Back in April, Samsung slapped back at Apple’s claims of patent infringement with a healthy helping of ten claims of its own. Now Bloomberg is reporting that Samsung quietly dropped its countersuit against the Cupertino-based company on June 30th, in an attempt “to streamline the legal proceedings.” Of course that doesn’t mean the saga is over: Apple’s smartphone infringement accusations stand, as do legal battles in South Korea, Japan, Germany, and the UK. Samsung says it will also continue to fight Apple’s accusations in the US in the form of a counter-claim. One down, one to go?
Update: To clarify, this does not mean that Samsung has abandoned its own infringement claims against Apple. Those claims have been rolled into counter-claims in the original suit.
Android getting ported to the iPhone may be old news by now, but Android 2.3 (a.k.a. Gingerbread) getting ported to the iPhone? Well, that’s something… new, if entirely expected. As before, it’s the iPhone 3G doing the honors, and the port is still based on the iDroid project, which means you can hang onto iOS in a dual-boot configuration so you won’t be left in the cold when the less-than-stable port decides not to cooperate. And, yes, this once again means that the iPhone has gotten the latest version of Android before many Android devices have. Head on past the break for a video.
Hey, you — it’s January 3rd. You know, the day you’re supposed to return to work / school / life. And the day you’re supposed to catch a flight you’ve had booked for three months. And probably a day that you’re supposed to accomplish lots of other tasks. Unfortunately for you, you actually believed that your iPhone alarm would fix itself when today rolled around, but based on hordes of complaints seen on Twitter and Facebook, said fix is still hibernating. And thus, you’re still sleeping. Even here at Engadget HQ, we’ve seen iPhone 4 handsets not wake us as promised (on non-recurring alarms), so who knows when Apple will step up to the plate and address the issue. In the meantime, go ahead and set up a recurring alarm while gently crossing your fingers and toes. Or, you know, buy a battery-powered alarm clock off of your grandmother.
We’re not exactly sure of the cause of this fancy new issue affecting Apple’s super cool iPhone line of cellphones, but apparently you’ve got trouble come 1/1/2011. According to an explosive stream of frustration-filled tweets on the Twitter microblogging service, when the clock strikes midnight, one off alarms will cease to sing out. The issue sounds eerily similar to recent Daylight Savings Time trouble we witnessed back in November, although we saw both repeating alarm and single alarm failures.
So how can you fix this potentially life-ruining problem? Well until Apple patches its OS — and it’s currently unclear if this is just iOS 4.2.1 or earlier versions as well — you can simply create a recurring alarm at the time you need to be woken up, and then disable it once your dreams are completely ruined. We’re taking a deeper look into the issue and have contacted Apple — if we get more news, you guys will be the first to know. In the meantime, feel free to commiserate in comments, and… happy new year?
Update:9to5 Mac says that the bug will get fixed all by itself once the calendar hits January 3rd. We haven’t confirmed this, but if it turns out to be the case, that’s pretty good news. In less good news, the issue seems to be affecting iOS 4.1 and 4.0.2 as well.
Update 2: Apple responded to us on the issue, though they didn’t offer any surprises:
We’re aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2. Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.
Whether the world really needs another way to turn an iPhone 4 or other iOS device into a universal remote control is something for a different argument; Gear4 is just pleased to get its UnityRemote out of the door. The $99 accessory hooks up to your iPhone via Bluetooth and has a 360-degree IR transmitter array to control your HDTV, amp, Blu-ray player and anything else.
Meanwhile there’s the usual companion software in the App Store which turns your iOS device into a learning remote. You can either program it by choosing your kit from a list of preconfigured manufacturers and hardware, or by teaching the UnityRemote emitter itself using the existing remote control.
There’s macro support, so you can have your TV, cable box and surround sound amp turn on simultaneously with a single button-tap, and programmable gestures to change things like volume and channel. It’s available now, at $99 from Gear4 direct or from Amazon.
Press Release:
GEAR4 Takes Control With New UnityRemote™
Now available for U.S. purchase, UnityRemote device gives iPhone/iPod/iPad
users universal control
El Segundo, CA (Dec. 22, 2010) – GEAR4 (www.GEAR4.com), a UK iPod and iPhone audio brand and case manufacturer with an emphasis on design, today announces the U.S. availability of UnityRemote. Now available through Amazon, the UnityRemote device turns any iPhone, iPod touch or iPad into a universal remote control
Designed to make controlling multi-media devices simple, the universal UnityRemote from GEAR4 enables users to control everything from TVs to Hi-Fis, Blu-Ray players to digital TV boxes – anything that has an infrared receiver – using one single device.
“Excitement for UnityRemote has been building and we’re looking forward to having consumers start using it in their homes,” said Tom Dudderidge, CEO of GEAR4. “People are already so comfortable and familiar with their iDevices, it will be a huge convenience to use it as a remote as well.”
UnityRemote works with two parts – an app, which is downloaded for free from the Apple App Store, and a small device that can be placed anywhere in the room. The UnityRemote device receives a Bluetooth® signal from the Apple device, and then sends an infrared command in 360 degrees via five infrared transmitters to the device to be controlled.
After launching the app, users simply select the device to be controlled from a long list of manufacturers – many that you’ve heard of, and even some you haven’t. If, for some reason, the device to control is not listed, UnityRemote can easily ‘learn’ how to control the device.
Users can also set up ‘actions’ for UnityRemote to control multiple devices simultaneously. With one touch, users can turn on their TV, DVD player, digital TV box and their home cinema sound system. The remote layout can also be adjusted so that one remote layout has the buttons for multiple devices on the same screen, like ‘play’ from the DVD player and volumes for the surround system. There’s nothing to plug in to the iPhone and nothing to search for with UnityRemote. Simply enter the room and begin using your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad as a remote control.
UnityRemote is compatible with iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4; iPod touch 2G, 3G and iPad. It is available now through Amazon.com for $99. To learn more, visit www.GEAR4.com.
About GEAR4
Disruptive Ltd. is the owner and manufacturer of the GEAR4 brand, the UK’s leading iPod, iPhone and iPad audio brand. Founded in 2004, the company is privately owned and operated, with its head office in High Wycombe, UK.
Whoa, Nelly! ThinkFlood won’t like this… not one bit. If you’ll recall, the RedEye universal remote dongle was well received, as a simple 3.5mm adapter added IR beaming to Apple’s slate of iDevices. But now, Mashed Pixel has taken the integration one step further, seamlessly embedding an Infrared emitter into a case. Simply pop the Surc around your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, download the (free) accompanying app and start programming. Before long, you’ll be dictating your home entertainment setup sans any external accessories, and heck, you may even improve your phone’s reception all the while. The only downside to this approach compared to ThinkFlood’s is that the iPad is obviously not supported, and once you upgrade to the iPhone 5, your trusty IR case becomes a glorified paperweight. If you’re kosher with that, though, you can get your pre-order in now for $69.95, with initial shipments expected to make their way out in Q1 2011.
Another day, another iPhone remote control system that turns your Apple smartphone into a universal remote. Hot on the heels of RedEye‘s offering comes Peel, with a slightly different approach to the hardware/software hybrid setup. As well as the Peel software app, you get a bright yellow IR dongle called the Peel Fruit which hooks up via a ZigBee connection to an ethernet dongle – called the Peel Cable – on your router, and controls your A/V equipment.
The two components are designed by Yves Behar, who was responsible for the Jawbone Bluetooth headset. The Peel Fruit will apparently last for up to nine months on a single battery, which is impressive enough.
As for the software, rather than just giving you buttons and a programming grid, Peel reckons their app will learn what shows you enjoy watching and then suggest appropriate alternatives when you’re desperately seeking entertainment. It’s available to download free from iTunes [iTunes link] though is US-only, and you can use it for suggested shows even if you don’t have a Peel Fruit.
The iPhone Dev Team have released a new iPhone 3G/iPhone 3GS carrier unlock, taking advantage of a susceptible baseband that Apple itself is still supplying, and allowing the older smartphones to use any SIM with iOS 4.2.1. This new redsn0w version relies on baseband 06.15 still offered as part of the iPad’s iOS 3.2.2 firmware; however, there are also some significant provisos that mean this method isn’t for everybody.
For a start, it will definitely impact your Apple warranty. Unlike other hack methods, which are reversible, this new redsn0w system leaves no route to backtrack from the 06.15 baseband. That means Apple technical support will definitely be able to see that you’ve modified your iPhone.
It also means that there’s no way to return to either an official firmware or an official baseband, leaving unlockers at the mercy of third-party custom IPSWs in future. Still, if you’re not especially bothered about Apple support – or, indeed, are out of warranty anyway – then this is certainly a straightforward way to use any carrier with an iOS 4.2.1 iPhone 3G/3GS.
Can’t wait another minute for your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS to be carrier-unlocked once more? If and only if you’re already running the latest firmware, you can actually pilfer a bit of iPad code to pick the requisite locks — though there are some serious risks in doing so. The iPhone Dev Team has a new version of PwnageTool that uses the 6.15.00 baseband from iPad firmware 3.2.2, which just so happens to run perfectly on the iPhone 3G and 3GS since both phones and tablets of that era use the same Infineon radio chip. If you know your way around an IPSW and regularly bench-press SHSH blobs, you can download all the software you need right now — but if you don’t, you might want to steer clear of the proceedings for the time being. We spoke about risks a moment ago, and in this case there are quite a few — like the inability to downgrade from baseband 6.15 or ever do a full restore unless Apple relations improve, and it’s fairly likely that Cupertino won’t look kindly on your warranty if they find you running iPad software. Them’s the breaks, kid.
It may not solve some of the problems involved with actually running Android on an iPhone, but the recently released Bootlace 2.1 application for jailbroken iPhones does at least make the installation process easier than ever. Unfortunately, it only works with the iPhone 2G and 3G at the moment, but it will let you install Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo) directly on the device without the need for a computer. Hit up the source link below for the complete installation instructions — and insert your own joke here about the iPhone running Froyo while your Android phone is still stuck at 2.1.
