Apple filed a complaint earlier this week in a federal court in San Jose citing two patents and asking for an injunction against the Korean electronics maker. One of the patents at issue concerns the spelling and autocorrect feature found on iPhone and iPad devices. Read more »
Korea Telecom in South Korea has taken an interesting twist on network neutrality, and is blocking Samsung’s Smart TVs from access the Internet, according to a large S. Korean daily. That’s right, net neutrality isn’t just for applications like Netflix anymore. Read more »
Mobile World Congress is still three weeks and an ocean away, but Samsung is already threatening to steal the show. Analytics blog Anlytk has compiled Twitter data on the most referenced terms surrounding MWC and found that Samsung is already generating an enormous amount of buzz. Read more »
Apple’s huge iPhone sales numbers from its latest quarterly results helped it grow its mobile phone business by 128.4 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new report. That makes it the third-largest mobile phone maker by volume. Read more »
Apple has failed to secure a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet and Galaxy Nexus smartphone in Germany, thanks to a ruling by the Munich Regional Court Wednesday. That should help take the sting out of the appeal it lost on Tuesday. Read more »
The biggest manufacturers of electronic devices spent more in total on wireless chips than on standard computer chips last year, according to a new report. Device makers spent $58.6 billion on chips for wireless devices, compared to $53.7 billion on chips for desktops and notebook PCs. Read more »
Apple won a small victory in Germany on Tuesday as the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court upheld its injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. In the meantime, the European Union is putting Samsung’s recent patent claims under a regulatory microscope with a full-scale investigation. Read more »
While some day in the future we could all have our own personal home battery systems combined with solar panels, Japanese home owners could get these goodies sooner, rather than later. Read more »
Trying to count who sold the most smartphones is a difficult business. But based on clues from Samsung, IHS iSuppli says Apple was No. 1 in the last quarter of 2011 sales of smartphones, but Samsung took the crown for the year, with 95 million shipped. Read more »
Samsung suffered another reversal in its patent battle with Apple on Friday morning, as the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany dismissed the Korean company’s second patent complaint related to 3G/UMTS technology. Last week, the same court rejected another similar Samsung complaint about 3G tech. Read more »
Apple spent the most on semiconductors in 2011, beating out Samsung and HP to take the crown. HP dropped from the top spot, thanks to overall weakness in the PC market, while Apple soared upward on the rising tide of smartphones, tablets and the MacBook Air. Read more »
Apple has been dealt another blow in its ongoing legal patent war with Samsung. A Dutch appeals court ruled Tuesday that an appeal by Apple against a lower court’s decision from August 2011 is invalid, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 does not infringe on Apple’s iPad design right. Read more »
Apple has filed suit against Samsung once again in Germany, aiming to have sales of 10 of the Korean company’s smartphones halted. In a separate newly filed suit, Apple also targeted five models of Samsung tablets. Apple is targeting design rights with its latest suits. Read more »
Is the PC “dead”? Of course not, but if you don’t see the trend moving away from local / desktop computing and towards mobile / cloud computing, you’re missing the sales figures for each market: Nearly 50 percent of recent device sales are mobile. Read more »
A week ago, it seemed like Google TV was back on track after announcing new partners. But if Google finally is gaining the trust and support of the consumer electronics industry, there was little evidence of it at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Read more »
Verizon is working to increase the number of connected devices that can be used to access its live and on-demand streaming channels, with plans to finally bring its live iPad app — and possibly an app for LG TVs — to market later in 2012. Read more »
Time Warner Cable is developing an app for Panasonic’s Viera Cast Smart TV platform to access its on demand video library. This makes the company the first cable operator to develop an app for Panasonic’s platform. The app is supposed to launch some time this year. Read more »
One DVR to rule them all? In addition to bringing Comcast’s new cloud-based user interface to subscriber homes, the Xcalibur set-top box includes DLNA Premium Video, which will allow users to access live and recorded TV from tablets, PCs, connected TVs and other devices. Read more »
Hollywood’s UltraViolet initiative might not have gotten off to a great start. But things are looking up, as it’s added Amazon as a partner, and Samsung Blu-ray players will now let consumers add DVDs they’ve already purchased to their UltraViolet digital rights lockers. Read more »
The latest evidence that the set-top box will soon be dead comes from Samsung and DirecTV, which have partnered. Set-top boxless viewing will enable operators to provide the same user interface on the TV without the need for another piece of hardware. Read more »
If the latest data is to be believed, the battle for high-end smartphones is essentially a tussle between Apple and Samsung. With China’s ZTE’s and Huawei’s aiming for the lower end of the business, is there is room for HTC, LG, Sony or Motorola? Read more »
Samsung spent most of its CES press event explaining how it will expand its app and media ecosystem to every screen in the house and going out the door. Perhaps that’s why Samsung has a smartphone or tablet available in practically every possible screen size. Read more »
Samsung is putting some effort behind its smart TV lineup, with plans to add new functionality for consumers to interact with their TV screens. Its next-gen smart TVs will include voice, gesture and facial recognition features that will enable even smarter TV applications. Read more »
Prior to Huawei’s CES scheduled press event on Monday, the company took a shot at high-end handset makers with the Ascend P1 S. Just 6.68 millimeters thin, the phone runs Android 4.0 on a Texas Instruments dual-core OMAP chip and 4.3-inch high-resolution Super AMOLED display. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone 4S won’t be blocked for sale in Italy, at least not in the near-term. A Milan court rejected Samsung’s request for a preliminary injunction against the device on Thursday. It’s the third time Samsung’s attempts to hobble Apple in Europe have been blocked. Read more »
I just took delivery of Samsung’s $40 spare battery charging station for my Galaxy Nexus. The second battery will give me peace of mind in case I run through my first one, but the included dock, or stand, is mediocre at best: take a close look. Read more »
Hot on the heels of a report about Apple’s iTV plans on Tuesday, there are fresh stories about its potential components and supplier partners out on Wednesday morning. DigiTimes cites new supply-chain sources saying that Apple is entertaining chipmaker bids for the iTV’s processor contracts. Read more »
As 2011 comes to a close, I’m thinking ahead to what mobile technology trends I expect to see in 2012. While I formulate those thoughts for a post later this week, now is a good time to see how I did with my 2011 predictions. Read more »
Asian chip manufacturers and NTT DoCoMo will create a joint venture to build mobile phone chips. The joint venture poses a threat to Qualcomm, but the subtext here is that as mobile phones rise in prominence, chip making is turning on its head. Read more »
Samsung is reportedly in discussions to offer Android 4.0 software upgrades to its Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab slates. Perhaps Samsung’s TouchWiz software is slimmed down or eliminated, which may not be a problem. Getting carriers to support such an upgrade, however, may be. Read more »
The Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and Tab slate won’t see an upgrade to Android 4.0, leaving owners to decide between buying a newer device, sticking with Android 2.3 or installing a custom build of Google’s latest mobile operating system. Here’s a suggestion to make everyone happy. Read more »
Samsung introduced its first dual-SIM smartphones on Thursday, the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos. The Android 2.3 smartphones are aimed at emerging markets, but if they’re successful, Samsung could migrate the solution up the Galaxy line for the bring your own device crowd. Read more »
According to a preliminary assessment from the Dusseldorf regional court in Germany on Thursday, Apple isn’t very likely to succeed in its attempts to get the redesigned Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N tablet barred from sale in that country via injunction. Read more »
Apple is targeting Samsung in Australia with another series of patent infringement claims, this time related to at least 10 patents tied to the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Samsung’s smartphones. These patents might be easily sidestepped, but how many workarounds is too many? Read more »
One of the key components of Apple devices — the iPad 2- and iPhone 4S-powering A5 processor — is apparently now American-made. A new report from Reuters Friday says that the A5 processor is now being made by Samsung for Apple at a factory in Austin, Texas. Read more »
