Apple injunction against Galaxy S III would give Samsung 'big problems'

Apple injunction against Galaxy S III would give Samsung 'big problems'Apple's recent string of courtroom victories against rival Samsung are continued progress in the company's "thermonuclear war" against Android. Its next target: the latest flagship Android smartphone, Samsung's Galaxy S III.Apple initially tried to halt sales of the Galaxy S III with an injunction before it launched in the U.S. last month, but failed to halt the stateside debut of Samsung's latest smartphone. However, the Galaxy S III remains a courtroom target for Apple, and a victory halting its sale would leave Samsung with "big problems on its hands," analyst Brian White...

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Apple considered physical keyboard for first iPhone

Ex-Apple executive Tony Fadell revealed that the company toyed with the idea of equipping the first iPhone with a physical keyboard, but ultimately settled on the intuitive multitouch design that changed the face of the game. In a Friday interview with The Verge, the former iPod guru said that Apple narrowed down the original design to three prototypes before introducing the handset in January 2007. Fadell, who officially left Apple in 2008 but was kept on the payroll as a special advisor to the late Steve Jobs until 2010, worked on 18 versions of the iPod as well as the iPhone up to the 3GS before leaving to start "smart thermostat" company...

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New aerial images of Apple's planned NC fuel cell, solar farms emerge

Pictures of the area surrounding Apple's iCloud datacenter in Maiden, North Carolina show that progress is being made in preparing land for the company's future biogas and solar farm energy arrays. The images, captured by Wired in March and posted on Friday, show a large swath of cleared ground in front of Apple's datacenter that will presumably house the Bloom Energy fuel cells as well as 100 acres of freshly razed land that is expected to be used for a solar farm. Apple will employ 24 Bloom Energy Servers using natural gas supplied by Piedmont Natural Gas and a 20-megawatt solar installation to power its massive $1 billion datacenter. Once...

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Apple interested in wireless power to charge devices on store shelves

Apple has shown interest in wirelessly powering and charging its portable devices, allowing products like the iPhone and iPad to be powered up while sealed in packaging and on display at a retail store. The concept was detailed this week in a new patent application discovered by AppleInsider entitled "Active Electronic Media Packaging." It describes an active packaging system that would supply power and data to devices, allowing them to display content and show off features to customers while on display in a store. The proposed invention aims to replace the typical labels and other advertising that is found on the outside of product packaging....

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Biographer says Steve Jobs was legitimately infuriated by Android

Biographer Walter Isaacson has disputed Google CEO Larry Page's assertion that Steve Jobs only said disparaging remarks about its Android mobile operating system to rally his own employees. Page's comments came from an interview this week in which he said he believed Jobs's hatred of Android was merely "for show." The Google CEO suggested that the comments from Jobs served the best interests of Apple in giving its employees something to fight against. Those comments were in contrast to what Jobs told Isaacson for his biography of the Apple co-founder. In their conversations, Jobs called Android a "stolen product," and vowed to use his "last...

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How Apple used a British shell company to snap up the iPad trademark from Proview

If you’re not familiar with the legal battle between Apple and Chinese company Proview over the trademark for the name ‘iPad’, it’s a pretty interesting read. Our latest post on the matter sums up the dispute well, but some interesting details were revealed today in an Proview press release and summarized by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt. What happened was that roughly a month before the iPad was set to be released in 2010, Apple hired a british firm called Farncombe International to secure a trademark license for the name iPad. The trademark was then held by Proview, a Chinese company that made iMac-shaped monitors it called IPAD. To do this, Farncombe’s managing director, Graham Robinson, set up a shell company called — and this is rich — IP Application...

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Jailbreak for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S imminent

If you've been patiently waiting for a jailbreak solution for your A5-based device--in other words, your iPhone 4S or iPad 2--it should be exciting news that the jailbreak community has gotten its current program out of the sandbox stage, which generally signals an imminent release. According to a tweet picked up by iDownloadBlog, hacker "planetbeing" has announced that the iPhone 4S/iPad 2 jailbreak has left the sandbox stage of development. He also states that the jailbreak is "turning out to be more complex than X-Gold 618." X-Gold 618 was the baseband chip in the iPhone 4 that was cracked by planetbeing and "MuscleNerd." The complicated nature of this particular jailbreak is not a surprise considering Apple blocked one of the popular methods of jailbreaking with...

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The Best iPhone And iPad Apps You Missed This Week

Apps to help you take measurements around the house, Google Translate's new iPad app, and Samsung's iMessage-killer. 1. Instapad is a full-on Instagram client for iPad. Instagram hasn't built an iPad app yet, so developer Red Foundry went ahead and built one for them. While you can't upload pictures yet (due to limitations in the Instagram API), the app is still a great way to browse your Instagram feed, check notifications, and search for photos. Price : Free 2. Measured is a swiss army knife for handymen. Measured uses some very complex math and a few magic tricks to help you actually take measurements of distances, while looking...

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Apple wins $920K tax refund from 1989, loses appeal for overseas tax reprieve

Apple wins $920K tax refund from 1989, loses appeal for overseas tax reprieve California's Supreme Court has affirmed a $920,000 tax refund for Apple dating back to 1989, but it refused to hear the company's request to lower its tax bill for income earned abroad. The court upheld an appellate ruling earlier this week that returned $231,000 in taxes to Apple, along with $689,000 in interest, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The Franchise Tax Board was ordered to return the money because Apple should have been allowed to deduct interest from loans for its U.S. operations However, the final ruling came as only a partial win, as the Supreme...

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iPad becomes newest weapon for Packers

Control over the DVD player used to be a nightly power struggle at the Driver household. Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver didn't always win, either. His children watch everything - "Cars 2," "Dolphin Tale" - whatever's current. The movies "go on and on and on," Driver said. He'd often take refuge in the basement to watch game film, and his son would follow. "And then my son wants to play Madden on PS3," Driver said. "So then you have to give him the TV and go somewhere else. But then, he wants you to play with him." Driver doesn't have those problems anymore. Like all of Green Bay's receivers, he's bringing his work home and seeing the results. The Packers tied an NFL record this season with 51 touchdowns through the air. Each week, the receivers find and exploit mismatches. Their...

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10 best apps to watch TV on your iPad

Some might lament the lack of Flash compatibility on the iPad, which makes it very difficult to watch video directly from websites, but that doesn't mean there aren't alternative options to watch good content by way of apps. The apps in this story are available at Apple's Canadian Apps Store  SlingPlayer If you have a Slingbox set up at home with your cable or satellite box, you basically have your entire channel list and PVR at your disposal. It can even empower your mobile phone. If you don't have a Slingbox, enter for your chance to win one at WhatsYourTech.ca. Netflix The selection for TV shows may be lacking, but if you're already a Netflix (http: //netflix.ca) subscriber, you can make good use of this app to either continue a show or movie you already started watching,...

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Apple Updates iPad 2 Smart Cover Offerings with Color Tweaks

Alongside today's quiet MacBook Pro refresh, Apple has also updated its iPad 2 Smart Cover offerings, perhaps most notably discontinuing the orange polyurethane cover and replacing it with a new dark gray cover.  New dark gray Smart Cover Other changes include:  Interior color now matches exterior color. The interior side of the Smart Cover facing the iPad screen had previously been a uniform gray color on all models with the exception of the (PRODUCT) RED version. All Smart Covers are now a consistent color inside and out. Smart Cover showing tan color on outside and inside More vibrant colors for polyurethane covers. Aside...

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Android Got More App Downloads Than iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch in Q2 2011

Android has taken the lead in application market downloads, according to reports by by market analysts. This is the first time for the platform to overtake iOS, although Apple still trumps Google in terms of revenue and per-user downloads ABI Research recently revealed market findings during the 2nd quarter of 2011. According to the analysts, Android Market downloads have surpassed those of Apple’s App Store. During that period, Android got a 44% market share in app downloads, while Apple’s share slid to 31%. ABI credits this trend to Google’s open approach to Android and application development, citing how the platform is open for use by multiple manufacturers, while Apple’s iOS is a closed ecosystem. Also, quarterly shipment figures point toward a decline in iPhone sales...

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Siri Can Work on iPhone 4 and all iOS 5 Devices, claims Hacker

A developer claims to have got the voice-activated personal assistant Siri fully working on an iPhone 4 and promises that the app will be made available soon. Siri is the headline feature of the iPhone 4S, and lets users send e-mails, conduct Web searches, find local businesses and more; the app is available exclusively on the iPhone 4S, but the developer claims he has made it work on all iOS 5 devices. The developer, who goes by the name of @Jackoplane on Twitter, has got Siri to work on an iPhone 4 and believes that it will work on all iPod touch and iPadmodels running the recently-released iOS 5 firmware. Previously, hackers have been able to run Siri on an iPhone 4, but the results were poor and the app was unable to contact Apple's servers, making it mostly useless. Jack states that...

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Ahead of the Bell: Analyst says iTV coming in 2012

A Jefferies analyst is predicting that Apple Inc. will launch "iTV," an integrated television set that lets people access their music, TV and videos stored remotely in "the cloud," in the second half of 2012. The analyst, Peter Misek, said he thinks Apple will initially make about 5 million to 10 million of the iTV. He is basing this on quotes from Steve Jobs' new biography by Walter Isaacson, which went on sale Monday. In it, Jobs tells Isaacson he has come up with a way to make TVs as easy to use as the iPhone or the iPad. He says: "I finally cracked it." Jobs died on Oct. 5 at age 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Misek thinks that in addition to making money from subscription revenue, Apple could benefit from a "halo effect" of increased sales of its other products because...

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