Category: Tech

This is a Technical kinda post!

Apple Loses ‘App Store’ Claim Against Amazon

Amazon today won its attempt to toss a claim made by Apple over its use of the name “App Store.” Apple has been fighting Amazon’s Android App Store, believing it to be confusing with its own iPhone App Store. It hit Amazon with lawsuits regarding trademark infringement and false advertising. Today’s victory saw a U.S. judge vacate Apple’s claim that Amazon’s use of App Store is false advertising. The lawsuit over Apple’s trademark claim will move forward.

via Phone Scoop – Latest News http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=11714

New law makes it illegal for employers in California and Illinois to demand Facebook passwords

New laws that took effect on January 1st, 2013 make it illegal for employers to demand access to their workers’ password-protected Facebook (FB) accounts. After some high-profile instances of companies requiring access to employees’ accounts, Congress was asked to consider a law making such demands illegal on the grounds that they constitute an invasion of privacy. Congress blocked the law, however its decision had no bearing on laws being considered at the state level. Now, California and Illinois have become the first two states to make it expressly illegal for employers to make such demands, Reuters reports. The new laws also apply to other similar social networks and are not limited to just Facebook.

via Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/law-makes-illegal-employers-california-illinois-demand-facebook-190557440.html

Google’s big push to make better iOS apps than Apple

Some of the best basic iPhone apps hitting the iOS App Store lately aren’t from the iPhone maker, but from one of its biggest rivals. Google, which recently launched or relaunched a series of well-received apps for Apple’s flagship devices, is now courting Apple developers, in addition to wooing Apple users over to Android.

This week, the company published a recruiting video for an in-house iOS developer team, as noted by 9to5Mac. This video is just the latest part of a recent push from Google emphasizing its commitment to Apple’s platform after its Google Maps and YouTube apps were dumped from their default presence on iOS devices this summer. Google acted shocked and semi-insecure (publicly, at least) when Apple made it known that both apps would no longer come preinstalled on its devices.

Away from the public war of words, Google has not only recovered from the fallout, but has come roaring back and embraced its status as just another developer working on Apple’s platform — and one that’s trying to best Apple at its own game. You can see this outward confidence in the new video, which invites iOS developers to come “do cool things that matter.“

Google isn’t just making cool apps that people like on a competing platform, such as its Android mobile OS. It’s making well-liked apps that are core to the functionality of its rival’s devices. By improving on Apple’s Mail, Maps, Safari, Camera and Siri with apps of its own, Google is successfully beginning to wedge itself between the iPhone and iPad maker and its customers. And in the process, it’s begun to build its own lot of loyal iPhone and iPad users.

The last three months, in fairly quick succession we saw:

Google’s own voice-enabled Search app for iOS
A redesigned Gmail 2.0 app
A new (long-awaited) YouTube app for iPad
The maps saga come to an end with a brand new Google Maps, which saw 10 million downloads in 48 hours
And a YouTube recording app called Capture, which targets Apple’s own Camera app
And this list doesn’t include other popular, earlier releases in 2012 like Chrome for iOS, and YouTube for iPhone. As has been previously noted by the Next Web, the new design language Google is using in these apps is very, very good. It’s quite clear that Google is swiftly getting better at mobile design.

And it’s not an accident: the company’s iOS development team has cultivated a specific look and feel for its products on Apple’s platform. Now it’s devoting and building whole teams to creating apps for iOS. After years of internal debate over the role of apps or websites as the best home for Google services on mobile devices, it’s become pretty clear that those within Google advocating for better apps have prevailed.

People are starting to take notice of Google’s improvement at the same time that Apple’s design chops have been taking some heat. When Apple releases a new app these days, its design is nitpicked to death, and complaints about gaudy textures, poor functionality, and confusing design details get the design community and users in a huff. The Apple Maps disaster is just one example. But Podcasts, Siri, Calendar, Game Center and more have also been met with criticism.

2013 is going to be a year when Apple must prove itself again in many ways: can its leaders improve the company in the eye of investors? Can it come up with more revolutionary products that keep customers coming back? Can it continue to stave off tablet challengers?

And now with Google’s full-court press on iOS, another big thing we’ll be watching for is whether Apple’s internal reorganization can produce basic apps that are core to its own device’s experience and will defend and reassert Apple’s design strengths.

via Google’s big push to make better iOS apps than Apple.

LG seeking ban on Samsung tablet sales in Korea

South Korea’s LG Display Co said yesterday it had asked a Seoul court to ban the domestic sale of Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet computer, citing alleged patent infringements.
In the injunction filed on Wednesday, LG Display accused Samsung of infringing three of its patents on LCD panels used in the Galaxy Note.
“Through this action, LG Display seeks to completely stop the sale, manufacture and importation of the infringing Samsung product,” the firm said in a press release.
The company also said it would request compensation amounting to 1 billion won (US$933,000) per day in the event of continued non-compliance.
The two companies have been in a patent row since September when LG Display — one of the world’s top flat-screen TV makers — filed suits against Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display for allegedly infringing patents on seven organic light-emitting diode (OLED)-related technologies.
LG Display said that five of Samsung’s products, including its global hit Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablet computer, infringed its patents.
Later the same month, Samsung filed a court complaint accusing LG of luring away senior Samsung OLED researchers even though they had signed contracts preventing them working for a rival.
Samsung is no stranger to patent battles. The company and its rival Apple Inc have filed lawsuits against each other in around a dozen countries for alleged patent violations over competing products, in particular the iPhone and Galaxy S smartphones.
Earlier this month, a US judge denied Apple’s request to ban a set of Samsung smartphones from the US market after a jury found the South Korean electronics giant guilty of patent infringement.
Samsung was ordered by a US jury in August to pay Apple US$1.05 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones.
Samsung has appealed the ruling. Since then, two separate rulings by courts in Japan and the Netherlands have dismissed Apple’s claims of patent infringement.

via LG seeking ban on Samsung tablet sales in Korea.

Foursquare updating privacy policy, will start sharing more of your info

Information is one of the most valuable assets in the era of communications. This is the reason why so many internet-based companies strive to get as much information from their users as possible. It is also why many times their services are so affordable or free – they get some good cash out of your info. But we tend to draw the line at a certain point, and the best thing any company can do is being transparent about their privacy policy. Foursquare is accomplishing just that by creating their “Privacy 101” page.This is an easier-to-read version of their full Privacy Policy. It is shorter and explained in a much simpler tone, making it simpler to go over and understand. But a brief, simpler read won’t exactly make people happy. Foursuare is planning to update their privacy policy, and your information won’t exactly be becoming more private.Starting January 28, Foursquare will be changing two main things: your full name will be displaying your full names and businesses will see more of their customers’ info for more than 3 hours.

via Foursquare updating privacy policy, will start sharing more of your info.

2 Mountain Lion Bugs That Crash Apps

Here are two OS X 10.8 bugs for your collection. Both of these critters result in crashes of the affected applications.

Network proxy bug

Network’s Proxies options: To avoid crashes, make sure the top two configurations are not enabled.
Theres good news and theres bad news here. The good news is that this bug affects only a minority of users — those that enable network proxies (as done by going to Network System Preferences, clicking the Advanced button and selecting Proxies). The bad news is that, if the bug affects you, its serious: Several different third-party programs are likely to crash on launch.

The author of MarsEdit explains:

The issue is related specifically to the Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration settings in Network preferences. If you have one of these options checked, you are very likely to crash in MarsEdit, Safari, Tweetbot, and any number of other apps that rely on Apples networking libraries.

Another such application is NetNewsWire. Its developers write:

We believe the instability is affecting a few percent of our users, but its occurring too deep in the bowels of the networking stack to be fixable on our end, leaving us dependent on Apple to correct it in 10.8.1.

Also chiming in on this matter is AgileBits David Chartier, writing about how the bug affects Safari and 1Password: If you are experiencing Safari 6 crashing under Mountain Lion with our 1Password extension installed&it appears to be caused by a problem with proxy settings under Mountain Lion.

The agreed-upon recommended work-aroundat least for nowis to disable/uncheck Networks Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration options. If you cant turn them off, because your network requires that these options remain enabled, you wont be able to safely use the affected apps until Apple supplies the needed remedy.

Snapz Pro bug

To avoid having Snapz Pro crash, don’t select Objects.Another program with difficulties taming Mountain Lion is Ambrosias Softwares Snapz Pro X, a screen-capture utility. The developers state: The current version of Snapz Pro X is not fully compatible with Mountain Lion. The main symptom is that selecting the utilitys Objects& option will cause Snapz to crash. In addition, Mac Audio capture will not work. The KEXT used for Mac Audio capture should be uninstalled automatically by the OS. If used, it will result in a kernel panic.

These are significant problems for Snapz Pro users. In my case, I use Objects for about 75 percent of the screen captures that I do. I was glad to read that the developers hope to have a Mountain Lion compatible update out as soon as possible. Im counting the days.

via 2 Mountain Lion Bugs That Crash Apps.

Scan For Active WiFi Hotspots Easily Right From Mountain Lion [OS X Tips]

While traveling, it’s helpful to be able to find a strong WiFi signal, whether you need to check your email, review your latest notifications on Facebook, or actually get some work done. You can click the little WiFi rainbow icon in the menu bar obsessively, waiting for the “Searching for networks” message to end, of course, but it’s nice to have an app running that will just scan your environment and tell you what WiFi networks are available.

I used to do this with a third-party app, like MacStumbler or iStumbler. Not anymore, though, as there’s a built-in WiFi scanner right in Mac OS X Mountain Lion.

It’s rather buried, though, so you’ll want to take the following steps to get the app into your Dock, or your Launchpad. Click on the Finder icon in your dock, or Command-Tab over to the Finder. Press Command-Shift-G and type in the following file path: /System/Library/CoreServices/. Click the Go button and that folder will show up in your view. Scroll down to the Wi-Fi Diagnostics App, and then click and drag it to your Dock, or to your Launchpad icon for easy access later.

Once you’ve done that, launch the Wi-Fi Diagnostics App and hit Command-N as soon as the app appears (ignore the window that shows up first for our purposes here). When you do so, the Network Utilities window will appear. Click on the Wi-Fi Scan button in the top center, and you’ll see a list of all available Wi-Fi networks in your immediate area.

Click in the lower right, where it says Scan and choose Active Scan. Now you can leave the app running, and walk your Macbook around to find the best signal for your needs. You can find the strongest signal area in your house or place of business this way, or just use it to find the strongest free Wi-Fi signal when travelling. Good stuff, really. To join the network, though, you’ll need to click the Airport menu bar icon as per usual and connect that way. Still, it’s helpful to have this kind of tool built right in to the Mac OS X Mountain Lion features, right?

via Scan For Active WiFi Hotspots Easily Right From Mountain Lion [OS X Tips].

CyanogenMod 10 ported to the Google Nexus 7

The Google Nexus 7 may be the first tablet to ship with Google Android 4.1 preloaded. But that hasn’t stopped independent developers from building custom ROMs for the tablet. One of the first is an unofficial build of CyanogenMod 10 for the Nexus 7.

Like the tablet’s default software, it’s based on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. But it also includes CyanogenMod enhancements including a a customizable lock screen, additional options for the power widget, and support for USB OTG — which means you can plug in a USB flash drive if you have an adapter cable.

CM10 is the first version of the popular CyanogenMod operating system to be based on Android 4.1, and the developers have only been working on the software for a few weeks.

There’s not an official build available for the Nexus 7 yet, but xda-developers form member winner00 compiled his own build based on CyangoenMod source.

If you’ve already rooted your Nexus 7 and installed ClockworkMod or TWRP custom recovery, you can download the latest version of winner00′s CM10 Kang from the xda-developers forum and flash it through your recovery app.

It’s probably a good idea to use your recovery tool to make a backup of your device first, in case anything goes wrong. While most things are working in the CM10 Kang, it is an experimental build so there’s always a chance you might want to go back to the default Android firmware.

via CyanogenMod 10 ported to the Google Nexus 7.

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