Patents shift hands almost as often as companies change their lunch menus. Mobile, software, and hardware patents are of particular importance as both deterrents and protection against the litany of lawsuits, frivolous or not, that chase big tech companies on a regular basis. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Motorola (who just sold 17,000 patents as part of their deal with Google) stockpile patents, spending lots of money in order to save lots of money. It’s much like insurance – you pay a little now over time to prevent the big hits from coming all at once.. This graphic by Visual.ly attempts…

I don’t know about anyone else, but I think Apple has a huge “underground” stronghold on social media – and they don’t pay a damn thing for it. Apple for some reason or another has an unparalleled ever surrounding hype about itself that just attracts everyone in the technology era. Especially now with the Worldwide Developers Conference coming up the second week in June, I am seeing an increasingly steady trend of Apple product rumors. As a social media marketer, it is unbelievable to me that Apple is able to have users do it on their own for them. That is part of why Apple is as successful…

Microsoft is throwing its hat into the niche-social arena by going after students in a bold and likely-futile move with so.cl (pronounced “social”). “With So.cl you can share your search and help others discover what they might be looking for,” they say on their website. “Fun commentary and discussions usually follow.” This is a bad idea. People do not want to share their search. College students are hooked in to Facebook and have study groups already positioned there. Microsoft does not have the clout to be able to muscle their way into social the way Google has and the way Apple could, not because…

We have been hearing rumors about the iPhone 5 since long before the 4S was launched. One of the most recent rumors to surround the heavily anticipated smartphone is arguably more intriguing than them all. According to Patently Apple, the tech giant has patented a new technology that could give its popular mobile device three dimensional appeal. The site, which as the name implies, keeps up with all things related to Apple and its patenting initiatives, reported that the company recently patented a new technology that could introduce 3D camera technology into devices running its iOS operating…

There were those who were skeptical about whether Ashton Kutcher had the right look to be able to play a young Steve Jobs in the upcoming biopic title “Jobs: Get Inspired” about the Apple co-founder. In the latest images captured by TMZ, the actor/investor dons the trademark black turtleneck and jeans that Jobs wore to public events for 20 years. What do you think? Is he going to pull it off? Can the man who has played many dumb characters over the years such as Jesse Montgomery III in “Dude, Where’s My Car” and Micheal Kelso in “That ’70s Show” play one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time? Related…

HP has not had much luck in their early attempts at penetrating the tablet market after launching and subsequently canning their WebOS TouchPad in less than 2 months. They’re hoping that luck will change and they are officially making Windows 8 their operating system of choice after rumors surrounding the partnership were leaked last month. It will be comparable to the iPad but with minor improvements such as a thinner body and longer battery life to try to succeed where Android tablets have failed: cracking the full-size tablet market that Apple completely dominates. Rumors of a smaller iPad…

It was supposed to be the iPad killer and in many ways it was. Well, it didn’t kill the iPad, but it took a small chunk out of its dominance during the Christmas rush of 2011. Apple may want to return the favor if rumors are true about a 7-inch iPad with retina display. Rumors are rumors but when Apple is involved, they tend to make news. If it’s true in whole or in part (and there’s no reason why Apple wouldn’t want to attack the market before next Christmas) then it could mean that the one place where Android devices (and particularly the Amazon Kindle Fire) still has playing room may be torn down by the Apple…

When a product becomes synonymous with the general term for the item itself, it can own the market. To paraphrase Ra’s Al Ghul from Batman Begins, “If you make yourself more than just a tablet, if you devote your circuits to an ideal and if they can’t stop you, you become something else entirely – a legend.” Such is the case with the Apple iPad as it now accounts for 94.64% of all tablet web traffic. It accounted for 2/3rds of the tablets sold in 2011 despite a surge by the Kindle Fire around Christmas. Just like Starbucks, people often interchange the word “iPad” with “tablet” when discussing the mobile…

It might be the most beautiful drop of $7 billion in earnings, ever. Apple’s Q2 earnings report showed a sharp downturn compared to last quarter, but investors aren’t worried. It’s not that the company performed poorly. It’s that last quarter was the stuff of legends and the decline was expected, possibly even necessary. When compared to the all-important year-over-year statistics, Apple is up $11.6 billion. iPhone dominated the revenue-generation for the company again, accounting for 58%. iPad followed at 17%. As this graphic shows, it’s business as usual in Cupertino. From: Ft Lauderdale…

Less-useful than a laptop, less-awesome than a tablet, the netbook market has suffered the most in the past two years with the rise of the iPad (and other tablets, of course, but really let’s just blame Apple). Keyboards were the last real argument for the netbook over a tablet and most tablets have keyboard attachments that work just fine. With a 34% drop in Q1 2012 versus Q1 2011 marking the 6th consecutive drop for the waning product, can we call them dead, yet? In a press release by Canalys that was punctuated by the announcement that HP regained the top spot in PC sales over Apple by 40,000 units thanks…