IPod Imports May Be Banned By Spansion Lawsuit (- InftekHosting.Com - Hosted Kerio Email)

As we enter the critical holiday shopping period, the future of Apple’s iPod hangs in the balance as two courts consider a patent lawsuit over memory chips. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion Inc. Monday named Apple, along with other customers of Samsung in a dispute over alleged abuse of flash memory patents. While the Delaware lawsuit, covering six [...]

(Photo: Brandon Shigeta/Flickr)

As we enter the critical holiday shopping period, the future of Apple’s iPod hangs in the balance as two courts consider a patent lawsuit over memory chips. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion Inc. Monday named Apple, along with other customers of Samsung in a dispute over alleged abuse of flash memory patents.

While the Delaware lawsuit, covering six patents, asks for damages and an injunction against Samsung, Spansion’s case before the International Trade Commission could result in blocking imports of Apple and other makers of devices containing flash memory chips, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A wide range of gadgets, from MP3 players to cell phones and digital cameras, use flash memory. The ITC could forego an import ban if it views the blockage would impose undue harm on a company.

Spansion said it named Apple and others after the ITC reversed an order in the patent infringement case against Qualcomm when Broadcom refused to list customers.

Earlier this year, Spansion acquired Saifun Semiconductors, holder of patents on “charge trapping,” a technology comprising a growing amount of flash memory.

In a hint to the reasons for the patent infringement suit, Spansion outlined a strategy “to create a major licensing business” capable of generating increased revenue as the price of flash memory chips continue to fall.

Along with Apple, the lawsuit named RIM, Sony, Sony-Ericsson, Lenovo and others.

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China Mobile’s CEO Tuesday gave the latest hint Apple may still get its iPhone into the world’s largest marketplace by the end of 2008. “China Mobile is still interested in [bringing the ] iPhone into China Mobile markets,” Marketwatch quoted Wang Jianzhou when addressing the GSMA Mobile Asia Conference. The carrier’s head didn’t provide details, [...]

China and Apple still in iPhone talks (photo: The Tenth Dragon)

China Mobile’s CEO Tuesday gave the latest hint Apple may still get its iPhone into the world’s largest marketplace by the end of 2008.

“China Mobile is still interested in [bringing the ] iPhone into China Mobile markets,” Marketwatch quoted Wang Jianzhou when addressing the GSMA Mobile Asia Conference. The carrier’s head didn’t provide details, citing a non-disclosure agreement with Apple.

China, with over 600 million mobile users, remains a highly-prized target for Apple. CEO Steve Jobs has said he expects to sell the iPhone in the Asian country by the end of the year.

A series of movements indicate recent activity in year-long negotiations that had been stymied by roadblocks over revenue sharing and technology. Last week, Apple posted a job opening for an iPhone Quality Engineer in Beijing. Cupertino, reportedly is under pressure to adopt China’s home-grown TD-SCDMA, rather than widely-used transmission technology. Such a restriction could cause Apple to release an iPhone for Chinese users devoid of Wi-Fi or 3G.

Although China talks appear to have reignited, a number of Asian countries have already announced plans to bring the iPhone to the area.

Monday, Taiwan’s largest mobile carrier Chunghwa Telecom announced it had inked a contract with Apple to distribute the iPhone 3G. Reports suggested Apple’s handset may be sold starting in December. When the iPhone does appear, Chunghwa will have to compete with grey-market iPhones coming from New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United States.

Last week, Thailand’s True Move, announced it had signed a deal with Apple. Although short on details, the company told Reuters it would begin selling the popular cell phone “in the coming months.”

In an possible attempt to head off blame for stalling the iPhone’s entry into China, Jianzhou said Tuesday the company is “open to all operators, all vendors, content providers and service providers,” according to MarketWatch.

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Santa Clara, California - (The Hosting News) - November 18, 2008 - Collaborative infrastructure and web hosting application firm, Ensim Corporation, has partnered with solutions integrator, Norseman Defense Technologies, to offer the Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition to government agencies.

Under the terms of the agreement, Norseman Defense Technologies will sell and support Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition to its nation-wide customer base of public sector organizations.

Ensim Unify allows organizations to meet security and compliance requirements by enabling access control, identity management, change management, automated provisioning, reporting and auditing, password and role management, along with delegated administration and device/client configuration. Available as tools or a complete suite, Ensim Unify delivers instant savings - reducing the number of help desk calls by as much as forty percent - and by eliminating repetitive IT administrative tasks, helping improve workforce effectiveness and enabling IT departments in medium and large-sized organizations to focus on more strategic tasks.

Justin Bonner, Vice-President, Norseman Defense Technologies remarked, ”In today’s economy of speed and of choices, possessing the tools necessary to identify a client’s needs and deliver a solution is paramount. Norseman prides itself on our ability to exceed client expectations. Being able to choose a single partner allows our clients the ability to make choices with ease and flexibility, and we’re confident that by partnering will Ensim we will only improve upon our ability to meet our clients’ needs.”

Norseman Defense serves numerous government agencies, including The National Institute of Health, FBI, FEMA, Navy and the US General Services Administration. Norseman provides clients with an array of computer hardware and software solutions, adding a compliment of services such as network and custom system design, consultation, installation and management support to create a complete go-to-market offering. Norseman will sell and support the complete Ensim Unify Enterprise Suite, as well as its individual modules, including:

Microsoft Active Directory Manager Provides greater control over Active Directory and facilitates the administration of complex tasks, while reducing the number of privileged accounts and preventing unauthorized changes.

Microsoft Exchange Manager
Prevents misconfiguration of Exchange server, increases uptime and automates key tasks.

Mobility Manager Enables easy configuration and wipe of smart phones Over The Air. Self-Service and User Manager
Lets employees easily self-manage, from distribution lists to email profiles, reducing helpdesk and IT time by half.

Password Manager allows employees to reset their own passwords via a web-based portal.

Scott Young, Vice President of marketing and product management at Ensim Corporation remarked, ”Norseman Defense Technologies provides high quality services to many of the most critical government agencies. Norseman will play an integral role in extending our reach into new verticals and enabling us to deliver greater value to our customers.”

Norseman Defense Technologies, a small, woman-owned businesses, is an information technology solutions integrator based in Elkridge, MD. Norseman has over fifteen years of experience in delivering value to Federal Government entities and provides premier quality computer technology products and services at the most competitive prices possible. Norseman is driven to meet the information technology needs of its clients with a focus on exceeding expectations.

Founded in 1998, Ensim Corporation is the leading provider of user provisioning and access control software. Ensim products are used by service providers and enterprises worldwide to accelerate and enable deployment of integrated solutions, simplify and automate secure management of complex environments, and increase user and IT productivity. Ensim is Microsoft Gold Certified, and maintains strategic partnerships with many leading infrastructure vendors including Research In Motion (BlackBerry), Hewlett-Packard, Accenture, Siemens and BroadSoft.

For more information about Ensim, please visit: www.ensim.com.

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In about 10 days, Mapflow will launch a free iPhone app called Avego for car pooling. (The home page says they’re waiting for Apple Push capability). The nice thing: though the Avego app exploits smartphone capabilities, you don’t have to have an iPhone to hitch a ride. Here’s how it works, according to the website: Avego drivers have [...]

In about 10 days, Mapflow will launch a free iPhone app called Avego for car pooling. (The home page says they’re waiting for Apple Push capability).

The nice thing: though the Avego app exploits smartphone capabilities, you don’t have to have an iPhone to hitch a ride.

Here’s how it works, according to the website:

Avego drivers have dashboard-mounted, GPS-enabled iPhones running the Avego app. The driver selects destination from past route history, then empty seats are offered to potential riders. When a potential rider on the route wants a ride at a certain time, the best Avego car is selected and that driver is offered the pickup. If the driver accepts, then voice directions guide the driver to a safe place to pull over and take on riders. When the driver pulls over, a picture of the rider appears on the iPhone, so the driver can authenticate the rider. The driver drives to the destination. On the iPhone, the driver rates the rider experience from 1 to 5. In the cloud, Avego splits the costs of the shared ride in a fair and automated way.

Riders:

Mary, a commuter, gets ready for work. She has a common cell phone. At 7:30AM she texts a coded request for an immediate ride to work. Mary also has an Avego web interface where all her routes are visible, with the associated texting code. The Avego server texts back within a few seconds that a ride is available at 7:35AM at Mary’s closest Avego stop, a two-minute walk away. The text includes vehicle make, model and license plate. Mary walks out the door to the stop. A picture of the driver arrives on Mary’s handset for her to authenticate the driver. The driver pulls up with an Avego decal on the car. Once in the car, Mary texts Avego that the ride has commenced. The driver drives to the destination. Mary and the driver get out. Mary rates the driver experience from 1 to 5 via text message. In the account cloud, Avego splits the costs of the shared ride.

In a perfect world, there would be enough users that a 7:30 AM request gets you to the office in time.

Via Trendhunter

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Mac users are being warned to beware of a new scam by hackers to plant a Trojan horse. RS.Plug.D is a more flexible update of the RS.Plug.A threat discovered in 2007, a security software vendor claimed Tuesday. Like the original, the new version relies on Mac users to visit malicious porn sites, according to Intego. Unlike [...]

(Photo: otzberg/flickr)

Mac users are being warned to beware of a new scam by hackers to plant a Trojan horse. RS.Plug.D is a more flexible update of the RS.Plug.A threat discovered in 2007, a security software vendor claimed Tuesday.

Like the original, the new version relies on Mac users to visit malicious porn sites, according to Intego. Unlike RS.Plug.A, this trojan software opens a security hole enabling hackers to repeatedly download files to your system.

When on a suspect porn site, visits will be shown an error message: “Video ActiveX Object Error,” followed by a message that the browser is unable to view the video file and a request to start a download.

ActiveX is usually linked to Windows-related files, not Macs. Despite that, the Web page downloads a file (often named “cleanlive.dmg”) from a remote site. Once downloaded, the file automatically launches a trojan that contacts the remote site again.

To avoid downloading the Trojan file, you must quit your browser, according to the company. Simply choosing “Cancel” returns you to the original “error” message.

Mac users can disable the Trojan by using an anti-virus application.

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Google’s voice search application for the iPhone is nothing short of spectacular. After tantalizing would-be users with either a PR goof or a brilliant marketing ploy that resulted in a delayed release on the AppStore, the updated version of Google Mobile finally hit on Monday and I got it on to my phone last night. [...]

Google’s voice search application for the iPhone is nothing short of spectacular. After tantalizing would-be users with either a PR goof or a brilliant marketing ploy that resulted in a delayed release on the AppStore, the updated version of Google Mobile finally hit on Monday and I got it on to my phone last night.

It’s like the home screen says, “For voice search, just bring the phone to your ear and speak. Really, no buttons required!” The program offers to let you watch a video to learn more, but it’s about as easy as it gets to call up a search results page that gives you just what you’re looking for simply by speaking into the phone.

When I searched for “70 Harper” the program returned results for “cindy harper,” but when I amended the search to “70 harper street, san francisco” I got a Google map pinned exactly to the address I spoke into the phone. Speaking about the incredible performance of this free app with my colleague Leander Kahney this morning, he agreed Google has served up something pretty amazing, saying, “it even understands my weird English accent.”

Say what you will about Google having worn out its welcome, or being on the downside of its rise to Internet glory, this advance in mobile search technology is a huge leap forward in this reviewer’s opinion. The iPhone may not yet be a fully functioning Star Trek communicator, but Google’s voice search brings it closer than many thought we might get.

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Late last night I made the mistake of staying up to listen to a talk radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live. The host, Richard Bacon, used the final hour of the show to generate some calls from listeners with the simple call to arms: “PC or Mac?” Talk show radio shows love topics like this. [...]

Late last night I made the mistake of staying up to listen to a talk radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live. The host, Richard Bacon, used the final hour of the show to generate some calls from listeners with the simple call to arms: “PC or Mac?”

Talk show radio shows love topics like this. Ones on which everyone has an opinion.

Sadly, most of last night’s opinions were painful to hear. Not because the PC crowd were dismissing Macs and Mac users wholesale, but because they were using such age-old arguments to do it.

Things like:

• Macs can’t share files with Windows machines
• there’s not enough software for OS X
• Macs are only ever used by designers and graphic artists
• Macs are slow
• Macs are expensive

All these arguments were valid back in the last decade, before the introduction of OS X. But none of them really stands up any more. It’s a sad reality that many Windows users still think they’re true, because they’ve never had cause to change their minds.

The Guardian’s technology editor Charles Arthur was a guest on the show, and he did his very best to defend the Mac community from an onslaught of inaccurate and petty criticisms, but his voice was drowned out by the majority.

What was most entertaining, though, was when the in-studio Windows user (I’m sorry, I didn’t catch his name) got so flustered by Charles’ mild arguments that he retorted with crazy talk.

Charles pointed out the benefit of the software that comes with every new Mac. He mentioned GarageBand, and said there was nothing like it on Windows.

“Yes there is,” bridled the Windows guy.

“Really?” said Charles Arthur. “What’s it called?”

“Erm, it’s called Audio Loops,” said Windows guy.

“And that comes pre-installed on every new Windows computer does it?” asked Charles Arthur.

“Well, no, not all of them but…”

Then, later, Charles remarked on the lack of viruses and malware for OS X.

“Not true!” barked Windows guy. “I know of a virus for Mac.”

After one or two further probing questions, it turned out he was referring to something from the OS 9 days.

Simple lesson learned by yours truly: stay away from phone-in talk radio. It’s there to encourage argument, just like reality TV. (And quite a lot of journalism, now I stop to think about it. Oh well.)

(In the interests of full disclosure, Charles Arthur has commissioned me to write articles for The Guardian in the past, and may do again in future. That professional connection in no way affects my opinions of this radio show.)

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