You can tell a lot about a person by just looking at their wallpaper. Are they using the same wallpaper that came with their device? From that, you can tell hey probably aren’t very tech savvy. Do they use a photo of Emma Watson as their wallpaper? They have a celebrity crush on her, guaranteed. Does the wallpaper significantly decrease text readability? Well, they could use a few tips on design. Does their wallpaper collection include photos of sweeping vistas? You’ve got a travelling fan right there. This is just how I sometimes read people.
After a well-documented and rather grueling court hearing, Apple has prevailed over its Korean-based rival Samsung in a number of patent disputes, and with a settlement of over a billion dollars having been dished out in the Cupertino's favor, a few of the nine-person jury have given their accounts of why they came to the decision that Apple was indeed just with its lawsuits.
Up until this week, it had been presumed Apple would announce the next iPhone, iOS 6, and a new, smaller iPad at a single event, but John Gruber - as informed as ever on the ins and outs of the Cupertino company - leaned towards the idea of the smartphone dropping first in September, with the "iPad mini" following in October.
Upon its arrival to market in early 2010, Apple's iPad really changed the way we compute, and where we became used to fold-out structure complete with a physical keyboard, the fruit company's offering was purely touch-based.
Although this particular chapter in the Apple vs. Samsung battle has come to an end with a nine person jury ruling in the majority of the instances that were brought before them, that Samsung were indeed guilty of infringing on patents that were owned by Apple Inc. The case was rather peculiar in the fact that until the jury actually came out of deliberation and announced their decisions, nobody could really tell which way the outcome was going to sway, but with Samsung now liable for $1.05 billion in damages to Apple, there is no longer a doubt.
The disagreements between Apple and Samsung had been bubbling away for quite some time, with the the companies first coming to blows relating to alleged patent infringements approximately 18 months ago. It isn't any secret that the two companies have been locked in a San Jose courtroom in California, with their legal teams presenting evidence and testimony to the judge and nine jurors in an attempt to show that they have been wronged in some way by their rivals in the smartphone and tablet market.
Apple suing Samsung, Samsung suing Apple back, Google buying Motorola (and its patent portfolio) and suing Apple, the patent wars are really starting to heat up again!
Earlier this week, reliable source John Gruber suggested Apple would likely hold two separate media events for its upcoming product range, and Jim Dalrymple - famous for his "yep" responses to Apple rumors - appears to agree with Gruber's sentiments.
When Google eventually took the plunge and pushed out the Chrome browser to the iOS App Store during the second day of their I/O conference in San Francisco, it answered the prayers of thousands of iPhone and iPad users who had been longing for a worthy competitor to the native Mobile Safari browser which Apple ships with the operating system. Chrome for iOS immediately jumped to the top of the App Store download charts and has remained there ever since with users loving the simple and elegant design with great features such as the Chrome Omnibar and gesture integration.
As is typically the case in the run-up to a new Apple product, much media attention has focused on what the Cupertino company will, and won't be including with the next-generation iPhone, dubbed unofficially as the iPhone 5.
