tmobile blackberry: February 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

RIM spends a cool million on patent reform lobbying

Patent reform is complicated subject, but the basic idea is to change the US patent laws so that patents are awarded to the first person to submit paperwork -- a system which is common outside the US -- rather than to the person who invented the concept.

A post on CNN Money noted that RIM spent a grand total of $890,000 in 2007 on lobbying the U.S. government for patent reform legislation as well as regulatory rules to make handsets more accessible to those with hearing disabilities. Patent reform is a little complicated, but the basic idea is to change the US patent laws so that patents are awarded to the first person to submit paperwork — a system which is common outside the US — rather than to the person who invented the concept. While this sounds backward, it has the potential to reduce the number of frivolous legal battle surrounding patents. RIM has certainly had issues with patents in the past, so the spending hardly comes as a surprise.

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Joining the Hire Things Advisory Board

Just as a disclosure, I was invited - and accepted it - to join the Advisory Board of Hire Things. This is coming after years of watching a friend, Peter Torr Smith, creating the company and the service from the ground up, from concept to delivery.

The company wants to grow bigger and stronger, and for that they invited three people so far to be part of this board, with one or two other seats to be filled soon.

As an Advisory Board member I am not an employee, neither have authority within the company. The role is just what the name says - a panel of experts that advise the company management with their knowledge in different sectors.

It is a part time position with probably one or two meetings every month, but it's going to be great to be more involved in this business - an on-line business.

WSUS 3.0 SP1 for Windows Server 2008

Few days back, WSUS 3.0 SP1 RTMed and it works with Windows Server 2008

Here is a walkthrough of WSUS installation in Windows Server 2008

I am yet to add Clients to WSUS Server. This is my first experience with WSUS, so soon I will post how to add Client computers

One thing I noted was there is no Update Service for Visual Studio 2008

RIM spends a cool million on patent reform lobbying

RIM spends a cool million on patent reform lobbying
Patent reform is complicated subject, but the basic idea is to change the US patent laws so that patents are awarded to the first person to submit paperwork -- a system which is common outside the US -- rather than to the person who invented the concept.

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RIM patents slider design

RIM has patented a tilting slider model on the same day that a patent application for an LCD touchscreen went public. Coincidence?

Tilty Hot on the heels of the touchscreen patent is another filed by RIM for a slider design that features a simple support mechanism underneath which keeps the screen tilted. While the “handheld mobile communication device with moveable display/cover member” was filed back in July ‘06, it still leaves you to wonder how it relates to the more-recently patented LCD touchscreen, considering they’ve been released to the public on the same day and all. Anyone think the angled look might sway some HTC users?

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Microsoft hints at Yahoo hostile takeover

Microsoft hints it may take the offer directly to Yahoo's shareholders Read More

Blackberry Security Freeware

APPLE NEWS ROUND-UP FOR 6 FEBRUARY

Apple Inc

Microsoft's unsolicited $45 billion bid for Yahoo announced last Friday sparked off speculation the company might receive a rival bid from a media company like News Corp or Apple. CNNMoney has reported that News Corp. is not considering a bid for Internet giant Yahoo, said CEO Rupert Murdoch during an earnings call with analysts Monday. As usual nothing from Apple... Although itwire has a very interesting article on the whole matter stating that Microsoft will miss out on one of the best parts of Yahoo! “Yahoo-Japan has a market capitalisation close that of Yahoo! inc, makes similar but growing profits and will remain a publicly traded company on the Tokyo stock exchange, only 33 percent owned by Microsoft if the proposed acquisition goes through.”

Mac Hardware

Are new Macbook Pros on there way?? MacRumours.com seems to think so saying “Last week, we'd heard an unconfirmed report that three new MacBook Pro models had appeared in Best Buy's inventory tracking system. Some inventory screenshots (1, 2) we received today appear to confirm this earlier report, showing off the upcoming $1999 price point MacBook Pro (name cut off in image).”

OS X & Software

Apple continues it round of Leopard builds - just 4 days after build 9C27 was seeded comes 9C30 which is reported to have fixed some issues with Time Machine and AFP X Client

The sydney morning herald has an interesting article on Linus Torvald’s (the father of Linux) thoughts on Apples OS X Leopard he had this to say... "I don't think they're equally flawed - I think Leopard is a much better system," he said. "(But) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary." but he would say that as really he was just going on about how wonderful Linux is.

iPods, iTunes & Apple TV

Apple has released a 32GB version of the ipod touch retailing at $499 US ($100 more than the 16GB version & $200 more than the 8GB version). Aside from the memory bump it looks like no other features have been added.

iPhone

Apple has released a 16GB version of the iPhone retailing at $499 US ($100 more than the 8GB version). Aside from the memory bump it looks like no other features have been added.

The latest market data from analyst firm Canalys puts the iPhone market share of the US Smartphone market at 28% - ahead now of all microsoft mobile devices combined - hows that for a wipping ;-)

pMDsoft 4.0 available on BlackBerry

Doctors can now enter patient names, diagnoses, procedures, and more into their BlackBerry and have it automatically synced with all the other members of their practice.

pMDsoft has released their self-titled charge capture solution on BlackBerry. Doctors can now enter patient names, diagnoses, procedures, and more into their BlackBerry and have it automatically synced with all the other members of their practice. The software also features the full history of every patient’s visit, text search of diagnoses, procedures, and notes, the ability to share patients between doctors, and quite a lot more. While it might sound like a cure-all, this isn’t the only medical software for BlackBerry by a long shot. You practically can’t practice without one.

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Blackberry Time Management Freeware

My iPod Touch 1.1.3 Jailbroken Gallery

Here are some shots of my Jailbroken iPod Touch running 1.1.3 after using the iJailbreak method I posted about the other day.

(Click the image to get to the gallery)

Summerboard is now working
Installer 'Main script execution failed' problem has been solved by doing this in SSH
cd /
cd Applications/
wget http://repository.apptapp.com/packages/System/Installer.zip
rm -rf Installer.app
unzip Installer.zip
chmod +s Installer.app/Installer
chown -R root:wheel Installer.app
rm Installer.zip
This downloads the latest installer.app. I fixed mine another way, by setting the correct permissions via ssh then updating installer within installer.
Runs very well.
Maps, Mail, Webclips, lyrics, Weather...etc All run perfectly