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BlackBerry 10 hands-on (video)
Like any good show pony, BlackBerry 10's been trotting around the world, strutting the fairly limited elements of its known UI in an effort to court developers. The platform, without question the nail upon which RIM's fate and fortune hangs, had its big coming out party this past May at the company's showcase in Orlando, an event at which we also got to meet the Dev Alpha -- a glimpse into future hardware design -- and espy three main features of this new OS: camera, keyboard and app switching. What we didn't get, however, was any actual hands-on time with the software, leaving most members of the tech press to take Waterloo for its word. Cut to the present and on this segment of RIM's dev-focused Jam tour, nearly two months later, we finally got a chance to cut through the smoke and mirrors of the company's polished powerpoint presentations to get some honest-to-goodness, up-close and personal time testing the software. So join us, won't you, after the break, where we'll delve into our first impressions of this Hail Mary in Motion.
Apple patents using apps during phone calls
Apple is getting a lot of early Christmas presents this year in the form of good news on the patent front. Earlier this week Apple won a patent battle against HTC -- however, it appears that HTC has already made changes to the phones in question to get them out of a ban on sales in the US. Now Apple has received a broad patent that covers the ability to switch to an app while maintaining a phone call. CBS reports that Apple received US Patent 8,082,523 "Portable electronic device with graphical user interface supporting application switching" that includes a "vital independent claim" that is surprisingly broad in scope. The patent covers the steps taken to look at another app while on a phone call, and then extends this concept in a number of different ways. CBS blogger Erik Sherman notes that the Apple lawyers made the description of the steps "just broad enough ... to make it clumsy for a competitor to work around." Sherman points out that it isn't impossible for a competing Android phone to offer an equivalent feature, but that the patent makes it necessary for the competition to implement the feature in a very "clumsy, inelegant, or cumbersome" way. Forcing competitors into a clumsy way of doing things makes the iPhone and iPad more desirable. The end result of Apple's war chest of broad patents, according to Sherman, will be that other manufacturers may be forced eventually to focus on lower margin products, leaving the profitable products ripe for the picking by Apple.
Apple awarded a patent for in-call app switching, starts drafting next lawsuit
Wondering how Apple planned to follow up its small victory over HTC in front of the ITC? Well, in addition to opening up a new front in its war on Samsung, the Cupertino crew have added yet another arrow to its IP quiver. The company has been awarded a patent for a "portable electronic device with graphical user interface supporting application switching." In other words, a multitasking smartphone. Of course, despite its rather broad wording (which appears to cover almost any phone that lets you switch between calls and apps) an infringing device would have to copy almost every facet of the design to find itself on the wrong side of an ITC judgment. But don't you worry, we're sure Apple lawyers are already hard at work figuring out which Android skin they'll have the most success against in court. And Google is probably already sharing collections of prior art with its manufacturers circle.
White iPhone 4 used to demo new multitasking, Spotlight search in 'test version' of iOS? (video)
We've just laid eyes on a video from the prolific leaksters over at Tinhte, who claim they not only have a white iPhone 4 from Apple, but it's one with a "test version" of iOS that nobody else has yet seen. It's difficult to ascertain how legitimate this software is -- it could just be a neatly done jailbreak mod -- but that site has a track record of getting its hands on Apple gear ahead of the pack. With that said, the multitasking menu shown here substitutes the current use of apps' icons to represent them with a visual of each app's open window. You can tap on a window to expand it (replete with animation) to fill the screen or long-press on it to bring up the familiar "x" button for shutting it down. This is all accompanied by a new "Search iPhone" dialog at the very top, which sends you into Spotlight search that looks very much the way it currently does (though it seems to no longer be accessible with a left swipe from the first homescreen as on previous versions of iOS). Jump past the break for the video. Update: A second video has been uncovered, this one showing that we're looking at a prototype unit and taking us on a tour around its body. A visit to the Settings menu shows a 64GB storage capacity, while app folder creation is also handled a little differently from iOS 4. The presence of the Touch Fighter app on this phone, which Apple built to show off the capabilities of earlier versions of the handset, and other internal-looking software seems to point to this indeed being some form of iOS beta build. Of course, it might not be iOS 5 at all, but simply a never-released version of iOS 4. All we know for sure is that the video's after the break. Update 2: All indications are that this is indeed an early, unreleased version of iOS 4. Interesting, but probably not something to get your hopes up about.
