Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents found new information that suggests Motorola has offered to end the patent dispute and license its wireless patents to Apple -- in exchange for 2.25 percent of Apple's sales. It's unclear whether this is a percentage of all Apple revenues or, more likely, a percentage of sales of devices which contain a 3G antenna and therefore potentially fall under the umbrella of Motorola's patent claims. In either case, Mueller finds the 2.25 percent shakedown "excessive," and it only takes a glance at Apple's latest quarterly earnings statement to see that Apple finds it pretty excessive, too.

Revenue from iPhone sales, in aggregate since 2007, amounts to just under US$93 billion. Motorola's cut of those revenues would have been nearly $2.1 billion over those years. Since the iPhone sales juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down, Motorola's cash pile would only grow bigger over time -- and those numbers don't include sales of the Wi-Fi + 3G iPad, which Motorola also claims falls afoul of its patents.

What makes this move seem even skeevier is that Google is in the process of trying to acquire Motorola, meaning that if Motorola succeeds in its claim against Apple, Google would eventually be collecting a patent tax on the iPhone and 3G iPad.

Apple has filed motions to obtain information from several other handset vendors, including Nokia, HTC, LG, and Sony Ericsson, presumably to find out how much they're paying in royalty fees to Motorola for the patents in question. If it turns out that Motorola is demanding more from Apple than it's demanded from those other companies, the judge in the patent case is going to want to know why.

Motorola wants 2.25 percent of Apple sales to license patents originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Motorola wants 2.25 percent of Apple sales to license patents originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bob Borchers used to be an iPhone product marketing engineer for Apple. Part of the team that brought the first iPhone to market in 2007, he's now a venture capitalist with Opus Capital. Borchers recently gave a talk to students at a California school talking about the thought processes that were involved in the iPhone's development.

Borchers says that Steve Jobs didn't have a specific device in mind, but instead gave the team a mission: create a phone that people would love so much that they'd never leave the house without it. Borchers believes that Apple has been so wildly successful with the iPhone because the company focused on fundamentals -- breaking the rules, but in an exceptionally well manner; paying attention to details; and making people focus on the relationship they have with their device.

Jobs wanted the phone to be revolutionary, the best iPod the company had ever designed, and allow users to access the internet easily from a pocket-sized device. What the iPhone has become -- a device with downloadable apps, GPS capabilities, video and photography features, and voice integration -- wasn't part of the original concept.

Borchers noted that the original iPhone almost shipped with a plastic touchscreen, but Jobs was concerned that the plastic would scratch if users put the phone in a pocket with keys and other metallic items. The team improvised, convinced Corning to re-start production of the abandoned Gorilla Glass, and the iPhone has had a fairly scratch-resistant display since day one.

Apple's obsession with product packaging was mentioned by Borchers, who said that the company spends "way too much time" on presenting products, but he conceded that it is ultimately worthwhile to do so since it communicates the special nature of Apple products to consumers.

With future "insanely great" products in the pipeline, we can only hope that the Steve Jobs obsession with details remains part of Apple's DNA.

Former Apple employee recounts how Jobs motivated iPhone team originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Former Apple employee recounts how Jobs motivated iPhone team originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you want to pass like Tom Brady from the comfort of your living room chair, then you should grab a copy of NFL Flick Quarterback for the iPhone. The app is a flick-style passing game that lets you take on the role of an NFL quarterback. The game isn't a full-fledged football simulation like Madden 2012, but a passing game as its name suggests.

Even though it focuses on only one aspect of the gridiron game, NFL Flick Quarterback is a lot of fun. You star as a quarterback of your favorite team and get to choose your jersey number. Your goal is to complete passes to receivers down field. Sounds easy until you throw in a defender or two who'll try to deflect your pass.

You throw the pass by flicking the ball out of the quarterback's hand. The faster and straighter you flick the ball, the harder and straighter your pass will be. Once the pass is in the air, you can swipe left or right to nudge the ball in either direction. The game is easy and enjoyable which makes it perfect for the casual iPhone gamer.

NFL Flick Quarterback is available for $.99 from the iOS App Store.

Daily iPhone App: NFL Flick Quarterback originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily iPhone App: NFL Flick Quarterback originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seamus Blackley is one of the co-creators of Microsoft's original Xbox console, and he put together a really interesting team of old-school Atari game developers recently to make mobile games. Blackley's new company is called Innovative Leisure, and while the website isn't anything more than a groovy logo, the devs he's got on board make for a pretty impressive list: Ed Rotberg (who made Battlezone), Owen Rubin (Space Duel), Rich Adam (who worked on Missile Command), Ed Logg (the creator of Astroids and Centipede), Dennis Koble (who programmed Shooting Gallery), Bruce Merrit (creator of Black Widow) and Tim Skelly (who is also an old school game dev, though not with Atari).

The company is completely separate from Atari (which already has a pretty significant presence on the App Store), but the team has some money already and is reportedly working on prototypes and ideas for a first game.

It should be interesting. The mobile gaming market is filling up fast, but there's no question that these guys know how to make solid and interesting arcade games. We'll have to see what they can do with iOS and other mobile platforms.

Atari team rejoins to make mobile titles originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Atari team rejoins to make mobile titles originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Super Bowl is just around the corner which means it's time to get ready for the big game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. Rather than our usual five apps, I couldn't contain myself and, instead, put together five categories of apps that'll set you up nicely for food, football and fun this coming Sunday.

Official NFL and Team Apps

if you want to learn more about the Patriots's offense and the Giants's defense, then you should download each team's iOS app. The Giants have a free app for the iPhone, while the Patriots have chosen to go iPad-only with a magazine-style app. The Patriots Football Daily app has a free 7-day trial followed by a paid subscription.

The NFL also has a suite of apps to commemorate the game. Each Super Bowl XLVI app is filled with statistics, images and more about current and past Super Bowl match ups.

Party Prep and Post-Game Pictures

The best part of the game (besides the commercials) is spending it with family and friends. You can use Red Stamp to prepare your guest list and send out party invitations. Once you know who is coming, you can use 170,000+recipes from BigOven to start cooking for your crowd. When the party is over, you can use Pic Collage to assemble your pictures and share them with your party attendees.

Social Apps That'll Let You Share The Game

Part of the fun of the game is sharing it with others. Now that social apps are a dime a dozen, you can share your thoughts and comments with the world, not just your friends in the room. Besides Facebook and Twitter, you can use Football Connect to play along with the game and talk trash with your friends. If you want to know what other NFL Pros are saying about the game, then check out NFL Pro Tweets which will give you a stream of tweets from players who are watching from the sidelines.

There's also IntoNow, a social app from Yahoo that gives you content exclusively for the game while tracking the TV broadcast. The app includes a StatTracker, a way to share the play-by-play action and a sports news feed from Yahoo. If you tag the Super Bowl using the IntoNow app and watch the Pepsi Max ad, you can enter the Pepsi MAX for Life sweepstakes.

Apps For Watching and Listening To The Game

For the first time, the NFL will stream the Super Bowl over the internet. If you're a cord cutter, you'll finally be able to watch the game on your MacBook Air. If you're going to be mobile, then you'll want to download Pro Football Radio Live. You won't be able to watch the game, but the app will let you listen to it live. If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, you can download the NFL Mobile app. It's free to download and requires a US$3 daily or $10 monthly subscription to watch the video streams. The Super Bowl will be broadcast live over Verizon's airwaves on Sunday, so make sure you have the app, an Internet connection and some cash to watch the game.

Football-Themed Games

While you wait for the big game, you can fill your time with football-themed games like Pocket Passer QB, a natural football throwing game with several fun mini-games. If you prefer to be a kicker instead of a quarterback, then NFL Kicker might fit the bill. It's a flick-style game that lets you hone your field goal kicking skills. Lastly, there's NFL Pro 2012 from Gameloft, a full-fledged football game that lets you become a gridiron champion.

Five apps for Super Bowl Sunday originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Five apps for Super Bowl Sunday originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The news just keeps getting better for Apple in the mobile phone business. Just yesterday, IDC reported that the company is in third place in terms of worldwide mobile phone sales. Today, Asymco analyst Horace Dediu announced that with a relatively small piece of the pie (IDC said 6 percent of market, Dediu says 8.7 percent), Apple is pulling in a whopping 75 percent of profits in the industry.

Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Apple 2.0 notes in an analysis of Dediu's numbers that out of the top eight manufacturers, only five are showing meaningful profits. Samsung has about a 16 percent profit share, while "Nokia, Research in Motion, and HTC are just scraping by. Motorola, LG and Sony, which bought out Ericsson last month, are still in the red."

As Elmer-DeWitt points out, this is for all mobile phones, not just smartphones. And these numbers are for the worldwide market, not just the United States. He concludes that "This doesn't bode well for the manufacturers who have hitched their wagon to Google's Android or Microsoft's Windows Mobile 7."

Apple rollin' in the dough: 75% of cell phone profits originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple rollin' in the dough: 75% of cell phone profits originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We're aware of a small number of iBooks 2 users having issues with the playback of the introduction movies when opening iBooks textbooks. It will be fixed soon in an upcoming software update.

Earlier today, Apple was forced to remove the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (not the iPhone 4S), and all 3G iPads from its online store in Germany. This injunction was short-lived as Apple appealed and the German court suspended the ban.

The company told Slashgear, "Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago." It also confirmed that "All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly."

According to FOSS Patents, the original removal was the result of a German court ruling in favor of Motorola that was handed down in early December. In this decision, the Mannheim Regional Court said Apple violated telecommunication patents owned by Motorola. Motorola had the option to enforce the ban by posting a 100 million euro bond and it appears that the company took this step earlier today.

[Via FOSS Patents]

Apple resumes sales of 3G iPhones and iPads in Germany originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple resumes sales of 3G iPhones and iPads in Germany originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The pocket version of Ticket to Ride by Days of Wonder is among the best board game adaptations for the iPhone, and it's just gotten better with asynchronous multiplayer support. Now you can start a game with friends through Game Center, and take turns back and forth across the Internet. The experience is similar to popular multiplayer games like Words with Friends and Hero Academy.

This free update also expands the game's local multiplayer mode, so that users on the same Bluetooth or Wi-Fi network can play across devices. Ticket to Ride for the iPhone and iPod touch is available for US$1.99 in the App Store, while the iPad version is priced at $6.99.

Days of Wonder notes that Ticket to Ride has been extremely popular. It has sold over 350,000 copies, and a new online game is begun every four seconds on average. The game is definitely excellent, and the success is well-deserved.

Ticket to Ride Pocket adds asynchronous multiplayer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ticket to Ride Pocket adds asynchronous multiplayer originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From what I’ve seen, the average time it takes for a new magazine publication to get profitable is five to seven years. We’re on track to be ahead of that, which is great. When you calculate magazine profitability, you have to take into account the rising costs of paper and ink. We don’t have any of those costs. We’re in a very good place.