play/pause button runs along the side between volume up and down. This remains the only iPod with FM radio, which works when connected to EarPods — a redesigned version of the white earbuds that come with all iPods. The nano has Bluetooth for the first time, though it still lacks Wi-Fi. But that is just fine for how most people will use this iPod.

The new iPod Touch has the same 4-inch screen as the iPhone 5. (Photo is not to scale.)

On the downside, Apple’s new EarPods weren’t music to my ears. During a cross-country flight, I had to take them out after just 30 minutes because they hurt so much. When I tried them again during a walk, I had the same reaction. But as Apple’s TV commercials are fond of saying, everyone’s ears are different.

I started small, first testing the iPod nano. This device is ideal for people who aren’t super tech savvy yet want a way to listen to music and track their fitness progress. Out of the box, the iPod nano will play music via an FM radio and will monitor your fitness stats using a preinstalled Nike+ app. (When the app was first introduced years ago, it only worked with a piece that fit into special Nike sneakers.)

You can plug the Nano into a computer to sync with music, photos, videos and podcasts.

The nano’s Nike+ app tracks data like steps walked, as well as calories burned, time and distance during runs. I tapped on the Nike+ icon and entered my weight and height, which helped calculate personalized data. In the morning, I tapped “Walk” in Nike+ before my 15-minute walk to the Metro, and a pedometer started and stopped as I did. You also can upload the data to the Nike+ Web site.

The new iPod nano now has built-in Bluetooth and weighs just 1.1 ounces. (Photo is not to scale.)

The Run section in Nike+ let me choose Basic, Time, Distance or Calorie to determine the goals I wanted to set. If you wear headphones while using this device, you’ll hear audio encouragement in your ears as you go. A History section tracks personal bests and workout totals.

I really liked using the FM radio. I tapped a star icon to save favorite radio stations and hit the skip ahead or back buttons to jump to save stations. I tapped the screen to display controls for pausing and rewinding live radio as far back as 15 minutes.

Battery life for this iPod nano is expected to last 30 hours, according to Apple’s estimate. I used it intermittently for various activities, but never had to worry about charging it.

Speaking of charging, the nano and the touch both use Apple’s new Lightning connector, though neither ships with a wall adapter, like the iPhone. They come with USB cables that let you charge the devices by plugging into a computer’s USB port.

I used the new iPod touch in many of the same ways I use the iPhone 5: Downloading apps I own (thanks to Apple’s iCloud backup service) and playing my iTunes music. I corresponded with friends via email and iMessage, created Photo Streams to share with people and navigated around town with Apple Maps. But I usually had to be in a Wi-Fi network.

The 5-megapixel, iSight camera on this iPod touch is a pleasure to use. Its flash makes it reliable in all situations. And videos I recorded in 1080p HD quality looked like I captured them on an iPhone 5.

The new iPod touch comes in two versions: a 32-gigabyte version for $299 and a 64GB version for $399. Apple is still selling its fourth-generation iPod touch in black and white colors, starting at $199 for the 16GB version.

The new features and slick designs of these new iPods give the category a boost that makes them desirable devices rather than second-tier siblings to the iPhone.

Email katie.boehret@wsj.com

Your New iPod Touch Is in the Mail

John Paczkowski — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:10:11 +0000

If you were among the first to pre-order Apple’s new iPod touch or iPod nano, there’s a good chance that the device will soon arrive on your doorstep. Apple began shipping the devices today, with multiple readers telling AllThingsD and others that they’ve received shipping alerts telling them to expect the device within a week. Those who placed their orders in mid-September report Oct. 15 as the estimated delivery date they’ve been given.

Apple's Online Store Is Down, Sending Customer Anticipation Up

Ina Fried — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 04:29:25 +0000

Apple took down its online store Thursday evening, which has often been a sign that the company is ready with new products.

The company is expected to have a separate in-person event later this month for the launch of a smaller iPad tablet, so it’s unlikely to be that. Apple has already announced the iPhone 5 and an update to the full iPod line. But, with the holiday season ready to kick off, it could be a time for the company to make some last-minute changes to its Mac line, as well.

Also, Friday marks the anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death a year ago.

Typically, store outages only last a couple of hours, given that Apple does so much volume via its Web site.

In the meantime, Apple’s store can serve as a language tutor for anyone who wants to know how to say “We’ll be back soon” in a whole bunch of different languages.

Update:
Looks like Apple used this brief outage not to add new product to its store, but to post a text and video remembrance of its late co-founder. You’ll find the video on Apple’s Web site and the letter from CEO Tim Cook below.

A message from Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

Steve’s passing one year ago today was a sad and difficult time for all of us. I hope that today everyone will reﬂect on his extraordinary life and the many ways he made the world a better place.

One of the greatest gifts Steve gave to the world is Apple. No company has ever inspired such creativity or set such high standards for itself. Our values originated from Steve and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We share the great privilege and responsibility of carrying his legacy into the future.

I’m incredibly proud of the work we are doing, delivering products that our customers love and dreaming up new ones that will delight them down the road. It’s a wonderful tribute to Steve’s memory and everything he stood for.

- Tim

Open the iPod Touch Bay Doors, Siri

Voices — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 06:59:51 +0000

It’s about an assistant named HAL who tries to make contact with a higher intelligence. These two guys get in the way and mess it all up.

– Apple’s personal assistant app Siri, summarizing the plot of “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Apple's New iOS 6 Operating System Starts Rolling Out

Ina Fried — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:45:30 +0000

Apple’s servers are starting to make available iOS 6, a major upgrade to the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Among its features, the new operating system includes Apple-created maps with turn-by-turn navigation, Facebook integration and Passbook, a centralized place for storing tickets, boarding passes and loyalty cards.

The update can be either downloaded over the air directly to an iOS device or downloaded to a computer and installed via iTunes.

It is available for the iPhone 3GS and later; the latest iPad, as well as the iPad 2; and on fourth-generation and fifth-generation iPod touches, though not all features will work on all devices.

In addition to working with existing devices, iOS 6 is at the heart of the iPhone 5, which goes on sale on Friday. In the meantime, be sure to check out our own Walt Mossberg’s review of Apple’s latest phone.

Groupon Promising Merchants "Lowest Cost" Payments Service (And It's Using an iPhone)

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:45:38 +0000

Groupon is rolling out a new payments service today, which it hopes will create new reasons for merchants to continue using the Chicago daily deal provider.

In an interview, Mihir Shah, Groupon’s VP of Mobile and Merchant Products, confirmed to AllThingsD that Groupon Payments is available starting today in the U.S.

The launch follows a pilot program in the San Francisco area with more than 150 businesses. The service allows merchants to accept credit and debit cards by swiping them through a card reader attached to an iPhone or iPod touch.

While payments has become a very hot space over the past year, with many companies providing card readers for mobile devices, what stands out about its service is the price. At least, that’s what Groupon is hoping.

Shah said Groupon is guaranteeing it has the cheapest rates — and will beat a merchant’s current rates if it doesn’t. He said that merchants often don’t even know what they are paying because of complicated rate structures and monthly fees that make it hard to figure out.

Because of that, Groupon is offering three main rate structures:

Swiped transactions — MasterCard, Visa and Discover (1.8 percent plus 15 cents) and American Express (3 percent plus 15 cents)
Keyed-in transactions — MasterCard, Visa and Discover (2.3 percent plus 15 cents) and American Express (3.5 percent plus 15 cents)
Non-Groupon merchants can also sign up for the service, however, they will be charged slightly more (2.2 percent plus 15 cents for MasterCard, Visa and Discover)

Shah would not say whether Groupon was subsidizing the service for merchants willing to run coupons through its network, but it didn’t sound like it. He said, “It is certainly something great that we are giving Groupon merchants; we are it in for an actual business.”

Groupon is looking for new services that will drive additional revenue for the company to diversify away from its slowing coupons business. Other recent tools it has launched for merchants, such as online scheduling software or rewards programs, may make merchants happy, but haven’t necessarily been bringing in much additional revenue.

One big advantage Groupon will have in rolling out payments is that it already has a large sales force speaking to retailers on a regular basis. Still, other companies, like San Francisco-based Square, technically have a head start.

Square just closed a $200 million round on Monday, valuing it at $3.25 billion. As of yesterday, that was slightly more than Groupon’s public valuation of $3.07 billion. Additionally, Square is on pace to log $8 billion in transactions this year, and just signed up Starbucks as one of its customers. It also has a more simple rate structure than Groupon, charging 2.75 percent per transaction, or a flat rate of $275 a month (for those that do less than $250,000 a year in revenue). It is hard to say which one costs more, because it varies based on the number of transactions being completed and the types of cards being used.

Shah said Groupon Payments comes with other features, too. The service will use a card swiper that either plugs into the phone’s audio jack, like Square, or a phone case that is identical to the one used in Apple stores today to accept payments. The first one is free, while the more durable case costs $100.

The app, while primarily operated by the merchant, will also be used by the consumer to designate a tip; they can trace their fingertip along the screen to sign their signature, and enter their email address to receive an electronic receipt. Merchants will be able to view the transactions online, and they will receive the cash in their bank account overnight. Groupon will also provide customer support over the phone seven days a week. In addition, merchants will be able to use the app to scan and redeem Groupons, and to monitor additional spend over the value of the Groupon.

Shah doesn’t think that Groupon Payments will compete with Square, rather it is targeting existing “Groupon merchants, who are running a brick-and-mortar restaurant business, like a restaurant or spa, and have already been accepting credit cards for a long time, and have high volumes,” he said. “The thing that comes up again and again is credit card processing, and we think they are paying too much.”

Apple's New Lightning Connector: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Bonnie Cha — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 11:09:17 +0000

Along with the iPhone 5 and its refreshed iPod line, Apple introduced something else this week: Its new 8-pin Lightning connector.

The change from the old 30-pin connector to the new format was expected, but that doesn’t make it any less of a headache for consumers.

The Lightning connector leaves those who have products designed for the old connector needing to buy an adapter, ranging between $19 and $39, to use their old chargers and accessories with the iPhone 5. Even then, Apple says the adapter will not work with some products.

It’s all a bit confusing and frustrating for iOS device users who have invested a lot of money into compatible accessories. So why the change? Which accessories will work with the iPhone 5 and new iPods? If you’re planning on purchasing one of these devices, here are a few things you need to know about the Lightning connector.

What is it?
The Lightning connector replaces the 30-pin connector that’s been used on iOS devices since 2003. It uses an eight-signal adapter interface and is reversible, meaning you can insert it either way up. Like the old 30-pin connector, the Lightning port can be used for various functions, including charging the iPod or iPhone, syncing data and outputting audio to another device.

Which devices use the Lightning connector?
Currently, the iPhone 5 and the new iPod Touch and iPod Nano.

Why the change?
In an interview with AllThingsD’s Ina Fried, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said that the company didn’t take the decision lightly, but in order to make its new iPhone and iPod thinner, it had to change the dock connector. The iPhone 5 marks Apple’s thinnest smartphone yet and is about 20 percent lighter than the iPhone 4S. And the new iPod and iPod touch are thinner still.

Why didn’t Apple use the micro USB standard?
After Apple came out in support of the International Electrotechnical Commission’s recommendation for a universal microUSB mobile charging standard, some had hoped that the company would do away with its proprietary ports.

But clearly that’s not the case. Sure, it would have made many consumers happy, but there were some technical reasons behind the decision.

“Apple’s iPhone connectors offer more functionality than standard micro USB connectors, like the ability to directly control accessories from the iPhone screen,” said Ian Fogg, principal analyst at IHS, “and it enables Apple to deliver a rich variety of third-party accessories.”

Of course, it also adds to the company’s bottom line and draws more people into Apple’s world.

Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said, “Apple derives nontrivial revenue from its connector licensing program. The accessories tied to these connectors meaningfully increase the strength of the loyalty gravitational field, pulling customers into Apple’s ecosystem.”

What are the advantages of the Lightning connector?
Aside from the extra functionality, it’s 80 percent smaller than the 30-pin connector and reversible. Apple says it is also more durable than its predecessor.

What are the disadvantages?
The biggest disadvantage is that the Lightning connector will require an adapter to work with old accessories, and some products simply won’t be compatible at all.

“The greater the investment in iPods, iPads, and associated accessories, the more their purchase of an iPhone 5, new Nano, and/or new iPod Touch will introduce complexity and some hassle,” said Golvin. “I can imagine these consumers having to purchase not just one but multiple 30 pin-to-Lightning adapters — one for each car, dock, etc.”

At $19 a pop for the Lightning to USB Cable, $29 for the Lightning adapter and $39 for the Lightning-to-30-pin connector cable, the accessories are not cheap, and they also don’t support all functions–particularly iPod out and video out. The current adapters only support analog audio output, USB audio, syncing and charging. Lightning-to-VGA and Lightning-to-HDMI cables will be available later, but for now, you won’t be able to connect your iPhone or iPod to an external display or TV to view videos or photos using the adapters.

The adapter doesn’t make for a very elegant solution, but even worse, Apple says some 30-pin accessories are not supported. I can see this being a problem with accessories that use a cradle design.

When will there be Lightning-compatible accessories?
Hopefully, soon. During its press event this week, Apple said it was working with partners like Bose and JBL to support the new connector, but given Apple’s notorious secrecy, third-party accessory companies weren’t able to deliver final products in time for the iPhone 5 and iPod launch.

“We didn’t know anything more than anyone else knew ahead of the launch,” said Brian Yang, vice president of sales and marketing for iLuv Creative Technology, an accessories company based in New York. “We, like other manufacturers, take calculated risks in developing accessory products in advance of the launch so that we can be among the first to market with stylish, quality accessories for devices that are always instant ‘must-haves.’”

Yang added that iLuv will deliver a full range of new accessories in the coming months. ILuv is also looking to build more products using wireless technology like Bluetooth to avoid the connector issue in the future, and some companies, like Jawbone, simply think the dock is dead.

Will Apple change the connector again?
Short answer: Probably at some point. But for now, Schiller told AllThingsD, “This is the new connector for many years to come.”

Updated at 9:20 a.m. to include information about the Lightning to USB Cable.

Apple Shows Off Improved iPod Nano, Retina-Display iPod Touch With Siri

Lauren Goode — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:40:20 +0000

Apple today unveiled a new line of iPod devices, punching up its popular music-playing hardware with improved battery life, displays and cameras.

Siri is coming to the iPod touch, as well, with Apple’s new EarPod headphones thrown in.

The new iPod nano features a bigger, 2.5-inch multitouch display. Apple showed off how widescreen video can be viewed when the nano is turned on its side. It’s 5.4mm thick, 38 percent thinner than the previous, or sixth generation, nano device. It comes in seven different colors, with the color of the iPod’s interface now matching the color of the device itself.

Fitness features and a pedometer are built into the new nano, too, with Nike+ integration. But most notable is probably the new nano’s oft-requested Bluetooth capabilities.

The new iPod touch has a four-inch Retina display — the same display as the iPhone 5 — and is powered by iOS 6. It features a five-megapixel iSight camera and shoots video in 1080 HD, with a 720p FaceTime HD camera with image-stabilization tech; and has “LE” (low-energy) Bluetooth.

The new devices will hit the market in October, with the 16 gigabyte model of the new iPod nano priced at $149. The new iPod touch, at 32GB, is $299.

The previous generation of the 32GB iPod Touch is $249. A 2GB iPod Shuffle can still be purchased for $49.

Apple last refreshed its iPod line last October, at the same time it announced the iPhone 4S. The new iPod touch shipped running iOS 5, and the nano got a price cut, while oldies-but-goodies like the iPod shuffle and iPod classic remained the same models at the same price.

Apple says it has sold more than 350 million iPods to date. Still, over the past couple of years, Apple has seen sales of its popular iPod decline as more consumers have turned to smartphones — like the iPhone.

This has positioned iPods as in-between devices — offering capabilities beyond just storing and playing music, but not having the cellular calling functions and some other features of smartphones.

In addition to touting the iPod touch as “the world’s most popular music player,” Apple said it was also the world’s most popular portable game-playing device, demonstrating a game of Clumsy Ninja on the device as an example. The new iPod touch will also run on an Apple A5 dual-core processor that the company says will improve gaming graphics.

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FBI Says AntiSec Hackers Lied About List of iPhone ID Numbers

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:37:51 +0000

The FBI has shot down today’s claim by the AntiSec hacking group that it breached an agency-owned computer and stole a database said to contain some 12 million unique ID numbers for iPhones and iPads around the world.

The FBI computer from which the data was supposedly taken was never hacked, the Bureau said. What’s more, it said it never gathered the information in the first place.

Here’s the statement straight from an FBI spokesperson, sent only five minutes ago:

The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed. At this time there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data.

On Twitter, the FBI’s press office was a lot less ambiguous:

Statement soon on reports that one of our laptops with personal info was hacked. We never had info in question. Bottom Line: TOTALLY FALSE

September 4, 2012 1:52 pm via webReply RetweetFavorite

@FBIPressOffice

FBI PressOffice

In a message posted to Pastebin earlier today, AntiSec (a.k.a. LulzSec, a.k.a. Anonymous) claimed that it had stolen a list of millions of Unique Device ID numbers and related names and other information for some 12 million Apple-made iOS devices, including iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, found in a notebook computer belonging to an FBI employee.

The point of the claim — and we should be clear that from the first it has been only a claim and an unverified one at that — the group said, was to sound the alarm that the top American law enforcement agency is creating a list of owners of such devices for uncertain purpose. Clearly the agency is calling that claim into serious doubt and thus raising further questions about the origins of the document that AntiSec released today.

So where did that document come from really? The ball is now in AntiSec’s court.

One other thought comes to mind: If, as AntiSec says, the document in question came from an FBI-owned computer and was taken using a breach that took advantage of a vulnerability in Java, then AntiSec is readily admitting that the person who carried out the act has committed a federal crime. Given the history of numerous arrests in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere, and especially in light of the fact that the group was betrayed by one of its own, you’d think its remaining members would try to be more careful about its public claims.

It also wouldn’t be the first time that AntiSec/LulzSec/Anonymous had made inflated claims about its abilities. Last summer it made a lot of noise about a bunch of documents from NATO, which it portrayed as both important and sensitive, but which after a little scrutiny turned out to be neither.

Update: AntiSec is certainly enjoying the sudden spike in attention it has been getting.

One of the weirder demands in its statement today had to do with a Gawker writer, a ballet tutu and a shoe. Whatever. They got their wish.

Via its Twitter feed, AntiSec — which supposedly Tweets under the account @AnonymousIRC — reacted to the FBI saying there’s likely more to come.

Also, before you deny too much: Remember we’re sitting on 3TB additional data. We have not even started. #funtimes #fff

September 4, 2012 2:16 pm via TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite

@AnonymousIRC

AnonymousIRC

In another statement, AntiSec hinted that there will be more disclosures, and referred back to a message posted on YouTube from earlier this year about a 3-terabyte cache of data. It also sought to cast doubt on the FBI’s denial: “The fact that the FBI has no ‘evidence’ of a data breach on one of their notebooks, does not allow the conclusion that it never happened.” Essentially AntiSec is claiming that it knows more about the situation than the FBI does.

Also there’s this, where AntiSec seems to imply that there may be a common app involved in all this.

People whose UDID was on the list released by AntiSec might want to compare their installed apps. A common culprit might be found.

September 4, 2012 3:23 pm via TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite

@AnonymousIRC

AnonymousIRC

Hackers Claim FBI Has List of 12 Million iPhone and iPad ID Numbers

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:14:23 +0000

Why would the FBI allegedly be keeping a list of 12 million unique identifying numbers for Apple iPhones, iPads and iPod touches? And why was a copy of that list on a notebook PC belonging to an FBI agent? And how did a group of hackers get access to that machine and steal that file?

Those are but three of the questions arising from the overnight dump of 1 million Unique Device Identification numbers by the hacker troupe known as AntiSec, the loosely organized group that has variously used the names LulzSec and Anonymous over the last year or so.

In an otherwise rambling political message posted to PasteBin, the group included download links to an 89-megabyte file that certainly looks for real. The circumstances of how the hackers obtained it couldn’t be independently confirmed, but AntiSec claims it was taken during a breach of an FBI-owned notebook in March.

The group described the incident like so (typos in the original):

During the second week of March 2012, a Dell Vostro notebook, used by Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team was breached using the AtomicReferenceArray vulnerability on Java, during the shell session some files were downloaded from his Desktop folder one of them with the name of ‘NCFTA_iOS_devices_intel.csv’ turned to be a list of 12,367,232 Apple iOS devices including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses, etc. the personal details fields referring to people appears many times empty leaving the whole list incompleted on many parts. no other file on the same folder makes mention about this list or its purpose.

There is, according to LinkedIn, a Christopher Stangl employed by the FBI in New York, but so far the agency has had no comment on AntiSec’s claims.

I downloaded the file and from what I know about UDID numbers, it certainly looks legit. So what is a UDID anyway and why should you care? Every iOS device — iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches — has a UDID number. Developers use it to distribute trial versions of new apps before those apps are released to the iTunes store. Another use is storing applications preferences and high scores for games.

But historically, the UDID has been part of the data that many popular applications have shared with third-party marketers along with the phone owner’s age, gender, and ZIP code. A 2010 Wall Street Journal story examined this practice in detail. Earlier that year, the nature of privacy risks on the iPhone were disclosed (PDF here) by the security researcher Erik Smith of PSKL.

Earlier this year Apple started quietly denying access to the UDID by developers, refusing to approve apps that access it, making good on a policy it outlined in August of 2011. In March of this year, Congress started asking questions about the privacy in iOS apps, including UDIDs.

If you’d like to know if your device is on the list of 1 million or so released so far, here’s what to do. First, install a free app called Ad Hoc Helper on your device. This app grabs your device’s UDID and emails it to you. Once you have it, cut and paste the number into this search tool on Dazzlepod. (We haven’t vetted this, so use it at your own risk.)

So what use is knowing if your device is on the list? That’s a good question. I checked two of the three iOS devices I own and they’re not on the list, though in the original file there were several devices owned by people who share my first name. As AntiSec puts it in its statement: “…in this case it’s too late for those concerned owners on the list.”

If the claim by AntiSec bears out (and frankly, right now it is only that, a claim), then the question quickly turns to the FBI’s reasons for gathering the information in the first place. There might be legitimate law-enforcement reasons for doing so, though it’s hard to image what they might be given the sheer numbers said to be involved. It’s not hard to imagine the FBI requesting a UDID along with other information as part of building a case in a criminal investigation into a person or a set of people. But the leak of 1 million such UDIDs with the promise that there are 12 million more certainly raises a lot of troubling questions.

Worse is the fact that the machine on which it was stored was so readily breached by outside elements, though again, this is only an unverified claim.

I’ve asked Apple and the FBI for guidance on this, and don’t expect to hear much, but will update you if I do.

Finally, Facebook Speeds Up Its iOS App

Mike Isaac — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:00:18 +0000

If you’re one of the millions of people using Facebook’s main iOS application, you already know it’s horrendously slow.

Well, you’ll be glad to know that on Thursday afternoon, Facebook will launch a major update to the app for the iPhone and iPad, drastically improving speed and overall performance.

Thank heavens.

We knew this was coming, and it is much needed. Frankly, the app’s performance up to now has been embarrassing, considering Facebook is the most installed iOS application in the entire world. Slogging through the feed was sluggish. Photos took forever to load. Even the basic action of opening the app itself took longer than other apps.

Consumers no longer regard performance as a bonus feature when considering an app — performance is a necessity. Especially on iDevices like the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod Touch, pieces of hardware synonymous with speed, refined user interfaces and a fine-tuned operating system that handles apps with ease.

Facebook acknowledges as much. “People have different expectations when it comes to using Facebook for iOS,” Mick Johnson, Facebook iOS mobile product manager, told me in an interview this morning. “They expect a level of performance and speed that just wasn’t there.”

Johnson says that the largest pain points — scrolling through the feed, photos and loading the app — will all be much faster, by a factor of two. Also, Facebook mobile developers working on the three separate iOS apps — Facebook, Camera and Messenger — are all now sharing a code base with each other, so Messenger and Camera are actually running inside of the proper Facebook app, bringing many of those features to Facebook for iOS. (As a bonus, a shared code base means faster development cycles, so we’ll probably see improvements sooner.)

This is all well and good. But why on earth did this take so long? For a company that claims to be “mobile first,” you’d think that Facebook would have gotten its apps up to speed much sooner. Not to mention the added pressure of Facebook needing to shift ad dollars away from the desktop as the mobile application continues to rise in popularity. Perhaps a speedier application could help to serve up Facebook’s newly released mobile ad products — like “Sponsored Stories” and “Offers” — in a more effective way.

Johnson raises a fair point. “Up until now, we’ve focused on getting to scale,” he said. “We have 500 million users accessing it monthly across 7,000 different types of mobile devices.” In order to reach that wide swath of people, Facebook has focused on HTML5, a programming language which, in a nutshell, made it easier to push the same Facebook experience out to everyone across the world at once. As a Facebook spokesman pointed out to me, iOS devices are just one of thousands of different phones accessing Facebook — to focus on one while neglecting the others would have been problematic. Especially when you consider just how important international growth is to Facebook, where the vast majority of people aren’t using smartphones.

So basically, Facebook had to go back and rewrite the whole thing from scratch. While the current Facebook app is predominantly HTML5-based, Johnson and his team gutted it and rebuilt it using the Objective-C programming language, which makes better use of the iPhone hardware and focuses on the advantages of using a native application, rather than rendering Facebook items in the app using Web data. (For more nerdy deets on this, look at Facebook’s engineering blog.)

This doesn’t mean that Facebook is abandoning HTML5, Johnson says. “The mobile web is still very important to us, as are all of our interfaces,” he said. Problem is, HTML5 is a technology that, while promising in the long run, isn’t able to deliver the type of speed and performance we expect right now. It’s a long bet, and something that Facebook aims to continue developing.

No word on an Android update, though Johnson hinted to me that it’s probably already in the works.

Look for the new app to hit Apple’s App Store later on this afternoon.

Google's Motorola Files New Patent Claim Against Apple

John Letzing — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:19:56 +0000

Google Inc.’s Motorola Mobility unit said Friday it has filed a new claim with the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that rival Apple Inc. has infringed seven of its patents.

The patents relate to Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, Motorola says. Motorola is seeking a ban on the import of those products made overseas.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

A Look Back at the Second Week of the Apple-Samsung Trial

Arik Hesseldahl — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 20:35:18 +0000

Calling the Apple versus Samsung patent lawsuit the most closely watched case of its kind in recent memory isn’t exactly going out on a limb, and that’s because the disclosures of details previously held close to the vest by both parties have been so numerous and, well, so interesting.

The trial’s first week was widely described as something of a slapfest, during which lawyers for both sides aimed to sting the other by forcing one painful bit of previously secret information after another into the record of evidence.

Though the second week had its snoozy moments, the fascinating disclosures kept on coming, and ended with nothing less than a bombshell. Here are the week’s highlights:

Apple Offered Samsung a License on Its Patent Portfolio

“Shocked” as it was by the iPhone-like look of the first Galaxy phones, Apple considered its relationship with Samsung — a key supplier of chips and other components — important, and was willing to make a deal. In October of 2010, it offered Samsung a license on its patents for $30 per phone and $40 per tablet. It also offered a 20 percent discount, if Samsung was willing to cross-license its portfolio back to Apple. By Apple’s reckoning, such a deal would have brought in $250 million in 2010. It’s now seeking 10 times that much in damages from Samsung. It was on this surprising little bombshell that the week’s proceedings ended.

Samsung’s U.S. Tablet Revenue Was Less Than 5 Percent of Apple’s

As often as they’re held up as competitive devices, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab barely moves the sales needle when compared to Apple’s iPad, at least in the U.S., according to Samsung documents that were admitted into evidence. As AllThingsD’s Ina Fried put it, Samsung sold fewer tablets during the entire seven quarters in question than Apple did in its worst quarter. Samsung recorded U.S. tablet sales worth $644 million, or less than 5 percent of the nearly $15 billion Apple generated during the same period.

Samsung Competes Better With Apple in the Phone Business, but Is Still Way Behind

The Korean electronics giant wasn’t the only one forced to pry open its books for inspection. Apple disclosed, for the first time, a U.S. breakdown of its unit sales of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches from 2007 through the first half of this year. The result: Apple sold 85 million iPhones in the U.S., worth $50 billion in sales; 34 million iPads, worth $19 billion; and 46 million iPod touches, worth $10 billion and change. For its part, Samsung disclosed that in the two years ended June 2012, it sold 21.25 million phones, generating $7.5 billion in revenue. Its best-performing individual model was the Galaxy Prevail, which sold 2.25 million phones.

Samsung Said in an Internal 2010 Report That Its Galaxy Would Be Better if It Were Just More Like the iPhone
Lawyers for Apple introduced into the record a 132-page internal Samsung report that examined, feature-by-feature, how its Galaxy S I stacked up against the iPhone. The verdict of Samsung’s product designers, who wrote it, was simple, and from the standpoint of Apple’s lawyers, pretty damning: Make it more like the iPhone. Samsung called the report a routine “competitive analysis.”

Samsung Customers Might Pay Extra $100 for Apple-like Features

If it followed the advice of its own product experts and made its phones more like the iPhone, Samsung’s customers might have to pay as much as $100 more per phone. That was the conclusion of John Hauser, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who conducted a detailed study of the three disputed Apple utility patents. His study found that customers said they were willing to spend up to an additional $100 on a smartphone or $90 for a tablet that incorporated all three features created by the patents. Under cross-examination by Samsung lawyers, Hauser explained that in the study, customers were asked how much they might be willing to spend on a set of features, but were never asked to weigh those costs versus other expenses they might have. This would, Samsung laywers argued, create a “reality check” on Hauser’s findings.

Patent Lawsuits, No Matter Who the Litigants Are, Can Be Boring

For all their vaunted importance, patent law is, as legal subgenres go, a pretty dry subject. Sooner or later, you wind up talking about the kind of in-the-weeds details about which only practitioners of the art give a fig. On Friday, lawyers for Apple called one expert after another to testify about patents governing features as varied as the “bounce back patent,” and others referred to only by the last three digits of their patent numbers. One of the patents, testified an expert using a technical term, is intended to help save users a lot of “fiddling around.” Snoozing yet?

Apple is expected to wrap up its case next week.

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Ina Fried — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:00:07 +0000

Everyone knows Apple and Samsung sell a lot of phones. Thanks to earnings reports there is even a pretty good sense of how many both companies sell in total each quarter.

However, the Apple-Samsung trial is providing a great deal more detail, including how many of each model both companies are selling, at least here in the U.S. during the time frame at issue in the suit.

Documents filed by Samsung lawyers on Thursday reveal that, from June 2010 through June 2012, Samsung sold 21.25 million phones, generating $7.5 billion in revenue. On the tablet side, the company sold 1.4 million Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices, producing $644 million in revenue.

In terms of individual phone models, the largest in units were the Galaxy Prevail with 2.25 million phones sold, the Epic 4G with 1.89 million phones sold and the Epic 4G Touch variant of the Galaxy S II, which sold 1.67 million units in the U.S. All told, Samsung sold 4.1 million Galaxy S II devices, when all models are included.

On the dollar side, the Epic 4G was the biggest revenue producer, generating 855 million between the third quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2012.

The full chart (above, click for larger version) will be of interest not only to those watching Apple and Samsung, but also for those looking for insight into just how well the four major carriers are doing in selling Samsung products. In many cases, the models listed were sold by just one carrier. The Epic phones, for example, are Sprint models, while the Droid Charge is a Verizon model and the Infuse 4G an AT&T device.

The documents filed Thursday show Apple’s phone and tablet sales as well, though the sales are only classified into iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

From 2007 through the second quarter of 2012, Apple sold a total of 85 million iPhones in the U.S., worth a total of $50 billion in revenue, along with 46 million iPod touches producing roughly $10.3 billion in revenue. From its 2010 launch, Apple sold 34 million iPads, generating $19 billion in revenue.

Lawyers for the companies have been trying to keep as much of this detail out of the public view as possible, but that battle appears largely lost.

The jury will need the numbers, of course, if it finds infringement by either Samsung or Apple of the other’s patents in order to determine damages. As both sides have found, though, suing one another will mean sharing far more information publicly than either would like.

In addition to financial data, the sides have also sought to keep secret their source code, agreements with third parties and other information they believe constitutes trade secrets. Apple has even sought to keep private its internal surveys of iPhone and iPad customers; Judge Lucy Koh has denied that request, though Apple has said it will appeal.

A number of other tech companies have also petitioned the court to keep various bits of information under seal, including Ericsson, Intel, RIM, Nokia and Microsoft. Reuters America is fighting that request, arguing that nearly all information should be made public.

Already the trial has provided a ton of insight into Apple, a company known for its secrecy. Revelations thus far include images of early iPhone and iPad prototypes, testimony about the creation of the first Apple phones and tablets and the kitchen table around which all Apple products are fashioned.

After a break on Wednesday and Thursday, court resumes on Friday with more testimony expected from Apple-hired experts. Naturally, AllThingsD will be in court to bring you the latest.

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Apple, Samsung Jury Won’t Hear About Missing Evidence

The Definitive Insider’s Guide to Apple vs. Samsung

At Long Last, Testimony Wraps up in Apple Vs. Samsung

Apple: Samsung Didn’t Live Up to Its Standards Obligations

Judge Koh: It’s Samsung’s Own Fault It Ran Out of Time

Apple Lawyer to Frustrated Judge: Yes, We Need All These Witnesses, and No, I’m Not Smoking Crack

Apple vs. Samsung Judge Encourages “Horse Trading” to Narrow Case

Apple Says Samsung Documents Show Google’s Influence On Galaxy Products

Patience Runs Thin as Time Runs Short in Apple vs. Samsung

Samsung Designer Says Galaxy Tab 10.1 Work Preceded iPad Announcement

Give Peace a Chance, Judge Says, Asking Apple and Samsung CEOs to Meet One Last Time

Samsung Document Notes Their Smartphone Icons Not Always Iconic

Samsung Designer Testifies She Didn’t Copy Any of Apple’s Icons

Fireworks in Apple-Samsung Trial Over Whether Expert Had Improper Access to Intel Source Code

The iPhone Advantage Is Largest in Big Cities, According to Samsung Study

Judge Refuses to Toss Most of Apple’s Suit Against Samsung

Apple: Offer to License Patents to Samsung Didn’t Include iPhone’s Interface

Latest Front in the Apple vs. Samsung Battle: Jury Instructions

A Look Back at the Second Week of the Apple-Samsung Trial

Here’s Apple’s August 2010 Warning to Samsung on Patents

Apple Offered to License its Patents to Samsung for $30 Per Smartphone, $40 Per Tablet

Apple Patent Head: We Don’t Want to License Clones

MIT Professor Says Samsung Customers Might Pay Extra $100 for Apple-like Features

After Starting With a Bang, Apple vs. Samsung Now Just as Boring as Other Patent Cases

Samsung’s U.S. Tablet Revenue Less Than 5 Percent of Apple’s, Court Documents Show

Apple vs. Samsung Trial Forces Companies to Open Up the Books

Jurors in Apple vs. Samsung Get a Raise, but Still Woefully Underpaid

Samsung on Its iPhone-Envy Memo: Nothing to See Here, Move Along

Samsung’s 2010 Report Says Its Galaxy Would Be Better if It Were Just More Like the iPhone

Similarity of Apple and Samsung Icons “Beyond Coincidental,” Designer Testifies

iPhone Caused “Crisis of Design” at Samsung (Memo)

Samsung Exec Downplays “Crisis of Design” Memo at Patent Trial

Five Things We Learned at the Apple-Samsung Trial Last Week

Samsung’ Hinges its Case on Rectangles and Rounded Corners

Apple’s Case Against Samsung in Three Pictures

Top Apple Executive Saw Market for 7-Inch Tablet in 2011, Said Company Should Do One

Apple’s Scott Forstall on How “Project Purple” Became the iPhone

Apple’s Phil Schiller on How Apple Came Up With the iPhone and iPad

Apple Loses Bid to Keep Customer Survey Secret

Samsung and Apple Speaking to One Jury, Many Audiences

Samsung: We Weren’t Trying to Mess With the Jury

Judge Koh on “2001” Evidence: I’m Sorry, Samsung, I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That

Apple: Litigation Misconduct Is Part of Samsung’s Legal Strategy

Samsung Goes Public With Excluded Evidence to Undercut Apple’s Design Claims

Apple Designer: We’ve Been Ripped Off

Apple Designer: Even Steve Jobs Doubted the iPhone at Times

Apple Literally Designs Its Products Around a Kitchen Table

Samsung: Apple Didn’t Invent the Rectangle

Apple: Samsung Took the Easy Road and Copied Us

Day One of Apple vs. Samsung Starts With Another Debate on Apple’s “Sony Style”

Samsung Thwarted in Bid to Show Apple Has “Sony Style”

As Apple and Samsung Head to Court, Here’s a Handy Cheat Sheet

Key Witness No Longer Works at Apple, Doesn’t Want to Testify at Samsung Trial

Can I Get a Witness? Sure, Here’s a Whole List of Them, as Apple vs. Samsung Heads to Trial.

Apple’s Case Against Samsung Gives Rare Glimpse at Dozens of iPhone and iPad Prototype Designs

Samsung Makes Another Case to Have Apple’s “Sony Style” Put Before Jury

Apple Tries to Torpedo Samsung’s “Sony Style” iPhone Charge

Samsung, Apple Even at Odds Over Where They Will Sit at Trial

Documents in Apple vs. Samsung Give Reporters Plenty to Chew On

Samsung, Apple Reveal Names of Those Who May Testify at Next Week’s Trial

Apple’s iPhone Has Sony Style, Says Samsung (Full Trial Brief)

Apple: Google Warned Samsung Against Copying Us

Jury to Hear That Samsung Failed to Preserve Evidence in Apple Patent Suit

Apple to Samsung: You Give Us $2.5 Billion and We’ll Give You a Half-Cent-a-Unit Royalty

Apple vs. Samsung: Another Patent Slapfight, Another Exasperated Judge

FreedomPop Aims to Turn an iPod Touch Into an iPhone, With a 4G Add-On

Ina Fried — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Wireless start-up FreedomPop is announcing plans on Tuesday to start selling an add-on that effectively gives an iPod touch many of the capabilities of an iPhone.

The $99 add-on brings wireless data capabilities to a third-generation or fourth-generation iPod, also enabling calling through various voice-over-IP services, such as Skype.

“It’s basically a no-brainer,” said FreedomPop COO Steven Sesar. “We had been pursuing and in development on the iPhone sleeve for some number of months. We literally had just thousands of inquiries of, ‘Well, what about the iPod Touch?’”

FreedomPop started taking orders for its iPhone sled in May. That device gives the iPhone 4G capabilities with data from Clearwire’s WiMax network.

Both the iPhone and new iPod touch sleds also act as wireless hotspots, enabling cellular access for other devices, such as tablets or laptops. The only difference in features, Sesar said, is that the iPhone sleeve includes its own battery, while the slimmer iPod touch add-on relies on the Apple device for its power.

The iPod touch sleeve allows the company to go after youngsters who don’t have a phone, as well as customers who want to avoid traditional carriers entirely.

“We came to the conclusion we just had to provide this, as well,” Sesar said. “You can actually, for the first time, cut the carrier.”

Backed by Skype’s Zennstrom, FreedomPop’s strategy is to to give away basic wireless service and make money through other types of services.

Customers will get 500 megabytes of data free each month, with the ability to add a further 10MB of monthly data free for each friend they have on FreedomPop’s network. Sesar said that, for those who want more data each month, the company will have prepaid plans at a significant discount to rival services.

FreedomPop will take a limited number of preorders for the iPod touch sleeves starting on Tuesday. The company said that the iPhone sleeve preorders will ship later this summer, followed closely by those for the new iPod touch add-on.

“We are looking at about a two-month deadline,” Sesar said. “We don’t have a specific launch [date].”

Sesar said FreedomPop isn’t quite ready to talk about its money-making services just yet, but reiterated that it has been quietly market testing more than 130 different services to find ones that can support its free data offer. Beyond its current free data plans, the company plans to partner with various Facebook applications and games to allow users to earn up to another 5 gigabytes of free data.

“Ultimately our goal is to just open it up completely,” Sesar said. Sesar said he thinks of FreedomPop a bit like a no-frills airline that sells its core product cheaply and makes up the difference with various add-ons.

The carrier is one of several aiming to turn the traditional business model of cellular carriers on its head. Another, Republic Wireless, is pitching $19 per month unlimited talk, text and Web phone service by encouraging its customers to make calls over Wi-Fi whenever possible.

On Monday, Republic Wireless said it was expanding its beta and adding a higher-end Android model to its lineup.

Apple Stocks Up on Components for September iPhone Launch

John Paczkowski — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:12:40 +0000

Blackpool Creative

Apple hasn’t yet officially announced the fall event at which it is expected to debut the next iteration of the iPhone, but it’s definitely planning one.

IMore was first to report that the company has scheduled a special event for September 12, and now we’ve confirmed it as well. Sources tell AllThingsD that Apple is currently planning an event for the week of September 9th, with Wednesday being the date on which it will likely be held. And while we haven’t yet confirmed the event’s focus, history suggests it will indeed be the new iPhone.

One thing’s for certain, though: Apple is ramping up for a big fall product cycle. And to see that, you need only look at the recent spike in the company’s prepayment for inventory components.

According to Apple’s latest 10-Q filing, prepayment for inventory components rose $1.15 billion sequentially in the June quarter. That’s a big increase, one that puts such prepayments at their highest level in four years — 12.6 percent of Apple’s total sales, according to Wells Fargo Securities analyst Maynard Um. And as Um notes, they’re a good indicator that Apple is ramping up for a big product launch — or several of them.

“Historically, such increases have been followed by a solid ramp-up in revenue in the following 2-3 quarters,” Um said in a Monday note to clients. “In our view, an increase in inventory component prepayment may suggest that Apple is securing supply for potential new product launches.”

Proloquo2Go App Gives Children With Speech Impairments a Voice

Bonnie Cha — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:30:50 +0000

For many of us, tech gadgets like smartphones and tablets are a source of entertainment, a way to check email and social networks, maybe even make a phone call or two. But for others, they’re helping to do much more than that.

Proloquo2Go is an iOS app that gives those with speech difficulties the tools to communicate with others using text-to-speech technology. And the app’s latest update is giving children an even bigger voice.

Proloquo, which means “speak out loud” in Latin and was created by AssistiveWare in April 2009, allows users to tap images and preloaded phrases or type out words to compose sentences, then translates the text into speech for the other person to hear.

It’s often used by adults and children diagnosed with autism, cerebal palsy or Down syndrome, as well as stroke victims, but previously the only voice options for children were adult voices or those electronically altered to sound like a child’s voice. Now the app offers real children’s voices.

“About 60 percent of our users are under the age of 12 years old, so it only made sense for us to offer real children’s voices,” said David Niemeijer, founder and CEO of AssistiveWare, in a phone interview with AllThingsD.

The American children’s voices, called Josh and Ella, were recorded by actual children over the course of several days and include recordings for 14,000 words to match the preloaded images. (Two British children’s voices, Harry and Rosie, are also available.) The more natural-sounding voices can help children develop their own voice and create a more intimate experience for the parents.

Words and phrases are organized in a way that are conducive to natural speech, with two main categories: Basic Communication and Core Word.

Basic Communication is designed for one- or two-word phrases to get a basic message across. Meanwhile, Core Word provides access to the most frequently used words in the English language and additional vocabulary for full sentences.

Proloquo2Go works on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Niemeijer said the company has no plans to offer an Android or Windows Phone app.

“We would rather focus our energy on creating the best product on one platform rather than spending resources on creating multiple versions,” said Niemeijer. He added that 70 percent of their customers bought the iPad just to use the application.

However, AssistiveWare will license the voices to other developers beginning in 2013, so they can use them to create other apps and communication devices.

Proloquo2Go costs $189.99 and is available now through the iTunes store. The app might seem pricey but it’s a lot less expensive than dedicated communication devices, which cost thousands of dollars. If you already own the app, the new voices are available for free through a software update.