Revelations that the FBI has access to a tool that can unlock data on secure iPhones are raising questions as to why the agency is demanding Apple help to create a “backdoor” to recover data on the iPhones of a Florida shooting suspect.
Qualcomm is revving up its legal battle with Apple. In a new court filing in Munich, Qualcomm demanded “significant fines” be put on the iPhone-maker for not complying with a previous court order.
Apple was barred from selling some iPhones in Germany at the end of 2018. The company pulled the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 at its retail stores, but Qualcomm is crying foul that other third-party shops still had units in stock.
Apple is rushing to release an iOS update in China to resolve potential infringement of Qualcomm patents. The news follows a report stating that a Chinese sales ban of certain iPhone models would cost Apple millions of dollars a day.
“Early next week we will deliver a software update for iPhone users in China addressing the minor functionality of the two patents at issue in the case,” Apple said in a statement.
Apple’s legal team could soon be headed to the Supreme Court to face an antitrust case being levied against the company.
U.S. Supreme Court justices heard an hour of arguments for an antitrust lawsuit against Apple today. The nine justices appeared to be open to letting the lawsuit move up to the highest court. If Apple loses, we could see huge changes in the App Store.
Italy is the latest country to throw its hat into the ring when it comes to investigating Apple for its purposeful slowing down of older iPhone devices.
In doing so, it joins countries including Brazil, South Korea, China and France, which have all questioned Apple about its iPhone-throttling software update. In a new twist, however, Italy is also investigating Apple rival Samsung.
In a petition to the Supreme Court, Apple says the high court shouldn’t waste its time with Samsung’s high-profile appeal in the two companies’ long legal battle over patents.
Samsung filed an appeal in December asking for the Supreme Court to take a look at how the damages were calculated, but Apple argues that even though it was awarded $548 million, the case is “legally unexceptional.”
Apple may face $862 million in damages for allegedly infringing on a patent owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s patent-licensing wing, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
The Apple technologies that take advantage of said patent for increased processor efficiency? None other than the A7, A8 and A8X chips, which are found in the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus handsets, as well as several iPad models.
Uh-oh.
Amazon is beating Apple in the eBooks racket by using Apple’s own pricing strategy for music.
But Apple can still clobber Amazon by out-Appling not the iTunes pricing strategy, but the Apple marketing strategy: Create a vastly better user experience for both content creators and content consumers! Oh, and focus on audio.
Here’s how.
