Square enhances iOS app, debuts Square Register for iPad

Version 2.0 of the Square app has the new virtual shelves feature on iPads

Square, a mobile payment startup founded and led by Twitter’s CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, has issued a new version of their iOS app with three interesting features. Certainly the most visible change is the new-look interface which looks particularly business on iPad. The main idea here is to be able to showcase products to your prospective customers on an iPad’s gorgeous 9.7-inch display. You can set up your products on virtual shelves any way you like, add your own graphics, write the accompanying description and so forth.

Another nice-to-have and more screenies below the fold.

The iPhone interface is also slightly subdued for a more professional look

HTC boss does some field research in Apple's Palo Alto store

Apple’s pull is virtually impossible to resist, we’ve all known that. Despite fierce competition from the likes of Samsung and HTC, Apple gets the utmost respect from rivals. See a female shopper in the above shot? That’s HTC’s co-founder and chairwoman Cher Wang, accompanied by husband Wen-Chi Chen, a CEO at VIA Technologies. The two were snapped up shopping for Apple gadgets at the Palo Alto retail store, reported the Chinese-language Mobile01 site. So, why on Earth would the couple want to set their foot inside an Apple Store?

HTC buys S3 Graphics for $300 million, gears up for patent spat with Apple, Microsoft

In case you didn’t notice, tech headlines recently are all about patents. Be it an ongoing case of patent troll Lodsys which is now suing The New York Times Company and five other firms that previously sued Lodsys (bringing the number of defendants to 33) or Microsoft going after Samsung and signing patent protection pacts with Android backers or the Apple led-consortium winning a crucial $4.5 billion bid for Nortel’s patent trove – you name it, the blogosphere is all over it.

HTC is now joining the craze with the news that they’re snapping up graphics vendor S3 Graphics from Via Technologies. The transaction valued at $300 million is about – you guessed right – patents. A total of 235 patents and pending applications will change hands once regulators approve the deal (VIA’s and HTC’s boards of directors already have). The patent agreement should help HTC protect themselves from future patent litigation from rivals. There’s also this:

On July 1, a U.S. International Trade Commission judge ruled that Apple infringed on some of the claims contained in two S3 Graphics patents. Judge E. James Gildea found that Apple infringed on U.S. Patent No. 6,658,146 directed to systems and methods for compressing images and U.S. Patent No. 6,683,978 directed to image data formats, both of which belong to S3 Graphics.

This should in turn help HTC relieve some litigation pressure coming from Apple…

Aluminum keyboard case turns iPad 2 into a MacBook Air lookalike

We’ve been hearing scary stories about the post-PC era ever since Steve Jobs and Apple first talked about this new age of computing at the iPad 2 unveiling. Mobile devices akin to iPad will obsolete our desktop computers (which will be like trucks), we are being told. This, in turn, will leave little room for notebooks and iPad has already decimated the netbook market (even Microsoft agrees). There’s little wonder then that the old-fashioned types scrambled to design interesting accessories which turn your post-PC device into a “notebook”.

That’s exactly what this Aluminum Keyboard Buddy Case does for your iPad 2. It features a thin, eye-catching design said to “give your device durable protection, added functionality and style”. We just think it’s darn cool and innovative. If you’re sold on it, why not order yours over at the MIC Gadget store for fifty bucks, a $20 saving over Apple’s standard Wireless Keyboard or iPad Keyboard Dock.

Analyst calls for Sprint iPhone by Christmas, here’s why it matters

With Apple’s iPhone now on the Verizon network, all eyes are on Sprint Nextel, the nation’s third-largest wireless provider. They are running the CDMA network like Verizon Wireless, so bringing the CDMA iPhone to Sprint should just be a matter of business and politics, not engineering. The business side of it is apparently coming into full view and some analysts now think the Sprint iPhone will be a reality by this coming Christmas. From the Barron’s blog:

Citadel Securities analyst Shing Yin this morning writes that it is increasingly likely that there will be an iPhone from Apple (AAPL) for Sprint-Nextel (S), especially considering that with the inauguration of Verizon Communications (VZ) tiered pricing for data tomorrow, Sprint will be the sole remaining national carrier with an unlimited data plan offering, something desirable to Apple, he believes.

He sees “little reason for Apple to hold back” and says neither Verizon nor AT&T would leverage their distribution deals with Apple to delay the iPhone launch on the Sprint network.

Bringing iPhone to Sprint will no doubt help accelerate iPhone sales: Sprint has 51 million customers as of this month and Apple’s handset is the #2 smartphone platform, but Android is still gaining ground faster in the United States. That said, any expansion of the addressable market will help Apple keep pace in the smartphone race. The iPhone will be a boon to Sprint’s failing fortunes attributed to the Verizon iPhone launch. Another thing:

Sprint also has best pre-paid customers and Apple’s operations chief Tim Cook told Wall Street analysts that Apple doesn’t want the iPhone to be “only for the rich”, meaning perhaps Sprint will get an inexpensive iPhone 4 for pre-paid customers while AT&T and Verizon battle it out for the post-paid market. Cheap hardware should tie nicely with the fact that Sprint is now the only major unlimited data provider in the US. Sources told 9to5Mac earlier this month that a version of the iPhone for Sprint’s network is currently in advanced testing. We also learned that the next iPhone might feature T-Mobile, Sprint, and China Mobile compatibility and some of Apple’s job postings certainly point to the Sprint iPhone.

(http://9to5mac.com/)

iTunes challenger Spotify comes to US, issues invites

Our overseas readers are aware of Spotify, a popular online music service which lets them stream over thirteen million tracks to their computers for free or upgrade to a paid account for ad-free, higher-quality music and access to Spotify on the go on the iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms. Up until now, the arrival of Spotify to the United States has been marred by complicating licensing arrangements with labels, strong competition and the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon derailing Spotify’s US plans.

The Swedish startup confirmed the news on its web site:

The award-winning music service that’s taken Europe by storm will soon be landing on US shores. Millions of tracks ready to play instantly, on your computer and your phone.

They did not yet publish specifics about the pricing, terms of service or the size of their US music catalog, but you’ll know when we know. This will be huge. For the first time ever, iTunes will be under tremendous pressure to come out with a subscription-based music service because Spotify lets you stream music on an unlimited basis for a single-digit monthly fee, it’s in the cloud and available to any connected device and you can even mark songs for offline access.

Invites here.

Facebook unveils prettier interface, group chat and Skype video calling (VIDEO)

Facebook’s boss Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the crowd of journalists summoned to the company’s Palo Alto headquarters to reveal new Facebook features designed to tackle the Google+ threat. He began by saying that the industry is quickly approaching an inflexion point where focus will be on apps rather than the number of registered users. Facebook has over 750 million users, he said. Facebook is hoping to zoom past the one billion mark in the near future, he said, predicting that the social networking industry at large will soon measure its user base in billions.

Social today is about sharing. It’s about what people do on social networks, what content they share and so forth. Sharing on Facebook is growing at an exponential rate, said the executive who famously had the “I’m CEO, bitch” tagline printed on his business card in the early days. Today, an average Facebook user is sharing twice as much than the previous year and in 2012 will share double the items shared today. “We’re at the elbow of the curve,” Zuck said. For example, people share four billion things on aggregate each day on Facebook. This figure excludes direct interactions between users, such as instant messages.

He then took this huge jab at Google:

We just have this belief at Facebook validated by the success of Facebook, entrepreneurs who focus on one thing do better.

Zuckerberg predicted proliferation of apps which are “the biggest driver for us”. Mobile and the ability to segment stuff into groups are the #2 and #3 things for the company, respectively, he said.

The CEO then proceeded to unveil an improved Groups feature, a redesigned chat and an all-new video calling via Skype. More about that plus a nice promo clip showing off Skype video calling right below the fold. Oh, and check out a MacBook that Facebook’s engineer used on stage to demo the new features. I mean, purple?