Ahead of a FRAND contract trial in the Western District of Wisconsin, Apple has formally declared to the court its willingness to pay Motorola Mobility for a license to its standard-essential wireless patents, but it will only write an immediate check to the wholly-owned Google subsidiary if the per-unit royalty doesn’t exceed US$1, reports “FOSS Patents” (http://macte.ch/NQdTd).
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The Pentagon is planning to open its network for the first time to iOS devices and devices running Google’s Android operating system, reports “The Washington Post” (http://macte.ch/W3hVu).
The Defense Department plans to hire a contractor to build a system that will manage and secure at least 162,500 Apple and Android devices, according to a document posted online Oct. 22. The system may be expanded to handle eight million devices, the department said.
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Apple has been granted a patent (number 8,302,033) by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a “touch screen device, method and graphical user interface for providing maps, directions and location-based information.” It involves the graphical user interface used in all versions of the iOS Maps app since the software was first introduced in iPhone OS 2.0 and the iPhone 3G in 2008.
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Mac OS X software updates for Oct. 30
Here are the latest updates for Mac OS X apps:
Hyberbolic Software (www.hyberbolicsoftware.com) has released a new version of Tidy Up, its duplicate finder and disk tidying utility. The upgrade sports a new user interface, the ability to search for duplicate folders by content, and more.
Zevrix Solutions (www.zevrix.com) has rolled out BatchOutput PDF 1.0.7, a maintenance update to its solution to printing multiple PDF documents. The new version improves support for certain Konica Minolta printers.
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Publisher Mirye Software and developer E Frontier say the free 3D game content development system for indie developers and professionals will be available for developers on Mac OS X in mid-November at the Mac App Store.
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