Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has never been particularly hesitant when it comes to sending in the lawyers. The company is already in the midst of a high profile legal battle with Microsoft over the latter company’s use of the term “App Store” (“The vastly predominant usage of the expression ‘app store’ in trade press is as a reference to Apple’s extraordinarily well-known APP STORE mark and the services rendered by Apple thereunder,” et al.). So when Amazon opted to launch its “Appstore” (no space) it was sort of playing with fire (or, perhaps, exploding iPods). 

You had to know this was coming. Apple, which is already engaged in a heated battle with Microsoft for the protection of its “App Store” trademark, has filed suit against Amazon for its “improper use” of the same. Amazon’s Android Appstore seems to have been intentionally contracted to a single word to differentiate its name, but that difference isn’t enough for Apple, which has asked a California court to grant a ruling preventing Amazon’s use of the moniker and asking for unspecified damages. Apple claims it reached out to Amazon on three separate occasions asking it to rename its software download offering, but when faced with the lack of a “substantive response,” it decided to take things to court. Its big task remains unchanged — proving that the term App Store is something more than a generic descriptor — and this was a somewhat inevitable move given Amazon’s choice of name. The legal maneuvering, as always, continues.

Apple sues Amazon for App Store trademark infringement originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ekocase’s bamboo- and faux-leather iPad case does its best to look like an oversized hipster notebook.

Sustainably-harvested bamboo frame? Check. “Animal-friendly faux-leather cover?” Check. Moleskine-like styling? Triple check.

The Ekocase2 is an iPad and iPad 2 case that should appeal to all of you vegetarian, Earth-loving, iPad-using hipsters.

Like many clever gadget accessories these days, it doesn’t exist yet except in prototype form, but if the creator, Ryan Frazier, gets enough pledges of support on his Kickstarter page, it’ll go into production. It’s got an interesting locking system that uses two bamboo pegs to hold the iPad in place, and will come in a variety of colors, just like your favorite paper notebooks.

Apart from the styling and the materials, I like that the elastic strap can also be used to hang the iPad on the back of a car’s headrest, turning it into a video display screen for entertaining the tykes in the back seat. You can’t do that with a Moleskine.

Gadget Lab’s iPad case and power plug reporter Charlie Sorrel is taking the day off. –Ed.

Apple may have dodged the big Sandy Bridge problem with its new MacBook Pros, but it looks like it may now be experiencing some growing pains of an another sort. As evidenced by a 44-page and growing thread on Apple’s official support forums, a number of users have been seeing their 15-inch and 17-inch MacBooks freeze up when they’re under a heavy load — encoding a large video file, for instance. That problem seems to be related to the laptops’ new AMD graphics, as switching them to integrated-only seems to “fix” the problem for most users, although obviously at some considerably expense to performance. While Apple isn’t offering much publicly at the moment, a user that spoke with customer service said that Apple seemed to be aware of the issue, and that they suggested it was a firmware or driver-related problem, and not an actual hardware issue. Unfortunately, there’s still no indication as to when it might be fixed. Let us know in comments if you’ve run into some similar issues.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

New MacBook Pros freezing under heavy load? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a world of sophisticated electronics these days, there’s always risks to being an early adopter. Alas, it appears that our latest victims are owners of Apple’s Thunderbolt-laden MacBook Pros. Since launch, a number of frustrated customers have been reporting that their new unibody laptops — of all three sizes — are causing random flicker on both 24-inch and 27-inch Cinema Displays when connected via their Mini DisplayPort / Thunderbolt combo port, and now we have video proof to share the pain. Some also confirmed that even replacement machines from Apple are exhibiting the same behavior, though a source of ours says this doesn’t seem to be a widespread issue, and that the company’s hardware engineers are already looking into this. Either way, we’re likely to see a firmware fix for this bug soon — it’s no good having a large monitor constantly blinking at you. One more video after the break.

[Thanks, Armando]

Continue reading Some Thunderbolt MacBook Pros causing flicker on Cinema Displays, Apple investigates (video)

Some Thunderbolt MacBook Pros causing flicker on Cinema Displays, Apple investigates (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 14:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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