Microsoft’s got a giant ad budget and the company’s spending like crazy to tentpole its flailing new(ish) OS, Windows 8. This new ad harkens back to Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” from the decade prior. But this time the tables are turned (at least in the tablet wars), and it’s Microsoft who’s going up against the huge popularity and user base of Apple’s iPad. With its huge success in the mobile device market, Apple’s become the sterile, establishment option and Windows 8 is the colorful, fun option for the hipsters – at least that’s what Microsoft’s aiming at in ads like these. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, the ad’s a hoot.

While I’m on the subject, can we all just agree that John Hodgeman is awesome, and Justin Long is…. not. I think the roles might be reversed if those ads were filmed today!

Watch the video below for a laugh. Apple fangirls and boys, don’t take it too personally!

[Via: The Verge]

The updated OS should feature a new, “flatter” design for the UI plus some other possible new additions like Flickr and Vimeo integration and improved Maps. Though it probably will not get a release until the fall, Apple should make the developer beta of iOS 7 available during WWDC.

OS X 10.9 is rumored to get some spotlight at the keynote, too. No one has pinned which big cat name Apple is going to use this time around, so we’ll have to wait and see. The MacBook Air line is expected to get a hardware refresh as well.

The WWDC 2013 keynote will presumably be led by CEO Tim Cook as well as some other speakers like Phil Schiller and is typically at 10 a.m. pacific or 1 p.m. eastern.

[via AllThingsD]

• U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604 and U.S. Patent No. 6,847,959 on a “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system”
• Apple asserted the ’604 patent in a preliminary injunction motion. The Federal Circuit reversed a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus and, in addition to equitable reasons, overturned Judge Koh’s claim construction in a way that affects both “Siri” patents alike (for an excellent explanation of this claim construction issue, see Patently-O’s post). Apple claims that the ’604 and ’959 patents are infringed even under the appeals court’s construction.
• U.S. Patent No. 5,666,502 on a “graphical user interface using historical lists with field classes”
• U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 on a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data” (which I dubbed the “data tapping” patent, a term many reporters have since adopted)
• Apple prevailed over HTC on this patent at the ITC. Apple claims that Android infringes this patent at the operating system level (the “linkify” library), as you can see in this infringement claim chart from the HTC case. Apple was enforcing an ITC import ban against HTC but ceased enforcement after a settlement (the parties stipulated to rescission of the exclusion order).
• U.S. Patent No. 7,761,414 on “asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices”

Interestingly enough, Apple has not yet mentioned the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition in its claims, and it would not be surprising if they did in the future. How the battle turns out is now in the hands of the courts.

[Via: Droid Life , FOSS Patents] [Image: Techno Buffalo]

The improved UI mainly comes in for the side navigation. Rdio says it’s a “new, cleaner look.” The app currently is already pretty clean and very well-designed, so maintaining the high standards is always good. The update also introduces “Find People” for finding friends on Rdio and to discover artists. Relevant to this is the new Labels search, which allows users to search now by record label when finding music to find albums and artists on a label.

Rdio is the lesser known competitor of Spotify, another music subscription service. For access to the mobile apps of either service, you have to be a Premium member which costs $9.99 per month. Many would agree, however, that Rdio’s mobile app is far superior to Spotify’s in both design and functionality. Rdio is also in indirect competition with the likes of Pandora, which just got a bit of an update of its own yesterday.

You can grab the app for free in the App Store, but don’t forget you’ll have to be a premium subscriber to use it.

[via 9to5Mac]

Apps designed by these partners will use the power of Watson to answer their customers’ questions. Voice integration is in the works as well, landing another blow to poor Siri. Watson “learns” from the conversations it has and can provide answers based on a huge knowledge base (including the entire text of Wikipedia). So the quality of its answers will be very good and they’ll only improve with time.

These new Watson enabled apps should start releasing in the next few months. It will be interesting to see how Watson measures up against human beings. Watson, and this type of technology seems incredibly well suited to chat or text based customer service, tech support (at least 1st tier), as well as answering services like ChaCha.

This type of technology is in its infancy and we can expect it to only get better. Still having your questions answered by a supercomputer is pretty cool, even if they’re about mundane things like banking issues.

[Via: Ubergizmo]

In 2012, Apple had the highest score out of any cell phone manufacturer with an 83. This year, still at the highest, it has actually dropped two points down to 81. It’s not too big of a deal, but it is telling overall that less people are happy with their iPhone this year — namely the iPhone 5.

On the other hand, satisfaction with the likes of Motorola and Samsung has increased. Motorola is definitely peculiar since the company has been slacking in 2013 to put out new handsets. It leaped from 73 to 77 while Samsung had the biggest increase of them all with a 5-point boost from 71 to 76.  Nokia also got a slight increase from 75 to 76.

This means that Apple is now only ahead by 4 points compared to last year when it was ahead by 10. Motorola is in second place and Nokia and Samsung aren’t far behind tying for third. HTC and LG come in toward the end, both dropping in satisfaction. HTC fell to 72 from 75 and LG fell to 71 from 75. BlackBerry stayed the same at just 69 points.

Apple has a lot of work to do at WWDC 2013 next month if it wants to maintain its customer satisfaction lead into 2014.

[via CNET]

Users will supposedly be able to sign in and manage their account integration from the Settings app, much like they’re able to do today with Twitter and Facebook. Once signed in, Flickr and Vimeo will appear in iOS 7′s share sheets so you can share photos and videos from your iOS device to the social networks.

The reason this shouldn’t be very surprising is the services’ integration already with OS X Mountain Lion. Currently if you’re a Mac user, you can share your photos to Flickr and videos to Vimeo because the two are rooted in the OS itself. Adding Flickr and Vimeo to iOS was the next logical step to keep the experience consistent across all of Apple’s platforms.

iOS users can still upload videos to YouTube despite all other Google services being completely stripped from the OS. It’s unclear whether the addition of Vimeo in iOS 7 will get rid of YouTube entirely (except of course for Google’s own YouTube app in the App Store) or if uploading to YouTube will remain an option alongside Vimeo. Hopefully it’s the latter.

An announcement like this would most likely make it into Apple’s WWDC 2013 keynote so expect to hear more in June.

[via 9to5Mac]

We must say the Square Stand + iPad installation reminds us little on the iMac but I guess that was the idea — to piggyback on the proven design Apple fans are used to.

In the official press release, Square co-founder Jack Dorsey described the $299 Square Stand as “elegant, fast, affordable and easy to use,” and as such – perfect for any merchant whether it sells cupcakes, cardigans or cappuccinos.

In addition to card swiping capability, the Square Stand can also sing along a receipt printer and barcode scanner, both of which are available for purchase from Square.

Finally, it’s worth adding that the stand currently selling is only compatible with second- and third-generation iPads (it has a 30-pin connector), with a model supporting the fourth-gen iPad’s Lightning expected to be launched later in the year.

The in depth report can be found here but the jist of it’s pretty clear:

“For the Portable Gaming Report Q1 2013, there are three important takeways:

• iOS and Google Play both saw growth in game downloads and consumer spending.

• iOS is now the leader in consumer spending on games, with Google Play likely to surpass gaming-optimized handhelds in 2Q13.
• Gaming-optimized handhelds experienced significant decreases in consumer spending and packaged game shipments due to seasonality.”

[Via: App Annie] [Img: What Up Nintendo]

The government looks to be just about done with those obsolete BlackBerry 7 handsets that’s grown synonymous with the image of public figures. Now if only stock Android could join the party.

[Bloomberg; via engadget]

Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President, Software Product Management and Ecosystem, at BlackBerry said

“For BlackBerry, messaging and collaboration are inseparable from the mobile experience, and the time is definitely right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service. BBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers, enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy. We’re excited to offer iOS and Android users the possibility to join the BBM community.”

This is big news for BlackBerry as its Messenger is still widely popular among BlackBerry users. By allowing people outside of BlackBerry to exchange messages with BlackBerry users,  the Canadian company will increase its influence in the messaging arena.

[Via BlackBerry]