Friday Grab Bag: Apple pays $50 million for Chomp

Apple buys app search engine company
Apple has purchased Chomp, a startup that has developed technology that enables users to search the iOS App Store in unique ways including searching for features that are not listed in any other search category.

The app has a very wide range of features including checking on what apps your Facebook and Twitter friends have reviewed. It also lists a free app of the day and shows which apps are currently trending

Apple paid $50 million for the company but has given no clear direction as to what it intends to do with the technology that it has acquired. The company recently noted that it has already had 25 billion apps downloaded from the store.

Nike takes a second step with Nike +
Mike has made another move into digital sports with a pair of products, the Nike+ Basketball and the Nike+Training, both of which are shoes. The Nike+Basketball is designed to provide digital feedback about a players game including how high a player jumped, how fast they are and how hard they play. The first shows will be the Nike Hyperdunk+.

The second is the Nike+Training will be a line of shows that also feature a training program that has a series of workouts designed to improve performance. The first shows in this lineup will be the Lunar Hyper Workout+ for Women and the Lunar TR 1+ for men.

The shoes use a new sensor technology from the company called Nike+ Pressure Sensor built into each shoe. The sensor collects data and then wirelessly transmits data to their phone. Additionally Nike has started shipping its NikeFuel Band.

Microsoft files antitrust claim against Motorola with the EU
Microsoft has filed a complaint with the antitrust regulators in the European Union claiming that Motorola and Google are seeking to block sales of Microsoft products by seeking unfair terms for licensing their technology.

The complaint is very similar to the one that Apple filed last week and comes at a time when the EU has already said that it is quite willing to look at not only present but past patent licensing efforts by Motorola.

Microsoft said that Motorola is attempting to block sales of Windows PCs, our Xbox game console and other products by refusing patents. I imagine this is a good time to be a patent lawyer.

The Ryan Braun story keeps getting better
Braun, the MLB MVP winner from last season was found to have huge amounts of testosterone in his body according to two tests, and he has not disputed this. The issue was with the chain of custody and that his sample was not handled properly. Of course it also does not mean that he is guilty since he was acquitted by MLB.

The flame wars have been a lot of fun, here is one with a good deal of common sense as well- more so that the author of the piece had. And just for fun here is a second, in case you did not get enough the first time.

Apple wins on a different front
Apple’s dispute with a Chinese company over the name iPad looked to prevent the company from selling the devices in the world’s largest market but a court in Shanghai has ruled in Apple’s favor. Proview Technology had been arguing that Apple infringed on its trademark rights.

The Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court ruled against Proview saying that there was a lack of evidence that iPad sales would be a trademark violation. It said there was no law or regulation that would prohibit Apple from selling iPads and terminated the litigation of the case.

Fun with Amazon
I recently received a survey request from Amazon saying it was part of the company’s ongoing effort to provide better services and support. It was supposed to take between 10-15 minutes. Looking for any excuse not to work I decided to give it a stab.

I only managed to get to about question 6. When I said that I was unlikely to buy an e-reader in the next six months or whatever the question was exactly, it terminated the survey and said that I did not fit the customer profile they were looking for. Now that is good customer service, saving me 9-14 minutes!

Teddy bear gone bad
A truly frightening gift for a baseball fan- or any fan for that matter. But pretty funny if real.

Nike Expands Presence in Fitness Tracking Space with Nike + FuelBand

Nike has entered the fitness tracking and measurement space with a user wearable wristband that tracks a user’s daily activity and uses a Nike-developed metric called NikeFuel to analyze your overall activity and oxygen burned.

There is a growing market for connected activity tracking product, including Motorola Mobility’s MotoActv and Jawbone Up as the most direct competition for this, but also varied other products including those using Ant WirelessAnt + such as the range of tools from Garmin and products that are platform specific like iBike.

The Nike+ FuelBand, slated to be released by the end of next month with a $150 price tag, includes a bracelet that the user wears. It features a three axis accelerometer that measures activity, primarily information such as the number of steps a user has taken, the time and distance.

The band has an option of four different metrics to chart: Time, Calories, Steps and NikeFuel. NikeFuel is a newly developed fitness metric from the company that is designed to convert the results based on the motion and the estimated oxygen burned a user can see what their daily activity totals and instead of giving a calorie count that might have large variables according to the persons’ size, sex and shape NikeFuel is a normalized score that awards equal points for the same activity regardless of physical makeup.

The wrist band has a set of 20 built-in LEDs that range from red to green and provide a user with an instant update as to where they are in relationship to their daily goal. This goal is set by the user and they can set it for either total activity of how much NikeFuel they wish to achieve. Each day’s activity is reset at midnight back to zero.

The company has been developing feedback products for some time in the runner category with Nike Plus but this time it is expanding out from that field with a platform that is designed for any type of activity. In addition the NikeFuel feature is a step up for the data that athletes had been able to gather in the past with Nike products. The company will provide NikeFuel feedback for its existing Nike Plus products at some point n the future.

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