Hasta La Gadget!

Steve Jobs points to the audience as he announces the software development kit for iPhone app programmers in a March 2008 event. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Apple’s legal team has fired back at a patent-owning firm that was threatening to sue iPhone app programmers over usage of in-app payment technology.

Apple stated in no uncertain terms that it planned to protect Apple developers.

“Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license,” wrote Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, in a response to Lodsys (.pdf) sent Monday. “Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights.”

The patent firm Lodsys on May 13 sent letters to several iOS app programmers, claiming that it owned a patent related to the usage of an “upgrade” button, allowing customers to upgrade from a free version of an app to a paid version, or to make purchases within apps. The letter demanded that programmers pay a licensing fee for the patent, or face legal action from Lodsys.

In the technology industry, large companies are already tangled in legal disputes over patents on technologies they claim to have invented or pioneered. For instance, Nokia filed suit against Apple in 2009 for patent infringement, Apple filed a patent lawsuit against HTC in 2010, and Microsoft has gone after Google’s partners offering Android-powered products.

However, with the case of Lodsys, it was odd to see a patent firm shaking down smaller companies for using technologies provided by a larger company.

Apple’s letter said that the technology that Lodsys claims it patented — an interface that enables interactions with a user to elicit feedback — requires the use of APIs provided by Apple to the app programmer. Therefore, because Apple owns a license for Lodsys’ patents, they extend to programmers that use Apple’s technologies, too.

Dave Castelnuovo, creator of the popular iPhone game Pocket God, was one of the first programmers to receive Lodsys’ letter. His lawyer David Alberti told Wired.com that Lodsys’ claims made against app developers seemed like a “very far stretch,” because the patents in question seemed to relate to feedback systems on hardware, such as a fax machine, and not technology in a pure software environment.

Lodsys owner Mark Small, who sent the initial letter to app developers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pocket God maker Castelnuovo said he was happy to see Apple respond very quickly and publicly to Lodsys.

“It shows that Apple cares about its developers and they are willing to stick up for them when something like this occurs,” Castelnuovo told Wired.com.

James Thomson, programmer of the pCalc scientific calculator app for iPhone, was one of the first to receive Lodsys’ letter. He told Wired.com he was glad Apple was getting involved, but the fight is not over yet.

“I’m just relieved to hear that Apple’s got our backs,” Thomson said. “Of course it’s not over until Lodsys withdraws their claims, but this is a big step. I will sleep a lot better tonight, that’s for certain!”

See Also:

• Samsung Ready to Battle Apple in Patent War
• Apple to Samsung: Stop Stealing Our Ideas

Not too long ago, the invisible iPhone was nothing more than satirical fodder for the Onion. Now, Patrick Baudisch and his team of researchers at the Hasso-Plattner Institute have moved closer to making it a reality, with a new interface that can essentially transfer an iPhone touchscreen to the palm of your hand. The device involves an Xbox-like depth camera, mounted on a tripod, that can register the movements of a person’s finger across his or her palm. Special software then determines the actions these gestures would execute on a user’s iPhone, before transmitting the commands to a physical phone, via WiFi radio. Unlike MIT’s motion-based “sixth sense” interface, Baudisch’s imaginary phone doesn’t require users to learn a new dictionary of gestures, but relies solely on the muscle memory that so many smartphone users have developed. During their research, Baudisch and his colleagues found that iPhone owners could accurately determine the position of two-thirds of their apps on their palms, without even looking at their device. At the moment, the prototype still involves plenty of bulky equipment, but Baudisch hopes to eventually incorporate a smaller camera that users could wear more comfortably — allowing them to answer their imaginary phones while doing the dishes and to spend hours chatting with their imaginary friends. Head past the break to see the prototype in action.

Continue reading Invisible iPhone prototype puts the ‘hand’ back in ‘handset’ (video)

Invisible iPhone prototype puts the ‘hand’ back in ‘handset’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MIT Technology Review  |  Hasso-Plattner Institute(1)  | Email this | Comments

Valve’s Portal 2, the much anticipated and loved video game, obviously took a huge undertaking to create. In the Final Hours of Portal 2, journalist Geoff Keighley observed Valve for three years to tell you how it all happened. It may be an app, but it’s long form journalism brilliantly told on the iPad More »

Netflix for Android is here… finally. It’s been a long time coming and we’re thrilled to be able to bring our instant queue with us wherever we go. Though technically only approved for a handful of HTC phones and the Samsung Nexus S, we were able to successfully get it up and running on at least one unsanctioned device — the Droid X (sporting a leaked copy of Gingerbread). So what’s Netflix like on Google’s mobile OS? Well, it’s a heck of a lot like the iPhone app. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to tell them apart if it weren’t for the tabs being moved from the bottom of the screen to the top. Still, we figured it was worth giving a solid once over and, as usual, you can find our impressions after the break.

Continue reading Hands-on with Netflix for Android (video)

Hands-on with Netflix for Android (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 08:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Google’s senior VP Vic Gundotra at Google’s I/O developer conference in San Francisco, backed by a not-so-subtle allusion to Android’s competition. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Android’s explosive growth over the past three years has been a double-edged sword for its apps. On the plus side, there are more of them than ever. On the negative side, there are more of them than ever.

Google on Wednesday announced a slew of updates aimed at improving customers’ ability to find and buy apps in the Android Market, as well as developers’ ability to sell them.

“The biggest problem we have in the Market is discovery,” said Michael Novak, Android engineer for Groupme.com, in an interview. “Google has definitely heard the complaints from people like me, and these new features being rolled out are proof.”

Navigability issues have plagued Google’s app-shopping system on the customer end, making it hard for people to find the apps they want, or even to realize that there are apps they might be interested in. For their part, developers have complained that it’s easier to make money in Apple’s App Store than it is in the Android Market.

For customers, finding the most popular apps may get easier with one of the many new lists Google has added, each detailing the top performing apps in specific categories. The Twitter-esque top “Trending” list, for example, highlights the most-downloaded apps over the past seven days. If an app continues to be among the highest-downloaded over that seven-day period, it will move into either the “Top Paid” or “Top Free” lists, which cover popularity over a 30-day period.

Google’s addition of the “also viewed” and “also installed” lists add an interesting social component to the market. It’s almost taste-making through app downloads — if you like a particular application you’ve installed, you can browse a number of applications also installed by others who installed your particularly enjoyable app.

And while these new list additions make it easier for customers to search for new apps to download, it’s also better for app developers who want their apps to be showcased more prominently on the Market. More lists across more categories means more opportunities for a developer’s app to be seen by customers. And that means more opportunities to get paid.

Some think progressions like these are long overdue.

“These are features that Apple has had for years,” said industry analyst Michael Gartenberg. “These sorts of features are table stakes at this point in the game.”

Indeed, Google’s Android Market web store, a version of the store that’s accessible through your computer’s browser, first debuted in February. In contrast, iPhone users have been able to access the App Store by web browser since February 2010.

As Google tackles these problems, the market’s patronage continues to expand. Although historically the Android Market’s customer base has been focused on the United States and a handful of other countries, Google’s “Android developer ecosystem manager” Eric Chu says it’s important to pay attention to the burgeoning international market. Over 60 percent of the 400,000-plus daily Android device activations are now coming from outside the United States, according to Chu.

Google wants take advantage of this growing international market. Next week, says Chu, Android developers will be able to accept payment from 131 different countries across multiple currencies.

In direct contrast to Apple, however, Google’s app store has typically been lauded by open source enthusiasts for its lack of vetting process in accepting apps from developers. Submitting an app to Apple’s App Store requires direct approval from the company before the app can be sold to the public. Google’s process is more open.

This week has brought a host of different additions and expansions for the Android Market. On Tuesday, Google announced a movie-rental service addition to the market, which allows you to wirelessly stream films to your Android smartphone or tablet devices for a period of up to 24 hours after first renting the film. The current selection ranges in the thousands, with prices starting at $2 for older films and $4 for more-recent releases.

Google TV will receive access to the Android Market for the first time this summer, which may help the ailing television platform garner a larger following. Developers will also receive a Honeycomb 3.1–based software developer kit to begin building Google TV–specific apps at some point in the coming months.