Newber, the FreedomVoice Systems app that sought to bring innovative calling functionality to the iPhone, has thrown in the towel after having had its app submission ignored by Apple for five months, according to an open letter (pdf) published Wednesday by FreedomVoice CEO, Eric Thomas.

We reported in January that Apple was dragging its feet on the Newber app, which would let users route every phone call made to them though a single number (their “Newber”) and, using GPS location awareness, let them take a call on any phone that happened to be nearby.

Thomas claims Newber followed Apple’s submission guidelines, yet never received any information from the company as to why the application was not reviewed. FreedomVoice records claim to show no one at Apple ever even tried the app.

A simple rejection, although not a welcome development, would have provided an opportunity to rework the app or scrap the project before wasting money on promotions, according to Thomas, but Apple left Newber in limbo.

After spending over $500K for R&D, architectural changes, patent applications, and marketing, the company finally saw no way forward.

“I don’t think you can do that to companies and expect others to continue to invest in your platform,” Thomas said.

[MacNN]

iPhone developer Jason Cross has the antidote to the nine thousand fart apps available on the AppStore, an ingenious application called iFreshener.

FIGHT BACK against Fart app inanity!

Simply launch iFreshener and touch the screen. Using its non-patent-pending psychosomatic virtual smell nonenzymes, iFreshener will make you and those around you feel like better smells are on the way.

Among the reasons Cross touts for spending 99¢ on his app:

* iFreshener costs less than the average name-brand non-virtual air freshener

* Non-virtual air fresheners eventually run out of air freshening chemicals. iFreshener’s virtual smell nonenzymes never run out (so long as you keep your iPhone/iPod charged).

* iFreshener won’t blind you if accidentally sprayed towards your face.

* Free updates for life are included with iFreshener.

Do you get free lifetime updates with real world non-virtual air fresheners? I think not!

The technology allowing iPhone users to skim through screens and Web sites is at the heart of a new lawsuit. Picsel Technologies, a mobile software developer, said Apple’s handset and iPod touch infringe its graphics acceleration technology.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware U.S. District Court, asks Picsel Technologies be awarded treble damages based on the number of iPhones sold.

Unlike many patent trolls, the Picsel lawsuit includes a number of high-profile licensees. The company named iPhone rivals Palm and Motorola among the 250 companies using the graphics acceleration patent.

Apple succeeded in persuading Internet giant Google to not include multi-touch features in Android, the open source cell phone platform, a report suggested Tuesday.

Multi-touch, which gives a handset the ability to convert multiple finger touches into instructions, was apparently bypassed by Google in an attempt to avoid legal entanglements, VentureBeat reported, citing an unnamed member of the Android development team.

In late January, Apple was awarded an omnibus patent covering its multi-touch technology used by the iPhone and the iPod touch. Apple has also threatened companies that might infringe the patent. The comment was seen as a not-so-subtle jab at Palm, which recently unveiled it’s iPhone rival touch-screen Pre.

Sprint reportedly will launch the Palm Pre in May, timing that could steal the thunder of an expected new version of Apple’s iPhone.

According to the Boy Genius Report Web site, Sprint documents suggest Palm could begin shipping its touch-screen phone in May, a month before many believe Cupertino will introduce its next-generation iPhone.

The Pre, a touch-screen smartphone widely viewed as a rival to Apple’s popular handset, essentially replaces the Treo 755p.

Apple may translate Cold War tactics to the marketplace, using the threat to unload its “nuclear arsenal” in an attempt to derail Palm’s iPhone rival, a patent attorney told Bloomberg Monday.

If swords are unsheathed, the battle could leave both parties bloody and Apple’s image altered, according to the news report.

“The best deterrent of a nuclear arsenal is not to use it,” Morgan Chu, patent lawyer for Los Angeles, Calif.-based Irell & Manella told Bloomberg.

Apple was named along with 12 other PC makers in a patent-infringement lawsuit two companies filed last week, according to a report Monday.

The lawsuit claims Apple and others infringed on two patents covering a so-called “safety box” limiting an application’s access to computer resources.

The lawsuit is asking for a court injunction plus unspecified damages.

Plenty of chatter yesterday in the Apple blogosphere about the patent application for special iPhone gloves Apple filed back in June 2007, the day before the original iPhone made its commerical debut.

In the meantime, a few companies have already produced products intended to ease the need for iPhone users in the northern latitudes to actually go inside to use their Jesus Phones during the winter. Click on images in the gallery below to see the Apple patent illustration and few solutions on the market today. And let us know in comments how you manage to fulfill your iPhone jones in places where chilly winds blow.

It seems that suing Apple is no longer just the sport of crazy chicks allegedly denied their dog-given right to resell iPhones at extortionist rates because Apple discounted them. Instead, we have crazy patent campers who think that 25 years after Apple pioneered the use of the GUI in personal computers, they’re entitled to license fees on a patent granted last March.

Join me in going totally off the deep end after the jump…

Atif Shamin, a Phd student in electronics at Carlton University in Canada, has figured out a way of reducing iPhone battery drain.

He’s replaced all the internal wires and PCBs of his iPhone with an antenna.

The swap allows a wireless connection between a micro-antenna embedded within the circuits of the chip.

“This has not been tried before that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly. They’ve been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That’s where the power gets lost,” Shamim said in an article on the University website.

He estimates that his solution uses 12 times less power than the traditional, wired-transmitter module. That means more juice for the ever-expanding choice in apps.

“It’s a common problem. There are so many applications in the iPhone, it’s like a power-sucking machine,” said Shamim.

He’s filed for patents in the US and Canada, look out for details on his hack in an upcoming issue of Microwave Journal.

Via Make