Google, Apple using 'spy planes' to create maps

With competition heating up between Google and Apple to take powerful satellite images, the tech giant Google and Apple have now deployed military grade 'spy planes' that could even photograph sunbathers in their back gardens. 

The companies are racing to produce aerial maps so detailed they can show up objects just four inches wide. 

Google admits it has already sent planes over cities while Apple has acquired a firm using spy-in-the-sky technology that has been tested on at least 20 locations, The Daily Mail reports. 

According to the paper, Apple's military-grade cameras are believed to be so powerful they could potentially see into homes through skylights and windows. 

The technology is similar to that used by intelligence agencies in identifying terrorist targets inAfghanistan. 

Google will use its spy planes to help create 3D maps with much more detail than its satellite-derived Google Earth images. 

Meanwhile, the move has outraged campaigners, who say the technology is a sinister development that brings the surveillance society a step closer. 

The paper quoted Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, as saying that privacy is at a risk of being sacrificed in a commercial 'race to the bottom'. "The next generation of maps is taking us over the garden fence," Pickles said. 

"You won't be able to sunbathe in your garden without worrying about an Apple or Google plane buzzing overhead taking pictures," he added.

Source:TOI

Apple-Google patent trial pushed

A federal judge canceled a scheduled June 11 trial between Apple and Google's Motorola Mobility unit over patents related to mobile phones and tablet computers, and expects to dismiss the case because neither can prove damages. 

In a "tentative" order, US Circuit Judge Richard Posner in Chicago on Thursday said each company's case should be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought up again. 

He said neither Apple nor Motorola Mobility had enough admissible evidence of damages to withstand dismissal. 

Posner also said to grant injunctions against infringements "would impose costs disproportionate to the harm to the patentee and the benefit of the alleged infringement to the alleged infringer and would be contrary to the public interest." 

The judge said he expects to more fully explain his reasoning in a written opinion within one week. Posner normally handles appeals, rather than cases in trial court. 

"We are pleased by the Illinois trial court's tentative ruling today dismissing Apple's patent claims and look forward to receiving the full decision," Google said in a statement. Apple declined to comment. 

The trial, which would have been before a jury, would have been the first between the companies since Google last month bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

It is one of many lawsuits worldwide pitting Apple, whose iPhone is the world's most popular smartphone, against Motorola Mobility, whose parent produces the Android operating system.

In 2012, the iPhone is expected to capture more than 20 per cent of the global smartphone market, while 61 per cent of smartphones will use the Android system, International Data Corp said on Wednesday.

Apple had sued Motorola Mobility for alleged infringements of four patents, but a May 22 ruling by Posner scuttled its damages claims on two of those patents. Motorola Mobility had sued over one patent.

Apple is based in Cupertino, California, and Google is based in Mountain View, California.

The case is Apple et al vs Motorola et al, US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 11-08540.

Source:TOI

Facebook to launch App Center

There's more to Facebook apps than "Angry Birds" and Pinterest, but many users wouldn't know that because there hasn't been a good, central way to find them. 

Facebook is trying to change that. On Thursday, Facebook is beginning to roll out its App Center to its nearly 1 billion users, so they can find games and other applications with social components more easily. 

The App Center, available on Facebook's website and on Apple and Android mobile devices, will recommend apps to users based on their interests, the types of apps their friends like, or the apps they have liked in the past. 

Many people are introduced to Facebook apps in the form of sometimes-annoying requests from their friends for poker partners, Scrabble buddies or neighbors on virtual farms. Those requests haven't necessarily matched a user's specific interests. 

The new App Center will initially feature about 600 Facebook apps, mostly games, reviewed by the company to meet its quality standards. Games, such as Zynga's "CityVille" and Electronic Arts' "The Sims," are the most popular types of apps on Facebook. 

But the company is betting that by personalizing recommendations to users, people will find new types of applications beyond games, along with games that are more interesting to them. There are all sorts of social apps that use Facebook, from music-listening services such as Spotify to what-you-just-ate tools such as Foodspotting. 

"We spend all day, every day building a platform (so that) great social games and apps can exist," said Matt Wyndowe, product manager for apps and games at Facebook. But a common question has long been where to find them. "Up until now, we haven't had a great answer to that question.'' 

Facebook said that on mobile devices, the App Center won't compete with other app stores, such as Apple's or Google's. Rather, the App Center will send users to those other stores to download the programs. People can also get mobile apps from their regular computers by using a feature called "send to mobile." 

Among the roughly 600 applications included in the App Center at launch will be the Nike Plus GPS running app, which lets users track their runs and broadcast it to their Facebook feed. Ricky Engelberg, whose title at Nike is experience director at digital sport, said having a place where apps are showcased will "let more people be part of the Nike Plus community." 

The App Center, which Facebook announced last month, will be rolled out to US users beginning Thursday night and to everyone else over the coming weeks. 
Source:TOI

Apple CEO hints at iTV

 Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said technology for televisions was of "intense interest" but stressed the company's efforts would unfold gradually amid speculation the iPad and iPhone maker was on the brink of unveiling a revolutionary iTV. 

In one of his more revealing interviews since assuming the helm of the world's most valuable company, Cook also said he hoped someday to see Apple products manufactured in the United States and outlined his approach to managing an organization long-associated with its late founder Steve Jobs. 

"Another thing that Steve taught us all is to not to be focused on the past," Cook told this year's All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in the upscale California coastal resort town of Rancho Palos Verdes. 

Industry insiders and executives say Apple may unveil a TV-based device in late 2012 or 2013 that has the potential to shake up the cozy television content and distribution industry the way the iPod and iPhone disrupted music and mobile content, but Cook has steered clear of commenting on that issue directly. 

"This is an area of intense interest for us," Cook said, referring to Apple's existing television set-top box product. 

"We're going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us." 

When asked specifically if Apple was making a television set, Cook said he was not going to answer that question. Apple already sells a $99 set top box called Apple TV that streams Netflix and other content. Cook, who has previously said the Apple TV product had a hobby status inside the company, noted the company was sticking with it despite not being known as a "hobby kind of company." 

"Here's the way we would look at that, not just at this area but other areas, and ask can we control the key technology?" he said in response to a question about how Apple thinks about improving the television experience for consumers. "Can we make a significant contribution, far beyond what others have done in this area? Can we make a product that we would want?" 

Apple has been in negotiations with content companies for its devices. It began talks earlier this year to stream films owned by EPIX, which is backed by three major movie studios. 

The company has a good relationship with content owners and doesn't see the need to own a content business, Cook said, adding he has met with several people in that business recently. 

Made in USA?

In wide-ranging remarks, Cook said he would like to see more of the company's products assembled at home than in China and contain more US components such as semiconductors. 

Apple has been criticized for relying on low-cost Asian manufacturers to assemble its products and for contributing to the decline of the US manufacturing sector. 

Cook, who took the helm of the world's most valuable technology company in August shortly before founder Steve Jobs died, said manufacturing in the United States was difficult because of declining tool-and-die manufacturing expertise, among other things, but he was working on it. 

"There are things that can be done in the US, not just for the US market but that can be exported for the world," Cook said. "On the assembly piece, could that be done in the US? I hope so, again, one day," he added. 

Apple's final assembly is done through Asian contract manufacturers, particularly Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group and its listed entity Hon Hai Precision. Cook noted that Apple does some component manufacturing in the United States, including the main microchip that runs the iPhone and iPad. 

Apple makes the A5 processor in a 1.6 million square-foot factory in Austin, Texas, owned by Korean electronic giant Samsung Electronics. 

Cook also said some of the glass for the iPhone and iPad is made in a plant in Kentucky. 

The CEO talked about how the iPad was just in the "first innings," but declined to say what was in store for it next. 

He reiterated his belief that many consumers will use the iPad more than computers. In response to a question about PC software-maker Microsoft's efforts to enter the tablet market, Cook brushed off the threat. 

"The more you look at the tablet as a PC, the more the baggage from the past affects the product," he said. 

Apple released the iPad in 2010 and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than 67 million units so far. 

Doubling down on secrecy

The 51-year old Cook said he spends less time focused on marketing and design as CEO than his predecessor, who Cook said spent "virtually all of his time on those two things." 

At a company the size of Apple, Cook said, having a strong team is critical. 

"You could have an S on your chest and a cape on your back and not be able to do everything," said Cook, who later cited Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr as well as Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger as figures that he looks up to. 

Cook also discussed efforts to make the company more transparent on certain issues, such as supplier responsibility and environmental matters, but stressed he was committed to preserving Apple's culture. 

One Jobs legacy that Cook flagged is Apple's well-known penchant for going to great lengths to keep details of new products under tight wraps, noting that he planned to "double down on secrecy" on products. 

But he suggested Apple would not be constrained by its past. "I love museums, but I don't want to live in one," he said.

Source: TOI.IT

How Google gets all your private data

Secrets spilled across the computer screen. After months of negotiation, Johannes Caspar, a German data protection official, forced Google to show him exactly what its Street View cars had been collecting from potentially millions of his fellow citizens. 

Snippets of e-mails, photographs, passwords, chat messages, postings on websites and social networks - all sorts of private internet communication - were casually scooped up as the specially-equipped cars photographed the world's streets. 

"It was one of the biggest violations of data protection laws that we had ever seen," Caspar recently recalled about that long-sought viewing in late 2010. "We were very angry." Google might be one of the coolest and smartest companies of this or any era, but it also upsets a lot of people - competitors who argue it wields its tremendous weight unfairly, officials like Caspar who says it ignores local laws, privacy advocates who think it takes too much from its users. 

Just this week, European anti-trust regulators gave the company an ultimatum to change its search business or face legal consequences. American regulators may not be far behind. The high-stakes anti-trust assault, which will play out this summer behind closed doors in Brussels, might be the beginning of a tough time for Google. 

But never count Google out. It is superb at getting out of trouble. Just ask Caspar or any of his counterparts around the world who tried to hold Google accountable for what one of them, the Australian communication minister Stephen Conroy, called "probably the single greatest breach in the history of privacy". 

The secret Street View data collection led to inquiries in at least a dozen countries, including four in the US alone. But Google is yet to give an explanation of why the data was collected and who at the company knew about it. No regulator in the US has ever seen the information that Google's cars gathered from the citizens. 

The tale of how Google escaped a full accounting for Street View illustrates not only how technology companies have outstripped the regulators, but also their complicated relationship with their adoring customers. 

Companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple supply new ways of communication, learning, entertainment and high-tech wizardry for the masses. They have custody of the raw material of hundreds of millions of lives - the intimate e-mails, the revealing photographs, searches for help or love or escape. People willingly, at times eagerly, surrender this information.

But there is a price: the loss of control, or even knowledge, of where that personal information is going and how it is being reshaped into an online identity that may resemble the real you or may not. Privacy laws and wiretapping statutes are of little guidance, because they have not kept pace with the lightning speed of technological progress.

©2011 The New York Times News Service

Apple to drop Google Maps in iOS 6

Apple will drop Google Maps from its upcoming mobile platform iOS 6in favour of its own mapping system, it was reported Friday. 

The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps programme on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster and more reliable experience, said technology news website 9to5mac, citing its sources. 

Over the last few years, Apple has been acquiring mapping companies like Placebase, C3 Technologies and Poly9. The acquisitions enable Apple to create a complete mapping database of its own instead of relying on Google's solutions, reported Xinhua. 

The most important aspect of the new Apple Maps application, according to the report, is a powerful 3D mode, which is technology straight from C3 Technologies, a Swedish company Apple bought last year. 

Apple has been gradually pushing Google Maps away. Last week, Apple acknowledged that itsiOS iPhoto app, a photo-sorting tool for the iPad and iPhone, had switched from Google Maps data to Open Street Map data since March. The app uses mapping data to display the shoot location of geotagged photos. 

Apple is scheduled to hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco from June 11 to 15. The key announcement at this year's conference is expected to be iOS 6, the sixth generation of its mobile operating system. 
Source :timesofindia.indiatimes  

Apple to pay huge amount for iPad settlement: China Lawyer

Apple is offering an undisclosed amount of money to Chinese firm Proview Technology to settle its dispute over the iPadtrademark, Proview's lawyer has said. Apple came under pressure after the Chinese Commerce Ministry publicly backed the local firm, sources said. 

Proview's attorney Xie Xianghui told the official media that the two companies had discussed a compensation package, and Apple offered an amount it deemed as appropriate. But theProview side has not agreed on the deal yet. 

Apple's case in Chinese courts is that it bought off the iPad trademark, originally coined by the bankrupt Proview, from its office in Taipei. But Proview's claim is that it was a different entity from its Taipei brother and thus not bound by the deal between Proview Taipei and Apple. 

The US giant received a jolt in late April when Fu Shuangjian, deputy director general of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce, told a press conference that Proview (Shenzhen) still reserved the right to use the iPad trademark in China in accordance with the Chinese Trademark Law. 

The case is an anti-thesis of the common accusations levelled by the US manufacturers and government agencies about copyright violations by Chinese companies. Now, a Chinese company has accused a US giant of copyright theft. This could be the reason why official agencies in China are backing Proview's case. 

There are signs Apple coined the "New iPad" name for its latest version hoping to avoid being entangled by Chinese law. But it might still have to cough up huge amounts of money if the company wants to access the vast Chinese market. The New iPad has not been released in China yet. 

"We feel that the attitude of Apple Inc. has changed. Although they expressed that they were willing to negotiate, they have never taken any action before. But now, they are having conversations with us, and we have begun to consult on the case," Xie told the official Xinhua news agency. 

Apple has reasons to worry because China is not only one of its biggest markets, but it is also the place where more than half of its products are made. A court ban on the use of the iPad trademark will affect both its production and sales capabilities. 

Proview also claims that it had registered the iPad trademark in a number of countries and regions in 2000. Its lawyers have earlier indicated the company is prepared to take the trademark battle to other countries.

Via :Timesofindia.indiatimes