JetLib News

Pickens writes “The Telegraph reports that Apple is developing technology, already being nicknamed the ‘iKey,’ which will allow users to gain access to their office and unlock their car or front door with a single electronic device like an iPhone. Users would simply have to enter a PIN and wave the device over an electronic pad fitted beside a door to open it. ‘The device can communicate with an external device to open a lock. By way of example, the electronic device may be a model of an iPhone,’ says the newly released patent application. ‘The external device may be any suitable electronic device such as a portable media player, personal data assistant or electronic lock that may be used to access a door, car, house, or other physical area.’ The technology behind the invention is known as Near Field Communication; it allows electronic devices to transmit information when in proximity. ‘If true, it’s a very big deal. As well as opening doors and unlocking your car, it could also turn your iPhone into an electronic wallet and ID card,’ says Leander Kahney, a consumer technology expert. ‘The trouble is that the technology hasn’t gone completely mainstream. If Apple were to adopt the technology, they would likely set the standard, and that would drive widespread adoption as everyone scrambles to make their systems iPhone-friendly.’”

Source: Apple’s “iKey” Wants To Unlock All Doors

jasonbrown writes “Apple on Thursday began removing another category of apps from its iPhone App Store. This time, it’s not porn, it’s Wi-Fi. Apple removed several Wi-Fi apps commonly referred to as stumblers, or apps that seek out available Wi-Fi networks near your location. According to a story on Cult of Mac, apps removed by Apple include WiFi-Where, WiFiFoFum, and yFy Network Finder.”

Source: Apple Removes Wi-Fi Finders From App Store

eldavojohn writes “Taiwanese HTC is being sued by Apple for 20 patents regarding the many phones HTC manufactures. Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, ‘We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.’ Apple has similar patent litigation with Nokia and may be trying to scare the rest of the industry into licensing patents similar to the Microsoft-Novell and Microsoft-Amazon deals regarding patents covering Linux functionality.”

Source: Apple Sues HTC For 20 Patent Violations In Phones

In response to customer complaints, Apple imposes a blanket ban on iPhone apps that contain sexual imagery. The capricious nature of the App Store should raise concerns for publishers who plan to produce iPad apps.

Source: iPad Apps Could Put Apple in Charge of the News

After raising hopes of an adults-only section of the App Store, Apple has cruelly removed an ‘explicit’ category from the submission process before it even made it to the public store itself.

Source: iTunes App Store ‘Explicit’ Category: Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Dell plans to launch its first tablet, the Mini 5, a device with a 5-inch touchscreen in a few months. And it will be just the beginning. Here are the details on Dell’s tablet strategy.

Source: Dell’s Tablet Aims to Stick It to Apple’s iPad

Google may have lost to Apple in its bid to acquire Lala, a music service that grabs users’ digital music collections and hosts them in the cloud, allowing them to add to those collections for a mere 10 cents per song. But it would be nuts to count out Google in the race to replace iTunes’ pay-per-download model with a cloud-based music service that is easy and attractive enough to convince non-music-buyers to open their wallets.

Source: Google’s Music Strategy: Past, Present and Future

The Apple faithful and others anxiously await whether the U.S. Copyright Office will sanction iPhone jailbreaking as an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The jailbreaking request covers “wireless telephone handsets” and is not likely to include the forthcoming iPad.

Source: DMCA Exemption Unlikely for iPad Jailbreak

roju writes “Cory Doctorow is reporting on a leaked copy of the ‘internet enforcement’ portion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. He describes it as reading like a ‘DMCA-plus’ with provisions for third-party liability, digital locks, and ‘a duty to technology firms to shut down infringement where they have “actual knowledge” that such is taking place.’ For example, this could mean legal responsibility shifting to Apple for customers copying mp3s onto their iPods.” Adds an anonymous reader, “Michael Geist points out that the leaks demonstrate that ACTA would create a Global DMCA and move toward a three-strikes-and-you’re-out system. While the US has claimed that ACTA won’t establish a mandatory three strikes system, it specifically uses three-strikes as its model.”

Source: ACTA Internet Chapter Leaked — Bad For Everyone

An anonymous reader passes along this excerpt from Roughly Drafted:
“I’m a full-time Flash developer and I’d love to get paid to make Flash sites for the iPad. I want that to make sense — but it doesn’t. Flash on the iPad will not (and should not) happen — and the main reason, as I see it, is one that never gets talked about: current Flash sites could never be made to work well on any touchscreen device, and this cannot be solved by Apple, Adobe, or magical new hardware. That’s not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It’s because of the hover or mouseover problem. … All that Apple and Adobe could ever do is make current Flash content visible. It would be seen, but very often would not work.”

Source: Why Flash Is Fundamentally Flawed On Touchscreen Devices