Apple Mac and iPhone news for New Zealanders

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mac.nz is owned by Mark Webster, an experienced writer and IT commentator with articles published over the years in Monitor, Stamp, Loose, Macguide, Tone, Maximum Rock ’n’ Roll, D-photo, NZ Classic Car, The Dominion Post, NetGuide, NZ Herald online and for PC World. He is also a director of the CreativeTech conference.

He was the editor of NZ Macguide magazine for five years and has worked exclusively with Macs for 20.

Mark is the author of the NZ history book Assembly: NZ Car Production 1921-1998 (Reed Books, 2002).

He is a speaker on Information Technology and automotive, historical and Apple subjects, and works as a Mac trainer with wide experience. Mark has dispensed Apple knowledge at Natcoll, to MAINZ, for ImageText, to 3Media, MacMillan Publishing and for Microsoft, and to dozens of individuals.

The New Zealand Herald Mac Planet blog by Mark Webster

Apple's iPhone IP

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Apple gets tough with iPhone wannabes: Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner issued a behind-the-scenes report Tuesday that sheds a lot of light on the patent suits Apple (AAPL) filed last week against HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone maker. Philip Elmer-DeWitt on CNNMoney gets into the detail of Apple's displeasure at HTC.

Surviving High School gets Homecoming Queen megapack: Electronic Arts has released the first new mega pack for its episodic Surviving High School game. 
Homecoming Queen casts the player in the role of a female student who must work on her popularity, dancing skills and find a date in order to become Homecoming Queen. 
It's an in-app purchase costing about NZ$3.

The iPhone as universal key: Using the iPhone as an electronic key is part of a recently published patent application titled "Motion Based Input Selection." It's important to remember that the patent application itself merely describes a unique way of using motion detection to generate an input, such as turning a virtual combination lock-style dial. It's the suggested uses of a unique numerical sequence or other combination of input that is generating excitement, writes Ars Technica.

iPhone owners in China may soon get WiFi: Luckily, it looks like Chinese iPhone owners will be getting WiFi soon. According to Silicon Alley Insider, Unicom Chief Executive Chang Xiaobing is saying that WiFi-enabled iPhones will be coming to his telecom’s customers soon. Existing customers will be compensated for their WiFi-less troubles… which will probably involve expanded use of Unicom’s 3G network.

Tekken coming to iPhone? After Street Fighter, Tekken’s one of the biggest fighting game franchises around. It’s no surprise, then, that the iconic Namco brawler (pic) would be quick to follow Capcom’s Street Fighter IV as an iPhone-specific port.
There’s nothing official, but according to Pocket Gamer, an anonymous source has told them that iPhone and iPod Touch owners can expect the Iron Fist Tournament to come to their handhelds soon.