Displaying items by tag: iPhone

If there is one thing I really cannot stand, it is blatant spin (well, two things since you can also throw in FUD). These two items are becoming rather rampant in the technical media (almost as bad as in the TV news). There are some who have claimed it is because the technical press has become a big business now and is no longer concerned with the facts or anything close to them. What they want is entertainment.  There is another factor to this that many might be missing; technical sites are capable of spreading FUD and spin on a massive scale. If a company wants to get the word out they can “leak” information to a few chosen sources and it will spread faster than bad news.

Apple has a plan for the possibility that they might lose and lose badly in their war against Samsung.  This was something that they always knew was a possibility given the somewhat flimsy evidence they were throwing around and the way that the press caught on so quickly (and not just the pro Apple press). No, Apple knew that they needed to work hard to sever as many direct ties with Samsung and Google and the faster the better.

We told you that as soon as we had access to the cross examination of Peter Bressler we would bring it to you and now we have that. It is exactly what we expected. Bressler was not thorough in his examination of Phones and picked the details he wanted to highlight while skipping over many that might counter his claims. This is despite his claims to the court that as an Industrial designer he was trained to identify the small details. Samsung’s questioning found those inconstancies and narrowed down on them quickly including one or two contradictions.

Apple has a very short memory and also a nasty little habit of getting people involved that share their paranoia. Today one of the people that Apple called was designer Peter Bressler. For those of you that do not know who he is he is a famous designer that also founded his own design group in Philadelphia and was also a leading member of the Industrial Designers Society of America. Sounds like some pretty impressive credentials right? Well we though so as well until we found a small note on the Bressler Group’s site that said “In a world where distinctions are becoming ever more indistinct. Where a $10 wristwatch may well keep better time than a $10,000 chronograph. Where new products proliferate, and differences between them are the difference between success and failure, product design that communicates has never mattered more.”

Apple used to have a reputation as a company with some of the most xenophobic security measures and also had the fewest product leaks. There were always predictions based on information that may or may not have come from some of Apple’s suppliers, but in many cases this information was less than accurate. However, since the death of Steve Jobs and the ascent of Tim Cook into the captain’s chair things have radically changed. Now we have almost daily leaks of information about products that have not been announced. Of course when you point this out you face the backlash from many hardcore Apple fans that will tell you this is all according to plan and nothing is wrong (move on folks).

After going through the news and editorials about the Apple V Samsung case we have found something very interesting in Apple’s attack methods. One of the lead pieces of evidence for their alleged consumer confusion is the number of returns of Samsung products to stores like Best Buy etc. Apple would like you to believe that customers mistakenly picked up a Galaxy Tab when they meant to get an iPad and then returned it after realizing it was not an iPad. It is a piece of logic that in any other place in the world or with almost any other judge would have been thrown out as preposterous, but for some reason Judge Lucy Koh is letting this stand. You see Apple’s logic and claim here is seriously flawed and here is why.

When you start digging there are all kinds of interesting things that you can find. For example in the Samsung V. Apple trial Samsung released documents that claimed a Sony design concept influenced the direction of the iPhone. Apple has now come back with designs that predate the “Sony” mockup that Apple put together by a few months. They (Apple) are now asking for all of Samsung’s evidence about the Sony mockup to be tossed out. We checked and would appear to be something of an unusual request given the grounds for the request. Apple dearly wants the images and depositions of their designers about the Sony mockup removed from the trial.

There are some interesting things that are coming to light in the Samsung Vs Apple trial. Among them are claims from Apple that Samsung was told by Google, its own staff and “famous designers” that their products were too similar to Apple’s patented design. These are pretty damning items when you think about it and go a long way toward proving that Samsung willfully copied Apple with some of their products. With this it would look like Apple certainly has Samsung on the ropes…

The Black Hat conference is happening right now in Sin City and already there is news coming out of the gather that should send chills down the spine of many smartphone owners. Apparently it is dead simple to exploit the NFC (Near Field Communications) found on Nokia and Samsung Products (this also extends to the NFC that will be in Apple’s devices when they are launched later this year). If you trot around with your NFC feature enabled someone can gain control of your phone by simply brushing a properly prepared tag against it.

About a month ago the CEO of Foxconn made a statement that Apple and Foxconn were signing an agreement that would lock out all competitors of the iPhone. It was an interesting because the comments came at a time when Apple was not even acknowledging that they were even working on a new phone (although everyone knew they were). Still CEO Terry Gou claimed that Apple was making a deal with Sharp for new panel technology and with Corning which would prevent Apple’s competition from even being able to get glass for their phones.