The Cupertino, Calif., company posted the news (machine translation) in the support section of its German website, and gave a brief summary of the injunction as well as suggestions for temporary solutions that iCloud users can follow while the company appeals the decision, reports German language site iPhone-ticker.de.
Apple lists the service outage as a "Symptom" (machine translation) on its support document page in an apparent attempt to direct affected iCloud users to the article if they query the site about the push email stoppage.
Besides push mail, the halting of Apple's push services will stop the syncing of calendars and contacts for MobileMe until users change certain device settings. iCloud users will not be affected.
A rough translation of the summary describes the recent court case in which Motorola Mobility successfully leveraged a data pushing technology patent against Apple in Mannheim.
The document notes that while iCloud and existing MobileMe users within the borders of Germany can't receive push email at this time, all received messages can still be accessed through either the iCloud website or by reconfiguring an iOS device's settings. All non-mobile products, such as iMacs and MacBook Pros, are not affected as they do not use wireless data pushing services.
Once a user is outside of Germany, they must manually reactivate push mail in the device settings of their iOS device.
"The push e-mail service for users of iCloud and MobileMe mail is currently unavailable within the borders of Germany" | Source: Apple.com
Motorola first filed the complaint at the Mannheim Regional Court in April, 2011, an claimed that Apple's push mail service infringed on an existing patent. Judge Andreas Voss handed down the decision in early February, giving Motorola the ability to enforce an injunction against any Apple product that serves as a data pushing system.
Because the ruling was "preliminarily enforceable," it can be inferred that Motorola posted the required 100 million euro bond to enforce the injunction. If Apple's expected appeal at the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court finds that the original ruling was incorrect, the RAZR maker will be forced to pay damages in a subsequent hearing.
Push email allows users to receive new mail almost instantly by "pushing" new data to a user's device as soon as it is received at the server. The system is the successor of previous so-called "pull" mail services that require an email client to check the server for new messages as set intervals.
Apple's solution to the push service stoppage is as follows (translated from German support site):
For iCloud Mail:
- On the Home screen, go to "Settings" > "Mail, Contacts, Calendars."
- Tap "Fetch New Data."
- Select a scheduled time to fetch new data.
- The "Push" setting must be turned on in order to ensure the continued push for contacts and calendar service.
- On the Home screen, go to "Settings" > "Mail, Contacts, Calendars."
- Tap "Fetch New Data".
- Select a scheduled time to fetch new data.
- Tap "Advanced."
- Select a MobileMe account from the accounts list.
- Tap "Fetch" under "Select Schedule."
- Tap "Advanced" to return to the previous screen.
- Repeat steps 5-7 for other MobileMe accounts on your device.
69 Comments
No cloud syncing for der Germans ... physically plug your iDevices in to your PC/Mac for the same effect.
For God's sake.......
If push is unavailable, does calendar & address book auto syncing not work?
karma... apple was not the first to sue, but instead of damages they were the ones asking for sales injunctions etc. I would have gone the microsoft route and just take royalties (works two ways, so in the end the effect may be neutral)... but hey, I'm also not the one running a multi-billion company, so my thoughts seem to be irrelevant in this matter
karma... apple was not the first to sue, but instead of damages they were the ones asking for sales injunctions etc. I would have gone the microsoft route and just take royalties (works two ways, so in the end the effect may be neutral)... but hey, I'm also not the one running a multi-billion company, so my thoughts seem to be irrelevant in this matter
Think about it,,, This will have a minimal impact on Apple. People will still buy iOS products.
Allowing a bunch of copycats around the world to steal valuable iPhone technologies for peanuts royalties would be worse. That would also set precedence for them to keep copying the iOS devices and there would be more lawsuits anyway because copycats would violate the agreements. It is better to make all copying off limits.
This will likely be temporary until an appeal.
I still side with Apple to bury Googorola in the long term.
For God's sake.......
If push is unavailable, does calendar & address book auto syncing not work?
Read the article.
Besides push mail, the halting of Apple's push services will stop the syncing of calendars and contacts for MobileMe users, though iCloud users will not be affected.