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Nokia has stepped up its beef with Apple, taking the fight to the International Trade Commission. The company has filed a complaint with the ITC, alleging that "virtually all" of Apple's products violate at least one of seven Nokia technology patents. In October, Nokia filed a patent lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the iPhone used technology that violated 10 of Nokia's patents related to 2G, 3G, and mobile WiFi technologies. At the time, Nokia claimed that Apple was "attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation." - Chris Foresman

US iPhone users, especially in densely populated areas like New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, are no strangers to issues like slow data connections, dropped calls, and late notifications of voicemails. While most of our European readers tell us that they don't have these issues, several UK readers—most in London—say they face similar problems. O2 has recently apologized to its customers for the issues (which were especially troublesome over the last six months) and said that recent improvements should improve things for iPhone and other smartphone users. O2 was the original—and until recently, exclusive—UK carrier for the iPhone. The company reported that it had only sold 1 million iPhones earlier this year, but noted significant increases in sales with the release of the iPhone 3GS in the summer of 2009. The recent explosion of data-hungry smartphones like the iPhone—the company experienced an 18-fold increase in data traffic this year alone—was cited as one of the reasons for... - Chris Foresman

If the iPod touch is a gateway drug for future iPhone users, then Apple should feel confident that it will have plenty of future iPhone users after this holiday season. From an analysis of App Store downloads during December 25th, it seems that the iPod touch was a hot, hot gift this Christmas. According to the latest data from mobile analytics firm Flurry, downloads of apps to iPod touch devices spiked significantly on the 25th—not only far above the average download rate throughout November and December, but 172 percent higher than the spike in downloads to iPhones. App downloads typically track slightly lower for the iPod touch versus the iPhone according to Flurry's data, which counts whenever an app that uses Flurry's metrics API launches for the first time. On December 26, iPod touch downloads topped iPhone downloads even while trending sharply down towards more normal levels. What is a "Brief" post?" - Chris Foresman

A peculiar website notice suggests that AT&T may be blocking New Yorkers from ordering iPhones online because New York isn't "ready for the iPhone," though the device currently remains available from brick-and-mortar stores. To make matters worse, AT&T seems to be dancing around the issue without offering a clear explanation for the decision. The story started with a reader contacting the Consumerist, claiming that AT&T's website would not let him buy an iPhone when he entered a New York area ZIP code for his location. Consumerist verified that customers entering a range of metro-area ZIP codes were being blocked from ordering iPhones (though incidentally, San Francisco ZIP codes work just fine). A customer service representative verified that this was the case, explaining that the network couldn't handle the iPhone. "Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone," the AT&T customer service rep told Consumerist. "You don't have... - Chris Foresman

The flood of Apple tablet rumors isn't abating, especially now that the device is expected to be unveiled as soon as a month from now. Now, a source from inside Apple suggests that Steve Jobs himself may be as excited as anyone to see Apple finally unveil the long-rumored device. It came out last summer that Jobs was intimately involved with every detail of bringing the tablet to market. It seems that the device has finally gotten Jobs's seal of approval: when asked if the tablet rumors were true, a senior Apple executive gave The New York Times a rather coy reply. "I can't really say anything," he said, "but, let's just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet." Such a statement is pretty uncharacteristic of Apple executives (even anonymous ones), but the tablet is arguably past the point of outright denial. One Apple employee who recently left the company also told the Times that the interface won't be anything expected. "You will be very surprised how you interact with the... - Chris Foresman

A class action suit filed against Apple over iMac G5 displays that eventually went south after the warranty expired has been dismissed by a federal judge. However, the judge left open options to amend certain claims in the suit if sufficient detail surrounding Apple's alleged concealment of foreknowledge of the problem can be explained. Aram Hovsepian originally sued Apple at the beginning of this year, accusing Apple of concealing knowledge that displays on some iMac G5 models would fail, displaying random vertical lines across the display. "Apple remained silent knowing its iMac display screens would malfunction while consumers purchased iMacs, made warranty claims arising from the vertical lines on display screens, and made out of warranty repairs related to the vertical line problem," Hovsepian claimed in his complaint. In the motion, District Judge Jeremy Fogel noted that the plaintiff did not meet the necessary "heightened" requirements for statutory fraud claims in his... - Chris Foresman

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 3GS in mid-2009, it included serious improvements to the built-in camera hardware, bumping the resolution from 2 to 3.2 megapixels. That trend may well continue with the next version of the iPhone: the latest intelligence about CMOS image sensor supplier OmniVision suggests that the company will be supplying Apple with 5 megapixel sensors for the next-generation iPhone, expected to launch in summer. The original iPhone and the iPhone 3G made use of compact and relatively low-cost imaging hardware consisting of a rather average-performing 2 megapixel CMOS sensor mated to a fixed-focus, fixed-aperture lens. This combination proved serviceable for most average picture taking—even downright good given ample lighting—but definitely suffered in low light, close focus, and tricky lighting scenarios. For the iPhone 3GS, Apple switched suppliers to OmniVision, utilizing the company's 1/4" 3.2 megapixel CIS paired with a true autofocus lens. This combination... - Chris Foresman

Continued rhetoric about "data hogs" causing service disruptions on AT&T's wireless network came to a head earlier this month when AT&T's Ralph de la Vega told the crowd at UBS's annual Global Media and Communications Conference that heavy data users needed "education" about data use and incentives to use less. Many interpreted those comments to mean that AT&T was planning to adopt a tiered pricing scheme, though de la Vega has recently made at least two attempts to "clarify" the meaning of those comments, adamantly asserting that AT&T will not adopt tiered pricing plans for data use. de la Vega told BusinessWeek that he "should have been more clear" when he answered questions during a keynote address at the conference. He said that AT&T is in the process of doing market research to find a range of incentives that would limit the usage of the top 3 percent of data users, which are claimed to be responsible for 40 percent of the data traffic on AT&T's network. One of the touted options... - Chris Foresman

The World Trade Organization has ruled that China's practice of funneling media imports to state-owned companies—which facilitates the country's long tradition of censorship—violates international trade laws. The ruling was a result of complaints filed by a number of US media companies, which contend that China's practices illegally restrict business opportunities. The WTO said that China cannot limit distribution of movies, music, books, and other media to government-controlled companies. The ruling does not restrict China from reviewing materials for "objectionable content," but asserted that such restrictions were not necessary for the protection of public morals (one of the few possible exemptions a country can claim for limiting trade). China's Commerce Ministry expressed "regret" over the WTO's rulings. The complaint was brought by the US, based on complaints from a who's who of big content: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, McGraw Hill, Simon & Schuster, Warner Bros, Disney,... - Chris Foresman

The runaway success of the iPhone App Store, which Apple didn't even launch until a year after the first iPhone became available, caught even Apple by surprise. The 2-billion-apps-sold milestone, reached in late September after just a year and a half of sales, surpassed even the most optimistic expectations inside of Apple. "We had no idea there would be 2 billion downloads by October," Kleiner Perkins partner Matt Murphy, manager of the then $100 million fund, told Financial Times. "Most people within Apple, if you had told them it would be a fifth of that by now, they would have been pretty happy." Apple's initial reluctance to allow third-party native app development may have been influenced by those low expectations. When the iPhone was first launched in June 2007, Steve Jobs tried to sell developers on just making Web apps. When Web-based apps couldn't match the performance or capabilities of native apps, developers asked for more. Apple announced that they were changing course... - Chris Foresman

Last week, Dow Jones Newswires quoted a Psystar lawyer, Eugene Action, who said that the company was shutting down and firing its eight employees in order to comply with an injunction issued against the company. Though Psystar still plans to appeal an unfavorable ruling in its California lawsuit with Apple, don't count the company out just yet, according to lead counsel Kiwi Camara. "Regrettably, Mr. Action was misquoted in an early story that seems to have been picked up elsewhere," Camara told Computerworld. "Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently." Psystar's website is back up and running as mysteriously as it disappeared late last week, and the company offered no explanation for the temporary suspension or how Action was misquoted. Camara told Computerworld that Psystar would continue to offer its Open computers with Windows or Linux as operating system options, but no such computers are listed for sale. Currently the site is only offering a t-shirt and its Rebel EFI... - Chris Foresman

So far, what little malware has been released for the iPhone has only affected the small percentage of folks who jailbreak and leave an SSH daemon running with the default root passwords. While some of these programs have been nothing but harmless pranks, a malicious version that attempted to create an iPhone botnet has been analyzed by researchers, leading them to conclude that mobile phones could quickly become a major target for malware writers. The worms all started when a Dutch hacker decided to use port scanning to find iPhones with open SSH ports and default root passwords. He wrote a little program that would change the wallpaper to look as though a somewhat official-looking warning box had opened, which warned the user about running open SSH ports with default passwords. An Australian hacker then used the technique to create a worm that was self-replicating. - Chris Foresman

Hollywood has been so enthralled with the recent renaissance of 3D in the theater that the Blu-ray Disc Association has finalized a specification for delivering full 1080p high definition stereoscopic video on Blu-ray discs. The format relies on an extension to the H.264 encoding standard, and provides for a fallback to 2D output on players that can't decode the separate stereoscopic images. It's been a long time coming, but along with a recent update to the HDMI spec and a coming wave of 3D-capable displays, the technology is now in place to deliver the full 3D experience at home. The specification, which will be published shortly for device manufacturers and content producers, specifies encoding two separate 1080p frames together using the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) extension to the H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec—one of the codecs already supported for creating Blu-ray discs. This method allows the two separate views, one for each eye, to be compressed together in such a... - Chris Foresman

Apple continues to add more markets for the iPhone worldwide, and the strategy is paying off. The latest analysis from mobile ad firm AdMob reveals that the number of unique users of iPhone OS-based devices is now split 50-50 between the US and the rest of the world. Overall, the number of unique users hitting AdMob's network from an iPhone or iPod touch has grown 150 percent over the last year. Japan has seen the biggest increase—over 300 percent—which may help explain why the iPhone commanded nearly half of the Japanese smartphone market in 2009. International iPhone users are growing at a much faster rate than those in the US or Canada, which already enjoy a relatively large installed base. In January 2009, 39 percent of iPhone OS users on AdMob's network were located outside the US. By the end of last month, international users had grown to 50 percent. UK, France, Canada, Germany, and Australia account for 25 percent of iPhone OS users, or half of all international users. However,... - Chris Foresman

Apple has a healthy R&D budget for a company of its size and spends quite a bit of time patenting interesting technology. Sometimes the technology ends up in future products and sometimes it doesn't, but the patents always give us a glimpse into what directions Apple is heading. A recently published patent application for a 3D display that automatically adjusts its view based on the position of the viewer's head is one such patent. In "Systems and Methods for Adjusting a Display Based on the User's Position," Apple proposes a display that can automatically adjust the point of view and angle of 3D objects, or even 2D objects arranged in 3D space, based on the changing position of the viewer in relation to the display. Example: imagine you are viewing some 3D object on your monitor. A sensor could let the computer know when you move your head to the left, and the object would subtly change position and/or rotation so you could see the left side of the object. Alternatively, you could... - Chris Foresman

After months of beating Windows Mobile in quarterly market share by units sold, the number of active iPhone users has surpassed the number using Windows Mobile-based devices, according to the latest survey by research firm comScore. While WinMo has held steady of the last year, the iPhone has grown significantly since the launch of the iPhone 3GS this past summer. comScore conducts monthly surveys about mobile phone usage; the data used in the chart above represents three-month averages of that data through the month of October. You can see that the number of active WinMo, Palm (including Palm OS and webOS devices), and Symbian users is holding steady, while users of RIM, iPhone, and Android-based devices grew. The boost in iPhone installed base was enough to push iPhone into the number two position in the US, while WinMo fell to number three. comScore data also confirms trends that mobile ad firm AdMob has long been been reporting: both the iPhone and Android devices are responsible... - Chris Foresman

Psystar's quixotic quest to "open" Mac OS X from the clutches of Apple has been stifled by a permanent injunction from a federal judge. The order bars the company from distributing computers with modified copies of Mac OS X, or in any way aiding or abetting anyone else to do so. Despite Psystar's attempt to have Snow Leopard and its Rebel EFI software left out of any injunction, Judge Alsup included all future versions of Mac OS X as covered by the injunction, and warned Psystar that if it continues to sell Rebel EFI, it does so at its "own peril." After Apple made the switch to x86-based architecture, Psystar made waves by becoming the first company to purport to offer Mac OS X-compatible clones. After a surprisingly long four-month wait, Apple filed a lawsuit against Psystar for copyright, DCMA, trademark, and other violations. Though Psystar attempted a number of stall tactics and brazenly suggested that it was the champion of "choice" in "Mac OS X-capable hardware," summary... - Chris Foresman

So far, Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2010 is showing signs of becoming another record quarter with big year-over-year increases in Mac sales for October and November. The latest US sales data from market research firm NPD shows Mac sales are up 21 percent for the first two months of the quarter, but that's not the end of the story. Breaking out the sales data for notebooks and desktops shows a reversal of recent trends where growth came from sales of MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Sales of Apple's portable machines were only up five percent for October and November. However, sales of desktop Macs are up a whopping 74 percent. While revised Nehalem-based Mac Pros are likely moving just fine, chances are that big bump is likely related to the apparently huge demand for Apple's 27" iMac. "While it remains early, it appears the new iMacs are driving Mac sales in the December quarter," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster in a research note, "and we are incrementally more confident in... - Chris Foresman

AdWeekMedia has announced a number of awards for the best in advertising and branding for the first decade of the millennium. It's probably no surprise to most of our readers that Apple was on the receiving end of five of those awards, and had its hand in another product that also received recognition. AdWeekMedia's awards were divided into four categories: media, agency, creative, and brand. Unsurprisingly, Apple was well represented in the creative and brand categories. Apple was named Brand of the Decade, and the company's iconic CEO Steve Jobs was named Marketer of the Decade. "Steve Jobs the marketer is inseparable from Steve Jobs the personality," according to AdWeekMedia. "His inimitable blend of competitive skill and design savvy hasn't just saved a fading brand, it's recast two businesses that used to have nothing to do with computers: music and mobile phones." Apple's iPod was also named Product of the Decade, as the device and its accompanying iTunes Store service radically... - Chris Foresman

"Thanks for the English lesson; I went ahead and used a spelling from the Oxford dictionary: bunkum |ˈbə ng kəm| (also buncombe) noun dated informal nonsense : they talk a lot of bunkum about their products. ORIGIN mid 19th cent. (originally buncombe): named after Buncombe County in North Carolina, mentioned in an inconsequential speech made by its congressman solely to please his constituents ( c. 1820)." - Chris Foresman

Apple has moved back the shipping date for a number of customers who ordered 27" iMacs recently, apologizing that the company has been unable to keep up with demand. However, the delays may be caused by a number of issues, such screen flickering and broken glass, that have reportedly affected the mammoth iMac model. "The new iMac has been a huge hit and we are working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible," an Apple spokesperson told CNET. "We apologize for any inconvenience or delay this may cause our customers." Most orders have been delayed approximately two weeks, and the current wait for ordering online is also two weeks. - Chris Foresman

iPhone users all over the US generally agree that AT&T's 3G service is nowhere near as stellar as the company claims—we have seen the look on iPhone users' faces when an AT&T commercial brags about the "fastest 3G network." But a recent report concludes that the blame is on Apple's shoddy design, not inadequacies of AT&T's network. We're not convinced this data supports such a conclusion though. The conventional wisdom, espoused by AT&T's own top executives, is that AT&T simply has not built its network out in the US to support the growing tide of data traffic coming from increasingly popular smartphones. AT&T Mobility's Ralph de la Vega pointed to the iPhone as a top contributor to this problem, even while admitting that the networks in San Francisco and New York City aren't up to AT&T's standards. - Chris Foresman

Buried deep within a bulletin announcing a security update to Flash is a dire warning for Mac users somehow saddled with a G3-equipped machine. Adobe Flash Player 10.1, the unifying über-Flash that won't be available until some time early next year, will be the very last version to support the mostly forgotten PowerPC processor. "The Adobe Flash Player 10.1 release, expected in the first half of 2010, will be the last version to support Macintosh PowerPC-based G3 computers," according to the Adobe bulletin. "Adobe will be discontinuing support of PowerPC-based G3 computers and will no longer provide security updates after the Flash Player 10.1 release. This unavailability is due to performance enhancements that cannot be supported on the older PowerPC architecture." - Chris Foresman

Apple is supposedly planning to use its acquisition of online music service Lala to transform iTunes into a Web-based service, according to sources "briefed" on the strategy. Infrastructure and licensing hurdles must still be overcome, but if all goes according to plan, it may change they way we think about media ownership forever. Lala currently offers two ways to buy music—10¢ buys the right to stream the song anytime from Lala's servers, whereas a variable price—about 69¢-$1.29—gives you unlimited streaming as well as an mp3 download. Lala also allows users to stream songs they already own at no charge. - Chris Foresman

Today, Ustream Live Broadcaster is now available from the App Store, and it enables live video broadcasting from an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G over either WiFi or 3G cell network to unlimited desktop and mobile clients. While the app's approval seems to signal a policy change with respect to transmitting video over AT&T's 3G network, it also seems at odds with AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega's recent comments that a small percentage of heavy data users can ruin service for others on the network. - Chris Foresman

These days, a month can't go by without some analyst or industry "insider" stoking the flames with new rumors about an Apple tablet. Such is the case with Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner, whose sources suggest that Apple will have a tablet ready to launch early next spring that could offer some serious competition to the Kindle in the e-book reader market. "Our checks into Apple's supply chain indicate the manufacturing cogs for the tablet are creaking into action and should begin to hit a mass market stride in February," Reiner said in a research note to investors. "At this stage Apple appears to be sizing its supply chain to support production of as many as 1M units per month." Reiner noted that Apple would need several weeks to build up inventory for a launch, meaning we could see an Apple tablet around March or April. This agrees with previous rumors that suggested a launch in the first half of 2010. - Chris Foresman

A company called Nuance, known for its speech recognition software, has released an iPhone app that will transcribe your speech into editable text. Dragon Dictation for iPhone will then let you send the transcribed text as an SMS message or e-mail, or copy the text to paste in other apps. It promises a 500 percent speed increase over typing on the iPhone's soft keyboard, but doesn't yet deliver the speed and accuracy of comparable desktop apps. Though it relies on the same high-regarded engine that powers Dragon NaturallySpeaking and MacSpeech Dictate, it doesn't have nearly the same accuracy nor the built-in correction and editing controls. Dragon Dictation has a spartan interface for recording speech, which is then sent to Nuance's servers for recognition. The resulting text can be edited by tapping on a word—Dragon Dictation will offer alternate transcriptions or to delete the word. Tapping on the keyboard icon brings up the standard iPhone keyboard for further editing needs.... - Chris Foresman

Last week, a federal judge entered final judgement against Apple in a patent infringement suit brought by OPTi Inc. US Magistrate Judge Charles Everingham granted Apple's motion for judgment as a matter of law that it did not willfully infringe OPTi's patent for predictive cache snooping, but nonetheless entered a guilty verdict against Apple for infringement, upholding a jury award and tacking on interest for a total of $21.7 million in damages. Apple has argued throughout the case that OPTi's patent should be invalid, and promptly filed an appeal the following day. OPTi first sued Apple in 2007, alleging that its computers used technology described in US Patent 6,405,291, "Predictive snooping of cache memory for master-initiated accesses." The technology, in general, uses predictive snooping of cache memory to speed up PCI bus data transfers, with the intent of maintaining a constant transfer rate. Apple uses similar technology in controller chips in Macs, though Apple contends that... - Chris Foresman

Its sleek design, elegant interface, and trove of mobile apps has made the iPhone one of the top smartphone choices for consumers. Corporate IT departments have been a different story, as Apple has done little to actively court the enterprise. While many admins are waiting for improved security and over-the-air management tools, the steady improvements Apple has made to the platform over the last couple years has made the iPhone a workable mobile solution for some corporate enterprises. Getting there hasn't been easy. Apple released the original iPhone in 2007 with essentially no enterprise-friendly features. iPhone OS 2.0 brought with it support for Microsoft's Exchange servers via licensed ActiveSync compatibility. ActiveSync also enabled remote wiping of an iPhone containing sensitive data that might have gotten in the wrong hands. It also ushered in the era of third-party native iPhone apps, including direct ad hoc provisioning. iPhone OS 3.0 went even further, adding a number of... - Chris Foresman

The iPod touch is often viewed as the de facto replacement for the iPod line, which, despite owning 70 percent or more of the mobile music player market since early this decade, has started to show signs of decline. However, the iPod touch is serving an even more strategic role in popularizing the iPhone OS platform with a younger generation obsessed with social networking and gaming. When the Facebook generation is ready to graduate to a smartphone, chances are good that they will choose the platform on which they're already hooked. According to the latest Smartphone Industry Pulse report from analytics firm Flurry, Apple's iPod touch is growing its share of the mobile device space faster than even iPhone itself, and the combined platform is leaving competitors in the dust. Apple reported that the company has sold about 58 million iPhone OS devices worldwide, and Flurry estimates from its analytics data that approximately 40 percent of those—24 million—are iPod touches. - Chris Foresman