Last November, VirnetX stated that Apple infringed on 4 of its patents involving the establishment of virtual private networks (VPN) in order to allow secure communications to take place. The technology was used by Apple for its FaceTime video calling feature. The court ruled in favor of VirnetX, requiring Apple to pay a $368.2 million fine. In addition, Apple also stated that with iOS 6.1 and later, it would change its VPN On Demand feature, removing the “Always” option and replacing it with the “Establish if needed” option. The new option led to less-than-stellar results for users.

However, a report discovered yesterday shows that Apple has decided to undo its changes to the VPS On Demand feature and it will be restoring the “Always” option. In the report, it states that it has issued an update to a previous article due some “potential changes to the behavior of VPN On Demand due to a lawsuit by VirnetX.” It seems that Apple is certain that it will be successful in combating the infringement ruling.

VirnetX has sued many other companies in the past over patent infringement, including Microsoft, Cisco, Siemens, and many more. It has another lawsuit against Apple, accusing its iPhone 5 and iPad Mini of infringing on the same patents its other devices infringed on. It also has another complaint against Apple that is currently under investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

It sued Microsoft back in 2007 and 2010, and won a $200 million settlement from the Windows OS company. It also recently filed another complaint against Microsoft over its Skype software, accusing it of infringing on 6 of its patents. We will keep you posted on any updates regarding Apple’s case against VirnetX, as well as any updates regarding VirnetX’s case against Microsoft.

[via CNET]

While Arment could have sold the app to anyone, he thought long and hard about the company that would do his app great justice. He states that he had a sudden realization in the middle of the night, and he immediately hopped out of bed and emailed Betaworks to see if they were interested. Betaworks was immediately on-board because according to Arment, “we both knew it was a great fit.”

There’s a variety of reasons why Arment sold Instapaper. He stated that he isn’t one to lead, but in order for Instapaper to prosper, he needed to hire a full-time staff. He also felt like he wanted to explore more newer creative opportunities. He decided Betaworks was the company that should acquire Instapaper because any other company “would probably just shut it down in six months.”

With Betaworks in control of Instapaper, Arment states that the company will make “Instapaper’s health and longevity as the top priority”. The deal he made with Betaworks also states that there will be incentives that will ensure that the app will continue to prosper well into the future. Arment will continue to advise Betaworks on the app “indefinitely”, but Betaworks will handle all of the other aspects in growing the app. Just last year, Betaworks acquired the struggling social news service, Digg, and revamped it to the more organized news app it is today. It’ll be interesting to see how Instapaper will evolve now that its in Betaworks’s hands.

[via Instapaper]

Arment discovered that a corrupt update was being pushed out to users in multiple regions across the world. While a functional version of the app was eventually pushed out to users a couple of hours later, Arment notes that the only way to fix the issue for those who downloaded a bad copy is to delete and reinstall the app.

Instapaper doesn’t seem to be the only app affected either. Other notable apps include GoodReader and Angry Birds Space HD Free, with a full list available on Arment’s blog. Arment did email Apple about the issue when his app was causing frustration for users, but received no reply from the App Review team. In the meantime, it’s probably best not to immediately update apps until the cause behind the corruption is discovered and fixed.

[via The Verge]

Upon opening the app you’ll be met with three options: Read Later, Liked, and Archive links. Each does as you would expect, and as you click through you’re presented with saved articles in a stripped down format. Most options you would expect are there, including a light/dark mode, brightness adjustment, and font spacing/size. A sepia mode is missing, however, as is full screen reading: UI elements are always present on screen.

A plethora of sharing options are also available, allowing you to beam articles over email, Facebook, Twitter, and a whole host of other services. The app will work just fine on Android handsets running 2.2 and up, and is said to work smoothly on multiple tablets as well. If you’re itching to get your Instapaper fix, head over to the Play Store and get downloading.

[via The Verge]

The developer of Instapaper was content to develop for iOS alone, so it seemed Android users would never get the app for their devices. While the original developer of the iOS app has stuck to the Apple operating system alone, the development duties for the Android version of the application were farmed out. The app is now available on Google Play.

The app saves pages as text only and strips away the page layout to optimize reading for tablet and smartphone screens. All content downloaded is available off-line and the app offers adjustable fonts, text size, line spacing, and margins. The app also has a high-contrast mode for nighttime reading and will change between nighttime mode and day mode depending on the time. The app supports the download of up to 500 articles directly, and unlimited articles can be stored on the Instapaper website. The app is available now for $2.99.

[via Android Community]