Samsung Sues Apple Over IPhone, IPad, IPod

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest computer-memory chip maker, filed another lawsuit against Apple Inc. (AAPL), claiming the U.S. company infringed patents for technology used in its iPhone and iPad devices.

“Apple has copied many of Samsung’s innovations in its Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad products,” lawyers for the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Delaware.

Samsung also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington on June 28 seeking to block imports of the devices containing the allegedly infringing technology.

The suit follows litigation in at least four countries as Samsung and Apple, the world’s largest technology company by market value, compete in the mobile-device market. In April, Cupertino, California-based Apple sued Samsung in federal court in Oakland, California, alleging the Korean company’s Galaxy phone and table computers “slavishly” copy the iPhone and iPad.

“They seem to have a lot to talk about,” Seo Won Seok, a Seoul-based analyst at NH Investment & Securities Co., said. “With these steps they are taking now, they seem to be trying to take a favorable position as part of the process to reach an agreement on cross-licensing in the end.”

Prior to the latest lawsuit, Samsung, which also supplies memory chips for Apple, had sued Apple in Seoul,Tokyo, San Francisco and Mannheim, Germany. Apple also has a case pending against Samsung in South Korea.

Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on the suit.

Samsung’s Delaware suit will be delayed if federal regulators agree to investigate the company’s complaints against Apple. The trade commission typically completes its reviews in 15 to 18 months.

Apple’s April 15 complaint claims Samsung is infringing seven patents related to the way Galaxy devices’ touch screens understand user gestures, including selecting, scrolling, pinching and zooming. Samsung is also copying three patents on the design, including the flat black face of the iPhone and iPad, according to Apple.

Apple also said on April 18 that Samsung “blatantly” copied its technologies and designs.

Samsung had asked a federal judge in the U.S. to order Apple to turn over samples of Apple’s forthcoming iPads and iPhones. It lost that bid on June 22.

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YouTube Commercial Kings Rhett and Link Talk New TV Show

Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings, a new television show premiering tonight on IFC, plots two best friends as they journey across the United States to understand the country—via advertising.

Rhett & Link won’t be a hyper-intellectual attempt to analyze our highest aspirations and deepest desires as a nation, as most media depictions of glamorous advertising do—from the Hucksters and What Women Want to Mad Men. Quite the opposite. We talk to the men behind the show below.

Rhett McLaughlin (left) and Link Neal (right) have one of the most subscribed-to channels on YouTube, where they show their clever commercials, each a viral hit in its own right. Although every ad boasts a different look, the pair deploy the same questionable production values, haphazardly written jingles, and guest appearances to make a hilarious final product. The IFC show documents the creation and production for each of these entertaining, more-rough-than-diamond, gems.

TOH: When did you develop a love for local advertisements?
Link: From the moment I started watching TV, I was developing a love for local commercials. When you see a guy trying to sell you used cars wearing a chicken suit, even if you’re not in the market to buy a car, even if you’re seven years old, you remember that. 

Rhett: One of things always grabbed our attention is the ‘unintentional funny.’  I don’t think every producer or business owner thinks it’s going to be really funny…

TOH: You started building your fan base on YouTube years ago.  Was expanding your channel into a television show part of the plan?
Rhett: Not really, but it’s something that you’re going to see more and more.  Anybody who wants to be in entertainment is going to be uploading stuff and if they’re good they’re going to build a following.

TOH: How will you use your YouTube fame to command a TV audience?
Rhett:  These crazy local commercials went viral. They make great stand-alone video. But then people start asking questions, like—is that real?  They want to see us interact with Rudy [the Cuban gynecologist-turned-American used-car salesman]. The commercial is candy; the TV show is a full course meal. You see the final product on the Internet, you can see the process on the show.

TOH: What has been your favorite commercial so far?
Link: Presidential carwash, with this great couple from India. They are committed to being the best carwash in town. This meant dressing them up as Presidents and having them rap. 

Rhett: My favorite is for Fountain of Health in Florida, which offers colatics. This stuff doesn’t sell itself. Often for local commercials, there will be a celebrity endorsement and we have a Grammy-award-winning musician famous for his 80s love songs, who will be making a cameo and [helped us] write the jingle.

TOH: How do you go about turning local business owners into Internet celebrities?
Link: With the owners of Presidential carwash, the owner said ‘why don’t you hire some actors or rappers.’  I said, ‘First of all – we don’t have a budget, but more importantly, we want people to see you and your wife starring in your own commercial.’  They are winsome. We want people to say, ‘I want to meet these people.’

Rhett: And what happens time after time a commercial goes up here, everyone who is local says, ‘I have to go to this carwash.’ Person after person in YouTube comments says, ‘I’m getting my car washed there,’ or ‘if I lived in America I would go here,’ or ‘I will drive across the country to go there.’

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Garage Band for iPad: Using the app to show off the device

Garage Band for iPad is, I'm pleased to say, another one of those apps. Software that melds so perfectly with the iPad hardware that when you show it off to someone, their natural inclination is to say "Oh, so that's why I should buy one of these devices."

I love finding those apps.

Follow the jump to find out why Garage Band qualifies.

I'm a little late to the Garage Band party because I didn't think to buy a copy until several of my TUAW colleagues pointed out its utter simplicity for creating rimshots. "It's like having a portable backup band," one blogger swore. Just hop into the app, select Drums, and use the Classic Studio Kit. A couple of taps on the lower-left snare followed by a top-left cymbal? Brilliant.

But there is so much more you can do with Garage Band than to create an imaginary "Tonight Show" experience. The best way to use it is to noodle around; and the best way to noodle around is to put the application into automatic section length mode, select the smart guitar and have at it.

Start by creating a new song. Choose "Smart Guitar" as your instrument. Then tap the jigsaw puzzle piece at the top left of the screen, tap on Section A, and enable Automatic. This allows you to mess with a random creation without having to be limited to 8 bars at a time.

Next, select a key. I played with C minor (Song Settings/Wrench > Key > C, minor) because, well, it's just fun. Choose a major key if you want to be able to perform all the best songs of Peter, Paul, and Mary with just 3 chords. (or add in a 4th chord for the true Axis of Awesome experience.)

You're now ready to create your own masterpiece. Tap record and have at it. When using Smart Guitar, the iPad basically acts like a smart Autoharp. A single tap brings you an entire chord. Tap the top pentagons to play each chord or stroke individual strings to add notes.

What follows is me recording a "song" by tapping the screen pretty much at random. This is how good the app is. My random taps -- and this. Use the record button at the top center of the screen to capture your session as you mess around. As you can tell from this example, it's almost impossible to use Garage Band badly. And yes, I really was touching things without any plan whatsoever.

To share your creation, tap My Songs to return to the library/organizer screen. Tap the share button (bottom-left, looks like a rectangle with an arrow leaving it to the right), choose Email Song, and let Garage Band do the rest. If you'd rather add your song to your onboard iTunes library, there's an option for that as well.

I am in love with Garage Band. For $5 it offers a toy that a two year old can probably use to make things that sound, well, that sound like they weren't made by a two year old.

Start playing with it around friends and you'll discover that your iPad will leave your hands in moments -- and that your friends will be leaving your company with a resolve that this is one device that they need to buy for themselves and for their kids.

Garage Band is awesome. Highly recommended.

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