Two years before the first commercial release of Android, Google shopped a device to carriers that contained a “basic phone user interface.” The Mountain View-based company approached T-Mobile and called the device a win-win when combined with the carrier’s unlimited data plan. The original designs surfaced during Google’s trial against Oracle over the use of Java in Android, The Verge reported. Additional documents revealed that Google was looking to change T-Mobile’s plan pricing structure, and offer unlimited data for $9.99 a month. To subsidize the reduced cost, the Internet giant would have agreed to not take the commission it might earn from the carrier when it referred Android buyers to its online store. Google’s original plan never became a reality, however, and the first commercial Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was released with $25 and $35 data plans. A second image outlining additional details follows below.

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RapidShare is widely known as an invaluable tool for the illegal sharing of copyrighted digital material. Much like Megaupload, which was shuttered earlier this year when company founder Kim Dotcom was arrested and charged with racketeering and violating anti-piracy laws, RapidShare allows users to upload any file and share a link with other users who may then download the content. While some users share files legally with RapidShare, millions more upload copyrighted movies, music and eBooks which are then downloaded illegally by others around the world who find links to the files on blogs or through special search engines. Following a preliminary ruling, a court in Germany has now declared RapidShare to be legal, but it must utilize a monitoring mechanisms if it wishes to remain operational. Read on for more.

In its fight against GEMA and German book publishers in Germany, RapidShare was ordered to implement a system that would monitor for copyrighted content uploaded to its servers. Now, however, the court has amended its decision according to TorrentFreak. Rather than monitor files being uploaded to its servers and block copyrighted content — which may be stored legally if it is not shared — RapidShare must create a system to monitor in-bound links from other websites that may point to infringing material.

“For the first time the Hamburg Higher Regional Court has followed our line of argument on key points and has conferred legal legitimacy on our service, just as other courts have done over a considerable period of time. This is a significant result for us,” said RapidShare CEO Alexandra Zwingli. ”That is exactly what RapidShare has already been doing for many years. If the Anti-Abuse Team identifies a download link on such pages which results in a file that has clearly been published illegally being on the company’s servers, the file in question is immediately blocked.”

Because RapidShare is already taking the measure outlined by the court, it plans to appeal the new decision to Germany’s Supreme Court. “We are doing this of our own accord because we have a strong interest in ensuring that our service remains clean,” Zwingli told TorrentFreak. ”We believe that being obliged to carry out such actions is questionable from a legal perspective. For this reason we will appeal the verdict to clarify the issue of proactive monitoring of external websites at the highest judicial level.”

A new subscription service allows potential gadget owners to test out new devices like Apple’s new iPad tablet before committing to a purchase. YBUY, which bills itself as a try-before-you-buy online subscription service, charges users a flat monthly fee of $24.95 for access to a wide range of consumer electronics as well as home and kitchen gadgets. Users can choose one device at a time from YBUY’s catalog and trial the gadget for up to 30 days before returning it. Beginning in April, the company’s inventory will also include Apple’s new iPad. ”For most consumers, when it comes to electronics or products for the home, the idea is that they want to test the product out first,” YBUY CEO Stephen Svajian said. ”We can actually bring the showroom straight to your living room. Our unique alternative, that comes to you brand new or completely sanitized, allows consumers to test it out for 30 days in the comfort of your own home. This can really help you get to know the item you would like to invest in, before fully committing to make the purchase. There’s no other experience like it out there on the market.” YBUY’s press release follows below.

YBUY, New Try-Before-You-Buy Online Subscription Service, To Offer Apple’s New iPad, Starting April 1

Unique Service Allows Consumers To Touch, Feel And Experience Latest In Electronics, Home And Kitchen Gadgets For 30-Day Trial Period Before Committing To Buy

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif., March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –  Have you been thinking about purchasing Apple’s new iPad, but not quite sure you are ready to make the investment? Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a little extra time, in the comfort of your own home, to test drive the new state-of-the-art mobile device before fully committing to buy it?

YBUY, the new try-before-you-buy online subscription service, announced today that it will be carrying Apple’s third generation iPad, starting today at www.ybuy.com. Orders placed today will be shipped to customers before April 1, 2012. YBUY, which officially launched in January, gives consumers a chance to test drive the latest in electronics, home and kitchen gadgets for 30 days before they commit to purchase.

For $24.95 a month, YBUY members can try out products ranging from iPads and high-end Bose headsets to Breville coffee makers, Rabbit Air purifiers, or the Sous Vide water oven for 30 days. After the trial period ends, YBUYERs have the opportunity to keep the item and have the trial fee applied toward the YBUY product purchase price. Or, the customer can easily send the product back to YBUY and select another item from the curated list of top-of-the-line products. On most products, YBUY will send a mid-month offer to the customer to buy the product at a significant discount, sometimes up to 25 percent off the retail price. Shipping is free both ways.

“For most consumers, when it comes to electronics or products for the home, the idea is that they want to test the product out first,” said YBUY CEO Stephen Svajian. “Typically, you’ll wait in line for hours. Then, when you finally get into the store, there’s someone right behind you breathing down your neck, pressuring you, and maybe even dripping sweat on you. And at the end of the day, you may only get five or ten minutes with a device that hundreds of other people have had their mitts on. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen someone wipe down an iPad after they use it. This can make for a pretty gross and stressful shopping experience.”

With YBUY, Svajian said, there’s no reason for brick and mortar showrooms to exist. “We can actually bring the showroom straight to your living room,” he said. “Our unique alternative, that comes to you brand new or completely sanitized, allows consumers to test it out for 30 days in the comfort of your own home. This can really help you get to know the item you would like to invest in, before fully committing to make the purchase. There’s no other experience like it out there on the market.”

YBUY offers both new and factory refurbished products certified by the manufacturer. All returned products are sanitized and refurbished before being sent to another customer.

According to Svajian, YBUYs quantities of Apple’s new iPad will be limited, beginning April 1. He encouraged customers to sign up as soon as possible so they can add their name to the waiting list. For more information, or to start your 30-day in-home trial of the latest electronics and home gadgets, visit www.ybuy.com.

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom on Thursday questioned his accusers’ motives while speaking to The Guardian. ”I’m no piracy king,” Dotcom told the paper. “I offered online storage and bandwidth to users and that’s it.” Dotcom was arrested in his New Zealand mansion on January 20th after his notorious Megaupload service was shuttered earlier that week as part of a multi-agency sting across several countries. He was released on bail and it currently awaiting trial, having been accused of money laundering, violating piracy laws and a number of other crimes. ”It’s kind of like weapon of mass destructions in Iraq, you know?” Dotcom said during an interview with The Guardian. “If you want to go after someone and you have a political goal you will say whatever it takes.” Read on for more.

“Where does piracy come from? Piracy comes from, you know, people, let’s say, in Europe who do not have access to movies at the same time that they are released in the US,” Dotcom said. “If the business model would be one where everyone has access to this content at the same time, you know, you wouldn’t have a piracy problem. So it’s really, in my opinion, the government of the United States protecting an outdated monopolistic business model that doesn’t work in the age of the internet and that’s what it all boils down to.”

The 38-year-old German millionaire says that hundreds of other services similar to Megaupload exist and continue to operate while he is being “insanely” singled out and made an example of. Megaupload was estimated to be responsible for as much as 80% of all file-sharing traffic, or between 2% and 3% of all global Internet traffic, before it was shuttered last month. A recent study suggests that the service’s closure did nothing to slow piracy, however, as people have simply looked to other services in place of Megaupload to share pirated movies and music.

Jurors in a Utah court failed to reach a verdict in an antitrust lawsuit filed against Microsoft more than six years ago. Software firm Novell filed a complaint against the Redmond-based personal computing giant in 2004, alleging that it reneged on a deal that cost Novell $1.2 billion. The Utah-based software company’s word processing software, WordPerfect, was supposed to be included with the Windows 95 operating system but Microsoft claims that it dumped plans to bundle the program when Novell failed to deliver a stable build in time. Novell argues that Microsoft pulled the plug on its WordPerfect plans to gain market share with its own competing software, Microsoft Word. Jurors were reportedly close to a verdict early on Friday but after continued deliberation, they informed the judge presiding over the case that they were deadlocked, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz proceeded to declare a mistrial, and attorneys for Novell told reporters that they would seek to retry the case with a new jury.

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Samsung has again delayed the launch of its GALAXY Tab 10.1 Android tablet in Australia amid an ongoing patent dispute with Apple. This time, Samsung has stated in court that it will not market or sell its 10-inch Honeycomb tablet until September 30th at the earliest. While the repeated launch delays are no doubt victories for Apple, which claims the Tab 10.1 infringes on multiple Apple-owned patents, Samsung won’t stick to a defensive stance for much longer. Samsung in a statement confirmed that it “intends to file a cross claim against Apple Australia and Apple Inc regarding the invalidity of the patents previously asserted by Apple and also a cross claim against Apple regarding violation of patents held by Samsung by selling its iPhones and iPads.” The next hearing in Apple’s case against Samsung in Australia is scheduled for September 26th.

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British Airways is currently running a trial during which it is providing its flight attendants with iPads, hoping the Apple tablets will enhance customer service and improve safety. According to Mashable, the iPads are preloaded with British Airways safety documents, including manuals, as well as information about each plane’s passengers. Flight attendants will be able to find out locate specific passengers, determine who they are traveling with, their Executive Club status, meal requests and more. British Airways has already tested the iPad with 100 members of its flight crew and has plans to deploy it to all of its senior flight crew members in the coming months. This is not the first time an airline has used a tablet; American Airlines began distributing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to first class passengers on several of its overseas flights in June.

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Mobile payments collaborative Isis has announced its first trial market, Salt Lake City. The group, which is comprised of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, plans to bring its contactless payment system to the Utah merchants in “early to mid-2012.” Isis also announced a working agreement with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to enable Isis payments throughout the entire public transportation system. “By working with the Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake Chamber and Salt Lake City-area merchants, Isis is bringing the mobile commerce vision to reality,” said the group’s CEO, Michael Abbott. ”Salt Lake City consumers will experience a new way to shop, pay and save.” The announcement comes one day after a report suggested Sprint would develop its own mobile payment solution for future use. The full Isis press release is after the break.

Isis Advances Mobile Commerce with First Market

Isis Rolls Out Mobile Commerce Program in Salt Lake City and Partners with Utah Transit Authority to Make Entire Transit System Isis-Enabled

SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Isis, the mobile commerce joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, today announced it will pilot the Isis mobile commerce program in Salt Lake City in early- to mid-2012. Isis has also entered into an agreement with Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to make the entire UTA transit system Isis-enabled, marking the deployment of Isis as the first commercially available mobile transportation fare payment program in the U.S. Additionally, Isis is investing in the necessary infrastructure to enable mobile commerce on a nationwide basis and will be available to all merchants, banks, payment networks and mobile carriers.

“By working with the Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake Chamber and Salt Lake City-area merchants, Isis is bringing the mobile commerce vision to reality. Salt Lake City consumers will experience a new way to shop, pay and save,” said Michael Abbott, chief executive officer at Isis.

Salt Lake City: The Place You Can Leave Your Wallet At Home

Isis, which announced its formation in mid-November 2010, is focused on bringing mobile commerce to Salt Lake City using mobile phones to make point-of-sale purchases through the use of near-field communication (NFC) technology. The Isis system will evolve to offer customers a highly secure and convenient way to pay, redeem coupons and store merchant loyalty cards, all with the tap of their phone.

The Isis mobile payment program will roll out in 2012 and allow consumers to use their Isis-enabled mobile phones to make point-of-sale purchases at retailers across the Salt Lake City area and on UTA transportation.

“On behalf of the residents of Salt Lake City & County, Mayor Corroon and I would like to express our excitement that the Salt Lake City area has been chosen to lead the roll-out of Isis mobile payments,” said Mayor Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City.

“We are pleased Isis mobile payments will be available throughout the Salt Lake City area starting with the relationship with UTA, and we look forward to many other merchants throughout the county offering this exciting mobile commerce service,” added Mayor Peter Corroon, Salt Lake County.

UTA is a pioneer in contactless payments for transit in the U.S., having implemented a “tap on, tap off” system in early 2009. The existing system, which allows consumers to pay with their contactless credit and debit card by tapping an electronic fare reader on a bus or train platform, will allow Isis-enabled mobile phone users to pay using their phone.

“Partnering with Isis is a critical step forward in widespread mobile contactless acceptance throughout the Salt Lake City area,” said Michael Allegra, General Manager at Utah Transit Authority. “Isis allows us to build upon our existing ‘tap on, tap off’ system, and provide our customers with a new, more convenient way to use public transportation using only a mobile phone.”

“Salt Lake City is on the cutting edge in so many ways and we are committed to incorporating promising technologies to improve the quality of life for the people of our community,” said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. “As Utah’s largest business association representing over half the state’s workforce, we are excited about Isis as it gives our merchants a way to streamline their transactions and, more importantly, connect with their customers.”

An anonymous source speaking to iLounge has suggested that Apple will launch its free version of MobileMe in April. The source reportedly works for a major educational institution and says Apple has recommended that incoming students download a free 60-day trial version of MobileMe instead of signing up for the current version, which Apple will reportedly kill off in a year. Evidence has long suggested that Apple has a free version of the MobileMe service on its road map. We suspect the free service will allow users to store digital content such as photos, music, or videos online, and we imagine there will be options to purchase more storage space for a fee. If this new report pans out, we won’t have to wait very long to find out.

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Visa has begun trials of an iPhone-based mobile payment system in Europe, Computerworld reports. The trials, which started today, require on-device software to be installed on testers’ iPhones, as well as a hardware accessory that contains an NFC chip. Visa’s solution also requires retailers to install a hardware terminal capable of processing the mobile payments. Apple is expected to add native NFC capabilities to its next-generation iPhone, which means users would not have to attach any additional device to their phones in order to pay for goods and services. Apple has not yet confirmed the addition of NFC to its next-generation smartphone, however, so it is unclear if the company plans to restrict third-party access to NFC capabilities. In that event, third-party solutions like the one Visa is currently trialling would still require a hardware accessory to function. A survey conducted by Visa in Europe found that 87% of iPhone users would be willing to connect a hardware accessory to their phones in order to enable mobile payments.

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Any developers out there that thought they’d be able to submit trial or demo versions of their applications for inclusion in Apple’s Mac App Store are going to unfortunately out of luck. Not unexpected, Apple has chosen to only offer full apps in the upcoming computer-focused application portal. Apple’s suggestion for those of you that still want to distribute beta, trial, or demo versions of your applications? Well, just keep on truckin’ and continue making those versions available on your website for direct distribution. With Mac OS X 10.6.6 just possibly around the corner, we might be browsing Apple’s latest App Store sooner than later (Apple promised a release by mid-January).

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Microsoft announced last week that it would be giving away free 3-month Zune Passes to customers who sign up for Windows Phone 7 pre-order notifications and then go on to place pre-orders. AT&T apparently wants in on the action as well, as the carrier plans to give away a free “Entertainment Pack” with each Windows Phone 7 device purchase. The pack consists of a 1-month Zune Pass with 10 free song downloads, a month of U-verse Mobile service and a free copy of the 3-D puzzle game ilomilo. The deal sounds pretty sweet, though takers should note that unless the service is canceled, they will automatically get charged a $10 monthly subscription fee after their free 30-day U-verse Mobile trials expire. Ahhh… nothing like a good old fashioned Columbia House scam to welcome people to the new Windows Phone 7 family.

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Verizon isn’t the only wireless company making LTE news today. Canadian carrier Rogers Communications has announced the launch of a “comprehensive Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network technical trial with Ericsson Canada in the Ottawa area.” The company will initially use AWS spectrum for the trial, but notes that it is “working with Industry Canada to secure a development license to use 700 MHz spectrum.” Bob Berner, Rogers’ EVP and CTO, said, “Through this trial we will validate how LTE technology will perform in real world situations across a variety of spectrum frequencies in urban, suburban, and rural environments. Furthermore, we will verify LTE data throughput speeds, performance quality, and interoperability of LTE with our existing advanced HSPA+ network ensuring that future commercial deployment enables the best customer experience.” Welcome to the 4G party Canadian friends.

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Late yesterday, Google announced that streaming-video company YouTube would “begin a limited trial of a new live streaming platform in conjunction with four of our partners: Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom and Young Hollywood.” As the press release explains:

This new platform integrates live streaming directly into YouTube channels; all broadcasters need is a webcam or external USB/FireWire camera. Included in the test is a “Live Comments” module which lets you engage with the broadcaster and the broader YouTube community. For the purpose of the trial, this offering will only be available today and tomorrow. Based on the results of this initial test, we’ll evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide.

There are several live broadcasts going on as we type. Check out the concept by hitting the read link and let us know what you think.

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We were surprised to see the heading “Try Before You Buy” when browsing the Apple App Store on one of our iPhones, but after a bit more investigation… we stopped being surprised. The new try before you buy feature is actually a collection of applications that have both a “lite” and paid version available in the App Store. If a developer makes an application that is paid-only, like TomTom Navigation for example, there is no way to try that $40 application without buying it. Hopefully, Apple gets around to implementing a real try before you buy type system sooner rather than later.

[Via Pocket-lint]