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David Pogue, in his review of Google’s new Google Maps application for iPhone and iPod touch, shares a couple of interesting tidbits from Google. First, Google reportedly has admitted that its iOS Google Maps application is better than its implementation on Android devices:
Google admits that it’s even better than Google Maps for Android phones, which has accommodated its evolving feature set mainly by piling on menus.
While the version for iOS takes much of the Android version’s functionality, it does still lack offline mode and full-tablet support. After noting the lack of offline map saving and iPad support, Pogue shares that Google said “that goodies like those will be coming soon.”
Apple, along with a group of other technology companies that includes Samsung, Nokia, Intel and RIM, is pushing congress for more technology product airwaves, according to The Hill. Amidst the recent Fiscal Cliff talks, the technology firms say that talks over auctioning off new spectrums for airwaves is “relevant.”
The companies urged the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate technology committees to look into auctioning some of the spectrum currently used by federal agencies. “Now is the time to ensure the incentive auctions are as robust and successful as possible at liberating spectrum. We should also turn our collective attention on ways to reap the economic benefits of underutilized federal spectrum assets,” they wrote.
These filters are powered by Aviary, a notable photo-editing SDK.
Create beautiful photos right within Twitter, with filters powered by Aviary.
– Apply one of eight different filters to instantly add a new look and feel to your photos
– Choose a filter by comparing all your options in a convenient grid view or by swiping through each version
– Make your photos pop with balanced light and colors by tapping the auto-enhance wand
– Crop and scale to frame the action the way you want
We’ve also added many other improvements and fixes to this update.
Twitter says that the update includes eight easily-appliable filters. An auto-enhancement button, cropping, and other photo editing tools are also available.
Google’s Gmail email service is currently experiencing intermittent outages. The service seemed to have been down for a large percentage of users, but it is now once again working for some users. Many users are still reporting that it is still down for them. For those who are still having issues accessing Gmail on the web, we’ve been able to access Gmail via Google’s mobile apps.
Update: Google just updated its Apps Status Dashboard (above) to notify users that it is investigating the Gmail service disruption and will provide more details soon.
Also, as seen below, Google alerted users that Google Drive also experienced service disruptions this afternoon, but the issues were apparently resolved within three minutes of updating the Apps Status Dashboard.
Samsung has posted a teaser video its website promising “something new” during CES 2013. As you can see, the video is rather ambiguous so it is hard to tell what Samsung is teasing.
The most recent update to Android’s Google Now voice feature, as noted on the Android Google+ account, includes a very handy new “what’s this song?” feature.
The enhancement is reminiscent of the popular Shazam feature: simply ask your device “what song is playing?” and your device’s microphone will listen to your music, interpret it, and then notify you of the song’s name.
Additionally, the feature can even speak the song title back to you. Artist information, and pricing and download access via the Google Play music store is also available directly via Google Now.
According to comments on the Google+ posting noting the feature, it appears that it may currently be exclusive to users in the United States.
According to several reader tips that we have received, Google has begun selling books and movies in its Google Play store in Brazil. TecnoBlog has verified this and provided some screenshots (via TNW) of the Brazil Play store.
Simultaneously, Amazon has announced that it has opened up a version of its Kindle book store in Brazil.
Amazon today launched the Brazil Kindle Store (www.amazon.com.br) with the largest selection of the most popular books, including the most Veja best sellers and lowest prices of any eBookstore in Brazil. The Brazil Kindle Store offers over 1.4 million books, now available to Brazilian customers priced in Brazilian Reais (R$), including more than 13,000 Portuguese-language books, 49 of 60 Veja best sellers—the most of any digital bookstore—and the most free books in Portuguese. In addition, Amazon announced that Kindle—the world’s #1 best-selling e-reader for five years running—will go on sale in Brazil in the coming weeks with a suggested retail price of R$299. For more information, and to begin shopping in the Kindle Store, visit www.amazon.com.br.
Google is now allowing customers of the Google Apps service to distribute internal applications via a new channel in the Google Play store to employees. Google says that this new feature makes it easier than ever to distribute apps to employees. Employees are said to simply have to login to the Play channel with their Google Apps login information and the company apps will be ready to download.
Apple and HTC have announced that the two companies have reached a global settlement regarding the two firm’s multiple patent infringement lawsuits. The agreement is on a global-scale and includes a ten-year licensing agreement. All current lawsuits have been dismissed.
TAIPEI, Taiwan and CUPERTINO, California—November 10, 2012—HTC and Apple® have reached a global settlement that includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement. The license extends to current and future patents held by both parties. The terms of the settlement are confidential.
“We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. “We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.” Peter Chou, HTC’s CEO, said “HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation.”
Apple’s March 2010 suit against HTC was its first against an Android manufacturer (Samsung and others would follow) and was in direct response to the HTC-built Nexus One gaining multi-touch support exactly one month to the day earlier. Apple’s suit alleged 20 separate patent infringements relating to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.
At the time Steve Jobs said:
“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook is seen as a more moderate, less temperamental leader who remarked recently that he was willing to put Android lawsuits behind Apple. HTC had counter-sued Apple with patents it had licensed from Google as well as other patents it had picked up from S3. In a recent ruling att he ITC, all but one of Apple’s patent claims against HTC were dismissed.
On October 29th, Google will be holding, as noted by The Next Web, an Android-related event in New York City. The event will likely cover heavily-rumored topics like a new Nexus smartphone.
Following Apple’s win against Samsung in U.S. court last week, Apple has identified which devices it will seek bans on. The Verge posts Apple’s list, which features ban requests for the Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S 2 for AT&T, Samsung Skyrocket, the S2 on T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge, and Galaxy Prevail. Notably, Google’s flagship Galaxy Nexus smartphone is not present on this list. Separately, Bloomberg notes that Apple is seeking a ban on the cellular version of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Notably, this is the tablet that the U.S.-based jury believed did not infringe Apple’s patents.
Google has posted a new Google Maps webpage to help those affected by Hurricane Isaac. The webpage includes a large map to show where Isaac is heading. Additionally, shelter information and more is included.
Today, RealNetworks has launched a new RealPlayer app for Android that it considers a single hub for all of an Android user’s media.
The RealPlayer app for Android offers an easier way to enjoy music, videos and photos on the go. It simplifies the experience by letting you get all your entertainment with just one click – eliminating the need for multiple players and apps to browse your music; play your videos; get your photos; and connect and share on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
RealNetworks says that the beta version of the app already reached 11.2 million users.
The company provides a list of some of the key features:
Easily Organize & Play Music – Use an intuitive interface, metadata discovery, widgets and voice-controlled search.
Listen to Music Your Way – You are the DJ with an equalizer, playlist editor, cross fade and personalized radio.
Share Your Media – Show off your media on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Picasa.
The free RealPlayer app is available for free via the Google Play store.
YouTube has announced that it and Sony have partnered for a great, custom YouTube experience on the Playstation 3 game console. YouTube was previously available on PS3 through the product’s web browser, but this is a custom app that provides an entirely new way to browse YouTube’s content library.
The interface, optimized for television monitors, is controlled by the PlayStation 3’s gaming remote. You can also utilitize your smartphone as a remote. Through the smartphone pairing, there is even Apple/iOS-AirPlay like functionality for sending a YouTube video from the smartphone to your PS3 and the big screen.
An optimal search interface and video viewing by subscriptions are also present features in the app.
YouTube for PS3 is available for free under “My Channels” in the PlayStation store. It begins rolling out today in North America. YouTube does not provide a time table for other regions.
In the current smartphone race, which basically comes down to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, the key differentiator is that one OS is licensed to several manufactures (Android), and the other runs solely on the OS creator’s optimized handsets (iOS). With RIM publicly struggling as a company, with a clear need for a new direction, the company says it will take the Google OS route and license its upcoming BlackBerry 10 software to other handset makers.
QNX is already licensed across the automotive sector — we could do that with BB10 if we chose to,” Heins, who has begun to carry a BB10 phone for his own use, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “The platform can be licensed.
RIM’s current smartphone lineup (and in the past) has closely mirrored Apple’s approach. RIM has built and optimized its own software and hardware to work in tandem. RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 10 mobile device operating system is a major departure from the company’s current mobile operating system. It is completely re-written and redesigned for touch and new features like advanced multitasking.
BlackBerry 10 will begin making its way onto smartphones in 2013.
As highlighted by VentureBeat, an interesting new mobile application creation utility called Human.io has launched. The new service allows developers to create ‘micro-apps’ that are lightweight and heavily reliant on APIs that allow these smaller apps to integrate well with users.
Human.io presents some examples of what micro-apps can do with users:
Collect wait times for restaurants from users who happen to be eating.
Get your fans to share photos of how they use your product.
Ask people in an area to take a picture of a local business.
Create a “visual ratings” micro-app that allows a user to submit a photo that other users can rate.
Create a survey that helps your users communicate what they’d like to see from your company.
Human.io notes that applications can be easily built with its framework because they provide much of the code and API information. Since these apps are mobile, the aforementioned interactivity is very useful due to mobile phone features such as GPS location access and a camera.
To provide some context for developers that might be interested in developing with Human.io’s system, the company provides the following example:
For instance, a simple activity that allows users to create and answer challenges for photos around a theme is around 100 lines of code.
Human.io provides a specific website for developers with instructions on how to get started. This website also gives developers some more examples and suggestions of what they could work on.
The platform is supported on both iOS and Android.
AllThingD reports that Google is aware and working on a fix for issues that some Gmail on iOS customers are experiencing today. Some of you reported seeing an IMAP popup alert when trying to download your Gmail messages to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch today. Google’s support page has some temporary fixes. (Image via MDL)
iOS 6 beta 4 has removed the YouTube application that existed on iOS since the first version in 2007. We’re not entirely sure what to make of this, but this could have to do with Apple trying to break away from dependence on Google services. iOS 6 drops Google Maps in favor of Apple’s own 3D Maps program. We’re looking into this. Of course, this just could be a bug or an error for this beta. YouTube is gone from the iPhone and iPad, but it is still present on the Apple TV (below).
Update: After we broke this major news, Apple confirmed to The Verge that YouTube is gone from iOS 6. Google is apparently building its own app.
Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.
At least two groups are expected to bid on Kodak’s trove of 1,100 patents, with a bevy of technology and patent heavyweights picking sides and competing for the patents, said people familiar with the matter.
Apple Inc., AAPL +1.79% Microsoft Corp. MSFT +2.04% and Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, a patent aggregation firm, are teaming to form one bidding group, the people said. The other consortium includes Google Inc., GOOG +3.52% Samsung Electronics Co., 005930.SE +5.20% LG Electronics Inc., 066570.SE +3.51% HTC Corp.2498.TW +3.94% and another patent aggregation firm, RPX Corp., RPXC +0.55% the people said.
The people familiar with the discussions cautioned that work on bids could continue over the weekend, with alliances changing and other bidders potentially emerging.
The potential bidders either declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond to requests to comment.
Sparrow has just announced that it has been acquired by Google. The company’s team will be integrated within the Google Gmail team.
We’re excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!
We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience.
Now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.
We’d like to extend a special thanks to all of our users who have supported us, advised us, given us priceless feedback and allowed us to build a better mail application. While we’ll be working on new things at Google, we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users.
We had an amazing ride and can’t thank you enough.
Full speed ahead!
Dom Leca
CEO
Sparrow
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lYitaF4lDo]Promo video for Sparrow for iPhone
Sparrow has long been noted as a great third-party email app for both the Mac and iOS, specifically on the iPhone. The application has a unique user interface that is intuitive and very well integrated into social networks.
Teaser for Sparrow for iPad
The company said that an iPad app is in the works, but it is unclear if this app will launch now that the team is integrated into Google. Notably, Sparrow says that its current apps will stay available. Sparrow will also still provide support for its users.
Sparrow has also long been noted as a great Gmail solution for iPhone users. Google’s official iOS Gmail application is definitely in need of new features – beyond just a web view – and we hope that Sparrow’s team has a part in creating a new Gmail experience for iOS users.
Screenshot of Sparrow for Mac
Sparrow has also just sent out a different, more personal note to its users. Notably: no new features or updates coming.
Hello,
We’re excited to let you know that Sparrow has been acquired by Google! You can view our public announcement here, but I wanted to reach out directly to make sure you were aware of the news.We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps.
It’s been an honor and a pleasure to build products for all of our wonderful users who have supported us over the years. We can’t thank you enough.
We look forward to working on some new and exciting projects at Google!
A Google spokesperson has reached out to provide the following statement:
The Sparrow team has always put their users first by focusing on building a seamlessly simple and intuitive interface for their email client. We look forward to bringing them aboard the Gmail team, where they’ll be working on new projects.
We’re also told that Google will support Sparrow in supporting its current Sparrow user-base and in providing essential app updates. The Sparrow team is also said to be focusing on new Google projects, likely related to Gmail. Google would not comment on specific future product plans.
One of the most widely publicized and important knocks against Sparrow’s iOS application is the lack of push notifications. As Sparrow CEO Dom Leca said, “now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.” We think that bigger vision includes more resources; assets that will help Sparrow make email even better for everyone with features like push alerts.
BusinessInsider highlights an upcoming story from Bloomberg stating that a UK Judge has ruled that Apple must publicly state that Samsung did not copy the iPad design for its tablets. The public statements by Apple must be carried out in two ways:
Apple must post a message up on its website
Apple must post this message in British newspapers
The report says that Apple must leave the notice up on its website for six months. Details about the notice in British newspapers are currently less clear. We will update when Bloomberg’s report with more details becomes available. (Image: DigitalTrends)
According to Bloomberg, Amazon is developing a smartphone to go head-to-head with the iOS and Android handsets. Amazon is reportedly working with Foxconn to build the device, the same manufacture for many of Apple’s mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad.
In order to prepare for the launch of their phone, Amazon plans to build up a wireless-related patent portfolio, according to the report. Amazon already sells the successful Kindle Fire with a 7-inch display, a device that demonstrates the firm’s aptitude for building a high-quality, customized mobile operating system (based on Android)…
Update: T-Mobile has tweeted again to say that full data service has been restored to customers.
According to a tweet from T-Mobile, its network in the U.S. is currently suffering some network data issues. It appears that the current network issues are not affecting everyone, but enough people for the company to take to Twitter with acknowledgement. T-Mobile says that they will keep users posted, and we will be sure to update when more information becomes available. Are you experiencing T-Mobile issues tonight? Let us know in the comments.
As we reported today on 9to5Mac, a few crucial patent rulings related to Android devices have emerged today. Notably for Android and HTC device fans, Apple’s request for an emergency ban on HTC product imports into the United States has been overruled by the International Trade Commission. Select HTC devices were briefly banned from being imported into the United States in May, and today’s decision will keep HTC device imports into the U.S. alive for the time being. Apple had asked for the ban due to a data detection patent that the Cupertino, California company feels is violated in the Google Android operating system.
The second important ruling of the day, one that is less successful for Google and its device ecosystem, is related to Samsung. Last week, Apple was awarded two bombshell injunctions: one on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and one on the flagship Galaxy Nexus smartphone. Today, the judge presiding over the Samsung versus Apple lawsuits has rejected Samsung’s request for a removal of the injunction. Today, the judge is also hearing Samsung’s request for a removal of the preliminary injunction on the Galaxy Nexus smartphone. That ruling has yet to come in, but we will report when it does.
Of note, these current patents wars mostly come down to patents in the Google Android OS, not the hardware designs as previously targeted by Apple.
