Articles, notes and random thoughts on Software Development and Technology
According to investor estimates Apple are expected to ship 30 million iPhones this quarter. That sounds impressive, but to put this in perspective in relation to Android device activations, the current numbers from Google say as of mid December, they’re seeing 700,000 new Android device activations A DAY.
That means in a quarter, there’s more than 63 million new Android devices activated. Now that’s impressive.
This has to be one of the most ridiculous patent infringement lawsuits possibly ever. Apple hold a patent for a feature that turns phone numbers and other recognizable data structures (e.g. addresses) into clickable links that when clicked call the linked phone number. Hmm. That seems kind of obvious nowdays right? Don’t all smartphones do this? I remember seeing this a few years back with the Skype client on Windows too – it would turn all phone numbers in a webpage into clickable links that would call the number using Skype if you clicked the link. My Windows Mobile phone four years or so back did this too.
So Apple has sued HTC over a number of patent infringements (why HTC specifically?) and this is the only one that the court ruled that HTC was infringing. The ruling states HTC has until April next year to remove the feature or HTC phones will be banned from being imported into the US. So, HTC responds and has said they’ve removed the feature already for future Android releases on their phones. Ok, good, end of story, that was easy. That wasn’t very exciting was it? The press are of course having a field day with this one.
Given that Apple are suing Samsung where ever they can to stop sales of Samsung Android based phones and tablets, it would seem incredibly weird to find out that Samsung is the sole supplier of the A5 CPU (an implementation of the ARM A9 CPU) that’s used in both the iPhone4S and the iPad2, wouldn’t it?
I’ve seen the news stories on TV and I’ve read a bunch of articles on many websites (like this one here on cnet).
As an Android user I hope the Carrier IQ software isn’t actually doing more than what they claim, but based on what the claimed purposes of the software are, it seems the coverage on the news has blown way out of proportion.
If my wireless carrier choses to use some software preinstalled on my phone that helps them diagnose network and phone issues to improve the service that I in turn receive as a customer, then thats a good thing and I’m perfectly ok with that.
I can see that it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that this software is tracking you and everything that you do with your phone, but the explanation from Carrier IQ themselves on what the software does doesn’t sound like this is true. Of course I hope what they’re saying is true, but in the meantime I think people need to calm down and stop throwing fearmongering stories out there and spreading FUD.
Isn’t it strange that the guy who released this information has not yet come forward to agree for an interview with anyone? For all we know he was paid rather nicely to put this information out there as disinformation and an attempt to derail the rapidly increasing success of Android and Android based devices. What makes this one guy more believable and trustworthy than the companies that he is accusing of illegal wiretapping? That’s quite a serious allegation. Especially if he overinflated his story.