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The WItcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced EditionAlso inside:
All New Apple: The iPad mini. The slim iMac. A USB 3 Mac mini. And an iPad and MacBook Pro 13in with Retina displays. They're all inside this issue.Postcard apps: Send real postcards virtually, from your iPhone or iPad. We round-up the best apps to say 'Wish you were here?'
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@mippy Cool! We did a bit of an homage to that style recently http://t.co/wZm6LZP0 -
@sarahayars Exactly! Don't get us started on nipples.
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Hmm. This post questioning why Apple "censored" a book cover illustrates quite neatly the line it stepped over http://t.co/y1LmHovAMentions
RT @macusermagazine: Hmm. This post questioning why Apple "censored" a book cover illustrates quite neatly the line it stepped over http://t.co/y1LmHovA
@macusermagazine apparently it's all about the amount of bum on show - some is okay; some more, not so okay.
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An insight into the complex life of a patent troll
by Kenny Hemphill on May 15, 2011
The iOS developer community is reeling after at least five developers were hit by notices of patent infringement relating to in-app purchases last week.
The notices first came to light when one of the recipients, UK developer, James Thomson posted on Twitter. ‘Just got hit by very worrying threat of patent infringement lawsuit for using in-app purchase in PCalc Lite. Legal docs arrived via fedex,’ he tweeted.
Thomson and the other recipients were asked to licence the patent and given 21 days to respond. US patent number 7222078 was filed in 2003 by prolific inventor, Dan Abelow, and granted in 2007. In 2004 that patent, along with several of Abelow’s other patents, was bought by Lodsys LLC, a company which seems to exist solely to licence Abelow’s patents. Abelow’s other patents were bought by a company called Webinvention.
Research conducted by Wireless Goodness indicates that Webinvention and Llodsys are the same company — Lodsys’ web domain is registered at the address Webinvention lists on its website as its trading address.
Webinvention’s registered address is a UPS PO box in Bellevue, Washington, an address it shares with another patent licensing firm, Intellectual Ventures. Webinvention has licensed several patents from Intellectual Ventures (IV), and would appear to be a shell for IV. And, based on the connection between Lodsys and Webinvention, Lodsys would seem to be an IV shell, too.
Two of Intellectual Ventures’ founders are former Microsoft employees, including Nathan Myhrvold, a former Chief Technology Officer who holds 17 patents assigned to Microsoft. The company has been described as ‘the world’s largest patent troll‘ and reportedly has over 1000 shell companies. Interestingly, it has received funding from Microsoft, Sony, Nokia, and, wait for it, Apple.