Devices like the iPhone have revolutionized citizen journalism, and this example shows how the iPhone has changed the way we view "he said, she said" crimes. A man managed to video tape his mother-in-law shooting him on his iPhone, and the footage was enough to prove his "POV" of the incident, vs. hers.
Salvatore Miglino, 39, caught the attack on his iPhone, though it's unclear if it was an iPhone 3GS (the first with video recording capability), iPhone 4, or iPhone 4S. Miglino got a bad feeling when he drove up to his mother-in-law's Boca Raton, Fla. home where his wife and son now live. He turned on the recording capability of his iPhone, just in case, and it was a good decision.
His mother-in-law, 66-year-old Cheryl Hepner, stood outside the home with his three-year-old son's pillow and overnight bag. Miglino was there to pick up his son for a court-scheduled custody visit. Hepner tried to get Miglino to enter the home, ostensibly because Hepner's ailing husband wanted to speak to him. When Miglino refused, Hepner pulled a .22-caliber Beretta out from behind the pillow, and started firing.
On the video (below), gunshots can be heard. Then, Miglino can be heard saying "I can't believe you did that. I can't believe you did that ... I can't believe you f***ing shot me."
Miglino took two bullets, one in the rib cage and one in the shoulder. Despite those wounds, he managed to wrestle the gun away from Hepner, and then drove away while calling 911. Ah, but Hepner also called police, setting up a he said, she said situation.
In her 911 call, Hepner told the police that Miglino pulled the gun on her. She said, "No, he pulled it on me and he's got it. He drove away," according to a recording of the 911 call. She also mentioned that Miglino and her daughter were in "the middle of a horrible divorce."
Meanwhile, however, Miglino's iPhone video corroborated his story. Dani Moscella, spokeswoman for the Broward Country Sheriff's Department said, "As evidence goes, that was a gem. That absolutely corroborated everything that Mr. Miglino had told detectives."
Lesson learned: with the proliferation of cell phones, not just smartphones, folks ought to make sure their mobile device, whatever it is, has video recording capability. Aside from catching some citizen journalism footage, you might just send a criminal to prison.
The RIAA has accused Internet giant Google of refusing requests to remove MP3 Music Download Pro, an popular Android app which allows users to download copyrighted music onto their Android phones. The app is the fourth most popular free Android app, ranking above Angry Birds, which is currently No. 5.
The app describes itself as follows:
search and downlaod (sic) music and lyric and Album cover.
manage music: play | delete | set as Ringtone notification.
multi-thread download, you can download 3 songs at the same time.
Despite being a "pro" app, which normally translates into paid, it's a free app.
"We sent a takedown notice to Google in August for this particular app, which is clearly being used for illegal purposes, and Google responded that they were declining to remove it from the Android Market. We continue to have concerns with Google's screening and takedown procedures and hope that they will be improved."
The big question is why this has become semi-headline news at this point. A search of the Android Market at any time will bring up tons of free apps that are used to download music in a similar manner to this one. In fact, if you search for MP3 Music Download Pro in the Android Market, you will find the results include FOUR versions of the app, all by the same author, although one calls itself V2.
We've seen MP3 download apps come and go rapidly in the Wild Wild West that is the Android Market. If one is removed, another by the same author appears. Or, as in the case of the MP3 Music Download Pro app, the author will place several versions in the Android Market at once, seemingly just in case one of them is removed.
Steven Marks, the executive vice president and general counsel at the RIAA said,
"Google has taken down some mobile apps that facilitate infringement, but the takedown times are long, and too often we see the same or substantially similar apps from the same developers re-appear a few days later. Google could also take a more proactive role by screening and evaluating apps before they are made available. Most importantly, too many apps created to harvest links to unauthorized files remain available and popular on the Android marketplace, resulting in widespread infringement of copyrighted works."
One has to wonder if, when Google launches its online music store, it will become more strict and vigilant at going after these apps.
Samsung's latest "fail" at least appears to come outside a courtroom. It seems that Samsung used a nearly three-year-old screen capture of the iPhone Maps application as a promotional shot for its Galaxy Player 50 portable media player.
The image was first noted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball on Monday. He stated that Samsung's image (since pulled), was an "ever-so-slightly modified rip-off" of the iPhone Maps application.
After it little more research, it was discovered that the image is actually an exact copy of an iPhone screenshot from a blog post by Laura Scott on BlogHer in 2008.
The Galaxy Player line of devices are really Samsung's answer to the iPod touch. It's a Galaxy S device that is missing the cellular hardware.
Apple and Samsung have been engaged in multiple legal battles in multiple countries. Samsung has been on the losing end of most of those. Late last week, a Netherlands judge denied Samsung's request to block sales of iDevices in that country, based on UMTS patents owned by the Korean giant.
Meanwhile, in August Apple was awarded an injunction against three of Samsung's smartphones by a court in a different decision in the Netherlands. Sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet have been blocked in both Germany and Australia (with the Australian decision coming just last week).
In addition to patent disputes, Apple continues to claim that the resemblance of Samsung's products to its own is no coincidence, and amounts to theft. Last week, an Apple spokeswoman was reported as saying "It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad ... This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."
The patent war between Samsung and Apple continues, as Samsung has filed four lawsuits against Apple in the Netherlands. The first hearing in the cases is scheduled for Sept. 26, according to The Hague court.
A court spokeswoman, who declined identification, citing court policy, said only that "There will be hearings on four different suits." She also declined to give an details on the cases.
However, Dutch website Webwereld.nl claimed the Samsung lawsuits are over 3G technology in Apple's iPhone and iPad products. This is similar to a patent complained Samsung filed earlier in France, over UMTS patents. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) is a 3G mobile phone technology.
Samsung lost a preliminary court ruling over sales of its Galaxy S, S II and Ace smartphones in The Netherlands in a different patent dispute with Apple last month. Ironically, Samsung is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, although the Cupertino, CA-based company is making moves away from Samsung.
Patent wars are going on between numerous smartphone and smartphone platform makers. Opposing patents, to be used in negotiations, have become so important that Google in in the midst of acquiring Motorola, largely, Google has admitted, for Motorola's large cache of patents.
Apple is about to launch the 3G version of the iPad 2 in China, according to new reports. Until now, Apple has only been allowed to sell the wi-fi only version of the iPad 2 in China.
Notably, it was reported that Apple's official China site had listed 3G iPad 2s for the first time on Monday. That listing has now been removed, but prior to that, shipping was listed as being delayed for 2 or 3 weeks.
Separately, Apple is set to open its fifth store in China, specifically in Hong Kong, later this quarter. Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman, said that the store will be located inside the International Finance Center Mall in Hong Kong’s Central shopping and business district, but declined to specify an exact date.
Reportedly, sales in the China / Taiwan / Hong Kong region increased six-fold last quarter. Apple currently has only four stores in China, though there are plenty of counterfeit and approved stores, as well.
If you were thinking that since LTE phones use SIMs, just like GSM phones do, you might be able to unlock them to use them on another carriers network, it appears, at least for Verizon, the answer is going to be no.
It's much the same as why T-Mobile devices and AT&T devices can't mix ... at least on 3G. T-Mobile's 3G frequencies are different than AT&T's. In this case, Verizon's LTE frequencies are different than AT&T's frequencies.
Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney told PC Magazine that the carrier's LTE handsets will not "be compatible on other LTE networks in the U.S. because the phones will be on different frequencies."
Verizon and AT&T both run their LTE networks in the 700-MHz band, but Verizon uses the network 746-787MHz range, while AT&T (when it opens up) will be primarily in 704-746MHz. Apparently there could be some "common ground" if Verizon chose to do so, with common spectrum with AT&T in an area called the "lower B block," but not much, and based on what Raney said, Verizon isn't going to go out of its way to build its phones to work on AT&T's frequencies.
MetroPCS also had a burgeoning LTE network, in the 1700-MHz band. AT&T has previously said it intends to also set up LTE there in the future, using T-Mobile's 3G frequencies. Verizon also owns some 1700Mhz spectrum, but has announced no plans for it.
LightSquared is another potential entrant in the LTE market. It has proposed a network in yet another band, at 1500MHz. However, LightSquared's frequencies overlap with GPS, and have been shown to interfere with GPS technology.
Meanwhile, Cricket's future LTE network will also be in the 1700-MHz band.
To be honest, we'd wonder why any carrier would choose to go out of its way to be compatible, anyway. If carriers chose to exclude the bands of others, in hardware, there would be no way to unlock a phone for another network, which is precisely what a carrier wants: it certainly doesn't want to see any customers bolting and taking its handsets over to another carrier.
Verizon has confirmed that as of July 7, it will be ending unlimited smartphone data for new customers. It's been known for a long time that Verizon would make the move, and it's been known since the third week of June that July 7 was the date, but this is the first time Verizon has confirmed it.
Spokeswoman Brenda Raney told FierceWireless that smartphone customers will have their choice of three monthly data tiers: $30 for 2GB, $50 for 5GB, and $80 for 10GB. Feature phone users will be able to opt in to a $10 for 75MB monthly plan. All tiers have a $10 per GB overage charge.
Existing customers will be grandfathered in to the $30 unlimited plan. Good news, although it was expected: users will be able to keep that plan even if they upgrade their handset.
More bad news: Verizon also is modifying its LTE mobile hotspot service, available for smartphones like the HTC ThunderBolt, the LG Revolution and Samsung Droid Charge. The LTE mobile hotspot feature is currently free and unlimited, but beginning July 7, those who have been using the LTE mobile hotspot service will be (sort of) grandfathered in with a $30 per month charge for unlimited LTE mobile hotspot use.
While that's not great, going from free to $30, that's better than for new customers, who will have to pay $20 for an mere 2 GB of data to be used for mobile hotspot service (as a separate bucket).
In other words, if you want to get an unlimited data plan on the Verizon network, you'd better head over to a Verizon store, head online, or call a Verizon rep today or tomorrow.
This will also mean that after tomorrow, Sprint will be the only of the big 4 wireless carriers in the U.S. to have true unlimited data plans. T-Mobile advertises unlimited data, but throttles data transfers after 5GB.
That said, most studies thus far show smartphone users are nowhere near any of these data tiers. Unfortunately, it's a truism that the outlier of today is the normal user of tomorrow.
Verizon has confirmed that as of July 7, it will be ending unlimited smartphone data for new customers. It's been known for a long time that Verizon would make the move, and it's been known since the third week of June that July 7 was the date, but this is the first time Verizon has confirmed it.
Spokeswoman Brenda Raney told FierceWireless that smartphone customers will have their choice of three monthly data tiers: $30 for 2GB, $50 for 5GB, and $80 for 10GB. Feature phone users will be able to opt in to a $10 for 75MB monthly plan. All tiers have a $10 per GB overage charge.
Existing customers will be grandfathered in to the $30 unlimited plan. Good news, although it was expected: users will be able to keep that plan even if they upgrade their handset.
More bad news: Verizon also is modifying its LTE mobile hotspot service, available for smartphones like the HTC ThunderBolt, the LG Revolution and Samsung Droid Charge. The LTE mobile hotspot feature is currently free and unlimited, but beginning July 7, those who have been using the LTE mobile hotspot service will be (sort of) grandfathered in with a $30 per month charge for unlimited LTE mobile hotspot use.
While that's not great, going from free to $30, that's better than for new customers, who will have to pay $20 for an mere 2 GB of data to be used for mobile hotspot service (as a separate bucket).
In other words, if you want to get an unlimited data plan on the Verizon network, you'd better head over to a Verizon store, head online, or call a Verizon rep today or tomorrow.
This will also mean that after tomorrow, Sprint will be the only of the big 4 wireless carriers in the U.S. to have true unlimited data plans. T-Mobile advertises unlimited data, but throttles data transfers after 5GB.
That said, most studies thus far show smartphone users are nowhere near any of these data tiers. Unfortunately, it's a truism that the outlier of today is the normal user of tomorrow.
Apple continues to hammer at Android tablets, with news coming a few days ago that the iPad has surpassed the 100,000 app mark in terms of iPad-optimized applications, while the only "official" number for Honeycomb (Android 3.x, tablet-optimized) apps is 292 (as of the time of this writing). Meanwhile, the HP TouchPad (webOS) launched with nearly 400 apps at launch. How is that possible?
The reason that Apple can continue to harp on these statistics is that Google has refused to give an official number of apps that "work properly" on Android. It's not so much that Google needs to list a number of "tablet-optimized" apps, because Android apps tend to scale properly from, say, a smartphone screen to a tablet screen.
Easy examples that come to mind are the Angry Birds video games. They were ready at launch for Honeycomb. There are plenty of apps that work without having to be re-scaled for Honeycomb.
In fact, the Android platform was more efficient than the iPad was at "its launch." Does anyone remember that nearly every app on the iPad showed up in that funky iPhone-sized window with a screwy 2x mode to expand it?
Philip Berne, marketing manager at Samsung, says given these fact that the actual number of Honeycomb apps isn't 292. He says it's more like 60,000. Why Google doesn't publicize these numbers is beyond us.
Berne said, "We've had 3rd party firms look into this. 30-40 percent of all Android apps scale almost perfectly. That's [a] 60,000 app number in [Samsung Galaxy] Tab 10.1 releases, [an] estimate (within 4 percent) of apps that scale, little white space, good layout."
Given this, some developers see no reason to create a special Honeycomb version. A spokeswoman for ZeptoLab, creators of the popular puzzle game "Cut the Rope" said, "The Android version of Cut the Rope works really well on Honeycomb tablets, so there isnt a need in this case to do a separate build." That's the way many developers think, and why the number of Honeycomb-optimized apps will never rise as it should, unless Google relaxes the way it categorizes things.
Things are looking down for Apple in its motion to halt Amazon.com's use of the word Appstore for its Android marketplace. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said today after a hearing in Oakland, California that she is "probably" going to deny Apple's motion.
Apple filed suit against Amazon.com in March, targeting the online retailers Appstore, which sells mobile applications to Android users. At the time, an Apple spokeswoman said, "We've asked Amazon not to copy the app store name because it will confuse and mislead customers." However, Hamilton said that Apple hasn’t demonstrated confusion among consumers.
Apple owns the trademark rights to both App Store and Appstore in Europe, but in the U.S. its trademark application is pending approval. In May, Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson filed to invalidate Apple's European trademarks. In the U.S., Microsoft's has filed against Apple's U.S. trademark application, saying the terms are too generic.
That is precisely the tactic Amazon.com has used, saying the terms are generic. Even if the term wasn’t generic, Amazon.com says, Apple can’t show that consumers would confuse the two services since Apple’s store only sells downloads for iDevices.
Hamilton seems to agree, saying Apple’s difficulty demonstrating “real evidence of actual confusion” among consumers is a “stumbling block for Apple," and that "I’m troubled by the showing that you’ve made so far, but that’s where you’re likely not to prevail at this early juncture.” However, Hamilton added that she will review court filings before issuing a final ruling.
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