More legal shenanigans today, with the news that Motorola is on the receiving end of some bad news with regards to an existing spat with Microsoft over the use of technology inside Android tablets and smartphones.
A couple of days back, we brought you a universal rooting method for Gingerbread-based Samsung smartphones, courtesy of the hardworking folk of XDA developers. Today, we present you a similar discovery, this time for Motorola devices running the Big G's older smartphone software.
It seems that if you are the type of person who has a particular interest in watching competing technology companies go head to head in a legal battle, then Germany, or more specifically, Munich Regional Courts is the place where you should be. It is no secret that patent infringement cases have been sprouting up all over the place, with companies like Motorola Mobility, Apple and Samsung all trying desperately to get one up on each other through the legal system and strike a victory blow in the tense battle for smartphone domination.
It is proving to be extremely difficult to keep score in the on going legal disputes between Apple and Motorola, with both companies notching up temporary victories in the last few weeks. Today however, the victory banner will be printed with Apple's name, as the Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe, Germany, have ruled in the fruit company’s favor against Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI).
The Apple iPhone is no doubt a beautiful example how an almost-perfect design can help make a product great. The first iPhone in 2007 was a triumph for Sir Jonathan Ives and his team, but perhaps one of those most memorable and iconic parts of the iPhone is the slide to unlock feature on the lock screen which has been made famous by Apple. Before the iPhone was released, mobile phones generally featured some kind of two button combo to lock/unlock the device, but Apple managed to change that, and have since featured the same swipe gesture in their iPod touch device as well as the iPad.
If you cast your minds back to last year, you may remember Google's well-documented purchase of Motorola Mobility for just over $12 billion; it was, after all, quite a big deal. In a year in which software rival Microsoft also made a rather large telecommunications acquisition ($8.5 billion for Skype), the Big G reckoned the buy-out would supercharge its already-successful Android platform. With 700,000 daily activations over the festive period of last year alone, Android has grown to be come a focal point of the web company's business.
Is there no end to all this lawsuit madness? We've got Apple suing anyone who has ever been mad enough to put their name to a smartphone or a tablet, and everyone else is suing each other.
2011 was a year made up of mixed fortunes for Cupertino-based Apple. From a trading and financial aspect; they went from strength to strength with success of the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S becoming their most successful product launch in the companies history with 4 million units being sold in the first three days. Let us not forget that the share price also breached the $400 mark in 2011 for the first time.
We reported a couple of days back of Apple getting its comeuppance with rivals Motorola winning a preliminary injunction against the Cupertino company in Germany - threatening sales of iOS devices throughout Deutschland.
Apple has been on an aggressive suing spree lately: they’ve sued companies like HTC and Samsung and have seen great success with the latter as sales of products like Galaxy Ace, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 10.1 have been banned in some countries in Europe.
