The tarnished crown of embattled cell phone king Nokia apparently has been replaced by overwhelming debt and plummeting popularity as Apple’s iPhone dominates smartphone sales.

We’ve all seen those copycat iPhones that come out of China, the majority of which can usually be identified as counterfeit within a few seconds. However, when it comes to faking Apple stores, China does a pretty damn good job.

Apple has just started its Q3 financial earnings call, and if the press release accompanying the earnings call is anything to go by, it’s going to be a stunner: Apple has racked up another all-time record revenue and earnings period for the period ending June 25th, 2011.

Every time there’s an anticipated release — a movie, a book, a new gadget — there’s always someone clamoring to be first in line to get it. Some of these people are just honest fans literally counting down the seconds until release. Some are just addicted to seeing their names in the paper. And some are just there to cash in on the notoriety of being first.

That all being true, we’re not surprised that even though the iPhone 5 hasn’t even been announced yet, there’s already someone camped out in line for one. What is surprising is he’s so open about why he’s doing it: for the publicity.

On Friday, the U.S. International Trade Commission agreed with Apple and found that HTC’s smartphones infringed upon at least two patents.

The wound Apple has dealt HTC is not just a minor scratch, though. It’s a big victory, and it goes beyond just HTC. Apple may have just plunged its patent dagger right into Android’s achilles heel.

While we’ve had no official confirmation that Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone will launch this year at all, the vast majority of recent speculation seems to agree that the device will be available this September. Strengthening those claims is a new Apple job listing posted in the U.K. for temporary “iPhone Sales Specialists” to work between August and October.

Apple has finally bought the two domain names “iPhone4.com” and “WhiteiPhone.com.” It’s difficult to keep track of all the domains Apple actually owns (remember iCloud?), but it seems as though the company has finally ponied up the cash for two already-released products.

We’re not really sure why Apple is just now acquiring a domain for the iPhone 4 and white iPhone, but hey, it’s never too late.

Apple may be brewing up a pre-paid iPhone for October. Wednesday, Sprint-owned Virgin Mobile announced starting in October it was dropping ‘unlimited’ data plans for prepaid customers in favor of ‘unlimited with throttling.’

Following recent rumors that Apple may be adding a second manufacturer to its iPad supply chain for the launch of a third device, Foxconn Electronics has reportedly “exerted its efforts to protect its orders” and has “persuaded” Apple not to shift production of the device to a second contractor.

As you probably know, Apple and Samsung have been battling each other in court over a heated “copycat” lawsuit for awhile now. Apple accused Samsung of stealing the iPhone’s design for Samsung’s own series of smartphones, and Samsung has been retaliating with counterclaims.

Pretty standard stuff. What makes the legal battle between Apple and Samsung more interesting is that Apple has been using Samsung as an internal parts provider for the iPhone. Now that’s about to end. In the midst of this copycat legal battle, it appears that Apple is looking to give Samsung a swift kick to the gut by taking its $5 billion/year parts order business elsewhere.