Wires Crossed #64 – December 9

Apple Loses Naming Rights In China
With its fondness for taking people to court over what sometimes seems like trivial matters, it seems apt that consumer tech giant Apple has lost the fight to use the name iPad in China. Chinese company, Proview, registered the name back in 2001, and although Apple secured naming rights in 2009, it was only for Taiwan, not mainland China.  Now Proview is asking for over $1.5 billion in compensation as Apple have been using the name since it opened stores in the People’s Republic back in 2008. Even with its massive cash reserves, Apple will not be too happy about forking over money for a product that it has made a household name around the world.

Canon Camera Survives Year Underwater
You couldn’t ask for a better advertisement of your product if you tried. A camera that disappeared into 20 metres of salt water off Vancouver Island was discovered a year later and the pictures were still fine. Fire fighter Stephen Woods lost the camera overboard while on Vancouver Island and thought he would never see it again. Fellow Canadian Markus Thompson  found  it and then used the Internet to trace the owner. It took a while for Thompson to track down Woods, but the fire fighter was very happy to be reunited not only with the camera, but the snaps it contained

Effin ‘Ell, I Don’t Believe It!
Facebook staff are being a little over zealous when it comes to place names. Apparently they don’t like the name of a village in Ireland called Effin and have banned it from being used as a place of birth for people born there. Sure, we can see why – it sounds like an abbreviated form of a well-known, and oft-used swear word, but a little common sense should prevail, yes? We’re wondering if residents in a certain small Austrian town are having the same problem.

Conman Gets Six Years After Google Probe
A man who helped steal millions of dollars from paying customers via using Google’s AdWords program has been sentenced to six years in prison. David Whitaker, who has already been in prison for four years, could have been facing up to 65 years in the clink, but for his cooperation in helping end the scheme. Due to the nature of what happened, Google had to forfeit US$500 million in revenue so as to face charges itself over the scheme.