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Apple trademarks 'Configurator' app name
Apple has posted a trademark to cover the "Configurator" app that arrived in Software Update last week. The app allows users to configure (surprise) various iOS devices all connected to one computer or network, easily updating apps and the operating system, and even installing wallpapers or other information to a device's lock screen. The trademark covers the app, which Apple calls "Computer software used to configure multiple digital electronic devices." This is basically business as usual for Apple's legal department, though filing for a trademark now (a week or so after the app is actually available to the public) seems a bit late for the company. The trademark itself was filed back on March 7, right as the app dropped, so this is likely the legal team catching up to Apple's developers and covering the company's bases post-release.
Huawei R&D department gets new home, sets up shop in Silicon Valley
Chinese manufacturing giant Huawei has been calling Plano, Texas its North American home since 2010, but now it seems the company's ready to explore a different business territory. Huawei's just announced its Research and Development squad -- in which it invested about $3.6 billion dollars last year -- is setting up shop in Silicon Valley in a move that could certainly be seen as an effort to rub elbows with the big players this side of the pond. According to the Dallas Business Journal, the company piled up $30 billion in sales last year, and while the new 600-plus human R&D operation will be calling California home, Huawei's Honorary headquarters won't be moving away from the state where "everything's bigger" anytime soon.
Managing 12,000 iPads: SAP CIO shares lessons learned
SAP's CIO Oliver Bussmann has a singularly interesting point of view on using the iPads in a business environment: He oversaw the implementation of iPads at SAP, which was an early adopter of using Apple's tablet in a full-scale company. He recently talked with the folks at InfoWorld, and says that going about the process open-mindedly was the best way to do it. SAP figured, right when the iPad was announced, that its employees would be using them anyway, so the company took a very ad hoc approach to supporting them in the workplace, building on what its employees did with iPads rather than trying to structure actual work functions around them. Bussmann seems to say that the biggest issue on an iPad is security, but technology is getting better all the time, apparently, and the latest version of iOS 5 introduces some new improvements that should help IT departments with all of the headaches that come from having sensitive information available on the iPads. Most interestingly, however, Bussmann says that iPads do have one important advantage over traditional PCs in a business environment: Users seem much more willing to interact with and "explore" data on the iPad. I agree with this -- even in my own iPad usage, I'm much more ready to search for a good restaurant or browse through ticket prices sitting on my couch with an iPad versus sitting in front of a computer screen. I don't know if that difference has been fully explored by developers yet, but it's definitely something to think about going forward, especially when implementing the iPad in a specifically business environment.
FCC frees up to 650MHz of backhaul spectrum to accelerate rural 4G deployment
Busting down a critical obstacle in the deployment of mobile broadband in rural areas, the FCC announced plans to make up to 650MHz of spectrum available for microwave wireless backhaul. This particular block, which will be shared with cable TV relay (CARS) and broadcast auxiliary services (BAS), spans across half of the land mass of the US and blankets roughly 10 percent of the total population. The large expense of laying fiber optics at rural cell sites has been a barrier most companies haven't been able to break through; by implementing the use of microwave wireless backhaul, however, the government is hopeful this will drive the cost of deployment down, create new jobs and accelerate the rollout of 4G networks in remote areas. The FCC also allowed for the use of wider channels and smaller antennas, and lifted several federal restrictions in an attempt to make the process of securing spectrum easier. The department's clearly putting more focus on wireless broadband deployment in remote regions, and is currently asking for more comments on ways to ease the burden. Hit up the source link for more details on the plan.
Two more WoW-related iPhone apps off the App Store
Blizzard has laid the legal smackdown on two more WoW-related iPhone apps. As Double Bubble reports, both Warcraft Chest and WoW Realm Status have bit the dust, most likely after Blizzard's legal department sent them a cease-and-desist (that's what recently happened to the popular Warcraft Characters app). We don't know for sure that Blizzard went after them, but considering that Warcraft Chest was completely free, there can't be that many other reasons why it's not on the App Store any more.It's still not clear yet either why Blizzard is doing this -- originally, since they started off going after only paid applications, it was plausible that they just didn't want other people profiting off of their game (similar to the new addon policy). But they've taken down both free and paid apps here so far, and Double Bubble also has a list of both free and paid addons still up. At this point, we have to wonder what Blizzard's real intentions are here -- they're squashing valuable resources that fans have made and are giving away for free. If they were planning an Armory or realm status app of their own, that's one thing, but the only reason we can see so far is that their legal department has decided to act against the company's own loyal fans for their own interests. Not a great strategy for encouraging customer loyalty.And what about sites like Wowhead or the Firefox realm status addon? Why is Blizzard only targeting helpful applications on the iPhone? We can only guess that Blizzard will eventually go after the rest of the apps on the App Store, so if you're working on one or planning to release one soon, guess you might want to think again about how that time might be better spent.
