As part of a court ruling in the U.K. Apple has been forced to publish a public apology to Samsung on the U.K. Apple website. When Apple originally published the apology on the U.K. homepage, some clever coding pushed the apology statement below the browser window.
This morning an update to the Apple U.K. homepage has removed the coding that was hiding the apology unless a user’s browser window was extremely tall.
One of my favorite lines used by people defending Samsung during their $1 billion legal beatdown from Apple was the claim that Apple doesn’t have a patent on glass rectangles with rounded corners. “You can’t patent the rectangle,” they would say.
Yeah, well Apple just did. Kind of.
After a review by a patent examiner on Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Apple an additional design patent for the iPad’s “ornamental design.” The design feature cited in US Patent D607,286 for a “Portable display device” pretty much appears to be a literal rounded rectangle.
When Apple’s annual capital expediters report for fiscal 2012 was released, it was discovered that Apple spent $10.3 billion when they had only planned to spend about $8 billion. The discrepancy in the huge change from Apple’s original forecast left some wondering what that $2.3 billion went to.
If one analyst is correct, that $2 billion may have gone to Sharp to help bail them out of their financial problems, and keep display supplies flowing for Apple’s products.
Apple has added the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and the software that powers it, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, to an existing lawsuit against Samsung in California. The Cupertino company told U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewel on Tuesday that both are guilty of infringing patents owned by Apple.
Ripping off Apple’s hardware designs isn’t enough for Samsung, even though they lost a $1 billion lawsuit because of it. Sensing that they need to make some big changes in their design, Samsung is rumored to undergo a radical brand makeover in 2013.
If reports are to be believed, Samsung will announce the rebranding at CES 2013 in Las Vegas. The South-Korean based company has been working with a design team that has worked with Nike in the past and are rebranding Samsung’s image to be more like Apple’s.
The iPad mini is Apple’s answer to smaller Android tablets from the likes of Amazon and Google. But there’s a good reason why it doesn’t come with the same $200 price tag. A teardown has revealed that the new iOS device costs at least $188 to build, and that price rises when you add bigger storage options and 4G connectivity.
iFixit has now performed its customary teardown on Apple’s fourth-generation iPad, and it seems like a lengthy case of déjà vu. While there are some differences between this model and its predecessor, such as the introduction of Apple’s new A6X processor and Lightning connector, it seems the device remains largely the same — inside and out.
Apple’s statement regarding its battle against the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the United Kingdom has begun to appear in British newspapers today. You’ll have to search carefully if you want to find it, however. Like the statement the company made on its website earlier this month, this one appears without any Apple branding, and with a dull Arial font that attempts to disappear into the background.
A court of appeal has reprimanded the “non-compliant” statement Apple published on its website regarding the case against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab in the United Kingdom. Apple now has 48 hours to correct the statement, which must then be displayed on the homepage of its website until December 14.
Even though he was fired from Apple yesterday, Scott Forstall will still be an Apple employee until some point in 2013 and work as an advisor to Tim Cook. His new position is really just to prevent him from jumping ship quickly and going to another company, but Apple can’t keep him forever. At some point in 2013, Scott Forstall will be free to join any company he chooses. So which company should he go to?
Forstall’s brother works for Microsoft, but Scott’s penchant for skeuomorphic software might not fit well with Microsoft’s Metro UI. Google and Samsung are two other obvious choices because they’re big competitors with Apple. Or Forstall could choose to create his own company like Tony Fadell did with Nest after he left Apple. What company do you think would be the best fit for Scott?
Click here to go to the Cult of Mac Forums and talk about possible destinations for Scott Forstall
Having lost its appeal against the Samsung Galaxy Tab in a High Court ruling in the United Kingdom earlier this month, Apple was ordered to publish advertisements in British newspapers and magazines, and on its website, which must say that Samsung did not copy the iPad.
The Cupertino company has now published a statement on its website, and it makes for a very humorous read. Basically, Apple quotes the judge, who said that Samsung’s tablets “are not as cool” as Apple’s, then says that despite the decision, Samsung did copy the iPad really.
Even though their main trial in the U.S. is over, the legal battle between Apple and Samsung is still raging on in at least 10 other countries across the globe, and who knows if it will ever end.
The latest verdict in the legal war comes from the Netherlands, where the court ruled that Samsung’s technology does not infringe on an Apple patent by using certain multi-touch technologies on some Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Apple has just lost one of its magic patent bullets thanks to a non-final Office action by the USPTO. Patent No, 7,469,381 (used against Samsung in California) has been declared invalid after evidence supporting prior art (as well as being obvious) was brought about during a reexamination request.
This news is not only great for Samsung, but many other manufacturers who are currently caught up in Apple’s legal charades.
When two of the biggest companies in tech are hardcore frememies, it’s nearly impossible to find the middle ground to reconcile. Samsung and Apple are trying to break things off entirely, even though they need each other.
In the latest news on their breakup, Samsung has said that they will end their LCD panel supply relationship with Apple as of next year. The stated reason behind Samsung breaking ties with Apple is that Apple’s supply pricing strategy provides Samsung with insufficient margins.
Google just announced their newest Chromebook. It runs Google’s Chrome OS. It has an 11.6-inch screen with 1366 x 768 resolution, 6 hours of battery life, a 100 GB flash storage drive and it only costs $249. It’s beautiful. It looks just like the 11-inch MacBook Air. And of course, it’s made by Samsung.
Image: Matt Buchanan
Apple has lost its appeal against a High Court ruling in the United Kingdom that deemed the Samsung Galaxy Tab does not infringe its copyright for the iPad. Despite the similarities between the two devices, the Court of Appeal upheld its decision that Samsung did not copy the iPad when producing the Galaxy Tab.
Apple will now have to place “prominent advertisements” in magazines and newspapers, explaining that Samsung did not infringe its design.
US District Court Judge Lucy Koh today denied Apple’s request to have several documents sealed from public view in its fight to recoup more damages from Samsung than were even awarded by the jury several weeks ago. The documents include “product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin, and cost data” that it also wants to use in its argument for a higher award from the court.
Judge Koh basically said that Apple can’t have it both ways. Her decision says to the Cupertino-based company that it can’t use documents in its arguments that it then in turn wants to keep secret. It just doesn’t work that way.
You mess with the bull, you’re going to get the horns. Google discovered this when they launched Android, their own competitor to iOS, a move which ultimately resulted in Apple jettisoning the search giant’s products almost entirely from iOS 6. Now Samsung is finding out the same thing: not only has it been found guilty of infringing Apple’s intellectual property and been told to pony up a $1 billion fine, but now Apple is now taking away their portion of Samsung’s multi-billion dollar manufacturing business.
It’s been just three weeks since the iPhone 5 started shipping, and Apple’s latest smartphones already accounts for more web traffic than the Samsung Galaxy S III, according to a new report.
It’s thought the handset’s “record-breaking sales numbers” — which have made it the fastest-selling iPhone to date — plus its “new 4G browsing speeds which encourage data usage” are just a couple reasons why the iPhone 5 is so big when it comes to web browsing.
If you’ve opened up Apple’s new Maps app in iOS 6, you probably have a good idea of the faults everyone’s been complaining about. But it does have one feature that works well: turn-by-turn navigation. In fact, when compared to Google’s turn-by-turn feature on Android, Apple’s service is actually much better in many ways.
Apple and Samsung are in the midst of what is perhaps the most heated patent lawsuit in history, but that doesn’t mean the two companies won’t still steal from each other’s camps. One of Samsung’s most prominent chip designers has joined Apple, the Korean company’s sworn enemy. “Veteran” processor guru Jim Mergard could help Apple create proprietary chips for the Mac, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Mergard’s expertise could mean that Apple will eventually switch from Intel on the Mac to its own processors, like its in-house “A” chip series for iOS devices.
While Tim Cook has been CEO, Apple’s stock price has been soared into the stratosphere. Some believe Apple’s incredible growth is bound to plummet in the near future because, come on, how many more iPhones and iPads can they really sell to their U.S. and European customers?
In a new story for Fortune, Bill Powell argues that the sky’s still the limit for Apple, they just have to win in China. But Apple – with all its power and iconic devices that consumers lust for – is actually an underdog in the battle to win the Chinese handset market, and they’re going have to learn some new tricks if they hope to beat Samsung and others.
Apple’s overactive approach to defending its patents may sometimes make it look like one of the industry’s biggest bullies, but you may be surprised to hear that the Cupertino used to patent hardly anything. In fact, it only began patenting its inventions after years of patent suit losses, one of which saw the company fined $100 million for creating the iPod.
Steve Jobs was passionate about a lot of things: simplicity, challenging the status quo, creating products that people loved, etc. He was a man of many shining strengths and deep personality flaws. As one of the most dynamic titans to ever grace the tech industry, one can only imagine what Jobs would think of Apple in 2012. How would he have handled Mapgate? We’ll never know.
Based on what we do know about the late CEO, there are several things Jobs would have definitely been proud of at Apple in 2012.
AT&T has announced that they will be the first to carry the 16MP, Android 4.1 touting, 4G Samsung Galaxy Camera we told you about back in August. AT&T is taking a gamble on this unique product, and I, for one, am curious to see how it turns out. I personally don’t believe there’s a market for it, but you never know (just look at the Galaxy Note).