Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

By knowing their rights, two small companies made Apple and RIM back down over trademark conflicts. You could do the same. When you think of Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM), it’s probably as mismatched competitors.

Apple 's spectacular rise continues.

SimpleGeo has placed 20 million locations for "places" in the public domain to drive developers of location-based service apps. The thing is that data, combined with location-tracking smartphones, could spark unsavory uses too. In a direct challenge to Foursquare's effort to become the "Rosetta stone" for location-data on identifiable geo-located "places," SimpleGeo is trying to spark a revolution in location-based app writing by making the data for 20 million places available on its servers under the Creative Commons Zero license--essentially placing the data for free into the public domain.

Steve Jobs just wrapped up another one of his trademark announcements and it's now official: There is a new iPad.