iPhone Daily News Digest

The folks over at HTC have finally released an official answer to Apple’s recent lawsuit against them over patent infringements and while we don’t know yet if they are planning to countersue, they apparently have the intention to “fully defend themselves”.

Their timid press release, released earlier tonight, mostly emphasizes on HTC’s “passion for innovation” while reminding about their long standing presence on the market. It’s pretty dull if you ask me, but here is it:

HTC Disagrees with Apple’s Actions

Seattle – March 17, 2010 – HTC Corporation today outlined its disagreement with Apple’s legal actions and reiterated its commitment to creating a portfolio of innovative smartphones that gives consumers a variety of choices. Founded in 1997 with a passion for innovation and a vision for how smartphones would change people’s lives, HTC has continually driven this vision by consistently introducing award-winning smartphones with U.S. mobile operators.

“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible,” said Peter Chou, chief executive officer, HTC Corporation. “From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”

The industry has recognized HTC’s contributions through a variety of awards including Fast Company’s 2010 Top 50 Most Innovative Companies and MIT Technology Review’s 2010 50 Most Innovative Companies. The GSMA also recently awarded the HTC Hero as the “Best Phone of 2009.” Some of HTC’s technology firsts include:

First Windows PDA (1998)
First Windows Phone (June 2002)
First 3G CDMA EVDO smartphone (October 2005)
First gesture-based smartphone (June 2007)
First Google Android smartphone (October 2008)
First 4G WIMAX smartphone (November 2008)

In 2009, HTC launched its branded user experience, HTC Sense. HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the center by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. This experience was fundamentally based on listening and observing how people live and communicate.

“HTC has always taken a partnership-oriented, collaborative approach to business. This has led to long-standing strategic partnerships with the top software, Internet and wireless technology companies in the industry as well as the top U.S., European and Asian mobile operators,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America. “It is through these relationships that we have been able to deliver the world’s most diverse series of smartphones to an even more diverse group of people around the world, recognizing that customers have very different needs.”

For more information on HTC’s history of innovation, please visit: www.htc.com/history.

[via Gizmodo]

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When we met with Tezuka-san and the Capcom Street Fighter IV team at GDC 2010, he was gracious enough to give us not one, but two (2!) special edition promotional Street Fighter IV iPhone cases. Full color, they feature Ryu and Ken and are emblazoned with the slogan “Waiting for a new challenger” and the Street Fighter IV logo. When we got these Capcom told us there were only a few left in North America. This is the real deal, and they’re letting us give them away to you, our readers.

How can you enter? Easy, just leave a comment on any of our TiPb Apps Podcast posts (a real, on-topic comment, not just “can has win?”, okay?). Only one comment will count per podcast post, but you can make a comment on as many of the posts as you like (and we’ve got over 20 episodes now!) We’ll pick two (2) readers at random to get the cases so be sure to leave a valid email address with your comment. The give-away is open to anyone with a US or Canadian shipping address, starts now, and ends Sunday March 21, 2010 at 12pm PT.

(And to sweeten the pot some more, we have some promo codes and gift certificates to give away for a few of the apps as well. Which ones? That’s a surprise so try to hit them all!)

Oh, and every post you comment on also counts as an entry for TiPb’s big iPad give-away, so get going!

TiPb Give-Away: Special Edition Street Fighter IV iPhone Cases (iPad Give-Away Qualifier) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

TomTom listened to our concerns in the navigation app battlemodo, and has not only been dropping the price steadily since, but has just released update 1.3 for its iPhone app—which comes with live traffic updates aplenty.

Traffic updates will be received every three minutes, so you'll know of any road incidents or traffic speed problems before you actually get there. It'll cost you though—an extra $19.99 a year if you live in the US, or you can purchase HD Traffic updates per day, month, quarter or year in the UK, for as little as 59p. Why not give the US flexi-pricing eh, TomTom?

Other features included at no extra cost are: Google Local Search for finding restaurants etc, automatic day/night mode for adjusting screen brightness, music fading whenever a command is given, and the ability to save locations from other apps and browsers into TomTom. Pinch and zoom has also been adopted, for better views of maps.

Everything except the HD Traffic updates is free, and available today. [iTunes via TechRadar]

During Macworld 2010 we sat down with TomTom’s Vice President of Marketing Development, Tom Murray, who provided us with some details regarding the direction the company intends to take with their iPhone app and what features were to be implemented in subsequent versions.  Two of the main features highlighted at that time were live traffic and local search, but the additional features included in v1.3 are also worthy of a mention.

The linchpin of TomTom v1.3 has to be Google local search.  This free feature gives you the ability to search and find local shops and businesses no matter where you are, and navigate to them from within the app.

Another exciting feature, albeit paid, is real-time traffic.  The real-time traffic in-app purchase ($19.99) provides the app with the best possible traffic information in order to give you the fastest route to your destination.

TomTom v1.3 also includes brand new map information, music fading instead of just cutting out, the ability to add locations from other apps, and automatic day and night mode.

When we spoke with Murray, he indicated that these are only the first of many changes and additions the company intends to implement based on customer feedback, so keep on providing it.

The v1.3 update is free to all existing TomTom iPhone app users.  TomTom U.S.A. is available for download for $59.99 while U.S. and Canada is available for $69.99.

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We tend to get quite a lot of frustrated comments whenever we mention Apps unavailable outside the US or during US-Only giveaways. While I understand your despair (I live outside the US myself), there is a very straightforward solution to the problem; open an US iTunes account.

Many people ignore it, but you can actually officially open an iTunes account in pretty much any store you want without the need for a credit card. Alright, you’ll be stuck with free apps only (unless you buy some gift cards on Ebay) but it’s a start.

Here is the procedure:

1. Launch iTunes

2. Log out of your account

3. Scroll down the iTunes page and hit the flag on the right

4. Select your country of interest

5. Try to buy a random free app

6. iTunes will ask you for your credentials, hit open a new account

7. Accept the terms

8. Enter a valid email, pick a password and so on. Hit next

9. Select “none” as the payment method. Then fill in the form with some random address in the country you picked (Google maps is your friend)

For the US for example, you might want to use Jobs’ home address: 432 Santa Rita Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301. Phone number: 818-3039483

10. Finalize & click the validation link in your email

You’re all set.

Related Posts

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• The “Square” Enables You To Swipe Credit Cards On Your iPhone
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• U.S Chamber of Commerce Responds to Apple

DailyTech

Another angle on the iPhone-killer frenzy TECH.BLORGE.com There is a different take on the constant rhetoric surrounding this and that iPhone-killer this week, in which a respected smartphone … Kaspersky: Apple is blocking third-party iPhone 'security' softwareMacDailyNews (blog) Google's Android Marketplace to unleash a wrath on Apple's iPhoneMobile Magazine iPhone still second-place US smartphone while Android growsArs Technica NetworkWorld.com -Apple Insider -The Mac Observer all 74 news articles »

Feel like your broadband’s not living up to how they’re advertised? Here’s your chance to prove it: the FCC’s introduced a Consumer Broadband Test that’ll let you know exactly how good a connection you’ve got.

The test is in beta, but can be used for both fixed and mobile broadband, and there are already iPhone and Android apps available for download. You can already figure out your broadband speed with YouTube, but the info the FCC collects will be used by the agency to determine the state of broadband in the US. Hopefully it’ll also be ammo to help reconcile the difference between hyperspeed ISP claims and your pokey broadband reality. [Broadband Task Force via Boing Boing]

CNET

Google's Android Marketplace to unleash a wrath on Apple's iPhone Mobile Magazine A leaked legal document distributed by the digital freedom crusaders EFF, discovered the legal red tape (pdf link) Apple binds its iPhone developers by. … iPhone still second-place US smartphone while Android growsArs Technica Open source community 'hopelessly confused' by Apple-HTC suitApple Insider iPhone Sees 97.9% Year-Over-Year Jump in ShipmentsThe Mac Observer StrategyEye -Hot Hardware -Digitaltrends.com all 64 news articles »

Not in the US, can’t pre-order an iPad via store.apple.com/us, willing to travel by plane, train, or automobile to the closest Apple Retail Store on April 3? Then reserve your iPad for pick-up now and be sure get one when you get there!

You’ll need an Apple Online Store ID to reserve one, but my Canadian Apple Online Store ID worked just fine. If yours works too, let us know in the comments!

Note: If you buy an iPad from the US, you’ll likely need to have to go back to the US for any warranties or repairs. Keep that in mind.

International and Want an iPad on April 3? Reserve for Pickup and Get Traveling! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Attention US shoppers, the iPad in both Wi-Fi and 3G flavors are now available for pre-order. Just head on over to the Apple Online Store and you can arrange to have your very own iPad Wi-Fi in 16GB, 32GB, and/or 64GB shipped to you or made ready for pickup at your local Apple Retail Store on April 3. iPad 3G 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB are also available for pre-order but won’t ship until late April.

Did you pre-order? If so, which one did you get?

Which iPad Wi-Fi did you pre-order?polling

Apple iPad Wi-Fi + 3G Now Available for Pre-Order in the US is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

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