Thirty-five years ago, Ronald G. Wayne helped co-found the Apple Computer Company with two men 20 years his junior, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak — names that have since become synonymous with the personal computer revolution of the early 80s. For Wayne, however, it was a gig that lasted all of a dozen days, abruptly ending when he marched down to the Santa Clara County Registry Office to have himself stricken from the contract he’d authored. His is a name that pops up every few years or so, shrouded in mystery, the “forgotten” or “unknown” founder of one of the world’s most successful companies – and perhaps more infamously, the man who once owned 10 percent of its stock, only to walk away from it all a mere $2,300 richer.
Ron Wayne now lives a very modest life in a small town in Nevada. Given the glamour and wealth that Apple’s other two cofounders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, have experienced, you’d think that Wayne would be bitter about his decision, but he isn’t. He recognizes that both Woz and Jobs were headed in a very different trajectory than he was.
Famitsu (translated via Andriasang) is reporting that Sony’s new system sold 321,407 units in two days. Those numbers come from Enterbrain, covering December 17 and 18.
The PS Vita – Sony’s new portable gaming system – just came out in Japan (it’ll be out in North America in the new year). That’s just a few more than Nintendo sold for its 3DS during its opening weekend. The big test will be how the Vita holds up over the long term. Nintendo saw sales of the 3DS drop off pretty sharply after a strong opening.
Apple issued the notice of infringement to Samsung in Australia over the cases, and will file a statement of claim, Apple’s lawyer Stephen Burley said at a hearing in Sydney today. Samsung’s lawyer Katrina Howard said at the same hearing the company was served with the notice that the cases infringe at least 10 patents.
If you’re going to copy the device, why not copy the case too.
So what Apple has won is a formal import ban scheduled to commence on April 19, 2012, but relating only to HTC Android phones implementing one of two claims of a “data tapping patent”: a patent on an invention that marks up phone numbers and other types of formatted data in an unstructured document, such as an email, in order to enable users to bring up other programs (such as a dialer app) that process such data.
Florian is the best at explaining the ramifications of patent wins and loses.
Apparently RIM organized a party in Sydney, Australia where BlackBerry users could share songs with their friends. Judging from the turnout, I guess they were too embarrassed to show up.
The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.“AT&T will continue to be aggressive in leading the mobile Internet revolution,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “Over the past four years we have invested more in our networks than any other U.S. company. As a result, today we deliver best-in-class mobile broadband speeds – connecting smartphones, tablets and emerging devices at a record pace – and we are well under way with our nationwide 4G LTE deployment.”To reflect the break-up considerations due Deutsche Telekom, AT&T will recognize a pretax accounting charge of $4 billion in the 4th quarter of 2011. Additionally, AT&T will enter a mutually beneficial roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom.
Then Topolsky and crew launched their next big thing: The Verge. It’s what they envisioned tech reporting to be when they left Engadget, but unfortunately for them it sucks.
Ben just goes off on The Verge — not about the design of the Website, not about advertisements, but about the writing.
From December 21st thru December 27th, Skype (and, by extension, Microsoft), will offer free access to third-party WiFi hotspots through its Skype WiFi program in over 50 airports all across the U.S.
You sign in using your Skype ID. Obviously if your local airport offers free Wi-Fi already, you don’t need this – but well-traveled airports like Boston’s Logan Airport, SFO, Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway, and dozens of others are on the list. Visit the Skype blog for an interactive map.
Google will begin promoting what could be the first official Nexus tablet within the next six months, according to chairman Eric Schmidt, the latest stage in the “brutal competition” between it and Apple. “In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality” Schmidt told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sea, while also confirming that Google plans to leverage its voice recognition technology to better challenge Apple’s Siri.
We’ll see if Google has any better luck wading into the fray; so far, Android tablets haven’t had very much impact in the market compared to the iPad.
We’ve all seen some cool things that Siri can do, but this has to be the best so far. The guys at Yamaha got Siri to play piano.
Here’s how my friend at Yamaha explained it to me:
Take a standard MIDI songfile and convert it to an audio file (while maintaining the MIDI data). The songfile is then sent wirelessly via WiFi to an Apple Airport Express (which is mounted underneath a Yamaha Disklavier reproducing piano. The audio output of the Airport Express is then connected to the analog MIDI inputs of the Disklavier, using a standard audio cable.Then, you simply ask Siri to play your favorite song from your iTunes library, and Siri responds immediately, by making the Disklavier’s keys and pedal move up and down, recreating the performance, including full orchestration.
Research in Motion’s struggles in the smartphone market have driven its stock price so low that the company is worth less than the estimated value of just Apple’s App Store.
Clearly RIM’s co-CEOs were right. The iPhone will have no effect on the BlackBerry at all.
It’s the perfect time for a Holiday CleanUp! Get CleanMyMac with 40% off until December 25th. CleanMyMac is an easy-to-use cleaning tool for your Mac. It helps you free up space on your hard drive by cleaning logs, caches, system junk and apps leftover. Includes a set of maintenance utilities.Try CleanMyMac for free, and get it with 40% off during this week.
Apple is also working on its own television that relies on wireless streaming technology to access shows, movies and other content, according to people briefed on the project.In the recent meetings with media companies, the Apple executives, including Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, have outlined new ways Apple’s technology could recognize users across phones, tablets and TVs, people familiar with the talks said.
This is going to be big. Even though its competition has warning of Apple’s plans, I don’t think they understand the scope of Apple’s plans.
It appears that the wild story of Fusion Garage has come to a sadly ignominious close: the manufacturer of the failed JooJoo and Grid10 tablets has all but disappeared, leaving behind only a database error on its website and a US PR firm that is quitting representation as of tomorrow.
Maybe Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan can send his resumé to RIM.
After much consideration, he concluded that his company’s only hope was to abandon its long-held strategy, to acknowledge its shortcomings and embark on a radical new strategy. He ditched the company’s sputtering software business. He put teams to work developing new devices and he cut a billion-dollar software deal with one of the most powerful technology companies on the planet.Unfortunately for the shareholders of Research In Motion Ltd., the Canadian smartphone executive’s name was not Jim Balsillie or Mike Lazaridis. It was Stephen Elop, the Hamilton-born chief executive of Finnish mobile giant Nokia Corp.
I don’t think RIM can do it. They need to fire the co-CEOs and bring in someone with some imagination to clean house and get the company back on track.
Police are searching for someone who stole a semtrailer filled with $1.7 million worth of BlackBerry PlayBooks.
These are either the stupidest robbers ever, or more likely, RIM’s co-CEOs took a road trip. It is interesting to note that the truck was headed back to RIM’s headquarters in Ontario. Sounds like a truckload of returns to me.
I would like to thank Studiometry for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.
Studiometry helps small businesses track all their clients, projects and invoices — all in one place. From leads and planning to invoicing and more, the award-winning business management software works as hard as you, keeping your business organized and your projects managed.
Download our FREE 30-day trial. Frequent free updates and a developer who actually listens give you the best project management experience for Mac, Windows, and iOS devices.
Credit where it’s due: the CEO of iOS game developer Monkeybin Studios has publicly apologized for a marketing foul-up that left a foul taste in some reviewer’s mouths.
The company recently released a side-scrolling shooter called Jumpship Thrust Control 2. In an attempt to drum up publicity for the new release, Monkeybin apparently contracted a third-party marketing firm to do some PR. This is where things went off the rails, according to the explanation posted by Monkeybin CEO Haakon Langaas Lageng.
They outsourced the job to a private marketing contractor, who proceeded over the next week or so to contact game review sites, requesting reviews of the newly released game. He attached 2 sample reviews to the emails and requested that, if the reviewer was pushed for time, they could copy and paste snippets from the email into their review.
This, of course, is a no-no for any ethically-minded game reviewer. “Copying and pasting snippets” is not only tantamount to plagiarism, but it also lets the marketing person direct the review.
Monkeybin was rightfully excoriated for this behavior, and now the company is attempting damage control by explaining that the marketing was done without their direct supervision, said according to Langeng.
“As the CEO of Monkeybin, this is, of course, completely my responsibility. Unfortunately, what was happening slipped my attention until yesterday.”
Zynga has raised $1 billion in its much anticipated IPO today, after offering its 100 million shares at $10 each.
Zynga is the casual game developer behind Facebook hits like Farmville and Cityville. The company has branched out to support other platforms including iOS.
I don’t know about you, but when I read my favorite technology writers, I want an opinion. Is the iPhone 4S the best smartphone, or is it the Galaxy Nexus? I need to buy one, I can’t buy both. Topolsky never gives us that. Instead, he pussyfoots around it. One is great at some things, the other is great at others. Barf.
Research In Motion Ltd.’s top executives cut their salaries to $1 as they delivered yet more dismal news to investors, telling the world the product that was supposed to save the company will come out almost a year later than promised.
