Photo Shows Alleged iPhone 5 Back Part

As noted by MacRumors, Taiwanese website Apple.pro – a usually reliable source of Apple information and product leaks – posted today [Google Translation] what they claim to be the back part of the next-generation iPhone. The iPhone 5 back panel is shown in white, with two different holes for the camera lens and flash as previous speculation and case design suggested. A rough Google Translation seems to suggest that Apple.pro can’t confirm the authenticity of the picture though:

SHOW pictures out of the back cover a picture of white iPhone

camera with flash, but the difference with iPhone4

Is separated

Of course now I can not verify the authenticity of this picture

But frankly, I personally think this picture should be PS Follow the following chart last week, I do

Authenticity of unknown origin

The first case design indicating the iPhone 5 would get separated camera lens and flash holes was then pulled from the e-commerce website it appeared on. Another report from Apple.pro the same week re-confirmed the rumor of a distinct camera flash showing different components for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. The next-generation iPhone is rumored to be a minor refresh of the existing iPhone line with speedier processor, better cameras and more RAM, though some recent rumors also pointed at Apple working on a major update for the device featuring a bigger edge-to-edge screen, dramatically thinner design and NFC capabilities.

Byword for the Mac, Now with Markdown

Byword might be your text editor of choice thanks to its choice of colors in white or black shades, the intuitive and consistently convenient formatting pop-over, or its writer-esque text preview that lets you focus on just a few lines of text. If you’re not yet a convert for Byword’s good looks alone, Markdown support has been added under the hood for the many of us who prefer the popular, readable language over tag-numbing HTML code. Byword’s latest update to 1.2 brings Markdown and more, all reviewed just after the break.

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Report: iOS Devices Streaming 80% of Mobile Video

Freewheel, a video monetization startup, is reporting that Apple is dominating mobile video – 80 percent of it. FreeWheel said in its Q1 2011 report that the majority of video views are occuring on Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPhone and iPod each grabbed about 30 percent of all mobile video views while the iPad grabbed 20 percent; the remaining 20 percent belonged to Android devices. Everything else accounted for less than 1 percent of all video views on mobile devices.

FreeWheel attributes Apple’s dominance in mobile video to the early lead the company has had in the mobile video market with their line of iOS devices. They also believe that greater viewership on Apple devices represents the adoption of video publishers and mobile developers who build their apps / videos for iOS devices first before moving to other platforms. Despite having sold just 20 million tablets worldwide, the iPad already accounts for 20 percent of videos viewed on mobile devices, according to FreeWheel. GigaOM said in their article that “We thought the iPad would be an ideal device for viewing video when it was announced, but the extent to which it has been embraced by even traditional video producers and distributors speaks to the power of the platform. TV networks like ABC and HBO have built applications for the iPad, as have pay TV operators like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision and others.”

While mobile video viewing accounts for only one percent of all online video views, much of it is driven by news and live events. Mobile views peaked during the Japanese tsunami / earthquake crisis and also during the NCAA Men’s College Basketball March Madness Tournament. This makes sense because much of the Japan / basketball events happened during “working hours” when viewers turned to their smartphones and mobile devices because they couldn’t watch TV at work.

The 20 percent that the iPad gets is the biggest stat in my opinion; most people don’t take their iPad with them everywhere they go, like an iPhone or iPod Touch. Most people use it after working hours, and to have that 20 percent is outstanding. [via GigaOM]

Dragontape for iPad Lets you Browse, Share, and Edit Video Mixtapes

We traditionally think of the classic mixtape as an audio compilation of power songs and remixes that we’ll then share with friends or pass along to the cute girl two seats behind you in math class. Recently brought to my attention was Dragontape, a website that takes the concept of the mixtape further by combining YouTube and SoundCloud, effectively allowing you to create video & audio playlists of music, concert, and related promotional videos for your favorite artists, gigs, and tours. With Dragontape for the iPad you can watch the latest mixtapes, browse through what’s popular, and revisit favorites all without the need of your web browser.

While it’s obvious you can preview the collections of video, not-so-obvious is the ability to edit movies iMovie style to clip and cut your way to the perfect mixtape. You can save and edit mixtapes to your liking, though I didn’t find the controls initially intuitive (you’ll also need a Dragontape account to save any edits you make to a mixtape). Too, the iPad app is still reliant on sometimes fussy YouTube videos, which may not play on the iPad. “Not optimized for mobile,” it says. What’s interesting to me, however, is how Dragontape handles the integration with SoundCloud with YouTube video. For a clip, Dragontape displays a synth-y, pixelated equalizer that bounces to the beat of the music that’s used as a placeholder for video.

There are some quirks about Dragontape, as pinch-to-zoom for video has been replaced with simple taps, and the background image displayed when browsing mixtapes ends up being a pixelated, centered mess that attempts to be cool, but is unfortunately unappealing. Otherwise, the menu and video controls look incredibly sharp: perhaps Dragontape is aiming for distinctness between the interface and background album art in their own, weird way. Simply changing the fading between tracks prompts users to save the altered mixtape: you’ll quickly develop that dismissive “Cancel” reflex. The app has crashed for me a few times, but I’m interested in Dragontape’s mobile interface enough to keep me from deleting the app off my homescreen as others may do.

There’s flaws, and the app icon doesn’t make clear the that name is Dragontape (and not Drag On Tape), but this is a novel idea that needs to be explored. Those YouTube playlists you peruse can all be intermixed for a better browsing experience, and I sense an opportunity for discovery as Dragontape moves out of beta and integrates with other popular video sites. I personally enjoyed watching lots of promotional tour videos with Dragontape, but maybe you’ll have a much more creative use for it. The price for admission is free on the App Store. You can learn more about the service and create a Dragontape account on their official website and iPad landing page.

Analysis of Apple’s Letter To Lodsys→

Analysis of Apple’s Letter To Lodsys

Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents breaks down today’s letter from Apple to Lodsys CEO Mark Small, detailing a possible scenario iOS developers might soon find themselves into:

App developers have to understand that Lodsys can still sue them. Apple’s letter does not prevent Lodsys from doing that, and it would be a way for Lodsys to pursue its agenda. It wouldn’t make economic sense for Lodsys to sue a few little app developers based on the damage awards or settlements Lodsys might get out of such a lawsuit. However, for Lodsys it would still be worth it if this resulted in a lucrative settlement with Apple, or if it (alternatively) scared potentially thousands of app developers so much that they would pay. Lodsys would sue some app devs only to set an example, and for the ones to whom it happens, that would be an unpleasant situation.

As other bloggers have already written and tweeted, Apple’s letter might be heartwarming for developers, but the story is far from over. Apple is stepping up to defend its developers and that is great news for sure (see developers’ reactions here), but in case of Lodsys deciding to sue anyway to set a precedent, these indie developers would still have to deal with actual court duties, lawyers, and the fact that they’d need to directly ask Apple to back them up. Apple hasn’t explicitly stated they would pay for every legal expense in today’s letter (unless the emails sent to developers, and not Mark Small, have additional details we’re not aware of), though Mueller believes that sending a copy of the letter to Mark Small to developers is a good sign of the company taking things seriously and considering paying for any kind of expense if Lodsys sues.

Again, it’s not over yet, but the general consensus seems to be that this is a great first step to defend the App Store, Apple’s own ecosystem and in-app purchases, and independent developers.

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Apple Officially Responds To iOS Devs Hit By Lodsys Patent Claims [Updated]

According to a number of tweets from iOS developers hit by Lodsys’ patent infringement claims in regards to in-app purchases and upgrade buttons, Apple has started sending out emails earlier today with legal documentation about Lodsys’ claims. While the contents of the entire email and letter haven’t been posted yet, the first details have started making the rounds of Twitter as Apple is apparently offering support to iOS developers by helping them defending against Lodsys patent infringement claims.

The first paragraph of the email has been posted by Craig Grannel at Revert To Saved:

There is no basis for Lodsys’ infringement allegations against Apple’s App Makers. Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights.

The Loop has posted another paragraph of the email, with more coming soon:

Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the App Makers are protected by that license,” wrote Bruce Sewell, Apple Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

From what we can gather so far, it appears Apple is asking Lodsys, and CEO Mark Small, to withdraw letters sent to developers as they’re already covered by Apple. We’ll update this story with more details as they become available.

Another excerpt from Apple’s email confirms that the company believes developers shouldn’t pay any licensing fee because Apple’s already licensed to use Lodsys’ patent and offer the technology to third-party App Store developers through software development kits and  APIs:

Thus the technology that is targeted in your notice letters is technology that Apple is expressly licensed under the Lodsys patents to offer to Apple’s App Makers. These licensed products and services enable Apple’s App Makers to communicate with end users through the use of Apple’s own licensed hardware, software, APIs, memory, servers, and interfaces, including Apple’s App Store. Because Apple is licensed under Lodsys’ patents to offer such technology to its App Makers, the App Makers are entitled to use this technology free from any infringement claims by Lodsys.

Update: full text of the letter sent by Apple to Lodsys’ CEO Mark Small has been posted by Macworld. A few notable excerpts:

Because I believe that your letters are based on a fundamental misapprehension regarding Apple’s license and the way Apple’s products work, I expect that the additional information set out below will be sufficient for you to withdraw your outstanding threats to the App Makers and cease and desist from any further threats to Apple’s customers and partners.

First, Apple is licensed to all four of the patents in the Lodsys portfolio. As Lodsys itself advertises on its website, “Apple is licensed for its nameplate products and services.” See http://www.lodsys.com/blog.html (emphasis in original). Under its license, Apple is entitled to offer these licensed products and services to its customers and business partners, who, in turn, have the right to use them.

Through its threatened infringement claims against users of Apple’s licensed technology, Lodsys is invoking patent law to control the post-sale use of these licensed products and methods. Because Lodsys’s threats are based on the purchase or use of Apple products and services licensed under the Agreement, and because those Apple products and services, under the reading articulated in your letters, entirely or substantially embody each of Lodsys’s patents, Lodsys’s threatened claims are barred by the doctrines of patent exhaustion and first sale.

The conclusion of the letter:

Therefore, Apple requests that Lodsys immediately withdraw all notice letters sent to Apple App Makers and cease its false assertions that the App Makers’ use of licensed Apple products and services in any way constitute infringement of any Lodsys patent.

Contrarily to speculation and rumors posted in the past week, Apple isn’t avoiding the situation and is now actively taking part in backing independent developers hit by Lodsys claims of patent infringement in applications that use Apple’s own iOS SDK. By reassuring that developers shouldn’t pay any licensing fee because Apple is already licensed to offer the technology behind the App Store and in-app purchases, the company is taking a firm position in defending its ecosystem and “app makers.” Several bloggers and patent experts tried to analyze the patent claims over the past two weeks, with the EFF even coming out and saying Apple should have stepped in and started defending its iOS devs right away. As usual Apple has taken its time to study the issue and come up with facts, and is now simply asking Lodsys to withdraw every notice letter and infringement claim sent out to developers.

Square Unveils “Card Case” and “Register” To Reinvent Digital Payments and Wallets

Mobile payment company Square teased last weekend they had some big announcements to make this morning. After the 2.0 update to the iPhone and iPad application that hit the App Store earlier today, Square’s Jack Dorsey announced with a live stream event on TechCrunch Disrupt a few minutes ago the next-generation of payment processing for merchants and mobile payments for customers: Square Register and Square Card Case, two new products aimed at revolutionizing the mobile payment scene and the whole concept of digital wallet.

With 500,000 card readers shipped across the United States and $1 billion gross payment volume, Square undoubtedly changed the way people thought of phones and tablets as point of sale units capable of receiving credit card payments with a simple swipe. But Square wanted to go one step further, and allow everyone, merchants and customers, to get rid of cumbersome cash registers, POS devices and wallets altogether by unifying the Square experience into a single software that takes care of the data, personal information, credit cards on file, location, and more. The Card Case is the first step to allow customers to forget about wallets, cash and credit cards to carry around all the time: within a single iPhone application, users are getting access to a virtual wallet that contains place-specific cards to pay, check out products, and get receipts. TechCrunch explains:

Once you’ve downloaded your mobile Card Case, you can fill your case with ‘cards’ of all the merchants you visit and buy from who accept Square. When you click on an individual merchant’s card, you’ll be able to see a map of where the merchant is located, contact information, your own order and purchase history, and receipts with the merchant and a daily live menu of items or services from the merchant. You’ll also be able to see what other customers are buying at the store, and merchants can serve customized offers to specific customers based on their purchase history.

So here’s where things get interesting. In a merchant’s card within the case, you can press a “use tab” button which allows the frequent customer to essentially put a purchase on their virtual tab with Square at the merchant. So once you press that button within two blocks of the merchant, you’ll be able to tell the cashier your name and your card will be charged on the merchant’s backend Square register. Because you are a repeat customer, Square already has your payment information. The purchaser will then receive a push notification when the merchant processes the payment.

The Card Case basically acts as a wallet to keep all the places you frequently visit together and set up tabs so payments will be processed automatically without even swiping a real credit card. In a video reel showcased by Jack Dorsey at the announcement event, a Square user was shown entering a coffee shop, ordering a cappuccino and simply asking the cashier to put it under his name. No swiping necessary, no need to sign any receipt or carry a wallet around – just an iPhone. After a purchase however, the app of course handles virtual receipts emailed or texted to you, so you’ll be able to organize all your expenses and view the places where you spent your money. The concept’s really simple and disruptive from a user standpoint – as long as you have an iPhone and the credit card on file, it’s as simple as walking into a bar and ordering what you want with your name. The software takes care of the rest.

On the merchant’s end, Square has also announced a new product, the Register, which will dramatically improve the way business owners used to deal with POS machines and real cash registers and engage with customers as well. Merchants have always been able with the Square reader to store customers information and send them a receipt via email or SMS; with today’s update, merchants get the possibility to send customers a link to download the Card Case app so next time payments will happen faster, over the air, and with more features to engage with a local shop and nearby places that support Square. Again, it all comes together with the reader used to set up a credit card for the first time, the iPhone app for customers to pay with their mobile device, and the iPad Register for merchants to check out analytics and customer data. From the website:

  • Transform your iPad into an elegant point of sale. Customize it with product photos, prices, and sortable categories. Accept cash and credit cards.
  • Swipe a card, let customers sign directly on the screen, and send them an email or text message receipt. Customers can add a tip as they sign.
  • Know how many cappuccinos you sell each day. Download full reports that give you insight into your sales patterns and inventory.
  • Let your regular customers set up a tab right from their phone and pay with their name. Publish your menu and share daily specials.

At this point, it’s clear Square isn’t a cool startup with a neat credit card gadget anymore. Square wants to disrupt mobile payments, bringing merchants and customers together socially, locally, just with software, phones and tablets. Square Register and Card Cases are rolling out today through 50 US merchants in New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, St. Louis, and Los Angeles.

Instagram: 4.25 Million Users In 7 Months

With the launch of an official API and hundreds of connected applications proliferating in Apple’s iOS and Mac App Stores, there was little doubt photo sharing service Instagram was off to a great success after a few months. Back in December, two months after public launch, it was reported the service had reached 1 million users – a pretty big milestone considering the app was (and still is) just an iPhone app to snap and share pictures. Instagram still doesn’t have an online interface to customize profiles and browse users, but thanks to the API it’s seen lots of different implementations the developers probably couldn’t even imagine last year.

As tweeted by The New York Times’ Nick Bilton this morning, Instagram has reached 4.25 million users in roughly 7 months. The impressive result has surely been made possible by the wide adoption of Instagram by Twitter celebrities, popular brands and Apple’s features in the App Store homepage – the fact that several Twitter clients and apps like Flipboard directly integrate with Instagram also helped founder Kevin Systrom and the rest of the team getting photos shared with the service off the ground.

Instagram has reached another important milestone and we’re sure there’s more to come in the next weeks. The team has been busy updating the app recently with new features and speed optimizations, though an iPad 2 counterpart or web app are still nowhere to be seen. [via BusinessInsider]