The ad-hoc patent group that offered $4.5 billion for bankrupt Nortel Networks' 6,000 patents is facing antitrust scrutiny for possibly conspiring to keep the technology from Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) clutches.
Nortel June 30 sold its patents to Rockstar Bidco LP, the consortium comprising Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM), Sony, EMC (NYSE:EMC) and Ericsson.
The sale was a blow to Google, which started the bidding by offering Nortel $900 million for the patents back in April. Patent-poor Google desired the patents to protect its Android mobile operating system from increasing litigation from Apple, Microsoft and others trying to compete with the open-source platform.
The American Antitrust Institute sent a letter to the Justice Department asking antitrust officials to begin an investigation of the sale before July 11, which is when courts in Canada and the United States are expected to approve or strike down the deal.
The AAI noted that the $4.5 billion purchase price is five times what Google offered to start the auction bidding, raising questions about why the consortium members could not act alone.
AAI in particular pointed to Apple, Microsft and RIM, which all make smartphone software and each already owns a large portfolio of wireless technology patents.
"Why, in this light, should ANY horizontal collaboration among them (joined by three others with strong portfolios of their own as well) be allowed with regard to the Nortel portfolio, particularly in the absence of any transparent safeguards against anticompetitive effects from it?" noted the AAI.
"Three close competitors' shared control over 6,000 patents surely at a minimum creates significant risk of spillover collusion, tacit or otherwise."
The Washington Post said federal antitrust enforcers are scrutinizing whether the companies unfairly colluded to block Google from buying technology patents that would protect its open-source Android mobile platform. It is not clear whether the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission is looking into the matter.
Patent litigation against Android smartphone makers is rampant and widespread. Apple is suing HTC, Samsung and Motorola over technology included in their Android smartphones. Microsoft is suing Motorola over its Android line.
Google itself is currently facing a serious lawsuit from Oracle, which could enjoin it from offering Android and gain significant damages if it wins the case.
Google had hoped Nortel's patents, which include those for Long Term Evolution wireless technology increasingly used in smartphones today, would provide some shields from the suits.
Without them, Google has little defense versus lawyers seeking to exploit patent law that has yet to adequately compensate for the fast-changing tech sector. Robert X. Cringely had more on the matter.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Apple's PDF Flaw, DOE Attack, Rustock Lead Week's Security News
All anyone could talk this past week was Google+, the new social networking platform from Google that rolled out to a limited audience. The only way to see the new site was to score an invite from someone who is already a member. But Google shut down invites temporarily in face of high demand. That just made it easier for scammers to swoop in with emails masquerading as fake Google+ invites to direct users to online pharmacy scams.
Malicious emails may possibly be behind the "sophisticated cyber-attack" that shut down email and Internet services at another Department of Energy research facility, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The lab shut down all outgoing and incoming traffic July 1, and as of July 8 its Website remained inaccessible. Internal mail was restored midweek.
A team of iPhone developers inadvertently uncovered a serious vulnerability in the way the mobile version of the Safari Web browser uploads PDF files while trying to come up with a way to "jailbreak" the iPhone. The JailbreakMe Website provides users interested in cracking the iPhone operating system with tools so that they can install non-Apple-approved apps on their iOS devices.
The developer who found the vulnerability and used it to create the latest version of the jailbreaking tool also released a patch so that malicious perpetrators can't exploit the flaw for their own nefarious purposes.
This has prompted several security experts to note that Apple users were in an ironic situation where they would be safer from potential attacks by jailbreaking their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touchs to apply the patch. Once Apple rolled out the patch, expected in a "forthcoming update," they could switch back.
Microsoft also unveiled details and more statistics behind the Rustock botnet since Microsoft worked with legal authorities to take down several of the botnet command and control servers in March. Microsoft noted the size of the botnet has been halved and even though there are plenty of infected machines outside of the United States, it remains dark. The report also reaffirmed that its methods, coordinating with law enforcement agencies, other security companies and academics, was successful against botnets.
There were two data breaches announced this week, but only one involved any cyber-hacking. Investment firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney mailed CDs containing sensitive information of about 34,000 of its investors to the New York State Department of Taxation in June. When the package finally reached its intended recipient, the CDs were missing.
The other breach happened over at that venerable newspaper of national record the Washington Post when attackers breached its employment Website, not once, but twice, in the last week of June and stole email addresses. The breach exposes job-seekers to potential spear phishing attacks.
Across the pond, Rupert Murdoch shut down British tabloid News of the World amid allegations that its staffers illegally accessed voice mails of as many as 4,000 individuals, including celebrities, the British royal family and regular people. The key takeaway from the scandal appears to be the importance of protecting the PIN numbers that access the phone mailboxes. But unless carriers take some action, users remain vulnerable to voicemail fraud.
Next week, Microsoft is expected to release four patches fixing 22 vulnerabilities for a fairly light July Patch Tuesday. Three of the four contain fixes for all supported versions of the Windows operating system. Microsoft will also officially end support for Vista Service Pack 1 and Office XP.
Malicious emails may possibly be behind the "sophisticated cyber-attack" that shut down email and Internet services at another Department of Energy research facility, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The lab shut down all outgoing and incoming traffic July 1, and as of July 8 its Website remained inaccessible. Internal mail was restored midweek.
A team of iPhone developers inadvertently uncovered a serious vulnerability in the way the mobile version of the Safari Web browser uploads PDF files while trying to come up with a way to "jailbreak" the iPhone. The JailbreakMe Website provides users interested in cracking the iPhone operating system with tools so that they can install non-Apple-approved apps on their iOS devices.
The developer who found the vulnerability and used it to create the latest version of the jailbreaking tool also released a patch so that malicious perpetrators can't exploit the flaw for their own nefarious purposes.
This has prompted several security experts to note that Apple users were in an ironic situation where they would be safer from potential attacks by jailbreaking their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touchs to apply the patch. Once Apple rolled out the patch, expected in a "forthcoming update," they could switch back.
Microsoft also unveiled details and more statistics behind the Rustock botnet since Microsoft worked with legal authorities to take down several of the botnet command and control servers in March. Microsoft noted the size of the botnet has been halved and even though there are plenty of infected machines outside of the United States, it remains dark. The report also reaffirmed that its methods, coordinating with law enforcement agencies, other security companies and academics, was successful against botnets.
There were two data breaches announced this week, but only one involved any cyber-hacking. Investment firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney mailed CDs containing sensitive information of about 34,000 of its investors to the New York State Department of Taxation in June. When the package finally reached its intended recipient, the CDs were missing.
The other breach happened over at that venerable newspaper of national record the Washington Post when attackers breached its employment Website, not once, but twice, in the last week of June and stole email addresses. The breach exposes job-seekers to potential spear phishing attacks.
Across the pond, Rupert Murdoch shut down British tabloid News of the World amid allegations that its staffers illegally accessed voice mails of as many as 4,000 individuals, including celebrities, the British royal family and regular people. The key takeaway from the scandal appears to be the importance of protecting the PIN numbers that access the phone mailboxes. But unless carriers take some action, users remain vulnerable to voicemail fraud.
Next week, Microsoft is expected to release four patches fixing 22 vulnerabilities for a fairly light July Patch Tuesday. Three of the four contain fixes for all supported versions of the Windows operating system. Microsoft will also officially end support for Vista Service Pack 1 and Office XP.
Java 7 Release Nears
The Java 7 release brings Oracle together with rivals IBM and HP to evolve what has become the most influential programming language for enterprise deployments.
The first release candidate for Java 7 was released this week, with general availability expected by the end of the month. In order to help celebrate the launch of Java 7, Oracle hosted a global event on Thursday highlighting the key features of the new language release. It's a release that brings Oracle together with rivals IBM and HP to evolve what has become the most influential programming language for enterprise application deployments.
"Probably the most significant thing is the fact that we're finally shipping it," Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java platform group at Oracle said. "It has been almost five years now and for various political and business reasons this release has taken some time."
Reinhold noted that after the transition from Sun, Oracle has brought new focus and energy to the release. Oracle acquired Sun in 2010 for $7.4 billion.
In terms of new features, Reinhold noted that Java 7 is an evolutionary release rather than a revolutionary release, as has been the case with some past Java releases.
"There are significant improvements, but nothing really Earth-shattering," Reinhold said.
That said, Reinhold noted that JSR-203 defines new I/O APIs and is particularly interesting to him.
"We finally have a real filesystem API that lets you do things like manipulate symbolic links and access filesystem specific operations when you need to do that," Reinhold said.
Reinhold also highlighted the fork/join framework as being a key new feature for Java 7. He described fork/join as being the first step toward really enabling Java for multicore applications. According to Reinhold, fork/join is one of many ways to deal with expressing parallel computations in a way that will scale well to an arbitrary number of processor cores.
Aside from the code improvements, Reinhold also noted that there has been improvement in the Java development process as well.
"This is the first release where most of the development was done in the open with OpenJDK," Reinhold said. "It's true the development process has not been as transparent as we would have liked, but we're improving that."
One of the other key areas of improvement is in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is now moving in its own direction to support more than just Java.
"For the first time in Java 7, we're starting to see the Java Virtual Machine really chart its own course," Oracle Java engineer Alex Buckley said. "Features are being added to the JVM that are beyond the capabilities of the core Java programming language."
Buckley noted that those 'other' features are there to help implementers of other languages that want to run on top of the JVM.
The other notable fact about Java 7 is that it is a collaborative effort that involves vendors that otherwise are fierce competitors. Oracle has no love lost for IBM or HP and competes aggressively with both vendors in multiple markets, yet on Java they all collaborate.
"Yes we're absolutely fierce competitors," Trent Gray-Donald, IBM Java 7 technical lead said. "But it turns out that we can collaborate."
The first release candidate for Java 7 was released this week, with general availability expected by the end of the month. In order to help celebrate the launch of Java 7, Oracle hosted a global event on Thursday highlighting the key features of the new language release. It's a release that brings Oracle together with rivals IBM and HP to evolve what has become the most influential programming language for enterprise application deployments.
"Probably the most significant thing is the fact that we're finally shipping it," Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java platform group at Oracle said. "It has been almost five years now and for various political and business reasons this release has taken some time."
Reinhold noted that after the transition from Sun, Oracle has brought new focus and energy to the release. Oracle acquired Sun in 2010 for $7.4 billion.
In terms of new features, Reinhold noted that Java 7 is an evolutionary release rather than a revolutionary release, as has been the case with some past Java releases.
"There are significant improvements, but nothing really Earth-shattering," Reinhold said.
That said, Reinhold noted that JSR-203 defines new I/O APIs and is particularly interesting to him.
"We finally have a real filesystem API that lets you do things like manipulate symbolic links and access filesystem specific operations when you need to do that," Reinhold said.
Reinhold also highlighted the fork/join framework as being a key new feature for Java 7. He described fork/join as being the first step toward really enabling Java for multicore applications. According to Reinhold, fork/join is one of many ways to deal with expressing parallel computations in a way that will scale well to an arbitrary number of processor cores.
Aside from the code improvements, Reinhold also noted that there has been improvement in the Java development process as well.
"This is the first release where most of the development was done in the open with OpenJDK," Reinhold said. "It's true the development process has not been as transparent as we would have liked, but we're improving that."
One of the other key areas of improvement is in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is now moving in its own direction to support more than just Java.
"For the first time in Java 7, we're starting to see the Java Virtual Machine really chart its own course," Oracle Java engineer Alex Buckley said. "Features are being added to the JVM that are beyond the capabilities of the core Java programming language."
Buckley noted that those 'other' features are there to help implementers of other languages that want to run on top of the JVM.
The other notable fact about Java 7 is that it is a collaborative effort that involves vendors that otherwise are fierce competitors. Oracle has no love lost for IBM or HP and competes aggressively with both vendors in multiple markets, yet on Java they all collaborate.
"Yes we're absolutely fierce competitors," Trent Gray-Donald, IBM Java 7 technical lead said. "But it turns out that we can collaborate."
Apple iPad Will Dominate Tablet Market Through 2012
Apple’s iPad franchise will continue to dominate the tablet market for some time to come.
In a July 7 research note issued by Canaccord Genuity, analyst T. Michael Walkley and his co-authors suggested that the iPad 2’s price point is making it difficult for rival tablets to compete in a profitable way. “Our checks indicate both the Motorola Xoom and RIM PlayBook have not sold well at current price points, as we believe competing tablets must sell at a substantial discount to the iPad 2,” they wrote.
Their research note estimates Apple’s share of the tablet market at 56 percent in 2011, followed by Samsung with 12 percent, and Asus with 5 percent. LG Electronics, Motorola and Research In Motion are all given 3 percent of the market, followed by HTC with 2 percent. Although Amazon.com has yet to release a tablet, the note pegs their 2011 share at 5 percent. Nor do those percentages change much for 2012, although Apple loses 5 percent of its overall share to rival manufacturers.
“Given the iPad 2’s affordable prices,” the research note added, “we believe competitors such as Motorola Mobility and RIM would have to sell their tablets at break-even or worse in order to capture stronger market share than our current estimates.” Samsung, Asus and Amazon are seen as the largest Android-based threats to Apple’s reign.
The analysts also don’t discount the possibility of Microsoft, which plans to port the next version of Windows onto tablets, making a significant dent in the market: “We also believe a Windows tablet in [the second half of 2012] could sell well, particularly to the enterprise channel.”
All those tablets entering the market, however, are posing a significant challenge to parts suppliers. Even the largest manufacturers, after all, boast only so much capacity—and with companies ranging from Samsung and Hewlett-Packard to Motorola and Asus all anxious to carve off their own piece of the tablet market, it’s a near-certainty that pressure on supply channels will only increase.
According to unnamed “industry sources” speaking to the Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, Amazon will take delivery of its first batch of touch-panels in September, with an ultimate aim of shipping four million tablet units by the end of 2011. However, demand for the iPad could end up hampering Amazon’s efforts.
“TPK, a major supplier of touch modules for Apple’s iPad tablet PCs, has been reluctant to make a commitment to supplying touch panels to Amazon on concerns of capacity,” read the DigiTimes piece, citing those unnamed sources. “Winek has also landed a fair amount of orders from Apple recently… its production schedule will become tight in the second half of the year and it may be difficult for the company to accommodate orders from Amazon.”
During a June 6 presentation at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, company executives claimed that more than 200 million devices running iOS, including the iPad. Despite that sizable number—not to mention analyst optimism about its market share in years to come—Apple is certainly feeling pressure to keep its hardware and software evolving in order to keep ahead of the growing family of increasingly sophisticated Android devices.
If Apple follows its cadence of spacing new iPad releases about a year apart, the next device will appear sometime near the end of 2012’s first quarter.
In a July 7 research note issued by Canaccord Genuity, analyst T. Michael Walkley and his co-authors suggested that the iPad 2’s price point is making it difficult for rival tablets to compete in a profitable way. “Our checks indicate both the Motorola Xoom and RIM PlayBook have not sold well at current price points, as we believe competing tablets must sell at a substantial discount to the iPad 2,” they wrote.
Their research note estimates Apple’s share of the tablet market at 56 percent in 2011, followed by Samsung with 12 percent, and Asus with 5 percent. LG Electronics, Motorola and Research In Motion are all given 3 percent of the market, followed by HTC with 2 percent. Although Amazon.com has yet to release a tablet, the note pegs their 2011 share at 5 percent. Nor do those percentages change much for 2012, although Apple loses 5 percent of its overall share to rival manufacturers.
“Given the iPad 2’s affordable prices,” the research note added, “we believe competitors such as Motorola Mobility and RIM would have to sell their tablets at break-even or worse in order to capture stronger market share than our current estimates.” Samsung, Asus and Amazon are seen as the largest Android-based threats to Apple’s reign.
The analysts also don’t discount the possibility of Microsoft, which plans to port the next version of Windows onto tablets, making a significant dent in the market: “We also believe a Windows tablet in [the second half of 2012] could sell well, particularly to the enterprise channel.”
All those tablets entering the market, however, are posing a significant challenge to parts suppliers. Even the largest manufacturers, after all, boast only so much capacity—and with companies ranging from Samsung and Hewlett-Packard to Motorola and Asus all anxious to carve off their own piece of the tablet market, it’s a near-certainty that pressure on supply channels will only increase.
According to unnamed “industry sources” speaking to the Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, Amazon will take delivery of its first batch of touch-panels in September, with an ultimate aim of shipping four million tablet units by the end of 2011. However, demand for the iPad could end up hampering Amazon’s efforts.
“TPK, a major supplier of touch modules for Apple’s iPad tablet PCs, has been reluctant to make a commitment to supplying touch panels to Amazon on concerns of capacity,” read the DigiTimes piece, citing those unnamed sources. “Winek has also landed a fair amount of orders from Apple recently… its production schedule will become tight in the second half of the year and it may be difficult for the company to accommodate orders from Amazon.”
During a June 6 presentation at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, company executives claimed that more than 200 million devices running iOS, including the iPad. Despite that sizable number—not to mention analyst optimism about its market share in years to come—Apple is certainly feeling pressure to keep its hardware and software evolving in order to keep ahead of the growing family of increasingly sophisticated Android devices.
If Apple follows its cadence of spacing new iPad releases about a year apart, the next device will appear sometime near the end of 2012’s first quarter.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Apple iOS 4.3.4 software update may fix iPhone hole, block PDF jailbreak
Engadget posted a news story that the Apple iOS 4.3.4 software update may fix the iPhone hole and block PDF jailbreak.
Remember that PDF exploit from last year that JailbreakMe 2.0 was using to unlock your iPhone with just a few taps? Well, Apple patched it. And now it's apparently back. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple acknowledged the exploit, and is working on an update at this very moment. In addition to the JailbreakMe 3.0 hack that came to light last week, the hole can also be used for some not-so-noble efforts, like grabbing your contacts database, accessing saved passwords, or activating your iPad or iPhone's built-in camera.
Motorola’s Latest Phone Comes as No Friend to Hackers
Motorola's Droid 3 debuted on Thursday, though phone modification enthusiasts aren't happy with its locked-down software. (Photo courtesy Motorola)
The news first came from a Motorola support forums representative.
“As we’ve communicated, we plan to enable the unlockable-relockable boot loader in future software releases, starting in late 2011, where channel and operator partners will allow it,” said a Motorola spokesperson in a statement provided to Wired.com. “Droid 3 is not built on a software version that includes this feature.”
Locking down the boot loader is a big pain for those who want to modify their Android phone operating systems. Essentially, it drastically limits the extent of modification and customization you can accomplish on your phone. If you wanted to install a particularly popular piece of modding software like, say, CyanogenMod — a very popular custom Android build that optimizes a phone’s hardware performance and adds a number of nifty flourishes — with a locked boot loader, you’re out of luck.
In today’s smartphone landscape, handset manufacturers face pressure from wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T to lock down phone boot loaders. This is done especially to prohibit the potential installation of software used to do things that carriers don’t want you doing, like, say, capture licensed streaming content. There’s also software available that lets you tether your phone to your computer — providing it with an internet connection for free — a feature for which wireless companies normally charge users. Bypassing that charge means cutting into a carrier’s bottom line.
Motorola doesn’t want to deal with the tech support nightmare that widespread phone hacks entail. “If you brick your phone messing with it” — which basically means rendering the device useless, like an electronic “brick,” as it were — “we don’t want to have to fix it under warranty,” a Motorola representative wrote in a message board post.
Because of all this, hacker-unfriendly phones aren’t uncommon. Motorola’s Atrix debuted with a locked boot loader, as have many of the company’s phones since the release of the Droid 2. Motorola’s upcoming Photon 4G smartphone will also be locked down.
Android modification junkies aren’t happy about Motorola’s decisions. In March, one Motorola smartphone owner started an online petition, asking others who don’t agree with the company’s locked boot loader decisions to sign and bring up the issue on Moto’s Facebook page. As of this post’s publishing time, the petition has over 10,000 signatures.
Given the hardware specs on the Droid 3, it’s especially disappointing for hackers to see the phone debut as mod-unfriendly. The Droid 3 has a beefy dual-core 1GHz processor under the hood, which, when used in conjunction with modding software, can be overclocked to faster speeds.
The future isn’t entirely grim for phone hackers. Motorola continually promises a change in locked boot loader policy come late 2011, and other companies like Sony Ericsson have even begun to court the modding community, providing a detailed list of instructions on how to unlock the company’s phones.
It seems as if the predominant feeling is “we’ll believe it when we see it.”
“There’s not a single reason to believe that Motorola has truly changed their views,” wrote an angry Motorola message board user in a post. “We’re not saying you have to unlock all our devices now, but a little sign of good faith would be much appreciated.”
Verizon iPhone 4 accounts for 32% of all US iPhone 4 traffic
After just four months on the market, the iPhone 4 on Verizon makes up nearly a third of the U.S. iPhone 4 market, according to one analytics firm.
Mobile analytics firm Localytics published a report on on Thursday charting the growth of the Verizon iPhone 4 since it launched in February, as noted by Brad Reed of Network World. The report compiles data from app usage during the last week of the month to reflect each carrier's market share.
As of July 1, Verizon's share of all U.S. iPhone 4 traffic stands at 32 percent, compared to AT&T's 68 percent share. According to the report, the carrier's presence quickly jumped to a 20 percent share shortly after launch before slowing down to modest gains in the spring. Then, in May and June, Verizon's share of U.S. iPhone 4 app usage experienced a spike in growth, growing from 25.9 percent to 32.3 percent.
The firm speculated that adoption on Verizon may have ramped up ahead of the carrier's July 7 transition away from unlimited data plans. The wireless operator had previously warned that unlimited iPhone plans would only be available for a limited time. A leak last month correctly predicted the July 7 change.
Rival carrier AT&T did away with its unlimited data plans last June, though some subscribers reported having been offered an unlimited plan from the company earlier this year as the Verizon iPhone launch loomed.
Verizon announced in April that it had activated 2.2 million iPhone 4 units less than two months after the device's launch, making it the most successful handset launch in the company's history. By way of comparison, AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones in the first quarter of this year, though that figure also includes a portion of iPhone 3GS models sold. All told, Apple sold 18.65 million iPhones during that period.
Apple is expected to simultaneously launch the iPhone 5 on both Verizon and AT&T. Various reports have suggested that the next-generation handset will be a dual-mode GSM-CDMA device.
Rumors of the iPhone 5 have picked up steam as of late ahead of an expected fall release. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the next-generation device will be thinner and lighter with an 8-megapixel camera.
Mobile analytics firm Localytics published a report on on Thursday charting the growth of the Verizon iPhone 4 since it launched in February, as noted by Brad Reed of Network World. The report compiles data from app usage during the last week of the month to reflect each carrier's market share.
As of July 1, Verizon's share of all U.S. iPhone 4 traffic stands at 32 percent, compared to AT&T's 68 percent share. According to the report, the carrier's presence quickly jumped to a 20 percent share shortly after launch before slowing down to modest gains in the spring. Then, in May and June, Verizon's share of U.S. iPhone 4 app usage experienced a spike in growth, growing from 25.9 percent to 32.3 percent.
The firm speculated that adoption on Verizon may have ramped up ahead of the carrier's July 7 transition away from unlimited data plans. The wireless operator had previously warned that unlimited iPhone plans would only be available for a limited time. A leak last month correctly predicted the July 7 change.
Rival carrier AT&T did away with its unlimited data plans last June, though some subscribers reported having been offered an unlimited plan from the company earlier this year as the Verizon iPhone launch loomed.
Verizon announced in April that it had activated 2.2 million iPhone 4 units less than two months after the device's launch, making it the most successful handset launch in the company's history. By way of comparison, AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones in the first quarter of this year, though that figure also includes a portion of iPhone 3GS models sold. All told, Apple sold 18.65 million iPhones during that period.
Apple is expected to simultaneously launch the iPhone 5 on both Verizon and AT&T. Various reports have suggested that the next-generation handset will be a dual-mode GSM-CDMA device.
Rumors of the iPhone 5 have picked up steam as of late ahead of an expected fall release. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the next-generation device will be thinner and lighter with an 8-megapixel camera.
Beer pitcher inspires Apple's future iPhone
One day, if Apple follows through on work embodied in a recent patent application, you'll be able to "pour" data from your iPhone into an iPad lying on a table below it.
Or, with the flick of the wrist, you'll "throw" photos and videos from your iPod touch onto your desktop Mac's display.
Or you'll gently blow a file to a close friend.
This user-interface wackiness – and more – is described in "Intuitive, gesture-based communications with physics metaphors", a patent application filed in January of last year and published this Thursday.
The lead inventor listed in the filing, Brett Bilbrey, is the senior manager of Apple's Technology Advancement group – and as he says in his LinkedIn profile after giving his title: "And as you can imagine, that is about all I can say about that."
Indeed. The only way we mere mortals can glimpse what may be going on behind Cupertino's brushed-aluminum curtain is through patent applications such as this one – and, by the way, you can join in the fun at the United States Patent and Trademark Office's search page each and every Thursday, when applications are published.
This week's look-see turned up one of the more offbeat UI ideas than we've seen in some time. The basic idea is that a device's "one or more onboard motion sensors" could detect a gesture such as tipping or flipping, and then cause onscreen items to animate in ways governed by a "physics metaphor" that would eject those items from one device and land them on another device with which the first device shares a network connection.
Tip your handset, and pour files and other items onto the surface of your tablet
"During the transfer," the filing explains, "the first device can animate the object to simulate the object leaving the first device and the second device can animate the object to simulate the object entering the second device."
In addition to being activated by motion sensors – think accelerometers or gyroscopes – flicking and tossing could also be induced by gestures on a trackpad or touch-sensitive display. One might, for example, shove photos one by one off your iPad and onto a friend's.
Our particular favorite method of moving on-screen objects is described as follows: "A user can initiate transmission of a selected file by generally aligning the device with the target device and then blowing air across the display of the device. One or more microphones on the device can detect the sound of moving air and the direction of airflow. The direction of airflow can be used to infer the intent of the user to identify a target device."
Scrawl a note on your touchscreen, then flick it across the room to another device
The filing goes into some detail about how the transfer animations might look. A virtual portal, for example, might appear on the first device, and the object might swirl into it like water going down a drain, or be distorted like Mac OS X's "genie effect." Larger files might move more slowly when tipped towards the virtual opening, while smaller files might zip quickly through.
Altenatively, an object might simply dissolve "like a tablet in water", then rematerialize on the target device. On that device, objects could be made to appear as if they are floating above other on-screen elements until their transfer was accepted.
Sounds could accompany the transfers, as well. Examples given in the filing include "the sound of liquid pouring, a tablet fizzing, gas through a valve, a sci-fi teleporter, or other sound that audibly represent the transfer of a material from one point to another."
Gestures could also be used to initiate actions other than data transfer. One example provided is for a user to lift a device "skyward in a gesture that symbolizes uplifting a torch" in order to initiate a network connection.
Lift your device skyward to communicate with the cloud – which is, after all, "up there"
And the filing anticipates what we assume was your next question: "The user can first put the device in a transfer state using touch or other input so that the acceleration can be interpreted as a gesture and not another source of acceleration, such as an acceleration generated when a user of the device is on an elevator."
Or, with the flick of the wrist, you'll "throw" photos and videos from your iPod touch onto your desktop Mac's display.
Or you'll gently blow a file to a close friend.
This user-interface wackiness – and more – is described in "Intuitive, gesture-based communications with physics metaphors", a patent application filed in January of last year and published this Thursday.
The lead inventor listed in the filing, Brett Bilbrey, is the senior manager of Apple's Technology Advancement group – and as he says in his LinkedIn profile after giving his title: "And as you can imagine, that is about all I can say about that."
Indeed. The only way we mere mortals can glimpse what may be going on behind Cupertino's brushed-aluminum curtain is through patent applications such as this one – and, by the way, you can join in the fun at the United States Patent and Trademark Office's search page each and every Thursday, when applications are published.
This week's look-see turned up one of the more offbeat UI ideas than we've seen in some time. The basic idea is that a device's "one or more onboard motion sensors" could detect a gesture such as tipping or flipping, and then cause onscreen items to animate in ways governed by a "physics metaphor" that would eject those items from one device and land them on another device with which the first device shares a network connection.
Tip your handset, and pour files and other items onto the surface of your tabletIn addition to being activated by motion sensors – think accelerometers or gyroscopes – flicking and tossing could also be induced by gestures on a trackpad or touch-sensitive display. One might, for example, shove photos one by one off your iPad and onto a friend's.
Our particular favorite method of moving on-screen objects is described as follows: "A user can initiate transmission of a selected file by generally aligning the device with the target device and then blowing air across the display of the device. One or more microphones on the device can detect the sound of moving air and the direction of airflow. The direction of airflow can be used to infer the intent of the user to identify a target device."
Scrawl a note on your touchscreen, then flick it across the room to another deviceAltenatively, an object might simply dissolve "like a tablet in water", then rematerialize on the target device. On that device, objects could be made to appear as if they are floating above other on-screen elements until their transfer was accepted.
Sounds could accompany the transfers, as well. Examples given in the filing include "the sound of liquid pouring, a tablet fizzing, gas through a valve, a sci-fi teleporter, or other sound that audibly represent the transfer of a material from one point to another."
Gestures could also be used to initiate actions other than data transfer. One example provided is for a user to lift a device "skyward in a gesture that symbolizes uplifting a torch" in order to initiate a network connection.
Lift your device skyward to communicate with the cloud – which is, after all, "up there"Top-down, Kinect-enabled Burnout Crash smashing XBLA, PSN this fall
Criterion Games' follow-up to the open world Burnout Paradise, Burnout Crash—or CRASH!, as it prefers to be called—is a downloadable game described by the developer as "a crazy mix of pinball and game shows."
The top-down arcade-style game appears to be all about destruction. You'll earn points for crashing into cars, making things blow up, and just generally causing as much chaos as possible. "We’ve evolved the core gameplay which everyone loved about Crash Mode," said creative director Richard Franke.
The game will also make use of Autolog—the much-touted social feature that debuted in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, also developed by Criterion—in order to track high scores and provide other social networking features. The game also introduces Autolog challenges, for competitive multiplayer play.
Crash is coming to both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, but 360 owners who happen to have Kinect will also be treated to an extra mode: a local multiplayer mode where players use gesture controls in some sort of team-based party game. Based on the footage above, it looks like the Kinect mode will have gamers pretending to turn an invisible steering wheel in order to drive their vehicles.
To watch video click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvv8mHCgjg&feature=player_embedded
The top-down arcade-style game appears to be all about destruction. You'll earn points for crashing into cars, making things blow up, and just generally causing as much chaos as possible. "We’ve evolved the core gameplay which everyone loved about Crash Mode," said creative director Richard Franke.
The game will also make use of Autolog—the much-touted social feature that debuted in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, also developed by Criterion—in order to track high scores and provide other social networking features. The game also introduces Autolog challenges, for competitive multiplayer play.
Crash is coming to both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, but 360 owners who happen to have Kinect will also be treated to an extra mode: a local multiplayer mode where players use gesture controls in some sort of team-based party game. Based on the footage above, it looks like the Kinect mode will have gamers pretending to turn an invisible steering wheel in order to drive their vehicles.
To watch video click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvv8mHCgjg&feature=player_embedded
Modern classic Limbo coming to PS3, Steam
Limbo is easily one of the best games to come out of the Xbox Live Arcade. We've talked about the game in-depth, and we've even had a conversation about what the ending meant, with input from our community. A one-of-a-kind art print was also given away during our Child's Play drive last year.
The bad news is that the game was exclusive to the Xbox 360. The good news is that the exclusivity is just about over.
"It has been one year since Limbo originally launched, and that year has been an incredible time for everyone at Playdead," Playdead co-founder Dino Patti wrote on the PlayStation Blog. "We’ve gotten feedback from many people around the world, and it’s been amazing to hear about the experiences people have had with the game."
He also gave an official release date for the PlayStation 3 version: July 19 in the US and July 20 for Europe. Other regions will be announced soon. He also teased an extra surprise the team will be sharing in the near future.
Just in case you're not a fan of consoles, the game is also coming to Steam on August 2, worldwide.
This is an amazing game, and I'm happy that more people can play it. I'm sure people will still complain that it isn't coming to their Android phone or Linux install, but still... this is pretty good.
The bad news is that the game was exclusive to the Xbox 360. The good news is that the exclusivity is just about over.
"It has been one year since Limbo originally launched, and that year has been an incredible time for everyone at Playdead," Playdead co-founder Dino Patti wrote on the PlayStation Blog. "We’ve gotten feedback from many people around the world, and it’s been amazing to hear about the experiences people have had with the game."
He also gave an official release date for the PlayStation 3 version: July 19 in the US and July 20 for Europe. Other regions will be announced soon. He also teased an extra surprise the team will be sharing in the near future.
Just in case you're not a fan of consoles, the game is also coming to Steam on August 2, worldwide.
This is an amazing game, and I'm happy that more people can play it. I'm sure people will still complain that it isn't coming to their Android phone or Linux install, but still... this is pretty good.
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