Back in August, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen formally sued 11 tech companies, including Apple, over the use of technologies for which he holds the patents. Now, Apple has joined Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and others in opposing the suit.

Google initially filed a motion to dismiss the claims on October 18th, stating that Allen's company, Interval Research (which ceased operation in 2000), had failed to explain exactly how Google had supposedly violated its patents. Additionally, Google claims that Interval is lumping all 11 defendants together without demonstrating any "coordinated action."

Apple joined Google and others on October 21st with its own filing, stating, "Interval has sued eleven major corporations and made the same bald assertions that each defendant infringes 197 claims in four patents. As the U.S. Supreme Court noted in Twombly, it is in this type of situation in which courts should use their 'power to insist upon some specificity in pleading before allowing a potentially massive factual controversy to proceed."

In other words, spill the goods or move on.

Allen's suit identifies four specific patents, including one that determines how websites suggest products based upon customers' recent searches, and another that lets users reading a news story quickly find related stores.

We'll have more on this story as it develops.

The Sex Offender Tracker App (US$1.99), for the iPhone isn't the first such app in the App Store (Offender Locator and Sex Offender Search are two others), but it is the first to use augmented reality. As an added bonus, it has Antoine Dodson's approval.

The app uses your GPS location and a national database to identify registered sex offenders in your area. The information is presented as an overlay on top of video of your location. Users can specify search criteria and opt for a list view if the augmented presentation is less than ideal.

It's notable that BeenVerified, the company behind the app, is donating 5% of purchase proceeds to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network or RAINN. The app is compatible with iPhone 4 or 3GS and iOS 3.1 or later.

To see Dodson's ad, click the link below.

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The New York Times reports that the iPad is catching on in Hollywood, attracting actors, writers, producers and other personalities looking to alter their workflow or even get in a few rounds of Angry Birds between takes.

The Times begins by describing a meeting between director JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof and producer Bob Orci (among others) about the upcoming Star Trek movie. As the group talked, Orci used is his iPad to flip through potential location photos, stills from the first movie and a picture of an actress under consideration. He told the Times, "When you're carrying a little TV around, you bring the power of imagery to places that you don't normally have it."

Scenes like this are becoming increasingly common. The Times notes that former American Idol judge Paula Abdul has used an iPad to show off her new music video, while actress Julie Benz enjoys Angry Birds during downtime. "It's perfect for the long hours here," she said.

Apple is also enjoying a good amount of product placement lately, which the company claims it doesn't pay for. A recent episode of NBC's The Office had a character use his iPad to find the time, and ABC's Modern Family devoted an entire episode around the tablet in March.. In fact, the Nielsen Company reports that Apple products have appeared about 2,438 times on television programs through September of this year. All of that adds up to buzz and free advertisement for Apple.

As 2010 comes to a close, Verizon Wireless is rumored to be on a hiring spree prior to carrying the iPhone. CNET reports that the company is hiring "hundreds" of call center personnel, who will be trained to handle support calls for "personal computers and portable devices like MP3 players and smartphones."

Of course, Apple, the iPhone and Verizon are never mentioned in this story, and any connection is based upon supposition. Customer service call center staffing companies Teleperformance and Ryla are said to be recruiting on behalf of a "major wireless cell phone service retailer." Both companies have prior experience supporting Verizon and Teleperformance has worked with Apple.

Rumors of a Verizon iPhone have persisted for years. Last April, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, told Apple outright that Verizon wants to carry the iPhone on its network, and the Wall Street Journal suggested that it could happen just a few weeks ago.

[Via MacDailyNews]

iMovie '11 makes it easy to regain the traditional horizontal timeline that was lost with iMovie '06, to the delight of many.

When Apple released iMovie '08 in August of 2007, many users were upset by the decision to move the timeline from the bottom of the app's window to the upper left-hand corner. The outcry was so loud that Apple made iMovie '06 available for download.

Now, version '11 lets you put a vertical timeline back in place. As TidBITS explains, it's a simple as swapping the Events and Projects browsers. Yes, you can make that swap in iMovie '08 and '09, but this is the first time it will result in a horizontal timeline.

DigiTimes has the details (and translation) on a Chinese-language Commercial Times report suggesting that Apple will sell 700,000 MacBook Air laptops during the upcoming quarter.

Commercial Times cites vice president of Concord Securities Research Mingchi Kuo as predicting the impressive sales numbers. Kuo believes that the MacBook Air, especially the 11.6-inch model, will make a compelling choice as a second computer for many. Kuo also believes that the appeal of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will further spur sales.

Kuo formerly worked with DigiTimes and was the one to break Apple's intentions to build an 11.6-inch laptop back in July.

[Via Macsimum News]

AT&T set a new record by activating 5.2 million iPhones in the US over summer of 2010. That's a huge number, especially considering that it activated 3.2 million iPhones in the spring. That's a soaring leap of 62.5 percent.

In total, AT&T switched on more than 8 million "integrated devices" during that quarter, the majority of which were iPhones. The company also grew its customer base by 2.6 million, bringing the grand total of those of us enjoying its services to 92.8 million. Finally, the iPhone is being recognized for producing AT&T's best ever customer turnover rate of 1.32 percent.

Remember that "antenna issue" that was supposed to kill the iPhone 4? Yeah.

it will be interesting to see what happens to AT&T's numbers should the rumors of a Verizon phone come to fruition. Would there be a mass exodus? We can only assume that AT&T hopes the answer is no.

Macworld Germany has described what they're calling a security hole in the FaceTime for Mac beta (Google translation). The gist is this: once a user has logged into FaceTime for the Mac, his/her Apple ID and password can be altered from the app by anyone with access to the computer while FaceTime is running.

Let that sink in for a second.

If you were to log into FaceTime for Mac and then abandon your computer with everything running and no concern for who has access to it and for how long, there's a possibility that a n'er-do-well could sit down in your empty but still warm chair and engage in a scandulous conversation with your poor Aunt Shirley (who undoubtedly is wondering why you'd be dumb enough to walk away from your operational Mac in public) before changing your password and making several pricey purchases in iTunes.

In related security news, cash registers left unattended with their drawers open are likely to be robbed and cars left running with the doors unlocked are likey to be stolen. As Ars notes, "...whoever happens to be sitting at the computer can change the associated account password."

In the interest of our readers' safety, here are a few steps we suggest you take:

• Don't go to the bathroom while FaceTime is running on your Mac at Starbucks. Hell, don't leave your Mac on a table at Starbucks no matter what it's doing.
• Don't run FaceTime on a public computer.
• If the "office prankster" asks to use your FaceTime account to make a call, SAY NO.
• Think. Physical access is total access.

The takeaway here is this: any miscreant who has physical access to your computer is a potential security threat.

It seems that Apple will sell its iWork and iLife apps individually through the forthcoming Mac App Store. Some keen-eyed observers noticed hints during this week's demonstration, ElectricPig reports.

During the demo, you could clearly see GarageBand, iMovie and iPhoto icons among the available apps. Indeed, the screenshot on the official Lion information page shows the same thing. It's impossible to see what the cost will be (we *think* it says $14.95), but the idea is interesting. Many users buy the bundle for one or two apps only (iMove and iPhoto, but not GarageBand for instance). An a la carte offering would prevent those shoppers from paying for an app(s) that they won't use.

The Mac App Store will premiere for Snow Leopard users in about 90 days. We'll know for sure by then.

[Via MacNN]