Apple introduced iOS app folders in iOS 4 and has had the ‘Jiggle Mode’ UI since iOS 1. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple the patent for iOS app folders and the ‘Jiggle Mode’ UI.

The patent, which is listed as U.S. Patent No. 8,423,911, describes the iOS app folders as “Device, method, and graphical user interface for managing folders” and describes the methods to rearrange applications and organizing them. In the patent file from the USPTO, Imran Chaudhri is listed as the inventor of the UI feature.

For example, using a sequence of inputs to create, modify and/or delete folders and content within folders is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.

Apple’s “Jiggle Mode” is also included in the patent, an animation that signifies that the user is able to move any of the applications on the home screen around. This is likely the reason that both features were including in the same patent, because of their interaction in iOS. In Jiggle mode, when a user places an app on top of another, it will automatically generate a folder with type of app such as ‘Games’ or ‘Productivity’. These names are taken from the app’s metadata generated from the App Store’s organizational categories.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5B, the selectable user interface objects jiggle as though they are floating on water (e.g., each respective selectable user interface object oscillates about a respective average position of the selectable user interface object on the display).

Apple does not own patents on all of its iOS features, getting these patents over 2 years after introducing the feature. However, as the company releases more iOS features in iOS 7 and beyond, they will begin to collect more patents along the way.

{Via AppleInsider}

On Monday, Apple released iOS 5.1.1, the latest iOS update since 5.1 which brought a number of bug fixes and battery life fix for the iPhone 4S. The latest free software update is only an incremental upgrade and as expected, brings a number of bug fixes and performance enhancements for the iPhone, iPad, and the iPod touch. The exact details of the update from the Apple website are as follows:

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Perhaps one of the biggest bugs in iOS that was fixed by this update was the bug that prevented the iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks, which could cause either the user to experience very slow data speeds or would force them to shut off 3G and turn it back on in order to bring the network back up.

It’s interesting to note that Apple picks up on minor bugs in iOS and pushes out fixes as quickly as they do. This is likely why iOS is one of more stable mobile operating systems out on the market, tightly controlled by Apple’s ecosystem and managed very well. iOS 5.1.1 is now available and can be downloaded via iTunes or the OTA (Over The Air) feature on all iOS devices running iOS 5 or later.

{via iMore}

Whenever statistics like this come out, one of the main points of contention is their reach. It’s very common for those that question the reach of Apple and their products to say that such statistics are misleading; Apple may have a healthy lead in North America but in the rest of the world they aren’t dominant. It should be noted that these are global numbers, not just North American ones. Anyone that doesn’t believe Apple is on the cusp of a dominance in the mobile market unseen by anyone, only need to look to these numbers. A 46% smartphone operating system share approaches the kind of commonplace ubiquity Microsoft currently enjoys in more traditional computing spaces. Although I’m not suggesting Apple is the new Microsoft, they are certainly moving into the same kind of market share space. Look around you. If you personally don’t own an iPhone you probably know at least two other people who do. Look around the bus or train during your next commute. How many people are talking, using, or playing a game on an iPhone? If you didn’t realize the dominance Apple has very quietly moved into, you will with that simple exercise.

So what does all of this mean? In my mind it means two things. First, Apple knows what it’s doing. You can dislike Apple or Steve Jobs on a personal level or disagree with their business practices but the numbers don’t lie. In the iPhone, Apple has created an interesting synthesis of style, function, and approachability. To paraphrase something I heard the other day (and I apologize for not being able to attribute it correctly) “Apple doesn’t always make something new, they take something that exists and make it better.” The MP3 player preexisted the iPod, the smartphone preexisted the iPhone, and tablet computers preexisted the iPad. Apple’s genius is in taking such a product and making it so much better that it seems like they created something new.

Second, Apple is making products people want. I think sometimes we, the tech industry, get so deeply entrenched in our own niche that we lose sight of the larger world. We sit around in our closed circle of news and friends and complain about how Apple makes closed systems and how they exert a draconian authority over their device and think the rest of the world agrees with us. Lift up your head everyone and look around. The iPhone is as ubiquitous as the Blackberry and those Motorola Razrs were 10 years ago. Apple has had to delay the international release of the iPad twice because they can’t make them fast enough. What we see as “closed” and “authoritarian” the rest of the world sees as “easy” and “intuitive”. We may not like it, but Apple is making what the everyday person wants; computing devices that don’t require a manual you’ll never read or color coded connections you still can’t get right. No solder guns or pin alignments required. That may be a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow but that’s life. We’re in a new world here and all the keyboards, mice, and home brewed, water cooled computers aren’t going to change that.

Are these statistics further proof of Apple’s growing dominance in the mobile computing space? Will the revolution in computing be lead by Apple or some other competitor? Weigh in on the topic in our comments section.

Asked specifically if they’d swap their present phone for Google’s new Android-based Nexus One, 32% of Blackberry users said “yes,” compared with just 9% of iPhone users. This figure zoomed to 60% for users of smartphones not made by Blackberry or Apple.

“These results show that the restlessness of Blackberry users with their current brand hasn’t just been driven by the allure of iPhone,” said John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science. “Rather, Blackberry as a brand just isn’t garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems.

Other results included,

Android users skew younger and less affluent than iPhone and Blackberry users. Users of all types of smartphones had downloaded more free applications than paid ones during the preceding seven days, with iPhone users significantly more likely to pay for apps, Android users leading in free apps, and Blackberry users far behind on both fronts. Both Android users and iPhone users were found much more likely than Blackberry users to use their phones only for personal use (32%, 28% and 16% respectively). On the other hand, 7% of Blackberry users use their phone only for business, with that category of user minimal with iPhone (1%) and non-existent in the Android base.

More good news in the report for Apple followed, around 90% of their users said they would quite happily stick to the iPhone when they bought their next phone. Apple Insider stated that the study also showed 97% of iPhone users would recommend the product to their friends and 52% of Blackberry users would also recommend the iPhone to friends.

For the survey Crowd Science used 1,140 respondents recruited randomly by the Crowd Science Sample Beta Program. The majority (44%) of the respondents used a regular phone and not a smart phone, other users represented 17% iPhone users, 15% Blackberry, 10% Nokia, 4% Windows Mobile, 3% Android and 2% Palm.
These results must be a great pleasure for Apple to read and Im sure they will be very satisfied with this survey that confirms that they are indeed going the right way in dominating the mobile world.

What phone would you switch to next and why?

Apple shares hit another high today at the end of a week where the computer company (which is now predominantly by it’s own COO’s admission a mobile device company) launched it’s first thinly veiled attack on it’s old bedfellow Google, dropped the entry price for developers to it’s desktop developer license, officially announced release dates for it’s highly anticipated entry into the Tablet computer market and was lauded as the “World’s Most Admired Company” by Fortune.

Apple v HTC.

The Apple v HTC lawsuit has divided many industry pundits on what it’s implications are. HTC is the mobile phone manufacturer who makes handsets which run both Microsoft’s and more pertinently Google’s mobile operating systems. In some camps the belief is simply that the US Patent System is to blame and Apple must protect it’s patents like any other company, or lose the right to defend them. In the middle ground some people see it as a growing divide, and the beginning of a proxy war between previously friendly tech companies who now have too many overlapping interests. In the slightly more crazy camp certain bloggers see it as a bitter Steve jobs not wishing to see Apple’s designs absorbed by other ‘Borg’ like entities and Apple subsequently suffering a similar fate it did at the hands of Microsoft back in the early days of the first GUI operating system designs.

Whichever way you look at it the entire case, or cases, will either last years or be settled privately at some point in the future, when all involved feel that enough blood letting has been done. It should also be noted that Apple is itself a respondent in a similar lawsuit where Nokia alleges that it stole their designs. Apple has countersued in that case and there is some merit to the supposition that Apple, following advice from it’s legal department, is attempting to strengthen it’s position in that lawsuit with Nokia by enforcing it’s patents against another rival. Enter HTC.

Ideas have certainly been aped by each manufacturer to varying degrees. And Apple’s innovations are being copied. What Apple needs to decide is whether irritating, and potentially alienating Google, by bullying HTC with measures like trying to block imports of their handsets to the US, is really worth the end result it will yield. Having made this move it seems likely that this is only an opening salvo from Apple, with more lawsuits to follow in coming weeks against other Android manufacturers.

The bottom line is lawsuits like this are not healthy for the companies involved, and don’t really benefit the end consumer. In terms of tangible effects it will have for us as end users the most worrying aspect is that if Google and Apple fall out sufficiently iPhone and Mac users might actually get stuck with Bing as their default search engine in Safari. Not something I relish personally, and something potentially harmful to Apple in terms of it’s own image. But hopefully it won’t come to that.

US$99 Macintosh Developer Licenses.

On a more positive note, after a lengthy downtime for the Developer section of Apple’s website yesterday, the system came back online with a new low price of $99 US for their Macintosh Developer License. This brings it into line with the price of the iPhone Developer License, and raises the possibility that Apple may be prepping for a Mac App Store. Every shiny lining has a dark cloud wrapped around it, and that comes in the form of no more hardware discounts for developers. Boo!

WiFi iPad shipping on the 3rd April.

As we have already reported the iPad will hit the streets on the 3rd of April in the US. A Saturday. So keen early adopters don’t have to make imaginative excuses and skip work to be able to pick up their new toy at an Apple store on the first day of availability. If trekking to an Apple Store is too much like hard work on a Saturday morning (with or without a hangover) then you can order your WiFi iPad online from the 12th of March and have it delivered to your door on the 3rd. Those who live outside the US, or want 3G models will have to wait until later in April. Countries outside the US officially getting the iPad in late April are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Other countries and their official release dates are to follow. Some of us in more far flung places may have to take a trip to the US or pop to places like MBK in Bangkok and take our chances with the price there. It’s a little disappointing that there is still no news on developers being able to snag a unit outside the US at the same time as their US peers.

Apple tops Fortune’s list of “Most Admired Companies”.

Apple has achieved the Number 1 spot on Fortune’s list of most admired companies. Previously it was number 2!

“With 250 million iPods, 43 million iPhones, and 32 million iPod touches sold to date, plus the promise of a game-changing iPad, Apple won this year’s vote by the highest margin ever for a No. 1. Two more years as champ and Apple will match GE for most appearances in the top spot.”

As BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer puts it, “The whole world held its breath before the iPad was announced. That’s brand management at its very best.” — Christopher Tkaczyk

Apple removes “titillating” Apps from iTunes.

Last week AAPL shares took a little hit around the day that Apple decided to drop some of the more racy iPhone apps from it’s iTunes Store to much consternation from the developers who had been profiting from such “titillating” programs! Their main complaints were reasonable. They were that the ban hammer fell without any notice and that certain large publishers of similar programs remained in place. Opinions are strongly divided in the developer community about whether the App Store is a better place with or without these Apps. But the world does indeed seem to still be turning…

AAPL hits $218+ and still counting…

In the last few weeks Apple’s share price had been vacillating between the mid $190 mark, and popping it’s head occasionally just over $200 per share before receding again. Around the initial announcement of the iPad shares had briefly risen above $200 before falling back again.

On the back of the announcement of the iPad launch today Apple’s shares have solidly broken through the $200 barrier and as of this writing are still rising, passing $218 per share.

All in all an exciting and action packed week for Apple watchers, consumers and developers. Can’t wait for next week!

Let us know your thoughts below. Did we miss anything?

By: Stephen Northcott