Over the last few years, we’ve seen quite a few Apple I’s hit the auction block. Some of the machines can be worth over half a million dollars, depending the item’s condition, and a new working Apple I is about to hit the auction block.
A German auctioneer is putting their rare, working Apple I computer up for auction later this month and hopes to make between $261,000 and $392,000.
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.
Earlier this morning Apple announced that someone had downloaded the 25 billionth song off of iTunes. The person who purchased the 25 billionth song, Phillip Lüpke, received a €10,000 iTunes Gift Card from Apple, which not only makes him pretty damn lucky, but now he can buy a music album for everyone he’s ever met.
We got a chance to talk to Phillip this afternoon to find out what it was like to win some fat stacks of iTunes cash from Apple, and he said he thought it was all a scam at first.
With Apple’s iPhone 5 announcement now just over 24 hours away, and a possible launch just over one week away, carriers are preparing for what will undoubtedly be the fastest-selling smartphone of all-time. Vodafone Germany is the latest to receive stock of the handset’s new nano-SIM, and they’re ready to be shipped out to the iPhone 5’s early adopters.
There’s no mention of the next iPhone in the note, but German carrier T-Mobile has been sending out these tiny nanoSIMs for “the latest generation of smartphones” launching shortly. And since the next iPhone, which many believe will launch on September 21st, is widely thought to be the first smartphone to boast the new nanoSIM standard, it’s pretty obvious T-Mobile’s trying to put this SIM in place for the iPhone 5.
Bet we’ll start seeing these same SIM cards popping up at AT&T soon enough.
Apple has lost an appeal against a court ruling in Germany to have its iCloud push services restored. The service was disabled back in February after it was ruled that Apple had infringed on patents owned by Motorola Mobility. While iCloud is still available, users now have to open up their Mail app and fetch new email manually, or set their device to fetch email at certain intervals.
Germany has become quite the hotbed for patent lawsuits lately as it’s been in the spotlight for the Apple vs Motorola Mobility legal battle. As the legal war rages on, a new ruling has found that Motorola did indeed violate Apple’s EU Patent No. EP2059868 on a “portable electronic device for photo management”. The patent in question basically fixes over scrolling by bouncing the user back a bit once they’ve zoomed in too far, and even though this patent is software specific, it may have repercussions on Motorola’s hardware if they don’t come up with a fix quickly.
The latest ruling to come out of the ridiculous patent game comes in favor of Apple and awards them an injunction on Motorola Android products found to infringe on an Apple patent regarding scrolling behavior in the photo gallery application. What does this ruling actually mean for German users? Nothing really. Motorola will simply push an update to change the scrolling behavior and that will be the end of that. Will German Motorola users notice the change? Most likely not. So what was the point? The same point of everything that involves lawyers — money.
Although the war will rage on for a few more years, Apple just scored a major victory in their legal war with Motorola Mobility in Germany. In December 2011 Apple lost a preliminary injunction with Motorola and faced the possibility of having their 3G-enabled products, like the iPad and iPhone, barred from Germany. However, a recent decision by the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court has ruled that Motorola can not enforce their injunction against Apple while the appeals process is underway, meaning Apple is free to sell their products in Germany until the appeal has been resolved.
You know that so-called “permanent injunction” Motorola got against Apple that resulted in Apple pulling all iPhones and iPads short of the iPhone 4S off their online store earlier today? Already overruled, and Germans can once again get their iPhone and iPad on.
A German court Friday threw out Samsung’s patent-infringement lawsuit against Apple. The South Korean smartphone maker had claimed the iPhone maker violated a patent related to 3G wireless communications. Samsung had filed seven patent violation claims against Apple in Germany.
In the war between Apple and Android, there are no holiday breaks. That incessant back-and-forth could be seen in how many devices were activated during the Christmas weekend. According to a mobile analytics firm, Apple destroyed Android in places like the U.S., the U.K. and Germany, often spearheaded by the iPod touch and iPad.
Does talk of the Euro economic crisis make your eyes glaze over? Perhaps this will get your attention: The down European economy is costing the iPhone marketshare as consumers keep a tight hold on their cash. The bright side: the U.S. and U.K. love of everything Apple has become stronger.
Apple is unlikely to convince German courts to block sales of Samsung’s newly-revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet. That’s the opinion of one report, citing comments that the device “has moved sufficiently from the legally protected design.” In this instance, looks are everything and the South Korean company appears to have dodged a legal bullet using cosmetic sleight of hand.
The courtroom battles between Apple and Samsung seem never-ending. The latest chapter: Apple now claims its South Korean patent pal is copying not just smartphones and tablets, but also their cases. During an Australian court hearing, Samsung’s lawyer said Apple believes the cases infringe 10 patents.
Samsung dropped its lawsuit against Apple in Germany after discovering a Qualcomm licensing agreement could shield the iPhone 4S from 3G patent-infringement charges. The South Korean smartphone maker later denied it was letting Apple completely off the hook.
In the ever-changing patent wars, somedays you are the windshield and some days you are the bug. After coming up roses Thursday, Apple finds itself on the losing side against Samsung and Motorola.
With every new iPhone, we know to expect a faster processor and faster GPU. However, a weird report coming out of Germany says that Apple isn’t just testing new CPUs and GPUs for the next generation of iPhone… they are also testing some truly bizarro resolutions that could indicate that Apple will radically redesign the iPhone in 2012 to be even higher resolution and with an entirely new aspect ratio.
Despite a preliminary injunction granted Motorola Mobility on Friday, Apple continues to sell products in Germany. The tech giant has a two-week window until it must argue why a court’s default judgement should be reversed, averting the possible stop of retail and online sales in the nation.
Since Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, we’ve seen a stack of awesome of tribute images created from MacBook parts, Minecraft building blocks, and even salt. However, this has to be one of my favorite: a portrait of Steve created with 4,001 Post-it notes.
Apple’s upcoming ‘iPhone 4S‘ seems to have appeared all over the place over the past few days. Firstly the Cupertino company itself leaked the device within an iTunes beta, then Cincinnati Bell listed it — along with the iPhone 5 — on its website. Vodafone Germany is the latest to claim its share of the free publicity, listing the device on its website with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of storage.
While Apple is still yet to announce its highly-anticipated iPhone 5, that hasn’t stopped a number of carriers from advertising the device and taking pre-orders. China Telecom is the latest to begin preparations for Apple’s fifth-generation device, reportedly taking orders from the end of this month.
Apple’s chalked up some big victories against Samsung in recent weeks, culminating in a preliminary injunction that got the Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned throughout the EU. But did Apple do so based upon false evidence? That’s what one Dutch website is alleging, and we’ve got to admit, their argument’s pretty good.
While the release of JailbreakMe 3.0 has resulted in jubilation amongst most users, it has curiously prompted a national panic in Germany, where a country-wide warning for all iOS products has been issued by Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security.
Job listings for ‘Store Leader’ positions on Apple’s German site suggest that the company is opening a new retail store in Augsburg, Germany, which could be its sixth in the country following the recent opening of the Dresden store.
The listings were first picked up by German Mac blog Macerkopf.de (Google translation) after selecting the state of Bavaria in Apple’s online job search. It’s unclear where exactly in Augsburg the new store could be located, however, it’s expected it will end up in the biggest mall in that area – the City-Galerie Augsburg – around 40 miles from the Munich store.
Apple announced that it plans to open 40-50 new stores in 2011, around half of which would be located outside the United States. At the end of the company’s first fiscal quarter for this year, it had 236 stores in the U.S. and 87 internationally.
[via ifoAppleStore]