“The pages – stamped and signed by Jobs himself – describe circuit diagrams and paddle layouts,” Biggs reports. “Delightfully, the stamp says ‘All-One Farm Design’ and features a Buddhist mantra, ‘gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svahdl.’ As you do.”

Biggs reports, “If you’re thinking of picking this up you’d best have about $10,000 to $15,000 handy – although bidding could get fierce.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Along with the Atari memo, Sotheby’s is also auctioning off an original Apple I circuit board (mint condition) at an estimated $120,000 – $180,000.

“Apple TV’s other big trick is AirPlay, a technology that lets you stream audio, video and photos to or from any device in your house running iTunes—and to ‘mirror’ the screen of your iPhone or iPad, including your latest snapshots, to your TV,” Wice reports. “For gamers, there’s another advantage. Many iOS games, including Real Racing 2 and FIFA 12, incorporate AirPlay so that you can shift the action to your TV screen. And a new version of Mac OS, now in tests, allows Apple TV to wirelessly mirror your Mac, including video calls to the living room.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Are you using Apple’s AirPlay correctly? – April 29, 2012
Apple TV and the trojan horse strategy – April 20, 2012
PC Magazine reviews new 1080p Apple TV: Editors’ Choice – March 20, 2012
Wired hands-on with new Apple TV: Snappy, intuitive, and 1080p – March 12, 2012
Apple TV contains custom A5 chip not found in any other Apple product – March 7, 2012
Netflix now offers integrated iTunes sign up and 1080p HD streaming on new Apple TV – March 7, 2012
Apple brings 1080p high definition to new Apple TV – March 7, 2012

Smith writes, “The experience pleasantly surprised me. The interface was zippy. I liked the grid layout…it can access AT&T’s faster LTE network, which made surfing the Web, social networking, and downloading new books awesome. The screen also impressed me.”

Smith writes, “Still, just know Windows Phone’s app selection is limited. And I wasn’t a fan of the button placement at the bottom. Battery life wasn’t so hot either, which is strange considering I’ve heard Windows Phones are supposed to last a long time. (The 4G could be to blame.) As good as the Focus 2 is, I don’t I think you should hawk your iPhone for it.”

Read the full review here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

The key paragraph:

The Government starts from the false premise that an eBooks “market” was characterized by “robust price competition” prior to Apple’s entry. This ignores a simple and incontrovertible fact: before 2010, there was no real competition, there was only Amazon. At the time Apple entered the market, Amazon sold nearly nine out of every ten eBooks, and its power over price and product selection was nearly absolute. Apple’s entry spurred tremendous growth in eBook titles, range and variety of offerings, sales, and improved quality of the eBook reading experience. This is evidence of a dynamic, competitive market. These inconvenient facts are ignored in the Complaint. Instead, the Government focuses on increased prices for a handful of titles. The Complaint does not allege that all eBook prices, or even most eBook prices, increased after Apple entered the market.

P.E.D. writes, “The government’s lawyers are going to have a hard time proving that Apple violated antitrust laws because the company’s market share in the e-book business before the launch of the iPad was essentially zero.”

Much more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Video: Steve Jobs predicted or knew of publisher revolt – May 17, 2012
Federal Judge rejects Apple and publishers’ attempt to dismiss civil case alleging e-book price-fixing – May 15, 2012
Court documents reveal Steve Jobs email pushing e-book agency model; 17 more states join class action suit – May 15, 2012
Apple vs. Amazon: Who’s really fixing eBook prices? – April 17, 2012
Apple: U.S. DOJ’s accusation of collusion against iBookstore is simply not true – April 12, 2012
Apple not likely to be a loser in legal fight over eBooks – April 12, 2012
16 U.S. states join DOJ’s eBook antitrust action against Apple, publishers – April 12, 2012
Australian gov’t considers suing Apple, five major publishers over eBook pricing – April 12, 2012
DOJ’s panties in a bunch over Apple and eBooks, but what about Amazon? – April 12, 2012
Antitrust experts: Apple likely to beat U.S. DOJ, win its eBook lawsuit – April 12, 2012
Why the market shrugged off the Apple antitrust suit – April 11, 2012
What’s wrong with the U.S. DOJ? – April 11, 2012
Macmillan CEO blasts U.S. DOJ; gov’t on verge of killing real competition for appearance of competition – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ hits Apple, major publishers with antitrust lawsuit, alleges collusion on eBook prices – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ may sue Apple over ebook price-fixing as early as today, sources say – April 11, 2012

“So they are offering an alternative to the union dollars, spending freely to back fellow Democrats willing to buck the unions and advance their agenda,” Simon reports. “‘Education reform is really a fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party,’ said Derrell Bradford, who runs a political group in New Jersey that recently helped elect two union-defying Democrats to the state legislature.”

“The reform movement’s goals include shutting down low-performing public schools; weakening or eliminating teacher tenure; and expanding charter schools, which are publicly funded but often run by private-sector managers, some of them for-profit companies,” Simon reports. “Wealthy Democrats have joined Republicans in pouring millions into political campaigns, lobbying and community organizing to try to advance these goals nationwide. They can count on their side several influential Democratic mayors, including Newark’s Cory Booker and Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel.”

“The tug-of-war between the Democratic Party’s two education camps is playing out now in a heated primary race in the 46th State Assembly District, a sprawl of suburbs outside Los Angeles,” Simon reports. “From a field of five Democrats, teachers unions have backed Andrew Lachman, an adjunct professor of business law at Woodbury University. The California Teachers Association gave him $7,800 directly, campaign records show – and spent more than $130,000 on ads tearing down one of his opponents, Brian Johnson.”

“Johnson, who until recently ran a network of charter schools in Los Angeles, has the full support of the charter industry and the education reform community,” Simon reports. “Contributions from investors, philanthropists and Silicon Valley executives, including Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, have flooded into Johnson’s campaign. Independent groups funded by an overlapping network of donors have blanketed the district with mailers backing him.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Laurene Powell Jobs helps change lives, too – October 7, 2011
A clearer picture of Steve Jobs’ thoughts on public education and teacher unions – February 21, 2007
Steve Jobs & Rush Limbaugh agree: U.S. public schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 20, 2007
Apple CEO blasts teacher unions, says US schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’ – February 16, 2007

“The system lets the team use motion tracking on gloves to create and alter virtual items with the iPads used as a point-of-view window to see what the users are manipulating,” Electronista reports. A demonstration video shows the system having multiple users simultaneously affecting the compter-generated world, both with and without the glove.”

Read more in the full article here.

“Not only can you reach into the virtual world and manipulate the objects you create there, but there’s a way to connect with others, locally or remotely, to collaborate within a shared 3D virtual space,” Rob LeFebvre reports for Cult of Mac. “Looks like all that virtual reality stuff from the late 1990s is coming around again, only with the iPad, an off-the-shelf computing system with plenty of power for this application.”

LeFebvre reports, “David Lakatos, one of the researchers involved with the T(ether) project, responded to our email asking about the system. He says, ‘The iPad is running an app compiled with the Cinder library, which is a C++ wrapper for openGL. We are not using the camera on the iPad – we use a Vicon motion-capture system (used in the film industry) to track the iPads location and orientation. The attached rectangle is what the motion-capture system tracks. By constantly tracking the 5 retroreflective dots on it, we can reconstruct the correct pose (position + orientation) of the iPad. We track the gloves with the same system.’”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Smell the glove!

The open letter to Apple Inc reads as follows, verbatim:

Hello Apple. Remember me? I’m one of your loyal users. I’m one of the guys who has owned 2 MacPros [sic], a G5, a G4, 4 laptops, one iMac, 4 iPods, one MacMini [sic], 4 iPhones and a bevy of other peripherals and software packages over the last 10 years.

Sincerely
Lou Borella and the Creative Community

The page can be found via Facebook here.

Related articles:
Mac Pro user launches Facebook page to pressure Apple – May 24, 2012
If Apple wants them, new Mac Pro models now possible with Intel’s new Xeon E5 chips next week – March 1, 2012
RUMOR: Apple close to updating Mac Pro – February 14, 2012
Apple reportedly mulling the end of Mac Pro line – October 31, 2011

“The inherent assumption behind much of the coverage of the transition from Jobs to Cook has been whether the latter can keep the magic going: Both the financially resounding results and a parade of ‘magical’ products that continue to capture the public’s eye and enable the continued expansion of a customer base that assures Wall Street remains happy,” Sherman writes. “The biggest question for the faithful is whether products that wow customers will continue to churn out. Some assume that Jobs was the driving force behind all that was good. A driving force? Certainly. The driving force? Probably not.”

Sherman writes, “Cook doesn’t possess the aura and many of the strengths that he brings and that Apple needs are incompatible with that sort of presence. And yet, can all of that taken together be enough without a physical embodiment of the Apple mythos? That is the biggest unknown of them all.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Carl H." for the heads up.]

“A longtime Apple bull, Munster has predicted that the stock will hit 1,000 within two years, according to Fortune. In afternoon trading Friday, Apple shares were down a fraction, near 561.30,” Seitz reports. “”

Seitz reports, “But others aren’t so sure Apple will come out with an iTV. Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey says Apple would be foolish to come out with just another TV display, no matter how elegant.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Apple’s coming plan to take over the TV business – May 24, 2012
Apple ‘iTV’ will revolutionize content delivery and advertising – May 21, 2012
Strategy Analytics: Nearly half of iPhone users likely to buy Apple ‘iTV’ in year one – May 15, 2012

“Currently, the iOS 5.1.1-only jailbreak can be applied to nearly all iPads, the iPhone 3G, 4 and 4S, third and fourth generation iPod touch media players, and the second-generation Apple TV. Support for the new 8GB iPad 2, which features a custom-designed A5 chip, will be available soon though the team notes that Apple TV compatibility will not be included in the version 2.0 build,” AppleInsider reports. “Friday’s announcement saw such high levels of interest that the Cydia app store became overloaded with a flood of new users.”

Read more in the full article here.

“TouchArcade also notes several other tweaks to the App Store, including new ‘Editors’ Choice’ picks and the removal of the ‘Staff Favorites’ section,” Slivka reports. “As noticed by The Verge, the Editors’ Choice terminology has also been picked up in the Mac App Store… but there appears to be no Free App of the Week in the Mac App Store to correspond with the feature on the iOS side.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Lynn Weiler" for the heads up.]

“Nest founder and CEO Tony Fadell is the former senior vice president of Apple’s iPod division, and is regarded by many as the ‘father of the iPod,’” Starrett reports. “After leaving Apple for ‘personal reasons,’ Fadell… created Nest as a place to build intuitive and elegant in-home electronics.”

Starrett reports, “The Nest Learning Thermostat will be sold at Apple Stores for $249, the same price as via Nest’s own online store.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related article:
‘Father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell shows off his new project: Thermostats – October 25, 2011

“Maximum areal densities in hard disk drives (HDD) are expected to more than double during the five-year period from 2011 to 2016, spurring continued growth for HDDs in storage-intensive applications such as video and audio systems, according to the iHS iSuppli research group,” Sellers reports. “HDD areal densities measuring data-storage capacities are projected to climb to a maximum 1,800 Gigabits (Gb) per square inch per platter by 2016, up from 744 Gb per square inch in 2011.”

Sellers reports, “HAMR technology is likely to lead the way in creating next-generation HDDs, even though satisfactory costs via HAMR comparable to those of PMR have yet to be seen. In theory, however, advanced technologies like HAMR could extend HDD areal density to a range spanning 5-10 Tb per square inch. The highest capacity for 3.5-inch HDDs could then reach 30TB to 60 TB, while the smaller and thinner 2.5- inch HDDs used in increasingly popular thinner notebooks could reach 10 to 20 TB. Now that’s some serious storage. And it makes solid state drives, despite their advantages, less desirable considering their high price and low storage capability.”

Much more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Once you experience the speed and silence of SSDs, you’ll never want to spin up a hard drive again. Like our MacBook Airs, our iMacs use SSDs for the system and apps for the soundless speed only SSDs can deliver. The 2TB hard drives are used only for media storage and Time Machine.

Related article:
Don’t buy a new Mac without an SSD or you’ll regret it – April 9, 2012

“Both Siri and S Voice have a tendency to rely on external search engines for their results, sometimes integrating them in stub form within the app and sometimes throwing you out to a Google search. S Voice does the latter quite a bit more often than Siri does,” Savov reports. “In terms of speed, Siri has a distinct advantage over S Voice. It consistently provides an answer ahead of its Samsung competitor… Siri is also a lot more vocal than Samsung’s application. The majority of queries sent to the iPhone are greeted with an aural affirmation of some sort, whereas S Voice tends to provide results quietly (and also includes the option to turn off audio responses altogether). Which of the two approaches you prefer will be a matter of personal preference.”

Savov reports, “Taken in totality, I would say that S Voice offers a very good approximation of what Siri adds to the iPhone — helping you take notes, look things up, schedule meetings, or check the weather — but that extra functionality isn’t yet useful or polished enough to make these voice assistants a real selling point for new phones.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Sheesh. Obviously, the accent of the tester is an issue. A better test would be to use multiple people asking the same questions with different accents and tabulating the results.

Regardless, the slavish copiers at Samsung continue to have no shame. Let’s see how their Siri knockoff does when real Android settlers are hitting the hell out of their cut-rate data center that’s guaranteed to be nowhere near the quaility or capacity of Apple’s billion dollar+ data centers. Anyone who buys into “S Voice” thinking it’s “the same as Siri” is a fool.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Martin" for the heads up.]

“The phone’s owner, Katy McCaffrey then set about unmasking him by posting a string of the images on Facebook in an album titled Stolen iPhone Adventures,” Wardrop reports. “The images showed the suspect, who is a worker on the liner Disney Wonder, enjoying an ocean sunset, going to parties and drinking with other crew members. American Miss McCaffrey, who took the cruise trip in April, identified the suspect after reading the name on a tag on his uniform in one of the images. She added captions to some of photos such as: ‘here’s a beautiful sunset [he] had time to capture, all on my stolen iPhone.’ …In later pictures, the suspect also took snapshots of his pregnant girlfriend, who is understood to be another Disney Cruise employee.”

Wardrop reports, “The alleged thief has now been placed on “administrative leave” and the phone will be returned to Miss McCaffrey as soon as the ship returns to port, Disney Cruises said. A spokesman said: “We take these matters very seriously. We have a zero tolerance policy for this type of behavior. ‘We recovered the phone and we’ve been in touch with the guest.’”

“The feature can be turned off with a simple on/off switch in the phone’s settings but as this was not disabled, the images captured after the alleged theft were automatically uploaded to iCloud,” Wardrop reports. “Miss McCaffrey could also have used the service to trace the phone using its Find My iPhone feature, which allows the user to see their phone’s location on a map using GPS technology.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Idiot.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Thanks to Apple’s ‘Find My iPad,’ California police arrest Christmas present thief – December 27, 2011
Cathedral thief tracked down using Apple’s Find my iPad – April 8, 2011
NYC thieves want iPhones, victims are fighting back with tech like Apple’s ‘Find My iPhone’ – July 2, 2009

“Rather than making an official announcement, Apple has disclosed the news through its Asian iPad page, which has been updated to show the new locations,” MacNN reports. “Other launch details have yet to be published, but Filipinos will have the advantage of ordering from Apple’s online store.”

More info and links in the full article here.

“Now comes the word that Google has poached the core Enyo team from HP, to end up doing who-knows-what at Google,” Kendrick reports. “Odds are it won’t be bringing Enyo, the application framework behind webOS, into the Android effort.”

Kendrick reports, “Whatever these smart folks end up doing for Google, their departure pretty much puts the kibosh on the open-source webOS effort no matter what HP says. HP is not in a position to make a serious run at the webOS open-source effort. Having just announced the impending layoff of 27,000 employees, HP must be the worst place to work in any industry… It’s a safe call to say that webOS is finally dead in reality, if not in name.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Our jam-packed iCal says that back in May 2010, Tom’s Guide‘s Devin Connors gave the world the following gift of anti-prescience:

8 Reasons Why Apple Should Fear HP/Palm:
1. HP is Great with Acquisitions
2. The HP Brand Name
3. HP’s Money
4. WebOS: Beyond the Smartphone (there is no doubt that the OS will branch out to slate PCs and netbooks)
5. HP Means a Better App Catalog
6. An Immediate Connection to the Business World
7. Beating Apple in the Hardware Arena
8. HP, Palm and Content Delivery (with a company like HP pulling the strings behind the scenes, Palm could be positioned as the number one paid content provider in the smartphone world.)

Ah, the foolishness that spills forth daily from bullshitters extraordinaire.

Enjoy your crow, Devin.

Related articles:
HP to axe 27,000 employees – May 23, 2012
Former HP exec: HP’s webOS debacle more terrible than Apple’s ‘worst days’ – January 3, 2012
Why webOS will fail – again – December 15, 2011
HP to open source webOS – December 9, 2011

“The main focus of the infringement case surrounds Apple’s iCloud and iTunes related services,” Purcher reports. “The exception is one count that that claims that VPN Tunnels found in Apple’s OS X Lion Server violates their patents. Notable in this case is the fact that five out of the seven patents presented in this case were originally granted to Symantec.”

Purcher reports, “The case was filed in the United States District Court for Delaware. No judge has been assigned as of yet. STEC IP is seeking a ‘reasonable royalty’ in this case against Apple. It should also be noted that GlobeNewswire is reporting that STEC IP has also recently filed suits against Amazon.com, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle.”

Much more, including details of all seven counts, in the full article here.

The ex-employee told Fortune that people at Apple are ‘embarrassed by Siri.’ Siri is Apple’s voice-recognition ‘PA’ feature on iPhones that has come under fire recently in a series of lawsuits that claim Siri doesn’t work as advertised. Siri was tagged as beta when Apple launched the iPhone 4S, and yet the company still picked it as the lead feature in its advertisements for the new phone,” Haslam reports. “Fortune has published a report that looks into the ways in which Tim Cook is changing Apple. Siri is noted as an example of a product that doesn’t reflect the normal quality of Apple products (although, we’d note that there were certainly poor products released under Steve Jobs – MobileMe, for example). The report states: ‘The ultimate ‘tell’ of tectonic changes at Apple will be the quality of its products. Those looking for deficiencies have found them in Siri, a less-than-perfect product that Apple released with the rare beta label in late 2011, a signal that the service shouldn’t be viewed as fully baked.’”

Haslam reports, “However, much of the report is very positive about Cook’s impact on Apple. It notes that both Apple employees and Wall Street analysts like and respect Cook, concluding that “as Apple enters a complex new phase of its corporate history, perhaps it doesn’t need a god as CEO but a mere mortal who understands how to get the job done.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We just copied the John Malkovich commercials word for word and Siri responded exactly as advertised.

For us, Siri works just fine (except of Christmas Day when millions of new iPhone 4S units attempted to connect to Siri all at once). Having lived on the west coast, in the northeast, on the east coast, and on the southeast coast of the U.S., we have developed pretty much neutral American English accents. We also usually have a good network connection when conversing with Siri. If you can’t connect to the Internet, Siri will not work, as she requires access to Apple’s data centers. Also, if you speak with a heavy accent, Siri may not work as well for you – although you might be surprised. Siri is meant to learn and improve as more users provide input and as Apple builds more data centers; hence the release as a “public beta.”

Apple has released tens of thousands of betas over their history and not an inconsiderable number of public betas, either. For example, Apple, under CEO Steve Jobs, released a public beta of Safari, the default Mac browser not so long ago.

As for advertising a product that is a beta, we see no problem with it, but we would like to see disclaimers stating as much in Apple’s ads.

Lastly, unless we know the exact circumstances for why someone is an ex-employee, we take their claims of who thinks what or who might do what if they were still alive with at least a grain of salt.

“Apple has had and will continue to have trouble striking deals with content providers. At best, if it plans on merely beaming content through a nice-looking television set, it will have an incomplete, and not all that compelling, offering,” Pendola writes. “If this is indeed where things stand right now — Apple at a stalemate with content providers — expect iTV, iPanel, whatever to fail miserably. When I say ‘fail miserably,’ I mean along the lines of Ping or the present iteration of Apple TV.”

MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, um, about that “miserable failure” Apple TV:

Strategy Analytics: With 32% share, Apple leading ‘Connected TV’ market with ‘hobby’ Apple TV – December 12, 2011

Pendola writes, “If Steve Jobs did not leave detailed marching orders for how to proceed — and even if he did — Tim Cook faces his biggest challenge as CEO of Apple in a post-Jobs world. In fact, Cook sits on the cusp of making or breaking the dominance of the company Jobs built and Cook can only hope to sustain.”

“When iPhone 5 comes out, Jobs will receive credit for whatever it is. It has likely been in the pipeline for some time. There’s likely no need for a massive overhaul of the device or the choreographed release. Cook simply needs to continue babysitting things as he done quite well so far as CEO,” Pendola writes. “When the next brand new product comes out, it’s all on Cook. Even if Jobs conceived the design, features and overall aura of iTV (or whatever it will be) before he died, he’s not around to deal with what it appears Cook is dealing with now.”

Full article – Think Before You Click – here.

MacDailyNews Take: The opinion of one guy who seemingly believes that Steve Jobs was a god and that Tim Cook is nothing more than a mere babysitter versus a very current Strategy Analytics ConsumerMetrix survey of 6,000 consumers across the US, France, Germany, Italy and the UK which shows that nearly half of iPhone users are likely to buy Apple ‘iTV’ in year one.

The iPhone’s installed base is currently approximately 300 million.

Next time, before you begin hunting and pecking on your (likely) Dell keyboard, Rocco, you might want to instead do some research and then do the math.

Unless, of course, you enjoy coming across as an ignorant twit whose opinions not only have no basis in fact, but which are diametrically opposed to the facts.

Mr. Pendola’s article has been iCal’ed for future reference.

Related articles:
Strategy Analytics: Nearly half of iPhone users likely to buy Apple ‘iTV’ in year one – May 15, 2012
Jason Schwarz: Wall Street is wrong about Tim Cook’s Apple – May 11, 2012
Why Apple’s television will sell even faster than the iPad – April 26, 2012
Strategy Analytics: With 32% share, Apple leading ‘Connected TV’ market with ‘hobby’ Apple TV – December 12, 2011

Special Operations Apps/System for Optical Attachments – also known as [SOA]2 – can allow geo-tagging in the standard Military Grid Reference System in frame-stamped high-definition video, geo-located and accurate within seven (7) meters. The integrated smart device can be attached permanently or temporarily to optics, weapons, or equipment, according to K. Dominic Cincotti, founder of SOA and its affiliated company, MW Research and Development, Inc.

Generation III night vision devices, long-range day optics, infra-red imaging systems, and laser range finders, among others, can now be configured with commercially available smart devices – including the iPhone 4S and the New iPad – from the [SOA]2 cluster of newly patented and patent-pending hardware and software.

To produce [SOA]2, Cincotti’s companies led the program development with proprietary solutions, including an intellectual property cluster for attaching mobile smart devices onto weapons. Cincotti established a Joint Teaming Alliance (JTA) with US Night Vision, Hoodman USA, and Jonathan Springer, the US Army captain who created the critically acclaimed Tactical Nav App that has been soldier-deployed in the fiercest combat zones.

“This is the Dream Team for optics, US Night Vision hardware, and software, and a chance for us all to help customize the future,” Cincotti said, “and with the US Army’s announced intention to issue smart devices to soldiers, [SOA]2 is the best use of the newest technology and the army technology already in hand.”

US Night Vision’s vice president of sales and marketing, Chris Byrd, said “With [SOA]2 and USNV Hardware, warfighters can use their smart devices as a calibrated, heads-up display for optics to improve situational awareness. No longer will they have to squint through a scope and close one eye – or be locked into goggles.”

“We are taking military-grade optics and turning them into mobile high definition data-recording navigational and analysis systems,” Byrd said, “while still maintaining the integrity of the original optics that have already been purchased in previous acquisition cycles.”

Tactical Nav’s developer, CPT Springer, said in the release, “Bottom line up front, this joint teaming alliance is about integrating the best uses of technology we have right now and putting this technology into the hands of our combat soldiers downrange.”

“The soldier already knows these mobile smart devices,” CPT Springer said, “it’s already in his pocket, and he’s already an expert at using it.”
[SOA]2 completed testing earlier this month in North Carolina, Cincotti said, and at SOFIC the Special Operations community, law enforcement, government security agencies, and major defense contractors will have the opportunity to schedule meetings for field demonstrations and to discuss inclusion in the [SOA]2 program.

“We do our best to answer and anticipate the needs of special operations,” Cincotti said, “and we are looking forward to continued input from the operators and SF soldiers as [SOA]2 progresses to adoption and deployment.”

[SOA]2 comprises a cluster of interlocking intellectual property, including issued patents, patents pending, and proprietary IP. SOA and MW R&D have been issued two patents already this year, executed three patent filings addressing mobile devices on weapons, and filed more than a dozen US and international patents in the last five years. US Night Vision has a patent pending, and Hoodman USA has a patent on their products.

Special Operations Apps/System for Optical Attachments [SOA]2 includes:
• Multi-use Optics Case Integrator
• Adapter Rings machined from Ultem 2300, which is virtually unbreakable and super-lightweight
• Hoodman System Accessories, now modified for mobile devices for [SOA]2, including Day/Night Solutions to reduce glare and light bleed
• A proprietary software platform that includes a range of Special Operations-specific tactical navigation apps, integrating various optics hardware and mobile-device capabilities

Future iterations of [SOA]2 now being developed by Cincotti’s companies are expected to deliver Facial and Object recognition and advanced targeting, on smart phone platforms, as well as on iPads and tablets. The Tactical Nav App will feature tracking of a unit, or an individual within a unit, and a “John Madden-style” tool that allows for mark-up.

US Night Vision, founded in 2001 and located in Roseville, CA, has been providing federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, as well as the US Military, with advanced night vision, thermal imaging, infrared and lasers. The company handles the exportation of night vision systems following U.S. Department of State, ITAR guidelines. In addition to the exclusive line of US Night Vision products, manufactured and assembled at the Roseville facility, the company is also a national distributor for L3 ETO (Electron Tube Operations), FLIR GS (Government Systems), FLIR CVS (Commercial Vision Systems), Laser Technologies, Inc., and a point of sale for L3 Warrior Systems, Laser Devices Lasers and other related optics and accessories.

Hoodman USA, founded in 1986 and headquartered in Torrance, CA, manufactures digital camera tools, including Glare Fighting LCD Loupes, Ratcheting variable angle viewers, the fastest, longest lasting CompactFlash memory cards and the world’s first steel-plated, ruggedized SDHC memory card line. Hoodman has more than 500 dealers in the US and around the world.

CPT Springer, while a Battalion Fire Support Officer in Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne, began developing what would become the Tactical Nav App. He spent more than $30,000 of his own money to create the app, now available for download on the iTunes App Store.

For MW R&D/SOA, Dave Mullins, a veteran operator with experience on four continents, leads in-house subject matter experts, along with Mark Tocci, a veteran Ranger and a patent-pending inventor.

The Special Operations Apps/System for Optical Attachments in-house team included Sam Thompson, physicist, veteran of NASA’s Mars Rover project, and a patent-pending inventor; and Ronnie Medina, veteran special forces operator and project consultant.

The Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) is an annual event, bringing together more than 7,000 attendees from government and industry and featuring more than 350 exhibiting companies.

Special Operations Apps is a privately held company based in Wilmington, NC, strategically situated between Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune and convenient to Virginia Beach, VA.

More info via Special Operations Apps’ website here.

[Attribution: TUAW. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Lynn Weiler" for the heads up.]

“As we wrote in March, the two firms are said to have been testing the integration to put the Chinese search giant — which accounts for 83.6 percent of the local market — at the finger tips of iOS device owners in China. Now a Sina Tech report — via MIC Gadget — states that a software update that brings the addition will be forthcoming,” Russell reports. “A tie-up will give Baidu a greater share of the country’s iPhone users — who are the most active on China’s mobile Web — while strengthening the local appeal of Apple’s mobile products.”

Russell reports, “The move would see Apple take another step away from its dependence on Google. The recently launched iPhoto for iOS, which does not rely on Google Maps, being a prime example of the route it is pursuing; Apple is also working with Microsoft’s Bing and WolframAlpha for search services.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Dan K." for the heads up.]

“Analyst Gene Munster offered a bird’s-eye view of the company and its prospects,” Ong reports. “He believes the most important highlights for Apple will be continued innovation in the company’s 2012 product roadmap; a blowout next-generation iPhone launch; an Apple television arriving in 2013; little change to carrier subsidies for the next two to three years; sustained gross margins above 40 percent and the China opportunity.”

Munster’s 10 Apple strengths:
• 2012 product roadmap
• Next-gen iPhone
• Apple television
• Phone subsidies not an issue for Apple
• 40%+ Gross margins
• Phasing out older products
• China adoption curve
• Tablets eclipsing PCs
• Enterprise strategy
• Services (iTunes Store, the App Stores, and iCloud)

Much more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

Chang reports, “Here comes a question, will the working condition in Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant get much more stressful with the aim to crank out 400,000 iPhones per day? Well, workers who are working at the iPhone production line in Zhengzhou were interviewed, and they seemed to be alright… One of the Foxconn workers said she receives two 15-minute paid rest breaks at noon and afternoon, one 50-minute meal period in each workday in which she work at least eight hours. And she earns 2,000-3,000 yuan ($316 – $474) per month. Another female worker who just got hired is responsible to do checking on connectors and tiny components to see if they are washed out, oxidized, or out of shape. The Chinese reporter then asked the worker whether her eyes get tired when checking the components, and the worker replied: No.

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

“The devices will be used as part of a widening secure mobile computing pilot that will involve ‘several hundred iOS devices’ across the agency, the Transportation Security Administration said in a justification and approval document showing why it would only seek products from the iPad-maker and not invite other manufacturers to bid. iOS is the operating system for Apple devices,” Lim reports. “The agency also said it intends to pilot the use of Apple TV devices with iPads for training and presentations.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Joe Architect" for the heads up.]

“After Tuesday’s close, Dell reported earnings and revenue that fell far below analyst expectations, prompting its stock to fall sharply. Some blame the poor results on Dell’s management, but Cramer thinks the real problem lies within the shrinking consumer demand for personal computers across the board. Netbooks were down a ‘staggering’ 15 percent, he noted,” Chang reports. “‘Why have a desktop, a laptop and a phone when Apple’s mobile devices make owning a laptop redundant?’ Cramer said. ‘That’s the reason why notebooks and netbooks seem to be going the way of the typewriter.’ Apple’s popular iPhone and iPad products are ‘just lethal for the Dell product line,’ he said.”

Chang reports, “‘When the smoke clears off this miserable Dell quarter, people will realize that Apple’s behind the destruction of the laptop,’ Cramer said. ‘And with that destruction comes a world of hurt for just about everyone, save Apple.’”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Meanwhile, Mac sales have outpaced the PC industry as a whole for 24 consecutive quarters and counting.

As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Tayster" for the heads up.]

“In the filing, it was reported that Apple’s board of directors had decided to apply RSU holders with the same $2.65 per share quarterly dividends offered to public shareholders, but Cook requested not to take the award that would be worth more than $75 million,” AppleInsider reports. “Because restricted stocks vest in intervals, an executive or employee is more apt to stay with a company and perform well to ensure the highest payout when the units convert to shares. After being named CEO in 2011, Cook received a one million RSU bonus which at the time was worth an estimated $383 million. The chief executive’s RSUs are on a five and ten year vesting schedule, meaning that half of his restricted units vest in five years with the remainder to be converted after ten years.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: As we reported in our live notes from Apple’s March 19, 2012 ‘cash balance’ Conference Call: “At Tim Cook’s request, none of his unvested Apple Inc. RSUs will participate in the dividend.”

“I’m hearing that this device is aimed squarely at Amazon’s Kindle Fire (which runs Amazon’s tailored version of Android),” Fortt reports. “It’s likely to start in the $200 to $250 range, have a higher resolution screen, and perhaps a camera. Google needs this tablet to defend Android. The arrival of Amazon’s Kindle Fire blew a hole in the ecosystem, with Amazon setting up its own app store and its own look and feel for Android itself. If this 7-inch tablet is a hit, Google can argue that developers should still build tablet apps to Google’s specs, not Amazon’s.”

Fortt writes, “What does it mean for Apple? My take is that it means very little. If Apple’s iPad sales were going to get hurt by 7-inch tablet sales, the Kindle Fire would have done it already. Apple is aiming at the higher-end tablet customer, who so far seems to be the larger and more profitable group of consumers.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Somebody ought to tell Google that Amazon’s Kindle Fire sales have fallen off a cliff as the majority of the ignoranti were suckered by Amazon this past Christmas. On second thought, shh! The mole et al. could use a good bath.

Meanwhile, Amazon continues processing tiny screen Kindle Fire Christmas returns.

Related articles:
Amazon looks to peddle ads on tiny screen Kindle Fire ‘welcome screen’ – May 18, 2012
Why have Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire shipments dropped off a cliff? – May 9, 2012
Amazon’s Kindle Fire shipments fizzle to anemic 4% market share – May 4, 2012
Apple cements tablet market dominance with new iPad – March 16, 2012
iSuppli estimates Amazon shipped 3.9 million tiny screen Kindle Fire units in Q411 – February 18, 2012
Why Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire can’t pierce Apple’s iPad sales – February 6, 2012
Amazon cuts tiny screen Kindle Fire orders in half, sources say – January 20, 2012
Tablet display shootout: Apple iPad ‘excellent,’ Amazon Kindle Fire ‘major flaws’ – December 20, 2011
If Amazon’s Kindle Fire is so hot, why is it still in stock? – December 19, 2011
‘Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual’ author to return Kindle Fire, keep his ‘years ahead’ Apple iPad 2 – December 15, 2011
Amazon touts Kindle e-reader sales with few details – December 15, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire’s big security problem – December 14, 2011
Lack of parental controls on Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire lets kids charge up a storm – December 12, 2011
Disgruntled early adopters of Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire have slew of complaints – December 12, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire estimated to play distant second fiddle to Apple’s market-dominating iPad – December 6, 2011
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen tests Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: ‘A disappointingly poor user experience’ – December 5, 2011
Instapaper creator reviews Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: Bad game player, bad app platform, bad web browser, bad video player and bad Kindle – November 18, 2011
PCWorld reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Flawed, unimpressive, subpar; can’t hold a candle to iPad – November 16, 2011
Mossberg reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Frustrating, clunky, much less capable and versatile than iPad – November 16, 2011
Apple iPad 2 vs. Amazon Kindle Fire: Bootup, browsing, and Netflix streaming (with video) – November 16, 2011
Wired reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Web browsing sucks, emotionally draining, makes reading a chore – November 14, 2011
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, ornery, unpolished – November 14, 2011
The Verge reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Uninspired, confusing, incredibly unoriginal – November 14, 2011
Engadget reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, clunky, too limiting and restricted – November 14, 2011

Unlike traditional vector drawing apps, SketchBook Ink enables users to produce very fine detail in their artwork, independent of resolution, building on the intuitive freehand-drawing Autodesk SketchBook Pro platform. This new technology also supports the ability to export and print large, high-quality images right from the iPad. Final artwork can be exported at optimal sizes to the photo library on iPad, email, Dropbox, or iTunes file sharing. Images exported to Dropbox or iTunes file sharing can exceed 100 megapixels.

“We are fortunate to collaborate with many talented artists, so we know how important it is for them to have a variety of tools for not only different tasks in their creative process, but also to express their personal styles. SketchBook Ink provides more choices for artists. And with its ability to produce high-resolution output, it makes a huge leap for content creation on the iPad,” said Chris Cheung, product line manager, Autodesk, in the press release.

Complementing Autodesk’s popular app for the iPad, SketchBook Pro, which offers a variety of sketching and painting tools, SketchBook Ink is dedicated to pen-and-ink drawing. The inking behavior gives it a distinct feel but builds on the intuitive and familiar interface valued by SketchBook users worldwide. SketchBook Ink launches with seven preset ink styles and two types of erasers. The app supports importing images from the photo library on iPad that can be used as references or backgrounds.

“With more than 10 million downloads to date, we’re proud that the SketchBook family is changing how, where, and with what tools people unlock their creativity. People who never considered using a digital app for their artwork before, are now turning to SketchBook to produce incredible illustrations,” said Samir Hanna, vice president, Consumer Products, Autodesk, in the press release.

The Autodesk SketchBook Ink App is available for $4.99 exclusively from the App Store on iPad or at www.iTunes.com/AppStore. For a limited time at launch, SketchBook Ink will be available for a special introductory price of $1.99.

More info and download link for Autodesk SketchBook Ink for iPad via Apple’s iTunes App Store here.

Source: Autodesk, Inc

“Apple’s invention generally relates to presentation and management of Desktop GUIs and opening windows on the desktop GUIs,” Purcher reports. “Most of the discussion supports a 3D version of Safari.”

Much more, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, in the full article here.

“Though lucrative, the app store model can also be restrictive. Apps have to be approved, and cynics point out that app store curators could block competitors’ apps. For instance, it took Apple more than a year to allow Google Voice on the iPhone, a move it only made after government regulators started asking very pointed questions,” Goldman writes. “When Windows RT users switch to desktop mode, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will be the only browser option. That’s similar to how Apple once operated — Safari was the only browser it allowed on the iPhone for years — but developers cite it as an ominous sign. Welcome to the curated world of Windows.”

Goldman writes, “There’s something uncomfortable about Microsoft, convicted a decade ago of using its monopolistic power to illegally squash rivals, holding veto rights over its customers’ computing experience. Apple, the benevolent tyrant ruling the iEverything universe, has trained us to cede control on tablets and smartphones — something millions of customers do happily. The twist here is the way the device lines are blurring. Apple still keeps its Mac and iOS realms separate. Microsoft wants to collapse mobile devices and the desktop into one ecosystem. Will the Apple model work on traditional PCs? Thanks to Microsoft, we’re about to find out.”

Read more in the full article here.

“There are two things that prognosticators seem to neglect when forecasting Apple’s demise.First, In order for Apple to fail so badly in the tablet market, they would need to stop innovating completely. If Apple released the same iPad, with no new hardware or software features for two years, they could be overtaken in the market,” Dalrymple writes. “However, that’s not what Apple does.”

Dalrymple writes, “The second thing that people count on is that Apple’s competitors will stop trying to copy Apple’s success and make a move to surpass the iPad. Recent history suggests that none of Apple’s competitors are willing to do this… The next time you see a forecast of Apple losing its dominance in a market, ask yourself what the competitors are doing to differentiate themselves from Apple. That answer is all you need to know.”

Much more in the full article here.

SimpleAir filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple on September 23, 2009, in the U.S. federal district court for the Eastern District of Texas. The case was set to go to trial on April 23, 2012, in Marshall, Texas before the Honorable Michael H. Schneider. SimpleAir and Apple reached the principal terms of a settlement at the courthouse shortly before the trial commenced.

SimpleAir is an inventor-owned technology licensing company with interests and intellectual property in the wireless content delivery, mobile application, and push notification market spaces. SimpleAir is represented by Jeff Eichmann and Greg Dovel of Dovel & Luner LLP and by Elizabeth DeRieux, Calvin Capshaw, and Jeff Rambin of Capshaw DeRieux LLP.

Source: SimpleAir, Inc.

“When you launch the app, you’ll see a feed of just great photos from the people you care about,” Stoop reports. “You can swipe to see more of any album or tap to enlarge an individual photo.”

“Now you can quickly share multiple photos all at once instead of having to post one at a time. Just select the shots you want to share by tapping the check-mark on each photo and then hit post. You’ll have a chance to add a caption, say where you were and tag friends before you share,” Stoop reports. “It’s also easy to edit photos with new tools like the ability to crop, rotate and add filters to any picture in your camera roll.”

Stoop reports, “Camera will be available for iPhone starting later today.”

See the screenshots of the app in the full article here.

More info and download drinks for Facebook’s apps via Apple’s iTunes App Store here.

“Development work on its new app had to have been on for a while, which obviously leads to the idea that Facebook was seeking to create an Instagram competitor before it bought out what it was looking to fight,” Aabha Rathee writes for Wall St. Cheat Sheet.

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Apple to ‘iMessage’ Instagram to death with iOS 6 and iCloud? – May 14, 2012
Apple Marketing SVP Phil Schiller dumps Instagram; says app ‘jumped the shark’ after Android launch – April 19, 2012
Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock – April 9, 2012

“LG Display, Toshiba Mobile Display (TMD) and Sharp have been previously tapped as the three suppliers of in-cell touch panels for the new iPhone,” Han and Shen report. “Sony will begin volume production of in-cell touch panels for the new iPhone at the end of May, revealed the sources.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: If true, the iPhone is about to get skinny or gain room for extra battery capacity.

Related articles:
iPhone touch-panel shipments decline as iPhone 5 looms, say sources – May 4, 2012
Analyst: In-cell touch screens to slim Apple’s next-gen iPhone by 15% – April 23, 2012
Apple next-gen iPhone likely to adopt in-cell touch screens by Sharp and Toshiba, say sources – April 20, 2012
CANDO Corp. likely to join the supply chain of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5 – September 30, 2010

“Shares of Sharp, which is trying to turn around its fortunes after sinking to a record net loss of 376 billion yen ($4.75 billion) in the just-ended financial year, surged 7 percent after the report,” Kelly and Negishi report. “An agreement to share its technology would further tie Sharp to the Taiwanese company, which in March agreed to buy a 46.48 percent stake in Sharp’s liquid crystal manufacturing plant in Sakai, western Japan, the nation’s most advanced panel factory.”

Kelly and Negishi report, “Also on Thursday, Sharp said that Sharp Display Products, the subsidiary that operates the Sakai plant, would buy back a 7.04 percent stake owned by Sony Corp, liquidating a partnership between the two TV makers. Sony had said following the Sharp-Hon Hai agreement in March that it could ask Sharp to buy back its stake.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
Sharp announces production of world’s first IGZO LCD Panels – April 13, 2012
After using Apple’s new iPad with Retina display, old iPad screens become absolutely unacceptable – March 30, 2012
Apple ‘iTV’ beckons as jackpot in Hon Hai’s Sharp gamble – March 28, 2012
Foxconn-Sharp partnership likely targeting Apple orders – March 28, 2012
Taiwan Apple supplier Hon Hai becomes Sharp’s largest shareholder with 10% stake – March 28, 2012
Apple to unveil smaller 7.85-inch iPad this year, says anonymous Samsung official – March 13, 2012
Wow, Sharp sure is ramping up IGZO display production for some reason – March 2, 2012

The news comes by way of French newspaper Le Figaro, which reports that Cagni tendered his resigned yesterday, although it has yet to be confirmed either by Apple or the executive himself,” Brian reports. “By 2010, Cagni was credited with driving revenue in Apple’s EMEA regions up from $1 billion to more than $19 billion, which at the time was the fastest growing region within Apple Worldwide.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
HMV CEO quits race to head up ITV; Apple’s Euro chief Cagni remains a leading candidate – August 10, 2009
Apple 2006 European sales more than 2002, 2003, and 2004 combined – October 22, 2006
Apple V.P. says retail stores to spread to Europe in ‘6-18 months’ – February 6, 2003

“This is not the indie Steve Jobs biopic starring one Ashton Kutcher, which has been getting all the buzz,” Koenig writes. “The indie pic cast Ashton Kutcher before we even had a say… No doubt Aaron Sorkin and Sony will look high and low for the perfect Jobs, as of this post no actor is attached. This is great. Now we can take wild stabs in the wind at who should play Steve Jobs in the second biopic coming out at potentially the same time.”

Which actor should play Steve Jobs?
• Noah Wyle
• Stanley Tucci
• Michael Showalter
• Daniel Day Lewis
• Edward Norton
• James Franco
• John Krasinki
• Spike Jonze

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: As we were assembling bullet points ofnames from the article we kept waiting for Christian Bale to pop up. Alas, to no avail.

We put Bale in our latest poll on the left side of the main site, along with a few other additions – or you can write in your own!

Related articles:
Aaron Sorkin hires Woz as advisor, says ‘Steve Jobs’ movie won’t be straight bio – May 18, 2012
Aaron Sorkin to pen Sony’s ‘Steve Jobs’ screenplay based on Walter Isaacson bio – May 16, 2012
Aaron Sorkin ‘strongly considering’ writing screenplay for Sony’s Steve Jobs biopic – November 23, 2011
‘Steve Jobs’ bio becomes fastest-selling book since President George W. Bush’s ‘Decision Points’ – November 3, 2011
Sony Pictures acquires rights to Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs bio for major feature film – October 7, 2011

Hello Apple. Remember me? I’m one of your loyal users. I’m one of the guys who has owned 2 MacPros [sic], a G5, a G4, 4 laptops, one iMac, 4 iPods, one MacMini [sic], 4 iPhones and a bevy of other peripherals and software packages over the last 10 years.

Sincerely
Lou Borella and the Creative Community

Read more: http://www.facebook.com/MacProsPlease.

[Attribution: MacBidouille. Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]

“The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends program. “Neither Android nor iOS were the first to market with some of these features, but the way they made the smartphone experience intuitive and seamless has quickly earned a massive following.”

“In order for operating system challengers to gain share, their creators and hardware partners need to secure developer loyalty,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program. “This is true because developer intentions or enthusiasm for a particular operating system is typically a leading indicator of hardware sales success.”

Operating System Highlights

Android finished the quarter as the overall leader among the mobile operating systems, accounting for more than half of all smartphone shipments. In addition, Android boasted the longest list of smartphone vendor partners. Samsung was the largest contributor to Android’s success, accounting for 45.4% of all Android-based smartphone shipments. But beyond Samsung was a mix of companies retrenching themselves or slowly growing their volumes.

iOS recorded strong year-over-year growth with sustained demand for the iPhone 4S following the holiday quarter and the addition of numerous mobile operators offering the iPhone for the first time. Although end-user demand remains high, the iPhone’s popularity brings additional operational pressures for mobile operators through subsidy and data revenue sharing policies.

Symbian posted the largest year-over-year decline, a result driven by Nokia’s transition to Windows Phone. But even as Symbian volumes have decreased, there continues to be demand for the OS from the most ardent of users. In addition, Nokia continues to support Symbian, as evidenced by the PureView initiative on the Nokia 808. Still, as Nokia emphasizes Windows Phone, IDC expects further declines for Symbian for the rest of this year.

BlackBerry continued on its downward trajectory as demand for older BlackBerry devices decreased and the market awaits the official release of BB 10 smartphones later this year. In addition, many companies now permit users to bring their own smartphones, allowing competitor operating systems to take away from BlackBerry’s market share. Although RIM has not officially released BB 10, initial glimpses of the platform have shown improvement.

Linux maintained its small presence in the worldwide smartphone market, thanks in large part to Samsung’s continued emphasis on bada. By the end of the quarter, Samsung accounted for 81.6% of all Linux-powered smartphones, a 3.6% share gain versus the prior-year period. Other vendors, meanwhile, have been experimenting with Android to drive volume. Still, Linux’s fortunes are closely tied to Samsung’s strategy, which already encompasses Android, Windows Phone, and later this year, Tizen.

Windows Mobile/Windows Phone has yet to make significant inroads in the worldwide smartphone market, but 2012 should be considered a ramp-up year for Nokia and Microsoft to boost volumes. Until Nokia speeds the cadence of its smartphone releases or more vendors launch their own Windows Phone-powered smartphones, IDC anticipates slow growth for the operating system.

Top Six Smartphone Operating Systems, Shipments, and Market Share, 2012 Q1 (Units in Millions)

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, May 24, 2012
Notes: Smartphone OS shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors. Unbranded phones, also referred to as “White Phones”, are included.

Source: International Data Corporation

MacDailyNews Take: Numbers like these make us wonder, is Apple’s destiny simply to get their ass kicked, at least in unit share, by inferior knockoffs of their own products forevermore?

Is Apple destined to always be the world’s free R&D shop?

The unit share drubbing happened to the Mac. It didn’t happen to the iPod. It certainly seems to be happening to the iPhone. We haven’t seen it yet with the iPad. To be blatantly copied, overtaken, and dominated in unit share or to be copied, but remain the unit share leader? Which situation is the anomaly and which is standard? (Note: Apple still dominates in smartphone profit share. See: Apple’s share of global mobile phone profits: 73% – May 3, 2012)

And what’s the sense of having patents if your IP can be appropriated and exploited for over half a decade now without any meaningful legal victories to stop the slavish copiers?

For first time visitors, Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:

By the time you’ve read this far, Samsung alone just sold another 50,000 fake iPhones.

To be clear: What we’re lamenting here is the effectiveness of the legal system in combating slavish copying, patent infringement, and trade dress infringement in the fast-moving tech industry. Every customer that Apple loses to the iPhone-cloners is a more difficult customer to acquire in the future than if they had simply bought a real iPhone in the first place. Hopefully, the legal remedies, when and if they occur, will address this issue as well.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Dan K." for the heads up.]