There has been enough back and forth over the last eighteen months between Apple, Samsung and the courts to ensure that we have heard the words patent and infringement enough times to last us for the rest of our lives. It hasn't been a secret that the two companies have been in major conflict over various technologies and features that have been included in Samsung's tablet and smartphone products, as well as some questions over the design of their releases. Samsung obviously hasn’t taken the situation lying down and although Apple is one of their largest component customers, they have chosen to fight the allegations head on, with it eventually ending up at trial this week.
It may come as a surprise given the handset's rip-roaring success, but Apple's iPhone very nearly didn't make it out of the company's development labs, according to a man who would know; Apple Senior VP of Design, Jony Ive.
I can imagine anyone who owns an iOS device has found themselves muttering the odd crossword under their breath whenever they click a link or an image in an app only for it to completely kick you out of the running app and decide to take itself off to a new page within Mobile Safari. I can understand why this issue occurs and unfortunately for the most part, it is a necessary evil if the user wants to visit or view information that hasn't been handled by the app developer.
The smartphone industry is one of the most fiercely contested in tech space, and although Windows Phone 8 will bring Microsoft well and truly into the fold, the battle is currently fought between Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms.
Although the Apple TV is becoming increasingly popular as time goes on, the company is still refusing to publicly acknowledge the product’s existence as a major player in their product arsenal, with Tim Cook and his executive team still referring to the set top box as a "hobby" project at every possible moment. Hobby or not, Apple TV is an extremely attractive product for millions of people and with the sales numbers going up every quarter, Apple has to start taking the product seriously sooner or later.
The future of the Facebook app available for download through the iOS App Store is something of a very much discussed topic at the minute. The social network behemoth took the decision to build their mobile apps using HTML5 to allow the projects to be easily supported across multiple platforms with the thinking obviously being that it doesn't need to be manually coded in each native language for release on multiple platforms. Unfortunately, it has been users who have suffered at the hands of that decision with the experience being frustratingly slow.
New sources have confirmed that Apple will announce the iPhone 5 on September 12th, with a release date coming just nine days later on the 21st of the same month. It would appear that the assumption that Apple would release the next iPhone in October may have been a little off, with the news that the unannounced handset is all-but confirmed to arrive on September 21st.
If you are the owner of an iPhone or iPod touch then the chances are high that you have delved into the official App Store to browse through the hundreds of thousands of available apps that have been submitted for download by developers from all over the world. As you know, the App Store contains apps of all genres and has pretty much something to cover all tastes. It may have also become evident that the majority of apps are also built around similar navigation methodologies and use similar, albeit heavily customized, iOS specific controls.
Now that the wait is finally over and Apple have released OS X Mountain Lion on the official Mac App Store for mass consumption, we can all sit back and relax safe in the knowledge that our beloved Mac machines are running the latest and most advanced operating system in the world. Apple's words, not ours. The initial popularity of Mountain Lion is there for all to see, with the positive App Store reviews mounting up and the general social chatter painting OS X 10.8 in a positive light it looks like Apple have a winner on their hands.
We’ve previously seen prototype iPhones and iPads from 2006 and earlier which show some of the many iterations the class-dominating smartphone and tablet went through before being finalized. Now, as the Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit continues to heat up even more, more and more classified design documents are making their way online for us to feast our eyes on.
