US patent office rejects claims of Apple 'pinch to zoom' patent

IDG News Service - The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected claims of an Apple patent that figures prominently in a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics, according to documents filed by the South Korean company in a U.S. federal court.

The 21 claims of the patent were rejected by the USPTO in a "final office action," as they were anticipated by previous patents or unpatentable. Known as the "pinch-to-zoom" patent, it covers the ability to distinguish between the scrolling movement of one finger and two-fingers gestures like pinch-to-zoom on a touch-screen to activate certain functions.

Apple has up to two months to respond to the USPTO decision. In a filing in April after USPTO rejected multiple claims of another patent in a similar final office action, Apple said it had further options, including appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and seeking judicial review.

Claim eight of the patent was involved in Apple's lawsuit against Samsung in the court, according to a filing Sunday by Samsung in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division. A jury last August awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, but the court has ordered a partial retrial to review the damages to be paid to the iPhone maker.

The jury found at trial that 21 of 24 Samsung smartphones and tablets infringed claim 8 of U.S. Patent No. 7,844,915 ('915 patent), Samsung said in its filing on Sunday. The claim relates to "determining whether the event object invokes a scroll or gesture operation by distinguishing between a single input point applied to the touch-sensitive display that is interpreted as the scroll operation and two or more input points applied to the touch-sensitive display that are interpreted as the gesture operation," according to a USPTO document filed in the court by Samsung.

The USPTO ruled claim eight was anticipated in U.S. Patent No. 7,724,242 awarded to Daniel W. Hillis and Bran Ferren. "Hillis teaches distinguishing the number of contact points and determining whether the event object matches a gesture pattern," the USPTO wrote in its decision.

The USPTO rejected in April multiple claims of another patent that figured in the lawsuit, known as "overscroll bounce" patent. Apple, however, said in a filing that the reexamination is not finished, and it is entitled to file a response to the action which may result in a withdrawal of the rejection or certification of the claims under reexamination.

The company also raised the possibility that it may appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and if unsuccessful, may seek judicial review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A similar filing is likely from Apple in connection with the rejection of the '915 patent, even as Samsung is expected to argue for lower damages. The jury awarded damages to Apple with regard to all but two products found to infringe the '915 patent, Samsung said in its filing.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Apple Logic Pro X

Pros Terrific new interface will thrill pros, yet still welcome GarageBand users. New Arpeggiator plug-in is excellent. Brilliant iPad integration. Drummer plug-in can stand in for a session drummer. Tons of free downloadable content. No copy protection, unlike many of its competitors. Amazing value.

Cons Logic Remote on the iPad is a little buggy. Existing instrument and effects plug-ins, especially EXS24, are in dire need of a UI makeover. Bottom Line Apple Logic Pro X sets the standard for digital audio workstations, both on the Mac platform and overall, and it's the least expensive of the major DAWs to boot. It remains a killer package that every serious musician should at least look at closely, if not purchase immediately.

By Jamie Lendino

Apple's pro-level audio workstation software just got a huge makeover, and it's a winner. If you're a musician, producer, recording engineer, or composer, you simply have to look at Logic Pro X. Even if you're a steadfast Pro Tools wizard in a commercial setting, or are loyal to Digital Performer or Cubase—all excellent software packages—the long-awaited Logic Pro X contains some brilliant innovations that are worth examining, especially if you've also got an iPad hanging around the studio. Still just $199.99 (direct), Logic Pro X remains an amazing value, and various small upgrades throughout make it even easier than before to realize complete music projects from start to finish. Unless you need Pro Tools for compatibility with other studios, or simply because you're more familiar with it—perfectly valid reasons to go with Avid—Logic Pro is our favorite mainstream DAW and a clear Editors' Choice. 

Setup and Installation
For this review, I tested Logic Pro X on two machines: a 3.4GHz Core i7 iMac 27-inch desktop Apple loaned to us, and my own MacBook Pro 15-inch, which has a 2.6GHz quad-core i7 processor, 8GB RAM, and a 750GB Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive I installed myself. Both machines were running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, a requirement for the latest version of Logic. 

Logic Pro X is compatible with projects dating back to Logic 5; during the review, I had no problem opening existing projects I had done in Logic Pro 9, including those with third-party plug-ins like Izotope Ozone 5, EZDrummer 1.4, and Spectrasonics Omnisphere 1.56 engaged. Logic Pro X is also now fully 64-bit, which vastly increases the number of plug-ins instances you can run on any machine with more than 4GB of RAM. There's no more toggle to default to 32-bit mode, however; if this is a problem, you can keep your existing Logic Pro 9 install, as it runs just fine on the same machine.

Since Logic Pro X is an App Store download, you can install it on any machine you're registered on with Apple. It can now top 37GB for the full download, but you can get started with much less as the basic install. There's no hardware or software copy protection, and your purchase is safely stored in the cloud in case you ever need to reinstall it. Having no copy protection is novel and awesome in the realm of digital audio workstations, where Avid Pro Tools 11 requires a PACE iLok key, and Steinberg Cubase 7 requires its own proprietary eLicenser key. It's great if you're on a MacBook Pro with just two free USB ports—and USB hubs aren't an answer, because too many audio devices (not to mention other peripherals) prohibit using hubs in their user manuals.

With a Mac, you can also use the built-in sound card in lieu of a separate interface. Not only is it relatively clean sounding—no hiss or thin sound here—but it works perfectly fine for virtual instrument playback, with low playback latency, for composing music "in the box" with Logic Pro X, if not for recording live instruments. That's something that I've never been able to get to work reliably on the PC side, even when using supposedly low-latency, third-party ASIO drivers like ASIO4ALL—though I've seen occasional reports of success in various forums across the Internet. Either way, you'll still want at least a pair of headphones and a small USB-powered MIDI keyboard for Logic Pro X, at the very least. During testing, I had no problem alternating between using an Avid Mbox Pro to record and monitor audio, and just using the built-in headphone jack for virtual synth playback.

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Researcher claims responsibility for security breach at Apple developer website

An independent security researcher claimed responsibility for the security breach incident that forced Apple to close down its Developer Center website last week.

Ibrahim Balic claims that he reported the vulnerability to Apple and didn't act with any malicious intentions, but he confirmed extracting user IDs, names, and email addresses from the website.

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On Sunday, Apple announced that an intruder broke into its developer website and attempted to download the personal information of users registered on the site. The site had been offline since Thursday.

"Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers' names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed," the company said in a message posted on the site's home page.

Balic, a security researcher who is based in London, tried to clarify his involvement in the incident via Twitter and in a video posted on YouTube.

"This is definitely not a hack attack; I have reported all the bugs," Balic said Monday on Twitter. "I am not an hacker, I do security research," he said in a separate message.

Balic's name is listed on Facebook's acknowledgement page for security researchers who responsibly reported security issues to the company.

"I reported security bugs to Facebook and Opera before over numerous times," Balic said Tuesday via email.

He posted a video on YouTube in order to demonstrate how the exploit works, but he has since removed it because it exposed the information of some users. The title of the video suggested that he had gained access to the details of over 100,000 Apple Developer Center accounts.

"The video is now removed from YouTube," Balic said on Twitter. "I apologize for sharing some of the confidential information."

He confirmed via email that he obtained the names, email addresses and user IDs associated with over 100,000 Apple Developer Center users.

The vulnerability exploited to extract the information was reported to Apple via the company's "Bug Reporter" system along with other issues, Balic said. Apple shut down the Developer Center website four hours after the last report was sent, he said.

Balic claims that the company did not respond to his reports until today, when he received an email saying that the issues are being investigated.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment filed Monday.

Some people on Twitter and in comments on other websites criticized Balic's decision to download over 100,000 user details and the subsequent exposure of the now-removed YouTube video.

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Security researcher claims good intentions in hacking Apple Dev Center

Apple has finally explained why its Dev Center has been mysteriously shut down since last Thursday: An intruder broke in to the company's developer site in an attempt to steal registered developers' personal information. While Apple says it's in the process of "completely overhauling" its developer systems, updating its server software, and rebuilding its entire database, a Turkish security researcher named Ibrahim Balic has emerged claiming credit for the successful hack -- and claiming he had only the best white-hat intentions.

Balic's tale is reminiscent of other security researchers who claim to have breached a third party's systems or software for the greater good. Whether Apple or affected developers will share his view that he was acting in their best interests (as well as Apple's) remains to be seen; for the time being, it's not crystal clear what went down.

Apple's take on the breach goes like this:

Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers' names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed.... In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we're completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database.

Apple has since told TechCrunch that only developer accounts and not iTunes accounts were compromised and no credit card data was stolen. Developers, however, have reported receiving unsolicited password reset requests.

Since Apple revealed the breach, Balic has come forward to claim credit for discovering the vulnerability in the Dev Center site as well as 12 other bugs. He has also posted a video on YouTube (which at time of writing has been set to private), showing he had in his possession developer credentials extracted from Apple's developer database. However, he claims that his intention all along has been to light a fire under Apple's bottom to fix the bugs before a malicious hacker exploited them.

Balic posted his confession to the Comments section of TechCrunch. Following are some excerpts (with spelling and grammar corrected for clarity):

My name is Ibrahim Balic, I am a security researcher. You can also search my name [on] Facebook's Whitehat List. I do private consulting for particular firms. Recently I have started doing research on Apple....

In total I have found 13 bugs and have reported through http://bugreport.apple.com. I gave details to Apple as much as I [could], and I've also added screenshots. One of those bugs has provided me access to users details. I immediately reported this to Apple. I have taken 73 users details (all Apple workers only) and [provided] them as an example. Four hours [after] my final report, [the] Apple developer portal [was] closed down.

Balic claimed that Apple never responded to his reports but has since learned that the company has contacted law enforcement to investigate: "I'm not feeling very happy with what I read and [I am] a bit irritated, as I did not [do] this research to harm or damage," he said. "I didn't attempt to publish or have not shared this situation with anybody else. My aim was to report bugs and collect the data for the [purpose] of seeing how deep I can go within this scope.

"I do not want my name to be in blacklist," he concluded. I'm keeping all the evidences, emails, and images; also I have the records of bugs that I made through Apple bug report."

Balic appears to have lost sympathy from some observers for two reasons: First, he posted the aforementioned video to the public -- and neglected to redact the names and email addresses he'd collected. (I had a chance to view the video before Balic changed the privacy setting on YouTube.)

Second, Balic claimed in the same admission that he took only 73 users' details and has "100,000-plus user details." That's an obvious contradiction, though whether Balic took 73 users' details or 100,000, Apple developers should be rightly concerned. The Dev Center clearly has been breached by at least one third party, and Apple is worried enough to have shut down the Dev Center for days to pour time and resources into rebuilding the database and overhauling the site.

Developers also may not find much comfort in Apple's assurances that "sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed." If cyber criminals have gotten their hands on developers' contact info, they're a step away from getting their hands on associated password information, either via cracking or spear-phishing. The last thing a developer wants is to have a bad guy take control of his or her developer account and attempt to propagate malware in his or her name.

For the time being, we don't know Balic's true intentions. We don't know someone other than Balic knew about the vulnerability that enabled him to make off with either 73 or 100,000-plus developers' data. What's clear, though, is that if you're an Apple Developer, you need to be mindful that your account may have been breached and to take necessary precautions to change your password as soon as possible.

This story, "Security researcher claims good intentions in hacking Apple Dev Center," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

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Google's Chromecast menaces Apple TV

Computerworld - Google's new stream-to-TV Chromecast threatens rival Apple's efforts to gain a foothold in the living room, analysts said Wednesday.

But the $35 Chromecast hardware dongle -- and the move to integrate it with mobile apps and Google's Chrome browser -- is far from a mortal blow to Cupertino.

"I think this begins to threaten the Apple TV," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research who covers both Google and Apple. "It goes right to the sweet spot, video that I can watch on a very hi-res screen. And it's looks like a nice product at a very reasonable price."

Charles Golvin of Forrester Research had somewhat the same reaction -- Chromecast menaces Apple TV -- but cautioned against taking that too far.

"Any of Apple's competitors, if they come up with a more elegant solution for that experience [of getting content onto your TV], is a threat to Apple," said Golvin. "Still, this is at such an early stage, it's not like this knocks Apple out of the game. This just raises the bar."

On Wednesday, Google introduced Chromecast at a California press briefing, touting the device and technology as a way to push content from the cloud to a television set without requiring yet another box with its snake's nest of cables. Initially, that content will be limited to video from Google Play Movies & TV, Netflix and YouTube; audio from Google Play Music; and whatever is displayed on a Chrome browser's tab.

Android tablets and smartphones, iPhones and iPads, as well as any device running the Chrome browser, serve as remote controls. Chromecast does not mirror locally-stored content to the TV, as does AirPlay and Apple TV, Apple's pairing. Instead, everything is drawn from online services or the Web, then shot straight to the TV via the Wi-Fi-enabled dongle without the bits hopping through another device.

The Chromecast dongle, which plugs into a TV's HDMI port, costs $35. It went on sale Wednesday at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and Google Play, and will reach Best Buy store shelves Sunday. Initial supplies quickly evaporated: Today, Amazon said the device was out of stock and Google Play listed it as shipping in three to four weeks. Only Best Buy showed Chromecast as available.

Chromecast isn't Google's first attempt to get into the living room. It was preceded by the much more ambitious, but now nearly moribund Google TV of 2010, and last year's aborted Nexus Q.

But analysts liked what they saw in the newest effort.

"Google is saying, 'Hey, you already have a device in your hands to control the experience,'" said Golvin. "Now they've gone a step further [than Nexus Q] and shrunken down the hardware so that it's basically invisible. There are tons of people with big-screen TVs, who have portable devices and broadband Wi-Fi in the house. Marrying these things in a natural and simple way to get content on that big-screen TV -- I think it moves the needle."

Apple TV, meanwhile, has not climbed out of the "hobby" basement that co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs put it in, though Apple has sold millions of the devices. In May, CEO Tim Cook claimed his company had sold 13 million Apple TVs, about half of them in the past year.

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Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2013)

Pros Great battery life. Thin. Light. Fourth Generation Intel Core processor. Bright screen. Nice multi-touch trackpad. Backlit keyboard. Thunderbolt port. Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

Cons 1,366 by 768 resolution. No SD slot. No Ethernet nor HDMI. Bottom Line The Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2013) is the Haswell updated version of the iconic ultraportable laptop. It lasts over 10 hours running on battery power, so it's a highly recommended choice if you must have the thinnest possible laptop with the most battery life.

By Joel Santo Domingo

The Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2013) ($999 list) is the latest iteration of Apple's ultraportable laptop. It retains all of the features that MacBook Air fans have grown to expect, though there are a few facets that are starting to seem dull and could bear a little improvement. The system's main improvements have to do with the new fourth-generation Intel Core i5 processor and their effect on battery life and 3D performance. Overall, the 11-incher is improved over last year's model, but concurrent improvements to the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Mid 2013) ($1,099) make that model more attractive for the majority of users.

Design and Features
The MacBook Air 11-inch looks and feels exactly like the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2012) ($999) from last year. It's got the same compact exterior dimensions and is within a couple hundredths of a pound in weight. The system weighs in at 2.34 pounds, which is imperceptibly heavier than the two-pound rivals out there like the Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro ($999) and Sony VAIO Pro 11 (SVP11215PXB) ($1,550). All the systems above and the Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 (1,299) are among the lightest and smallest systems we recommend for road warrior travellers.

The new MacBook Air 11-inch carries over the same exterior features: comfortable backlit keyboard with a shallow key travel, responsive multi-touch trackpad, webcam above the screen, and an all aluminum construction. The system continues to use the MagSafe 2 connector introduced last year. The system is only 0.68 inches at its thickest point, so it will even fit in a satchel made for full-sized tablets. On the sides you'll find the same two USB 3.0 ports and single Thunderbolt port as before, though now there are two holes for the dual microphones. These are ostensibly for improved voice performance with FaceTime video chats and dictation in the current OS X Mountain Lion, but they're also primed if Apple decides to add Siri to OS X Mavericks in the future. A touch screen isn't available, but unlike on their Windows 8 competitors, touch screens on Macs are superfluous so far, since OS X doesn't utilize many touch friendly elements yet.

Aside from the pair of pinholes for the dual mic setup, the upgrades are all interior. The base MacBook Air now comes with 128GB of Flash storage space, up from last year's 64GB. Apple upgraded WiFi to the new 802.11ac dual band standard, so it will work fine with any new 802.11ac router like Apple's Airport Extreme (A1521). Like previous models, the 11-inch MacBook Air lacks a SD card reader. Since we're bringing out the system's few flaws, we should mention that there isn't room for full-size HDMI and Ethernet, both require adapters that you must purchase separately. Likewise, we're a bit bummed that Apple hasn't upgraded the screen from the standard 1,366 by 768 resolution. At least the MacBook Air 13-inch has a higher 1,440 by 900 resolution screen, but systems like the VAIO Pro 11 and Surface Pro have 1,920 by 1,080 full HD 1080p screens. The Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Retina Display) shows that Apple has the technology to do this, though it most certainly would boost the system's price. Apple includes a standard one-year warranty on all its MacBook laptops.

Performance
The MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2013) comes with a fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4250U processor, 4GB of system memory, and a 128GB of Flash Storage, just like its 13-inch brother. The 4th gen Core i5 processor is built on Intel's new Haswell microarchitecture, which is designed for better 3D performance as well as more battery life. This is borne out by the system's benchmark test scores. The MacBook Air 11-inch is good to very good on the multimedia benchmarks (1:38 Handbrake, 6:12 Photoshop CS6), if a smidge slower than its 2012 counterpart on the Handbrake (1:25) and Photoshop CS6 (6:05) tests. The Sony VAIO Pro 11 is faster than both at the CS6 test, but Handbrake and CineBench, it's a wash. On the 3D tests, the MacBook Air and its Intel HD Graphics 5000 are significantly faster than older laptops with Intel HD Graphics 4000. Heaven is almost but not quite smoothly animated: 22 FPS at medium quality is a lot better than the 11-15 FPS seen on older laptops, but it's still nowhere near 30-60 FPS, which is where things become more interesting on the game grid. Intel HD Graphics 5000 is still pretty basic, but it should be enough for low quality settings on browser-based 3D games.

Like the MacBook Air 13-inch, the new MacBook Air 11-inch has phenomenal battery life. Last year's MacBook Air 11-inch stopped playing our test movie at 4 hours 14 minutes. The new system more than doubles that to 10:42. This bests the thin Windows 8 laptops and tablets by a huge margin (The Sony VAIO Pro 11 lasted 4:21, the Surface Pro 4:58, And the Aspire S7-191-6640 6:58 with external battery pack). The new MacBook Air 13-inch trumps the 11-inch with an additional five hours more (15:33) on the same test, so it more than makes up for the added space and weight. Basically, if you are always using the system on airline tray tables, the 11-inch makes more sense. But if you're willing to carry a bit more in return for a larger more usable screen with five more hours of battery life, consider the Haswell-powered 13-inch MacBook Air.

At $999, the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2013) is an attractive ultraportable. Still, for only $100 more, you can get the 13-inch MacBook Air with almost the same components, but with a larger screen and almost five more hours of battery life. We still recommend the 11-inch model for those who need portability more than any other factor, but the fact of the matter is that the 13-inch model is ultimately a better buy and continues as our Editors' Choice for mainstream ultraportable laptops.

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