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OpenTV and Nagravision file patent lawsuit against Apple over video-related technology

Mike Beasley Apr 9 2014 - 2:15 pm PT

3 Comments

Photo: mashable.com

Suing Apple seems to be the thing to do these days. While the company is locked into a furious, seemingly-unending battle with Samsung, another suit has been announced today by two Swiss sister companies called OpenTV and Nagravision.

According to a press release by the The Kudelski Group, the parent company of the two filing suit, OpenTV focuses on software that includes “advanced program guides, video-on-demand, personal video recording, interactive and addressable advertising and a variety of enhanced television applications,” while Nagravision “provides security and multiscreen user experience solutions for the monetization of digital media.”

While the five patents in question aren’t specifically named in the press release, it’s safe to assume that they are related to video playback technologies included in OS X and iOS (both of which are named as infringing in the press release). iAds, iTunes, the App Store, and the Apple TV are also listed.

Apple’s expert witnesses explain why Samsung owes Apple $2B for patent infringements

Ben Lovejoy Apr 9 2014 - 4:04 am PT

9 Comments

Image: CNET

With Samsung having argued in its opening statement that the $2B sum being claimed by Apple for five alleged patent violations was “a gross, gross exaggeration,” Apple called two expert witnesses to explain why it believes the sum is reasonable.

Re/code reports that first MIT professor John Hauser carried out a form of trade-off analysis to determine the value of individual features to customers.

Apple used a similar analysis from Hauser in the first Apple-Samsung trial in which he found customers might pay as much as $100 more for a Samsung phone that included patented features …

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Samsung continues mocking iPad’s lack of features in new Galaxy Pro ads

Jordan Kahn Apr 8 2014 - 8:27 am PT

78 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bwRRxfuIk]

Samsung today posted a series of ads for its new Galaxy Pro tablets and with them continues the theme of directly mocking Apple. This time the target is the iPad Air. In one ad called “Multi User” (above), Samsung highlights the ability to have multiple user accounts on the Galaxy Pro tablet, a highly requested feature among iOS users that Samsung notes is still not available on the iPad.

Another ad, titled “Pixel Density” (below) takes on the iPad’s Retina display, claiming that the Galaxy Pro tablet has a better looking display due to a higher pixel density. Samsung’s Tab Pro 10.1 2014 tablet includes a resolution of 2560 x 1600 with a pixel density of 299 compared to the iPad’s 2048 x 1536, 264 ppi display.
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Rumor: Apple planning to release iWatch in August-September timeframe

Ben Lovejoy Apr 8 2014 - 4:10 am PT

12 Comments

Concept image: Stephen Olmstead

You can’t get much sketchier than a Chinese Economic Daily report cited by DigiTimes, but the former is citing supply chain sources in claiming that Apple plans to release the iWatch in the third quarter of this year, and that the company expects to ship 65M units this year.

The iWatch will be manufactured by Quanta Computer, while Taiwan-based chip design house Richtek has also entered the supply chain. The device’s touch panel will be supplied by TPK, the paper noted. [With Samsung making the processor to Apple’s design.]

The original story says that suppliers have been asked to meet an August delivery date.

The China Times has previously suggested that TPK would make the touch panel, but this isn’t a particularly notable consistency: the company has in the past been a key panel supplier to Apple, while Quanta is a long-time Mac assembler, mostly in Asia but more recently in the USA also.

Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis, quoted in AppleInsider, is suggesting that the iWatch may include a UV sensor, measuring exposure to sunlight. While Curtis believes that the purpose of the rumored sensor is to prevent excessive exposure to sunlight, it’s possible that for some of us it might be more usefully employed to do the opposite …

‘Beating Apple is #1 priority, everything must be in context of beating Apple’ – internal Samsung docs

Ben Lovejoy Apr 7 2014 - 6:22 am PT

25 Comments

Documents revealed by the second Apple vs Samsung patent trial are not just giving us a peek behind the corporate curtains at 1 Infinite Loop, but also a glimpse into Samsung’s Seoul boardroom. A slide from a Samsung business forecast from 2011 shows the company viewing “beating Apple” as its number one priority for 2012 …
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Early iPhone 5 buyers were already asking for bigger screens, reveals confidential document

Ben Lovejoy Apr 7 2014 - 5:51 am PT

13 Comments

Patent trials generally aren’t the most exciting of events, but documents revealed through the second Apple vs Samsung case are certainly providing a lot of fascinating glimpses behind the scenes.

The latest is the above summary of research Apple carried out among early buyers of the iPhone 5 to find out what they thought of the phone and what improvements they wanted to see, tweeted by Jay Yarow. While longer battery-life and better maps will surprise no-one, it’s interesting that even at the beginning of last year, bigger screens was third on the list …
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The research that shows Apple is right to take its time over the iWatch

Ben Lovejoy Apr 2 2014 - 6:25 am PT

14 Comments

New research from Endeavour shows that more than half of U.S. consumers who have owned a wearable device no longer use it, and of those two-thirds stopped using it within the first six months of ownership. This is up from the 40 percent abandonment found by a similar survey by CSS Insight last fall.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK has a supporting piece in which it found more than 900 Galaxy Gear watches for sale on eBay, with asking prices as low as a third of the purchase cost.

While the data may be bad news for existing smartwatch and fitness band suppliers, The Guardian has an apposite comparison with early mp3 players, which also suffered high abandonment rates a decade ago.

So lots of those early MP3 players eventually ended up in drawers; but that didn’t stop the sector becoming huge.

And the company responsible for that shift was, of course, Apple: the company which took its time getting both the device and the user-interface right.

Apple so rattled by ‘Next Big Thing’ ads, it almost changed ad agency, claims Samsung

Ben Lovejoy Apr 2 2014 - 4:41 am PT

17 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNxDd3l0lEU]

Apple senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller was so concerned about Samsung’s Next Big Thing ad campaign, in which the company poked fun at Apple customers, that he emailed Tim Cook to suggest a change of ad agency to fight back – according to a claim by Samsung lawyer Jon Quinn.

The Verge reports that Quinn made the claim in his opening arguments in the patent trial in which Apple is accusing Samsung of violating five of its iOS-related patents.

Quinn says Schiller became “obsessed” with the campaign, writing CEO Tim Cook to suggest the company look into using another ad agency instead of its mainstay TBWA\CHIAT\DAY. That even led to Apple board discussions over the issue, Quinn added …

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What are the five iOS features Apple is claiming that Samsung (or Google) stole?

Ben Lovejoy Apr 1 2014 - 7:39 am PT

63 Comments

With the second patent battle between Apple and Samsung now underway, we thought it would be useful to look at each of the five features Apple claims Samsung (or Google) stole from iOS.

The patents are, of course, worded in the usual dense legaleze. If you want to read them for yourself, you can find them on the US Patent and Trademark Office website in the links below. But here’s my reading of what each one is about, in plain English …
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Apple vs Samsung patent jury selected, Phil Schiller confirmed as first witness

Ben Lovejoy Apr 1 2014 - 4:15 am PT

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Image: Mobile Magazine

The jury for the second Apple vs Samsung patent case has now been selected after a number of potential jurors were dismissed for possible bias. Apple is seeking damages of up to $40 per device sold for those Samsung phones and tablets it says violate up to five Apple patents, while Samsung is counter-claiming that Apple devices violate two of its own patents.

Unlike the previous trial, in which the similarity of Samsung’s hardware to iPhones and iPads was a key issue, the patents in dispute here are all software ones, and include standard Android features, leading some to suggest that Google is the real target in this case.

Trying to find unbiased jurors in Silicon Valley was never going to be an easy exercise, and several of those with connections to the tech sector were accepted. The court also found it impractical to eliminate jurors because they owned products from one or both companies, and it’s been reported that most own at least one Apple device, with some also owning Samsung TVs.

The final jury comprises six women and four men. Occupations include a former IBM manager, county government employee, accountant, store clerk, plumber, secretary, police department community service officer and a retired teacher.

The trial opens today with a video providing an overview of patent law, before opening arguments from each side. Apple has scheduled senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller as its first witness. The trial is expected to last around a month.

In the previous patent case between the two companies, Apple was initially awarded $1B in damages before $450M was cut, with a retrial ordered to look again at the damages awarded for some of the patents. The retrial awarded Apple $290M instead for that portion of the case, giving Apple a revised total award of $930M. Apple did, however, fail in an attempt to obtain an injunction against the products found to infringe its patents.

Several potential jurors dismissed from Apple v Samsung patent hearing over connections to either company

Zac Hall Mar 31 2014 - 2:22 pm PT

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As the latest patent dispute between Apple and Samsung kicked off in court today, the search for unbiased jury members to serve with Judge Koh began today resulting in a standing room-only environment in the court room with over 100 potential jurors summoned.
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Is Android the real target of latest Apple vs Samsung patent battle that starts today?

Ben Lovejoy Mar 31 2014 - 4:21 am PT

19 Comments

Photo: Reuters

Pieces in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal suggest that the real target of Apple’s second courtroom patent battle with Samsung may be Android.

Some features in Samsung devices that Apple objects to are part of Google’s Android operating system, by far the most popular mobile operating system worldwide, running on more than a billion devices made by many manufacturers. That means that if Apple wins, Google could have to make changes to critical Android features, and Samsung and other Android phone makers might have to modify the software on their phones …

Jury selection begins today for the second patent case between the two companies after mediation attempts failed. Apple is seeking around $2B in damages for five patents it alleges Samsung has violated, while Samsung is counter-claiming that Apple is in violation of two of its own patents.

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Russian government drops iPad in favor of Samsung tablets over spying fears

Mike Beasley Mar 26 2014 - 5:53 pm PT

42 Comments

Russian government officials have stopped using iPads in an official capacity, instead opting to use offerings from Samsung according to a new report by Business Insider. The new Samsung devices are custom, secured tablets designed to be used with the confidential information government officials often need to handle.

Russian officials have denied that the swap is an effort to stop supporting American companies following sanctions related to the Ukrainian crisis. It also doesn’t seem to relate to recent rumors that the US government had backdoor access to Apple’s iOS devices—a claim Apple has denied.

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This is the room where the iPhone was born

Seth Weintraub Mar 26 2014 - 3:58 am PT

14 Comments

Ahead of the latest Apple-Samsung trial, Apple is sharing some of the details regarding the creation of the iPhone with the WSJ. As an aside, Apple also shared a shot of the secret windowless room where the original iPhone meetings took place. The nondescript room is where most of the design decisions for the original iPhone’s software were made and is called “hallowed ground” to Greg Christie, who designs the software interface for products and one of the first members recruited to work on the device in 2004.

It doesn’t mean that the windowless room, lit by fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling, looked like anything special. Christie recalled the walls had signs of water damage from a flood in an adjacent bathroom. A few images covered the walls including one of Apple’s “Think Different” posters of famous graphic designer Paul Rand and another of a large chicken running around without its head.

Inspiration comes in many forms.

Apple may be sharing this information to drum up public support before the trial. Or, perhaps more likely, Apple knows this information will come out in the trial and wants to “own” the story beforehand.

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Samsung again disses iPad in Galaxy Pro ad, takes shots at Surface and Kindle too [Video]

Ben Lovejoy Mar 20 2014 - 7:10 am PT

53 Comments

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nFe_SWcq4Q]

Just as it did last month, Samsung again takes shots at the iPad in a new ad for its Galaxy Pro series tablets. The ad opens with a video call in which the boss calls for a revised presentation deck to be emailed, and the Samsung user is able to send it during the call …
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Profit machine: Interactive graphic shows Apple/tech company money making potential

Ben Lovejoy Mar 20 2014 - 5:35 am PT

2 Comments

Fortune drew our attention to a cool interactive graphic that lets you watch in real-time the revenues and profits made by a dozen tech companies. While Samsung wins the revenue race, Apple is by far the most profitable, at $71,000 a minute.

Apple is doomed …

Despite courtroom battles, Apple picks Samsung to make iPad mini displays, claims report

Ben Lovejoy Mar 18 2014 - 5:13 am PT

0 Comments

While there seems no end in sight to the courtroom patent battles between Apple and Samsung, that doesn’t seem to be interfering with the business relationship between the two. Korean site ETnews (via G4Games) reports that Apple is bringing Samsung into its manufacturing mix for display panels for the iPad mini.

Apple currently uses a mix of three manufacturers for its iPad mini displays: AUO for the non-Retina model, and LG and Sharp for the Retina displays. The report claims that Apple is dropping AUO altogether, and cutting back its orders with Sharp, giving the resulting business to Samsung.

While media sources in manufacturers’ home markets are not always reliable where supply chain rumors are concerned, this one has enough specifics to seem credible at least – and the quality of the Retina iPad mini screen has been criticized in both reviews and benchtests.

Sunday Times interviews Jonathan Ive on everything design, Apple, and much more

Mike Beasley Mar 16 2014 - 11:05 am PT

36 Comments

The UK’s Sunday Timespublished a massive, five-page interview (paywall) with Apple SVP of Design Jonathan Ive today that takes a look at the history and future of Apple from the perspective of the man who designed some of the most iconic devices of the past decade.

In the interview, Ive discusses (among other things) his approach to designing new products, which allows a device’s function to dictate its form:

Ive starts a new project by imagining what a new kind of product should be and what it should do. Only once he’s answered those questions does he work out what it should look like. He seeks advice in unlikely places. He worked with confectionery manufacturers to perfect the translucent jelly-bean shades of his first big hit, the original iMac. He travelled to Niigata in northern Japan to see how metalworkers there beat metal so thin, to help him create the Titanium PowerBook, the first lightweight aluminum laptop in a world of hefty black plastic slabs.

With regard to manufacturers like Samsung “referencing” Apple’s design in their products, Ive called the practice “theft” of “thousands of hours of struggle.”
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Digitimes likely way off the mark with sapphire production estimates

Benjamin Mayo Mar 14 2014 - 6:29 am PT

2 Comments

An aftermarket sapphire screen cover.

A report by Digitimes is circulating today which says that Apple partner GT Advanced Technologies can only supply around 9-16% of sapphire supply for Apple’s next generation iPhone due for later in the year. The implication being that Apple would have to rely on external suppliers to make up the difference.

However, this estimate is based off GT’s apparent forecast of between $188 and $348 million from sapphire sales. As $GTAT investor and analyst Matt Margolis notes on his blog, the company has never broken down their revenue figures for sapphire so it’s unclear where Digitimes has sourced this number from.

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Doomed? Apple is #1 and growing in latest comScore smartphone numbers

Zac Hall Mar 7 2014 - 10:34 am PT

4 Comments

These are the kind of numbers you will likely hear Tim Cook and company quote during a keynote or quarterly earnings call with investors. Digital analytics tracker comScore is out with a new report today showing a steady lead and continuous gains by Apple among U.S. smartphone users in the three months leading up to the end of January 2014.

59.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (66.8 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in January, up 7 percent since October. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 41.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 1 percentage point from October).

On the platform side, Apple picked up a point (from Android and BlackBerry) during the three month period while Android held its lead but dropped half a point. The current difference between iOS and Android in platform rankings differs by about 10 points.

Compare these numbers to the year ago figures for extra fun.

Judge denies Apple injunction for patent infringements by Samsung, sets worrying precedent

Ben Lovejoy Mar 6 2014 - 5:22 am PT

5 Comments

I know, your eyes are probably glazing over by now at yet another Apple v. Samsung patent story. It seems scarcely a week goes by without one of the two companies winning a point, losing a point, filing an appeal, winning an appeal, losing an appeal or applying for some kind of court order. And if you were losing count, the latest news reported by FOSS Patents that a California court has rejected Apple’s application for an injunction against Samsung still relates to the original patent battle between the two companies which began back in 2011.

Apple was originally awarded almost a billion dollars in damages for patent infringements by Samsung. Apple had argued that monetary damages were insufficient, and that the court should also have ordered that the infringing products be withdrawn from sale …
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Oops! Apple revealed confidential deal with Nokia while seeking damages from Samsung for the same thing

Ben Lovejoy Mar 5 2014 - 5:19 am PT

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Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

FOSS Patents discovered that while Apple was asking a court to sanction Samsung for using confidential information about a patent deal between the Cupertino company and Nokia, Apple inadvertently made the very same information public.

As part of a patent dispute between Apple and Samsung, Apple was required to share the terms of the patent licensing deal with Samsung’s lawyers, Quinn Emanuel. The agreement was that the documents – marked Highly Confidential – Attorneys’ Eyes Only – would only be viewed by the lawyers. Instead, Quinn Emanuel passed them onto Samsung execs, who allegedly used the information as ammunition in the company’s own patent negotiations with Apple …
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Despite falling market share, iPads outsold next 4+ tablet makers combined in 2013

Ben Lovejoy Mar 3 2014 - 5:00 am PT

14 Comments

Figures released today by Gartner show that the iPad remained the best-selling tablet of 2013, selling more than the combined sales of the four runners-up.

Apple’s strong fourth quarter helped it to maintain the top position in the market in 2013 […]

Apple’s tablets remain strong in the higher end of the market and, Apple’s approach will continue to force vendors to compete with full ecosystem offerings, even in the smaller-screen market as the iPad mini sees a greater share …
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Should Apple open the iPhone’s fingerprint sensor to devs in iOS 8? [Poll]

Jordan Kahn Feb 26 2014 - 8:19 am PT

74 Comments

With Touch ID in the iPhone 5s, Apple wasn’t the first to integrate a fingerprint sensor in a smartphone, but it certainly popularized the feature as other manufacturers race to build similar technology into their next-gen iPhone competitors. HTC is packing in fingerprint sensors in its latest flagship devices and Samsung announced its new Galaxy S5 earlier this week with finger scanning as one of the standout upgrades. The verdict is still out on how Samsung’s tech compares to Touch ID, but it is interesting to see how others are using fingerprint sensors while Apple keeps it closed to developers and offers very limited applications. With Samsung letting app developers access the new S5’s fingerprint scanner for mobile payments and more right out of the gate, should Apple open the fingerprint sensor to devs in iOS 8?
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