We are hearing this morning that Apple [AAPL] themselves are being sued for infringing on a multi-touch patent of a company called Elan Microelectronics Corp. That company are now taking the case to the U.S. trade agency in an attempt to ban the import and sales of the Apple iPad, iPod Touch and the iPhone.

Elan’s complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington claims Apple ‘knowingly and deliberately used Elan’s technology, while continuing to introduce infringing products, the company claims in the complaint.

‘Our goal is to protect our technology and to stop sales of those products in the U.S., Dennis Liu, spokesman for Hsinchu, Taiwan-based Elan.

[Read more…]

Google [GOOG] have added an interesting change (perhaps for April fools day only) that can convert videos to ASCII art. The option can be found on any video by simply clicking on the tab in the video box where you set the resolution. The option is called TEXTp and can be found at the top of the list on any video selected (note that it won’t work on a users page, so you’ll need to be on the single video page).

A video demonstration can be found below which shows our trip to Silverstone a few years back. [Read more…]

We could be seeing music streamed from the Apple iTunes store as early as July according to a report over on CNET. The report on CNET mentions that many were expecting the streaming content service to start this weekend with the launch of the Apple iPad [AAPL], but this is not going to be happening this weekend.

As well as streaming music, the potential of streaming video is also a possibility although Apple and various studios haven’t done too much in regards to this aspect.

In terms of the Apple iPad, it is expected that visuals will be the way forwards with this device. The larger screen is suited to viewing rather than using it as an oversized MP3 player and therefore, Apple needs to concentrate on getting video content on to the device. [Read more…]

Amazon have filed an interesting patent that will see cameras setup in their warehouses capturing images of every product packaged. The patent number applied is 7,689,465 which details a camera system filming boxes as they get contents packed in them ready for shipping. It might sound like an odd patent but it has a number of benefits for the company and customer in that a visual record will be kept of what items were packed and what the condition of the packaging was. If something should go missing in transit then Amazon will have proof that it was boxed up correctly. Likewise, if Amazon miss adding something to a box then it will more easily aid Amazon in finding where the problem was if it was at their end.

Video clips captured also have the ability to be emailed to the customer so they can see their item being packed and what the box looks like etc… As well as showing this information to the customer, advertising companies might also be able to check out the video feeds to confirm if Amazon are indeed including their adverts within the packaging. [Read more…]

With the launch of the Apple iPad being just a few days away, we now hear of some information that will allow authors to get their work in to the iBook store. The normal process for a book writer would be to get their book accepted in to one of the six or so publishers who Apple [AAPL] is working which can take time and cost a bit of money too.

A couple of new services have launched that aim to take that hassle away from the publisher whereby they publish the book for you and act as a middle man in the process. The two companies offering this service are Smashwords and Lulu who appear to have both signed deals with Apple to provide books for it’s store.

Smashwords is a simple system whereby you upload your eBook in Word format along with a cover image. Smashwords then do what they need to do with an automated system to make it compatible and send the book to be included in the store. In terms of payment, they take a percentage of each sale as their commission. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] have announced that they will soon be integrating Adobe Flash in to the Chrome web browser and eventually in to Google Chrome OS when it lands.

By integrating Adobe Flash in to Chrome and Chrome OS, they actually mean integrate and not just support. Out of the box you’ll be able to play flash content without installing a specific plugin from Adobe.

Adobe could hit troubling times with it’s flash software in the next few years for a number of reasons. One reason is that Apple [AAPL] do not support flash on their Apple iPhone or Apple iPad. In reference to the latter (the iPad), big media publications are already transitioning data over to HTML5 to allow their flash content to play natively on the Apple iPad. This could lead eventually to flash becoming old and not required any more. [Read more…]

Facebook had a bit of an error last night in that those who have their email addresses set to NOT show, actually found that Facebook had changed the privacy settings and was showing private email addresses.

It isn’t clear at the moment how it happened although a number of people spotted the problems and attempted to rehide their addresses themselves with no luck. The problem lasted around 30 minutes and then returned to normal from what we have heard.

Some believe that this could be related to some new privacy changes that are coming soon which will see your data shared with companies to better target ads. More details on TechCrunch about that. [Read more…]

Apple [AAPL] have released their latest version of iTunes numbered 9.1. The new update brings several features which includes support for iPad syncing as well as the ability to sync books that you have downloaded for the iBooks application.

Other features in the update include the ability to rename Genius music lists as well as a few changes to the naming of certain places such as Applications changing to just Apps.

The new download is 97.3MB and is available and appears to be downloadable from out of the US too (tested and working in the UK). [Read more…]

When using Microsoft [MSFT] Windows 7 logged in as an admin user (hands up who is guilty of that!), a report says that your computer is very vulnerable when compared to using your computer as a regular user with standard user rights. Tests indicated that 90% of vulnerabilities can attack your computer just because you are logged in as an admin.

The sensible option here would be to just create a user account and use that when day to day computing tasks need to be done.

Ninety percent of critical Microsoft Windows 7 vulnerabilities can be mitigated by configuring the operating system for standard user rather than administrator, according to a new report released on Monday.

[Read more…]

Google [GOOG] have announced Google Chrome 5 Beta that is ready now for download. The new version 5 fixes a couple of security holes present in the current Chrome browser as well as adds a new options for automatic webpage translations as well as a tabbed bookmark manager.

If you are either a beta or dev user it is recommended that you download the latest version to seal off the couple of security holes present in the browser.

If you currently have Chrome installed and are using a developer release then you can use the update checker program built in to the web browser. [Read more…]

Yesterday we announced that Sony are releasing a new firmware for the Sony PlayStation 3 that will get rid of the “other OS” option on the older fatter PS3 model. Sony didn’t cite any reasons why they are doing this other than it’s a security concern. They list no benefits for adding this restriction.

Geo Hot has suggested that those who want to use the Other OS install option should hold off installing the new firmware update this Thursday when it is launched. Instead, he says the following will happen…

“A note to people interested in the exploit and retaining OtherOS support, DO NOT UPDATE. When 3.21 comes out, I will look into a safe way of updating to retain OtherOS support, perhaps something like Hellcat’s Recovery Flasher. I never intended to touch CFW, but if that’s how you want to play…”

[Read more…]

If you are a paying member of the iPhone Developer program from Apple [AAPL] you should now have access to the iPhone SDK OS 3.2 Gold version.

The update has followed several beta updates over the last few weeks where a few new features have been spotted which includes a couple of new gesture functions that were spotted in the Beta 4 update which includes 3Tap and LongPress being new gestures. [Read more…]