Measure Twice, Cut Once

post from Daring Fireball on 23 May 2011 07:05:07 PM. © Daring Fireball

Apple’s response today to the Lodsys patent threat against iOS developers is another example that indicates a consistent pattern:

An Apple-related crisis or problem occurs.
There’s an immediate flurry of news coverage and speculation.
A week or more passes before Apple responds, but when they do, they do so decisively.

Same pattern for the iPhone 4 “antennagate”, the iOS location-logging database, and now this. It has only been 10 days since Lodsys began sending its threats to iOS developers, and that includes two weekends. I know from talking to several friends who were on the receiving end of Lodsys’s threats that those were a long 10 days, but still. Litigation is serious business, and the App Store is one of Apple’s crown jewels.

Apple’s policy is to respond to a crisis with certainty, or at least as much certainty as can be mustered. Certainty takes time. No drip, drip, drip of vapid PR statements. Just silence, then an answer. Seems to be working out pretty well for them.

Read The Full Article:
http://daringfireball.net/2011/05/measure_twice

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Full Text of Apple Legals Letter to Lodsys

post from Daring Fireball on 23 May 2011 04:05:40 PM. © Daring Fireball

Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell:

Therefore, Apple requests that Lodsys immediately withdraw allnotice letters sent to Apple App Makers and cease its falseassertions that the App Makers? use of licensed Appleproducts and services in any way constitute infringement of anyLodsys patent.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.macworld.com/article/160031/2011/05/apple_legal_lodsys_letter_text.htm
l#lsrc=twt_jsnell

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Apple Says Developers Are Licensed for Lodsys
Patents

post from Daring Fireball on 23 May 2011 03:05:32 PM. © Daring Fireball

Jim Dalrymple reports:

In a letter sent to Lodsys on Monday, Apple asked that the companywithdraw letters sent to app developers demanding they license thetechnology.
?Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the AppMakers are protected by that license,? wrote Bruce Sewell, AppleSenior Vice President and General Counsel.

No equivocation there.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/05/23/apple-says-developers-are-licensed-for-lods
ys-patents/

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SculptPad: Sculpting and Painting Without the
Mess

post from prMac on 23 May 2011 02:28:00 PM. © prMac

Moodkie has released SculptPad 1.0 for iOS. SculptPad is an intuitive art game, available for iPhone and iPod touch. Sculpt, paint, model, draw and much more in your very own 3D interactive studio. Enter into competitions to win real prizes, get feedback from real artists and share your sculpture on Facebook in 3D. Save your sculpture so you can load it again at a later date. Upload your sculpture to SculptPad Online so you can share it with friends through Facebook.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-25773.htm

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Craig Hockenberry on the Lodsys Patent Threat

post from Daring Fireball on 23 May 2011 02:05:03 PM. © Daring Fireball

Hockenberry:

In and of itself, paying half of a percent of our App Store salesto Lodsys isn?t going to put us out of business. The fear wehave is that this is the first step on a very slippery slope.

He titled his piece “Predators”, but I’d say parasites is the better description.

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Read The Full Article:
http://furbo.org/2011/05/23/predators/

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PlayScreen Launches Crickler Daily Word Puzzle
Into Apple's App Store

post from prMac on 23 May 2011 01:18:00 PM. © prMac

PlayScreen creator and publisher of social games for the iPhone, Android and other mobile/social platforms, is proud to announce, in cooperation with MICA, the release of Crickler Daily Word Puzzle. Now available as a free download in the App Store. Crickler is a new type of word puzzle, better suited to the iPhone than traditional crossword puzzles. In Crickler, clues and words sit side by side and the difficulty level is automatically adapted to meet the skills of the player.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-25879.htm

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The Zune Strategy

post from Daring Fireball on 23 May 2011 01:04:05 PM. © Daring Fireball

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, discussing his company’s quarterly results:

Our flagship, Sales Cloud, continued to crush the competition inthe quarter. Microsoft’s desperate strategy of underfunding,pricing with undifferentiated and highly proprietary productsbasically has had the same impact on our business as the Windowstablet and Zune did against the iPad and iPod. We call Microsoft’sstrategy, “the Zune strategy”.
It’s the concept that they can take a proprietary,undifferentiated offering at a lower price and somehow make animpact on a high-value, highly differentiated product that’s lovedby customers. Microsoft has not changed our exceptional win ratesor affected our average selling price with this Zune strategy.

Spot-on critique of everything wrong at Microsoft.

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Read The Full Article:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/270964-salesforce-com-s-ceo-discusses-q1-2012-res
ults-earnings-call-transcript

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ProductionCONN 2011: Media Production Industry
Conference and Expo

ProductionCONN, a two-day media and video production trade show where creative minds unite to experience emerging innovations, evolving technologies, and informative conferences announced today details for its inaugural show on November 30 and December 1, 2011 in Hartford, Connecticut. ProductionCONN 2011 will feature over 10,000 square feet of vendor exhibitions, interactive conferences, an after hours gala, and keynote dinner.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-25772.htm

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The Adventures of Lilly Locket: Mr. Spaloom's
Blooms New Storybook App

Mr. Spaloom's Blooms is a full-color, interactive storybook app that features subtle animation that follows the story, and a professionally recorded voiceover by the author. Lilly Locket overcomes her fears of moving from a downtown apartment to a new home in the suburbs. She and Grammy meet Mr. Spaloom, an expert gardener, who teaches Lilly about growing perennial flowers. He shares his secret about stuttering as a child.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-25771.htm

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