Hasta La Gadget!

PBS has just announced its own app for iPhone and iPod touch, and from the looks of it, it’s a doozy (if you’re super into PBS, that is). That’s right, the free PBS app will allow you to watch full-length PBS productions on your device — including its popular news programs like FRONTLINE and the PBS Newshour. You won’t be able to watch everything that PBS offers just yet, but the app also has a built-in calendar which should be super useful if you happen to structure your entire life around PBS programming like we know some of our avid readers do. PBS developed the app with help from Bottle Rocket Apps, and adds this to its other apps currently available, the Antiques Roadshow game app and the PBS for iPad app. This one’s available right this second in iTunes and it’s free. Full press release is after the break.

[Thanks, Jake]

Continue reading PBS launches free iOS app for watching full-length video

PBS launches free iOS app for watching full-length video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unlike the AT&T iPhone, Verizon’s iPhone will include a wireless “hotspot” feature to share the handset’s internet connection with multiple devices. However, the AT&T version of the handset might gain that capability, as well.

Screenshots shared with mobile blog Boy Genius Report indicate that a future software update (iOS 4.3) will bring hotspotting to all iPhones, including the current GSM-based iPhones available for AT&T and other international carriers.

The screengrabs show a Personal Hotspot setting under the iPhone’s network menu in what appears to be an unreleased version of the operating system. That’s interesting because previously, leaked images of future iPhone OS updates have served as reliable clues for unannounced, upcoming features.

Currently, the iPhone on AT&T and international carriers only supports tethering, which enables the handset to share its internet connection with a single computer.

Of course, if you’re rebellious and tired of waiting, unauthorized hotspotting is already available for those who hack their iPhones to install an app called MyWi, available through the underground Cydia app store.

It’s important to note that just because the feature is technically available doesn’t mean that carriers will support it. You might recall that when iOS 3.0 shipped, AT&T had not yet been supporting tethering for the iPhone, while many international carriers were. (Some clever iPhone tinkerers later figured out how to unlock tethering by flashing the firmware.)

An AT&T representative said AT&T was evaluating the hotspot feature for iPhone.

“This is a brand-new software feature from Apple,” AT&T said in a statement. “We are evaluating the feature, but have no plans to announce at this time.”

Announced Tuesday, the Verizon iPhone will be the first to ship with a hotspot utility, which turns the handset into a Wi-Fi network that up to five devices in near range can connect with — the same function as the Verizon MiFi.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Hi, AT&T? Loyal customer here. Really been digging the iPhone the last few years, and was excited to find out I can use it as a hotspot in March. That is, if you let us. And here’s why you should. More »

Apple has a tradition of distancing itself from CES. The company loves to stay out of the show entirely, only to steal away the spotlight with some big product announcement. The company used to do this by way of the Macworld Expo. After the company announced that it would no longer be giving the keynote at the event, the show imploded.

The company has still managed to take some of the wind out of CES’s sails, however. Last year it revolutionize the industry by announcing the iPad in late January. This year, with help from Verizon, the company pulled away focus. The wireless carrier announced a press conference that would be occurring in New York the following week–and we all immediately knew what it was for.

The company may have made another accidental splash, with the iPad 2 apparently become the unofficial 81st tablet to be unveiled at the show. A video is circulating claiming to be a dummy version of Apple’s forthcoming tablet, which was given to an accessory manufacturer for the purpose of creating accessories.

The new model has a front and rear facing camera and is noticeably skinner than its predecessor. Appropriately blurry photo after the jump.

Microsoft this week filed a complaint with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, asking the organization to reject Apple’s request to patent the term “App Store.” The software giant is arguing that the term was generic long before Apple filed for a trademark, used to describe all manner of mobile application storefronts.

Says Microsoft (or, rather, Microsoft’s lawyers),

Any secondary meaning or fame Apple has in ‘App Store’ is de facto secondary meaning that cannot convert the generic term ‘app store’ into a protectable trademark. Apple cannot block competitors from using a generic name. ‘App store’ is generic and therefore in the public domain and free for all competitors to use.

Even Steve Jobs himself has used the term to refer to competing stores, according to Microsoft lawyers.

Here’s what Apple argues in its own filing,

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.

Certainly Apple’s store is the first that springs to mind when uttering the term, these days. But “vastly predominant usage” seems a bit much. I know we’ve certainly been guilty of bandying term about in reference to stores from Google, RIM, Microsoft, Palm, and others.