Hasta La Gadget!

A court decision made earlier today has ruled that Apple does not have exclusive rights to the “iPhone” trademark in the country of Brazil. This decision was made by Brazilian regulators who have found that the company Gradiente Electronica‘s registering of the iPhone name in the year 2000 takes away Apple’s ability to have the name cornered. Registering the name iPhone seven years before the Apple, Gradiente has released a device called “iPhone Neo One” just this past December.

It’s understood that Apple will be attempting to get an appeal, this according to the Institute of Industrial Property speaking with the BBC. Oddly enough, it would appear that Apple does have exclusive rights to the iPhone brand on everything that isn’t a smartphone – cords, accessories, and everything in-between. Meanwhile Gradiente retains an option to sue Apple for exclusivity of the iPhone name on smartphones.

As long as Gradiente refrains from suing Apple, the iPhone (be it an iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, or otherwise), will continue to be allowed to be sold. The Gradiente smartphone iPhone Neo One continues to be sold throughout the country as a rather basic Android-based smartphone. Apple is currently arguing that they should be given exclusive rights to the iPhone name because Gradiente did not release a device with the name until December of 2012.

Barring appeal, it would appear that both companies will continue to sell their own devices with “iPhone” in the name with awkward keyword searches abound. It is quite likely, on the other hand, that Apple will earn appeal and the case will continue into the near future. Stay tuned for more Brazilian trademark battle action!

Apple loses iPhone trademark case in Brazil is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you were a fan of Slacker‘s old-school black and gold aesthetic, you can mourn its passing today. The internet radio service has just undergone a rebirth, with a brand new white and burnt orange logo and a completely revamped design — on web, mobile and Xbox — in an effort to reintroduce itself to the mainstream and stave off competition from the likes of Pandora, Spotify and Rdio. The new look is decidedly simpler and more approachable, with a prominent search box and a distinct blue and white theme that carries its way throughout all interfaces. Indeed, the smartphone apps are explicitly designed to mirror the site, not just style-wise but functionally as well. For example, you can continue a song on the phone right where you left off in the browser.

The pricing structure remains the same — there’s a free ad-supported version, a Radio Plus $3.99 a month option and a $9.99 per month Premium plan. The new iOS and Android apps should be available today, with Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 versions to come. For more on the relaunch and a few thoughts from Slacker’s execs, join us after the break.

Filed under: Internet

Comments

Source: Slacker

You read the internet from cover to cover, but rather selectively. Thirst learns the parts you want to read and leaves out the ones you’d rather just skim. More »

This weekend we’ve had the pleasure of trying out one of the most beautifully simple looking apps ever made for iOS: Mailbox. This app is made to make your email experience simple, striking first for the Gmail crowd who otherwise would be working with the built-in iOS mail app or the Google-made Gmail app (or Sparrow, also owned by Google). It’s not easy entering this space successfully when the actual creator of the service you’re trying to vampire has their own app on the market – let’s talk about why Mailbox might do it – starting with the never-fails strategy called keeping a line outside.

Design

When you open Mailbox, you find that you’re either standing in line or you’re allowed to start your Gmail-connected journey in only a few extremely simple steps. Once you’re inside, it’s all about swiping left or right. You can add multiple Gmail accounts, your whole user interface is just lovely, and both writing and reading is perfectly tuned. Typographers clearly had a hand in creating this app, that much is absolutely clear.

From a graphic design standpoint, there’s nothing wrong with how Mailbox works. It works great, it acts quick, it connects perfectly fine. The only problem here is the disconnection you’ll feel when you head to your desktop. If you use your iPhone for Mailbox and use its many features to create lists and read-it-later pushes, you’ll be glad to see that mobile experience working fabulously.

Usability and Compatibility

If you expect to see these same lists and read-it-later features when you get to Gmail, you’ll be out of luck. Most of the features you see inside Mailbox – stay inside Mailbox. One exception is the toggle between read and unread – once you open an email inside Mailbox, it’ll show up as read inside Gmail no matter where you are.

If that limit isn’t a problem for you – that is, if you use your iPhone for most of your Gmail reading, you’ll be good to go. With Mailbox you’ll be using a series of simple gestures to work with all of your email – as outlined in our first Mailbox is alive! post from last week.

One of the finer points in this app is the ability to put off reading an email with a series of timed periods. You can make that email return to your mailbox “later today” or “in a month”, or even “someday.” Of course there’s no “random” button – you’ll be adding in the specifics with each tap – but this is just about as easy putting off work has ever been – and did I mention it looks nice, too?

Verdict

The Mailbox app from Orchestra is absolutely free at this very moment, and until we hear otherwise from the developers, we expect it to remain free into the future. Because of this alone, this app deserves a try by you at least. It’ll introduce you to a whole new way of working with your email and you’ll be part of the “cool crowd” working with this app right this minute.

Orchestra is benefitting from a whole lot of press coverage and forum talk this week, this making it downloading and using their Mailbox app a super hip thing to do. It’s not the sort of thing that you’ll be using to take special fancy photos with, nor is an exclusive club, but it is an important step in the evolution of app development – it’s not often that an email app grabs this much attention.

Mailbox Review: mobile email disconnects again is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

iOS 6.1.1 was released yesterday, and there’s already a jailbreak available for it. The Evasi0n jailbreak tool which hit the internet last week has been updated to v1.3, and it will now liberate everything. More »