Apple settles ‘iPad’ trademark dispute with Proview for $60 million

A new report is out tonight, claiming that Proview and Apple have finally reached a settlement in their ‘iPad’ trademark dispute. The two companies have been in and out of courtrooms for over a year, fighting over the moniker.

The battle has seen Apple’s tablet barred from sales in a number of cities and provinces around mainland China. And Proview, an electronics manufacturer, was at one time reportedly seeking $1.5 billion in compensation…
 

But they didn’t end up getting quite that much. The Associated Press is reporting that Apple has reached a settlement deal with Proview in the amount of $60 million:
 

“Apple has agreed to pay a Chinese company $60 million to settle a dispute over ownership of the iPad name, a court announced Monday, removing a potential obstacle to sales of the popular tablet computer in the key Chinese market.

“The iPad dispute is ended,” the Guangdong High People’s Court said in a statement. “Apple Inc. has transferred $60 million to the account of the Guangdong High Court as requested in the mediation letter.”

Apple has maintained that it legally acquired the Chinese rights to the iPad trademark back in 2009, from Proview for $55,000. But Proview says that the subsidiary Apple purchased the rights from, never had the authority to sell them in the first place.

At any rate, it looks like it’s over. Although $60 million is a lot more than Apple’s initial $16 million offer, it’s far less than what Proview was looking for. Word is the company was pressured by creditors into taking an early settlement, due to its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

What do you think? Is a $60 million settlement a win or a loss for Apple here?



Speero is an upcoming system management tweak for the iPad

Speero is an upcoming jailbreak tweak for the iPad that places a system management utility at your fingertips by means of an Activator action.

Once Speero is invoked using Activator, you can manage apps, execute toggles, launch apps, and perform specific Activator actions from a list of up to 20 programmable actions.

There’s even a provision built in for further plugins to expand upon the premise of the tweak. If you’ve been looking for a decent system management tweak, then you may want to give Speero a look…
 

In addition to the aforementioned list of options, there are also settings in the Settings app panel that allow you to adjust the pop-up blur radius and tint. For those of you who prefer a way to dismiss the pop-up besides using the Home button, the developers have included a provision to dismiss with a double tap.

Speero should hit Cydia’s BigBoss repo in the very near future for $0.99. What do you think about this upcoming iPad exclusive tweak?



Survey finds 21% of iOS users wouldn’t change platforms for any price

For those of you wondering if Apple still has a strong cult following, here you go: a new survey from Goldman Sachs finds that 21% of iOS users wouldn’t switch to another platform, for any price.

The securities firm recently surveyed over 1000 smartphone users, in an effort to better understand the costs that consumers face when switching ecosystems. And this is what they found…

Out of the 1000+ participants, a whopping 62% of iOS users said that it was “highly likely” that their next smartphone or tablet purchase would be from Apple. And that number soared to 75% for users who currently own two or more Apple products.
 

And apparently, price doesn’t have anything to do with their brand loyalty. When asked how much of a discount it would take for them to switch to another platform, 23% of those polled said that the cost reduction would have to be between 21% and 30%. And an astounding 21% said that no discount would make it worthwhile for them to switch.

Obviously, this is just a small poll. But these numbers are probably fairly indicative of the actual market. And it says a lot about Apple, as a brand, that 1/5th of its users would switch to Android, Windows 8, etc., even if you gave them free devices.

Are these just fanboys here? Or does Apple still offer the best all-around mobile platform?



How to open Home screen shortcuts with Google Chrome

Earlier in the day we covered BrowserChooser, a jailbreak tweak developed by Ryan Petrich, which allows you to assign Google Chrome as your default web browser.

It’s a great tweak, and works exactly as expected; it was even recently updated with a few new additions such as the ability to have a dialogue to select your browser of choice when opening a link, and the ability to make the dialogue sheets say “Open with Chrome” instead of “Open with Safari”.

One thing BrowserChooser doesn’t do, however, (at least for the time being that is) is allow you to open Home screen shortcuts/bookmarks created via Safari with Google Chrome. Browser Changer is a tweak that’s been around for a very long time, and it was recently updated to allow you to do just that.
Browser Changer is a free jailbreak tweak that’s available for download on Cydia’s BigBoss repo. The tweak will also, like BrowserChooser, allow you to set Chrome as the default web browser for links, and it includes a handy kill-switch for moments when you want to quickly disable the tweak. Along with that, it retains support for many other browsers that you may choose to use as well.

Which tweak do you prefer? BrowserChooser, or Browser Changer? Both retain the same basic functionality, but there are enough differences that you may want to try each one separately, or maybe even combined. I found that using a combination of both gave me the best of both worlds. You gain the Home screen shortcut Chrome compatibility, and you also update the dialogue sheets with “Open With Chrome”.

What do you think?