Apple Patent Suggests iWatch With On-Demand Bluetooth 4.0 LE Connectivity For Battery Conservation

If there’s one thing Apple has been criticized for, it would be its iPhone battery life where there are some users who find it ridiculous that Apple still relies on 1,500mAh-sized batteries while the competition is offering twice that amount. The reason for using smaller batteries is so that Apple can make their products thinner, and if the upcoming iWatch is any indication, we expect Apple will try to distinguish the device from the competition (such as the Samsung Galaxy Gear) by making it thinner. If a recent Apple patent is anything to go by, it would certainly seem that way, but in order to balance out the smaller battery, Apple would be turning to Bluetooth 4.0 LE for the connectivity between the phone and watch. According to the patent which describes an on-demand creation of a Bluetooth connection between devices, “The proximity profile defines a proximity notification alert that the supporting device sends to the device to advertise its shared access service to the network for devices within range. In one embodiment, upon receiving the proximity notification alert the device joins the supporting device’s shared access service and briefly connects to the network to receive push notifications or other messages, before disconnecting.” There’s no telling if this patent applies to the rumored iWatch, but what do you guys think? Samsung’s Galaxy Gear while a noble effort, has been criticized for its battery as well, especially given that it will most likely last users a day before requiring a recharge. In light of this criticism, we certainly hope that Apple will not be making that mistake as well.


source-ubergizmo.com

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iQi Is A Wireless Charger For Your iPhone That Will Fit Into Your Case

If there’s one feature that the iPhone lacks compared to the likes of some Android and Windows Phone devices is wireless charging. Granted at the moment wireless charging is not as useful as one might think, namely because you’d still need to place your device on top of the base charger, we guess there are still some out there who love it and have their uses for it. Well the good news is that while wireless charging may or may not come to iPhones in the future, the iQi wireless charger for the iPhone is an accessory worth taking a look at. As you can see in the video above, what makes the iQi so unique is that half of the wireless charging component is apparently thin enough to the point where it will slip inside your existing iPhone case no problem. If you don’t use an iPhone case then we guess you’d be out of luck, but if you already have a case you love and don’t want to switch it out, the iQi boasts a thinness that should fit in just fine. The iQi will be paired with a transmitter on which you place your iPhone on top of to begin the charging process. As it stands, the iQi is an Indiegogo project seeking funding where a pledge of $65 will nab you both the charger and the transmitter:


source-ubergizmo.com

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Apple drops Galaxy S III mini from patent case

More news today from the ongoing legal tussle between Apple and Samsung. Reuters reports that 1 Infinite Loop's lawyers have withdrawn the Galaxy S III mini handset from the company's ongoing patent infringement case against Samsung. The device was added to the lawsuitjust last month.

The decision stemmed from the fact that the Galaxy S III mini isn't available in the US and isn't likely to be sold here. Samsung had previously argued as much in asking that the phone be kept out of the lawsuit. It was initially added along with the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet and Android Jelly Bean OS. Although it wasn't officially available in the US, Apple's lawyers argued that the Galaxy S III mini should be included because they were able to purchase one through Amazon and have it delivered here.

source-TUAW

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Production lines running through Chinese New Year to meet iPad mini demand

As you celebrate this holiday season with a game of Angry Birds Star Wars on that new iPad mini, take a moment to consider the workers in China who are about to forego their traditional two-week Chinese New Year break. According to United Daily, at least two of Apple's suppliers in the country are planning to run their production lines right through the holiday to meet Chinese demand for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. will run at least some of its lines, while Flexium Interconnect, which makes Apple's printed circuit boards, is keeping its factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province open with the help of students.

While it appears that iPhone 5 supply has finally met demand in the US, the iPad mini continues to be hard to find here despite ship times from Apple's online store shrinking to one week earlier this month.

Source-TUAW

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Zophone i5, another iPhone 5 clone

Fancy the awesome looking iPhone 5 but cannot buy it because of its high selling price or because you just hate iOS 6? Well, there are a lot of options for you if you are willing for a China made smart phone. Yes, we are talking about another iPhone 5 clone from a Chinese manufacturer. A few days back, I wrote about the Goophone iPad Mini clone, the Goopad Mini, which was a perfect replica of the newly announced 7.9 inch iPad Mini. The same company, Goophone, has an iPhone 5 clone as well, known as the Goophone i5. And today, we are going to have a look at the Zophone i5, which is said to be one of the most iPhone 5 clones to hit the market.

The Zophone i5 has managed to replicate a lot of features of the iPhone 5, including the awesome 4 inch display with the same resolution of 1, 136 x 640 pixels. Not just this, the company has proved itself very capable by developing a Siri clone for the phone as well. If you think it could never duplicate the Lightning adopter that the Cupertino tech giant boasts about so much, you are wrong. The Zophone i5 has a Lightning port as well.

The Zophone i5 runs on a 1.2 GHz dual core Mediatek MT6577 processor. It features 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of on board memory. So you are not going to get 8 GB, 16 GB, and 64 GB variants. But the smart phone clone does give you the option to expand the on board storage with an external microSD card. The Zophone i5 features an 8 mega pixel camera on the back, and there is also a front facing camera (VGA I guess). To power up all these, the phone comes with a 1, 400 mAh battery. And you are going to miss the EarPods, as this just comes with normal earbuds. All this with the power of the Android operating system running on it. Yes.

The Zophone i5 is going to sell for just $200 in China. The international availability of this iPhone 5 clone is a doubt. So you will have to either import it, or fly to China and get one yourself. It still surprises me that in China, iPhone 5 clones started coming out to the market even before the official launch of the iPhone 5.

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iPhone 5 16 GB Factory Unlocked to cost $649

If you have been waiting for the factory unlocked iPhone 5 to come to the market, your wait seems to be coming to an end soon. This is because a new report on Apple Insider has a screenshot from the official US Apple online store which lists the factory unlocked iPhone 5. Apple Insider reports that over the weekend, when the online publication tried the search string “iPhone 5 factory unlocked” on the US Apple online store, and got the prices for the respective models.

The prices for these factory unlocked iPhone 5 smart phones remain the same as the prices for the factory unlocked iPhone 4S smart phones. You can get the 16 GB model for $649, the 32 GB model for $749, and the 64 GB model for $849. In some countries, the Cupertino tech giant releases the factory unlocked version of the iPhones soon after the release of the wireless carrier locked version of the smart phone. But in the United States, that is not the case. In the United States, there will be a delay of at least 6 weeks between the release of the carrier locked iPhone and the factory unlocked iPhone.

For example, the wireless carrier locked iPhone 4S was launched in early October. The pre orders for the factory unlocked version of the iPhone 4S started in early November. And the shipping of these factory unlocked iPhone 4S smart phones did not start until the third week of November, which is exactly 6 weeks after the launch of the carrier locked iPhone 4S.

Now, we are well into 6 weeks after the release of the wireless carrier locked iPhone 5. So we can expect the Cupertino tech giant to start taking pre orders for the factory unlocked version of the iPhone 5

source-tuaw

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Apple Spends 2 Percent in Overseas Tax Spending

The top executives at Apple has once again showcased their knack at avoiding the punitive hands of the tax collector after the Silicon Valley-based tech company reported a 2 percent tax spending for the chunk of money generated by the sales of their products overseas in the last fiscal year.

According to its annual report filed with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple only shelled out $713 million in taxes on $26.87 billion in foreign profits.

On the other hand, the iPhone maker spent a whopping $12.26 billion in federal taxes and $1.06 billion in state taxes for the profits they earned in the United States.

Apple’s growing business empire was attributed to its engaging line of innovative products and tax strategies overseas.

Like many multi-national conglomerates, Apple is racking up the large portion of their profit money from the sales of their products abroad, where tax policies are lax and favorable for their business.

However, these profits tend to stay overseas as companies tried to avoid an onerous 35 percent tax rate if they decided to ‘repatriate’ their money obtained in foreign lands back to the United States.  Several companies such as Cisco Systems have previously asked for tax relief for the repatriation of their overseas profits.

Despite spending an incredibly cheap amount of money for their overseas taxes, Apple has not utilized any loopholes just to prevent paying lucrative taxes.

Instead, the company’s top executives used their smarts to capitalize on the slack tax regulations abroad, giving them the leverage to spend less out of their enormous profits.

“These technology giants are playing by the rules, but the problem is the rules are broken. Who sets the rules? The government. And yet the government all but takes it out on the individual taxpayer by making them drag the country out of economic downturn kicking and screaming,” said ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker.

With the competition in the U.S tech market increasingly becomes tighter than ever, Apple will not stop at tapping all possible options to capitalize on the profit opportunities at tax-friendly countries such as China and India.

source-CNET

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LTE iPhone 5 coming to EE and Three in UK, but not O2 and Vodafone

Brits ready to stake their preorder claim this Friday might have a harder time deciding between the myriad of networks offering the device. While all of the major UK carriers will be ready to offer you the iPhone 5, that LTE radio will only be working on the newly-christened EE from the start, with Three likely to use that purchased spectrum (after getting the okay from Ofcom) to similar effect in the near-future. Unfortunately for Vodafone and O2, the forthcoming Ofcom spectrum auction is gearing up to sell off the 800MHz (Band 20) and 2.6GHz (Band 7) frequencies -- neither of which are found on Apple's multiple iPhone 5 models, and the latter being a bigger problem in Europe and Asia, where LTE networks already make use of the 2.6GHz frequency. However, Apple have followed up an initial phone launch with additional network-specific models before -- so there's a slim chance we could see another model at a later date. All the UK carriers are keeping their contract prices a tightly-guarded secret at the moment, but we'll update as soon as we hear more. Meanwhile, those on that little European isle can expect to pay £529 for the entry-level iPhone 5 from the source when pre-orders start this Friday.

Apple UK

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iOS-like notifications coming to iCloud web apps

With the release of the new iPhone 5 and the accompanying new operating system, iOS 6, Apple is working to make the overall user experience iOS-like. In the new iOS 6, we have seen a lot of iCloud integration. The new photo sharing service with “like” and “comments” like those on Facebook, the Cuperitno based tech giant is working hard on combining social network, mobile telephony, business, and personal lives together, giving one unified service to its customers.
In an attempt to make this happen, the company has now updated the web apps on its iCloud service to reflect the look and feel iOS, its mobile operating system found on all of its post PC devices.
If you have an iCloud account, which you certainly will if you have an iPad or an iPhone, you will now be able to see the changes when you access it from a browser. There is a new notifications bar just like the one in iOS which will alert you of new incoming notification, be it a new email, event reminder, or the like.

The little badges on app icons indicating the number of notifications on that particular app is nothing new to us. We have seen such badges from the very first version of the operating system. Now though, the company has taken it a step further and has brought the same notification system to the iCloud web apps as well.
Now, you will see those badges indicating the number of unread emails, or the number of meetings you have scheduled for today, etc., even in the web interface. Well, how do you get those? Simple, just keep a tab or a window of your browser open with the iCloud website loaded and signed in. Keeping the window open is necessary to get these real time notifications. If you call this a drawback of the service, most real time browser based web apps also require to be kept open for real time notifications to work. So you will just have to get used to it.
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iPhone Thefts: ‘Apple Picking’ on the Rise

Cities across the country are on alert as officials warn of an uptick in stolen Apple products, dubbed “Apple picking.”

According to the Federal Communications Commission, 30-40 percent of robberies in several major cities involve cell phones, including 38 percent in Washington, D.C. and 40 percent in New York City.

Las Vegas police broke up two rings of cell phone thieves on September 6.

“What this started with, we had a normal report of a theft. Somebody stole someone’s cell phone,” said Bill Cassell of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. “Our officers started investigating and realized there were a lot of other similar instances.”

The LVMPD connected these robberies because they all seemed to target similar victims.

“They were all targeting people in fast food restaurants, coffee shops, people walking on street,” Cassell said. “The victims all had a similar profile too. They were all focused on their cells phones, inattentive of their surroundings and looked like they wouldn’t put up a fight.”

The thieves, many of them juveniles, would either ask to borrow the victim’s cell phone and run off with it or simply grab it from their unsuspecting victims.

“We tracked down some of the individuals involved and in doing this, realized there were two groups of people doing the same crime the same way. But they weren’t associated,” said Cassell.

One of the groups was charged with 14 cell phone thefts. The other has been charged with seven thefts, but according to Officer Cassell, the investigation of 20-30 thefts is still on-going.

The recent increase in cell phone thefts has prompted action from both the government and major wireless carriers.

In April, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, along with Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced new initiatives to combat the thefts.

Genachowski announced the creation and implementation of a database to prevent the use of stolen smartphones. With this new system, which is expected to launch in the coming months, a cell phone user can report their device stolen and their carrier will block the device from being used.

Officials believe that the registry will cut cell phone thefts. Even more dangerous is the threat of stolen personal information stored on smartphones.

“That’s what we’re most worried about, the tremendous amount of information these people are stealing,” Cassell said.

Beyond monetary consequences, many people are injured or even killed during robberies.

Hwangbum Yang, 26, a chef at a restaurant in Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, was shot and killed during a cell phone robbery on his way home from work in April.

In 2011, 17-year-old Prince Watson was charged with the murder of Sally Katona-King, 68, when he shoved her down the stairs in an attempt to steal her iPhone, according to ABC Chicago affiliate WLS.

And device thefts are not limited to the street or coffee shops.

Last week, a California man was accused of driving his SUV through an Apple store in Temecula and stealing thousands of dollars worth of display items. The investigation is still on-going

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App of the Week: YouTube for iOS Runs on iPhone, iPod

App Name: YouTube

Price: Free

Available Platforms: iOS (new iPhone App), iPod Touch, and Android

What does this app do? With this week’s announcement of Apple’s iPhone 5 and iOS 6, it’s fitting that Google should follow suit with something new too. It released YouTube in app form for the iPhone and iPod touch. (If you hadn’t heard, Apple will stop pre-loading Google Maps and YouTube in iOS 6.)

Developed by YouTube engineers, the latest app comes with thousands of more videos, according to a blog post by Andrey Doronichev, head of YouTube mobile.

Log in with your email account, and use a tab at in the upper left hand corner to toggle between the YouTube home feed and your own collection of channels. With one swipe to the left, you can view channels you subscribe to, or, if you are a newcomer, peruse the home feed, which you can adjust to show highlights or uploads only.

Tapping on a video will reveal a few familiar icons on the screen allowing you to like or dislike a video, and view it in full screen mode. You can also comment on or share your selection using Google+, Twitter, Facebook, or email.

Some additional functions allow you to add all of those “cute-cat-doing-funny-things” videos to playlists or favorites, and flag it to watch later.

Is it easy to set up? Yes. Although the app will not come built into iOS 6 as it did with previous versions of Apple’s operating software, the standalone version downloads in seconds. Log in with your email account and go!

Should I try it? When you think of online video sharing sites, likely you think of YouTube before anything else. The app’s channel guides, sharing capability and full screen mode make viewing videos on your mobile device effortless.

One drawback? Google now allows ads to appear on the screen. That aside, this is a very clean and easy-to-navigate app.

read original article here

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You Can Now Pre-Order the iPhone 5

If it is 3:01 a.m. ET or past that time, you can now pre-order the iPhone 5 from Apple, Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint’s websites. No matter where you shop, the 16GB model will start at $199 with a two-year contract. Apple will offer an unlocked version of the phone — one that isn’t tied to a carrier — for more money but it isn’t expected to go on sale today.

While it will be late at night for many, lots of people are expected to get up in the wee hours of the morning, fork over their credit card numbers and order the phones. The iPhone will actually ship to those who order in one week, on Friday, Sept. 21st.

The new phone, which was announced earlier this week, has a number of new features, including a larger 4-inch display, LTE, a faster processor, improved camera and a new design. You can check out our guide to the top new features here.

Even before the phone was announced, iPhone owners began to sell their phones on sites like Gazelle and Glyde. According to those sites, iPhone sales have been at an all-time high over the last few weeks as people prepared to buy the new phone. Analysts predict that Apple could sell as many as six to 10 million iPhone 5s before the end of September.

Apple and the cellular carriers will begin selling the phone in stores on Sept. 21st at 8 a.m. ET. And in typical Apple product launch fashion, lines are expected.

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Apple sets September 12 event, latest iPhone expected

(Reuters) - Apple Inc distributed invitations to an event in San Francisco on September 12, setting the stage for what is widely expected to be the release of the iPhone 5.

The typically cryptic invitation said "It's almost here", sported a number 12 - corresponding to the date of the event - and cast a large shadow of the number 5, a clue that the fifth version of the popular smartphone could be in the pipeline.

Apple's iPhone launches are among the most-watched events on the tech industry calendar. The latest version of the company's main product -- generating more than half its revenue -- may sport a larger, higher-end screen, sources have said.

The new screen could measure 4 inches from corner to corner, one source has said, an increase from the 3.5-inch display that has been held constant since the smartphone began selling in 2007 and revolutionized the mobile industry.

Some analysts say the larger screen may be a response to rival Samsung Electronics, whose larger, Google Android phones have helped it become the world's biggest smartphone maker.

Speculation had also arisen in past months that the company might offer details about a smaller version of its iPad, but the emailed invitation offered no hint of that on Tuesday.

The event will take place at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the preferred venue for the unveiling of past products such as the iPad.

The new iPhone will hit store shelves in time for the crucial holiday season. Shares in the company edged 0.6 percent higher to $669.44.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Cruxskunk Keyboard Case Turns Your iPad Into a Laptop

Cruxcase has debuted a new keyboard case that turns your iPad into a laptop.
For $155, the Cruxskunk has a full-sized QWERTY keyboard with raised keys, Bluetooth connectivity to hook up to your iPad and a patent-pending hinge that allows for 360 degrees of rotation, according to the company’s Kickstarter page. It is compatible with the newest iPad and the iPad 2.
Put together, the keyboard case and iPad combination is 19 mm tall — slightly more than a Macbook Air at 17 mm. The Cruxskunk alone is 6 mm tall.
The three main parts of the case are made from “a single piece of aircraft grade aluminum in the exact same process that Apple machines its Macbooks and iPads,” the creators say. They claim that those who have seen the Cruxskunk have mistaken it for a Macbook Pro.
Cruxcase, which creates products that integrate with Apple devices, has made similar cases over the last two years. Last year, it launched Crux Loaded for the iPad 2.
As of Monday, the company has raised more than $135,000 with 30 days remaining in its Kickstarter campaign. It surpassed its original goal of $90,000 last week. Those who pledge will receive a leather sleeve for carrying the Cruxskunk and a USB cord for charging its battery.
Cruxskunk says it plans to produce its first samples in mid-October, and begin full production in late October. The parts will be manufactured and assembled in China. The company adds that it hopes to start shipping in December.

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iPad Mini's 'Guts' May Combine Old, New Technologies

 

A developer of a popular mobile app believes he's discovered evidence of what the insides of the rumored iPad Mini will look like and why it could sell for as low as $249.
Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, an iOS app for clipping and reformatting online content for reading later, deduced in his blog Thursday that iPad Mini will be essentially an iPad 2 in a smaller package with the graphics chops to run a Gruber display but not Apple's eye-popping Retina display.
"It’s a textbook Tim Cook supply-chain move: selling the last generation’s hardware at a lower price point to expand marketshare," Arment writes.
"But this time, it's more dramatic," he adds. "Rather than just sell the original iPad 2 with a price cut, they've made a new product designed to be far less expensive from day one by combining old and new parts: the 32nm iPad 2’s guts, larger-cut iPhone 3GS screens, a smaller case and battery, and the new iPhone’s low-power LTE chip for $100 more. "
"I bet they could sell that for $249, and that would be a steal," he adds.
Armant reached his conclusions about the Mini after reviewing device statistics delivered to him by his Instapaper user base. Those stats showed two new iPad models—iPad2,5 and iPad2,6.
While acknowledging that the new model designations could be faked by jailbreaking an iPhone, that's not consistent with Armant's prior experience with information appearing in his app's device stats. " I’ve never had a device show up there that didn't end up being a real, about-to-be-released Apple device," he wrote.
The two new iPad 2s could be upcoming revisions of the existing iPad 2, but the developer maintained that would be unlikely, considering how late the device is in its lifecycle. "The much more likely explanation is that iPad2,5 and iPad2,6 are the new 'iPad Mini' in Wi-Fi and GSM, and I haven’t recorded the likely iPad2,7 CDMA version yet," he writes.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Apple will be going to AU Optronics and LG Display for displays for the Mini and TPK Holding, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group, for the lamination coating for the 7.85-inch screens.
Sharp, a large supplier of displays for Apple products, will be shut out of the initial Mini runs, the report noted.
The Japanese company may already have too much Apple on its plate. It hasn't even started producing screens for the next iPhone 5, expected to reach retailers September 21, according to The Wall Street Journal. That development is raising questions about Apple's capability to meet the initial demand for the handset, the Journal says.

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Google seeks to distance itself from $1B Apple patent verdict

Some two days after Apple's lopsided patent victory over Samsung, the Korean electronics giant's pseudo silent partner is breaking its silence.
Google, which provides the Android operating system that Samsung devices use, issued a statement this evening that sought to distance itself from the case, saying that most of the patents in question "don't relate to the core Android operating system."

The statement, provided to The Verge, also points out an appeals court will review the verdict and that the U.S. Patent Office is re-examining "several" of the patents in the case:
 The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims. Most of these don't relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the US Patent Office. The mobile industry is moving fast and all players -- including newcomers -- are building upon ideas that have been around for decades. We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don't want anything to limit that.

The statement comes after a jury in a San Jose, Calif., courtroom on Friday ruled overwhelmingly in favor of Apple's patent claims against Samsung, awarding $1.05 billion in damages.
While Google steered clear of strong language, the two parties in the lawsuit showed no such restraint. Samsung called the verdict "a loss for the American consumer" and vowed that "this is not the final

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Microsoft And Apple Team Up To Buy Patents of Kodak

In what looks like a reprisal of sort, Microsoft and Apple is collaborating to buy the patent portfolio of the financially troubled tech giant Kodak, according to a news report.
Wall Street Journal reported that both companies are planning to team up to acquire some or all of Kodak’s over 1100 patents in a bid that will end at the beginning of next week. Both companies will be joined by Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, a patent aggregation firm, to form a formidable bidding team.
The opposing bidding group is composed other big tech companies like Samsung, Google, LG, HTC, and a San Francisco patent buyer RPX company.
In June 2011, Nortel’s patent portfolio was purchased by Apple, Microsoft,  Research in Motion, Sony, Ericsson, and EMC, beating out Google and Intel in the bidding. That group led by Apple and Microsoft put up a $4.5 billion bid to secure the intellectual property of Nortel which included a variety of technologies and patents  for data networking, optical, voice, wireless 4G, Internet, applications for wireless, semiconductor technologies.  The first bidder was Google, which pledges $900 million in cash.
The Wall Street Journal believes that Kodak’s patents collection is worth less than half of Nortel’s patent portfolio. Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection early this year and is required by law to sell off some of its intellectual property collection to pay off its $950 million loan acquired from Citigroup. Kodak will be split into two major divisions: one will cover around 700 patents for digital-capture technology, while the other one will cover 400 document imaging technologies.
Although sale of these patents was put up last year, it is interesting to note that Kodak is only one of the latest big companies selling their collections of patents in recent months. Besides Nortel, other companies like King of Prussia and Microsoft are also getting rid of their patent collection and patent applications. King of Prussia, based in Pennsylvania, traded off 1700 patents to Intel worth $374 million while Microsoft  secured a non-exclusive license to patents of AOL that costs around $1.056 billion in cash. And of course, who would miss the purchase of Motorola by Google this year. Google disclosed that Motorola’s patents and other technologies costs around $5.5 billion. Google bought Motorola for $12.4 billion.
Needless to say, the current shift in patent ownership may or may not put the technologies in good use, creating a more vibrant and interesting technology world. Well see how these purchases will fare in the near future.

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Apple to post online that Samsung did not copy them

Apple has been claiming that Samsung "slavishly copied" the looks of the iPad. However, it is proving tough to convince the courts. This is especially true for the U.K. Judge, Colin Birss. Bloomberg are reporting that this is the same judge that previously threw out Apple's case against Samsung proclaiming that Samsung's tablets were unlikely to be confused with Apple's iPad because they weren't "cool enough." He has taken things a step further in his final ruling and has ordered Apple to publicly state on their own website that Samsung did not copy them. Here's a quote with some additional detail:

A U.K. judge ordered Apple Inc. (AAPL) to publish a notice on its website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics Co. didn't copy designs for the iPad.
The notice should outline the July 9 London court decision that Samsung's Galaxy tablets don't infringe Apple's registered designs, Judge Colin Birss said. It should be posted on Apple's U.K. website for six months and published in several newspapers and magazines to correct the damaging impression the South Korea-based company was copying Apple's product, Birss said.
The order means Apple will have to publish "an advertisement" for Samsung, and is prejudicial to the company, Richard Hacon, a lawyer representing Cupertino, California-based Apple, told the court. "No company likes to refer to a rival on its website."

Apple may have to stand in the corner for the rest of lunch break and possibly have to send a letter of apology to Mr. Samsung for being such a big silly.
Posted by: Gareth


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Jet Set Radio Coming to iOS and Android Devices

We already knew that Jet Set Radio was getting an HD release for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC download but now Sega have announced that there will also be versions for the iPad, iPhone and Android devices.


“Jet Set Radio for iOS and Android includes the same slick gameplay, genre-blending soundtrack, and pioneering art style as the other versions alongside new features like OpenFeint and Retina display support and the awesome ability to use pictures taken with your phone or tablet’s camera as in-game graffiti! Traverse Shibuya terminal on the train, silence the Love Shockers on your lunch break, blast through Benten-cho while boarding a bus and upload achievements to Facebook while riding a ferry; Jet Set Radio will be a dream come true for portable gamers everywhere!” Sega said in a press release today.
Are you as excited as I am for a re-release of Jet Set Radio? Now, if only they would give us the exact release date. Check out the mobile version gallery below:


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Apple adds 'Food and Drink' section to App Store

Apple has added a 'Food and Drink' section to its App Store.

The new addition plays host to restaurant locators, recipe applications and other culinary-related software for iOS devices.

Major outlets such as Starbucks, McDonald's and Pizza Hut will have their official apps moved to the dedicated section.

The Starbucks app quickly shot to the top of the chart for most downloaded free 'Food and Drinks' apps, while Food Network's in the Kitchen app is the most popular premium product.

More than 3,000 apps are currently available in the new section, but food subjects such as dieting, shopping, and coupons will continue to be hosted elsewhere.

Apple announced at last month's Worldwide Developers Conference that more than 30 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store. 


source -  digitalspy

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