The ongoing patent battle between Apple and its bitter rival Samsung has taken yet another turn, this time with a Tokyo court ruling that Apple can continue to sell their industry leading iPhone smartphone in Japan. Samsung Electronics had filed two separate claims in Japan over the last few weeks, both claiming that the iPhone infringed on patents held by the Korean company in the hope that the court would agree with them and ban the sale of the device altogether in Japan. No such luck.
Reports coming out of Korea today are suggesting that Samsung Displays have already taken the internal decision to terminate an ongoing contract with Apple in a move which means that the company will no longer supply the Cupertino-based giants with Liquid Crystal Display panels for their mobile devices. Although Apple and Samsung have been long-term corporate partners, the rivalry that has been growing between the two companies has been intensifying of late with the relationship eventually reaching meltdown.
Google's Chromebook hasn’t proved to be quite popular amongst the general consumer since first being announced at last year's I/O, and the Mountain View-based outfit has just announced a new addition to the roster. Sundar Pinchai, Senior VP of Chrome and Apps, has revealed the $249 kit for release next week, while special kiosks will begin popping up over 500 of the most heavily-populated Best Buy stores across the US to give prospective consumers a taster of what's on offer.
Apple might have had the most notable and high-profile win in the on-going patent battle with Samsung when a judge in San Jose ruled that more than $1 billion in damages were due to the company from Samsung, but it hasn't all been about victory for Apple who have had their fair share of patent related setbacks. One of the latest has come right from the United Kingdom where an Apple appeal to have an earlier ruling overturned has proven unsuccessful.
I'm not sure about you, but I love seeing some of the most sought after, well-crafted and technologically-advanced gadgets be torched, chopped and dropped - all in the name of pure entertainment. While thousands - if not millions - of consumers save up their pennies for months in order to afford their next big tech purchase, there's always a company or organization out there simply tarnishing them and filming the result for our viewing pleasure.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that the iPhone 5 has been received with great enthusiasm from consumers. Apple is already struggling to stock out their inventories in order to fulfill backlogged orders and a large number of official Retail Stores still don't have any to offer to consumers three weeks down the line.
It may not have been on the radar that much in the last few weeks due to everything that has been going on with both companies, but the differences that exist between Apple and Samsung relating to various infringements on held patents is still well and truly going on. Although, Apple has largely had the upper-hand in the dispute, a United States Court of Appeals has overturned the preliminary injunction that had earlier been placed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
When it was introduced last year, the Galaxy Note created a big divide among the general online community of technology enthusiasts because of its polarizing display size. At 5.3-inch, it was too big to be a smartphone and too small to be a tablet*. Reviews from popular publications reflected this, with some calling it an awesome, category-defining device, while others felt it was the worst mix of smartphone and tablet features.
The Galaxy S III has some of the best specifications in the smartphone market with a Super AMOLED 720p HD display, super-fast quad-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but there is one thing about it that me and many other technology enthusiasts, particularly owners of ‘smaller’ smartphones like the iPhone 4S, just don’t like: the huge 4.8-inch display. It’s great for watching videos and playing games, but it’s just terrible for using everyday apps with one hand.
With their $199 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet successfully launched in the market and successfully received by critics, Google may be eyeing the high end tablet market to take on the 9.7-inch iPad and upcoming Windows 8-based tablets directly. This comes by way of a new report which we have discussed after the break.
