iCloud – Apple’s latest European Trademark battle
икониThe day Apple chose to announce the name of its new cloud services platform, the "iCloud," a trademark application with the same name is found published in the European Trademark 
Office.
Apple applied for trademark rights iCloud yesterday with European trademark office.
Although there is no logo to go with the presentation, there are trends of the plans in the Apple brand list present several classifications including that of "electronic storage of data, text, images, audio, and video; storage services for archiving electronic data; information and consultation in connection therewith."
On the other hand, it might easily describe e-mail, YouTube, and Apple's MobileMe service.
The United States currently have two iCloud trademark listings, one of which was recorded by a Swedish company, Xcerion, who reportedly sold the iCloud.com domain to Apple for $4,5m in April 2011. The other, who had requested last month, Douglas D. Baker, who works with mobile phones software, as well as storage and archiving of electronic media.
Apple commonly fights for its brands names. The company is currently in the legal battle for a number of names, obtaining trademark rights for the U.S name "App Store". The company has already taken the "App Store" and "AppStore" in Europe. However companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson, HTC and Nokia have joined forces to fight against Apple, claiming that the term is too general.
Apple said yesterday that it'll take the wraps off its iCloud World Wide Developers Conference, which begins on Monday. There, the company also plans to talk about the IOS 5 and the next version of Mac OS X, called "Lion".
Google’s Android
There has been a lot of anticipation about Gphone, the hardware device that was to be introduced by Google. Well, there is no such Google Phone being launched, at least not now. The speculations about Google entering the mobile phones market started the time when Google bought Androids Inc in July 2005. Android at that time wasn’t very popular and hence not many knew about the functions of Android, this accelerated the rumors all the more. However Google is launching software called Google's Android for the mobile phones. Though it’s already been clarified that software will not be a Google brand as such and Google's Android software will be used by the mobile phone companies and hence will not bear any Google trademark or logo. Huge amount of investments have gone into making of this software and the company hopes to cash in on the investment and hard work they have put into it by selling advertisements on the mobile phones.
A group of various technologies and popular mobile companies have come together to design an Open handset Alliance project. It would be the first comprehensive, open and free mobile platform. If you would like to learn more about the project, log on to the Internet and you will find good amount of information on Android Software development kit, SDK technology, applications used etc. The manufacturers claim that Android is designed in a manner to ensure equal compatibility with the basic applications of the mobile device and the add-on applications. Android promises its users to help them break all the boundaries and allow them to combine information available on Internet with the data stored in the mobile device.
Success in SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a great tool that you can “exploit” for your business. With proper research, you can add key phrases to your website so that it will be ranked higher by search engines like Google. Google doesn’t only look into the meta-tags of your website but it goes for the content. Even with the clever keyword phrases that you place in your meta-tags, it will not get the recognition from Google’s search engine. Your website has to be full of key phrases to get a higher page ranking.
But you don’t just place key phrases like they mean nothing. You have to place them in context in an article. A clever article will have the phrases that will distinguish you from the other websites. Google will look into your site and catalog it based on the phrases that are found in your articles. Success in SEO requires thorough research and diligent writing. They are the keys to getting higher rankings in Google which means more visitors to your website.
Protect your Privacy through Proxy
Everyone has the right to protect their privacy and that doesn’t exclude the internet. Whenever we go online, we have a unique IP address that will pinpoint our location. It’s our “online address” or even our fingerprint. Whenever we go to a website, our IP address will always show up and with proper tools, it could be proven that you’ve visited this website.
To protect yourself, there are proxy servers that will allow you to use their IP address. Instead of your IP showing up in various websites, you will be using the proxy servers IP address. The website will never know that you have visited their website. It’s like a cloaking website that will prevent your IP from showing up in places. There are free proxy servers but be careful in choosing one. These free servers may also act as spyware that will record everything you write in that website using their address. As much as possible, use the IP only for surfing but for online purchases, use your IP to protect yourself from unauthorized purchases in the future. Also as most proxies are free, there may have an overloaded amount of placed adverts, or pop-ups. If so, just find another free proxy.
You can find a great list of proxies of free proxies at proxy.org
Remember, if you do intend to use a proxy for any shopping (not advised) or logging into secure sites, you will have to select a proxy that has SSL (means you can enter secure sites).
Companies are go for Vista
Microsoft took a different turn this time with its new operating systems with advising businesses to not switch over to the new Vista system until the first service pack was released. Before, Microsoft had always advised its clients to start using the newest OS as soon as it was released, but because Microsoft was afraid of the glitches or bugs that wouldn't be ironed out until the first few months or simply a business move, they decided against it. As of right now, many major corporations are employing the Vista OS even against advice from Microsoft, but as of yet there are no major problems arising.
This could be a new trend occurring for Microsoft in delaying perhaps all releases until after the first service pack is ready to be integrated into the system.
Linux signs up with German Universities
North Rhine-Westphalia has signed a new contract with Novell systems for them to provide Linux to thousands of their computers up on German campuses in Germany. Hundreds of thousands of German Students already use the OS for their school work and for fun and play so the move was a natural one. This deal makes it one of the largest in Europe that's ever happened and perhaps it is one more step against conglomerate Microsoft and their ever present Windows. This move has also influenced other countries and cities such as the Netherlands and Amsterdam to purchase a trial period for their own computer systems. If they enjoy it enough, they could end their contract after it expires with Microsoft.
TorrentSpy ruled against in Court Case
Torrentspy lost their case against MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) that was filed last year claiming that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) had hacked into their systems to gain email addresses that belonged to the executives of Torrentspy. Although they had lost their case, the MPAA did confess that they had paid someone $15,000 to deliver the addresses to them anyway, clearly a red flag. The MPAA for many years now have been trying to shut down the major websites such as Torrentspy who they claim (along with other similar sites) cost them over $2 Billion dollars a year in revenue. A $15,000 bribe isn't a big price compared to that number. Although Torrentspy encourages its members to not download illegal material, it still continues and the MPAA will continue to try and defeat their adversary.
The MPAA sets itself a long entailing job of trying to track down users of torrent websites, such as TorrentSpy. In one case Shawn Hogan, owner of Digital Point Forums, received a phone call from the MPAA accusing him of downloading a movie off a torrent website (which was not true) and was told to pay a fine of $2,500 or he'll be taken to court. Ironically, it was a movie that he actually owns on DVD. Shawn did not give into their scare tactic and told the lady on the phone to stick it. Shawn was not afraid to go to court as far as expenses go, as he's made millions from programming and he wants to stick up for the innocent web community. The MPAA has claimed around $50million from catching downloaders. Though this raises the question of are their tactics of tracking down these people legal? And in the world of Wifi, a lot of people may be wrongly accused.
Google and Yahoo! Maps for your Car with ‘Search & Send’
Recently, Mercedes-Benz have been displaying their distaste for navigational directions from cars, and now they're going to start doing something about it.
The major car making corporation has made a signing deal with mega internet giants Google and Yahoo to have them use a system to send maps directly from their sites, to your Mercedes-Benz.
The new system works as thus, a new button has been added to their map sites and with a quick touch, the information will be sent directly to your phone or car for easy navigability. No more worrying about printing or hand writing the directions from your computer. Everything is in the car already.
After sending the information, there will be an "i" you'll have to push and the information is saved into its hard drive for any future use.
And if you happen to not be by a computer, other people can send directions straight to you from their own cars or homes.
This system's name is Search & Send and will soon come with most Mercedes-Benz vehicles to aide with their GPS service, Tele Aide.
This option will be available with their next Mercedes S-class sedan and CL-class coupe on September 5th and their entire lineup in 2008 C-class.
Adverts Secretly Generated by ISP’s
Some ISP's (Internet Service Providers) have chosen another route for increasing revenue by inserting advertisements into websites. The adverts are included with the webpage’s by JavaScript and HTML. The problem ISP’s may face is that neither the Internet User nor Webmasters are confronted about this subtle form of advertising. And again, websites that may pride in not containing advertisements will feel exploited could push forward a legal battle concerning this matter.
Developing a Proxy
Developing a proxy is almost as easy as using a proxy; unfortunately, nothing comes for free. Servers that allow web proxies to run on do not come cheap. When buying hosting, make sure you order plenty of bandwidth, as this is the main factor that will decide whether your proxy stays online 100% of the time, or just 10% of the time.
Selecting a Proxy Software
PHProxy – PHProxy is a wonderful web based proxy script that is easily customizable, with a huge library of themes to choose from. Unfortunately, when you alter a setting (i.e. enable client-side scripting), all anonymity will disappear.
cgi-Proxy – Again, cgi-Proxy can be customized at the flick of a switch. When you alter settings, cgi-Proxy works a lot harder to obtain anonymity.
Zelune – Zelune is a new proxy script that looks very convincing, please see the “Release of Zelune” article for more information.
Selecting a Domain Name
Most filters available on the internet will automatically block the keyword “proxy,” for this reason you shouldn’t have the word “proxy” in your domain name.
Any TLD is sufficient when purchasing a proxy domain, .info is recommended due to large sum of availability. As stated previously, GoDaddy is a very cheap source of .info domain names.
Installation
Most proxy scripts require you to upload all of the files in the archive file, and possibly CHMOD some files. Take a look at the read me in the proxy script’s archive file for more detailed installation instructions.
Profit
This is why nearly all proxies are setup, because they get high usage and with high traffic, comes revenue. Advertising companies such as Google Adsense and Adbrite are best choices to serve up your ads. These companies offer PPC (Pay Per Click) which is when you place a script on your website and using the content and keywords already on the page, adverts will be generated.
When using this method you must be careful to include some sort of proxy related content. This so that
A. The ads that are generated are to do with proxies (therefore a greater chance your visitors will click on it)
B. Google's Terms and Conditions state that there must be proper written content on the website, otherwise they are likely to ban you.
Other problems that you may incur is click fraud. Other proxy site owners may deliberately click your ads hundreds of times. Now sure this will wheel in a bit of cash for you, but it's automatically detected by Google and you will either receive a warning email, or a straight ban. Once banned from Adsense, there's no getting back in.
Once your proxy has become established and is receiiving a lot of natural traffic (not paid for), then you may decide to upgrade form shared hosting (what GoDaddy offers, above) and choose a dedicated server. This will ensure your site down will suffer from little down-time.