trial

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on trial:

Epic Games vs. Apple battle could end in a jury trial

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iPhone with gavel.
The verdict may be in the hands of the people.
Photo: Tingey Injury Law Firm/Cult of Mac

The Apple vs. Epic Games antitrust lawsuit could come down to jurors to decide. According to a Monday report from Bloomberg, the federal judge overseeing the case has said that a jury trial could ultimately turn out to be the best way to resolve the case.

While U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland, California has not yet ordered such a case, she indicated that it might be a scenario where jurors are the ones best equipped to decide an outcome.

Spotify now matches Apple Music’s 3-month free trial

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Spotify app now playing screen
Spotify and Siri are finally a team.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Spotify is now matching Apple Music’s generous three-month free trial for new subscribers.

The offer is available to eligible individual and student users who sign up for any Spotify Premium plan, starting today. It will be extended to support Duo and Family Plans in the coming months.

Apple and Qualcomm will face off in court in April

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Qualcomm headquarters
This is set to be a major legal battle in 2019.
Photo: Qualcomm

A trial date has been announced for the long-brewing Qualcomm vs. Apple lawsuit. According to a new report, it will take place on April 15, 2019.

While Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf recently suggested that the two companies are “on the doorstep of a resolution,” Apple’s attorney insists that this is not the case. “There have been unfortunate articles lately that the parties are close to a settlement, and that is not true,” attorney William Isaacson said. “There haven’t been talks in months.”

macOS developer explains why App Store trials are flawed

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App Store
Apple's trial solution just won't work for some developers.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s updated App Store guidelines finally give developers the ability to offer free trials for all apps — not just those that require a subscription. It’s a great move for users and creators, and something we’ve been demanding for a long time, but it has its problems.

Daniel Jalkut, developer of the MarsEdit blogging app for Mac, lists eight reasons why Apple’s approach to app trials is flawed.

Samsung must pay Apple $539 million for violating iPhone patents

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Samsung
Samsung argued it should pay just $28 million.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A jury has decided that Samsung must pay Apple $539 million in damages, following four days of deliberation — and years of ongoing legal battles.

The verdict is almost exactly in the middle of the $1 billion in damages Apple was requesting, and the $28 million Samsung’s lawyers felt the South Korean tech giant should pay.

Finding unbiased jurors for Apple vs. Samsung trial wasn’t easy

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Samsung
Apple and Samsung went back to court this week. Or tried to.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

There have been no shortage of days in court in the ongoing Samsung vs. Apple legal battle, which has raged since 2012. Something that is lacking? Unbiased jurors, apparently.

While a new round of courtroom drama kicked off this week, it apparently took a long time on day one to find jurors who were in a position to make a non-biased judgement. In all, multiple candidates were excused for various reasons of partiality. Here are some of them.

Here’s who Apple will call to the stand in its latest Samsung trial

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iPhone with Samsung
The latest Samsung vs. Apple trial kicks off next month.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple has revealed which executives will be taking the stand when it comes to court for its latest bout with Samsung — and, no, sadly that doesn’t include Tim Cook or Jony Ive.

Instead, at Apple’s May 14 hearing it will call Richard Howarth, senior director of the Apple Design Team, and Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing to testify. More intriguingly, it will also call original Mac icon designer Susan Kare to the stand.

LAPD hacked iPhone 5s as part of murder investigation

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iphone_gun
Investigators have managed to unlock the iPhone 5s.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

After the FBI successfully hacked the iPhone 5c as part of the San Bernardino shooting case, newly-released court papers show that Los Angeles police investigators have obtained a method of unlocking its higher-end sibling, the iPhone 5s.

The iPhone 5s belonged to the dead wife of former The Shield actor Michael Jace, who was killed at the couple’s South L.A. home in 2014. The keycode security bypass took place last month, and was achieved with the help of an unnamed “forensic cellphone expert.”

iPhone owners snap up all of Samsung’s test drive devices

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iphone-owners-snap-up-all-of-samsungs-test-drive-devices-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508header-img-jpg
Samsung has already run out of test drive handsets.
Photo: Samsung
Try Samsung's latest smartphones for free. Photo: Samsung
Samsung has already run out of test drive handsets. Photo: Samsung

Samsung has been forced to postpone its Ultimate Test Drive promotion that gives iPhone owners the opportunity to try out its latest devices free for 30 days. The South Korean company says it ran out of test drive devices in just a few hours after “overwhelming demand.”

Apple wins at last: iTunes DRM was ‘genuine improvement,’ jury finds

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iPod
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The verdict is in, and after nearly a decade of legal wrangling, Apple has prevailed in the class-action lawsuit seeking over $1 billion in damages by iPod owners who claimed the company conspired to kill competing music services by adding restrictions to iTunes.

The eight-person jury found Apple not liable of adding DRM restrictions as an anti-competitive move toward rival players like RealNetworks from 2006 to 2009. The Verge reports that the jury unanimously delivered the verdict this morning and said that iTunes 7.0 is a “genuine product improvement” that increased security for consumers.

Google bombshell didn’t affect Apple-Samsung verdict

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For the second time in a row Samsung has been found guilty by a U.S. court of ripping off Apple’s patents, but according to the jury foreman in the latest Apple vs Samsung case, there wasn’t a single piece of evidence or testimony that sealed Samsung’s fate.

Jury members met with the media after being dismissed Monday morning, including ex-IBM executive and jury foreman Thomas Dunham, who said the revelation that Google agreed to protect Samsung from damages on a couple of patents in the trial was the biggest shocker of all.

Jury’s in: Samsung found guilty of infringing Apple’s patents, again

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Samsung is after more of Apple's iPhone business.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The jury is done deliberating. The results are in. And Samsung is guilty. Again.

Weeks of legal sparring between Apple and Samsung has finally culminated this week in San Jose, as a federal jury just ruled that Samsung did indeed infringe on at least one of Apple’s patents while it only partially infringed on others.

Jury Orders Samsung To Pay Apple Another $290 Million

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galaxys3andsamsung

Apple’s re-trial with Samsung over patent infringement has just concluded with the federal jury ruling that Samsung owes Apple an extra $290 million for infringing on the iPhone maker’s patents.

The award is significantly more than the amount Samsung hoped to pay, though Apple’s lawyers didn’t get all the money they wanted either. Including damages awarded from the original trial, Samsung’s bill for Apple now totals $929.83 million worth damages – unless they successfully appeal of course.

Scott Forstall May Appear As An Apple Witness At Samsung Retrial

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Scott Forstall. Photo: Apple
Scott Forstall. Photo: Apple

Apple and Samsung are headed back to San Jose on November 12 to clash again over the retrial of their billion-dollar patent lawsuit that Apple won in 2012, and it looks like Scott Forstall might be coming back to testify as a witness for Apple.

The jury originally rewarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, but after finding some errors in the awards, Judge Lucy Koh has cut $450 million from Apple’s award. Samsung and Apple filed a joint pretrail statement that listed the potential witnesses that might be called and both Scott Forstall and Apple’s marketing chief, Phil Schiller appeared on the list after both were witnesses at the orignal trial, before Forstall was fired. 

Everything You Need To Know About Apple’s E-Book Antitrust Trial With The DOJ

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Eddy Cue, Apple's Mr. Fix-It, leaving a New York courtroom like an OG. Photo: Apple
Eddy Cue, Apple's Mr. Fix-It, leaving a New York courtroom like an OG. Photo: Apple

For the past few weeks, Apple has been battling the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over e-book pricing. The federal antitrust trial revolves around the DOJ’s accusation that Apple conspired with the country’s five biggest publishers to raise prices on e-books and stifle competition with Amazon.

Apple’s face for the trial has been its head of software and services, Eddy Cue. The trial has revealed some tidbits concerning Steve Jobs and the early negotiations surrounding the iBookstore. The trial ends today, but the court’s sentence for Apple has yet to be decided.

iCloud Push Services Could Resume In Germany After Court Stays Motorola Patent Trial

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iCloud-services

iCloud push services could soon resume in Germany more than a year after they were killed after a high court stayed Motorola’s patent trial against Apple on Wednesday. Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court issued a press release that said both Apple and Google — which now owns Motorola — agreed to the stay, which has called into question the validity of Motorola’s patent.