Weekly News Round Up

3rd February, 2012

College launches course devoted to iPhone photography

A college is planning a new evening course entirely devoted to taking better photographs on an iPhone. The course, in 'iPhoneography' at London's Kensington and Chelsea College, is thought to be a UK first. The college says many iPhone owners struggle to use the camera properly.
Students will create images using the iPhone camera and a range of "apps". Tutor, Richard Gray, said: "all you need is a passion for photography and a creative mind." Students are required to have their own iPhone to do the course which will begin next month. "With the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool," said Mr Gray. "It is a great levelling force within photography. No longer do you need expensive or complex equipment to produce great images," he added.
Mr Gray plans to teach the basic rules of composition, colour and light but he will also include a wide range of editing skills including blending, collage and cloning. The course will also look at the burgeoning array of photography apps and techniques available to iPhone users and will introduce students to the online iPhoneography community. Mr Gray, himself a professional photographer, told BBC News: "the iPhone is revolutionising photography. It allows you to take a photograph and then process it and and post it online while you are on the bus on your way home."
The course may in future be extended top include other android phones with good cameras. The course is already creating a buzz among iPhone users, with a free workshop hosted by Richard Gray planned at the Apple Store in London's Regent Street.



RIM cuts BlackBerry PlayBook prices again

IM just announced two new ways to save big on the BlackBerry PlayBook. First, the company once again slashed the price of the PlayBook. Until February 11, the tablet will be shipping from shopblackberry.com at a discounted rate of $199 for 16GB, $249 for 32GB and $299 for 64GB. On Thursday, VP of developer relations Alec Saunderstweeted that Android app developers who submit an app to BlackBerry's App World by February 13 could get a free PlayBook. His tweet included a link to BlackBerry's developer tools page, where interested parties can learn how to convert their apps for PlayBook.
Even if you can't cash in on the free deal, with the new PlayBook 2.0 operating system update rumored to be right around the corner, $200 sounds like a pretty good bargain. Tech Crunch's Devin Coldewey writes, "I have to say that at $200, with the new OS, this is a really good deal. For the price of a Nook or Fire, you get a device with much better specs and some big-boy productivity software." The discounted PlayBooks probably won't ship with the new operating system.
However,according to the Berry Review, a "very solid source" has pegged a February 17 release date for the long-awaited software upgrade, which means those who buy the PlayBook at the discounted price should be seeing an upgrade very soon. The OS the PlayBook currently runs on is missing key components like calendar and contacts apps, as well as a native email service. Many have been calling for an upgrade almost since the PlayBook's launch last April. PlayBook 2.0 was well-received at its CES debut last month, although some wondered whether the 8-month wait had been too long to save the struggling PlayBook line. As Tech Crunch wrote in a review of the OS from CES, "It would’ve been better to enter the tablet space now (with 2.0) than to try and regain consumer interest in what has become a rather crowded segment."
This isn't the first time RIM has tried to spur interest in the PlayBook by dropping the price. In November the price of the 16GB PlayBook briefly dropped to $199 -- just in time for the holiday shopping rush. The deep discount was instituted again in mid-December, and just last month RIM announced that for a limited time all PlayBook models would sell for $299. The positive reactions to these price drops has prompted speculation that RIM would do well to slash the tablet's price permanently. After a run on the discounted PlayBook at Best Buy locations in November, CNET's Brooke Crothers wrote that $199 is the price the tablet should have sold for from day one. We've rated the BlackBerry PlayBook to be one of RIM's biggest failures from the past year.



Apple, Motorola in patent struggle in Germany

Apple Inc. has temporarily blocked Motorola Mobility's attempt to have it withdraw several iPhone and iPad models from its Internet store in Germany, the latest twist in an extended legal duel over patents between the companies. The sale of the devices was briefly halted after Libertyville, Illinois-based Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. enforced a ruling it won against Ireland-based Apple Sales International Inc., from a court in Mannheim, Germany.
The court had earlier ruled that Apple should not be using Motorola's mobile technology in the devices without a license.
Motorola Mobility moved to enforce the decision and Apple announced Thursday it was halting online sales. A few hours later, Apple said it had won a suspension from an appeals court in Karlsruhe. "All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly," Apple said in a statement. "Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."
Apple says Motorola Mobility has refused to license the technology even though Motorola agreed it should be an industry standard.

In a statement Friday, Motorola Mobility said it will continue to pursue claims against Apple. It said Apple had refused to negotiate in good faith.
The devices in question were the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3Gs and the iPhone4 and UMTS-capable iPads — but not the iPhone 4S.

Florian Mueller, an intellectual property consultant who has been reporting on the cases on his blog FOSS Patents, said that the wording of the Karlsruhe decision only suspends enforcement of the decision until the court can hear a response from Motorola. "This is a very, very temporary suspension," said Mueller. "Apple could be in the same situation again a week or two down the road." The two companies are also at odds over what Motorola Mobility says is improper use of its push email technology that sends email to smartphones. The Mannheim court ruled in Motorola's favor Thursday, but Apple said it would appeal and that people using its phones would keep getting their email.



HTC patches Wi-Fi vulnerability in its smartphones

HTC has provided a firmware update to fix a "small" security hole which allowed Wi-Fi credentials to be easily stolen. Security researchers at Open1X outlined the flaw, which they rated as critical. They revealed that HTC and Google were informed of the problem last September.

"There is an issue in certain HTC builds of Android that can expose the user's 802.1X Wi-Fi credentials to any program with basic Wi-Fi permissions," said Chris Hessing and Bret Jordan, security architects at Open1X. "When this is paired with the internet access permissions, which most applications have, an application could easily send all stored Wi-Fi network credentials to a remote server."

HTC said it had developed a fix for the issue.
"Most phones have received this fix already through regular updates and upgrades. However, some phones will need to have the fix manually loaded." Affected devices include the Desire HD, Glacier, Droid Incredible, Thunderbolt 4G, Sensation, Sensation 4G, Desire S, Evo 3D and Evo 4D.

Despite the big time lapse between the discovery of the issue and HTC releasing a fix, Hessing and Jordan commended the two firms' handling of the problem. "Google and HTC have been very responsive and good to work with on this issue. Google has made changes to the Android code to help better protect the credential store and HTC has released updates for all currently supported phones and side-loads for all non-supported phones," they said.



Samsung, Vodafone Giving Away Olympics 2012 Tickets

South Korea based Samsung Electronics has announced that the company is going to offer 91 tickets to the forthcoming London 2012 Olympic Games as a part of a special scheme. All those consumers within the UK and Northern Ireland, who purchase a brand new Galaxy smartphone via Vodafone, will qualify for the scheme. The competition will run throughout the current month and it will provide the consumers within the region a chance to win free tickets to the mega event.

The most exciting part of the offering is that the 91 winners will get a chance to be there and witness the massively anticipated Men's 100 meters final, track cycling and swimming that will be held at the Aquatics Centre. All those who are interested in the offer, must purchase any one of these Samsung devices first: Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Ace. They will be required to install an app which will be sent by the company. "While not only raising awareness for the upcoming Olympics it's also a chance for Samsung to raise their own profile after riding off the success of the Samsung Galaxy S2 but also the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S3," T3 notes in its report.