News Archive for 08/11/17

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Patent dispute could block iPod, Blackberry imports

11/17, 10:00pm

Memory patent dispute

Memory chip maker Spansion has taken legal action that could result in import bans that would block shipments of iPods and Blackberry handsets, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company filed a lawsuit in a Delaware federal court and submitted a complaint to the US International Trade Commission. Although the memory company is not directly attacking Apple or RIM, it has accused Samsung of violating its flash chip patents. The components in question are contained in Apple, RIM, Lenovo, Sony Ericsson, and Telefon Ericsson products.

Voice dialer for iPhone, Vocalia, adds French support

11/17, 7:00pm

Vocaia v1.2 ships

Creaceed has released Vocalia 1.2, adding french language support to the iPhone voice recognition dialing app. The update adds both French interface localization and a French phonetizer and acoustic model. Vocalia also works 10 times as fast at phonetizing and has a vibrating alert when it is ready to talk. Users access Address Book contacts, up to 5000 supported, by speaking to the software. It recognizes the name and brings up a list of close matches, allowing the user to pick the contact from the short list and place a call.

Logic3 bows tube-based, rotating iPod speakers

11/17, 3:45pm

Logic3 Valve80 and Rotate

Britain-based accessory producer Logic3 has launched a pair of new iPod speaker docks that each are said to bring something rare to MP3 player audio. The Valve80 combines both a stereo speaker setup and a vacuum tube amp that both creates a pseudo-vintage look and reportedly adds a layer of accuracy and warmth to the sound that doesn't occur with usual audio systems. Logic3 promises 80W of total power, a 20Hz to 20kHz frequency range, and an 86dB signal-to-noise ratio.

Mac sales hold to expectations, iPods in decline

11/17, 3:45pm

Piper on Oct. NPD numbers

Data from the NPD Group backs up in-store checks on Mac sales, according to Piper Jaffray. The analyst group notes that October figures are up 28 percent year-over-year; this is being attributed to release of new MacBooks on October 14th, which may have satiated many Mac followers who had been waiting for an upgrade. Piper is now estimating between 2.5 and 2.7 million Macs for the whole quarter, which would represent 8 to 16 percent growth year-over-year compared to Street predictions of 13 percent, or 2.6 million computers.

Houdah releases ACTPrinter app for iPhone

11/17, 7:15am

ACTPrinter for iPhone

Houdah Software has released its latest app for the iPhone and iPod touch, ACTPrinter. The program allows users to print documents to their mobile device from any Mac application. ACTPrinter can be used to save electronic tickets, boarding passes, bar codes and e-mails. The company claims that bar codes contained in the documents can be scanned from the display of the iPhone or Touch.

iPod Converter 1.8 adds bitrate calculator, bugfixes

11/17, 5:00am

Ipod Coverter 1.8 shipping

MacVide has launched iPod Converter 1.8, and update to its audio/video mp4 converter that fixes bugs and adds a bitrate calculator. The user can also set up an approximate output file size in version 1.8. The converter supports numerous video formats, including AVI, WMV, MOV, MPG, ASF, DivX and more, and outputs mp4 files playable on iPods, the iPhone, Apple TV and others. It can crop out black bars, can set video resolutions and frame rates and bitrates for both audio and video.