Graham Spencer

917 posts on MacStories since January 2011

Former MacStories contributor.

graham@macstories.net

Apple To Offer $100 iTunes Credit Instead Of An iPod For Back To School Promotion?

Apple’s ‘Back to School’ promotion is scheduled to start up again sometime very soon and if reports from today come true, the promotion could be a bit different to years past. 9to5 Mac is reporting that when a student purchases a MacBook this year, they will receive a $100 worth of iTunes credit rather than what has previously been an iPod Touch in recent years.

Launching three months before the September iPod event Apple seems to have every year, the ‘Back to School’ promotion was largely viewed as one way of clearing out iPod inventory ahead of the refresh in September. Previous rumors of this year’s promotion suggested that Apple was set to offer $200 off the price of an iPad.  As always, regardless of the bonus offered during the promotion, students get an education discount on the cost of any Mac they purchase.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Apple Settles With Nokia Over Patent Dispute


Nokia today announced that they have reached a settlement with Apple over a complex web of patent disputes between the companies that have been keeping both companies (and the courts) busy since 2009. The settlement involves a one-time payment as well as on-going royalties to be paid to Nokia by Apple – the size of the fee and royalties is undisclosed, as is the length of the agreement.

We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” said Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market. - Nokia Press Release

As FOSS Patents relays, the settlement of this dispute will free up precious resources for both companies – Apple in particular will need them whilst it battles three of the big Android device makers; Motorola, HTC and Samsung. The win for Nokia against Apple will be somewhat of a precedent for future potential patent battles, particularly given the veracity with which Apple had displayed in attempting to ‘win’ this lawsuit. In particular, it is very likely that Nokia will soon go after Android device makers and it is questionable whether they would fare any better than Apple did.

The price isn’t disclosed but FOSS Patents gives a brief opinion how sizeable it could be:

Theoretically, it could be a symbolic amount, but that’s very unlikely. I’m sure Nokia had to go down from its maximum demands because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a settlement. But the deal structure is very telling: a combination of a payment for past infringement as well as running royalties is a clear indication that there’s serious money in this for Nokia.

Updated: Could Nokia be earning €8/$11.50 for each iPhone sold? Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents thinks it is ‘plausible’ - in which case Nokia would be raking in something like $200m from today’s settlement.

[Via FOSS Patents, Picture via Engadget]

Apple Starts Selling Unlocked iPhone 4 In The US, GSM Model Only

One day earlier than was predicted, Apple has finally offered consumers the ability to purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 in the United States. At the moment only the GSM variety is available but you’re free to choose it in either white or black styling and in 16GB or 32GB variety.

Regardless of the color you choose, the iPhone 4 in 16GB variety starts at $649, whilst the 32GB is $749. It doesn’t come with a micro-SIM card so you’ll need to activate one yourself from any supported GSM carrier (worldwide). Whether you plan on using an iPhone extensively overseas or just on an alternative carrier, the unlocked iPhone may be your best choice – at least if you don’t want to go down the jailbreak and unlocking road.

You can purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 from the Apple online store here, and it is expected that Apple retailer stores will have them on sale from today or possibly tomorrow – we will update when we know for sure.

Apple Files Motion To Intervene In Lodsys Suit

According to FOSS Patents, Apple has filed a motion to intervene in the proceedings between Lodsys and several app developers. Lodsys nine days ago filed a civil suit against several app developers including Iconfactory, Illusion Labs and Quickoffice in East Texas over patents it owns.

Whilst Lodsys can oppose Apple’s attempt to intervene in the case, FOSS Patents says that “Apple is fairly likely to be admitted as an intervenor”. In Apple’s proposed defence, it is argued that Apple’s existing license agreement with Lodsys covers the third party developers being sued – an argument Apple made with Lodsys in its letter to them. Contrary to what some might have presumed would happen, Apple does not claim any other defences such as disputing the validity of the patents – but the third party developers could still do so.

I’m reasonably optimistic that Apple will get to intervene. There appears to be precedent for that. Apple cites three interventions admitted in more or less comparable cases (Intel against Negotiated Data Solutions, Intel against U.S. Ethernet Innovations, and Microsoft against TiVo).

It isn’t clear what Apple’s relationship with the developers is (likely under a non-disclosure agreement) but more than likely is that Apple will help them with financial costs and perhaps even the potential risks. In its motion, Apple states that those developers being sued by Lodsys are “are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and […] lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple’s rights under its license agreement”.

In its post, FOSS Patents also shares some screenshots of the developers iTunesConnect app management service which asks developers about potential legal issues with their apps. If a developer says “yes” to legal issues, that app will become “unavailable to be restored and/or downloaded as a previous purchase by App Store customers” through the new iCloud service.

If you want a full rundown of Apple’s motion to intervene, FOSS Patents has an excellent run down, along with questions that the motion does not answer. If you feel brave enough you can also read the official motion here.

[Via FOSS Patents]

Apple Backs Down Over Subscription Rules

A few days ago Apple quietly modified its ‘App Store Review Guidelines’, and it has significantly reduced the requirements that apps, which deliver content, must abide by, effectively stepping down on their previous demands. In February this year it was revealed that Apple had imposed a deadline of June 30 for all publishers of iOS Apps that delivered subscription content to implement In-App Subscriptions. The requirements were that any app that sold content outside the App Store must also offer the same content to users through In-App Purchases and at the “same price or less than it is offered outside the App”.

Yet as MacRumors has published today, Apple has amended the App Store Review Guidelines to state as follows:

11.14 Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content. Apple will not receive any portion of the revenues for approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app

In plain English this means that content providers with an App Store presence are no longer forced to offer In-App purchases or subscriptions for content. But if they do choose to implement IAP or subscriptions they can offer the content at any price they wish – even if it is more than what they charge outside the App Store. The only requirement is that within an app, there cannot be an external link that redirects users to purchase content from outside the app.

It is unknown why Apple has decided to change tack on this issue, but a likely reason is that a number of publishers decided the 30% cut was too much to bear and had put pressure on Apple to redraw the guideline. Just a few days ago The Financial Times released its iPad webapp in order to sidestep the App Store and its overbearing terms. Similarly, earlier this year Time magazine had also ruled out using the subscription service because of the 30% revenue cut and customers ability to opt-out of giving them certain personal details .

Readability, which launched in February, was also set to offer iOS users an app that would tie into the Readability service, but because of the subscription rules they weren’t able to release the app. Similarly iFlowReader complained in mid-May that Apple’s subscription policy had shut them down because the 30% revenue cut would eat into their already small profit margin. The question now is whether these services and magazines will now re-embrace the App Store under these revised terms.

[Via MacRumors]

Hands-On with iTunes’ Purchase History for Apps, Songs, and Books


iTunes 10.3 was released a couple of hours ago and one of the new features it brings is a ‘Purchased’ screen that lists every song, app and book that you have ever downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore. You can get to the ‘Purchased’ screen simply by going to the iTunes Store homepage and clicking “Purchased” from the sidebar on the right of your screen(see below), it should also have a ‘New’ tag beside it, at which point it will take you to ‘Purchased’ screen.

The ‘Purchased’ screen is a really  handy feature to easily and quickly find a previous purchase and instantly download it or even download all of your previous purchases with just one click. The feature, which is also included in iOS 5, is part of Apple’s iCloud, which was unveiled at yesterday’s WWDC keynote. The ‘Purchased’ screen also gives you some fairly powerful tools to find the exact purchase you want, either from just searching, only displaying items not downloaded to your iTunes library or just list the purchases alphabetically.

Make sure to jump the break for a whole slew of screenshots that demonstrate the new feature from iTunes 10.3 (for developers, this feature is also present in iTunes 10.5).

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iCloud: Photo Stream

Another cornerstone feature of iCloud that was just unveiled was ‘Photo Stream’ which will bring all your photos to the cloud. It works so that as soon as you take a photo with your iPhone, that photo will instantly be whisked away to the cloud and then pushed back to all of your other devices - whether it be a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or even a Windows PC!

How many times have we taken photos on our iPhone and wanted to share them on the iPad. Wouldn’t it be great if they were already there?

Photo Stream is built right into the iOS Photos app so there is “nothing new to learn” and on the Mac it is built right into iPhoto whilst on a PC it integrates with the ‘Pictures’ folder. The Apple TV won’t miss out either, Photo Stream is integrated straight into it.

Each photo will survive on iCloud for 30 days, at which point old photos will no longer be pushed to devices. iOS devices will be able to keep the last 1,000 photos but Macs and PCs will keep all photos.

Apple Unveils iCloud

UPDATE: You get access to iCloud when you upgrade or buy a new phone. Everyone gets 5GB of iCloud storage for Mail, but don’t worry because Apps, Books and Photo Stream do not count. Developers can try out iCloud from today.

Steve Jobs has just unveiled iCloud and it is a service that frees all your devices from having to connect to your Mac to get updated media and data. The Mac is being demoted, and in its place is the iCloud which will become “the hub of your digital life”. iCloud will be free!

We’ve got a solution for this problem. We’re going to demote the PC and the mac to just be a device. We’re going to move your hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.”

iCloud stores all your content, so that if you have something new on your iPhone it is sent to the cloud immediately, iCloud will then push it back to all your other devices.

And it’s completely integrated with your apps, and there’s nothing new to learn. It just all… works. It just works.

Whether it be new events on your calendar or a new message in your @me account (which will remain), all of it gets pushed to the cloud and then pushed back to all your devices. The App Store, which is integrated within iCloud will let you see all your purchased apps, even if they are from another device. The same will occur for iBooks

Now what about for devices you buy in the future. The cloud downloads it to all of your devices.

Backup too will be dealt with by iCloud, it will take daily backups of all your devices over WiFi including all the purchased music, apps and books, photos, videos and app data. If you ever lose your device or get a new one, it can all be restored from iCloud.

Apple Unveils iMessage For iOS 5

A new service to hit iOS 5 is iMessage, a service that will allow any user on an iOS 5 device to send text, photos, videos, contacts and more to any other iOS 5 user. It’ll work fine regardless of whether they are using an iPhone, iPad, iPad Touch or even a mixture of those devices.

Our customers have been asking us for a new messaging solution. We’re launching a service that works for all iOS 5 customers

iMessages has support for delivery receipts, optionally read receipts, typing notifications and all messages will be pushed to all devices you own, “so that you can pick up where you left off”. It’ll work on 3G and WiFi and everything will be encrypted.