Hasta La Gadget!

A customer carries a new iPad from one of Apple's 300-plus retail locations. Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

Multiple publications report that Apple retail outlets are preparing “something big” this weekend in celebration of the 10th anniversary since the opening of the first Apple store, and that might involve a product launch. But it’s more likely nothing.

Apple stores are holding all-hands meetings with retail employees this weekend, according to independent reports from MacStories, Boy Genius Report and Cult of Mac. The 10th anniversary of Apple’s first retail store opening is this Thursday, a few days before the scheduled meeting.

Speculation is running wild that the stores are preparing to install near-field communications technology so that future iPhones can make store transactions wirelessly.

Before you get your hopes up, Wired.com’s best guess is that there will be a whole lot of nothing this weekend in terms of products. Historically, Apple retail employees have been kept in the dark about new products before their public debut, and we don’t see why that strategy would suddenly change for any new product.

Why would anyone trust thousands of retail employees to keep a lid on the release of a new product or service such as NFC?

In the past, Apple stores have launched new versions of Mac OS X, but only after Steve Jobs or another Apple executive has publicly announced a release date. Also, the Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple traditionally makes these announcements, is set for June 7. Therefore, the chances of Mac OS X Lion being released this weekend are rather slim.

This sounds to us like a mandatory meeting for some internal reorganizations that we probably won’t even notice.

We don’t get excited about any other company’s all-hands meetings, so let’s shut down the hype machine on this one, shall we?

See Also:

• Rumor: Microsoft Poaching Apple Retail Employees
• The Secret to Apple’s Retail Success? Planning, Not Gravity …
• Why Nobody Can Match the iPad’s Price

We’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about the upcoming iPhone. Many questions have been thrown around like will it be called the iPhone 5 or the 4S, will it have near-field communication technology, will it be 4G, and will it be available on other carriers? Two research firms have come out with their take […]

Patent firm Lodsys wants a cut every time little Timmy buys a new content pack for Pocket God.  Photo: Emmanuelle Bourgue/Flickr

After threatening last week to sue several iPhone app programmers for implementing a new iOS feature, a patent firm touched off a storm of controversy and even received death threats.

Now the company has explained why it’s going after the little guys, instead of Apple: Lodsys says Apple has licensed the patent in question.

“The scope of their current licenses does NOT enable them to provide ‘pixie dust’ to bless another (3rd party) business applications [sic],” Lodsys writes in a blog post about Apple. “From Lodsys’ perspective, it is seeking to be paid value for rights it holds and which are being used by others.”

Incidentally, Microsoft and Google have also paid for licenses, too, according to Lodsys.

Lodsys sent letters last week to a number of iPhone app developers, accusing them of infringing a patent related to the usage of an “upgrade” button that customers can use to upgrade from a free version of an app to a paid version, or to make purchases from within an app.

Lodsys says that it wants 0.575% of U.S. revenue for any app using its technology.

Apple provides the “in-app billing” infrastructure programmers use to process payments from within their apps, which Lodsys says infringes its patent. In-app billing has been available to iPhone app developers since October 2009, and Apple added support for selling in-app subscriptions to serial content in February 2011.

Not a cease-and-desist letter but rather a warning, the Lodsys letter was meant to encourage developers to “engage in a licensing discussion,” the firm wrote on its blog. However, Lodsys gave the recipients 21 days to comply or else face a lawsuit.

Programmers who said they have received the complaint include James Thomson, creator of the scientific calculator app PCalc; Dave Castelnuovo, creator of the best-selling game Pocket God; and Matt Braun, developer of the popular iPhone kids’ game MASH.

Many apps use Apple’s in-app payment system, so the number of companies to receive the legal threat could soon grow much larger.

James Thomson, developer of the PCalc app, says he has asked Apple’s legal team for help.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

We’d typically expect a plaintiff to remain mum with legal action pending, but in a bizarre twist, Lodsys has taken to its blog to defend its reputation — or something. You may recall the patent holding firm’s letter, sent to individual Apple iOS developers last week demanding licensing fees for a somewhat-obscure patent. Understandably, the letters and related coverage prompted a negative response from developers and supporters. Posts to the Lodsys blog may be in response to inappropriate emails received over the weekend, which include death threats and “hateful bile” sent to Mark Small, the firm’s CEO. Click on through for full details.

Continue reading Lodsys comments on iOS patent infringement, receives hate mail, death threats

Lodsys comments on iOS patent infringement, receives hate mail, death threats originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 09:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

About a year after the debut of the first Android handset, Switched On discussed the threat that Chrome OS posed to Android. To reprise it briefly: Like chief rivals Apple and Microsoft, Google has two operating systems trying to bridge the rift between consumer electronics and traditional computing, but Chrome is different than Mac OS and Windows in an exceptionally important way.

Rather than trying to refine the traditional software experience (as Apple has done with the Mac App Store and other iOS-inspired developments in the queue) or move that experience forward to tablets (as Microsoft is doing with Windows), Chrome OS is not looking to carry forward any legacy beyond the browser.

Unlike with Mac OS vs. iOS or Windows vs. Windows Phone, the battle isn’t over which apps make sense, but rather the irreconcilable difference around whether apps to begin with. This makes Google’s suggestion that the two operating systems might merge at some point less credible, and sent a mixed message to developers about whether to focus their efforts on apps or the web. At Google I/O 2011, however, the company clarified its position.

Continue reading Switched On: Chrome alone

Switched On: Chrome alone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 May 2011 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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