1. Supposed iPhone prototype shows alt folder and multitasking UIs
Vietnamese website Tinh tế has once again gotten its hands on what appears to be prototype Apple hardware. This time the site has videos of what it says is a white iPhone 4, running some type of test build of iOS. However, while the version number says iOS 4.0, it shows radically different user interfaces for using Springboard folders as well as iOS's task switcher.
Like other prototype iPhone 4 devices uncovered last year, the capacity of the device is listed as "XXGB," but the system reports that it has 64GB of flash storage. The iPhone 4 currently maxes out at 32GB, so if this prototype is the genuine article—and it appears it is—the white iPhone 4 may come in a 64GB option. Apple might use it as an exclusive to make the white iPhone 4 more desirable, or (injecting a little wishful thinking) it may offer 64GB iPhone 4s across the board as a stop-gap measure to keep sales up until an expected fall launch for the iPhone 5.
2. For paranoid Androids, Guardian Project offers smartphone security
The Guardian Project is an open source initiative which aims to take advantage of Google's Android operating system to bring smartphones the same sort of security and privacy that savvy users have come to expect from laptops and desktops. Featuring capabilities like full-disk encryption, secure instant messaging, and anonymous Web browsing, the project hopes to give people better control of their personal information on mobile devices.
For years, security professionals and researchers have been advising users to encrypt everything. Data storage, communications, removable media—keep everything locked down. (As recently as two months ago, California's Supreme Court ruled that police officers can lawfully search the phones of persons they arrest.) However, this sort of security has long been unavailable for mobile devices.
3. Add your local knowledge to the map with Google Map Maker for the United States
Google Map Maker—a product that enables people to add to and update the map for locations around the world—only 15 percent of the world’s population had detailed online maps of their neighborhoods. Using Map Maker, people have built out and edited the maps for 183 countries and regions around the world, and now, due to the contributions of citizen cartographers, 30 percent of people have detailed online maps of the places they live.
Map Maker users have mapped entire cities, road networks and universities that were never previously recorded online. These contributions have been incorporated into Google Maps and Google Earth, so the collective expertise of the Map Maker community benefits the millions of people using these products globally.
Today we’re opening the map of the United States in Google Map Maker for you to add your expert local knowledge directly. You know your neighborhood or hometown best, and with Google Map Maker you can ensure the places you care about are richly represented on the map. For example, you can fix the name of your local pizza parlor, or add a description of your favorite book store.
You can help make the map complete in other ways as well, such as marking the bike lanes in your town or adding all of the buildings on your university campus so they appear in Google Maps. We’ve seen incredibly detailed contributions from power users worldwide, including this comprehensive map of IIT Bombay. We’re eager to see you add the same level of detail to locations in the United States.
To confirm Map Maker user contributions are accurate, each edit will be reviewed. After approval, the edits will appear in Google Maps within minutes—dramatically speeding up the time it takes for online maps to reflect the often-changing physical world. To see examples of what people around the world are adding to Map Maker, you can watch mapping in real-time.
In addition to opening Map Maker for the United States, we’ve added some new features for users globally. You can now get a street-level perspective on places with Street View imagery directly in Map Maker, see and edit all points of interest, and find exactly what you’re looking for with advanced search options such as displaying all railroad tracks.
To learn more, check out our getting started site, or start mapping now at mapmaker.google.com.
4. What Does Google Owe FOSS?
Mobile device developers are in a holding pattern with plans to plug in the much-awaited Google Android 3.0 upgrade. The delay is causing some bad feelings in the FOSS community. But it is unlikely that Google will carry many scars from the dispute. Claiming it needs more time to solve technical glitches, Google recently announced that it was delaying the promised release of code for Honeycomb, the Android 3.0 operating system. The delay in releasing the code has some mobile product developers worried that Google might recant and keep Honeycomb out of the open source inventory altogether.
5. Microsoft's Office 365 Beta Takes On Google Apps
On Monday, Microsoft opened Office 365 -- a cloud-based version of its productivity apps -- to the public for beta testing. The beta version contains Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online. The trial is available in 38 countries and 17 languages. The Office 365 suite is billed as an always up-to-date cloud service. The beta comes in two editions, one for small businesses and one for enterprises. Microsoft wants to simplify connectivity and collaboration for employees.
6. Will Camcorders Go the Way of the Pager?
Cisco pulled the plug on its Flip digital video camera earlier this week, putting an end to its line of popular, relatively low-cost dedicated digital video cameras. Up until December, Cisco had invested a lot of time and effort into building up the market for the device. Could Cisco's stunning reversal be a harbinger of doom for an entire category of devices? With smartphones, tablets and your average pocket digital still camera able to take videos of increasingly high quality, often in high definition, is the bell tolling for standalone digital videocams?
7. You sue us, we'll sue you: Samsung to Apple
Samsung Electronics said it would take counter-action against Apple after the US firm filed suit alleging that the South Korean giant copied its smartphones and tablet computers.
Apple's lawsuit claims Samsung's mobile phones and Galaxy Tab imitated the iPhone and the iPad.
"Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property," the South Korean firm said in a statement.
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Samsung has been successfully developing its own core technologies and building up its intellectual property portfolio, it said.
Yonhap news agency quoted Samsung officials as saying they suspect Apple had violated Samsung's wireless technology patents.
"Apple is one of our key buyers of semiconductors and display panels. However, we have no choice but respond strongly this time," an unidentified official was quoted as saying.
Apple was Samsung's second-largest client in 2010 after Japan's Sony, accounting for four per cent of the South Korean firm's $US142 billion annual revenues.
Apple accused Samsung of copying the look, product design, packaging and user interface of its products, in a lawsuit filed with a US District Court in San Francisco and quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
It claimed Samsung has violated various Apple patents and trademarks.
"Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smartphone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products," the Journal quoted Apple's complaint as saying.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab has been the best-selling rival to the iPad, which has dominated the growing market for the touchscreen devices.
The legal action came as Samsung is scheduled to release the Galaxy S2 smartphone overseas next week. An Australian release date has not been set.
Patent lawsuits are a regular occurrence among technology giants in the United States. Apple is currently embroiled in disputes with Finland's Nokia, Taiwan's HTC and US handset maker Motorola among others.
Vietnamese website Tinh tế has once again gotten its hands on what appears to be prototype Apple hardware. This time the site has videos of what it says is a white iPhone 4, running some type of test build of iOS. However, while the version number says iOS 4.0, it shows radically different user interfaces for using Springboard folders as well as iOS's task switcher.
Like other prototype iPhone 4 devices uncovered last year, the capacity of the device is listed as "XXGB," but the system reports that it has 64GB of flash storage. The iPhone 4 currently maxes out at 32GB, so if this prototype is the genuine article—and it appears it is—the white iPhone 4 may come in a 64GB option. Apple might use it as an exclusive to make the white iPhone 4 more desirable, or (injecting a little wishful thinking) it may offer 64GB iPhone 4s across the board as a stop-gap measure to keep sales up until an expected fall launch for the iPhone 5.
2. For paranoid Androids, Guardian Project offers smartphone security
The Guardian Project is an open source initiative which aims to take advantage of Google's Android operating system to bring smartphones the same sort of security and privacy that savvy users have come to expect from laptops and desktops. Featuring capabilities like full-disk encryption, secure instant messaging, and anonymous Web browsing, the project hopes to give people better control of their personal information on mobile devices.
For years, security professionals and researchers have been advising users to encrypt everything. Data storage, communications, removable media—keep everything locked down. (As recently as two months ago, California's Supreme Court ruled that police officers can lawfully search the phones of persons they arrest.) However, this sort of security has long been unavailable for mobile devices.
3. Add your local knowledge to the map with Google Map Maker for the United States
Google Map Maker—a product that enables people to add to and update the map for locations around the world—only 15 percent of the world’s population had detailed online maps of their neighborhoods. Using Map Maker, people have built out and edited the maps for 183 countries and regions around the world, and now, due to the contributions of citizen cartographers, 30 percent of people have detailed online maps of the places they live.
Map Maker users have mapped entire cities, road networks and universities that were never previously recorded online. These contributions have been incorporated into Google Maps and Google Earth, so the collective expertise of the Map Maker community benefits the millions of people using these products globally.
Today we’re opening the map of the United States in Google Map Maker for you to add your expert local knowledge directly. You know your neighborhood or hometown best, and with Google Map Maker you can ensure the places you care about are richly represented on the map. For example, you can fix the name of your local pizza parlor, or add a description of your favorite book store.
You can help make the map complete in other ways as well, such as marking the bike lanes in your town or adding all of the buildings on your university campus so they appear in Google Maps. We’ve seen incredibly detailed contributions from power users worldwide, including this comprehensive map of IIT Bombay. We’re eager to see you add the same level of detail to locations in the United States.
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
In addition to opening Map Maker for the United States, we’ve added some new features for users globally. You can now get a street-level perspective on places with Street View imagery directly in Map Maker, see and edit all points of interest, and find exactly what you’re looking for with advanced search options such as displaying all railroad tracks.
Browsing all points of interest in downtown Palo Alto, California
4. What Does Google Owe FOSS?
Mobile device developers are in a holding pattern with plans to plug in the much-awaited Google Android 3.0 upgrade. The delay is causing some bad feelings in the FOSS community. But it is unlikely that Google will carry many scars from the dispute. Claiming it needs more time to solve technical glitches, Google recently announced that it was delaying the promised release of code for Honeycomb, the Android 3.0 operating system. The delay in releasing the code has some mobile product developers worried that Google might recant and keep Honeycomb out of the open source inventory altogether.
5. Microsoft's Office 365 Beta Takes On Google Apps
On Monday, Microsoft opened Office 365 -- a cloud-based version of its productivity apps -- to the public for beta testing. The beta version contains Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online. The trial is available in 38 countries and 17 languages. The Office 365 suite is billed as an always up-to-date cloud service. The beta comes in two editions, one for small businesses and one for enterprises. Microsoft wants to simplify connectivity and collaboration for employees.
6. Will Camcorders Go the Way of the Pager?
Cisco pulled the plug on its Flip digital video camera earlier this week, putting an end to its line of popular, relatively low-cost dedicated digital video cameras. Up until December, Cisco had invested a lot of time and effort into building up the market for the device. Could Cisco's stunning reversal be a harbinger of doom for an entire category of devices? With smartphones, tablets and your average pocket digital still camera able to take videos of increasingly high quality, often in high definition, is the bell tolling for standalone digital videocams?
7. You sue us, we'll sue you: Samsung to Apple
Samsung Electronics said it would take counter-action against Apple after the US firm filed suit alleging that the South Korean giant copied its smartphones and tablet computers.
Apple's lawsuit claims Samsung's mobile phones and Galaxy Tab imitated the iPhone and the iPad.
"Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property," the South Korean firm said in a statement.
Advertisement: Story continues below
Samsung has been successfully developing its own core technologies and building up its intellectual property portfolio, it said.
Yonhap news agency quoted Samsung officials as saying they suspect Apple had violated Samsung's wireless technology patents.
"Apple is one of our key buyers of semiconductors and display panels. However, we have no choice but respond strongly this time," an unidentified official was quoted as saying.
Apple was Samsung's second-largest client in 2010 after Japan's Sony, accounting for four per cent of the South Korean firm's $US142 billion annual revenues.
Apple accused Samsung of copying the look, product design, packaging and user interface of its products, in a lawsuit filed with a US District Court in San Francisco and quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
It claimed Samsung has violated various Apple patents and trademarks.
"Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smartphone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple's technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products," the Journal quoted Apple's complaint as saying.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab has been the best-selling rival to the iPad, which has dominated the growing market for the touchscreen devices.
The legal action came as Samsung is scheduled to release the Galaxy S2 smartphone overseas next week. An Australian release date has not been set.
Patent lawsuits are a regular occurrence among technology giants in the United States. Apple is currently embroiled in disputes with Finland's Nokia, Taiwan's HTC and US handset maker Motorola among others.
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