wtf – As Seen Through PeriVision https://www.perivision.net/wordpress An Mobile centric blog ... Full of Tech goodness Sun, 15 May 2011 22:42:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 4666035 Dont put an ‘upgrade’ button in your iOS app or you will get sued https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2011/05/dont-put-an-upgrade-button-in-your-ios-app-or-you-will-get-sued/ https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2011/05/dont-put-an-upgrade-button-in-your-ios-app-or-you-will-get-sued/#respond Sun, 15 May 2011 22:37:45 +0000 http://www.perivision.net/wordpress/?p=5151 Read More]]> Yes, this is so messed up that it has to go into the WTF? file and be added to the Rant list.  What a clue that the current patent system is woefully behind the times and relies on an approval system designed by 5th graders?  Have a look at this story from PCMag.com.  Seems that a company that reportedly only have patents, has a patent that ‘allegedly relates to in-application purchases, and appears to cover the action whereby one uses an “upgrade” button to jump from a lite or free version of an application to a paid-for version.’   Nice, so you are telling me that providing the ability to upgrade an app is something that needs to be protected under a patent.

So a number of iOS development shoppes have been graced with the reception of 100 page documents basically threatening to sue if they do not work out some sort of license agreement with this company in 21 days!  And here I thought blackmail was illegal.  But wait!  It gets better…

Seems that as a developer, you cannot agree to such a contract because  the Apple agreement (which as we all know is pretty restricive) because ‘to do so, according to the iOS developer agreement, could in some way “[affect] Apple’s rights or [bind] Apple in any way.” ‘    Wow..

Basically there is nothing the iOS dev’s can do but simply forward the complaints to Apple.  Now, keep in mind, this Patent will apply to ALL platforms.  That means Android, Windows, WebOS etc…  So I have a feeling this little trolling firm is going to feel some real heat really soon from the major palyers.  But that is just the symptom.  The fact these stupid ‘obvious’ patents are still out there is the disease.  I’m not foolish enough to think anything in our patent system is going to change after this, but if ONE thing comes out of this, there HAS to be a way to deal with outdated patents that protect ‘obvious’ use as society’s use of technology and adoption continue to evolve and mature at an ever expanding rate.

No word from Apple or anyone else yet, but you know those of use in the development world are going to be watching this.

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]]> https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2011/05/dont-put-an-upgrade-button-in-your-ios-app-or-you-will-get-sued/feed/ 0 5151 iphone app from Oracle that looks like its from a startup. https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2009/10/iphone-app-from-oracle-that-looks-like-its-from-a-startup/ https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2009/10/iphone-app-from-oracle-that-looks-like-its-from-a-startup/#respond Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:30:08 +0000 http://www.perivision.net/wordpress/?p=2172 Read More]]> Oracle has a new iphone app that looks ok.  In the promotional animation, a business man is flying to Paris, France to give a presentation. Great.  Often, and I can attest to this, you have to use cash for things because your card is not always accepted. So, this application called ‘iReceipts’ seems like any expense tracking app you would expect to see on the iphone, nothing special but good enough.  But the promotion animation is horrible for something from Oracle.  Not only do they spend too long setting up the premise, something was wonkie on the screen capture on the iphone. It WASNT one.  It was an animation mock up trying to look like it was running on the iphone.  Gezz…

Now if this was some small little startup or something, sure, I can understand and even give credit for doing something ‘cute’… But Oracle??  Really?  Well, check it out for yourself. As for a review of the app, well, perhaps someone can chime in here who has tried this app or other receipt tracking applications.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TzxDmdG6kU

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]]> https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2009/10/iphone-app-from-oracle-that-looks-like-its-from-a-startup/feed/ 0 2172 What is a cassette deck? R U kidding? https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2009/07/what-is-a-cassette-deck-r-u-kidding/ https://www.perivision.net/wordpress/2009/07/what-is-a-cassette-deck-r-u-kidding/#respond Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:49:53 +0000 http://www.perivision.net/wordpress/?p=1784 Read More]]> This was funny.  I have a number of cassettes from ‘back in the day’.  Quite a large number in fact. So I decided that I would get my old cassette player and convert them to mp3 at work since I’m at the desk most of the day there anyway.

So I packed my ‘ol cassette player into my backpack and as I was just about to jump on the back of my motorcycle, it fell!  I still took it to work hoping it would still work.  No luck.  I went to our audio/video division.  So not only do we not have a single tape player in the whole building, there were some people (very young as you would guess) who paused at first saying back to me ..’ a cassette player???’

So I send out an internal email asking if anyone knew of once in the building.  And the 4 funniest replies..usbCassette

4) what is a cassette player?

3) I found this in Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/zRl2W . they were all the rage in the 80s and early 90

2) Where’s the USB port to upload music to it?

…and number 1

>Where’s the USB port to upload music to it?

You need an adapter http://bit.ly/18JhWg

Love it!

BTW you can find really nice decks on craigslist for around 20-25 bucks.  I WILL get these tapes digitized!

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