Amazon has just released the Kindle for Mac application that adds to the list of ways users can access their Kindle e-books.  The company is also going to be releasing the Kindle for iPad very soon, hoping to get into the iPad-user market before Apple can win market share for e-books. Amazon has said in the past that it pushes more for the sales of e-books than the sales of Kindles, just because the business is better in e-books. So why, when they are trying to push for market share before competitors can swoop in, would they start waging war on publishers over concessions regarding the electronic content?

HTC wrote a press release (finally) addressing the HTC/Apple legal battle. The news surfaced earlier this month, and has since taken a back seat to other happenings including SXSW 2010 lineup and multitasking on iPhone OS 4.0. Yesterday HTC outlined their disagreement with Apple’s legal actions and reaffirmed their commitment to the smartphone industry.

Even though the actual success or failure of the iPad has yet to be seen, it appears as though support product developers are already banking on its domination of the market.  Third party developers are already sinking millions of dollars into making iPad accessories… and it’s not even out yet.  These prospectors seem to have jumped the gun to claim a stake in the coming iPad gold rush.  Like the real gold rush, people may be overestimating the gold in those hills.

It's true that the iPad has received some severe badmouthing, but according to a recent Apple press release, Apple has just taken their trademarked “it done broke, here’s a new one” policy of customer service to a new extreme.  Apparently with the new iPad warranty if your battery life starts to get below what you’d like it to be, then that qualifies as broken under the Apple Care plan.  It carries a surcharge with it, but WOW.  Given the subjective nature of “insufficient” battery life, this is basically a $99 “gimme a new one” clause.

 

Novothink, Inc. has introduced the first Apple-certified solar charger for your iPhone and iTouch.  They call it the Surge, and it works for the iPhone 3G and 3Gs, and iPod Touch.  The charger is actually a hybrid solar charger case that comes in numerous bright color options (which are coming soon) and outputs 5.5 V at 100 mAh in full sun. 

One of the biggest gripes users of any of the iPortables have is the fact that they aren’t made to multitask. The iPhone can now only do minimal multitasking, which includes the ability to run a connected phone call in the background while you open a second app. This could be changing in the near future based on what’s rumored for the Apple OS 4.0. The change won’t come easy as Apple has a few road blocks, the biggest of which include:

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Even if you aren’t willing to void the warranty to make the screen easier to look at, you might get  a kick out of the iPad as a competitor to the Kindle.  Heck, if certain surveys are correct, you will almost certainly chose it over the other e-book readers on the market.  Without drawing too much attention to the fact that thee sales would likely have more to do with the oscars than technology, this begs the question as to what effect the iPad will have on the e-reader/e-book market as a whole?

 

As if the announcement of the U.S. iPad pre-order and release dates just a few days ago wasn’t enough to get the iPad frenzy going once again, last night during the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Apple released some eye candy- the first iPad television commercial. What a prime piece of advertising real estate. Last year’s Oscars brought in almost 37 million views. Check out the commercial below.

After introducing the iPad to the world and starting the iPad frenzy over a month ago, Apple has finally announced the release date for the iPad. Saturday April 3 the public can expect to see iPad’s available. If you must take action before April 3, diehards can begin pre-ordering the iPad on Friday March 12. The iPad boasts an estimated ten hour battery life, weighs only 1.5 lbs and has a 9.7 inch screen.

As we all know Google has been quite good at fighting and sabotaging Apple in their smartphone war. From hacking their way around app bans, to interceding on court cases that have nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, while they are remembering the first rule of competition, they seem to be forgetting another "first rule": don't forget about your own product, while you're trashing your opponent's. As some analysts are pointing out, the fragmentation effect to open source and free software is already taking hold. With just months between their releases, Android 2.0 and 2.1 are different enough that compatibility issues are becoming a major problem. We're not completely ready to give up hope for the Android platform. If it wants to be a real OS, Android needs SOME stability.

What sort of precedent would an Apple victory set for the world of smartphone technology? Given the fact that Apple apparently is now revealing that they have patents to technology used by every smartphone on the market, things could be looking bleak for everyone who isn’t them. Heck, if you want to use a proper touch screen or even icons, you technically have to ask Apple’s permission. If they are successful in this lawsuit, the precedent will be set that every remotely user friendly smartphone on earth would be made illegal to produce or sell, except by Apple of course. Even the pundits in the video below agree.

It’s official, smartphones are to 2010 what PCs were to the mid 90’s.  Apple is formally suing HTC for patent infringement.  They are claiming that the touch-screen interface of the HTC’s phone line is too similar to the apple iPhone.  Technically they are right; HTC phones and their Windows Phone OS interact with users very similarly…but this is because it’s a smartphone.  There are only so many things that can be done with a touch-screen and a cell-phone sized computer interface, but somehow apple has managed to enumerate and patent most of them.

As we mentioned previously, Apple has released their next generation photo management software called Aperture 3.  Almost immediately, there were complaints that there were bugs with the software where the software was crashing computer systems by taking all of its memory, and the facial recognition feature did not work as Apple claimed.  Apple has now released version 3.0.1 which is supposed to have worked out those problems, as well as many others. 

It may come as a shock to hear from this author, but the latest portable iProduct seems pretty ingenuitive, straightforward, and useful.  The recent announcement of the iTab release has semi-tech-savvy artsy types excited; and if it doesn’t it should.  It seems that these Apple copycats are finally remembering what market iStuff targets and what their products actually do before advertising.  They are making no unreasonable promises; and the product seems like something that artists who want to keep up with the tech curve (but don’t want to spend the effort to stay on the bleeding edge) could actually use.

The Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference was held this week in San Francisco.  Big name companies such as Microsoft, Dell and eBay all spoke at the conference; but the most anticipated speaker was Tim Cook, COO of Apple.  The company is rarely part of a conference, and when they do participate, audiences are usually amazed with big news and product releases.  At this particular investor event, Tim Cook discussed product strategy, acquisition strategies, and distribution deals.