Hasta La Gadget!

Plenty ink has already been spilled about the new restrictions in clause 3.3.1 of the new iPhone SDK terms of use. The new wording disallows developers to use third party, cross platform development tools (like Flash CS5) to build their apps, and plenty of folks (like Adobe) are angered by it. Now it seems Steve Jobs has chimed in as well. Developer Greg Slepak reached out to Steve, citing the large outpouring of negativity on the topic, including a post by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, who Greg calls Apple’s “biggest fan.” Steve apparently responded, citing a newer post by Gruber that explains Apple’s theoretical reasoning for locking down the platform like this. Steve called the post “very insightful.” When Greg replied, raising some very legitimate defense that highly popular, important apps like Mozilla Firefox are built with cross platform frameworks, Steve Jobs had a slightly less terse response:

We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.

On Greg’s blog he breaks down some of Gruber’s claims and makes a pretty compelling case for third party toolkits — important examples of which can be found all over the Mac and Windows landscape. We get the feeling his impassioned pleas, and the oft-bandied threat of developer migration, will fall on deaf ears at Apple as always, but at least he helps shape this debate somewhat, which will no doubt rage on for months and years to come. Check out the full conversation between Greg and Steve, including Greg’s final response, after the break.

Continue reading Steve Jobs responds directly to developer over new iPhone SDK rules, cites blog for explanation

Steve Jobs responds directly to developer over new iPhone SDK rules, cites blog for explanation originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like our old friend, the Fake Steve Jobs, is doing pretty well for himself. A popular blog, a well-received book, and now — with any luck, at least — a new TV series. Currently the Epix network (still only available on FiOS TV) is teaming up with the money men at Media Rights Capital to deliver a pilot called iCON. Featuring a character named Tom Rhodes, “a composite of Jobs and other Silicon Valley titans,” the story is described as “a savage satire, a study of ego, power and greed.” The man behind it all is none other than Larry Charles (of Borat, Bruno, and Seinfeld fame) who will direct the thing and oversee the script being written by Dan Lyons (Fake Steve Jobs himself). As you might have guessed, the announcement is pretty nutty:

“We are attempting to do nothing less than a modern Citizen Kane,” Charles said. “A scabrous satire of Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen. We needed a bold environment to nurture such a vision. One that was free of pre-conceived ideas. And Epix made it clear they were that place. They asked us to make their home our home. And we have.”

Since no one we know has actually seen Citizen Kane, we can’t tell you if that’s a good thing or not. But if it turns out to be anything like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, we love it already! PR after the break.

Continue reading Epix TV network to deliver real pilot based on a fake Steve Jobs

Epix TV network to deliver real pilot based on a fake Steve Jobs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s doing the Oscars up right tonight — not only was Steve Jobs making friends on the red carpet, but the company ran the first iPad ad just now during the broadcast. It’s pretty much what you’d expect out of an Apple ad, but, you know, more magical. Get ready for a blitz of these as we lead up to April 3. Video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading First iPad ad premieres during the Oscars

First iPad ad premieres during the Oscars originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Apple’s going on the warpath, kids. Just a few months after Cupertino got into it with Nokia over phone patents, Apple’s filed suit against HTC, alleging that the company is infringing 20 patents “related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware.” Steve, you have something to say?

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Okay then. We’re pulling the complaint filing now, we’ll let you know the exact details as soon as we learn them.

Update: HTC just gave us a statement — this is apparently coming totally out of the blue for them, since Apple hasn’t even served the complaint yet.

We only learned of Apple’s actions based on your stories and Apple’s press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.

Update 2: We mean it when we say this was all just filed in the past few hours — it’s not yet in the court’s systems. We just got the PDFs and put the full list of claims from the federal lawsuit below, but remember not to take the names of the patents literally or directly, since they don’t mean much. We’ll poke each one apart and tease out what’s really at stake as we go along.

[We’ve now looked at each and every patent in both cases in-depth — check it out here.]

Update 3: We’ve just learned that Apple submitted over 700 pages of exhibits to the District Court, which is a little nuts. In addition, the ITC complaint lists a number of specific HTC handsets as exhibits, including the Nexus One, Touch Pro, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro2, Tilt II, Pure, Imagio, Dream / G1, myTouch 3G, Hero, HD2, and Droid Eris. That’s really a full range of HTC phones, running both Android and Windows Mobile, with and without Sense / TouchFLO. Interestingly, the Android sets are specifically included because they run Android, while the WinMo sets are called out specifically for including DSP chips, not anything to do with Windows Mobile.

Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a report in Wired (and a source whom the publication says “could not be named”), Steve Jobs spoke to an audience of Apple employees at a town hall in Cupertino and… pulled zero punches. If you believe what you read, Jobs tackled a handful of major issues that have been buzzing the company lately, namely its run-ins with Google on a number of topics, and the lack of Flash support in its mobile devices (most notably in the upcoming iPad). On Google, Jobs had this to say: “We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.” According to the attendee, another topic was brought up but Steve wouldn’t let the Google issue go, stating his thoughts on the company’s famous ‘Don’t be evil’ line. In Steve’s words? “It’s bullshit.”

Furthermore Jobs had a handful of choice words for Adobe, calling the company “lazy” and claiming that “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.” Of course, these amazing nuggets of wisdom come from a source which Engadget cannot verify, so it’s possible there are misquotes or items taken out of context, though from the sounds of things, this kind of talk falls right in line with what we’d expect from the man who said Microsoft “had no taste” and makes “really third-rate products.” We eagerly await Eric Schmidt’s response.

CE-Oh no he didn’t? Part LXVII: Steve Jobs lashes out at Google, calls Adobe ‘lazy’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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