Android’s supposed to be all about peace, love, and openness, but that apparently doesn’t exempt it from copyright law and trigger-happy general counsels (who knew?). In a move that should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone, Palm has sicced its legal team on the makers of the aptly-named “Palm Pre Android Theme” that borrows icons, wallpapers, and mojo (not to be confused with Mojo) directly from webOS. The concerns center around the usual suspects — graphics copyrights and trademark infringement — and the company is demanding that they cease use of the Pre’s interface, name, and all that good stuff by some date that’s been redacted from the leaked letter (we’re assuming it’s soon). To be fair, Palm comes out and says that it “appreciates that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery,” but at the end of the day, they’re concerned about the potential for consumer confusion. Interestingly, to the best of our knowledge, they haven’t given the iPhone-based theme the same treatment — but hey, maybe it’s easier to confuse a Hero with a Pre than it is an iPhone… or something.

[Thanks, Justin]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Palm lays the smack down on Pre theme for Android originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s secretive M.O. can get pretty annoying to us journalists, but we have to admit sometimes it makes things more fun. Take for example a report today claiming Apple shot a TV ad at Jax at the Tracks, a 1940s-style diner in Truckee, Calif. Jax at the Tracks owner Bud Haley told Truckee publication Sierra Sun that a scout found his restaurant for the shoot. No details on what the product was, of course. What could it be based on the setting?

The mom-and-pops diner suggests the ad could be targeted at a younger, hip generation with an appreciation for the obscure. But that doesn’t give away much, since Apple has always marketed its products for non-conformists. What type of gadget would be shown off at a diner? Probably not a MacBook, since that would be somewhat tacky at a diner. A touchscreen tablet, perhaps, where a geek could be showing off his vacation photos to his friends? Or maybe just the upcoming iPod Touch, which is rumored to feature a new camera? What are your guesses?

See Also:

• Financial Times Confirms Apple Tablet for September
• How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com
• Rumored Apple Tablet Will Sell 2 Million Units in 2010, Analyst …
• Analyst Predicts Apple Will Unleash Touchscreen Tablet Next Year …
• Rumor: 10-Inch Apple Tablet Landing in Early 2010
• Analyst Claims to Have Seen Apple Tablet
• Large-Screen Kindle Won’t Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives …

Photo of a scene from a diner (not Jax): ThomasHawk/Flickr

Sprint is readying 17 additional cities for its fledgling 4G WiMAX service. The new additions for the rest of 2009 include Boise, Bellingham, Charlotte, Greensboro, Maui, Raleigh, Salem, and eight smaller cities in Texas.

The new markets will join the initial batch of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., Philadelphia, and Seattle. All of the above mirror what Clearwire had already announced last week for its identical CLEAR WiMAX offering.

Sprint reaffirmed plans to launch service in Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. sometime in 2010.

It’s been nary a fortnight since Amazon started taking pre-orders for Snow Leopard and now, according to the kids at Mac4Ever, a handful of “reliable sources” (their words, not ours) have stepped forward to proclaim that the OS has gone golden, meaning that this final iteration (reported as build 10A432, for those of you keeping track) is the one that will hit the stores in September. Additionally, MacRumors reports that in the time since this little bomb dropped benchmarks for the build have popped up — and quickly disappeared — at the Geekbench database. Make of all this what you will, dear readers.

[Via MacRumors]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Snow Leopard build 10A432 goes ‘Golden Master,’ mischievous sources claim originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After debuting the final chapter in our 404 Superhero series (thanks Hayato!), we break into chats about the next-gen air-con, an XBox autographed by Palin, cell phone crackdowns, and a Nintendo inflatable cushion that raises questions of hygiene…yikes!

THE FOUR-OH-FORCE!

(Credit: Hayato Shimizu)

Thanks again to Hayato Shimizu for making the image you see above, which features all three of The 404 hosts as their respective superheroes in the Four-Oh-Force! You can always depend on us to save you from a bad day! Well…except for Sundays, you’re on your own there.

Lots of stories to get into today, like this Nissan car with a built-in revolutionary air-conditioner that blocks “unpleasant smells” from entering your car. Having driven with Jeff and Wilson before, I can say without hyperbole that I’m more worried about the smells coming from inside the car, but I’m sure that invention is in development as well.

We also talk about SF cracking down on cell phones in the car and a Sarah Palin autographed XBox 360 fetching 1.1 MILLION DOLLARS on eBay, but the weirdest story of the day comes from Nintendo, who are developing an inflatable cushion for the Wii used to simulate riding on the back of an animal or being in the driver’s seat of a vehicle. There are a million and one jokes to be made here, and we get to about 4,297 of them in the second half of the show, so be sure to check that out. Nintendo has officially lost its marbles.

A big apology goes out to everyone who couldn’t leave a voicemail last night–we’ve since cleared it all out, so please call us back at 1-866-404-CNET and leave another message!

EPISODE 402

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Originally posted at The 404