TechWay » Apple

Samsung forced to hand over its unreleased tablets & phones to Apple

Sina Hamedian — Tue, 24 May 2011 23:34:44 +0000

A Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4 side by side.

As part of the two companies’ lawsuits against each other, Lucy Koh, the San Jose judge in charge of the legal proceeding, has forced Samsung to had over several unreleased devices to its chief competitor, Apple. Apple will have a chance to go over the devices to look for infringing hardware and software that might violate its design and utility patents. The devices required to be hand over are both of the new Galaxy Tabs, Galaxy S2, Verizon’s Droid Charge, and AT&T’s Infuse 4G.

In most normal circumstances, the infringing company would have three months to turn over said products (in case they were under NDA and in development) – but Samsung has been too public about these products. Two of the three phones are released, and all of them have been shown to the public either online, in trade shows, and even via television advertisements. A limited edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 was also given to 5,000 Google I/O attendees earlier this month, as Apple points out – which further more justifies that the 3 month rule should not apply.

Apple claims the Touchwiz user interface used in these products might be a little too similar to the iOS user interface (see picture above) and wants to research the similarities in more detail. Despite the validity of the case, however, it’s hard to deny that Apple might be wanting the devices for its own gain too. With the iPhone 4S (or iPhone 5) along with a series of new iPods launching later this fall, the demand for these devices from a company like Apple might certainly raise some eyebrows.

What do you think? Is Apple doing this for its own gain, or to see if Touchwiz really does infringing on its patents?

[Source: Courthouse News Service]

Apple brand value is $153 billion, takes lead for most valuable

Sina Hamedian — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:12:49 +0000

The folks behind the BrandZ survey, valuing the brand of each company, have released their results for 2011. For the past four years, the survey named Google as the most valuable brand, but after the introduction of products like the iPhone and iPad, Apple has quickly soared to number with a whopping valuation of $153 billion, passing Google for first place, and also leading a bunch of other well known, reputable companies like Coca-Cola, Disney, and BMW. Also, while the most of the technology industry was upping it’s ranks (like Amazon becoming the world’s #1 retailer and Facebook increasing its value by over 246% ), some companies actually lost valuation. Nintendo, which competes with Apple on mobile gaming platforms, lost 37% of its value. RIM’s BlackBerry, which also competes with Apple, lost 20% of its value over the past year too.

What do you think? Is Apple becoming the must have brand of all time? Do you value your coke over your iPod? Let us know in the comments box after the break.

[Source: BrandZ Top 100 Report - PDF]

The iPhone 4′s 2 year cost vs. other smartphones

Sina Hamedian — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:07:13 +0000

The iPhone 4 was launched today to eager, eager crowds. But how does Apple’s new smartphone compare against other phones that want a piece of the action? BillShrink has taken a look at the total cost and features from each of the current top phones of AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon.

And, as it turns out, the iPhone has the cheapest costs over a two year period.

Although Apple’s iPhone might be the cheapest under contract, it’s important to note that AT&T is the only provider in the chart above the restricts data. All the other providers have an option for unlimited data. AT&T provides 250MB for $19 and 2GB for $25. Want tethering? That’s an additional $20 per month.

[Source: BilShrink]

Opera Mini gets approved, headed to App Store

Sina Hamedian — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:38:01 +0000

After nearly three weeks of waiting, everyone gets the result we they were looking for with Opera – Apple approves Opera Mini to go on sale (for free) on the App Store. While the app is not on sale at the time of this writing, you should be able to see it within 24 hours, depending on the market that you have an iTunes account on. Original iPhone owners can also feel a little happier today, since the browser, when tested under EDGE connections, outpaced Safari by more than 6x.

Opera Mini isn’t a Safari based browser, like all the others on the App Store, which explains why people believed that it would get denied from the App Store. The app was first demoed at Mobile World Congress 2010, and then officially submitted the app to Apple in the wee hours of March 23. Most skeptics (me included) wondered if it will ever be approved, and so far it has. It doesn’t mean, however, that the app will remain approved for the weeks and months to come.

Update: Based on reports flying in from various places, those in Australia and the UK should be able to already download and use Opera Mini. Still not out for the United States. Video and more pictures after the break.

Update 2: It’s in the United States App Store, and from initial review, kicks Mobile Safari out of the playing field. Whether you have your iPhone handy or not, download it now.

27″ Apple LED Cinema Display coming in June?

Sina Hamedian — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:41:24 +0000

Apple is rumored to be making a 27 inch counterpart to it’s 24″ LED display for Macs. After the 27″ iMac debuted last year (to many, many problems), everyone knew that a standalone version as a monitor would be a dream come true. If AppleInsider is correct, it’s codenamed K59 internally, and will be launched come June as a big brother to the current 24″ display. Impulse buy, anyone?

Source: AppleInsider