Links for Tuesday March 9^th, 2010

• Apple talks tough to handset makers: If true, it seems like Apple's employing a full court press strategy — deploying all possible tactics against their competitors in the mobile space. It seems overly aggressive, but I guess it sort of makes sense, given that Apple is clearly betting the farm on the iPhone OS.

• ignore the code: Patents: I agree with Lukas:

  "Instead of protecting small companies and projects, the patent system is giving large companies a tool they can use to go after them. This is the reality of running a small software company: There is nothing you can do to defend yourself."

  Just based on the system as it stands now, it seems ludicruous to start a company that so much as touches software. (via Michael Tsai)

• Marco.org - Software patents: Short, smart piece by Marco Arment. He concludes:

  "As a working software developer, the thought of accidentally and unknowingly stumbling into someone’s patent is terrifying. There’s no question that it has hurt our industry in the past and will continue to artificially restrict progress indefinitely, and there’s little convincing evidence that the supposed benefits exist in practice at a large enough scale to maintain the status quo."

  (via Lukas Mathis)

• All Your Apps Are Belong to Apple: The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement:

  "...when we saw the NASA App for iPhone, we used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to ask NASA for a copy, so that the general public could see what rules conrolled the technology they could use with their phones."

  That's a neat trick.

• Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses: This sounds like a pretty decent model for Foursquare to make money. You know, as opposed to what Yelp is doing.

• Apple’s iTunes LP 6 Months Later: LP What?:

  “It’s something most people will look at once”

  That pretty much sums up my experience with the two iTunes LP's that I have purchased.

• Adobe Demos Flash & Air on HP's Slate Device (YouTube): The HP Slate actually looks pretty cool, but of course, I watched this video using YouTube's HTML5 player, not with flash. (via Daring Fireball)