Tech Industry

Quattro posted to its website that it had been purchased by Apple today. It was reported last night that the deal had been finalized but until now neither Apple nor Quattro had confirmed the news.  

“We look forward to developing exciting new opportunities that will benefit Quattro Wireless customers in the future,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said.

A post by Andy Miller, Vice President, Mobile Advertising for Apple (formerly CEO of Quattro) tells us they’ll keep servicing their current customers…yada yada…

We reported back in December that Apple had submitted some patents for 3D Operating System navigation.  It turns out that they’ve also been looking at 3D multi-touch as a way of navigating a multi-touch tablet/iPhone.  The Baltimore Sun (via PED) dug up a patent from last month (#20090303231, Dec. 10, 2009  to be exact) on just such an idea.

[0034]The device supports a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a game application, a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.

If this patent comes to fruition, the next iPhone/iPod/tablet interface might be nothing like anything we’ve seen before, and it could perhaps explain why we’ve been hearing the possibility of a “new type of interaction” to accompany the tablet.

The Sun also reports:

According to documents filed with the USPTO, Apple obtained the rights to this patent application from three French citizens: Fabrice Robinet, Thomas Goossens, and Alexandre Moha. The inventors assigned the patent to Apple on Sept. 29, 2008. It’s not clear if those citizens are Apple employees, per se. (Update: Actually, Mr. Moha is a product and engineering manager at Apple, per his LinkedIn profile; and Mr. Robinet is a software engineer at Apple, again, per LinkedIn.) Regardless, searches under Apple’s name in the patents database doesn’t retrieve this patent, because the names of the original French inventors are still on it. (I wonder why that is? Hmmm. :-)

Apple (AAPL) today announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide.

Apple and Disney may be working together to develop video and multimedia on demand services via MobileMe, an interesting Patently Apple report speculates today.

Reaching for the notion, the report cites an October 2009 Apple patent. This patent enables a system by which MobileMe members could, for example, partially view television or any video content on their iPhone and then switch to viewing the media on an Apple TV, a Mac or what have you on their return home, where they would continue viewing that content from exactly where they stopped watching without having to manually reposition playback of the video.

The New York Times says we

Apple

Intel’s new Arrandale laptop chips benchmarks are being published today by just about everyone: HotHardware, AnandTech, Tom’s Hardware, PCPerspective, and Legit Reviews all chime in.  The results?  The 32nm Arrandale chips best the current 45nm Penryn Core2 Duo lineup by about 20% overall according to Anandtech (or 40-50% according to Legit Reviews) with some processes getting a bigger boost than others.  

Power usage in this round stays about the same or, strangely for a chip that uses a smaller manufacturing process, actually goes up with the new chips. However, by mid-year the new Arrandale chips should see significant improvements (which might give Apple a reason to delay updating).   But Apple isn’t usually one to let a fast processor pass them by.

In the words of Tom’s Hardware:

So long, Core 2 Duo. The wheels of progress keep on spinning, and Arrandale is playing you out.

Apple

CNBC is airing a special centered on the new App economy this week called Planet of the Apps.  It might be interesting but we’re prepared to be bored to death with stuff we already know about.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUO4u9IZIzU&w=600&h=385]

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

What is Your Favorite App?
There

That’s the story that Silicon Alley Insider is running based on this singular tip:

I saw your recent post on Tim Cook at Apple.  I don’t know if he has been contacted yet but he is the top candidate that Spencer Stuart has identified as the next CEO of GM.  I have an inside source at Spencer Stuart.

[Interim CEO Edward E. Whitacre] wants the candidate to come from a company known for operational excellence, innovation and customer satisfaction and in addition he is looking for someone that has turnaround experience. It also doesn’t hurt that [Tim] has been able to work with Jobs. Whitacre does want to stay on as Chairman.  Also, Cook has been the key link to AT&T and should understand the culture that Whitacre,  [a former AT&T CEO] built.  

Even if Cook was chosen, would he leave Apple to run GM?  Would Apple let him go without a fight?  Seems very unlikely. 

Another Apple patent today looks remarkably similar to the functionality of Google Latitude which Apple relegated to WebApp status earlier this year.  Obviously if Apple is working on their own version of Google Latitude (or owns the IP rights to this functionality), they’d be hesitant to put an app with the same functionality on their devices from another company.  Now it all makes sense!

In Apple’s implementation, it looks like the location data can be carried in an SMS or Instant Message (interesting news in its own right), which can then be opened in the Maps application to show the other person’s location relative to the iPhone user’s.

Also, note what appears to be another instance of a front-facing camera on the iPhone image below.  We’re calling it now: iPhone 4G (and tablet + maybe iPod touch) get front faing cameras.  Who is with us?

From Patently Apple:

Two other patents published today are directly related to Apple’s iPhone Maps + Compass capabilities as follows:

Location Sharing: Abstract – Geographic location data is sent from a first device to a second device with a modified message to signal the presence of geographic location data associated with the message. The message can include (or attach) the geographic location data or file, or the message can include a link to a network-based resource which the second device can use to obtain the geographic location data. In some implementations, when a user of the first device views a location on a map display of the first device, a graphical user interface is presented to allow the user to select an option to share the geographic location with the second device. The second device receives geographic location data or a link from the first device which can trigger a map display on the second device showing the location of the first device and, optionally, the location of the second device. For more information on patent application 20090325603, view this temporary link.

Position Fix Indicator: Abstract – In some implementations, a method includes: obtaining a first position measure at a mobile device indicating a geographic area where the mobile device is located, presenting a first graphical indicator on a user interface representing the geographic area; obtaining a second position measure at the mobile device, indicating a location associated with the mobile device, and within the geographic area; and presenting a second graphical indicator on the user interface representing the location within the geographic area. For more information on patent 20090326815, view this temporary link.

Well, maybe it is on Amazon.  $4 worth of Video On Demand videos for free until Jan 3rd.  They’ve got a pretty solid selection of movies for $2.99 as a place to start looking.  Happy New Year!

Apple will indeed announce its much talked about but still unconfirmed tablet device next month, and this will be equipped with 3D graphics and cost under $1,000, the former president of Google China, Kai-Fu Lee, wrote in a blog post last night.

Lee informs us that

Clayton Morris at FoxNews is going on record saying that Apple is indeed holding an event in January as the Financial Times mentioned last week. He goes a step further saying that the event will focus on “Mobility”.  This event would likely follow a Google January 5th event that will showcase the Google Phone or Nexus one.

I’ve spoken to a source inside Apple who confirmed a “big” event for January. While nothing official has been handed down from the notoriously tight-lipped company, my source took the Financial Times report one step further by saying this event will focus on the mobility space, meaning we’ll see something related to the iPhone/Touch product line.

Obviously this event screams tablet, but might we also see such things as iPod touches with cameras, new software or iPhone upgrades as well?

Friendly competition or a battle between two former allies? Google has proved pre-Christmas rumours as fact, and set January 5 as a special event, presumably for the

Broadpoint AmTech analyst, Brian Marshall, has issued revised estimates for iPhone sales, pegging the highest numbers so far predicted for Apple

Apple is securing components for its soon-to-launch tablet device, which recent rumours suggest may make an appearance on January 26 – but already reports hint at delays until the much speculated-upon device actually ships.

A pair of overnight reports name two component suppliers for the tablet: MacRumors notes Taiwan

Look, we know there is a “Ain’t nuthin wrong with Safari” crowd out there who isn’t interested in other browsers like Firefox, Chrome and now Opera.  That’s OK, just head over to the next story.

For those who are interested, Opera has an Alpha release of their new Javascript Engine, Caraken, that is damn fast on slower connections (like the Mifi here at the parents’ vacation house).  Lifehacker ran some tests and it clobbered everying out there on Javascript tests, sometimes doubling or

tripling the performance of Chrome. 

I’m using Gmail which seems faster on Opera than either Chrome or Safari but can’t vouch for any of these tests personally.

Download it for Mac here.  Again, please remember that this is an unstable development build. There are known bugs, unimplemented UI elements and surprise crashes.

It also has some nice pre-caching features for slow connections that are help the holiday work go by a bit easier…

Taiwanese sources suggest the debut of an all-new model iPhone, equipped with a 5-megapixel camera, could coincide with the currently mooted WWDC 2010 event in June.

Industry sources report orders for OmniVision

Rest assured: TV broadcasters are serious about taking themselves online: YouTube now offers TV shows through its service; Apple is speaking to the networks with a view to offering TV subscription shows streamed over the internet via iTunes; and the BBC has received approval for its plan to create a platform for Internet TV broadcasting.

This could be a blow to cable and satellite TV companies by making much of the content they keep behind their paid-for wall more easily available through other media. Increasingly, it

Even a year ago, most would have scoffed at the idea of Apple having to partner with Microsoft to fight off Google.  Google and Apple even shared two Directors, including Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.  Microsoft, on the other hand, has been Apple’s traditional rival since Windows was released two decades ago.

What a difference a year makes.  As RWW and PCWorld point out, the idea isn’t as far fetched now.  Apple and Google are no longer friendly, no longer share directors and most importantly now compete in key areas.  Apple’s most important product for the future is the iPhone platform and Microsoft is hardly competing in this area.  Google, on the other hand, seems to be the up and coming threat to Apple’s iPhone.

This rivalry has been getting nasty lately with Google swopping in and picking up Admob before Apple could buy it, then Apple buying Lala after Google started making bids.   Before that, Apple turned down Latitude and Google Voice (and Navigation?) on the iPhone.  Google has started to release its products on Android first, if not on Android-only.  Apple bought Placebase this year, according to some, to replace Google Maps on its iPhone platform.

Google also has a new laptop OS on the way that will run a WebKit based Chrome browser which could compete with OSX/Safari.  They also have free office apps which compete with Apple’s paid-for platform.  Speaking of paid services, Google offers a free alternative to Apple’s MobileMe.   Microsoft also competes in these fields but it might make sense for the two giants to fend off the up-and-comer at some point.

Microsoft and Apple already have done work on the iPhone to support Exchange, while Google Apps is more difficult to get working natively on the iPhone.

Would it surprise anyone to see Apple offer Bing as a search alternative in Safari?  How about Microsoft building iPhone versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint?  That’s only the beginning.

If Google continues to encroach on the two giants’ main revenue generators, I’d expect to see much more ‘cooperation between Cupertino and Redmond.

We’d normally skip over this report from Computerworld except for the fun fact that Psystar is now in the T-shirt business.  Oh, they also list the RebelEFI firmware, but apparently, they are out of stock of the downloadable software.

Seems like a pretty reputable operation at this point.  Don’t believe us?  Check out their ad campaigns.