Motorola won a pretty significant patent battle with Apple today in German courts. The initial “permanent injunction” forced the Cupertino giant to remove most of its products from its German-based online store including the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4 as well as any 3G-enabled iPads. The patent in question had to do with a “multiple pager status synchronization system and method” which Apple uses in its iCloud product. As you can see, that’s a big deal.

After all that went down early this morning and products were pulled, news is starting to spread that Apple has apparently put up a big enough chunk of change to license the patent from Motorola. Well, has potentially. The ban has been lifted and that’s the only guess that anyone has as to why it would be removed so quickly. It’s not clear what that amount was, especially after an Apple spokesperson took a shot at Moto for refusing “to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms.”

This is a developing story, indeed.

Via:  FOSS Patents, (2), BBC, Engadget

Cheers Mclovin, Brian and Ben!

As Android fans, I know that most of us don’t want to hear it, but if NFC (Near Field Communications) is ever going to take off and be widely adopted, we need the iPhone 5 to support it.

When the Nexus S was released on December 16, 2010 as the first NFC-enabled phone, Google made an early push to get both businesses and consumers into accepting the idea that their phones could share information by simply touching it to objects. The thought of paying for your morning coffee or cab fare without having to dig into your purse or back pocket seemed so game-changing. Since we all make our phones the most readily available item on our bodies at all times, what a brilliant idea this was. 

According to a recent study performed by Match.com, Android users are kings and queens of the one-night stand in the dating world. Roughly 62% of Android users who participated in the study said that they have gone all-in on a first date. In comparison, iPhone users get dirty on day 1 at a rate of 57% while Blackberry users never get laid failed to crack 50%. The study also found that Android users then take 2-3 days to reach out after a date (potentially after that first big loose one), while iPhone users sext call the next day. Blackberry users drink more often than everyone and Android users lead the way in smartphone owners who visit dating sites, with 72% of those polled said that they have visited one.

I feel like we are a pretty well-rounded group. Not only do we “multi-task” from the bathroom, but we also have the best set of pickup lines.

“Are you an Android phone? Because I only handle things that are unlocked.”

Via:  VentureBeat

Cheers Matthew!

During a Q4 earnings call discussion with analysts this morning, Verizon’s CFO Fran ShamWow Shammo dropped a variety of numbers that I’m sure will spark up interesting conversations throughout the day. After a full year of the iPhone on Big Red’s network, we have the first set of numbers to compare how it sold versus the Android army. I think it’s safe to say that the iPhone 4 and its slight rehash in October did not bring the world of green robots to a screeching halt as so many had predicted last January. It obviously outsold every single Moto, HTC, Samsung or LG phone on their own, but in this world, it’s all about OS market share.

Verizon sold 15 million Android phones and 10.8 million iPhones over the course of 2011. During Q4 alone, VZW knocked out 7.7 million smartphones which helped account for 70% of their entire 2-year contract wireless sales. 4.3 million of those were iDevices, while the other 3 million were a mix of Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.

We should point out that analysts were a little concerned that while Big Red managed to sell record numbers of phones, that their revenues were not looking so hot thanks to the “cost of doing business with Apple.” With high subsidies on Apple devices, it takes years for wireless carriers to see returns on their sales. VZW seems to think that they will survive – we do too. 

Last night, the latest Siri wannabe was introduced to Android under the name Evi. It’s voice-inspired, can answer almost any question you ask it, and even learns on the go after receiving feedback directly from you. This actually is a decent attempt at being Android’s Siri, except for one problem which you will quickly find in the market:  they have like 1 or 2 servers trying to power the service for thousands of new users and simply cannot keep up with traffic.

At this point, if you jump into the app and search for something, you will see this: “I’m waiting for a network connection before trying this one.” It’s frustrating, especially after using it last night and finding pretty favorable results for the most part. In fact, it’s built-in map feature works well, however, we would have liked to have seen some way to launch navigation out of it. It returns simple, yet detailed results pages, beautifully laid out business or location pages, and even answered many of our off-the-wall questions. Again, this service actually isn’t bad and is probably the best attempt yet. Now, let’s hope we see a legitimate server infrastructure in the next day or so or it may be a short life for ol’ Evi.  

During this year’s Super Bowl, Samsung is going to roll out of their latest ad spot which continues on with the theme of Galaxy SII vs. iDevice. Their widely popular scene of a Samsung owner showing up in front of a line of loyal Apple users is taken to the next level in this lead-in with the term “Samsunged” after an SGS2 owner 1-ups a line member. Is “Samsunging” going to catch on? Sick of these spots yet? Enjoy!

In the month of December, 91.4% of new smartphone acquirers purchased either an Android device or an iPhone. That number is up almost 5% from the previous two months, meaning RIM and Windows Phone continue to do nothing to entice consumers.

The other important note that you are seeing blasted across every Apple site today, is the fact that Apple seems to have made massive jumps in a couple of categories. Most notably is the graph above that shows recent acquirers. What I will say to that is, it’s not like Android phones are being purchased at a reduced rate even though many would jump to that conclusion by looking at this chart. According to Andy Rubin, daily activations are still increasing each and every day. All that this means is that the iPhone 4S came out and a whole bunch of people that were waiting for it, bought it. Does it mean that Android is dying or in decline? Not for a second. In fact, if you look at their numbers for “All Smartphone Users,” Android jumped up another 3.3% from a similar report in September, while iOS’s share only gained 2%.