Like I told Jim Dalrymple when he posted this news on The Loop, I set up a Reminder to check 5 years from now if BlackBerry still exists.
Via BGR
Tag Archives: iPad
Apple x IBDI: A very poorly explained story
Yesterday the news that some IBDI has fled a lawsuit against Apple por having evolved the iPad too fast gained some attention in websites in Brazil as well as internationally. The news came from Jornal do Comércio and it brough information and absurd declarations which made it very hard to read through the whole thing with a straight face.
After I finished reading the story, I headed to the IBDI website, looking for more information on all the idiocy I had just read. I looked up under News, under Legislation, under Jurisprudence, and didn’t find anything. Then I decided to try and contact them. First via Twitter, followed by an email. The email they never answered. However they did contact me on Twitter a couple of hours later.
@ibdi Is the news that you have filed a lawsuit against Apple because of the release of the iPad 4 true? I looked up for information on your website and didn’t find anything.
@mvcmendes
@mvcmendes We don’t know anything about it, at least not in Brazil
@ibdi – a couple of hours later
@ibdi In this case the news is wrong? There is no lawsuit filed by IBDI against Apple regarding the short gap between releases for the iPad 3 and 4?
@mvcmendes
To my surprise, the company denied knowing anything about the lawsuit they had apparently filed against Apple. Judging that the company could be taken as a reliable source of information about itself, I updated the article about this here on TechLinhas and informed MacRumors about what I had just learned.
As the matter kept gaining attention, I decided to contact the lawyer quoted in the original story, Sérgio Palomares. He, however, informed me that the original information was correct, and that contrary to what the company had informed me, the lawsuit was infact true.
Hours later, the company contacted me on Twitter saying that they would make a statement about it in a “timely manner”. Then they moved to delete the post in which they denied knowledge of the lawsuit, wich fortunately I had already registered. Having done that, the company went on to post on their website all the news that they could find that didn’t call attention to how absolutely proposterous their lawsuit is.
“@OliveiraEmerson @mvcmendes IBDI will make a statement on the matter in a timely manner”
@ibdi
I don’t know what is the worst part about this entire thing. If it’s the absurd lawsuit by itself, it it’s the lawyers quotes on the matter (such as “The iPad 4 broke the company schedule paradigm of product release”), if it’s the fact that the company said they had no idea of what I was talking about and then taking it back, or the fact that they tried to cover their tracks showing that the lack of scruples isn’t limited to their legal department.
If this is not a really poorly explained story, I don’t know what is.
Apple being sued for evolving the iPad too quickly [Updated 2x]
Oh, boy. As if the whole Brazilian iPhone mess wasn’t enough, here comes another idiotic piece of nonsense. Newspaper Jornal do Comércio brings the news that The Brazilian Institute of Computers Politics and Law (IBDI), which nobody had ever heard of until today, decided to file a lawsuit against Apple for ‘abusive commercial practice’ due to releasing the iPad 4 on the heels of the iPad 3.
They claim that there was not enough technological advancements that would justify the release of the iPad 4 and ask for a refund for every iPad 3 owner, since the iPad 4 was released 5 months after it finally started being sold in Brazil. Yet another ridiculous claim is that the iPad 4 release broke the ‘release schedule paradigm’ of the company.
According to BDI lawyer Sergio Palomares, “Consumers were buying an equipment they believed to be cutting-edge technology when infact it was already obsolete”.
The IBDI website doesn’t show any information regarding this lawsuit, and I have contacted them regarding the matter. They haven’t answered so far.
Update [12:36]: IBDI answered saying they don’t know anything about this “at least in Brazil”. I asked specifically about the information in the Jornal do Comercio story, and I’m waiting for their response (Twitter link, in portuguese). I have also contacted the law firm of Sergio Palomares, and am also waiting for a response.
Update [18:01]: Mr. Sergio Palomares answered my inquiries regarding both the story and the fact that the company did deny it on Twitter. He confirmed that the story is infact true, and that he is the lawyer responsible for the case. So maybe the “Social Media guy” didn’t know about the lawsuit, or the company tried to avoid an early spotlight on this. What is an undisputed fact, however, is that we have some very… eager lawyers working on this case. A case which looks a lot like those that get a lot of spotlight and end in nothing. You know, the bullshit ones.
It’s official: 128GB iPad goes for sale on Feb 5th
Apple has just posted a press release detailing the release of the 128GB iPad, which had been rumored since mentions to this model had been found in the iOS 6.1 code.
For sale starting on Feb 5th, the Wi-Fi model will cost $799, while the Wi-Fi + Cellular will cost $929.
In Brazil, it will probably cost as much as a small car.
5th generation iPad on the horizon? Unlikely
MacRumors brings the news that a japanese blog defends the idea that a 5th generation iPad is scheduled for a March 2013 release.
I think that’s unlikely.
When Apple released the 4th gen iPad, there was an overall negative reaction due to the fact that the release gave such short lifetime for the 3rd iPad. The counter-argument was that Apple couldn’t stop developing and improving the product technology just so iPad 3 users could feel good about themselves, and that regardless, the iPad 3 was still a great device.
Ok. But releasing a 5th gen just less than 5 months after this whole thing would make me think that the release of the 4th gen could have been skipped, and would give Apple another headache with users and press whining over them not owning the latest model anymore.
Microsoft pressuring Apple over in-app purchase comission
I’m not really sure of what Microsoft’s trying to accomplish here. What they think is their bargain power. They’re arriving on the iPad after years of delay, and the Office being absent in the App Store only matters to who really wants Office for the iPad. There are plenty of alternatives.
If Microsoft keeps up with this, it will only get worse for them. They have lost relevance in every single market they operate in, and seems that Office is the last pillar standing. Shouldn’t be long before people figure out that they don’t need it any more than they needed the rest of Microsoft’s stuff. And that’s a hard one to come back from.
Via AllThingsD
Jason Snell writes on the iPad about writing on the iPad
Jason Snell has written (on his iPad) an excellent piece about writing on the iPad and how the iDevice has been changing his habits especially when it comes to texts he had been planning on writing for so long, or had been postponing on getting done with it.
My favorite part is when he talks about how the iPad provides focus:
“The changes in writing environment go beyond the act of typing. The iPad also offers a remarkable lack of distractions. When I write on my Mac I find I am endlessly checking Twitter and email and my weather station’s current conditions page and anything else I can find to distract myself from the difficult task of putting one word in front of another. On the iPad, I am more focused—and when I do finally take a break to check my email, it feels like an actual break, not a distraction.”
I still utterly suck at writing on iDevices. Of course the iPhone isn’t really meant for long-text writing (and as I don’t own an iPad I still haven’t produced big texts on it yet). Anyhow, 5 years using the iPhone, and I still need to go back and forth every two lines to type something right. Add to that the fact that the iOS editing workflow still needs some polishing, editing texts is not exactly a dinamyc task.
But it’s curious to observe how the introduction of a new writing environment can change long-estabilished habits of even who makes a living out of it.
Via Macworld
iOS6 App Store: The most complicated App Store results yet.
When Apple announced back in February that they had acquired Chomp, the app discovery platform, it was great news. An app discovery feature integrated right to the App Store, maybe added to the Genius, would help me find out about great apps I’d never know about otherwise. It would be an excellent way to improve the App Store experience.
It would.
When the new App Store was unveiled, with the new app-by-app, chart-based search results, I loved it. Charts were a clever way to bring screenshots and ratings right to the search result in a clear and direct way. The information provided when I tapped a chart was everything I needed to know: more screenshots, details, reviews and related apps. Everything right there.
However, when I finally played with iOS 6, within the first 5 minutes messing with the new App Store, I came across a problem that until today I can’t believe they didn’t solve beforehand: Lists.
Yep, lists. If you know what you’re looking for, the revamped App Store is excellent. But what if you’re not exactly sure and feel like exploring the search results for say.. Zombies?
A search for Zombies today returns 3.712 results. If you’re on the iPad, this means 619 search results pages. If you’re on the iPhone, you might have to go through 3.712 result pages to find what you’re looking for. If you’re just looking for a zombie fix until The Walking Dead doesn’t return, you’ll have to go through the results one by one, until you find the app you think might satisfy your walker-killing needs.
And what If you’re a developer and your app is just getting started? Forget about that lucky break with a chance of your app showing up within the first 25 or 50 results. While all it took was a finger swipe and a button press to get you through the top 50 result list, today to go through the same 50 results is an exercise in patience. I have to say that not once have I been past the 10th result or so.
The first time I interacted with the revamped App Store, when presented with the results, my first instinct was to turn the iPhone to Landscape mode. Since there wasnt a clear option to see the results list, maybe they had come up with some sort of odd, non-intuitive way to present it. Maybe in Cover Flow mode..? Anything, really. But no.
The horizontally scrolling listing adopted across the other App Store areas (and across iTunes) works, but I find it rather ugly and rudimentary. I don’t see why they would try to ‘solve’ any issues with the vertical list, when there were no issues to begin with. It didn’t make exploring hard. On the contrary, actually.
I’ve searched the web to see if I could find any indication as to why they’d do this, but all I could find were people as bothered by this as I am.
Honestly, I hope that iOS 7 brings a better solution for it. This has to be one more item on Jony Ive’s list of iOS territories that needs attention. The app chart works, but they just can’t be the only way to present the search results.
Updates, for instance, bring a very effective way of presenting the information. I see the list, and if I want to see more, I tap the “What’s new” button. There. Mission accomplished.
This just feels like such a cleaner way to present multiple results.
The benefits of the U$50 million invested by Apple with Chomp’s acquisition are yet to be seen. Unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, don’t expect the App Store to help you with that. Quite the opposite of what we all expected.
Oprah and Microsoft Surface. Money well spent.
You have a new product called Microsoft Surface, and decide that part of the advertising budget will go to celebrities seeding good things about it. Afterall, you are going to fight with the iPad, and you need all the help you can get. The more people talk it up, the better it will be.
Then you hire Oprah, and tell her “Post something positive on Twitter about the Microsoft Surface”. And that’s exactly what she does. She opens her Twitter, posts that she’s loooving the Surface, and that she’s already bought twelve units to give away as Christmas gifts. Oh, yes. She posts, naturally, from her iPad.
Money well-spent.
Via: Zagg