Google knows how valuable our service men and women are, and how hard it is to be away from home on long tours of duty. The company is giving back where it can, by offering free calls within Gmail to the states for people with a valid .mil email address. It might not seem like much, but you’d understand after getting your first cell phone bill with roaming charges from the eastern mountains of Afghanistan. To take advantage all you have to do is add your military address to your Google account and click a link in the verification email and you’re good to go.

Google offers free calls home from Gmail for American military originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Software maker Openwave Systems isn’t going to sit idly by and watch all the other kids have all the patent lawsuit fun. On Wednesday, the San Francisco Bay area company filed suit with the International Trade Commission and a federal court in Delaware accusing Apple and RIM mobile devices of infringing on five of its mobile Internet connection patents. Openwave is asking to be paid licensing fees by the two mobile heavyweights, joining a long line of players in the mobile space who are currently using the U.S. patent system to squeeze revenue from their intellectual property portfolios.

The complaint lists Apple’s iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch, iPad and iPad 2, and RIM’s Blackberry Curve 9330 and Blackberry PlayBook as infringing on five Openwave patents. Those are, according to Openwave:

• Patent that generally allows a user to use e-mail applications on a mobile device when the network is unavailable – such as when a user is on an airplane.
• Patent that generally allows the mobile device to operate seamlessly, and securely, with a server over a wireless network.
• Patent that generally allows access to updated versions of applications on mobile devices.
• Patent that generally allows consumers to experience an improved user experience in navigating through various pages of information without delay.
• Patent that enables data in the cloud to be accessed or shared by different devices such as mobile handsets or computers.

The suit asks the ITC to bar the import and sale of the accused devices. In a statement, Openwave CEO Ken Denman said it ultimately wants licensing fees for the technology:

Openwave invented technologies that became foundational to the mobile Internet. We believe that these large companies should pay us for the use of our technologies, particularly in light of the substantial revenue these companies have earned from devices that use our intellectual property. Before filing these complaints, we approached both of these companies numerous times in an attempt to negotiate a license of our technology with them and did not receive a substantive response.

Neither Apple or RIM were immediately available for comment.

Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr user The.Comedian

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Aug. 28: Britney Spears at the MTV VMAs

Britney Spears credits her father, building contactor-turned conservator Jamie Spears, for “saving her life,” according to a report from Radar Online.

“Britney now recognizes that if her father hadn’t stepped in and taken the action that he had, well…. Britney is now crediting Jamie for saving her life,” an insider tells RadarOnline.com. “Britney is on top of the world right now. She is getting ready for the next leg of her world tour, which will be on September 22 in Moscow. Her father will be with her for some of the European performances, along with her mom. Britney’s relationship with her dad is in a very, very good place now. She was extremely emotional backstage before leaving for the VMAs and kept telling her daddy how much she loves him.”

After a series of very public meltdowns, Jamie Spears became his daughter’s conservator–making ALL decisions for the pop star–back in January of 2008. The breaking point for Spears may have been his daughter’s disastrous performance at MTV Music Video Awards in late 2007–were she appeared dazed and wobbly while she performed a lackluster rendition of “Gimme More” in a black sequined bikini.

Britney Spears' father, Jamie Spears (AP)

“Britney always knew she would have a comeback. She just didn’t know it was going to be on this level,” the source tells RadarOnline.com.

There was a “routine” conservatorship meeting with a Judge in Los Angeles on Tuesday, which, for now, leaves Spears under daddy’s control.

Still, sources say Brit could be back in control of her affairs in the future.

“There is a very good chance that a decision could be made to pull the plug in early 2012. It’s likely that Britney’s business affairs will still remain under control of the conservatorship though, even if they determine that she no longer needs it for herself personally. The idea is that this will be a gradual transition for Britney to return to her life, on her own.”

And 2012 may be the year Britney Spears’ longtime boyfriend and former agent, Jason Trawick, finally puts a ring on it.

Aug. 28: Jason Trawick, left, and Britney Spears arrive at the MTV Video Music Awards (AP)

“Jason is very, very serious about Britney,” the source explains. “Jason has made it known that he wants to marry Britney. It’s just a matter of timing of the engagement–and if the conservatorship is lifted off Britney personally, well, it makes it a lot easier for Jason to propose. He doesn’t want her to feel pressured, it will happen when the time is right.”

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What better way to kick this year’s IFA conference in beautiful Berlin, Germany than a good old fashioned Sony press conference? We’re getting ready to get things started here, so sit down, grab a beverage and reach for those 3D glasses to read along at home [note: this live blog is not in 3D].

Continue reading Live from Sony IFA 2011 press event

Live from Sony IFA 2011 press event originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While it may be an oversimplification to talk about HTML5 as a direct competitor to native apps, one company is about to find out how the two compete in a very real sense. The Financial Times, which in June introduced a tablet and smartphone-optimized version of its digital edition, has removed its apps from the iOS App Store instead of complying with Apple’s requirements for software that offer in-app access to subscription content.

Apple now requires that newspaper and periodical apps offering access to subscription content either offer subscriptions through in-app purchase, which entitles Apple to a 30 percent cut of all revenue, or remove links to their own external subscription sign-up pages. FT‘s subscriptions were handled outside of the store, and rather than just remove the sign up link like competitor The Wall Street Journal did, FT apparently prefers removing its native software altogether in the hopes that readers will make the transition to the web-based app.

The problem with Apple’s model wasn’t so much the revenue split, according to FT CEO John ridding, who spoke to paidContent.org recently. More important to the newspaper was the valuable customer information normally gathered through subscriptions, which under Apple’s model is an opt-in process that each customer can decide on for themselves, rather than something passed on to the publisher automatically. FT‘s revenue model depends on its ability to gather that information, which isn’t guaranteed through Apple’s system.

But the effect the iPad has had on FT‘s digital success is not insignificant. FT.com now represents around one-quarter of the newspaper’s overall sales, and the iPad was directly leading to around 10 percent of the company’s digital subscriptions.  Since the iPad’s introduction, however, the FT has seen around 100,000 new subscriptions, and even if only a fraction of those actually signed up through the iPad, that doesn’t mean other web-based subscribers didn’t consider iPad access a motivating factor in their decision.

The web app has already seen 550,000 users according to the FT, but it also provided free access for multiple weeks following launch, so it’s too early to say whether it’ll be able to drive the same kind of subscriber increases that the app managed.

So far, Apple has had mixed results when it comes to convincing publishers to embrace its subscription model, but many magazines in particular seem to be on board, and that number is growing. That might be because magazines depend more heavily on advertising dollars as opposed to subscriber info for revenue. FT is actually planning to continue to use the App Store for those type of products, including its How To Spend It weekend luxury magazine.

For those interested in seeing how an outsider approach to Apple’s ecosystem works out when compared to playing nice with Apple’s guidelines in exchange for a spot in the App Store, the FT represents a near-perfect test case, so stay tuned.

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Apple is prepping a new online diagnostic tool that will work via mobile Safari on iOS devices, according to a new report from HardMac. The system would work by sending a unique URL to customers having problems that would direct them to web-based software that would be able to gather information from an affected system in order to determine what’s gone wrong.

The report is based on an internal announcement reportedly made by Apple notifying employees that the system is nearing completion. It makes sense for Apple to do this, because one of the first steps in determining what’s wrong with a product brought in by a customer reporting problems is to run a software diagnostic. Doing this remotely could free up time for in-store service technicians, by determining if issues can be fixed at home or should be immediately escalated to a mail-in factory return, and by providing them with crucial info in advance of a customer visit. Obviously, the affected iPhone, iPod touch or iPad has to be in good enough shape that it can access the web and open mobile Safari and Mail, but it could still prove very useful for users with less serious issues.

Information gathered from your device will also be available to staff at service centers, so that if you do have to bring your device in they can expedite the process of a repair, according to the report. That info will apparently include details about battery health and charge capacity, time since last full charge, the minimum charge level of the device’s battery, what version of iOS was installed, and if it went through a normal shutdown process prior to problems appearing. The only personal information transmitted will be the device name, as well as the device’s unique identifier number, as well as the time spent daily on voice calls if it’s an iPhone.

HardMac says this will be rolling out in the next few months everywhere, so we’ll keep an eye out, and be sure to let us know if Apple directs you to a new diagnostic website as a first step in fixing any iOS-related issues you’re having.

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Hong Kong (CNN) – After being accused of laundering $92 million, Carson Yeung is now free to leave the country after a Hong Kong court reversed a June decision barring the millionaire from travel.

Against prosecutor protestations, the judge doubled Yeung’s initial bail amount from $500,000 to $1 million. That bail was promptly met and Yeung is now free to fly to London on September 15. His current schedule has him in Britain for four days.

The reason Yeung is going? The 51-year old former hairdresser is owner and majority shareholder of British football team Birmingham City. His defense lawyer, Clive Grossman, argued his client needs to take care of his business interests and can only best do that through in-person meetings.

The prosecution argued Yeung could just as easily use technology to teleconference with the new club manager, the board and team players. They added the club has an acting chairman who can perform the same duties as Yeung.

Yeung’s lawyer reasoned to the court, "He is a high-profile person, a well-known personality in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. There is not the slightest chance of (him) absconding."

And the court agreed. Yeung will soon be headed for the departure gate.

Attorneys for Yeung – who made his fortune with Chinese real estate – say the tycoon plans to enter a not guilty plea on the laundering charges. The trial is expected to start early next year.

The next question that comes to mind: ‘Will Carson come back?’ If he doesn’t, then this brewing international monetary scandal could get just a bit more flavorful.

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Continue reading iPad dock shopping cart keeps footie fans and their other halves happy

iPad dock shopping cart keeps footie fans and their other halves happy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Several factors are making us shift more toward going paperless: the need to be mobile and location-independent, greater speed and convenience, an increased awareness for going green, not to mention our need for pinching pennies in today’s economic climate.

Now, with the advent of things like smartphones, tablets, and the iPad, new applications designed for those devices are making it easier and more practical to go paperless.

Penultimate: Your iPad notepad

Penultimate by Cocoa Box turns your iPad into a notebook, allowing you to jot notes and create sketches in multiple colors, separate them into notebooks by topic or project, and then email all or part of your notes in PDF format. It even includes three built-in “papers” (graph paper, unlined and ruled), but you can import images of different backgrounds or papers — or download paper packs — to create your own texture or style. Price: $1.99.

SignMyPad: Simple contract sign-offs

The Android- and iPad-compatible PDF reader SignMyPad has built-in annotation functionality, allowing you to sign and date PDF documents right from your iPad and then email it to another party. You can also save documents into versions for gaining multiple signatures, and the app can import documents from and save them to Dropbox. Price: $3.99 for the basic version, $19.99 for SignMyPad Pro, which adds geolocation tagging.

MyFax: Fax without a fax

If you work with clients or colleagues who still use fax machines, MyFax’s mobile faxing app, available for iOS and Blackberry, lets you send and receive faxes from your smartphone and via your email account. Just snap a photo of the document you want to send (the app is optimized for sending photos of text), choose the recipient from your Address Book and send. To fax by email, attach the document to an email message, address it to the fax number plus an @myfax.com and send. To receive a fax, simply give out your MyFax number, and your received documents will be available as an email attachment. Price: Free app, service costs $10/month after a free trial.

JotNot: Turn your iPhone into a handheld scanner

JotNot lets you scan from your iPhone, email the scan as a PDF or image, and fax the scan to U.S. numbers. You can add pages to documents, creating a multi-page scan, as well as delete and reorder pages and send documents to EverNote, DropBox, or Google Docs. JotNot can scan and save a variety of documents, including receipts, business cards, and notes. Price: Free.

DocScanner: Simple scanning

DocScanner is a scanner app for the iPhone, Mac, Android, Qt, and the Symbian S60 that allows you to scan documents simply by taking a picture. It then automatically crops everything other than the document out of the picture and even detects your document’s paper size. Other helpful features include the ability to search multiple-page documents, as well as words within documents. Price: $4.99.

Business Card Reader: Quickly add new contacts

The multi-platform Business Card Reader from SHAPE Services lets you take a photo of a business card, and then it “reads” the picture, extracts the contact data, and enters it into your smartphone’s address book. The built-in browser even lets you check out a new contact’s LinkedIn page right from the app. Price: $4.99 for multi-language support, $3.99 for Asian languages only.

OfficeDrop: Scan to the cloud

OfficeDrop‘s app scans documents directly to the cloud for storage and sharing. The ScanDrop desktop app is available for both PC and Mac, but the iPhone and Android Scanner apps allow you to scan and upload documents using your smartphone. Once uploaded, the document’s text is searchable, thanks to OCR, and sharable with colleagues. Price: Free

Square: Easy payments and receipts

Square, available for Android and most iOS devices, lets you accept credit card payments directly from your smartphone and uses “smart receipts” to send to customers via email or text message. You can create a display with photos and prices so that customers can view your products directly from your iPad, for example, and then keep track of the number of sales you’ve made in a given day. Price: Free app and reader.

Image courtesy of Flickr user mattjiggins

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(CNN) – If you want high quality of living, your best bet is going “Down Under” or the “Great White North.”

That’s according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s ranking of 140 cities worldwide that “quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s lifestyle,” according to the report.

For the first time in a decade, Vancouver has been topped by the southern Australian city of Melbourne, based on metrics that weigh stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and a city’s infrastructure.

The top 10 cities are:

1) Melbourne, Australia
2) Vienna, Austria
3) Vancouver, Canada
4) Toronto, Canada
5) Calgary, Canada
6) Sydney, Australia
7) Helsinki, Finland
Perth, Australia
9) Adelaide, Australia
10) Auckland, New Zealand

The report says that the top 63 cities – from Melbourne to the 63rd ranked city, Santiago, Chile – are in the “very top tier of livability, where few problems are encountered … presenting few, if any, challenges to residents’ lifestyles.”

At the bottom of the list:

1) Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
2) Tehran, Iran
3) Douala, Cameroon
4) Karachi, Pakistan
5) Tripoli, Libya
6) Algiers, Algeria
7) Lagos, Nigeria
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
9) Dhaka, Bangladesh
10) Harare, Zimbabwe

The “Arab Spring” has hurt livability ratings of cities in the Middle East and North Africa, with Tripoli – which has unraveled into street fighting in recent weeks – ranking among the worst cities for the first time (the survey was done in July, before the rebel assault).

So what makes Australia and Canada so livable?

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