Intel Core 2 Duo suit; 90K French iPhones; BBC iPlayer; 10.5.2 seed

[AppleInsider]

A lawsuit filed against Intel accuses the firm of patent infringement with its Core 2 Duo processor. Also, a web exploit can crash iPhones and iPods, the sales rate for iPhones in France has slowed dramatically, and the BBC pledges iPlayer Mac downloads in 2008. A new Mac OS X 10.5.2 seed has also appeared.

Lawsuit charges Intel's Core 2 of patent infringement

A seven-page complaint (PDF) filed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) takes Intel to task for what the institution claims is direct infringement of a 1998 patent on data speculation for parallel processing.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Smart Memory Access feature that speeds up Intel's Core 2 Duo processors is essentially a mirror of the invention developed by the Wisconsin scientists ten years ago. Intel has "refused" to license the technology as early as 2001 but ultimately used it without permission for the Core architecture, WARF says.

The lawsuit calls for a permanent injunction that would restrain Intel from selling Core 2 Duo processors in addition to damages. Intel has not commented on the matter.

Apple's current lineup depends almost exclusively on Core 2 Duo processors.

iPhone, iPod security flaw threatens Safari

SecurityFocus has called to light an unpatched security hole in the mobile version of Safari for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The denial of service attack uses a maliciously created JavaScript routine that rapidly depletes the memory given to the web browser, triggering a Mac OS X kernel panic that crashes the entire mobile operating system.

The exploit uses the same approach as one for Mozilla's Firefox 1.5 and affects both the 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 firmware versions for the iPhone and iPod. Macs are also affected but only for systems running Mac OS X 10.4.2 or earlier.

French iPhone sales slow in January

Orange France headman Louis-Pierre Wenes has revealed this week that iPhone sales in the country had reached the 90,000 mark by the end of January.

The number signals a considerable drop from the 70,000 iPhones sold in December, the phone's first full month on sale.

It also represents continued disappointment for the firm. While the 70,000 sold at the end of 2007 fell short of the original 100,000-unit goal, January sales were just under a third as quick and amounted to 645 iPhones sold per day versus the average of 2,258 daily sales in December.

Regardless, Wenes remains optimistic and notes that about half of all iPhone customers are new to Orange. The carrier's long-term predictions have called for between 400,000 and 500,000 iPhones sold in the first year of sales in France.

BBC vows Mac-compatible iPlayer downloads in 2008

The BBC will offer Mac versions of downloads from its iPlayer service in 2008, according to its director general, Mark Thompson.

After receiving criticism in the UK parliament as well as from viewers, the TV network executive says the BBC has been working to make the Internet show replay service "platform neutral" ever since applying for iPlayer's approval with the BBC Trust. The use of protected Windows Media for current downloads is more a question of expediency than a lack of respect, Thompson claims.

"The BBC was forced to choose between offering the service to a majority of users immediately - or to not offer catchup TV over the internet until full platform neutrality could be achieved," he explains.

While the director does not say what protection system would be used for Macs to maintain copyright, he notes that Mac users have been able to stream episodes over the web since December.

New Mac OS X 10.5.2 seed hints at upcoming release

Apple seeded its 9C31 build of its Mac OS X 10.5.2 update to developers on Wednesday.

The update marks just one build number after the most recent seed and only fixes an isolated network connection issue, people familiar with the seed report.

Such rapid-fire updates to developers are often a telltale sign that a public release is impending.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[MsNly]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

The exploit uses the same approach as one for Mozilla's Firefox 1.5 and affects both the 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 firmware versions for the iPhone and iPod. Macs are also affected but only for systems running Mac OS X 10.4.2 or earlier.

So they aren't running Minileopard they are running Minitiger ?

[cordisco]

I think you're missing a transition from the French and British portions of the article.

[nvidia2008]

The front page article is kinda screwy (wink wink Kasper)... The forum article seems okay, reads as:

French iPhone sales slow in January

Orange France headman Louis-Pierre Wenes has revealed this week that iPhone sales in the country had reached the 90,000 mark by the end of January.

The number signals a considerable drop from the 70,000 iPhones sold in December, the phone's first full month on sale.

It also represents continued disappointment for the firm. While the 70,000 sold at the end of 2007 fell short of the original 100,000-unit goal, January sales were just under a third as quick and amounted to 645 iPhones sold per day versus the average of 2,258 daily sales in December.

Regardless, Wenes remains optimistic and notes that about half of all iPhone customers are new to Orange. The carrier's long-term predictions have called for between 400,000 and 500,000 iPhones sold in the first year of sales in France.

BBC vows Mac-compatible iPlayer downloads in 2008

The BBC will offer Mac versions of downloads from its iPlayer service in 2008, according to its director general, Mark Thompson.

After receiving criticism in the UK parliament as well as from viewers, the TV network executive says the BBC has been working to make the Internet show replay service "platform neutral" ever since applying for iPlayer's approval with the BBC Trust. The use of protected Windows Media for current downloads is more a question of expediency than a lack of respect, Thompson claims.

"The BBC was forced to choose between offering the service to a majority of users immediately - or to not offer catchup TV over the internet until full platform neutrality could be achieved," he explains.

While the director does not say what protection system would be used for Macs to maintain copyright, he notes that Mac users have been able to stream episodes over the web since December.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

...Orange France headman Louis-Pierre Wenes has revealed this week that iPhone sales in the country had reached the 90,000 mark by the end of January...The number signals a considerable drop from the 70,000 iPhones sold in December, the phone's first full month on sale...It also represents continued disappointment for the firm. While the 70,000 sold at the end of 2007 fell short of the original 100,000-unit goal, January sales were just under a third as quick and amounted to 645 iPhones sold per day versus the average of 2,258 daily sales in December.

Yes, clearly this means the Apple is teh d00med, iPhone sucks because of no 3G, and it is a dead fish this year.
.....
Not.

What is the number of French mobile phone users that are buying unlocked iPhones?

It deserves to be a f*cking continued dissapointment as long as mobile phone companies,
like the movie and tv studios continue to try and shove clams up your orifices and tells you
it's expensive perfume.

[pdoisy]

I had the impression that 2 of 3 iPhones that I saw in France were unlocked iPhones bought in USA...
Like someone said to me: it is still cheaper to buy 2 unlocked (and unsafe) in the States than buy one locked and official in France. Their maths...

[Panu]

Maybe morning, maybe noon
maybe evening, maybe soon
O what a wonderful day it will be:
When Apple has shipped out 10.5.2 to me!

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple seeded its 9C31 build of its Mac OS X 10.5.2 update to developers last night, AppleInsider has learned.

10.5.2 (9C31) was seeded Wednesday evening, not last night.

[Powelligator]

And I quote:

"Such rapid-fire updates to developers are often a telltale sign that a public release is impending."

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've seen this statement in regards to 10.5.2.

Joe

[rain]

Intel can't sell core 2 duo's anymore. Guess that's it for Apple.
Well, we had a good run gang. Lots of laughs, tears... it's been fun.
Guess I'll see you all next week on msn.com

[Kasper]

Originally Posted by solipsism

10.5.2 (9C31) was seeded Wednesday evening, not last night.

Ya, the Aidan wrote the article yesterday, but it didn't get published till this morning, hence the discrepancy.

It's been corrected.

Best,

K

[schmidm77]

Why is a publicly funded state university getting patents on faculty/student research?

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by schmidm77

Why is a publicly funded state university getting patents on faculty/student research?

Because that's how it works. They did the work, they get to patent it. Almost all research funding does not come from public funding, it comes from external research grants. Research which is funded by public funds is required to be published as public domain, but it can still be patented, and the school would own the patent.

Reading not particularly closely you see it is the UW Alumni Research Foundation who is doing the suing, not the school itself. This is indicative of research done via foundation funding, not public funding. Typically, this way the foundation and researcher jointly hold the patents and use those licensing proceeds to further fund the foundation's research fund and researchers own efforts.

This should be FAR more acceptable to everyone than an industry grant of university research where the industry funder gets the results and patents, and all the researcher gets out of it is a paper and name in the filing paperwork, but no residuals or further contributions to the school.

[scavanger]

It's quite common for public universities to hold patents. I goto Michigan State, and pretty much anything I create while in a class or at the university for an academic work, if it gets patented the University owns the patent, and if they license it I get some royalties. A former coworker has 3 or 4 patents in his named owned by MSU for a horse endoscope. Mostly it's used to make money for the University so they can make facility/academic/support etc.. improvements. It's big money too.. I think MSU ranks in the top ten in terms of public university patent holders.

[segovius]

When are the BBC going to support iTunes and dump this Real Player pos?

I was hoping that the above referenced statement might be a step in that direction but it looks not...

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by segovius

When are the BBC going to support iTunes and dump this Real Player pos?

Apple doesn't license FairPlay so BBC has few options for supporting the Mac and suppying sufficient DRM. WMP is out for obvious reason, so Real is about the only option I can see. I do wish Apple would license a type of DRM that is not the same as their precious fairPlay but secure enough to allow content providers, like BBC and Netflix, to offer Mac and Windows solutions side-by-side.

[segovius]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Apple doesn't license FairPlay so BBC has few options for supporting the Mac and suppying sufficient DRM. WMP is out for obvious reason, so Real is about the only option I can see. I do wish Apple would license a type of DRM that is not the same as their precious fairPlay but secure enough to allow content providers, like BBC and Netflix, to offer Mac and Windows solutions side-by-side.

They could at least stream BBC radio shows though - surely that's a different issue?

[Mr. H]

Originally Posted by solipsism

Apple doesn't license FairPlay so BBC has few options for supporting the Mac and suppying sufficient DRM. WMP is out for obvious reason, so Real is about the only option I can see. I do wish Apple would license a type of DRM that is not the same as their precious fairPlay but secure enough to allow content providers, like BBC and Netflix, to offer Mac and Windows solutions side-by-side.

3ivx offer a cross-platform DRM solution with their MPEG-4 part 2 Advanced Simple Profile Quicktime codec. Obviously they aren't doing a good job of marketing that solution to the big players.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Mr. H

3ivx offer a cross-platform DRM solution with their MPEG-4 part 2 Advanced Simple Profile Quicktime codec. Obviously they aren't doing a good job of marketing that solution to the big players.

Cool. I didn't know about that.

[schmidm77]

The whole point of the patent system is to provide an inventor with a government enforced monopoly for a brief period as incentive to reveal to the public the working of that invention so that it can help advance further technological and scientific progress. So again, why is publicly funded research that should already be public by obligation being locked down with patents?

And the posting clearly states that the suit was filed by the alumni association on behalf of the university.

[eAi]

Originally Posted by segovius

They could at least stream BBC radio shows though - surely that's a different issue?

They do provide podcasts of a large number of programmes. That said, I agree it'd be great if all their content was available in MP3.

[johnqh]

Originally Posted by schmidm77

The whole point of the patent system is to provide an inventor with a government enforced monopoly for a brief period as incentive to reveal to the public the working of that invention so that it can help advance further technological and scientific progress. So again, why is publicly funded research that should already be public by obligation being locked down with patents?

And the posting clearly states that the suit was filed by the alumni association on behalf of the university.

First, there is no such thing as "public money". It is either funded by the federal government, state, or grands. Education is mostly a state reponsibility. Some projects may be funded by the federal, bust mostly are funded by each states.

Why SHOULDN'T the state get part of the pie when its funding produce some good technologies?

Your question should really be "who would still fund the research if they cannot benefit from it?"

BTW, UC gets hundreds of millions of dollars from patent licensing every year.

[segovius]

Originally Posted by eAi

They do provide podcasts of a large number of programmes. That said, I agree it'd be great if all their content was available in MP3.

Yeah - I meant through iTunes....if you can have other radio streams there then surely this is not such a problem. It's just I hate Real Player...

[Bobo Decosta]

Apple will never sell a huge amount iPhones in europe without 3G. Every phone in europe in that price range has 3G and contrary to the US 3G is everywhere. Europe is much more advanced when it comes to the mobile phone industry. The iPhone in europe needs more tricks to convince us. I hope they release the 2nd generation phone soon and stop the nonsense with the one carrier only!

[StuBeck]

Originally Posted by Powelligator

And I quote:

"Such rapid-fire updates to developers are often a telltale sign that a public release is impending."

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've seen this statement in regards to 10.5.2.

Joe

What I was thinking. They've been talking about an imminent release for a while now.

[StuBeck]

Originally Posted by Bobo Decosta

Apple will never sell a huge amount iPhones in europe without 3G. Every phone in europe in that price range has 3G and contrary to the US 3G is everywhere. Europe is much more advanced when it comes to the mobile phone industry. The iPhone in europe needs more tricks to convince us. I hope they release the 2nd generation phone soon and stop the nonsense with the one carrier only!

There aren't any phones in that price range here. They're all free.

[Bobo Decosta]

Originally Posted by StuBeck

There aren't any phones in that price range here. They're all free.

In your country maybe, in Belgium such a thing does not exist, locked phones don't exist here either.

[Charel]

Originally Posted by eAi

They do provide podcasts of a large number of programmes. That said, I agree it'd be great if all their content was available in MP3.

I do get all British BBC broadcasts through a Dashboard widget.

"BBC Radio v 3.1, Hawkman supported by Phantom Gorilla."
It streams all BBC FM stations available in the UK.

[tonton]

Originally Posted by Bobo Decosta

In your country maybe, in Belgium such a thing does not exist, locked phones don't exist here either.

In Hong Kong, locked phones also do not exist. But we do have subsidies, including free phones. However, this requires pre-payment and monthly credit.

[StuBeck]

Originally Posted by Bobo Decosta

In your country maybe, in Belgium such a thing does not exist, locked phones don't exist here either.

Well thats another area where the iPhone can't compete then. Why buya locked iPhone when you can get an unlocked one for only a bit more.

[tonton]

Originally Posted by StuBeck

Well thats another area where the iPhone can't compete then. Why buya locked iPhone when you can get an unlocked one for only a bit more.

In fact, that's my argument. People who have never had to buy locked phones before won't want them.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by schmidm77

Why is a publicly funded state university getting patents on faculty/student research?

Holy crap. I suppose you haven't studied Engineering at one of the finer institutions in the World?

I'll make this short: INTEL BETTER PAY UP. AMD benefits heavily.

This isn't a Patent it can beat.

[Panu]

If you are interested in having your Applications folder as a stack in list view, there is a simple way to do it without waiting for 10.5.2.

Maybe I'm the last one to discover it, but command clicking on the dock (on the dock itself, not on an icon in the dock) opens the Application folder in its default view.

[caribbean_mac]

Originally Posted by MsNly

So they aren't running Minileopard they are running Minitiger ?

I think you want to say Cub-LEOPARD and Cub-TIGER (just joking )

[solipsism]

10.5.2 seeded to users.
:::