Apple is now engaged in a new lawsuit, but this time, they are the ones being sued. Touchscreen Gestures, LLC., a Texas based technologies company, claims that Apple is in violation of four of their patents. The iDevices that allegedly infringe upon these patents are the iPod, the iPhone, an the iPad, all generations.  For the past couple of years, they have been in a pending “discovery” mode, in which they have ascertained what information they could, and have come to the conclusion that Apple has willfully violated the above-mentioned patents. The interesting thing is that the patents that Touchscreen Gestures, LLC. holds have absolutely no relation to multi-touch gestures in any way, shape, or form. 

The four patents which Touchscreen Gestures, LLC. claim have been infringed were acquired from Sentelic Corporation of Taiwan, and they state that they are now the owners of all title, rights and interest of each one of the patents they have listed.

The said patents are:

• 7,184,031
• 7,180,506
• 7,190,356
• 7,319,457

Now, being that this article borrows generously from the one published here, by PatentlyApple.com, most of this information including the graphics have been duplicated from their post, as they did a phenomenal job, and a heavy bit of cut & pasting from the actual complaint themselves, so without further adieu, here we go:

Count One:

In a quote directly from the complaint, the Plaintiff openly describes the issues that it claims Apple is infringing upon, namely:

On information and belief, Apple has been and now is infringing the ’031 Patent in the State of Texas, in this judicial district, and elsewhere in the United States by making, using, importing, selling or offering to sell touch devices that incorporate methods, controllers and gesture units according to the ’031 Patent. On information and belief, examples of Apple products that infringe the ’031 Patent include, but are not limited to, the “iPhone” smartphone and the “iPad” tablet which allow the identification of drag gestures via methods, controllers and gestures units that infringe claims of the ’031 Patent. Apple is thus liable for infringement of the ’031 Patent” according to the plaintiff.

Count Two:

Here, Touchscreen Gestures, LLC. openly says that their patent:  “is generally directed to novel, unique and non-obvious methods and controllers of identifying a movement of single tap which is a movement done with at least an object contacting a touch device, such as smartphone or tablet.”

The exact text of the complaint reads:

“On information and belief, examples of Apple products that infringe the ’506 Patent include, but are not limited to, the “iPhone” smartphone and the “iPad” tablet which allow the identification of a movement of single tap which is a movement done with at least an object contacting a touch device and which therefore infringe claims of the ’506 Patent.

Count Three:

Furthermore, additional text from the official complaint states that their patent, patent number 7,190,356

“is generally directed to novel, unique and non-obvious methods and controllers of identifying double tap gestures on a touch device movement of single tap which is a movement done with at least an object contacting a touch device, such as smartphone or tablet.

On information and belief, examples of Apple products that infringe the ’356 Patent include, but are not limited to, the “iPhone” smartphone and the “iPad” tablet which allow the identification of double tap gestures on a touch device and which therefore infringe claims of the ’356 Patent.”

Count Four:

And finally, in their fourth and final complaint, Touchscreen Gestures, LLC. officially complains that their patent, patent number 7,319,457:

“is generally directed to novel, unique and non-obvious methods and electronic devices of scrolling a window screen, such as those on a smartphone or tablet.

On information and belief, examples of Apple products that infringe the ’457 Patent include, but are not limited to, the “iPhone” smartphone and the “iPad” tablet which allow users to scroll window screens of a touch device and which therefore infringe claims of the ’457 Patent.

This case was originally filed in the United States District Court for Eastern District of Texas. PatentlyApple.com also states that the judge presiding over the case seems to be the honorable Judge Leonard Davis, and that Apple is not the only company that Touchscreen Gestures, LLC. is suing, as they are also launching suits against Samsung, and Research In Motion (“RIM”) with the very same patents mentioned above.

This is the part where I post the disclaimer that MyGreatiPhone.com is not claiming to have any knowledge or opinion of the validity of the claims filed, and state that we are not claiming one way or the other who is right or wrong. We are bloggers and journalists, not legal consultants, and we do not offer any legal opinion of the matter. We just report. Nothing more, nothing less.

Every so often, websites such as Kickstarter will give birth to a genuine gem. You see, by having donators alerted to your project, sites like Kickstarter can give them the startup capital that they need to get truly great products out there, and this is one of them. Instead of connecting your iPod Nano to a watchband, the people at the Pebble Project aren’t trying to connect a device physically to your watch, they are trying to do it wirelessly. Specifically, in the form of a Bluetooth connection. Exactly. That’s where the genius comes into play.

Not only would this be one cool-as-hell watch, but it is extremely customizable. It connects to your iPhone, and it will pull up such information as Caller ID, your e-Mail, Calendar Alerts, and even grant you limited access to facebook and twitter. All on your watch. And furthermore, by using the SDK (“software developer kit”) they include with the watch, anyone with programming knowledge can create an even more customized user experience. This however, isn’t the end of it’s list of accolades.

It comes with an ePaper display. It has a built-in accelerometer, and can be viewed in direct sunlight with no issues whatsoever. According to the creators, the battery of the Pebble watch will last you seven (7) days, but actual use-time remains to be seen. It had originally had a $100,000 goal in mind, but as of the time of this writing, the current funds raised is somewhere around the $2 million mark. THAT’S how bad people want this thing. To take a look for yourself, simply go here.

For those who pledge $99, they will receive a Pebble Watch, which is $50 less than it will be made available for once it is released. It comes in arctic white, jet black, cherry red, and an unspecified color that the donators from Kickstarter.com will decide on.

Is this something that you think is cool, or useless? Would you buy one of these?  Let us know.

According to a recent survey conducted by Changewave, and reported by Fortune 2.0, demand for Apple’s current flagship iPhone, the iPhone 4[s] is still in record high demand, almost half a year after it’s initial release. This doesn’t come as a surprise, due to the fact that Apple is selling more of these devices that you could possibly imagine, with strong numbers being reported fiscal quarter after fiscal quarter. 

In a mixed survey, 4,413 consumers and 55% of future smartphone buyers plan on purchasing specifically an iPhone. This is a slight rise from another survey conducted in December of 2011, in which 53% claimed to want purchase the same iDevice. Within this same period of time, with the same types of people surveyed, demand for Samsung devices has stayed exactly the same, while the Google-owned company Motorola has dropped by 1%.

What do you think? Having the iPhone 4[s] for the past six months, I still love it every day. I could’t imagine switching over to any other, subpar device, nor would I want to. As an avid iPhone user for the past ½ decade, it isn’t just an issue of loyalty for me. It’s an issue of 100% complete customer satisfaction, and despite the above-mentioned loyalty, I don’t see how my mobile experience could be any better with a different device. What about you? What are your thoughts on your experiences with Apple’s iPhone 4[s]? Are you happy? Does the experience leave something to be desired? Sound off in the comments below.

I personally believed that this was a crock starting from the second I read it, and I actually held off writing this article for a day or two, because I wanted to see what else would come out. First, let me deal with Page. His exact comments were as follows:

I think the Android differences were actually for show. I had a relationship with Steve. I wouldn’t say I spent a lot of time with him over the years, but I saw him periodically. Curiously enough, actually, he requested that meeting. He sent me an e-mail and said: “Hey, you want to get together and chat?” I said, “Sure, I’ll come over.” And we had a very nice talk. We always did when we had a discussion generally… He was quite sick. I took it as an honor that he wanted to spend some time with me. I figured he wanted to spend time with his family at that point. He had a lot of interesting insights about how to run a company and that was pretty much what we discussed.

He also had another gem to release into the world, this time regarding his perceived point of view on the iOS vs Android animosity, which is:

I think that served their interests. For a lot of companies, it’s useful for them to feel like they have an obvious competitor and to rally around that. I personally believe that it’s better to shoot higher. You don’t want to be looking at your competitors. You want to be looking at what’s possible and how to make the world better.

Now, of course this might make sense to Page, because at the time that iOS was being developed, he was not the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt was. And while this mobile operating system was being developed at Apple, Eric Schmidt, said CEO of Google happened to be on Apple’s Board of Directors. And lo’ and behold, suddenly, Google decided to develop their own mobile operating system, and once the insane amount of similarities were unveiled, of course Steve Jobs flew off the handle. These comments come from Page in an interview he did with Bloomberg Businessweek, where he spoke in-depth about his future plans for Android, Motorola, and Google in general. When the interviewer brought up the fact that Apple was still actively pursuing legal action not against Google directly, but by suing it’s mobile partners who utilize the Android operating system, it was also brought up that Apple may be willing to settle those disputes for a royalty fee of $15 per Android device sold.

Now, upon hearing this, Walter Isaacson, author of the only authorized biography of Steve Jobs, cleverly entitled “Steve Jobs”, stepped in and told CEO Page that was a big heaping pile of crap a la bull. You see, Walter Isaacson is probably the only man on the planet that got to take a direct look at Steve Job’s in a way that no one else ever had: with unfettered, unfiltered access. And this man has come forward and stated that Jobs felt genuine betrayal, and that he felt Android was a “stolen product”. He also vowed with his “last dying breath” to “destroy it”.

Well, while at a public speaking event held in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Walter stated that he believed Jobs’ fury to be a very real emotion. In an exact quote, this is what he had to say:

“It’s [iOS] almost copied verbatim by Android,” Isaacson said. “And they license it around promiscuously. And then Android starts surpassing Apple in market share, and this totally infuriated him. It wasn’t a matter of money. He said, ‘You can’t pay me off, I’m here to destroy you.’ “

In his last days, Steve Jobs stated that he was prepared to go “thermonuclear” to destroy Android, and that he would spent every last dollar of Apple’s in the bank to do so. Isaacson doesn’t believe that new Apple CEO Tim Cook will have the same approach though, as he believes that Cook will attempt to settle all of the iOS/Android legal disputes. This also jives with what author Paul M. Barrett stated on his beliefs about Cook, who does not seem to share Jobs’ desire to “lay all foes to waste”:

“’(lay) all foes to waste,’ and that he instead views the courtroom as a ‘necessary evil.’”

Image courtesy of http://www.gadgetsandtech.net

Nokia has once again taken aim at Apple. This time, they are insinuating some pretty rash claims, but they are claims that do make you take a step back and wonder just a little bit. The gist of this new attack, in the form of a new ad campaign, suggests that consumers who are purchasing and using the iPhone are simply nothing more than unwitting, public beta testers for Apple. 

The suggestion is a powerful one, as I myself have often wondered this in the past, in regards to certain features and functions of the iDevices. While I am not about to go as far as to claim that this is some multi-billion dollar conspiracy, I will admit that this suggestion does have some valid points if you truly get down and start to think about it. With that being said, this ad campaign in genius. It features a series of video clips, allegedly of test groups who are toying around with an iPhone. While this may actually only be a mock video, there are many out there who would not know this, and would assume that in the time of WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and LolzSec, that these were obtained somehow other than legally, and that their authenticity is genuine. The fact is, these videos are fake as hell, and were paid for by Nokia in an attempt to slander not only the iPhone itself, but it’s consumers and their intelligence as well.

There are many valid points in these videos, as I stated above. In each, there is a fictional product manager, who is attempting to possibly come up with solutions to these problems, but there are multiple employees who then use obnoxious and crass comments to talk him out of it, and unfortunately, in one scenario, one of those obnoxious and crass comments was quoted directly from Steve Jobs himself. The issues dealt with can be found in the names of the ads themselves: “Fragile”, dealing with how the device reacts to being dropped or otherwise impacted, “Outside”, which deals with display quality issues while outside, and “Death Grip”, which is self-explanatory. Some of these comments made are along the lines of “Well then, don’t go outside.” or the infamous “You’re holding it wrong.” line from Jobs himself.

To take a look at these ads yourself, simply click below and watch as your heart hardens and your angers sets in. I know I did.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That is exactly what is going on in this case. Back to Apple and Google, a few years back, there was talk of Apple beginning to use their own mapping software instead of Google Maps, a lot of people were happy about that. I wasn’t one of them, but it goes to show you how so many things you don’t even think about are integrated into a pretty much flawless product, and how the sales of said product affect the revenue of both of those companies. And it turns out that Google is making money hand-over-fist based on the stellar sales of Apple’s iDevices.

As a matter of fact, if you take a look at JUST the mobile advertising-based revenue that Google is pulling in, you would assume that due to how many different handsets and tablets that Android sells, Google would be raking in the cash from these sources, right? Well, yes and no. In a report released by The Guardian, and with an article based on court documents submitted by the GOOG, while yes, Android is bringing in the money, revenue from iOS-based iDevices is bringing them FOUR TIMES as much as what Android is. That’s right, four times. Android, from the end of 2008 up to the end of 2011 raked in “only” $543million dollars. Here is the quote taken directly from the article listed above:

The $2.8m offer, at a combined rate of 0.515%, suggests that Android’s total revenue from the launch of handsets at the end of 2008 through to the end of 2011 was $543m. That also means that Android could generate more than $1bn in advertising revenues this year; last year, Google’s total annual revenues were around $38bn. Google lets manufacturers use Android for free, but to achieve “certification” they have to include services such as Google search, maps, YouTube and other functions.

This quote was taken directly from Google’s CEO, Larry Page, stated that regarding the last earnings call, Google’s reported mobile-advertisement-based revenue from sources other than the Android OS, grew “2.5 times in the last 12 months to a run rate of over $2.5 billion”.

Of course though, it would be too much good luck to have him offer exact specifics, but the fact that Apple has shipped over 315 million iDevices as of the date of this writing could’t hurt matters. Obviously, being that these are the two largest mobile device on the market (either Android or iOS-based devices) it stands to reason that iOS iDevices are responsible for such an exorbitant amount of revenue.

For those of you who follow the financial or legal aspects of technological news, you may remember that last August, there was a Senate hearing where a former FTC official Susan Creighton stated that 66% of Google’s mobile search comes from iOS iDevices. You can even view that for yourself here.

While it is no secret that these two companies are fierce competitors, and that with his dying wish Steve Jobs wanted to “annihilate” Android because he felt that the entire operating system was as a “stolen idea”, it is obvious that there are some functions that are deeply rooted in your iDevices, such as Google Maps, which is the most dominant, and Google Search, which you can see span system-wide. This does not include the entire slew of Google Apps available in the AppStore, which obviously help contribute. And for those of you wondering how exactly Google makes money off of these services, iDownloadBlog gives it an excellent breakdown here:

Google injects ads in locations you browse in the Maps app, in search results reached via Safari and inside participating third-party apps that incorporate Google’s AdSense and AdMob advertising platforms.

With Google claiming that on a day-to-day basis, there are almost 1 million Android devices being activated (actual number is approximately 850k) not including people who are restoring to new firmwares or resetting to factory specifications, it boggles me as to how they are pulling is so much more money from someone else’s operating system when Android seems to be as successful as it is. Feel free to sound off in the comments below.

As it turns out, Sprint and Apple apparently already have a deal in place that would allow them to sell this LTE-enabled device once it is produced and released by Apple. Many people out there are skeptical as to whether or not the next iPhone will come LTE equipped, but with the release of the new iPad, which is already LTE-compatible, it seems imminent and reliably presumptuous that the next iPhone will indeed be capable of connecting to LTE networks.

In a conference call with company investors, Sprint’s CEO Joe Euteneuer stated that they will have the right to sell such a device to their customers, once it is brought into existence. In a release by Dow Jones Newswires, as could be expected, the Sprint CEO did not let any cats out of bags, and did not confirm nor deny that Apple intends on releasing any such LTE device, however, he did claim that if such a device were released, compared to AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Sprint would not be “disadvantaged”.

This should also be taken in with the knowledge that as of right now, Sprint does not have any such LTE network in place, but there are plans to begin rolling out said network in six major cities by mid-2012, and in this initial rollout, Sprint estimate that this service will cover approximately 100 million Americans, and their CEO further stated that they would be “basically done” covering all major markets with their LTE 4G service by the time fall rolls around. The timing is perfect, since it is also guesstimated that this is when Apple will release their next iPhone. As usual, keep checking back and we will keep you posted.

According to Reuters:

Apple has decided on the bigger 4.6-inch display for its next iPhone and started placing orders to its suppliers, the Maeil Business Newspaper said, quoting an unnamed industry source.

They then point out that other devices, such as the Samsung ‘Galaxy Nexus‘ and HTC’s soon-to-be-released ‘One’ both have either a 4.6” or a 4.7” display, capable of delivering up to 720p resolution. As stated above though, while this “report” may in fact be nothing but misinformation being fed directly from Apple, it would be interesting to see exactly how a larger iPhone would turn out. I know that I personally don’t want it to get any larger, as I enjoy it’s current size due to the ability to not have it interfere with any of my other every day carry items, such as keys, wallets, or whatever else I keep in my pockets. Plus, I have seen other, larger devices out in the wild, and in my opinion, they look like very colorful bricks.

On top of that, Reuters, in this same “report”, completely dropped the ball. They claimed:

Samsung, which is also the biggest challenger to Apple in smartphones, uses 4.6-inch OLED display for its flagship Galaxy S II smartphone, introduced in April last year.

Which would be all fine and dandy, except… well, they’re wrong. The Samsung Galaxy II have displays ranging anywhere from 4.3” to 4.5”. There is no such thing as a Galaxy S II that has a 4.6” display. At least, not one that we know of.

Surprisingly, in a poll conducted by 9to5mac.com, in which over 60,000 people responded, a vast majority (46+%) wanted the next iPhone to come with a 4” or larger screen. Interesting, to say the least.  As always, check back, because if anything solid comes out of this, you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll report on it.

On top of that, Apple’s Board of Directors has voted to authorize a $10b share repurchase program, which they intend to put into motion during the fiscal year of 2013, specifically, September 30^th. This is an initiative that is expected to occur over a three year period, and the entire point of this decision was to “neutralize(ing) the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.”

For some interesting reading, here is the official press release, which Apple themselves put out today:

CUPERTINO, California—March 19, 2012—Apple® today announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year.

Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.

“We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”

“Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We are extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead.”

bAdGB’s team members include the likes of such notable themers as:

• VicDaMonki
• JunesiPhone
• Ibnyaffa
• iPhone4Nerd
• DarkEcko
• Badjoker
• FlyBritn
• HuntKen
• Azusa
• OtisHuff
• …and many others.

The site itself is actually very pleasant on the eyes, using a collaboration of light and dark colors that seem to flow well with each other. One of the first things you’ll notice about the site is that if you hover over the “machine head” logo, it will start instantly vibrating at an intensely fast pace, so if you are epileptic, please visit the site with caution.

The site itself is very forum-heavy, as they have decided to use that form of medium in order to keep all of the site’s members updated with anything worthy of note. It is a place where seemingly likeminded people can gather, discuss common interests, and the like. They also use the forums to push out news articles as well, but not specific to iOS related matters, their interests span to various OS’s, such as Android, Windows, OS X, and so forth. Also worthy of note, it also deals with application development, coding, and other aspects as well as iOS theming, so it isn’t just a “one-trick pony” that’s been released here.

Here are some screen shots of the site and some of its various states. It is Flash-based site, with HTML5 integration, so please keep that in mind.

[UPDATE: Images redacted until site officially goes live]

It should also be noted that this site has undertaken some major security measures, so I cannot stress it enough that once you are issued a a username and password (usually of your choosing) do not forget what it is. This is actually very important, and this is all that I can say about the matter without giving away what some of those measures are.

I would not recommend this site if you do not intend on interacting with the forums. As I stated, the site itself is very forum heavy, and they basically revolve the entire site around the forums, so if you aren’t willing to interact with actual people, then this site may not be for you. However, if you are looking to get to know the people who made this all happen, then by all means, get to the site now and register.

Full site will be open today, 02/20/12, at 8:00 P.M., CST US. Give it a look, see if you want to sick around. It comes highly recommended.

Also worthy of note, www.bAdGB.com is looking for some decent “News” article writers who would be willing to dedicate the time and getting out the pertinent information that they feel tech enthusiasts will want to know about. For all of that information, if you are interested, please contact myself at LVCIFER@MyGreatiPhone.com, or bAdGigabit@gMail.com / @bAdGB.