As part of the ongoing court battles with Samsung, Apple is seeking to recover a whopping $2.5 billion in damages for patent infringement, as well as $30 per device sold by Samsung, according to new court filings.
Although the chatter regarding the purported iPad Mini has been pretty relentless over the past couple of months, few people - if any - have really suggested how Apple plans to release two products at around the same time. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has built up a reputation of accurately predicting the Cupertino company's movements, has given his estimations on when Apple plans to release these new devices.
A couple of days ago, we reported of a hacker by the name of Alexey Borodin, who had found a way to exploit the in-app purchasing system of iOS. Apple always responds properly whenever there's a whiff of a security flaw, and as well as promising developers the issue will be completely resolved when iOS 6 arrives around October, the Cupertino outfit has delivered an interim fix.
Of all the features that arrived when iOS 5 reached the end-user back in October of last year, iMessage has been arguably the most significant, and by now allowing messages to be sent and received in a faster, more secure manner across a variety of platforms, it has to go down as one of the best in the business. Granted, it has its occasional downtime, but it's not bad as is, and with the service also arriving to the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion, it will almost certainly become the sole mode of quick communication to many Apple enthusiasts.
With the on-going development of iOS 6, the production of the next generation iPhone and the rumored smaller iPad, as well as the imminent release of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has been really scrutinized lately be a Russian researcher who found a way to bypass the in-app purchase process in apps available via the official App Store. The bypass procedure, involving an intermediary server and two iPhone certificates undoubtedly caused an internal headache at Apple and prompted almost immediate action.
Sparrow, the creator of those very popular iOS and OS X applications, has just been acquired by Google, in a move which will certainly raise more than a few eyebrows. Sparrow has dedicated its existence on making some altogether great apps for Apple's platforms, but it is the Big G that has decided to swoop for the start-up, and Sparrow will now join the Gmail team to "accomplish a bigger vision."
Although it has been recently reported that current Apple CEO Tim Cook has been meeting with Samsung executives to discuss the ongoing patent battles which are becoming laborious to both sides, it seems that it hasn't stopped the disputes from hitting the courts once again. In a United States appeals court, Samsung again had to experience defeat as a judge has seen no reason to overturn a sales ban relating to their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
As well as making any tech fan shudder, the drop tests of our much loved gadgets serve an educational purpose, because despite most consumers getting carried away with nice displays, sharp cameras and other great hardware features, few actually take into consideration how quickly it can all be lost with one spillage or drop on the floor.
The next phase of the continual trials between Samsung and Apple are expected to kick off in the US on July 30th, but as has been the case previously, no-nonsense Judge Lucy Koh ordered both parties to try and resolve their differences by means of a mediation meeting. According to an article previously accessible over at The Korea Times, Apple head honcho Tim Cook met with Samsung execs Choi Gee-sung and Shin Jong-Kyun on July 16th, but no agreement could be reached.
Personally speaking, I have been a user of iOS since the launch of the first iPhone back in 2007 and during that time I have always let Mobile Safari take care of my web browsing requirements. There has always been the temptation of fraternizing with some of the third-party browsers available on the App Store such as Apollo or SkyFire, but it always felt a little like cheating to move away from Apple's own offering.
