Protectionism Unseeen Since Reagan

The Obama administration has vetoed a Trade Commission order that would have banned Apple from importing a number of older model iPhones and iPads that violate patents owned by Samsung.

The use of this executive power came as a surprise, as it rarely happens. The last presidential veto of a product ban was in 1987. In the latest ruling, the trade commission banned importation of iPhone 4s, iPhone 3GSs, iPad 3Gs and iPad 2 3Gs distributed by AT&T, effectively banning the sale of those items in the U.S.

Even though Apple is an American company, the affected devices are manufactured in China, meaning the trade commission has the ability to block them from being imported. Earlier this morning, the South Korean government expressed concern over the veto, saying the decision could harm Samsung.

In early morning trading today, Samsung’s market value plummeted by more than one billion dollars.

Cars For Flying

Airport car-sharing service Flight-Car just launched a new subscription model that could allow travelers to drive unused cars in select cities across the country.

Though it’s only in the public beta stage, the new service called Flight-Car-Monthly is active in places like Boston and San Francisco at a reasonable four-hundred-dollar monthly rate. The system works by finding car owners who have vehicles sitting in garages, or that aren’t being used, and getting them to volunteer their cars for use rather than buying whole fleets of expensive, new cars.

Once they volunteer, Flight-Car takes the vehicle and stores it on a lot near the airport. This new program is slightly different from their current model, whereby departing travelers simply drop off the vehicles to be used by arriving passengers.

All Flightcars are insured for a million dollars, so car owners shouldn’t have to worry about any damages or stolen property, and a six million dollar series of investments for the company indicates that the rental car alternative should grow and become more commonplace in the future.

While the idea might seem odd at first, there are many people willing to share their car in exchange for a handful of cash.

Facebook Books A New Face

In the pursuit of growing their brand marketability, Facebook acquired seasoned technology marketing executive Gary Briggs, who will take his place today as the company’s first-ever CMO.

Previously, Briggs served as the chief marketer at Motorola during the company’s buyout by Google back in May of 2012.

In his new role, he’ll lead the branding and marketing efforts for all of Facebook, including users, developers and potential consumers of new products like Facebook Home. Briggs will also oversee entire divisions at Facebook, such as product marketing, platform marketing and events, communication design, brand marketing and content strategy.

Given his experience at Google, he’s more than qualified to handle the job, but whether or not he can turn Facebook into an advertising giant is yet to be determined.

We’re Jammin’

When truck drivers in the U.K. illegally jam their onboard GPS to stop their bosses from watching where they drive or to dodge automatic tolls, it’s been difficult to catch them.

Britain’s Chronos Technology has developed a new radar to solve that problem which can pinpoint GPS jammers. Just like a traditional radar gun, the iPad sized gadget can be pointed at a line of traffic, or even groups of people, and can pinpoint exactly which vehicle or person is clouding the airwaves. Previously, law enforcement had the ability to detect the presence of a jammer, but the technology to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from simply didn’t exist.

Now, using the $2,500 Jammer Detectors, law enforcement can even pinpoint portable devices in drivers’ pockets once they’ve left their cars. GPS jamming has become a serious problem and a GPS-based landing system at the Newark International Airport used to malfunction twice daily until the source was found to be a driver on a nearby highway trying to avoid tolls.

Microsoft Circles The Bowl

In an interesting bit of marketing news for budget-conscious techies, Microsoft will be discounting its Surface Pro tablet for a limited time, following some cost-cuts taken from their Surface RT line.

The ten percent price cut reduces the cost of both the sixty-four and one-twenty-eight giga-byte models by a hundred dollars each. Customers from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the US will all get to pay the reduced price for the month of August.

Microsoft recently hinted at refreshed Surface RT and Surface Pro models, and it’s believed that this move is likely the beginning of the end for the current line. For now, the next version of the Surface Pro is slated to come with a Haswell processor, but there is a chance we could see them fitted with Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon eight-hundred, which are already being tested in Surface devices.

Microsoft is also planning several new accessories for Surface, including a battery-equipped keyboard cover that’s attracting positive attention from a number of analysts. However it’ll take a lot more than some extra accessories to pull people away from the new Nexus seven, or upcoming iPad mini.

We’ll have to see if Microsoft has any better ideas in their arsenal.

Finally Google! Jeez!

For those of you who have been waiting for the android version of Find My iPhone, the wait is almost over.

Google has released plans to introduce a phone-finder service for Android. Though it hasn’t officially launched yet, some new devices could receive the app as early as this weekend via a scheduled Google Play update. The service, called Android Device Manager, is basically a website that works in conjunction with an Android app, that allows users to locate their devices in multiple ways.

For example, a user whose misplaced device slipped between the cushions of a couch could find it by remotely telling it ring to the maximum volume, even if it’s on silent. Users who have no idea where to even begin looking for a lost device can use the site to track it down.

Its GPS location can be pinpointed in real-time on a map. In addition to helping you find your device, early screenshots also indicate that users will be able to change their screen lock password and even erase all the data on the device remotely.

The service is expected to be available to all users by the end of the month.

Went to Buy Apples, Got Apples

In what should come as a lesson to everyone about classified ads, last week a woman in Australia went to classifieds website Gumtree in search of a couple of iPhones.

Shortly after she posted the ad, she was contacted by another woman who was looking to sell. Once an agreement was reached, they met in person to conduct the transaction.

The buyer handed over fifteen-hundred Australian dollars, and in return, she got two iPhones still in their shiny new boxes. At least, that’s what she was led to believe. Once she opened the boxes, she quickly noticed that instead of her Apple iPhones, all that was inside were two ripe, red apples.

Of course, this isn’t the first time a private transaction for an Apple product has resulted in a ripoff. Another similar story involved a woman who bought an iPad in Spartanburg, South Carolina for one-hundred-and-eighty dollars. It turned out that her new device was actually made of wood.

There’s also the story of a British man who bought his iPad in a parking lot, only to discover later that the box turned out to be full of potatoes. The lesson to be learned from these cases is simple: it’s always a good idea to open the box before you hand over your cash.

And that’s all the news we have for today. If you want to keep up with these stories and more, be sure to join us live every morning at 8:30am on NewsDesk with Kristin Feledy.

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