photo credit: recompose

I know I wasn’t the only person who watched in bemused disbelief when news came out early this month that Apple was suing HTC, arguably one of the world’s most innovative smartphone hardware manufacturers, for infringing upon 20 of their patents. Almost immediately, Engadget had a list of every claim where Apple was crying foul, and they were kind enough to translate the jargon-filled legal lingo so that those of us without law degrees could understand that Apple was suing over items ranging from HTC’s use of “List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display” to “Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program” (a type of multitasking Engadget says is directly related to Android more than HTC specifically), to “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices”, and a slew of other items. In other words, Apple found it unacceptable that HTC phones scrolled a certain way, could multitask a certain way, could tell when you were talking or when you were looking at the screen and about to tap in info (evidenced by whether the screen would go dark or it would go live and input would register) …  on and on it went. It appeared as if Apple was taking the approach that they should throw everything at HTC in hopes that something would stick.

As Gizmodo pointed out, Apple playing the lawsuit bully over these particular items may sound familiar “because Nokia’s being accused of the same thing, and Apple had similar nasty comments for Palm as well, though they haven’t led to a lawsuit (yet).” Sure, Apple has a right to protect their intellectual property and designs, but some of these items seem incredibly vague.

I’ve been waiting to hear how HTC would respond, and tonight they have …

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I have fond memories of summers living in Chicago.   On my days off I’d take the train over to Comiskey Park on the South Side of the city and purchase a single game ticket to see the White Sox play.  I wasn’t even a fan of the Sox but a fan of the game.

Purchasing a single game ticket usually meant I was able to secure one of the best seats in the stadium, usually right behind home plate, just a couple of rows off the field.

I always brought my Palm Pilot along and it was loaded with baseball score keeping software. I enjoyed looking back on those games seeing how the managers made moves and the strategy involved thinking about what I might have done differently if I were in charge.

Fantasy Baseball is uber-popular but it takes a lot of dedication and also relies on others.  Thanks to Fizz Software you can now manage your own baseball team from the comfort of your sofa and enjoy a entire Major League season on your own.  You don’t even have to convince your wife to let you attend your league “draft” which she knows is just an excuse to go drink beer with your buddies.

Their Baseball Manager 2010 application for the iPhone OS, which is now available in the iTunes App Store, put you in the managerial role of a big league club for an entire major league season.

You take control of your favorite baseball team and guide them through spring training, the regular season into the post season and hopefully all the way to the World Series. You control everything from player trading and contract negotiations to choosing the starting lineup for each game.

The game is available now for $4.99 by clicking here.

Often times case manufacturers work hard at creating cases that look great but in doing so sacrifice how the cases feels when held in your hand.  Ergonomics play a key role in keeping you comfortable while sitting at your desk, on your computer.

The Module SmartCase from Dacha Works seeks to create the same level of comfort for your hand while it’s using your iPhone.

Dacha Works claims the Module SmartCase is the first all-purpose iPhone case to proactively augment the iPhone form factor to greatly improve the user experience.

How did it work out for me?

Click on through to find out.

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If you followed the news on the release of Apple’s latest innovation, the iPad, you couldn’t help but come across the jokes.  Trending in Twitter’s top tweets during and after the announcement were all sorts of references comparing the iPad to a certain womens’ feminine product.

Now Etsy.com has a case which takes it to another whole level…..

“Hip Handmaids’ exclusive iMaxi—the only Apple iPad case made with protective wings!”

With its durable vinyl outer layer and plush, quilted-cotton sleeve, the iMaxi helps keep your iPad clean and dry. Plus, the iMaxi’s Velcro-latched, advanced wing design wraps snugly around your device, so your iPad always stays where it should. Best of all, it shields it from all those unsightly and embarrassing data leaks that would make any motherboard worry!

The iMaxi is available in white, white/red, or all-red interior options. Or if you don’t see a color you like, just ask them and they’ll create it for you.

They even go as far as to offer  “we can even use red thread on the interior for that special…uh…“lived in” look.”

That’s just wrong!

Check it out for $40 here.

The war of words between Apple and Adobe continued this past week with Steve Jobs taking a direct shot at Adobe. As widely reported last week, Jobs apparently commented that were the upcoming iPad to use Adobe flash the battery life would be cut from 10 hours down to 1.5 hours. Ouch!

There’s no question that Steve Jobs is trying to do to Adobe Flash what he did to the 3 1/2 inch floppy drive — kill it in favor of newer, seemingly better, technology. Having gotten a little bit of a taste of what that newer technology might provide thanks to a demo site showing high quality HTML5 video, I am increasingly convinced that he may not be wrong. While the transition from Flash to HTML5 may not happen overnight there is an excellent argument to be made that it should happen and sooner rather than later.

Let me explain what I mean by going through some of the differences in non-technical terms.

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It’s not a big secret.  The ear buds Apple provides with all of its iPods & iPhones aren’t great.  Okay I was being kind, they suck!  They do a decent job of providing sound but they often fit poorly.  Apple used to provide the ear buds along with two sets of those foam covers which help keep the buds seated in your ear but they stopped doing so.

While traveling last week I came across the Whoomp Ear Bud Enhancers by Comply.

The Whoomps claim to better the fit of your iPod or iPhone ear buds along with offering a softer more comfortable fit and a boost in bass.

So do they live up to their claims?  Click on through to find out.

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Because my iPhone is largely a work device these days, e-mail is an important element of what I do on it. And because e-mail is an important part of what I do on my iPhone, the iPhone application reMail has become key for me. The concept behind the application is quite simple. It downloads your entire Gmail account to your handheld device, compresses it so that it doesn’t take up an overwhelming amount of space, and then lets that e-mail reside on the device itself so that you can search it whenever and where ever you need. If you’ve ever tried to search for an e-mail from more than a few weeks ago on your iPhone you’ll understand how convenient the speed and off-line access to e-mail is.

And how well does it work? Well, thanks to reMail I have 81,066 different emails on my iPhone and they only take 304 MG of space. That’s impressive and makes it a must have app for serious iPhone users. Sadly, unless you have already purchased the application you’re out of luck.

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There are not a lot of choices when it comes to maximum protection for your iPhone.  One of Case-Mate’s newest additions, the Turtle Case, seeks to join the select group.

The two-part plastic and silicone construction of the Turtle case means you’ll “have the best armor available for the more delicate iPhone technology inside.”  It features a super tight fit and two levels of shock and impact protection for your phone complete in a stylish design that’s sure to garner some attention.

The case comes in four color varieties and is available directly from Case-Mate for $29.99

Click on through to check out my video review.

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Yesterday it was an update to iTunes, and today Apple has followed it up with an update to the iPhone OS.

iPhone OS 3.1.3 was released a short time ago.

The update, which is only bug fixes, is said to address:

* Fix for iPhone 3GS battery level reporting
* Fix for app crashes on launch
* Fix for app crashes while using Japanese Kana Keyboard

Yes minor updates, but it’s something.  As always if you’re jailbroken you should wait to upgrade until you hear from the jailbreaking community to see if what effect the update will have.

Here’s another item for the “super-cool convergence item” file I’ve got going.

The Buffalo Dualie lets you sync and charge your iPhone or iPod while simultaneously backing up or storing digital assets on the integral 500GB portable hard drive. As an added bonus, it offers a brushed-aluminum and black soft-touch two-tone finish.

The Dualie works with both the iPhone & the iPod.  In addition to allowing you to store files to its 500 GB hard drive it also offers two USB ports for your other USB powered accessories.  So you get an iPhone/iPod dock, a hard drive and a two-port USB hub all in a single compact device.

The Dualie also supports Apple’s Time Machine back up application as well.

The Dualie is available from Apple’s online store now for $249.99.

Apple has updated iTunes to version 9.0.3.  The update is available now via your Mac’s software update tool.

The update includes:

iTunes 9.0.3 provides a number of important bug fixes, including:

• iTunes no longer ignores your “Remember password for purchases” setting.
• Addresses problems with syncing some Smart Playlists and Podcasts with iPod.
• Resolves a problem recognizing when iPod is connected.
• Addresses issues that affect stability and performance.

If you’re jailbroken you might want to wait before updating, just to make sure nothing gets broken.

Image courtesy of TomsHardware

The common wisdom is – you can’t buy a Mac for less than $1000, the only reason the Mac has such high market share in the >$1000 market is their high prices. Well … wrong and wrong, according to a survey done at Betanews.

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The 2010 Grammy Awards are in progress right now.  The annual awards recognize the best in the music industry.

Steven Colbert, the host and executive producer of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series on Comedy Central, “The Colbert Report.” just opened the show and handed out the night’s first award.

Instead of the typical award show envelope used to read the nominees and winners Colbert relied on something different.

Check out the video below.

Red alert, red alert.  Now hear this, now hear this…..

The Apple online store is down!  Yes, Apple’s web store is currently down for maintenance.  Now we’ve seen this happen on Sunday before and it has turned out to be nothing more than behind the scenes work.  But with the recent announcement of the iPad perhaps this time it’s something more.

Sunday maintenance, iPad pre-order prep. or something else entirely?

Stay tuned…..

UPDATE: 5:30 PM EST – it’s back up and so far nothing new noticed.  Sigh…