Hi y'all,
So much has happened over the weekend it was actually hard to choose which stories to share, so we went with the age old MacTribe formula: take a lawsuit, add another lawsuit, multiply by lawsuits...the last few days have proved to be especially litigious for the Cupertino crew and we'll take you into the frying pan to see what's cookin'. (We also love to start the week with a good old-fashioned mixed metaphor.)
Class Action Approved
In a surprising turn, a District judge in Northern California granted class action certification to a long-standing complaint against Apple and AT&T which alleges that the companies intentionally formed a monopoly with their excusive agreement. Anyone in the entire country who has bought an iPhone since it came out in 2007 is eligible to join in on the fight against secret alliances everywhere.
Well, we suppose the agreement between Apple and AT&T isn't exactly secret, but hey: hearing the exact terms of the agreement and knowing how it's changed over the years is good information. A settlement for the disgruntled consumers might be icing on the cake compared to that knowledge, but we shall wait and see how this one goes...it was originally filed in 2007, so we could still be years away from a conclusion.
iBooks Uh-Oh?
iBooks, Apple's runaway hit e-reader application, might be in some hot water indeed: this time, the patent "infringement" caught by Gizmodo is not only coming from an internet giant, the technology hasn't yet received a patent.
We know! It's mind blowing!
In all seriousness, Microsoft filed a patent on virtual page turns with a process that, in words, seems exactly like that of iBooks, but there are a few problems here aside from the fact that Microsoft hasn't gotten the patent: first off, to file a patent in the U.S. the invention must be "non-obvious" enough to warrant it. We're doubting the virtual page turn will make that hurdle. Second, while it might look the same, Apple would have had to copy every single line of code that led to the software turning pages in the way Microsoft outlined in its Courier patent...at best, that is unlikely. (We hope!)
And Speaking of Lawsuits...
There's that whole Google thing. StreetView is back on track in four countries after pinky swearing that all the data collecting equipment is out of the car. Photos and 3D imagery will be the sole collection aims in Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Sweden starting next week, and google has put on a great shameface about the whole thing. From Google's European public policy blog, VP of Engineering Brian McClendon wrote: "We recognize that serious mistakes were made in the collection of Wi-Fi payload data, and we have worked to quickly rectify them." Countries across the globe are still trying to understand why the collection ever happened but that, friends, is another blog entirely.
What's your favorite Apple lawsuit? Tell us on Twitter!
Hasta luego, Newsies...
