It's becoming ever increasingly difficult to keep up with who is involved in litigation against who in the mobile smartphone industry. In the last few months Apple and Samsung have been at war against each other, and it was only this morning that a German court ruled in favor of Motorola Mobility in a separate patent case against Apple.
Just days after a German court ruled in favor of Apple in a patent infringement case against Samsung and the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a Mannheim court has swayed in the opposite direction and ruled against Apple in a separate suit involving Motorola Mobility. A previous preliminary ruling by the Independent Trades Commission had judged that Apple didn't have a case to answer in relation to Motorola's claims that the company has infringed upon their patents which are related to 3G connectivity.
Everybody likes to get money off their goods and service, so I think it is fair to say that every consumer loves it when a company has a sale, or offers a great deal on a great product. Most of us would like to see a lot more sales and reductions when it comes to Apple products, but considering they hold their value up well, companies can ultimately get away with staying true to recommended retail prices.
If fresh reports from Japanese news site Macotakara are to be believed, then the much anticipated iPad 3 tablet will be released towards the end of March, making it pretty much twelve months since the launch of the iPad 2. The blog is reporting that Apple will hold a media event sometime at the beginning of March to no doubt announce the new product and release the specifications and pricing models.
A Chronic Dev-Team member has just tweeted the news that Absinthe, the tool used for the jailbreak of A5 devices (iPad 2 and iPhone 4S) on iOS 5.0.1, has just been updated to version 0.4.
Rivalry is undoubtedly a positive thing, particularly in the gadget sphere. Without manufacturers competing for the affections of the fickle public, we'd have less devices, fewer choices, and our digital freedom could be severely compromised.
With the constant speculation surrounding the next generations of the iPad and iPhone, the iPod range of devices sometimes get overlooked. The iPod touch specification generally follows along the approximate lines of the newest generation iPhone when it comes to display and internal camera but the iPod nano is entirely different.
I make no secret of the fact that I am a massive jailbreak enthusiast. I have owned every iPhone since 2007, and both iPads and have eagerly jailbroken each and everyone of them as soon as the relevant tools are released or updated for the new devices and firmwares. I do it not just for the sake of it, but because I genuinely believe a number of tweaks and modifications which exist in Cydia enhance iOS and make it the best mobile operating system available.
It is becoming more and more increasingly difficult to jailbreak our devices. Once upon a time, when new hardware or software was released, there was a small interim period when the researchers tinkered with a few things and then voila, we had a viable jailbreak. Unfortunately, those days are long gone and with Apple releasing new devices and versions of iOS which contain fewer vulnerabilities and bugs, the production of tools capable of giving us the all important untethered jailbreak is getting harder.
It seems that meeting each other in a German court of law has become a regular occurrence for the lawyers representing Apple and the Korean electronics firm, Samsung. With the two companies still locked in disputes against each other over alleged patent infringements, it doesn't look as if the court appearances are going to end anytime soon. The current patent cases only serves to add to the intensity of the rivalry between the two smartphone vendors as they also compete against each other to become the world’s number one smartphone manufacturer.
