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The news of the licensing deal between HTC and Microsoft is surprising, primarily as it covers HTC’s work in the Android platform. Microsoft has provided licensing of its technology in the past, but this was the first time specifically covering the hot Android platform. Redmond wants to make it clear it is serious about protecting its intellectual property, and it is duly concerned about infringements of that IP inherent in the Android platform. We received this statement from Horacio Guiterrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing at Microsoft:

Microsoft has a decades-long record of investment in software platforms. As a result, we have built a significant patent portfolio in this field, and we have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to ensure that competitors do not free ride on our innovations.  We have also consistently taken a proactive approach to licensing to resolve IP infringement by other companies, and have been talking with several device manufacturers to address our concerns relative to the Android mobile platform.

Guiterrez recently shared his views on the Apple patent infringement suit against HTC. He feels licensing technology to third parties is vital to the growth of the smartphone segment, just as was done in the past when the main purpose of phones were “to make and receive calls.” Most interesting is his view on how the “software stack” in smartphones has replaced that important “radio stack” as the critical area in which technology licensing will play a big role.

Now, however, as a new category of ‘smart’ devices has emerged, the value proposition has moved to the software stack.  As is clear from advertising by all of the major brands – Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry, Palm’s Prē, Motorola’s Droid, and Windows Phones – people buy smartphones because they are fully functional computers that fit in the palm of your hand.  The radio stack is still valuable, as it allows the phone to connect to the Internet.  But what is most valuable is not the connection per se, but the new things that users can do with it – find nearby restaurants and movie theaters, send and receive email, and watch video, just to name a few.  The primary driver for adoption and sales in this market is the software on and available for the device.

This situation bears watching, and it is not clear how Android will fare over time. Android phone makers may need to all make deals with Microsoft and possibly Apple to cover all bets. Microsoft is not sharing details about which other companies it is in discussions with over Android infringements.

by Tom Philpott

A soy plantation in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil. Nilton Ricardo, BrazilPhotosEveryone should listen to this BBC report (unfortunately not embedabble) on the “price of biofuels.” It digs into a key question: what does Europe’s appetite for biodiesel mean for people and ecosystems in the countries that produce the feedstocks?

Focusing on Paraguay, the BBC comes up with answers that aren’t pretty. The economic benefits of the biofuel craze accrue to large plantation owners and the global agribusiness firms that buy their soy and provide the inputs. Tracts of of the Amazon get leveled for soy production. Small-scale tenant farmers get forced off their land and into penury.  Inevitably, agrichemicals rain down and seep into streams, wreaking havoc on communities.

In short, we see not the production of a “green” fuel but rather an ecological calamity in service of the idea of green fuel: a highly profitable travesty masquerading as a “solution.”

The focus is the Europe-South America consumption-production chain, but our own corn-ethanol program is implicated. Like crude oil, agricultural commodities like corn and soy are fungible. Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill don’t distinguish between soy grown on Iowa prairie lands and, say, the the Brazilian savanna. In industrial production, soy is soy; and corn is corn. As biofuel production expands, it demands more cropland—affecting farmers’ planting decisions and make therm scramble to increase yields.

Ponder the fact that the U.S. government uses mandates and tax breaks to divert more than a third of the U.S. corn crop into ethanol—and that proportion will rise to more than 50 percent by 2015, if mandates in the Renewable Fuel Standard hold true. As recently as 2004, ethanol burned through just 13 percent of the crop.

All of that corn being diverted into our gas tanks means that somewhere, some industrial agriculturalist sees an opportunity to plow up new land for more corn production. Or switch from soy to corn, putting upward pressure on the price of soy and encouraging more soy in places like the Amazon rain forest or Brazil’s savanna.

Let’s put this into perspective. The U.S. grows 40 percent of the globe’s corn. If one third of it gets transformed into ethanol, that means that more than one out of every eight corn kernels grown in the world now goes into U.S. drivers’ gas tanks. When one half of our corn goes to ethanol, one kernel in five will help power our car fleet.

Let’s think about it another way. The mighty U.S. corn crop sucks up more than 40 percent of the synthetic nitrogen and mined potassium fertilizer used in U.S. agriculture. (Figures extrapolated from this USDA document—and a pox on that agency for presenting this key information in a rather raw Excel document, and not a thought-through HTML.) So again, given that a third of corn goes to ethanol. that means nearly 15 percent of our consumption of this those ecologically devastating, geopolitically troubling resources can be explained by ethanol.

And for what? All to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption by about 6 percent. Reaching that stunningly modest level required decades of steady government support in the form of multi-billion-dollar annual tax breaks, plus research grants and mandates.  And to be clear, our ethanol habit barely——if at all—reduces the total amount of fossil fuel consumed. Production of corn-based ethanol offers a razor-thin net energy gain—and that, only if you grant a generous credit to distillers grains, an ethanol byproduct, as a livestock feed. As I’ve shown before, the mush left over from industrial ethanol production is riddled with antibiotic residues and heart-ruining mycotoxins—not the kind of stuff you’d want to feed to animals you plan to eat (even though the meat indsustry welcomes distillers grains as an “economical” alternative to whole corn).

In short, government-mandated biofuel programs, both in Europe and here, are distractions from the necessary task of reducing fossil energy consumption. They will inevitably cause the destruction of climate-stabilizing ecosystems like rain forests and seperate small-scale farmers from their land. Indeed, both are lready happening.

I can see one hopeful sign from the U.S. biofuel experience, though. It has proved that the U.S. government, even under such alleged free-market zealots as Reagan and Bush II, actually is capable of making sustained public commitments to alternative energy. (Leave aside their loyal and expensive support of the crude-oil industry).

The trick for progressives is to not just attack public support for ethanol, but also to try to shift that spirit of public investment to technologies and projects that actually conserve fossil fuel, like mass transit, dense cities, and efficiency. Meanwhile, Friends of the Earth is circulating an online petition demanding an end to “dirty corn ethanol subsidies.”

Related Links:

Watch out, Kerry—Big Ag’s not done with your climate bill

Scientists show ‘growing’ fuel is waste of energy

EPA intern offends sensitive meat-industry souls

After months of speculation Angry Aussie Russell Crowe has confirmed reports that he’s in talks to take on Kris Kristofferson’s role in the latest remake of the cinema classic A Star is Born – but in a crushing blow to “Sasha Fierce” fans everywhere, Beyonce is no longer attached to the project.

“I think she’s pulled out of it. I’m still chatting about it. It’s one of those stories that’s been made a lot, but I think it’s still quite a big focus – you can see that in terms of the popularity of things like American Idol,” Russ blabbed to TV’s Extra this week.

The Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School is where all kinds of ridiculously creative techno-wizardry happens so it’s pretty exciting they’re seriously opening up the program with a Summer Camp for grown ups. Do check it out. [ITP] More »

It appears — originally based off a tweet from Robert Scoble, and then confirmed by Business Insider — that Apple has made yet another acquisition: the company who makes the Siri application for iPhone. If you’re not familiar with Siri, it functions as a personal assistant on your mobile device. While we’ve all heard this claim before from other offerings, Siri sure looks to come close.

So while Siri makes claims that sound familiar to other apps available for iPhone, its execution sure seems to raise it above the rest of the field. With an interface to type your input, as well as speak it, the user has flexibility to interact easily with Siri while on the go. (Sounds kind of like Google’s mobile app, doesn’t it?) The special sauce that Siri has in its corner is being context aware (location, time, dates, etc) as well as hooking into many web APIs to gather and present information for easy consumption. Truth be told, this mashup of information and resources reminds me of Yahoo Pipes, only with the geeky parts hidden and Voice interaction added. What’s not to like? There are great demos to be found on siri.com, but as a quick example, I could tell Siri, “I want to find a movie to watch this Thursday at midnight” and it returns a list of showtimes near my location, with links to buy tickets. Pretty neat, and super easy to use.

What could this mean for Apple? My immediate assumption is that the Voice Over capability of future iPhone operating systems will implement Siri features — at least that’s my hope. Launching an app to do the work isn’t a big deal, but how great would it be to be driving, hold down my iPhone’s home button for a few seconds, and speak my request to Siri without having to look away from the road? It also seems obvious that with this purchase Apple has decided to roll its own rather than letting market competitors such as Google provide competitive options on their device. Is Apple getting into search, as some believe? I don’t think this is search, so much as service, but who’s to say?

It’s always interesting to see what Apple is doing when it goes on a buying spree. Lately it’s been oriented toward making processors, but snatching up some effective software obviously isn’t out of the question either. Though the trend seems to be strongly along the lines of its mobile product line, which really isn’t all that surprising now, is it? Siri is free in the App Store, but only available within the U.S. currently.

See some other interesting integrations for Siri in Apple’s ecosystem? Share your ideas in the comments!

Even though Splinter Cell: Conviction is barely out the door and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is still gearing up for launch, Ubisoft is reportedly already working on two more Tom Clancy games.

Among the problems faced by chicken breeders who pack their chickens into close quarters is that the territorial birds will often henpeck each other, often to the point of cannibalism. One way to cut down on chicken-on-chicken crime is to trim the beaks of the birds. But a professor at Purdue University thinks he’s found the solution — breed nicer chickens.

William Muir of Purdue claims he’s developed a method of breeding the birds that would make for a more peaceful atmosphere in the coops and would cut down on the whole cannibalism thing.

Muir says peaceful hens would live longer and happier lives, meaning more eggs and less waste.

The big question facing those concerned with animal rights is: Does the fact that the birds aren’t killing each other as much make it okay to keep chickens in small spaces?

Purdue University scientist invents breeding method to produce peaceful chickens, reduce cannibalism

I’m proud to say that Jamati is one of the first publications to share the exclusive 2010 FIFA World Cup Hybrid T-shirt collection, designed by 54 Kingdoms, for you .

As South Africa will be the first African country to host the FIFA World Cup tournament, it has granted 54 Kingdoms the opportunity to bring it’s skills, expertise and knowledge to the global market by birthing the exclusive World Cup Hybrid T-shirt collection.

These collector’s t-shirt items for both males and females, offer an innovative product for the six African countries that have qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament.

The countries are Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast.

The pictures that are shown here are the South African men’s t-shirts which come in both black and yellow, and blue and yellow. More t-shirts for the other FIFA participating countries will premiere soon for both men and women.

For more information about these Exclusive Hybrid t-shirt Collectors items collection, please visit their website or you can e-mail your requests or inquiries to [email protected] or [email protected].  For large quantity purchases, please email their sales department at [email protected]

I’m on the road today, so I don’t have time to explain the fascinating science behind this freaky new picture of feathered dinosaurs young and old. So let me just direct your attention to fellow D-blogger, Ed Yong, and Nature’s Janet Fang for more.

[Image by Xing Lida and Song Qijin]

If you’ve been following the Nokia N8 over the past few days, you’re well aware that it was given less-than-stellar marks by Mobile Review’s Eldar Murtazin.  After a few PR plugs (including the statement that the device shouldn’t be reviewed with pre-release software), Nokia has released an unedited sample video clip from the N8.  I have to say, for a cell phone, I’m really impressed.  If you’re looking for a device with a great camera/video camera, this device appears to be the one.  Check out the clip below.

{Widget type=”youtube” id=”dzvnnkPdfs” }

Via Engadget

Posted by Rick Pearson and John Chase at 12:43 p.m.; updated at 6:10 p.m. with Quincy rally

QUINCY, Ill. — Democrat Alexi Giannoulias got a boost in his ailing U.S. Senate campaign today in the form of a public shout out and hug from President Barack Obama.



Both the White House and Giannoulias tried to downplay the political importance of today’s event as they try to keep Obama’s old Senate seat in Democratic hands following last week’s seizure by federal regulators of the Giannoulias family bank.



“I’m excited to see the president but this is not a political trip to Quincy," Giannoulias said at a rally in Chicago before heading downstate for the event.



Earlier, White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters traveling with Obama that it would not “be appropriate for the president to talk about anybody’s campaign at what are all official events.”



Yet there was no mistaking the political implications for Giannoulias and his relationship with the White House as Obama closed out a two-day three-state campaign-style Midwest tour with a town hall event at the Oakley Lindsay Civic Center.



Obama mentioned Giannoulias’ name during his remarks. Later, the president gave a departing good-luck hug to Giannoulias, his former basketball playing buddy. Obama has been close with Giannoulias, providing a vital endorsement in getting Giannoulias elected state treasurer four years ago.



Prior to Obama taking the stage, White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod summoned Giannoulias out of his seat in the audience for a private backstage meeting. Axelrod said it involved “catching up” with the candidate.



A White House background sheet on the day’s activities, noting the elected officials from Illinois planning to attend the event, listed Giannoulias at the top, even though in ranking and seniority the state treasurer is last among the statewide offices.

Posted earlier…

Less than a week after his campaign was hit hard when federal regulators seized his family bank, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias said today he believes he has received appropriate backing from President Obama.

But Giannoulias downplayed his scheduled appearance today with Obama in downstate Quincy, saying he was going as state treasurer not as a candidate to fill the Senate seat Obama once held.

"The president and the White House are supportive. I’m excited to see the president but this is not a political trip to Quincy," Giannoulias said following a union rally in Chicago to support Obama’s Wall Street reform legislation.



Last week, Giannoulias said he didn’t plan to go to Quincy because he was "busy." But with questions swirling about how much Obama, a onetime basketball playing buddy of Giannoulias, is backing his candidacy, the appearance could help fend off some of those questions.



"I said (last week) I was going to try to make it, so we made myself available," Giannoulias said about what changed between last week and today.



Giannoulias at first didn’t want to take questions after the rally but acquiesced after being cornered by cameras as he cut through a post office on his way to his car.



During the rally, attended by about 150 people, Giannoulias criticized his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, saying Kirk has voted against Wall Street reform.

"As a U.S. congressman…when (the economy was) going great our national debt doubled," he said of Kirk after the rally. "So how can he talk about fiscal responsibility?"

Answering Giannoulias’ charges, Kirk spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said the North Shore congressman supports a compromise reform bill in the Senate. Kukowski also chided Giannoulias for having lost credibility on the issues of financial reform following the failure of his family’s Broadway Bank.

According to the White House, Obama will speak in Quincy about the need to approve Wall Street reforms. The advisory listed the Illinois public officials expected to attend. Giannoulias was listed first.

Also expected to attend are Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Secretary of State Jesse White, Comptroller Dan Hynes and House Speaker Michael Madigan. All are Chicago Democrats.

Iraq’s Secret Torture Prison

Human Rights Watch says hundreds of detainees at an Iraqi-run secret prison outside Baghdad were electrocuted, suffocated and beaten into confessing they were terrorists.

In case you missed it, General Motors has a new commercial out bragging about the company paying back all of its government debt. Last week, the company paid back the last $4.7 billion of its $6.7 billion loan. Does that make its commercial accurate? Technically, but if you consider the bigger picture, then this repayment looks much less significant than GM wants Americans to believe.

Here’s the commercial:

The key quote comes from GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre towards the beginning:

We have repaid our government loan in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule.

Again, this is technically true. The entire $6.7 billion loan has been repaid. But as pointed out last week, that was a small fraction of its $50 billion bailout. The U.S. government still retains 60.8% ownership in the firm, even though the tiny bit of debt has been repaid. So to act like GM is in the clear in regard to its obligation to the government is misleading at best and disingenuous at worst.

In fact, it shouldn’t have been very hard for GM to repay this loan — even without any profit. That’s because it used the equity injection from its bailout to repay the loan, according to Special Inspector General for TARP, Neil Barofsky. So even implying that GM was able to repay the government loans due to its improved performance is misleading. In reality, it just took money from Uncle Sam’s right hand and put it into his left.

(Nav Image Credit: JustMcCollum (Read Profile!) flickr)

Fetching over $131,200 when it went on auction last week, this Hildebrand & Wolfmüller motorcycle from 1894 was the first two-wheelin’ motorcycle ever to be put into production. More »

Yesterday we pointed out the growing fixation with with the correlation between Chinese equities and US equities. The question on everyone’s mind is: Does the decline in the Shanghai Composite foretell a similar decline here?

Our conclusion is that you needed more data to answer the question.

We still do, but while we’re looking at the question, here’s another angle. Chinese stocks have also acted as a leading indicator for commodities as this David Rosenberg chart (via PragCap) shows nicely.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Stock Market’s New Obsession: Is Shanghai A Leading Indicator?
• China’s Much-Vaunted Rebalancing Is A Joke
• Here’s A Property Boom That Makes A Mockery Of America’s (And It’s Not China)

Yesterday Modaco promised to release the instructions to root your HTC Desire. Well, today is the big day. If you’re ready to root your Desire and unleash its full potential, follow the instructions after the break.

Read this whole topic – it contains a ton of useful information as well as the instructions and downloads!

Remember that if you use this guide, you do so entirely at your own risk!

Welcome to my guide on how to root the HTC Desire – this is a ‘first cut’ of the guide, and will be refined / improved as time progresses!

Compatibility

This guide will allow you to root your HTC Desire, provided it has a bootloader version of 0.75 or below. To check this, turn off your device, then turn it back on with the ‘back’ key held. On the second line in green text you will see HBOOT- and then a number. Provided this is 0.75 or below, this guide should work for you.

O2 Germany devices are currently shipping with a 0.80 bootloader, and as such cannot be rooted using this guide at this time.

Desire rooting protection

Back in the early days of Android, rooting was easy. You had several options – you could flash stuff via the bootloader, you could flash an engineering bootloader, you could use kernel exploits – there were many ways of getting the low level access to your device that – in fairness – I think we as paying customers are entitled to. As time has progressed however, the manufacturers have made things harder and harder. The Desire is not a straightforward phone to root, for many reasons, including…

* a ‘perfected bootloader’ that doesn’t allow flashing or booting of any images (even HTC signed ones)
* a RUU flash process that does not allow downgrading of the bootloader to earlier versions
* a kernel (that as yet does not have publicly available source) that as yet has no known exploits
* a new protection method previously seen on the HTC Tattoo that protects key partitions from having write access. Even with SU access, it is not possible to write to the boot, recovery
or system partitions.

In reality, the options for rooting a device this secure are limited. Even if a kernel exploit were found, the key partitions would still be unwritable, rendering su access useless. This was circumvented on the Tattoo very cleverly, using a specific memory address from a confidential Qualcomm datasheet, however this information is not yet available for the Snapdragon chipset used in the Desire (and indeed may never enter the public domain).

And so the root process becomes a process of methodically probing every possible point of exposure on the device, looking for the slightest chink in the armour. I found one and we’re putting it to good use! The downside is that it’s not as easy or as pretty as rooting a device that is actually DESIGNED to be accessible at the lowest level, such as the Nexus One.

Shame on you HTC for going to such unnecessary lengths (but that’s another story for another day).

What this root process provides and does not provide

The root process will…

* flash your device with a new, generic 1.15.405.4 based ROM that has Superuser access
* show you how to enter the recovery image in future, allowing you to flash update zips

The root process will NOT…

* enable you to flash your device with a custom recovery image that can be launched easily by just holding down the volume down button when powering on
* enable you to have write access to the /system partition in normal use of the device

Both of these limitations are being worked on of course.

Pre-requisites

In order to complete this guide, you need the following…

* a HTC Desire
* a Windows machine (sorry, I am trying to remove dependencies on specific OS’)
* a Linux (a liveCD should do) or OSX machine (sorry, I am trying to remove dependencies on specific OS’)
* a microUSB cable
* a microSD card (to be made into a ‘goldcard’)
* the downloads below
* balls of steel (actually, I just made that up)

Downloads

To be ready for the guide, download the following items…

* the ‘test ruu’ – DOWNLOAD / MIRROR – MD5: f1981b26b90b97aea395d2b30909a23f
* the ‘push files’ – DOWNLOAD / MIRROR– MD5: 9ee301b702078dd1842bd1c67e552f6e
* the ‘rooted update’ – DOWNLOAD / MIRROR – MD5: 44f2614452ddf777cab9115e2174a91a

Once you have those on your machine, you’re ready to start!

The guide

Follow through these steps, one by one and at the end of it you’ll have a rooted Desire with the latest ROM.

Note: This process will wipe your device and there is currently no option to backup your device ROM before you start.

* Make your microSD card into a goldcard by following these instructions (it’s a good idea to back up the contents of your card first!)
* Copy the ‘rooted update’ you downloaded above to the root of your SD card, before replacing it into your device.
* Turn off your HTC desire, then turn it back on with the ‘back’ button held down. You’ll see ‘FASTBOOT’ written on the screen in a red box.
* Connect the phone to your computer, then run the ‘test ruu’ that you downloaded above (it may take a short while to start). Let the update complete and turn your device off as soon as it reaches the configuration wizard. If you need USB drivers, you can find them as part of the HTC Sync install.
* Your device should now be off. Unplug the device from your computer. Turn it on again while holding down the ‘volume down’ button this time. The screen will look similar to before, but will say ‘HBOOT’ instead of ‘FASTBOOT’. Use the volume buttons and the power button to select the ‘RECOVERY’ option. You should then see a screen with a red triangle – at this point, plug it into your Linux or OSX computer.
* Now you need to unzip the ‘push files’ zip that you downloaded above. When you have done so, you’ll see a file called ‘recovery-linux.sh’ or ‘recovery-mac.sh’. Run the one appropriate to your operating system and the screen of your device should change to display the green recovery image menu.
* In the recovery image (moving around using the optical trackball), select ‘Wipe -> Wipe data /factory reset’ then ‘Flash zip from sdcard’ and choose the rooted update. Confirm with the trackball and the update process will begin. It’ll take a little while, so go make a nice cup of tea.
* When the flash has finished, reboot, and you are DONE!

[via Modaco]

Posted by Michelle Manchir at 12:29 p.m.



SPRINGFIELD — After watching his own running mate’s candidacy implode in February, Gov. Pat Quinn today indicated he favors legislation that would require the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run as a team in the primary.



“That’s probably something that I would favor, but I want to look at the bill,” Quinn said. “Then the candidate for governor can tell the people who he or she wants as their running mate.”

The Senate sent Quinn the proposal Tuesday on a 56-0 vote in the wake of the Scott Lee Cohen debacle. The Chicago pawnbroker won the Feb. 2 Democratic lieutenant governor primary after spending more than $2 million of his own money, but quickly resigned after revelations of his tawdry past. Cohen was supposed to be Quinn’s running mate but now is exploring an independent run for governor.



If the legislation had been in place, Cohen would have had to find a governor candidate to team up with, which likely would have brought greater scrutiny of his background.



While Quinn said the team approach is “probably the healthiest way to go,” he might not be governor today if it had been law in 2002. Quinn won the Democratic lieutenant governor primary that year running a campaign against two lesser-known candidates. But there’s no guarantee any of the Democratic governor candidates would have picked the self-proclaimed maverick Quinn as a running mate if the team requirement was in place.



As it turned out, Quinn ended up as the running mate for Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached and removed by lawmakers in January 2010, paving the way for Lt. Gov. Quinn to become governor.

If you’ve been waiting for the Nexus One to hit Verizon, you can stop waiting. The HTC Droid will take the place of the Nexus One on the Verizon network, Google announced via a blog post Monday. It’s supposed to support better multi-touch sensors, so, win? Perhaps given the customer service issues that arose after the initial Nexus One launch – they didn’t even offer any phone support at first – Google decided it would be better to get out of the retail business. [Google via PhoneScoop]

What do you do when you have $40 billion in cash on hand? If you’re Apple, you go on a shopping spree. The latest acquisition in a string of corporate purchases is Intrinsity, another chip making company (Apple previously acquired PA Semi in 2008).

Although Apple has confirmed the purchase with the New York Times, there’s still no official word on its plans for the company or the price paid. At least one estimate places the value of the deal at $121 million. The purchase comes on the heels of a rumor that Apple had approached ARM with an offer to purchase the major chip design licensing company.

Intrinsity isn’t completely out of the ballpark, though it is less of an industry powerhouse by a wide, wide margin. Still, it confirms that Apple is increasingly interested in the chip design side of the computing business, something which the in-house designed iPad A4 is also further proof of.

It’s also possible that we have another situation like that surrounding the Quattro Wireless acquisition on our hands. In that case, Quattro Wireless was clearly second choice to mobile advertising company AdMob, which Apple had apparently bid on before it was acquired by Google. ARM could’ve similarly spurned Apple’s advances, at which point it would’ve turned its attention to more receptive targets, including Intrinsity.

But what about Intrinsity makes it so appealing to Apple specifically? Well, the Texas chip maker in question may be relatively small, but in this case, fast thing comes in small sizes. Intrinsity is known for making very fast versions of mobile device chips. Not only that, but it may actually be the company responsible for the speedy A4 chip found in the iPad, if rumors are true.

The same division of Samsung that developed the A4 for Apple apparently worked with Intrinsity to find a way to ratchet up the speed of chips that normally run at 650 megahertz to a much snappier 1000 megahertz. If it’s true, Apple just secured its speed advantage over the competition for at least a little while, and it did so without putting much of a dent in its massive cash reserves.

The move may also be intended as a means to jump-start Apple’s stalled plans to design its own brand new mobile chip from the ground up. Rumors circulating say that those efforts, which began with Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi, have since gone off the tracks since many former members of that company have left since the company’s purchase. A number of them ended up at Google last month.

Whatever the effect of the purchase, we probably won’t see any changes in the lineup until at least the next iteration of both the iPhone and the iPad. Let’s hope it means faster chips with lower power consumption for even bigger battery life gains.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: As Devices Converge, Chip Vendors Girding For a Fight