Cubic Frog Apps Launches EduKitchen 1.0 for iOS
Preschool Learning Game

post from prMac on 17 April 2012 11:03:00 PM. © prMac

Cubic Frog Apps is once again leaping to announce its latest educational app release, EduKitchen 1.0 for iOS, a well-designed, fun learning game for Preschoolers and Toddlers Ages 2-5 created to enhance their knowledge for making healthy food choices and living green while developing their logic and fine motor skills. EduKitchen has 18 various action packed kitchen activities where kids can play repeatedly to master everything and then receive surprise rewards for their accomplishments!

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http://prmac.com/release-id-41275.htm

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Twitter: Innovators Patent Agreement

post from Daring Fireball on 17 April 2012 07:03:14 PM. © Daring Fireball

Adam Messinger, VP of engineering for Twitter:

However, we also think a lot about how those patents may be usedin the future; we sometimes worry that they may be used to impedethe innovation of others. For that reason, we are publishing adraft of the Innovator?s Patent Agreement, which we informallycall the ?IPA?.
The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control inthe hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment fromTwitter to our employees that patents can only be used fordefensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees?inventions in offensive litigation without their permission.What?s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we soldthem to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.

Bravo.

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http://blog.twitter.com/2012/04/introducing-innovators-patent-agreement.html

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Mobile Carriers Unconvinced by Nokias Revival Bid

post from Daring Fireball on 17 April 2012 07:03:14 PM. © Daring Fireball

Leila Abboud and Georgina Prodhan, reporting for Reuters:

Four major telecom operators in Europe, where the phones have beenon sale since before Christmas, told Reuters the new Nokia Lumiasmartphones were not good enough to compete with Apple’s iPhone orSamsung’s Galaxy phones.

Ouch.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/uk-nokia-telcos-idUKBRE83G08Z20120417

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Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Editions

post from Daring Fireball on 17 April 2012 06:04:13 PM. © Daring Fireball

Much simpler than it used to be, and it looks like I was right about Windows on ARM: it’s Metro-only.

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http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/04/16/announcin
g-the-windows-8-editions.aspx

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David Carr on Amazon and E-Book Pricing

post from Daring Fireball on 17 April 2012 06:04:13 PM. © Daring Fireball

David Carr, writing for the NYT:

The Justice Department finally took aim at the monopolisticmonolith that threatened to dominate the book industry. Soimagine the shock when the bullet aimed at threats tocompetition went whizzing by Amazon — which not long ago had a90 percent stranglehold on e-books — and instead, struck fiveof the six biggest publishers and Apple, a minor player in therealm of books.
That?s the modern equivalent of taking on Standard Oil butbreaking up Ed?s Gas ?N? Groceries on Route 19 instead.

He makes a good point regarding competition:

Remember that it was only after agency pricing went into effectthat Barnes & Noble was able to gain an impressive 27 percent ofthe e-book market. Now Amazon has the Justice Department as anally to rebuild its monopoly and wipe out other players. If thedecision to charge the publishers was good for competition, whyhad the stock price of Barnes & Noble dropped more than 10 percentsince Wednesday?

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/business/media/amazon-low-prices-disguise-a-hig
h-cost.html?ref=technology

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Joystick Show Released on Mac App Store

post from prMac on 17 April 2012 05:57:00 PM. © prMac

Indie developer Rodrigo Rocha introduces Joystick Show 1.0, a Mac OS X app that lets you test any joysticks or gamepads in a very easy and nice way. Have you ever bought a Joystick and realized that you cant just plug it in your mac and simply test it without having to buy any game? "Joystick Show" is the solution. It shows the number of buttons, axes and dpads and its corresponding numbers. It is compatible with USB or Bluetooth joysticks and gamepads.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-41256.htm

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Scrambled Pictures with Friends iPhone/iPad app

post from prMac on 17 April 2012 05:10:00 PM. © prMac

Justapps is pleased to announce "Scrambled Pictures with Friends" app for iPhone / iPad. Scrambled Pictures with Friends is a beautiful app to create and solve amazing scrambles, jigsaws and puzzle games. A picture scrambled with Scrambled Pictures with Friends app is a very different experience that thousands of users are discovering globally, either by downloading and playing with the app themselves, or by enjoying the beautiful puzzles game prepared by the friends, owners of the apps.

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Meet the mobile patent kings: Samsung and Nokia

post from Apple on 17 April 2012 05:04:16 PM. © Apple

Google, Apple and Samsung get all of the attention in the mobile patent wars, but it turns out only one of them is true powerhouse in terms of mobile intellectual property. Samsung, along with fellow handset maker Nokia, lead the overall mobile patent portfolio rankings, followed by infrastructure makers Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent and software giant Microsoft, according to a new study from Chetan Sharma Consulting.

Apple and Google, who have come to dominate the mobile landscape in recent years, don?t even make Sharma?s list, which is based on an analysis of 7 million patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office over the last two decades.

Only when Sharma breaks those patents into categories do Apple and Google make an appearance, showing up eighth and ninth respectively in the list of mobile platform patent strength. Their operating systems may dominate the smartphone market, but when it comes to the intellectual property behind smartphone operating systems, old school players like Samsung, Microsoft and IBM still rule.

Nokia still anchors the list of patents related to making handsets and devices, while surprisingly Samsung is king in mobile network infrastructure. Commercially Samsung is relatively small player in the global 2G, 3G and LTE markets, but in terms of intellectual goods it still ranks ahead of Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, two of the industry?s biggest equipment makers, and even Qualcomm, the inventor of the CDMA technologies that power most of globe?s mobile data networks. One item to note is that Motorola is strong in the device sphere, ranking fifth, which will give Google considerable patent heft in the smartphone arena once it closes its acquisition.

Sharma points out that the total quantity of patents a company holds isn?t everything. The quality of intellectual property is just as important and litigation often revolves around a few key patents, but he added a big patent portfolio can?t be dismissed:

The total number of patents granted while not critically important in assessing the value of the portfolio does play an important role in determining the importance of the portfolio. The breadth of patent coverage determines how much a company has invested and Patent Office?s view of that investment. The quantity also comes into play during the M&A or licensing transactions. The bigger the portfolio, typically, higher the valuation. Of course, the valuation is dependent on the quality, prior art, fundamental and essential technology patents, citations, relevance to the standards, relevance to the technology in use, and other factors but the size of the portfolio also plays an important role in the discussion and the eventual valuation of the patent portfolio or the company itself.

Sharma also points out that patent landscape is changing drastically just as the mobile industry is. Given the 20-year timeline of Sharma?s investigation, it makes sense that the long-established vendors have racked up the most intellectual property. Still in 2011, Samsung was still the biggest patent earner, and other entrenched vendors dominated the top ten. But as industry becomes data and application centric, patent activity has shifted from mobile?s traditional hotbed, Europe, to Silicon Valley, Sharma found. Google, Apple and Amazon may have only recently begun worshipping at the mobile altar, but in the last five years they?ve been plenty active in racking up their share of new patents.

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http://gigaom.com/mobile/meet-the-mobile-patent-kings-samsung-and-nokia/

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Oracle Pondered Buying RIM, Palm in Phone Move

Reuters:

Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison said the software makerhad considered building its own smartphone to compete with AppleInc and Google Inc, but decided it was a “bad idea” after aweeks-long cost and market analysis.

Probably the right decision, but it sure would have been fun to watch.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/oracle-google-idUSL2E8FH9LK20120417

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Facebook Videos Become Interactive ClickBerry for
Facebook on iOS

ClickBerry, a Palo Alto-based company that develops interactive video software, announces the launch of their free interactive video enhancing tool, ClickBerry for Facebook. ClickBerry for Facebook instantly turns videos into an interactive experience unlike any other. The technology behind the app makes any object inside a video interactive and clickable. Users can take a new or existing video and embed comments or links within it to make the content more engaging and and fun.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-41409.htm

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