Apple Sued Over Copycat Artist Work in 'Start Something New' Campaign

Pop artist Romero Britto today filed a lawsuit against Apple over its "Start Something New" campaign, for using Craig & Karl artwork that allegedly mimics the design style that Britto is famous for. The lawsuit, levied at both Craig & Karl and Apple, accuses the two artists of violating the Britto trade dress and targets Apple because Britto became aware of the copycat art through Apple's recent promotion.





Apple uses a Craig & Karl image featuring a patchwork hand on a bright yellow background on one of the iPads in the graphics used to promote the "Start Something New" campaign, and there's a profile of Craig & Karl on the company's website describing how the image was made on an iPad Air 2 using iOS apps.



Apple also featured the Craig & Karl image heavily in retail stores, leading people to contact Britto with the false impression that he had created the artwork, where he discovered that the two had been making art similar to his own for years.

As with any Apple campaign, the Start Something New Campaign had massive exposure and breathless press coverage, and many of the media profiles prominently featured the Infringing Apple Image. Plaintiff was inundated with reports of the Start Something New campaign and the Infringing Apple Image. These reports ranged from, for example, incorrect congratulations on Mr. Britto's new deal with Apple, to consternation from business partners in potentially collaborative or competing product categories, to inquiries from collectors wanting to know if the image they saw in the Apple store or on the Apple website was by Romero Britto.

Britto's work is fairly well-known and on display in dozens of locations around the world. He's also worked with multiple different brands on major advertising campaigns, with all of his work featuring bright colors, strong lines, and simple designs.





According to the lawsuit, Britto's specific Trade Dress is "strong, fanciful, non-functional, and inherently distinctive," composed of vibrant color combinations, the juxtaposition of different patterns, bold black outlines, and "uplifting, bright and happy visual themes." A quick visual comparison of Britto's work next to Craig & Karl's does indeed reveal similarities between the two.






Britto contacted Apple and asked the company to cease using the Craig & Karl images, but he did not receive a response, leading him to file a lawsuit. Britto is asking for damages and attorneys' fees, along with an injunction that would require Apple to stop using the artwork and Craig & Karl to stop producing artwork that mimics his style.

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Posted in 2015 at 05:59PM, April 13

Aperture and iPhoto Removed From Mac App Store Following Photos for OS X Launch [Mac Blog]

Following Wednesday's release of OS X 10.10.3 and the new Photos for OS X app, Apple has, as promised, removed Aperture and iPhoto from the Mac App Store. Apple warned that development would stop on the two photo editing apps in the middle of last year, and put notices in the Mac App Store a couple months ago to let users know the apps would be pulled from sale following the launch of Photos.



The two apps remained available for download from the Mac App Store for approximately a day after Photos for OS X was released, but attempting to access them via search now gives no results and clicking through from an external Mac App Store link gives an "Item Not Available" message.





Apple has ceased development on Aperture and iPhoto to concentrate its resources on Photos for OS X, its new photo editing software that integrates with the Photos for iOS app and iCloud Photo Library to let users access their complete set of photos on any device.



Photos for OS X has been described by many as an excellent replacement for iPhoto, as it includes more advanced tools and it runs much faster. Aperture users may find Photos for OS X lacking, however, as it does not have advanced tools like a loupe or brushable adjustments. It also does not support plugins.






With only one major photo editing app to focus on, it's likely that Apple will make improvements to Photos for OS X that could bring its feature set more in line with Aperture in the future, making both casual users and professional photographers happy.



Photos for OS X is available through the OS X 10.10.3 update, and when opened for the first time, it will prompt you to migrate your existing Aperture and iPhoto libraries. Though they won't receive updates beyond compatibility fixes, Aperture and iPhoto can continue to be used for editing purposes, both alone and in conjunction with the new Photos app.

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Posted in 2015 at 05:59PM, April 10

T-Mobile Debuts New Business Plan, Other Perks at Un-Carrier 9 Event

At an event in New York City this morning, T-Mobile unveiled its ninth Un-carrier initiative, which is aimed at business owners. T-Mobile CEO John Legere took the stage to unveil a simple new plan for businesses small and large, which is priced up to 40 percent lower than similar business plans from AT&T and Verizon.



T-Mobile's new business plan is priced at $16 per line for businesses that use under 20 lines, and at over 20 lines, the price drops to $15 per line. 10 lines, for example, costs $160, while 100 lines costs $1,500. At 1000 lines, the price drops even further, to $10 per line.





Each line comes with 1GB of data, and T-Mobile is giving businesses multiple options for purchasing additional data. Data can be purchased per line or pooled and distributed between many employees. Pooled data costs $4.75 per GB at a 100GB minimum and drops to $4.25GB at 1TB.





T-Mobile is also partnering with GoDaddy to give business customers a free domain and a free mobile site. This deal is available for any business customer with at least one line. Through a second partnership with Microsoft, T-Mobile is offering customers a free custom email.



Customers who have a T-Mobile business line through work will be able to get discounted service for their families as well, using T-Mobile's new Business Family Discounts plan. With a standard cell phone family plan, the first line is the most expensive and the second line is less expensive. At T-Mobile, this works out to $50 for the first line and $30 for the second line. With Business Family Discounts, the person's work line counts as the first line, dropping the price of the first family line. According to John Legere, this can save families of two up to $439 per year, and it's available to all T-Mobile customers beginning today.



On the consumer end, T-Mobile's announced "Carrier Freedom," which is an expansion of the company's pledge to pay early termination fees. T-Mobile's early termination payments now cover device payments and leases, letting customers on plans like AT&T Next switch to T-Mobile. The company will pay up to $650 per phone to customers who switch carriers.



T-Mobile's final "One More Thing" announcement was the "Un-Contract," which ensures that customer's rates may go down, but they won't go up. All of the company's promotional plans are now permanent, and no unlimited data plan will change for two years.





Over the course of the last two years, T-Mobile has aimed to disrupt traditional mobile service with its "Un-carrier" initiatives. The company began with uncoupling device costs from service costs in 2013, and then went on to offer several additional incentives to encourage customers to switch to the carrier, including paying early termination fees, offering a JUMP! upgrade plan, unlimited texting and 2G data in 100 countries, free streaming music from Spotify, Rdio, iTunes Radio, and Pandora, one week free trials to test the T-Mobile service, Wi-Fi calling, and data rollovers.

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Posted in 2015 at 05:59PM, March 18

Amazon Ends Wallet App Beta Program, but Still No Sign of Apple Pay Loyalty Rewards Program [iOS Blog]

Amazon today ended the beta for its Amazon Wallet app, approximately six months after the company launched it last summer. The company began sending emails last night to those signed up for the beta, announcing the company would be shutting it down and removing the Wallet app from Google Play and Amazon's own Appstore (via CNET ).



Unlike Apple's new Apple Pay payments service that ties directly to credit and debit cards, Amazon Wallet focused on gift and loyalty cards that users could manage and store within the app for use in physical stores or online. Amazon did not confirm whether the Wallet app might be revived in the future, but did mention it was a learning experience for the company as a whole.

"We have learned a great deal from the introduction of the Wallet and will look for ways to apply these lessons in the future as we continue to innovate on behalf of our customers," Amazon spokesman Tom Cook said in a statement.

The company has been far more than an online marketplace for a few years now, throwing its hat into the ring of everything from streaming devices to personal voice assistants. But it hasn't been clear sailing either, especially with the Fire Phone, which debuted last summer. The phone received mediocre reviews and has seen a series of price drops in an attempt to sell more units.



Loyalty programs are currently one aspect missing from Apple Pay, but the company has been rumored to be planning a rewards-focused loyalty program for the service. Reports late last year hinted at a holiday launch date for the service, though the rumors failed to come true.



Apple's loyalty program is rumored to see Apple partner with various companies, from retailers to major hotel chains, to provide customers who use Apple Pay at their locations with various rewards. Though Apple Pay is still a fairly new service, its continued growth amongst both customers and partners mean a rewards-style program could quickly prove valuable for consumers and help drive even more usage.

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Posted in 2015 at 05:59PM, January 21

U.S. Music Fans Continue Shift to Streaming Services as Apple Readies Beats Revamp

Paid music downloads, which have dominated the digital music market for years thanks in large part to Apple's iTunes Store, showed accelerating weakness in the United States last year as music streaming services like Spotify and a resurgence of vinyl record sales exploded in popularity.



According to Nielsen SoundScan (via The Wall Street Journal ), streaming music grew a remarkable 54 percent in 2014, moving from 106 billion songs in 2013 to 164 billion in 2014. That growth contrasts with traditional song downloads that dropped off significantly from 2013. Paid downloads for full music albums declined 9 percent in 2014, with individual song downloads seeing an even larger 12 percent drop-off. Overall, according to SoundScan, Americans bought 257 million albums in 2014, 106.5 million of which were downloaded digitally.





Amid the digital shift from individual downloads to streaming, an older technology also saw a resurgence in 2014 with vinyl record sales at their highest levels since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991. Nielsen's tracking shows 9.2 million vinyl records sold, representing a 52 percent overall increase in sales from 2013.



With lackluster overall digital music downloads mirroring a similar drop in iTunes Store sales, Apple has been looking at ways to improve its positioning in the music market. Apple's initial effort with iTunes Radio to offer a Pandora-like experience that also seeks to drive iTunes Store purchases has had a less-than-stellar reception with availability in only the United States and Australia. That weak entry likely spurred Apple to pursue last year's acquisition of Beats Music for a full-fledged subscription streaming service.



Recent reports have indicated that Apple will be pursuing a major revamp of Beats early this year that may see prominent integration of the paid streaming service into iOS and iTunes, perhaps including a rebranding under the iTunes name.

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Posted in 2015 at 05:59PM, January 02