MacRumors

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to introduce a proposal that would allow passengers to use cell phones on airplanes during flight, reports The Wall Street Journal. Under the terms of the proposal, airplane passengers would be permitted to make voice calls and use cellular data when above 10,000 feet.

The Federal Communications Commission will propose allowing passengers to use their cellphones on airplanes, people familiar with the matter said.

While phone use would still be restricted during takeoff and landing, the proposal would lift an FCC ban on airborne calls and cellular data use by passengers once a flight reaches 10,000 feet, an FCC official said.

The proposal, which will be discussed during the FCC's December meeting, would let individual airlines implement wireless technology and decide whether to allow customers to make voice calls while in flight.

The FCC introduced a similar proposal in 2007, which was ultimately abandoned after both numerous complaints about the idea and a "lack of technical information."

Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration relaxed the rules on the use of electronic devices in flight, permitting gate to gate use of devices like iPads. Most major airlines in the United States have now adopted the new policy, which allows an iPhone to be used in-flight with "Airplane" mode enabled to restrict cellular access.

The Federal Communications Commission intends to release the proposal as a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, accepting comments on the plan ahead of a final decision. According to The Wall Street Journal, the entire process could take several months.

The jury has reached a verdict in the damages retrial between Samsung and Apple that began last week. The trial was to determine the amount of money Samsung must pay for copying key iPhone features and design elements after Samsung was found guilty in a jury trial last year.

The jury found Samsung liable for $290 million in damages, according to IDG News reporter Martyn Williams. During its opening statements, Apple asked for $379 million in damages, while Samsung said it only owed $52 million.

Last year, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple a total of $1.05 billion after a jury found the South Korean company guilty of willfully violating multiple Apple patents. Back in March, Judge Lucy Koh struck $450 million from the $1 billion awarded to Samsung after deciding the jury may have miscalculated the damages due to a misunderstanding of patent issues.

The remaining approximately $600 million in damages was left intact by Judge Koh, and Samsung will have to pay a total of $890 million.

During the retrial, Apple brought Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing to the stand where he explained how Apple's marketing strategy worked and how Samsung's infringement caused consumers to "question our design skills in a way they never used to."

Update: Apple issued this statement to AllThingsD following the verdict:

"For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money," Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD. "It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love. While it’s impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost."

Apple today debuted a new video trailer in the App Store for its latest Editor's Choice app, Clumsy Ninja, reports MacStories. This is the first time that Apple has allowed a video to be embedded within an App Store description.

As an Editor's Choice pick, Clumsy Ninja has been given a specially designed App Store page in iTunes that includes a link to the app along with a video trailer that opens into a full screen preview when clicked. The iOS App Store description of the app features the same general layout, with the embedded video playing directly within the built-in iOS media player.

The big news is, of course, the fact that Apple is embedding a video in the App Store, which has historically only allowed developers to include up to five static screenshots for their apps. Clumsy Ninja's video opens the built-in iOS media player in portrait mode, and it features music playing in the background with no voiceover or custom App Store branding. It is, effectively, a game trailer on the App Store.

Videos within App Store app descriptions are a new feature and it is unclear whether Apple plans to use videos only for its featured apps or if there will be a wider video rollout allowing developers to embed similar trailer videos in their app descriptions.

Developers have thus far been limited to a handful of screenshots to show off app functionality, but video embeds could go a long way towards showing off the true capabilities of an app.

Currently, the Clumsy Ninja video is restricted to the U.K. and other European App Stores, but the U.S. App Store will presumably be updated soon to feature the new Editor's Choice pick. The new App Store layout can be accessed through the U.K. link, however, which does open in the U.S. App Store.

Late last month, the Rockstar Consortium -- a group of companies, including Apple, Ericsson, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Sony, that purchased a collection of 6,000 patents and patent applications from the bankrupt Nortel in 2011 -- sued Google, Samsung, HTC, Huawei and others for infringement of some of those patents.

In an interview with Intellectual Asset Management (via TUAW), Rockstar CEO John Veschi, who was Nortel's chief intellectual property officer before the company went bust, said "It was entirely my call based on the facts in front of me." Shareholders, including Apple, "got an email telling them what had happened after the suits were issued.”

What is important to remember about Rockstar is that it is essentially the continuation of what was previously the Nortel licensing operation – or the one that Veschi would have established if he had been able to see through his plans for the Canadian telecoms company before it entered bankruptcy. Veschi joined Nortel as its chief IP officer in 2008 and by 2009 had already established programmes for both its internet patent portfolio and the one relating to handsets. As a result, he and his team have actually been negotiating with parties for four or five years, not just the two since Rockstar came into being. “The real question is why it took us so long to initiate actions. We didn’t and we didn’t, but there comes a time when you have to. There is nothing magic about it,” Veschi says.

There was some pushback against Apple, after the initial lawsuit filing, from customers and pundits who believed Apple was behind the filing of the lawsuit. This interview would seem to be a response from the Rockstar Consortium, which apparently operates independently of its shareholders, that the decision was entirely up to the holding company's executive team.

Rockstar is likely seeking significant damages from Google and the other defendants, claiming that their patent infringement is ongoing and willful.

Apple is investigating the use of Liquidmetal alloys to create various product parts using injection molding and 3D printing, according to five patent applications the company filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2012. (via Patently Apple).

Apple has been rumored to be experimenting with amorphous metal alloys, aka Liquidmetal, ever since the company signed an exclusive deal with California-based company Liquidmetal Technologies back in 2010. Liquidmetal alloys demonstrate a different molecular structure than traditional metals, which results in a stronger, harder substance that is also durable, thin, and moldable into unique shapes.

The patents are highly technical and describe methods of creating parts layer by layer using bulk metallic glasses, aka Liquidmetal alloys, as is done with 3D printing, which Apple suggests is quicker and less expensive than traditional machining of parts. According to the patent, 3D printing could be especially useful for visualization, demonstration, and mechanical prototyping, as well as the production of patterns for molds.

Apple's patents indicate that Liquidmetal alloys could be used within iPhones, iPads, iPods, and as part of a digital display or computer monitor. Apple also specifies potential uses in the Apple TV, remote controls, hard drive tower housings, laptop houses, keyboards, track pads, mouses, speakers, and a "device such as a watch or a clock."

Rumors have long suggested that Apple could use Liquidmetal in its device casings, allowing the company to create slimmer products that are highly resistant to wear. The former director of research at Liquidmetal Technologies claimed that Apple would eventually "make the iPhone out of it."

Following its deal with Liquidmetal Technologies, Apple began testing the manufacturing capabilities of the alloys by crafting the iPhone 3G's SIM eject tool from a Liquidmetal alloy. Though minor components have been constructed from Liquidmetal alloys, one of the original inventors of Liquidmetal suggested in 2012 that the use of the alloys in major components was still two to four years off.

Apple has, however, recently been awarded a patent on the mass production of amorphous metals, indicating that the company is continuing to make progress with the material.

Major U.S. carriers Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are still experiencing back orders on the cellular version of the iPad Mini with Retina Display, signaling that the 3G/4G version of the tablet is still experiencing heavy supply constraints, reports CNET. While Apple's online store still shows that cellular Retina iPad minis are available to ship in 5-10 business days, Verizon's page for the device shows that the device will ship by December 2, with T-Mobile and AT&T showing 6-8 week and 21-28 day delivery estimates, respectively.
Small amounts of stock of the cellular-capable models of the device began trickling into Apple's U.S. retail stores one day after the device's surprise launch last week, with Apple offering a Personal Pickup option for online orders. However, overall production of the device has been heavily constrained for the time being due to suggested display production issues, with shipments of the tablet likely to double in Q1 2014 as shortages ease.

First announced at Apple's iPad-centric October event, the second-generation iPad mini features a high resolution 2048x1536 display, with 326 pixels per inch, and a 64-bit A7 chip with the M7 motion co-processor. Those interested in purchasing the device can also check out an unofficial web tracker for checking the availability of Retina iPad mini models at Apple's U.S. retail locations. The tracker continues to show low in-store availability, with Sprint and low-capacity Wi-Fi models seeing the best supplies.

According to Chinese site C Technology [Google Translate, via Unwired View], Apple has begun testing a next-generation iPhone prototype with a 4.9-inch display, along with an iPhone 5c successor sporting a larger screen. The claim is somewhat different from one made by Bloomberg earlier this month stating that Apple was developing two next-generation iPhones that would feature curved displays at 4.7 and 5.5 inches, although it is likely that the company is testing various screen sizes as it often does during a development cycle.

Rumors of an iPhone featuring a significantly larger screen have surfaced occasionally throughout the past couple of months, with The Wall Street Journal reporting in July and September that Apple had begun testing prototype iPhones with screens as large as six inches, and a report last month from NPD DisplaySearch speculating that Apple may release both a 4.7-inch and a 5.7-inch iPhone in 2014.

Currently, Apple's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c both feature 4-inch Retina displays, compared to competitors like Samsung's Galaxy S4 that feature 5-inch displays. MacRumors released a printable papercraft version of a 5-inch iPhone back in February of this year after other rumors of a larger iPhone surfaced.

Apple executives today sent a company wide email to employees asking them to review Apple's Business Conduct Policy, reports 9to5Mac. The policy reportedly details how employees should behave both in and outside of the company while representing Apple, covering topics like personal investments, workplace relationships, and policies on public speaking, press inquiries, and endorsements.

The email included an iBooks version of the Business Conduct Policy and a video from Tim Cook (video text below), which gives an inside look at company values.

As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, the time is always right to do what's right. At Apple, we do the right thing. Even when it's not easy. If you see something that doesn't meet our standards, speak up. Whether it's a quality issue or a business practice, if it affects Apple's integrity, we need to know about it.

In the email, sent by SVP and General Counsel Bruce Sewell, Apple reminds employees that its policies are based on core values of "honesty, respect, confidentiality, and the critical obligation of every Apple employee to adhere to legal principles like antitrust and anti-corruption laws."

I am writing to ask you to do something very important — set aside a little time to review Apple's Business Conduct Policy. It explains in very clear terms how you are expected to conduct yourself with our customers, business partners, government agencies, and fellow employees. We expect every Apple employee to understand and comply with these rules.

While it is unclear whether there was a particular incident that spurred the email and video to employees, Apple has had ongoing trouble with product and information leaks. Apple has always been a secretive company, and last year, Tim Cook even promised to "double down" on secrecy when it came to products.

Despite Cook's efforts, multiple Apple products in recent months have leaked early, with prototype shells and parts for the iPad Air, the iPhone 5s, and the iPhone 5c appearing well ahead of their fall launches.

Update: The original video has been removed, but the text from Tim Cook can still be found above.

Google today launched a Newsstand app for Android, which combines its existing Flipboard-style Currents app, its Google Play magazine app, and a new newspaper subscription service to offer a variety of paid and free publications in one spot.

The new Google Newsstand app shares a name with Apple's own Newsstand and it also mimics the functionality of the built-in app that Apple first debuted in 2011. As with Apple's Newsstand, Google's Newsstand aggregates content in one convenient location, combining all of a user's subscriptions for magazines and newspapers.

Google does, however, go one step further, combining content from an array of sources into a single newsfeed, and the company has also partnered with multiple publications to offer subscriptions directly within its app. Google Newsstand shares several similarities with Apple Newsstand, but it is arguably more useful with its in-app subscriptions and its Flipboard-style feed.

Discover more of the news and magazines you care about on your Android tablet or phone. Enjoy breaking news and in-depth articles featuring audio, video, and more. From sports, business, cooking, entertainment, fashion and more - now get the best free and paid news plus vibrant full HD magazines, all in one place.

While Google's new Newsstand app is currently limited to Android devices, the company told TechCrunch that it plans to update its existing Currents app for iOS to a Newsstand app "early next year," where it will presumably compete with Apple's own Newsstand app.

In the past, Apple has not taken kindly to companies who adopt similar product names, famously filing a trademark lawsuit against Amazon over the use of the word "Appstore." Both Amazon and Microsoft argued that "app store" was a generic term, and the case was eventually thrown out.