Free Republic

SAN JOSE — A jury on Thursday said that Samsung Electronics would have to pay Apple $290 million more in damages for violating patents, putting an end to one chapter in the long-running patent struggle between the two tech companies. The six-woman, two-man jury calculated the damages based on 13 products that infringed Apple’s patents. They determined that two smartphones incurred the heftiest damages: Samsung’s Infuse 4G, at about $100 million, and the Droid Charge, at $60 million. While the price tag will not significantly affect either company’s pocketbooks — they are two of the most profitable companies in the...

Despite billions in revenue each quarter and owning the dominant desktop platform in the world, people still find it easy to criticize Microsoft. A lot of that has to do with its distant third place in the smartphone race — in the post-PC era, people care more about how you're doing on phones and tablets than in the traditional computing space.That, along with Microsoft's struggles in boosting demand for its Surface tablets, has led to many people saying very negative things about the company's products and future.Because of all of that negativity, many overlook the areas where Microsoft shines. While...

Taiwan has angrily demand that Apple Inc. alter its new map application, which identifies the island nation as a province of China. Users of the iOS 7 and version 10.9 of OS X for the new iPhone and computers have discovered that any search for "Taiwan" automatically produced simplified Chinese characters that read "China Taiwan province." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei instructed its office in San Francisco to demand that Apple make an immediate correction to the software. "We have made representations to Apple," Kelly Hsieh, head of the ministry's Department of North American Affairs, told reporters in...

New app for Apple lets users see if satellites are overhead If you’ve ever been curious about whether you’ve ever been seen by a satellite, there’s now an app for that. Orbit Logic has just created SpyMeSat, a mobile app available for Apple devices that alerts users when they are within range of an image or spy satellite that might be photographing them. A company that normally provides apps for the military and defense communities, SpyMeSat is Orbit Logic’s first app for the common man, according its president Alex Herz. SpyMeSat provides users with a satellite map that shows orbit...

With Windows 8.1 Professional and OS X 10.9 Mavericks both now shipping, how do the two flagship PC operating systems compare? Does Windows 8.1 fix enough of Windows 8's usability flaws to be worth adoption? Does Mavericks add enough value to get your attention?Windows 8.1 lets users avoid most of the Windows 8 experience, so they can return to a Windows 7-like state of bliss, whereas Mavericks simply makes the Mac that much easier to use, especially if you work with iPads and iPhones, too. In short, the two updates keep the relative balance between Windows and OS X...

Peter Oppenheimer, the cherub-faced high priest of finance for the world's most valuable company, gazed up at the oversized map on the wall. "Let me begin by showing you the sea of asphalt,'' Apple's chief financial officer said, pointing to the husk of the former Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) campus in Cupertino, site of Apple's proposed new spaceship-shaped headquarters that goes before the City Council Tuesday for an initial vote. The plan: flip a 175-acre site that's now 80 percent asphalt and buildings into one that's 80 percent open space and parkland, then drop a spectacular ring of polished glass into the...

President Obama just compared Apple’s imperfect operating system launch to the massive glitches plaguing the new government healthcare price comparison websites. Responding to the government shutdown in a sunny Rose Garden press conference, Obama took time to address some of the reported website issues:88220;Consider that just a couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it. I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t. That’s not how we do things in America.”Here’s...

APPLE is the new most valuable brand in the world, according to a closely followed annual report. The report, to be released on Monday, is from Interbrand, a corporate identity and brand consulting company owned by the Omnicom Group that has been compiling what it calls the Best Global Brands report since 2000. The previous No. 1 brand, Coca-Cola, fell to No. 3. Not only has Apple replaced Coca-Cola as first among the 100 most valuable brands based on criteria that include financial performance, this is the first time that the soft drink known for slogans like “It’s the real...

For a fleeting moment, questions were being raised about the validity of the most recent Apple, Inc. (AAPL) iPhone sales numbers — 9 million phones reportedly sold in three days, pretty impressive numbers.Then, in order to comprehend what was below the surface, a few stock analysts decided to actually peel back the onion a layer or two. A year ago, Chinese and Japanese sales were not included in the initial weekend sales report of 5 million units of the iPhone 5.Of course, this year Chinese and Japanese sales were included.I guess it’s a good thing to report new vendors, but...

Devices running iOS 7 can be remotely secured when lost, making it so that a device's associated Apple ID and password must be entered before it can be wiped and used again. In effect, the new system could make an iPhone almost unusable when stolen, should the system work as planned. The NYPD is evidently hoping that it will discourage thieves, as so-called "Apple picking" theft has become a major problem. Last year, New York City's annual crime rate rose for the first time in two decades — a fact that Mayor Bloomberg blamed squarely on the theft of Apple...

Apple announced that it sold over 9 million iPhones during the opening weekend of sales. This is much better than analysts expected. Analysts were forecasting 5 million at the low end, and 7.75 million at the high end. The stock is up ~6% on the news. Last year Apple sold 5 million iPhone 5s during the opening weekend, so this is a huge increase. The new iPhone drew huge, enthusiastic crowds and long lines when it was released last Friday, despite the fact that there were no external changes to the device. Part of the reason there were big lines...

Apple fans waiting in an early-morning line for the release of the new iPhone were robbed at gunpoint on Friday, Houston police said. It was reported around 5 a.m. at the AT&T store on Westheimer Road at Chimney Rock. Police said people were camped outside the store when two armed guys got out of a car. One of the victims told KHOU 11 News the robbers walked up and started making demands. “’Gimme everything you’ve got.’ I emptied out my pocket, and he takes away my iPhone, my iPad -- because it was on the ground already,” the victim said....

The passcode lock screen on iOS 7 suffers from a bug that allows anyone with direct access to the iPhone or iPad to bypass the lock screen and open apps. The bug, discovered by 36-year-old soldier Jose Rodriguez, who lives on the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain, is remarkably simple to exploit, reports Forbes. Swipe up from the lock screen to access the new Control Center, then open the alarm clock app. Hold the phone's sleep button, but instead of swiping to power down the phone, tap cancel and double-tap the home button to access the multitasking screen....

iOS 7 will be available to download today. While iOS 7 represents a total overhaul to Apple’s mobile OS, only time will tell what the mainstream public reaction will be to the changes that represent the post Scott Forstall era at Apple. If you have a compatible device capable of running iOS 7, then it’s time to back up that device, make a note of the release schedule and get ready to hammer Apple’s authentication servers. If we take a look back at release times of major iOS releases, almost all of the iOS 7 beta builds were released at...

Apple introduces 5S and 5CApple surprised all and sundry by coming out with two new devices- the higher-end 5S and the reasonable 5C. These were introduced as a swap to the discontinued iPhone 5. The sale of the 5S was planned through various sales carriers, but the 5C is up for presale. As compared to the past few introductions by Apple, the iPhone 5C sales fall under a question mark, to the disappointment of the company.

Considering the nationwide panic regarding security and privacy, both offline and online, Apple’s new Touch ID system was met with some cynicism. Where is the fingerprint data going to be stored? What happens if someone obtains the data? Would a criminal be willing to remove my finger in order to access my contact list? Some concerns were admittedly a bit more hypothetical than others, but Marcia Hofmann’s piece on Wired brings up a legal situation which is far more likely to cause problems for an iPhone owner than the theoretical digit thief. The Fifth Amendment provides the right against self-incrimination...

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Apple says its next mobile operating system, iOS 7, will be available as a free download on Sept 18. Craig Federighi, head of software at Apple Inc., said at an event at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters that "downloading iOS 7 is like getting an all new device."

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton suggested in a radio broadcast making the rounds on YouTube that Apple is too white and needs to add some black faces to executive-level positions. “[There are] no blacks on the board of Apple,” Mr. Sharpton said Tuesday on conservative blogger Brian Maloney’s “Radio Equalizer” broadcast. “We buying up all this Apple stuff and can’t get a bite.”

64-bit chip for iPhone 5S and iOS 7 In addition to the new 64-bit kernel iOS 7 as well as the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C, Apple has unveiled its new A7 SoC, which is actually the first consumer ARM-based SoC with 64-bit support.According to Apple, the new A7 SoC consists of over 1 billion transistors on a 102mm2 die, which is actually twice what they had in the A6 chip. The chip will feature 64-bit desktop-class architecture with a modern instruction set, twice the amount of general-purpose and floating-point registers.According to Apple, the new chip will be twice...

While the investing community this morning is focused squarely on the very disappointing iPhone 5 relaunch and the lack of a cemented China Mobile deal, which has resulted in a $20 billion loss in market cap in early trading for the second most widely held hedge fund stock, a thing that we find more curious in the aftermath of the latest revalations of an implicit, if not explicitly voluntary, joint venture between Apple and the US government and specifically its NSA uberspies, is just how much of Apple's product suite is derived thanks to developments by the US government....