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Wednesday 28 July 2010

Google Me Won't Be Copying Facebook Says Schmidt [ 28-07-2010 14:05 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: WSJ via Gizmodo Translation by: Paul Smith

It's not a state secret that Google are working on a social network of their own, something that Google hope will rival Facebook no doubt and which is currently going by the name 'Google Me'. Speculation has been especially rampant since Google sunk some money into Zygna, the chaps behind Farmville and it's widely expected that Google will launch some sort of social gaming platform that incorporates games like Farmville. These games are generating a lot of money for Facebook, which takes a 30% cut of the money they generate and with rumours of a wider advertising network being launched by Facebook that may even rival Google's AdSense it is little wonder that people are expecting Google to hit back.

How similar Google's effort will be to Facebook is anyone's guess, but when asked by the WSJ recently Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, said "The world doesn't need a copy of the same thing". That's a pretty revealing comment if it's true because it would suggest that Google are not going to even bother trying to setup something that takes on Facebook directly, after all they have Orkut, which has proved to be a bit of a damp squib in much of the world although, to be fair, it does have an impressive following in some countries e.g. Brazil. It would also tie in with Google's old philosophy of launching products that do something that either isn't already being done or is being done poorly, and let's face it, Facebook may be many things, but unsuccessful it is not.

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LG Launches App Store With No Android Apps [ 28-07-2010 13:57 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: Engadget Translation by: Paul Smith

Another store has joined the ranks of those offering apps, but with a decided lack of content it isn't off to a great start. We're talking of course about the LG Application Store, which has now launched in a total of 23 countries around the world including major countries in Europe, but not the U.S. There are currently around 3,000 apps, which, to be fair, isn't a major downfall given that other stores like RIM's or Palm's operate with a small number, but crucially, for LG anyway, it launches without a single app for Android. The lack of Android apps seems a bit odd given LG's recent ad campaigns for Android and the fact the company is producing handsets for one of the biggest, and fastest growing, platforms in the world.

The apps that they do have are for LG's other smartphones and of course their range of featurephones. The focus on apps for feature phones is actually a fairly smart move by LG because those phones make up their bread and butter and it certainly won't hurt sales or customer loyalty to provide apps for their phones. This is especially true when one cosniders that LG often goes after the youth market where feature phones are more viable than high-end smartphones. No doubt Android apps will make an appearance soon though, LG won't want to be left completely out of the loop.

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Google Beefing Up Market Protection [ 28-07-2010 12:41 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: TechRadar Translation by: Paul Smith

A long standing complaint amongst Android developers has been the lack of protection to help prevent their hard work being used by unscrupulous types. Google have apparently been listening and at long last announced that they will do something about it in the form of a licensing service, which should prvide a mechanism for making sure apps aren't misused. Eric Chu from Android recently blogged:

In my conversations with Android developers, I often hear that you'd like better protection against unauthorized use of your applications. So today, I'm pleased to announce the release of a licensing service for applications in Android Market.This simple and free service provides a secure mechanism to manage access to all Android Market paid applications targeting Android 1.5 or higher. At run time, with the inclusion of a set of libraries provided by us, your application can query the Android Market licensing server to determine the license status of your users. It returns information on whether your users are authorized to use the app based on stored sales records.

This new system will replace the present system Google has in place for Android and it is expected to be rolled out over the months ahead. The system operates in real time, which Google say will grant more flexibility for developers when choosing their licensing arrangements. Google are also keen to emphasise that it will be a more secure approach to unauthorised use than present copy protection. How the new service pans out in reality remains to be seen of course, but it's nice to see Google responding to concerns from the dev community.

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Jailbreaking May Be Legal But Still Breaks Warranty [ 28-07-2010 12:01 ]

Author: Serge Novikov Source: UnwiredView Translation by: Paul Smith

With the American government having revised the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Jailbreaking an iPhone now being declared perfectly legal and above board the attention has turned towards Apple's reaction to the news. In fact there hasn't really been a reaction, certainly not a reaction that would indicate any change in their current policies. Jailbreaking will still be regarded as something that voids the warranty whether it is legal or not. Apple's response:

Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.

So it's business as usual really. Perhaps of more interest is whether Apple will sue companies providing software that allows users to jailbreak their device. Apple were pretty vague on this issue with their spokesman giving one of those answers that doesn't really tell you anything and would seem to leave the door open for Apple to go down either route. He said that Apple haven't sued such companies in the past so you can read into that what you will.

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Apple Sued Again ... This Time It's The iPad [ 28-07-2010 11:52 ]

Author: Irina Turina Source: The Register Translation by: Paul Smith

It seems that Apple are stumbling from one legal mess to another these days what with class action suits being levelled over Antennagate, competition investigations by the U.S. Justice Department and the possibility that the EU may force them to allow 3rd party access to their previously closed platform. Well Apple have one more to add to that list, a lawsuit being brought because of overheating iPads shutting down. The people behind this new lawsuit are seeking the status of class action for their efforts and their lawyers, Scott Cole & Associates, have created ipadoverheating.com to search for more claimants who may experiencing the problem.

Actually that term I just used is a bit contentious here because one has to ask whether this in fact a 'problem' at all. The claimants are saying that "the iPad is virtually unusable when sitting in particular environmental conditions (e.g., in direct sunlight with virtually any ambient air temperature) since it turns off, sometimes after just a few minutes of use." This they say is a problem because "according to the www.apple.com website, "[r]reading on iPad is just like reading a book.' However, contrary to this promise, using the iPad is not 'just like reading a book' at all since books do not close when the reader is enjoying them in the sunlight or in other normal environmental environments. This promise, like other portions of APPLE's marketing material for the iPad, is false."

To be fair to Apple their product information for the iPad states that it should be used in environments with a temeperature between 0 and 35 celsius and advises that using the iPad in high or low temperature conditions might shorten battery life or cause the iPad to stop working properly. We're not Apple fanboys by any stretch, but this does look to be a bit of a hokey lawsuit from people that don't bother to RTFM. Even so Apple won't be pleased to learn of yet another impending legal battle, especially when its plate is already so full.

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