Apple’s request to ban Samsung phones which supposedly infringe upon its patents has been denied by the court. This relates to eight Samsung phones, including Samsung Galaxy S II, which would not be removed from the market because there is no evidence that users are specifically seeking those features on these phones which are copied.

Previously, the court asked Samsung to pay $1.05 billion to Apple in terms of damages. However, Apple’s demand that these phones be banned from the market was denied by judge because of the lack of evidence from Apple to prove that the features used on these phones have resulted in the loss of iPhone sales. Apple said that Samsung phones have made iPhone lost its market share and hence these phones should be banned from the market. It also said that these phones have also rendered damage to Apple devices as well as software. However, this argument was not bought by the judge. But Apple seems adamant and might appeal later.

Judge Koh wrote in her order that “Though evidence that Samsung attempted to copy certain Apple features may offer some limited support for Apple’s theory, it does not establish that those features actually drove consumer demand.” Apple was hoping to get eight out of 21 Samsung devices banned. Many of these devices are still being sold in the market, even though they are more than a year old. However, Apple is also trying to add latest devices from Samsung in the injunction, including Galaxy S III, which happens to be the most popular smartphone from Samsung. Samsung, on the other hand, said that it is pleased with the decision made by Judge Koh.

There are several matters that are yet to be decided regarding the decision. For instance, Judge Koh is yet to rule on other post-trial proceedings such as whether the entire amount of $1 billion should be withheld. Besides, it is also yet to be decided whether the copying of the alleged features was intentional, in which case Apple would receive increased amount in damages.

Samsung previously requested for a new trial, stating that jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, had a prejudice against Samsung since he was sued by Seagate, an associate of Samsung. Judge Koh, however, denied the request for a new trial. In a related matter, Samsung announced that is dropping injunction requests against Apple in several European countries. Although it is suing Apple, it no longer seeks a ban on iPhone in order to protect the interest of the consumers. Samsung is also facing an antitrust investigation in Europe, investigating whether Samsung illegally prevented competitors from licensing patents essential for wireless communications.

The latest interesting development regarding the rumored iPad mini is that its mock-up pictures have been revealed over a French tech blog which previously also leaked the pictures of the new iPhone. These photos show the front white part of iPad mini, held in various positions. There is another photo showing cases of the larger and smaller versions of iPad, along with the cases for iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.
So far it is not clear whether these mock-ups photos actually belong to the speculation mini iPad. Apple has also not commented on the situation and there is no official statement on the matter. Last few days were very important for Apple, considering the launch of the new iPhone 5. As always, the latest version of the smart phone from Apple is expected to be a huge hit among the customers. However, Apple might be back in a few days with the announcement of the mini version of its tablet.
So far Apple has refrained from entering in the domain of 7 inch tablets. However, during the recent months, the expectations about such a move from Apple have been very high. Apple is already the leader of the tablet market and with the launch of a smaller version of iPad, with lower price, it would certainly have a clear lead over its competitors. The two main rivals of Apple in the domain of 7 inch tablets would be Amazon with its Kindle Fire and Google with its Nexus 7. Both Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire have been doing very well in the market and have a wide user base. Amazon recently launched the second generation version of its Kindle Fire which would also be available in 8.9 inch form factor. This size is not very far away from 9.7 inches of the iPad, which has brought Amazon a bit closer in competition with Apple. However, any other tablet in the market has a long way to go before catching up with the iPad.
Everyone is impatiently waiting for Apple to come out and declare something related to the mini iPad. It might just happen in the next few days, so just keep your fingers crossed and wait for the long anticipated event.

After has finally scored another, and a significant one, legal victory against Samsung. This has come in the form of an injunction that a German court issued against the sale of Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 in European Union. The tablet was already banned from sale in Germany and with this injunction, Samsung would no longer be able to sell this tablet in the entire European continent. This is certainly a huge blow for Samsung and a notable victory for Apple.
According to the details of the decision made, the court found that the design of the 7 inch tablet from Samsung infringed on Apple designs from 2004 and hence violates the terms of the copyrights laws. Samsung’s argument that the ban should only be restricted to the German market was also rejected by the court and the decision was made effective for the entire European Union.
Samsung, however, was saved from utter disgrace since the court did not ban the re-designed version of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. Originally, the device was banned in Germany after which Samsung had to redesign those parts of the tablet which were considered an infringement of the copyright law. After the redesigning of those parts, the sales of the device were resumed. Regarding the uplifting of ban on the 10 inch version of the device, Samsung said that the company welcomes the decision of the court that the 10 inch version of the tablet does not infringe upon the intellectual property of Apple and does not violate any laws of fair competition. In its statement, Samsung further said that “Should Apple continue to make legal claims based on such a generic design patent, design innovation and progress in the industry could be restricted.”
The decision made by the German court, however, is in direct contradiction with a recent decision made by a UK court. According to that decision, Samsung device does not infringe any patents of Apple and hence its sales cannot be banned. Samsung has so far not given its response about the ban imposed by the German court. So it is now known what strategy Samsung would come up with in order to tackle with this recent situation. Other than Germany and UK, the legal battle between Apple and Samsung is also underway in several other countries, including the US.

Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) is just around the corner and Apple has a tradition of introducing new devices during this event. Previous introductions during the event include iPhone and iPad. However, although there would not be any new device introduced this year during the event we certainly do expect the release of an updated version of iOS for Apple devices, iOS 6. Other than that, we can expect some updated Mac computers. iOS 6 would also be running on iPhone 5 which would be released later this year, so there have to be some important updates in this version of the operating system.
 
One of the most important things that are expected to be included in the updated version of iOS happens to be iMaps, a possible alternative to Google maps. Last week Apple removed Google app off its operating system which gives rise to speculations about an alternate Apple version of maps. Whether the app would be called iMaps or anything else is not confirmed, but there is an increasing anticipation about the release of such an app. The expectations are quite valid since Apple also purchased 3D-mapping company C3 technologies last year.
 
The new operating system is also expected to have closer integration with Facebook, just like the previous version had with Twitter. With this integration, users would be able to have system-wide Facebook log-in for apps. This integration would also be important for Facebook after a recent failure in IPO. Besides, Facebook is one of the main sources of traffic for Apple App Store. According to the official announcement by Facebook, users of the website went from the website to Apple App Store 83 million times. Related to Facebook, there would also be a feature of “App Liking” according to which users would be able to “like” apps from within the iPhone app store.
 
There just might be Siri for iPad in the new software update. However, so far this is a pure speculation and there aren’t any hints from Apple in this regard. However, it would be quite natural to expect such as update for iPad after using Siri on iPhone 4S. Finally, developers have also been expecting Macs with better displays to be announced during the event.

Apple introduced some fine software enhancements, including various shortcuts, in the latest version of iOS. But unfortunately, some of these were not available for the people who were using jailbroken devices. Probably the most important of these features was the lock screen short cut for the native camera app introduced in iOS 5.1. According to this app, you can take snaps with your camera by tapping on the camera icon even though the screen of the device is locked. This can be done on iPhone as well as iPad. But finally a jailbreak tweak has been introduced by which the jailbreakers would also be able to enjoy this useful feature. For all the jailbroken devices that are running iOS 5.0.1, an app with the name of ‘Camera Grabber for iOS 5’ has been made available which would make the use of the above feature possible. What’s even more exciting, this app is available for free and you can download it and enjoy the resulting benefits right away, since you don’t need to change anything in the camera configuration after the installation of this app.

The developers of this app have also taken the fact into consideration that the devices that don’t have any pass code would provide complete access to the camera roll once the camera icon is tapped from the locked screen. This has made the use of the feature simpler and you just need to pull up from the icon to use the camera app. You can also view the recently taken photos in the similar way. You might feel a slight difference in the appearance of the new short cut and the one that exists on the devices that are not jailbroken, but there isn’t much of a difference. Although previously, utilities and apps that facilitate this kind of features on the Apple devices have been made available, Camera Graber seems to be the best one among them all. Other than having close resemblance with the standard look, Camera Grabber is also the easiest to use since you don’t need to play around with the configuration. So for all those who were missing out on this important feature, here’s your chance to enjoy the full potential of your jailbroken device. Download the utility for free and start enjoying the benefits.

Last month an app with the name of Evi was cleared by Apple for the app store but now Apple is about to pull that app from the App Store since according to Apple, that app is very similar to Siri. This app Evi was a personal digital assistance on your device and worked just like Siri works. And this is indeed the case, since that is not only quite similar to Siri, it can also work on older Apple devices as well as Android devices.
 
This app was created by True Knowledge and was submitted to the app store a while back. Apple cleared the app for the app store last month and eventually the popularity of the app started growing. The app, at present, happens to be number one in the UK App Store chart and number five in the US charts. It was this popularity of the app against Siri that has made Apple consider removing this app from the store. According to the tech critics, the app indeed is quite similar to Siri and provides almost all the services that Siri provides. According to a representative of Apple, this app would be removed from the app store in accordance with the rule 8.3 of App Store’s Terms and Conditions. According to this rule, “apps which appear confusingly similar to an existing Apple product or advertising theme will be rejected.” So Apple does seem quite justified in removing this app since the similarity between the app and Siri seems quite remarkable. Maybe when Apple accepted the app for the App Store, it was not really expecting that the app would prove to be immensely successful.
 
Increase in the popularity of Evi simply meant that the popularity of Siri would decrease. And since Siri was among the top reasons why people preferred iPhone 4S over the previous versions, the popularity of Evi was also affecting the popularity of iPhone 4S. After the removal of the app from the App Store, you would not be able to use it on Apple devices. However, you would still be able to enjoy the app on your Android devices since it is also a part of Android Market. The decision of removing the app from the App Store has not been implemented as yet but it is expected that this would happen within a few days.

Although it seems quite unlikely that anyone would beat Apple in the market of tablets in near future, retaining the top position in market would certainly become tougher with the passage of time. Till now, no one has been seriously able to threat the monopoly of Apple over the tablets and ever since the introduction of iPad, Apple has been the undisputed winner of the industry. Now the news about the release of the next model of iPad is circulating which would probably be released in March. But in the other news, Samsung is also gearing up for the competition. According to some resources, Samsung has been planning to release two different versions of its tablet which would most probably be released during the Mobile World Congress this month. Apparently these two mysterious devices have already gone through all the production phases and are almost ready to be announced. The model numbers of these two devices happen to be GT-P3100 and GT-P5100 and both have already got the WiFi certifications by the WiFi Alliance. There is, however, not a complete confirmation about these devices being tablets or smart phones. But the GT-P that has been used for these devices has been used for Samsung’s Android based tablet line up. So we cannot be completely sure about the actual identity of these devices before the event but speculations and rumors suggest that these devices are actually tablets. Previously, there have also been rumors about the giant upcoming version of Galaxy Tab which would be an 11.6 inch version of Samsung Galaxy Tab. This huge device would also be equipped with a quad-core Exynos processor and showcase a fine resolution of 2560 x 1600. Samsung might also be considering releasing something as a response to Amazon’s Kindle Fire since Kindle Fire has proven to be an immensely successful tablet.

We can’t say what other products Samsung would be releasing during the WMC this month but we can expect the release of at least one tablet, whether it is the upcoming giant version of Samsung Galaxy Tab or simply some new tablet. And if we do get a tablet, this would certainly increase the competition for Apple considerably. However, it would still need something extraordinary to come close to Apple in the arena of tablets and this seems quite unlikely in near future.

According to the latest news about the highly anticipated iPad 3 and iPhone 5, these products would be utilizing Samsung produced A6 processor despite the legal battle that is going on between Apple and Samsung. Rumor has it that the next generation version of iPad 3 has already entered in the production phase and would be released by the March of next year. According to the inside sources Apple has been negotiating Samsung about the shipment of the A6 processors which would be used in the upcoming iProducts of Apple.

The A6 processor which would be used in iPad3 is perhaps the most talked about feature of the tablet, along with the Retina Display feature. The feature of Retina Display has already been used in iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S and the demand of this feature on tablet is quite high. Apple has also hinted an improved camera and improved battery life for the next version of the most famous tablet device so far. So what it means is that collaboration between Apple and Samsung on the A6 processors would continue even though the legal battle between the two giants has not ceased as yet.

The collaboration between Apple and Samsung for the components of Apple devices continued even through both tech giants were having troubles on the legal front. But now, it seems that Apple has started looking for the alternatives since according to the official announcement, Apple would not be placing the order of screen components with Samsung for the upcoming iPad 3. This is because Apple has decided to collaborate with Sharp for the new touch screens and many people can clearly see the reasons of spilt between Apple and Samsung.

It is expected that this move would also result in the reduced cost of Apple products. We can expect this deal to take effect before Apple releases the upcoming products such as iPhone 5, iPad 3 and iTV. The production of touch screens has already been initiated by Sharp and according to tech analysts Apple would be purchasing $500 million to $1 billion of equipment for the manufacturing of iPad 3 and iPhone 5 LTE displays. These screens would most probably be ready by the end of the first quarter of 2012 and the technology of Near OLED power consumption utilized in the production process aims at reduced power consumption. With the reduced power consumption, we can expect the reduced cost of these products which is certainly good news for the customers.

The legal battle over the intellectual property that had commenced between Apple and Samsung a few months ago has now intensified. The newest episode in this regard is that Samsung has decided to postpone the release of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. Originally, the event to launch the product was decided to be on 11th of August, 2011. But after some consideration, Samsung authorities decided to postpone the event for the time being. Not only this, most probably the other product which was to be released on the same day, GalTab 10.1 would also be postponed. According to the latest resources, GalTab 10.1 would be released in near future now, but the exact date of the release has not yet been announced.

What the resources revealed more is that Samsung has recently reached an agreement with Apple by which Samsung would not release its Galaxy Tab in Australia. But to Apple’s utter chagrin, Samsung found the other way round and decided to release another product in close resemblance with Galaxy Tab. Although this was not the direct breach of the agreement, it certainly was a move that annoyed Apple. So after some more argument, Samsung has, for the time being, delayed the release of any of its tablet products in Australia. What happens in near future is yet to be decided. The battle started when Samsung released its Tablet earlier this year and especially, after the cover for the tablet was released which was exactly like iPad2’s cover in design. Although Samsung denies any allegations of copying, there is some close resemblance between iPad2 and Galaxy Tab when it comes to the technical specifications. In fact, in certain aspects such as camera, memory and display etc., Galaxy Tab has an edge over iPad2. Both products have almost similar prices so in the same price range it seems that Galaxy Tab has more to offer to the customers as compared to iPad2.

Although the event for the release was cancelled, it by no means signifies that the release of the product has totally been cancelled. The release has merely been postponed and the product would most probably be released later this year. By then, the legal battle between Apple and Samsung would also, most probably, wither away and customers all over the world would be able to take a sigh of relief. For now, anticipating Australian fans would have to keep their fingers crossed for some time, probably not more than a few months.