Man of Steel on Google Play and Apple App Store

The official mobile game of the new movie from the Superman franchise Man of Steel is now available on both Google Play and App store. If you feel like playing the role of one of our favorite superhero, then do check this out.

From the first look, it pretty much resembles Infinity Blade with all the combat thing and impressive graphics. It’s actually the standard of this type of mobile games, but I will help a lot if they did add something little different for us to look forward to. Throughout the missions, there will be instances where you will face the boss of the stage, upgrade your powers, and unlock various suits.You’ll be fighting aliens to be able to meet your ultimate opponent, Zod.

The Man of Steel mobile game is available on Google Play for $4.99 which somewhat high for this kind of game. You can download it here. For iOS users, you can buy the regular game for $2.99 while the HD version costs $4.99. Download it here.

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Cable providers pay to prevent streaming TV; Time Warner responds: Duh

Time Warner Cable, like others in the pay-TV industry, has been essentially paying off content partners to prevent web-based streaming, Bloomberg reports. Incentives to lock-out content providers from streaming their properties online include monetary bonuses and threats to drop programming. Deals brokered between TWC and its partners are largely private, but some of their details were leaked to Bloomberg by anonymous inside sources.

"Exclusivities and windows are extremely common in the entertainment industry," said NY-based TWC spokeswoman Maureen Huff in response to Bloomberg's report. "It’s absurd to suggest that, in today’s highly competitive video marketplace, obtaining some level of exclusivity is anticompetitive."

Admittedly, deals peppered with stipulations of exclusivity aren't exactly a new thing. With more than 300 deals under its belt though, TWC makes no bones about its feelings toward would-be online disruptors.

Huff added, "In fact, the amount and scope of exclusivity and windowing in Time Warner Cable’s arrangements with programmers pales by comparison to that found between other players in the entertainment ecosystem."

In a nutshell: we do it, but others do it more.

Other companies, like Charter and AT&T, are also guilty of similar practices. AT&T is purportedly paying less to content providers who simultaneously provide online streaming while Charter claims to use such incentives and penalties to protect its cable-based "ecosystem".

If you're thinking deals like these are to blame for the poor state of TV streaming though, AllThingsD reports that may not necessarily be the case. Citing TWC as an example, its executive sources claim the company doesn't have those types of arrangements with the biggest players in the industry, names which include the likes of Viacom, Discovery and NBC. Hugely successful media companies have tons of bargaining power and often aren't so short-sighted to lock themselves into a no-streaming deal.

Rather, TV streaming outfits like Apple TV, Google TV and possibly even Intel have difficulty striking bargains because purchasing content to stream online is identical to the process used by cable companies: they must spend large sums of money on inflexible channel bundles -- a practice which the industry uses to subsidize its least popular properties with its most desirable ones. Even worse, since tech companies generally don't have much clout with big media, they often times wind up paying more than companies like Comcast and TWC for the same content.

{Source: TechSpot]

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Nokia accuses Apple of Siri bias

15 May 2012 Last updated at 16:18 Since launch, iPhone users have discovered unexpected answers from Siri The debate over "what is the best smartphone ever?" took an unexpected twist after Apple's voice-activated assistant Siri appeared to favour the iPhone's rival.

Over the weekend, users of Siri were told the answer was Nokia's Lumia 900.

But Siri now responds to the same question with a jovial: "Wait... there are other phones?"

Nokia has accused Apple of "overriding the software" after the quirk was noticed.

Apple would not confirm that a change had been made.

The Siri software, which is featured on Apple's iPhone 4S, uses the computational search engine Wolfram Alpha to serve answers to some questions.

'Flattered'

For a question such as "what is the best smartphone ever?", Wolfram Alpha would pool available reviews and comment in order to come up with what it feels is the right result.

In this instance, the "best" result was determined by reviews on the website of US retailer Best Buy.

Continue reading the main story

Siri has offered some unexpected responses since launching on the iPhone 4S last year.

Scottish users of the feature were said to be frustrated over Siri's inability to understand their accent.In December, Apple denied that it was stopping Siri from locating local abortion clinics, saying any misinformation was "not intentional".When asked: 'What is the meaning of life?', Siri will reply "42", a nod to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.Nokia's Lumia 900 - which launched in the UK this month - came out on top.

However, when asked the same question, the software no longer attempts to search Wolfram Alpha to find its answer, instead producing a default answer.

Nokia spokeswoman Tracey Postill told the Sydney Morning Herald: "Apple position Siri as the intelligent system that's there to help, but clearly if they don't like the answer, they override the software."

However, when contacted by the BBC, Nokia said Ms Postill's comments were "lighthearted" and "taken out of context".

"We were certainly flattered and honoured," Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson added.

View the original article here

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Apple patents touchscreen unlock

26 October 2011 Last updated at 13:58 GMT Apple will likely argue that Android's pattern unlock violates its patent. Apple has been granted a patent on unlocking a smartphone or tablet using a touchscreen gesture.

The application, which was filed in June 2009, covers a range of commonly used techniques including swiping and pattern entry.

As well as on the iPhone and iPad, such systems are built into Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

The patent is likely to become another weapon in Apple's arsenal as it continues to sue rival manufacturers.

Devices using the Android operating system have been the focus of particularly aggressive litigation.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs believed that the product was a rip-off of iOS and vowed to "destroy" it, according to his recently released biography.

To date, his firm has waged a largely proxy war, targeting companies such as Samsung and Motorola which use Google's software.

As a result, Samsung is currently banned from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia.

Samsung has launched a counter offensive, claiming Apple has infringed technology patents which it holds.

However, on Wednesday, an Italian court turned down Samsung's application for an interim injunction on sales of the iPhone 4S in that country.

Both sides are now expected to submit further evidence.

Broad patent

Apple's patent - US patent number 7657549 - states: "A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display.

"The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device."

Continue reading the main story

The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path.”

End Quote US Patent 7657549 The text of the patent is broad and would appear to cover a number of the technologies used by Google and Microsoft in their handheld devices.

However, that did not necessarily mean that Apple would be able to exert its will, according to Silas Brown, an intellectual property solicitor with London-based law firm Briffa.

"Often you will have situations where patents are argued through long and hard to get to registration, but when they are challenged there is a counter action to claim that the patent shouldn't have been granted."

Mr Brown explained that such patents could be invalidated for a number of reasons, including being too broad, too simple or "obvious" in the current technological context.

In Europe, software cannot be patented in its own right. But Apple may still have a case, according to Mr Brown, if the function of unlocking was shown to materially improve the performance of the hardware.

"[Apple's] argument would be more in that direction - that this is an invention which has an affect on hardware, for example security," he said.

Determining that, would likely mean more work for lawyers and specialist engineers.

"The question would go down to a technical analysis and people who are experienced and knowledgeable in respect of this particular type of technology," said Mr Brown.

View the original article here

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Via sues Apple in US over chips

23 September 2011 Last updated at 09:48 GMT Via claims Apple has "wilfully" infringed patents it owns in many of its products Taiwanese chip designer Via is suing Apple claiming the US firm has infringed patents it owns.

Via said the disputed ideas were used in Apple TV, the iPod, iPad and iPhone and the software they run on.

The patents involve the ways chips in these products use, transfer and manipulate data.

Via has filed a complaint with both an American district court and the US International Trade Commission.

The company's boss Wen-Chi Chen said the firm was "determined to protect our interests and the interests of our stockholders" in a statement about the lawsuit.

The legal action is widely believed to be connected to an ongoing dispute between Apple and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC. Mr Chen is married to HTC's chairwoman Cher Wang, who co-founded both businesses.

Earlier rounds in the legal fight between the two saw Apple rack up a win as the HTC was found to have infringed two Apple patents. HTC has said it plans to appeal against that ruling.

HTC has filed three separate lawsuits against Apple over patents used in mobiles and tablets.

Apple has yet to issue a statement about the Via lawsuit.

The latest action is one of many patent spats in which Apple is involved. The company has taken action itself against Samsung in the US, Europe, Australia and South Korea. These have led to a ban on the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and bans on three smartphones in Holland.

In retaliation, Samsung has taken Apple to court in France and has counter-sued in the Netherlands.

View the original article here

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Apple drops 'Jew or not Jew' app

15 September 2011 Last updated at 09:30 GMT The Jew or Not Jew app lists some 3,500 people US computer firm Apple has withdrawn a mobile phone application called Jewish or Not Jewish from its online store in France.

The application allowed users to find out whether celebrities and public figures were Jewish or not.

Anti-racism group SOS Racisme said it was illegal because French law did not allow the compilation of personal data without the individual's consent.

Developer Johann Levy, who is Jewish, said the app was "recreational".

Mr Levy said there was nothing sinister about his application, which is still available outside France.

"I'm not a spokesman for all Jews, but as a Jew myself, I know that in our community we often ask whether such and such celebrity is Jewish or not," the 35-year-old Franco-British engineer told Le Parisien newspaper on Wednesday.

"For me, there's nothing pejorative about saying that someone is Jewish or not," he said. "On the contrary, it's about being proud."

He said he compiled information about some 3,500 people listed in his app by using various online sources.

French laws enacted after World War II ban the compilation of information about religious affiliation without permission. Doing so is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros (£260,000).

In June, Apple had to remove an Arabic-language application from its App Store called ThirdIntifada, after Israel said it incited violence.

View the original article here

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Apple Juice Controversy Shocks Consumers

An apple juice controversy is spreading in the US after the debate between two high-profile TV doctors regarding arsenic levels in apple juice, leaving some moms panicking.

Host Dr. Mehmet Oz in a television interview last Thursday said that 60 percent of apples being used in apple juice come from overseas where arsenic-based pesticides are still used.

A study commissioned by the show found “significant levels of arsenic in several store brands of apple juice” which started the controversy. Some TV promotions for the episode somewhat made the case that parents should be “shocked.”

Although he made it clear that his message isn’t to stop drinking apple juice, Dr. Oz pointed out that consuming apple juice with arsenic have “long-term implications to our nerves, to our heart and even to cancer rates.”

Dr. Mark Kostic of the Wisconsin Poison Center and Children’s Hospital, on the other hand, said the apple juice controversy which originated on the television show has raised unnecessary concern.

Although he agrees that it’s good to draw attention to the types of chemicals that are in the food we eat, in this case, Dr. Kostic said there’s no distinction made between toxic arsenic and non-toxic dietary arsenic, which is commonly found in apple juice.

“The problem is he’s raising a big red flag and probably causing a lot of unnecessary concern because it’s most likely dietary arsenic and non-toxic,” Kostic said.

View the original article here

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Apple faces South Korean lawsuit

18 August 2011 Last updated at 10:13 GMT The lawsuit is given weight by tough privacy regulation in South Korea Apple is facing a lawsuit brought by 27,000 South Koreans who are angry over the collection of location data on iPhones and iPads.

Each is seeking 1m won (£533) in compensation for privacy violations.

Apple has faced criticism since in emerged in April that its iPhones and iPads stored locations which could be used to create a map of the user's movements.

The lawsuit could pave the way for others around the world.

Earlier this month the South Korean communications regulator Korea Communications Commission ordered Apple's local operation to pay 3m won (£1,600) fine for violating the country's location information laws.

Quick update Apple's iPhone and iPad 3G appeared to collect information about their users' location

Kim Hyeong-seok, the lawyer representing the group, himself took Apple to court earlier this year and was awarded 1m won.

The issue came to light when security researchers found a hidden file on the devices containing a record of everywhere they had been.

Used with certain software, the file could generate a map of all a person's movements with the phone.

Apple denied that it has used the information to track user location, saying that the handsets were simply recording information about mobile phone towers and wi-fi hotspots with a view to using it at a later date to "improve services".

Following criticisms, it quickly issued an update which cut the amount of time stored data was kept to just a week and no longer transferred it to the owner's computer.

It also allows users to disable the location services setting on their iPhone or iPad.

Permission for the tracking was given by users among the many pages of terms and conditions for the iTunes store.

View the original article here

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Apple Puts TV Shows in the iCloud

Apple has quietly enhanced iCloud support for the iTunes Store, allowing users to re-download past television purchases and access them from iTunes, on Apple TV and within iOS devices.

In June, Apple rolled out iTunes and iCloud integration, which gave users the ability to download their music purchases onto other devices and to automatically sync new purchases across all devices.

The addition of TV shows means that movies are the only media type that are not automatically backed up to iCloud.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball discovered cloud support for TV shows when he installed an update for his Apple TV 2. The update also means that Apple TV users can now purchase TV shows, rather than just rent them. It also means that users can stream previous purchases from an Apple TV, without having to link up to a Mac or a PC. This instantly adds more versatility to the device.

As for iTunes and iOS users, the “Purchased” section of the iTunes store now carries a heading for “TV Shows.”

Our tests found most of the shows we have purchased from iTunes in the past, but it doesn’t look like the whole library is there. Let us know if you’ve purchased any shows that aren’t appearing in iCloud.

View the original article here

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Apple Launches iCloud Beta [PICS]

Apple has unveiled the beta for iCloud, the company’s new suite of media streaming and cloud-based services.

The new beta, which is available to all users with an Apple ID (update: some of our readers are having trouble accessing iCloud with Lion), features web-based version of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find my IPhone and iWork. They are accessible if you visit iCloud.com while using iOS 5 (available to Apple developers) or Mac OS X Lion. It does not include Apple’s cloud music services, including iTunes Match.

Apple also unveiled the pricing structure for iCloud. The first 5GB of storage on the service are free. An addition 10GB will cost $20, 20GB will cost $40 and 50GB will retail for $100. It’s a good deal more expensive than Amazon Cloud Drive, which gives 20GB of space for $20 and lets users store an unlimited amount of music for free.

We’re playing around with the iCloud beta now, and while we’ll have more to report, our initial conclusion is that the iCloud beta is a modified version of MobileMe. It includes similar interfaces, which isn’t a surprise. The addition of iWork support is a welcomed addition though, as is the simplistic and universal interface for all of Apple’s cloud services.

We’ve taken some screenshots of the beta and embedded them below. Check them out, and let us know what you think of the iCloud beta in the comments.

Mashable reporter Christina Warren contributed to this report.

View the original article here

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The Apple Store Is Just Too Damn Nice

written by John Chow on July 26, 2011

Apple Stores are the most profitable stores in the world. They make more money per square foot than any other retail stores in any category. Flagship stores, like the one on New York’s Fifth Avenue, have become tourist attractions.

In addition to printing money for Apple, the stores are known for being extremely nice to customers and letting them get away with stuff that a normal store would never allow. YouTube is filled with videos of people singing and dancing inside an Apple store and the employees don’t even bat an eye.

My good buddy, Mark Malkoff over at My Damn Channel, decided to do an Apple store challenge and test how far you can push an Apple store before they get pissed at you and kick your ass to curb. It turns out, you can get away with a lot!

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Posted in Technology, Videos

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Apple holding more cash than US

29 July 2011 Last updated at 12:55 GMT US President Barack Obama is known to be an iPad owner, along with 28 million other people Apple now has more cash to spend than the United States government.

Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7bn (£45.3bn).

Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn.

The US House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill to raise the country's debt ceiling, allowing it to borrow more money to cover spending commitments.

If it fails to extend the current limit of $14.3 trillion dollars, the federal government could find itself struggling to make payments, and risks the loss of its AAA credit rating.

The United States is currently spending around $200bn more than it collects in revenue every month.

Apple, on the other hand, is making money hand over fist, according to its financial results.

In the three months ending 25 June, net income was 125% higher than a year earlier at $7.31bn.

Spending spree

With more than $75bn either sitting in the bank or in easily accessible assets, there has been enormous speculation about what the company will do with the money.

"Apple keeps its cards close to its chest," said Daniel Ashdown, an analyst at Juniper Research.

Industry watchers believe that it is building up a war chest to be used for strategic acquisitions of other businesses, and to secure technology patents.

Bookstore Barnes and Noble and the online movie site Netflix have both been tipped as possible targets, said Mr Ashdown.

The company may also have its eye on smaller firms that develop systems Apple might want to add to its devices, such as voice recognition.

Apple dipped into some of its reserves recently when it teamed-up with Microsoft to buy a batch of patents from defunct Canadian firm Nortel.

The bidding consortium shelled out $4.5bn for more than 6,000 patents.

View the original article here

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Apple overtakes Nokia and Samsung

29 July 2011 Last updated at 11:55 GMT Handsets from Apple (left) and Samsung (right) saw the biggest growth Apple has become the world's biggest seller of smartphones, according to industry analysts.

The US firm overtook both previous leader Nokia and Samsung in the second quarter of the year, when total smartphone sales hit a record 110m.

The figures from Strategy Analytics also showed that 361m handsets were shipped, up 13% on the previous year.

Nokia remained the biggest seller of all types of handsets, but the numbers shipped and its market share fell.

It shipped 20% fewer handsets in the second quarter - 88.5 million.

The Finnish firm's market share dipped to 25% - its lowest level since 1999.

'Star'

The report describes Apple as the "star performer" during the quarter, more than doubling its handset shipments to a record 20.3 million units.

All handsets Smartphones Total market share

However, its share of the overall market was 6%, making it the world's fourth biggest mobile phone seller behind Nokia, Samsung and LG.

Samsung shipped 74 million units, rising 16% from 63.8 million in the quarter a year earlier.

The company's market share rose to just above 20%, and Samsung is now "breathing down Nokia's neck", the report said.

Strategy Analytics said Nokia was plagued by problems.

"An unexciting touchphone portfolio, inventory corrections in Asia and Western Europe, wavering demand for the Symbian platform and limited presence in the huge US market continue to weigh on Nokia's near-term performance," the report said.

Third-placed LG shipped 24.8 million handsets during the three months, with volumes down 19% from a year earlier.

China-based ZTE shipped 18 million handsets, giving it a global market share of 5%.

Seperately, Taiwan's HTC said it had shipped 12m handsets in the second quarter of the year, helping its profits double to 17.5 billion Taiwan dollars ($607m; £372m).

View the original article here

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Apple releases another security update for iPhone, iPad

 Apple

Not even two weeks have passed since Apple issued a security fix for iOS devices and we're already being prompted to update our gadgets again. The latest software download, iOS 4.3.5, is a minor update which fixes yet another rather pesky security vulnerability.

While Apple's description of the security update is a bit vague — it simply explains that if you don't download iOS 4.3.5, "an attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS" — the folks at Kaspersky Labs were able to clarify things a bit:

[T]he description implies that an attacker who has already compromised a machine on a given network and has the ability to see and identify SSL sessions might be able to decrypt the traffic and modify it. This kind of man-in-the-middle attack is quite common and would require the attacker to already have a foothold on the network in order to execute it.

In plainer words: Someone could intercept your web-surfing session and steal data — but only if he or she already has access to the network you're using.

You can get the update which will foil any plots to compromise your security in such a manner by plugging your iOS device into your computer and hitting the "check for updates" button in iTunes.

Do note that the 4.3.5 version is intended for the AT&T iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, the iPad 2, the iPad as well as third and fourth generation iPod Touch devices. Folks who own a Verizon iPhone 4 will find an update labeled 4.2.10instead — but it'll offer the same fix.

Related stories:

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook. Oh, and she can be found on Google+, too.

View the original article here

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Fake Apple store sells real products

 Adrienne Mong / NBC News

The exterior of the fake Apple store on Zhengyi Road in Kunming, China that BirdAbroad blogged about.

By Adrienne Mong

KUNMING, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA – It’s hard to imagine an American expatriate more unpopular in Kunming right now than the woman who runs the blogsite BirdAbroad.  

Last week, she chanced upon not one but three knock-off Apple shops near the heart of the southwestern city’s shopping district. The main one on Zhengyi Road, she wrote, “was a total Apple store rip-off.  A beautiful rip-off.”

This week, local authorities in the Yunnan capital began shutting them down. However, the “fake” Apple shop so thoroughly described by BirdAbroad remains open. 

Its saving grace?

Their Apple products – iPhones, iPads, iPods, Shuffles, and a variety of computers – are genuine.

The real thing?
“All our products are real,” said Yang Jie, the store manager, when we visited over the weekend. Yang also hastened to tell us they come with a guarantee although no refunds are offered. “Stores don’t return money in China.”

Even though the products looked authentic – we did a series of tests on iPads and desktop computers playing “Angry Birds” – none of the staff said they knew how they’d obtained the goods.

Yang said the shop’s owner, whom he refused to identify, was responsible for organizing the supply. (The staff were later quoted in news reports saying they planned to apply for a license to sell their products).

If the goods are real, some customers said, there was no problem with the shop not being a “real” Apple store or even a licensed reseller. 

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

One of the displays inside the fake Apple store on Zhengyi Road in Kunming, China that BirdAbroad blogged about.

But Wang Haijun, a lawyer in Beijing, said if the shop on Zhengyi Road isn’t authorized to sell Apple products, then their origins pose complications and the retailer could still be in breach of Chinese law.  Particularly if they might be goods brought in from overseas, he said, then it raises import duty considerations.

Even the knock-off store’s design is problematic, according to Wang.

“If the whole store’s decoration, design, product display, and staff’s outfits – if these in general are the same as that of an authorized Apple store, it’s copyright infringement,” he said.  “It’s an infringement of Apple.”

Indeed, the shop did get many of the details right: the bright interiors, the long wooden tables, and the matching blue t-shirts with the Apple logo in the front.  Even the crowds that crowded around the displays lent it an authentic feel.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Customers examine the real Apple products in the fake Kunming, China store BirdAbroad blogged about on July 23.

Practically the only thing missing was security. 

When we took a spin through the flagship store in Beijing’s Sanlitun neighborhood this week, we counted 22 men in black uniforms with “RiskControl” written on their sleeve. 

View the original article here

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Chinese city orders fake 'Apple Stores' to close

KUNMING, China — Chinese officials in Kunming have ordered two fake Apple shops to close, not because of piracy or copyright concerns, but because the stores in the southwestern city did not have an official business permit.

Five self-branded "Apple Stores" were found to be selling Apple products without authorisation from the California-based company but only two were told to shut, officials said.

An investigation into the stores was apparently sparked by a storm of media attention over an elaborate hoax Apple shop discovered by an American blogger. The order did not apply to that store, which is applying for a reseller licence with Apple, a local government spokesman said.

"Media should not misunderstand the situation and jump to conclusions. Some overseas media has made it appear the stores sold fake Apple products," said Chang Puyun, spokesman of Kunming government's business bureau.

"China has taken great steps to enforce intellectual property rights and the stores weren't selling fake products."

Entire fake Apple shop found in China

Officials are investigating whether Apple had applied with the Chinese government to have its store design and layout protected by law, Chang added.

Inspections of around 300 shops in Kunming were carried out after a blog post by an American living in the city exposed a near-flawless fake Apple Store where even the staff were convinced they were working for the iPhone and iPad maker.

'Look and feel'
In addition to protecting trademarks, Chinese law prohibits companies from copying the "look and feel" of other companies' stores, but enforcement is often spotty.

The United States and other Western countries have often complained China is woefully behind in its effort to stamp out intellectual property (IP) theft.

"We hope that they will take continuous action against other Intellectual Property Rights violations," Ioana Kraft, general manager of the Shanghai chapter of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said in an emailed comment to Reuters.

In May, China was listed for the seventh year by the U.S. Trade Representative's office as a country with one of the worst records for preventing copyright theft.

Piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. software and a wide range of other intellectual property in China cost U.S. businesses alone an estimated $48 billion and 2.1 million jobs in 2009, the U.S. International Trade Commission has said.

Countless unauthorised resellers of Apple and other brands' electronic products throughout China sell the real thing but buy their goods overseas and smuggle them into the country to skip taxes.

Angry customers berated staff and demanded refunds at one of the fake stores late last week, uncertain of legitimacy of the products on offer.

All the five unauthorised Apple shops in Kunming were selling genuine Apple products bought from other authorised resellers in China, Huang Yinghui, an official at the city's business bureau, told Reuters.

Apple has just four genuine Apple Stores in China, in Beijing and Shanghai, and none in Kunming in Yunnan province. The company, which has 13 authorised resellers in Kunming, could not be reached for comment.

Apple's brand is the world's most valuable, worth some $153 billion, according to a study earlier this year.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

View the original article here

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HTC vs Apple

22 July 2011 Last updated at 01:30 GMT By Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website Most HTC phones are based on Google's Android operating system Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has said it is prepared to wage a patent war against Apple.

A week ago, HTC was found to infringe two iPhone patents in a case brought by Apple at the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

But chief executive Peter Chou has said HTC would win the appeal, and threatens Apple with a raft of patents that HTC recently acquired with S3 Graphics.

"We have enough patents to make a stand," said Mr Chou.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Mr Chou predicted that in December the full ITC panel would overturn last Friday's ruling, which was made by a single judge.

Even the ITC's senior staff attorney had been of the opinion that HTC had not infringed Apple's patents, he claimed.

"We are confident that we have a strong case," said Mr Chou.

The HTC boss said the "war" over smartphone customers should be fought in the market place, not the courts.

The rise of HTC

HTC is one of the fastest-growing smartphone makers, now the world's third-biggest by market value. Between April and June the company sold phones worth $1.55bn, doubling its profit to $608m (£380m).

Peter Chou is fighting a patent battle with Apple

It's a far cry from the days when HTC made phones to order, which were then sold under the label of network operators like Vodafone or T-Mobile.

These days, the company is confident enough to promote its own brand aggressively. The corporate slogan may pronounce the company to be "quietly brilliant", but the names of its phones are brash: Hero, Legend, Desire and - most recently - Sensation.

The ITC ruling, however, is potentially a huge setback. Not only did HTC's shares drop 7% on the news. More importantly, the patent dispute goes to the heart of HTC's success - its big bet on making phones that use Google's Android operating system.

Patent Wars

It's not just HTC who is in Apple's firing line. The California-based company, which reinvented the smartphone market, is squaring up to Google and all its partners.

Patent expert Florian Mueller believes that Apple's lawsuit against HTC goes to the heart of Android's "operating system functionalities." He predicts a "serious patent problem" for "the entire Android ecosystem."

Apple's chief operating officer Tim Cook, who runs the company while chief executive Steve Jobs is on sick leave, puts it this way: "We love competition... but we want people to invent their own self, and we're going to make sure that we defend our portfolio."

It's a fight for market share, and it's spilling into the courts. Motorola, Nokia, HTC, Apple, Google and Samsung are all involved in some patent law suit or other.

Ultimately, the outcome will depend on the balance of power - not market share but strength of patent claims.

In Apple's patent war with Nokia, it was the Finnish phonemaker who emerged as the winner, at least in terms of royalty payments, in a comprehensive cross-licensing deal.

Apple's 'frenemy' Samsung

Another Apple target is Samsung Electronics. The South Korean company has countersued, claiming that Apple is infringing some of its 28,700 patents held in the United States alone.

But Samsung is both a supplier friend and a mobile phone enemy to Apple.

Apple's iPhone 3G (left) and Samsung' Galaxy S mobile phone (right)

A top Samsung executive told me that more than 50% of an iPhone's components (by value) are made by Samsung. Several hundred Samsung engineers work at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino to help develop the next iPhone.

The Korean firm is keen not to damage its relationship with Apple "just to sell a couple of million more phones".

Apple, in turn, may find it difficult to find a new partner that can match Samsung's production capacity.

The launch of the next generation iPhone and iPad, expected for late summer, will provide crucial hints. If a teardown of either product indicates a move away from using Samsung parts such as LED screens, memory chips and microprocessors, the patent war is likely to escalate.

After all, says Florian Mueller, "Apple doesn't have a history of being a particularly cooperative patent holder."

Mr Mueller, author of the Foss Patents blog, believes that it is "absolutely positively not a foregone conclusion" that Apple will license its "key patents" to rival HTC.

Apple, he says, optimises for product differentiation, not patent licensing revenues. "What Apple needs to achieve is as much of a technological gap as possible between its own products and the Android-based products offered by HTC and other vendors."

Carolina Milanese, who leads mobile devices research at technology analysts Gartner, agrees: Apple "want to safeguard the things that give them the competitive edge" and "prove that the Android platform is not as good as people make it out to be".

HTC's big stick

Where does that leave HTC?

When I first interviewed Peter Chou a couple of weeks ago, he refused to comment on the case.

Now that round one has gone to Apple, he is ready to go on the offensive, squeezing in a second interview between attending a Royal Garden Party and a flight back to Taiwan.

HTC is working on "multiple solutions" he says, defending its case at the ITC while innovating workarounds for Apple's patent claim.

Apple's iPhone is still the benchmark of the mobile world

But softly spoken Peter Chou is also about to carry a rather big stick. HTC is in the process of buying S3 Graphics, part-owned by HTC's co-founder and chairwoman Cher Wang.

Mobile phone industry experts may be praising HTC for its smartphone innovation. "Their DNA has always been about technology innovation," says Ms Milanese. But the company holds just a couple of hundred patents, according to Mr Chou.

S3 Graphics, however, has another 235 patents, including two where Apple has already been found guilty (by the ITC) of infringing S3's intellectual property.

Mr Chou uses a parable to send Apple a message.

"We all have been living in this village for a long time, making smartphones. But one day this powerful man came in and said I invented this world, this world is mine. I don't think so. We have been making smartphones before the iPhone. This world belongs to all and nobody has a right to ask other people to leave. "

"What it means," explains Mr Chou, is "we don't want to copy anyone, we want to be a premium product."

"This world, this market is very big... is for all of us. Nobody should tell other people to leave and we should compete in the market place, let consumers decide... rather than in court."

Android food chain

And it is a big market indeed. Ms Milanese even believes that Android phones don't really compete with Apple.

"The brand is such a strong component of the iPhone that you won't walk into a store wanting an iPhone and come out with something else."

Apple and its huge profit margins actually help the makers of Android phones, says Philip Pearson at technology hedge fund GLG Partners; iPhones are providing a "pricing and margin umbrella" under which Android can flourish.

Apple could damage Android's Asian "mobile phone food chain" only if it were to launch a cheap version of the iPhone, says Mr Pearson.

Does HTC make sense?

HTC hopes to stake out its own ground in this smartphone war.

It does not sell plain vanilla Android, but bundles phones with what it calls HTC Sense, an intuitive user interface and a raft of services - from music and films over the internet to the ability to locate or wipe your phone if it's been lost or stolen.

Carolina Milanese sees this as a key factor in HTC's success: Among Apple's competitors "they are the ones that have the better grasp of the importance of the ecosystem, of delivering more than hardware. They don't always get the credit that they should be given."

As the patent battle grinds on, Mr Chou speaks of a mobile future filled with 3D phones (like HTC's Evo), high-speed 4G networks, and cloud computing services that will arrive "faster than we expected and will completely change how people get things done and get information."

Industry analysts agree the company is set for growth.

HTC is "eating Nokia's breakfast," says one. "They're having [Blackberry maker] Research in Motion for lunch," says another.

Mr Chou just has to make sure that his stick of patents is hefty enough.

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Fake Apple stores found in China

 At first glance the fake Apple stores look very like the real thing An American blogger has discovered three fake Apple stores operating in Kunming city, China.

Pictures of the stores, their staff and a description of a stroll around them was posted on the BirdAbroad blog.

In the article, she writes about conversations with staff, many of whom were convinced that they were employed by the US electronics firm.

Apple has said it has no comment to make on the discovery of the counterfeit shops.

On her blog, BirdAbroad described the stores as a "beautiful ripoff - a brilliant one - the best ripoff store we had ever seen".

She describes how convincing the shop was at first glance because so much trouble had been taken to copy key elements of a real Apple store.

For instance, it has a winding staircase, upstairs seating area and employees wearing blue T-shirts and chunky ID lanyards.

Staff believe they are working in a real Apple store Shoddy construction

On closer inspection, wrote BirdAbroad, the store did not seem to be constructed to a particularly high standard.

The stairs appeared to be poorly put together, the walls were not painted properly and, most damning, it had the words "Apple store" written on the shop front.

"Apple never writes 'Apple Store' on its signs - it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit," wrote BirdAbroad.

Research by the blogger revealed that the only official Apple stores in China are in Beijing and Shanghai.

The words "Apple store" do not appear on the signs of real Apple stores

A further check revealed that none of the three stores she found are mentioned on Apple's list of official resellers known to be trading in Kunming.

What was also unclear was where the fake store had got the Apple products on sale - whether they had come from an Apple distributor or a grey market source.

The blog entry mentioning the visit to the fake store has proved hugely popular and has gathered more than 500,000 visits in less than 48 hours.

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Welcome to the Apple store that isn't

They have smiles on their faces and apples on their hearts.

They have iPods, iPads, and MacBook Pros on their tables and pristine white paint on their walls.

But these are mere prestidigitators who want to press you into believing you are in a temple of the digital world. For, as beautifully relayed by the American blogger BirdAbroad, this Apple store in Kunming, China, is less apple pie and more, well, takeaway.

The owners appear to have taken away everything they believe Apple devotees worship in retail. The blogger, a 27-year-old who lives in Kunming with her husband, was herself at first fooled. But then the scales fell from her eyes and the wails began to develop a little lower down.

"The stairs were poorly made. The walls hadn't been painted properly," she noted.

"Appointment at the Genius Bar for next Tuesday? Certainly, madam."

(Credit: BirdAbroad)

When she thought about it a little further she realized that Apple stores aren't called Apple stores. At least not at the store. There is only the Apple logo on the storefront. Yet here were the words "Apple Store," bold as you like.

As the blogger (who seems to be called Jessica) sniffed around further, she examined the MacBooks and other products--which she can't be sure are really MacBooks or, indeed, anything to do with Apple. She then talked to the staff, who truly seemed to believe that they work for Apple.

Crucially, Apple doesn't appear to think so--there is no mention of an Apple store in Kunming on Apple's Web site.

A PC World commenter called MarkWine7 said the store had been open for a while and that it was "100% fake."

Another PC World commenter, Edelbrp, suggested that this might be one of 13 Apple resellers in Kunming--which is in southwestern China and is renowned, among other things, for being the place where Chinese athletes undergo high-altitude training.

BirdAbroad said on her blog, however, that this was not some elevated Apple reseller. She wrote in reply to one commenter on her blog: "If I bring my computer to the fake "Genius Bar," is anyone there actually going to be able to do anything about it? I seriously doubt it."

To support her position, a commenter on her blog called Todd, who said he worked for Apple, was very clear: "As an Apple employee, this is not an Apple Premium Reseller. It doesn't even look like a proper reseller; more like a ghetto version of the Apple Store."

Indeed, the pictured and loftily entitled Apple Store may not even be the only slightly dubious one in the area. BirdAbroad said she espied two more--one of which was helpfully called "Apple Stoer."

It seems that fake Apple products and stores are proliferating in China. There again, perhaps these products are merely leftovers from the Chinese factories that make them in the first place. Every factory has leftovers, doesn't it?

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Apple playlist patent suit winner hits replay for repay

Personal Audio, the company that was awarded $8 million in damages from Apple in patent infringement ruling earlier this month, has come back with a new lawsuit taking aim at additional Apple products it says infringe on the same intellectual property.

In a suit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, picked up by patent tracking blog FOSS Patents, Personal Audio alleges that Apple's sixth-generation iPod Nano, fourth-generation iPod Shuffle, fourth-generation iPod Touch, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 all infringe on the company's patented audio technology. Personal Audio is seeking additional damages for this group of products, which were not included in its first lawsuit.

"The jury instructions given by the Court specifically instructed the jury to disregard any evidence that Personal Audio was entitled to damages relating to products not accused in that litigation," Personal Audio wrote in today's filing. "Furthermore, the verdict form instructed the jury to award damages only for the conduct the jury found to infringe. Consequently, the damages award issued by the jury on July 8, 2011, does not cover any other products."

By that logic, Personal Audio says this handful of other allegedly infringing Apple products that were not included in the original case, still violate its IP in the same way as the others and should now be included.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the suit.

Personal Audio is a nonpracticing entity--meaning it licenses patents but doesn't actually have any other business. The group filed its first case back in 2009 seeking $84 million in damages, alleging that Apple was violating two of its patents: US patent No. 6,199,076, "Audio program player including a dynamic program selection controller" and No. 7,509,178, "Audio program distribution and playback system." Today's suit targets Apple for infringing on just the '076 patent.

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