Samsung loses to Apple in the Netherlands, avoids knock-out in Australia
It's a rare occurrence these days: neither Apple nor Samsung can claim victory in their ongoing legal battle, as courts in two separate countries pushed back on their efforts to bury each other in injunction hell.
Samsung was denied an injunction against Apple products in the Netherlands, while a court in Australia refused to issue an injunction preventing Samsung from releasing any future tablet devices before the current infringement case goes to court there.
Samsung's day of reckoning in Apple fight fast approaches
Samsung can breathe a small sigh of relief. While a US District Judge says that Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on patents held by Apple, she refused to award the preliminary injunction the Cupertino, Calif.-based company seeks.
Lawyers for both companies appeared before US District Judge Lucy Koh in a long-anticipated court hearing yesterday. Samsung can continue selling Tab 10.1 as well as the Droid Charge, Galaxy S 4G, and Infuse 4G in the United States. For how much longer, with the holidays fast approaching, is uncertain.
Our advice? Hold off upgrading to iOS 5
You've been waiting months to upgrade your iPhone 3GS or 4 to iOS 5. Today was supposed to be the day. If you don't mind sitting around waiting for downloads to drip, drip, drip bit by bit, we suggest doing something else more useful with your time.
Updating to iOS 5 is becoming quite the ordeal for some, as Apple's servers are struggling to keep up with demand. Betanews has received and seen numerous reports of unusually long upgrade times, or upgrades failing altogether.
Why pay $200 for iPhone 4S, when you can get Samsung Galaxy S II for $2?
What do you do if you're Samsung, and want to stick it to one of your biggest rivals in the mobile space during what will be their biggest sales weekend of the year? You set up shop right down the street.
That's exactly what Samsung has done to Apple in downtown Sydney, setting up a pop-up store two doors down from the Cupertino company's sole location in the city. The Samsung shop opened its doors on Monday and will be open through this Sunday, overlapping the launch weekend of the iPhone 4S.
Sony PSN network breached (again), 93k accounts deactivated
Sony's PlayStation Network is once again the target of hackers as Sony disclosed late Tuesday that it had disabled some 93,000 PSN and Sony Online Entertainment accounts. According to the company these accounts had been "tested" by hackers, although a majority of the login attempts failed.
The data was said to be obtained from "one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources," although chief information security officer Phillip Reitinger said it was likely that the data did not come from Sony itself.
You might be reading this story on your phone or tablet, says comScore
Smartphones and tablet devices are increasingly becoming a more common way to access the Internet, says a new study from analytics firm comScore. As of August, 6.8 percent of all Internet traffic came from those devices, with about two-thirds of it coming from mobile phones.
comScore found some interesting trends, such as the increased use of mobile phones over a WiFi connection. About 37.2 percent of all digital traffic came from phones using WiFi, up three percent over the past three months. On the flipside tablets using mobile broadband are also on the rise, with 10 percent of tablet traffic coming from that type of connection.
Future Photoshop feature signals end of the blurry photograph
Adobe may have the solution for all those blurry photographs on your digital camera you were about to trash: a YouTube video of a presentation by the company at its annual MAX developers conference shows a prototype "deblurring" feature that may make it into a future version of Photoshop.
The so-called "blur kernel" attempts to decipher how the camera was moved in order to remove the blur from it. By doing this, it then will be able to remove the blur successfully, the YouTube video shows.
Delaying Nexus Prime-Android 4 launch -- because of "Steve Jobs' passing" -- lacks business logic
Friday, Samsung and Google postponed what could be one of the most significant Android device launches in awhile -- likely the Nexus Prime -- scheduled for next Tuesday, October 11. The original statement was somewhat vague, but disclosed that both parties agreed that "it was not the appropriate time" to release the device.
"Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11. Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product. We would ask for the understanding of our clients and media for any inconvenience caused. We will announce a new date and venue in due course."
Does easy iPhone 4S preordering mean nobody is buying?
After a rocky and even delayed start for iPhone 4S pre-ordering, a check by Betanews with the online stores on the Apple, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon websites show a much smoother process. At all three sites, delivery dates still remained at the October 14 launch date first announced on Tuesday.
It certainly was not smooth sailing this morning, though. All four sites experienced issues as Apple aficionados rushed to stake their claims to iPhone 4's successor, in some cases taking the sites down completely.
Here's a driving tip: put the phone down
You've been told over and over again: don't text and drive. Need more reason why? A recent study conducted by Texas A&M's Texas Transportation Institute indicates texting behind the wheel doubles your reaction time.
Distracted driving accounts for about one-fifth of all fatal car crashes, with cell phones the most common source of that distraction. One out of every five drivers has admitted to texting while driving but the true number is probably considerably higher.
Get your iPhone 4 (and the best plan) on Sprint now
While customers will not be able to get their hands on an iPhone 4S for another day, Sprint on Thursday began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4. Like the 4S, the phone would ship out for delivery on Friday, October 14 or Saturday, October 15.
The iPhone 4 on Sprint is the same as the Verizon model that's been available for much of this year, except the capacity reduced to 8GB. It would be compatible with the carrier's 3G service, but not "4G" WiMAX.
Tech loses a visionary: Steve Jobs dead at 56
The tech world has lost one of its greatest visionaries: Apple has confirmed that Steve Jobs died on Wednesday due to complications from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. Apple confirmed his passing on its website, although immediately did not give any further details.
A statement from Jobs’ family said that he died peacefully surrounded by those he loved, and noted how much he cherished his family. They expressed their thanks to those that had passed on their well-wishes during his extended illness.
Is Zune a dead parrot? Microsoft can't decide
The Zune saga continues. Is the music player really dead? The drama got a little weirder today, as Microsoft seems to be making a concerted effort to erase any evidence that it said Zune hardware is finished. Passed on. No more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and has gone to meet its maker. It is a late media player. An ex-media player, if you will.
A support page which said that the company was focusing on Windows Phone for entertainment and "will no longer be producing Zune players" was deleted from its website (see the cached version here). Furthermore, in a tweet from the official Zune Support team, it continued the walk back.
Samsung seeks to block iPhone 4S sales in France, Italy
Samsung is using Apple's release of the iPhone 4S on Tuesday as a way to gain increased leverage in the heated patent battle underway between the two companies. On Wednesday, it filed requests for an injunction banning the sale of the device in both France and Italy.
The choice of these two countries is not by accident: patent laws in both allow for an affected company to request injunctive relief before an infringing product is officially released. That said, it's not unreasonable to believe that Samsung may look for injunctions elsewhere once the iPhone 4S ships.
I'll buy the iPhone 4S, and so should you
Woe is you.
You've waited 16 months for this announcement, and all you get is a stinking upgrade to the iPhone 4? You know, that doubling of processor speed and drastic increase in graphics handling isn't enough. The fact that CDMA customers will have worldphone capability thanks to dual-mode functionality? Pshaw.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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