Legal

It looks like somebody’s a wee bit cranky at the thought of hackers stealing their fun. AT&T is tired of playing nice and is now pushing back against the hackers. Over at Pocket-lint, you can read the whole sad affair.

It was only a matter of time before AT&T got good and fed up with the hackers. Question is, can they stop them? It’s looking as if they can and have, just take this example via the article which involves iPhoneunlocking.com:

“Until an assessment is made of the potential of legal action, Uniquephones is unable to release the unlocking software for sale.”

Should other hackers be quaking in their boots, or will this set off a chain reaction of even more pushing and shoving? Thoughts?

The lawsuits keep on piling up for Apple and the iPhone. You may recall, the dispute with Cisco over the “iPhone” name awhile back. Then the frivolous battery lawsuit last week. Now comes an interesting one concerning the iPhone’s keyboard.

SP Technologies claims they had already developed a “method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area.”

Sounds like the iPhone keyboard alright. But then again, I might be uneducated in the world of patents but I’m sure there are tons of patents that could be misinterpreted to resemble the features of the iPhone. But then I saw an image from the patent (shown above). AppleInsider dug up the filing from 2000. It looks a lot like the iPhone. No wonder they are pissed.

[Via CNet]

We are quickly approaching the one month date since the release of the iPhone. What that means is we will start to see our first AT&t bills soon. I don’t know about you, but all I really cared about last week was getting an iPhone and what the advertised cheapest plan was to hook up with it. But now, the high has subsided and I am back to the realities of paying bills and watching my minutes.

here is a great resource for understanding the fine print of your AT&T contract. Granted, it is a tad slanted in the “what the hell are you thinking signing on with AT&T camp” but it is still very informative. Among the topline points:

-Using the iPhone requires a 2-year contract with AT&T.
-Expensive: Requires approximately $2,280, over $1,730 in wireless costs.
-Double billing. You and the caller both get charged for the same call.
-All uses of the network are always rounded up to the nearest kilobyte or minute.
-Customers can be billed for “network errors” and “network overhead”.
-Customers can be billed even though the call doesn’t go through, even if… more...

According to Apple Insider, Apple has paid a small technology company a 7-digit figure for domain iPhone.com.

The domain, which was purchased back in 1995, is owned by Michael Kovatch who runs a technology company called The Internet Phone Company. Apparently Apple deemed it necessary to own the domain as the link between iPhone.com and its own iPhone device is a no-brainer and has therefor paid one of the biggest known sums of money in history.

The news was first broadcast on DomainTools who mention that Kovatch had already previously turned down an offer from Apple to sell the domain.

Ah AT&T, your exclusive grip on the iPhone for five years may be broken after all. True customers won’t get a lot of the great features such as visual voicemail but hey, at least they won’t need to pay a cancellation fee for their existing service and sign up again.

Arstechnica is reporting that unlocked iPhones may soon be a reality through Pure Mobile. They claim that you will be able to use iPhone with GSM carriers in the USA and Canada such as AT&T,  T-Mobile, Fido and Rogers. You can only pre-order iPhone but price and date of availability are missing. But shipping will be 19 and 29 dollars.

The interesting thing is you might have to pay a premium which is only being speculated, and Pure Mobile isn’t accepting pre-orders just yet. Demand for iPhone is great plus there is that lingering little nuance of a 2 year contract being required from certain outlets.

The company’s Web Page can be found here.

An online petition has been started by some concerned Rogers customers in Canada. In it, current Rogers customers, complain about the bandwidth usage of Rogers’ “Unlimited” data plan. Apparently, the unlimited plan in Canada really means no more than 25 megabytes per month. Yes, you read correctly, 25 megabytes.

This issue was probably a big deal that got way bigger as reports surfaced that Rogers would be the exclusive iPhone provider in Canada. I can just imagine, those existing customers tapping away at their Blackberrys and barely staying under their monthly limit. Those pople now are looking at the iPhone where downloading 5 songs to it could put them in the red.

We, as Rogers customers, Rogers representatives, and Rogers resellers of Rogers products, are all requesting Rogers to do the following: Readjust the 25 megabyte limit to more representative industry standard levels. Rogers Canada is the carrier in North America with the lowest data limit on their best “Unlimited” data plan (http://www.rogers.com still uses the wording “Unlimited”)

As of the writing of this post, there are 115 people who have… more...

So Cingular is the new AT&T right? So, with all the money they spend on endorsing a NASCAR car, you would think they would want to start the transition of the brand onto their #31 car.

Well NASCAR did not like the new proposed car art and now AT&T is suing NASCAR. AT&T proposed that they add the AT&T globe to the rear end of the car. The main body paint would remain orange and the Cingular Blair Witch Guy would still adorn the hood so why would NASCAR nix the idea? Probably because NEXTEL, an AT&T rival sponsors the NASCAR circuit.

So how does it affect the iPhone? Well, with this complicated brand transition going on during the launch of the iPhone, what type of dedication can they give to the iPhone launch?

[Via Consumerist]

Coming straight from the iPhone Wikipedia page, below is the complete timeline of Apple and the trademarked name, “iPhone”. If you are like me, you figured Apple just bullied their way into the name fairly recently. But according to this timeline, they started applying for the trademark internationally as early as 2002. Enjoy.

On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark “I PHONE”[30] and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark “IPhone”.[31] “I Phone” was registered in March 1998,[30] and “IPhone” was registered in 1999.[31] Since then, the I PHONE mark has been abandoned.[30] Infogear’s trademarks cover “communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions” (1993 filing),[30] and “computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks” (1996 filing).[32] Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web server under the name iPhone in 1998.[33] In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name.[34] In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark.[35] On December 18, 2006 they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.[36]

In October… more...

Well, it’s official. The maker of the iPhone skin for the Pocket PC has published a copy of the cease and desist letter he received from Apple. In addition, in a daring move (sarcasm), he posted a pencil rendering of his design. Here is the letter from Apple:

Re: iPhone Interface on a Pocket PC

Dear Sir:

We represent Apple Inc. (“Apple”) in intellectual property enforcement matters and are writing to you regarding the recent Internet articles and postings about what you claim is a clone of the interface of Apple’s iPhone product.

In addition to seeking patent protection, Apple is also the owner of various U.S. and international intellectual property and other enforceable rights covering the iPhone, including its design, software, display, icons and interface.

Because we believe the software program that you say you authored and describe as an “iPhone interface clone” is an infringement of Apple’s rights in violation of U.S. and international laws, and because you may make the software commercially or shareware available, it is in both of our interests… more...

A follow up to the story of the guy who skinned the iPhone interface onto his Pocket PC: The video uploaded onto You Tube was removed a few days later. The video is now back online but just to be safe, we have downloaded it and have it for you here. To view the author’s webpage click here. Enjoy.