Hasta La Gadget!

Apple faces a second attack on its use of FaceTime, with web software firm VirnetX dragging the Cupertino firm back into the courtroom over video calling tech in the iPhone 5, iPad mini, and other hardware. VirnetX, which scored a $368m win against Apple earlier this week, claims the new smartphone and 7.9-inch tablet – as well as the 4th-gen iPad with Retina display, the 5th-gen iPod touch, and the latest batch of Macs – are just as guilty of infringing its networking-based patents as earlier iOS gadgets.

“Due to their release dates, these products were not included in the previous lawsuit that concluded with a Jury verdict on November 6, 2012″ VirnetX said in a statement today, explaining its double-dip legal strategy. The company is hoping for damages and injunctive relief; last time around, it sought around $700m, though the judge granted roughly half of that.

Four US patents – Nos. 6,502,135, 7,418,504, 7,921,211 and 7,490,151 – are at the heart of VirnetX’s complaint, referring to how VPN connections are established for secure point-to-point communications between devices. In general that technology is used for businesses to share files securely with remote workers, but VirnetX successfully argued that Apple uses the same, patented technology when it establishes FaceTime video calls.

Apple, unsurprisingly, argued that the smaller company is chasing cash for something that it didn’t create. “VirnetX is not entitled to money for things they did not invent” Williams, Morgan & Amerson lawyer Danny Williams said as part of his final closing statement at the last trial. “The VirnetX technology, if used, is a small part of very large, complex products.”

No trial date for the new case has been confirmed, and Apple is yet to comment on the extended allegations.

Apple faces second FaceTime lawsuit over iPhone 5 and iPad mini is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The developers behind Evernote have brought on their cleanest-ever interface for the 5.0 version of the app here in iOS, making it perfect for your brand new iPhone 5, iPad 4th gen, or iPad mini. It’s not limited to those machines, of course, with anyone working with iOS 5.0 (or higher) able to take advantage of the new completely redesigned note-taking beast, complete with classic green accents. It’s the ease in use you’ll notice first here with Evernote 5.0 for iOS, with each of your main sections in a folder and quick-hit buttons for a new note, in-hand scanning, and snapshots too.

Evernote 5.0 brings on a user interface that will make you want to use it more often – a simple concept, to be sure, but not so simple to capture in the real world. The designers behind Evernote 5 have taken it upon themselves to concentrate not so much on the features and abilities of the app, but the usability primarily. Once the usability was made perfect – or perfect as they wanted it to get – they went back and added some features anyway, almost as a bit of a bonus.

Your home screen shows quick access to notes, notebooks, tags, places, and Premium features – now no longer relegated to a web browser. You’ve got your home screen quick buttons up top (or to the side, depending on which device you’re using), and you’ve got a new showcase style inside each section that shows off notes as cards – great for quick previews. Your shared notebook list can be seen easily identifiable (if you’re Premium, that is), with the ones shared with you waiting to be peeked at.

Once you’re gotten past the excellence of not just the interface at the front but the note-taking swiftness as well, you’ll see your tags and places as well. Your places are mapped out using TomTom and Open Street Maps data – and they work fantastically quick. From here, as before, you’re able to see where each of your notes were taken and have quick access to the lot of them.

The iPad version of Evernote 5 has a few unique features that utilize the extra screen real estate you’ve got, with added notebook stack support in Notebooks view and a list of recently viewed, edited, and created notes on your homescreen. Of course the whole app has bug fixes for bugs we didn’t even know existed in the first place and is rather speedy on the whole. Have a peek at this free app right now in the iTunes App Store and also consider upgrading to Premium for extra cloud storage space and some lovely bonus features.

Also have a peek at the timeline below to see many of the other add-ons Evernote has made clear over the past few weeks. This ecosystem is expanding at a great rate!

Evernote 5 for iOS Review is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

So the last carrier to prohibit Apple’s Facetime videoconferencing software over its network has fallen: Yes, if you’re an AT&T subscriber with a iDevice, you can finally Facetime over your cellular connection, provided you’re not on a grandfathered data plan. AT&T’s Jim Cicconi posted on the official public policy blog explaining why AT&T finally made the decision, and why they’ve left people not on shared data plans off:

We decided to take this cautious approach for important reasons.  AT&T has by far more iPhones on our network than any other carrier. We’re proud of this fact and the confidence our customers have in us. But it also means that when Apple rolls out new services or changes, as it did in iOS 6, it can have a much greater, and more immediate, impact on AT&T’s network than is the case with carriers who have far fewer iPhone users.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple’s iPhone 5 sets a new sales record for AT&T, AT&T outs iPhone 5 this September 21st,

We did it folks – we made it through another election, which means that we finally get a break from those endless political ads. It won’t be long before those ads are playing all over the place again, so savor the moment while you can. We found out today that President Obama set Twitter records with that a tweet that was shared more 600,000 times, and Apple was hit with a hefty fine in a case over patents related to FaceTime. Foxconn is saying that it’s still having issues keeping up with iPhone 5 production, and Pixar has named a new building after Steve Jobs.

We had a couple of quarterly reports land this afternoon, with both Activision and Qualcomm looking great as they charge into Q4 2012. Apple executive Eddy Cue has joined Ferrari’s board of directors, while AT&T is putting up a whopping $14 billion to boost its LTE and U-Verse services. There were rumors of an iPad Mini 2 with Retina Display floating around today, and ZTE was spotted teasing a new Windows Phone 8 device with a massive 5.9-inch screen.

Gearbox has squashed a nasty exploit in Borderlands 2 with a new patch, and we learned that Kim Dotcom’s new website has been killed before it even got off the ground. AT&T has revealed off-contract pricing for the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820, and Time Warner Cable is trying to lure new customers in by giving away free Xbox 360s. We got to see Nintendo President Satoru Iwata unbox the Wii U, found out which features will be on the Wii U from launch day, and were even told that the Wii U will allow for 12 user accounts per console.

Verizon is waiving voice and text fees for those who were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and Microsoft has released its SkyDrive app for Windows Phone 8. A new Sandvine report gives us an idea of just how popular Netflix is in North America, and Yahoo has hired a former National Geographic photographer to head up Flickr. A*STAR has revealed a new hybrid disk drive that’s only 5mm-thick, and DC Comics are now available digitally through iOS, Kindle, and NOOK devices.

Finally tonight, Don Reisinger asks if Apple actually helps its competitors, we take a closer look at Qualcomm Halo, and Chris Davis gives us his review of the Phillips hue lightbulb. That does it for tonight’s edition of the Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night everyone!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: November 7, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sparrow, the popular email client for iPhone, was acquired by Google over the summer, and it was announced the acquisition would mean no more feature updates for the app. However, that doesn’t mean the Sparrow team would skip full iOS 6 and iPhone 5 support, so they ended up pushing out an update, but to everyone’s surprise, it was rejected by Apple.

Sparrow developer Dinh Viet Hoa announced on Twitter that the Sparrow app update for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 was rejected by Apple, and explained why later on in a reply. Apple’s rejection had something to do with the app’s Rich Text format. The developer was told that if they didn’t update the app with the corrections, it would be removed from the iTunes App Store.

Rich Text editing in email is a feature that Apple added in iOS 6, which means that the Sparrow team will have to release an update for the email client that will be for iOS 6 only in order to take advantage of Rich Text. iOS 5 users will still be able to use Sparrow, but they won’t be able to update to this latest version.

However, Rich Text support is actually built into Apple’s own Mail client in iOS 5, so we’re not sure why Apple has a problem with Sparrow’s Rich Text formatting in this latest update, which would’ve been compatible with iOS 5. Then again, the update is meant for iPhone 5 users who are already running iOS 6 anyway, so it shouldn’t be a huge problem for a majority of Sparrow users.

[via The Next Web]

Sparrow iPhone 5 update rejected by Apple is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.