For a time, Apple used U.K.-based company IP Application Development to keep the transaction from receiving public attention, but soon it became clear to Proview that Apple was the company that had purchased the rights and failed to do the same in China.

The end result? Proview of China has brought a huge lawsuit against them and is now even looking to get the courts in the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Huizhou to stop sales of the Apple tablet altogether until the matter is resolved.

Apple attempted to counter-sue arguing that it rightfully owned the iPad name, but the case was lost. They have since appealed and Xicheng district court says the matter is still under investigation. Honestly though, things don’t look good for Apple in China.

Proview has admitted its company is in fiscal trouble and the money used from this trademark suit will in fact help pull them out of it, but at least they are honest with their true intentions.

Apple could stand to lose as much as $38 million all the way up to $1.6 billion in compensation.

If Apple were to lose the lawsuits in the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Huizhou, it would only cost them a small amount of changing considering the amount of human equity China has put towards Apple in to making it what it is today.  While this certainly won’t kill Apple, due to its strong presence it other major markets like North America and Europe, it certainly isn’t something they look forward to paying but can clearly afford to.

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Photo: flickr/ell brown

Rumors about upcoming Apple products are always hot topics, although most of them require more than just a pinch of salt. And it’s always a smart thing to keep yourselves updated about such hints because once in a while you come across something that is worth pondering about.

Apple recently released a Mac OS update which was pulled later on due to stability issues. But the update reportedly contained some high-resolution cursors. Some believe that these high-res icons indicate that Apple is preparing for future hardware upgrades such as a Retina Display for upcoming Macs.

This definitely is not something that can be pushed aside since already there are rumors flying around regarding a higher-resolution screen for the much anticipated iPad 3. Maybe the company’s plans for this year include HiDPI screens.

According to John Gruber of Daring Fireball, the info on the improved icons, when read with the reports about some Mac Minis booting into HiDPI mode after the update, might be pointing towards “HiDPI Mac displays and/or HiDPI MacBooks. I.e.: retina display Macs“.

Just in case “HiDPI” passed by you like a speeding bullet, it is a new tech which gives you ultra-sharp graphic elements without making them smaller. On traditional displays, the increase of the screen’s pixel density results in smaller elements. With HiDPI, an icon on the screen will have the same size no matter how many pixels it uses. So, same size but more pixels will give you a sharper object.  Somewhat like vector graphics.

But, as always, we recommend a grain of salt for this as well. We will keep you updated on the matter. So stay tuned.

Windows Phone as an OS certainly doesn’t lead the pack, at a party there’s usually one guy with a Windows Phone while everyone else is on Android or iOS.  And this is due to the fact that it is often considered to be lagging behind in features and release time. With the new touch-friendly Windows 8 on its way later this year, Microsoft will try its hardest again to “catch up” and surpass the competition.  It is imperative that Windows Phone 8 becomes something more than a release to bring them up to “the bar,” because well, that’s all Microsoft has done in the past.  And if its future tablet and smartphone initiatives dream of becoming a staple gadget in someones hand, they’re simply going to have to do more.

“I am very excited to hear that Microsoft is making a strong push to catch up to the iOS and Android platforms,” Sina Mobasser, co-founder of iOS and Windows Phone app BarMax said. “But while the specs that were leaked are certainly appetizing, they will not be enough.” Mobasser thinks Microsoft is still “holding a lot of cards close to its chest,” and we have to agree.

Just last week we talked about a leak regarding Windows Phone Apollo, today we are going to try hard to answer another big question:
How does Apollo stack up against Android (or even iOS)? Are it’s new features enough to draw new users in?

Hardware Options

First off, unlike the current iteration of Windows Phone, Apollo will offer multi-core processors and expandable storage through microSD.

In comparison, iOS doesn’t have expandable microSD ports but certainly does do multi-core. As for Android, while they do both just fine, which essentially means this is one area where Microsoft simply ‘catches up’.

Mobile Payments

Apollo is set to use NFC technology to bring us mobile payments allowing you to simply swipe your phone onto a point-of-purchase RFID tag to buy coffee, consumables, and other awesome goods. This is very similar to what Google is attempting with its “Google Wallet” platform.  The big difference here is that Microsoft’s NFC system will play by carrier rules due to its ability to be directly controlled and branded by the carriers. So, at least in theory this trumps Android’s Wallet, and for now at least, even iOS has a no direct comparable ‘wallet’ feature.

Desktop Integration

There is one of the areas where Apollo is really going to shine: direct integration as a companion experience to the upcoming Windows 8 OS. It seems that Windows Phone 8 is actually switching out to the NT kernel (same core as standard Windows), and apps should easily be able to convert between both platforms, something that will make developers happy.

Additionally, both will have very similar interfaces and experiences, making WP feel more like an extension of our desktop/laptop world, and not something completely foreign.

Apps

It is no secret that both iOS and Android win here, Microsoft hopes that by the time Apollo arrives it has at least 100,000 apps in the market.

Data Management

Both Windows 8 and Apollo tout new features that supposedly are designed to make tracking your mobile usage much easier than in the past. Both have “DataSmart” as a live tile that breaks down your overall usage and automatically tries to go for WIFI whenever possible over cellular connections to data.  This seems to be an area that Android 4 has improved on quite a bit, so overall I’d say WP just plays catch up here.

Enterprise

Another area where Windows Phone could likey shine above the competition is in enterprise. WP8 will offer the same native BitLocker encryption that is found is Windows 8, meaning 128-bit, full-disk encryption. Additionally, companies will be allowed to create personalized, proprietary software for their employees with Windows Phone 8.

Overall

Windows Phone Apollo looks to finally play catch up in a lot of different areas that Apple and Google currently lead the pack on. Whether or not its enough to pull in users remains to be seen.

Either way, 2012 looks to be an interesting year for Windows and Microsoft.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Luckily, what was already great is becoming even better.

It seems that a new update has been released for the Corona untethered jailbreak tool. The new update makes sure that Apple’s eBook app consistently works for everyone, something the last version had problems with, and also fixes overall stability issues for those running iOS 5.0.

Saurik, the father of Cydia, highly recommends that everyone that has a jailbroken iOS 5.0.1 should make the upgrade to this latest Corona update. You can choose from two different downloads: one update that runs from Windows and the other directly for upgrading from Mac.

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There certainly has been no shortage of rumors regarding iPad 3 as of late. While many of the rumors have seemed somewhat believable, it’s still a little difficult to sort through what is likely fact and what is likely fiction.

Now it seems a revealed photograph of the iPad 3′s internal specifications has just confirmed it will feature a quad-core processor and global LTE capabilities. It also mentions model number J1 and J2 as clearly different, though similar, devices with one being WiFI only and the other having WIFI and GSM/DMA/LTE options.

So does this all seem reasonable, or should it be dismissed as pure fiction? Any time a rumor is presented, a little caution is warranted, but this certainly sounds reasonable and somewhat follows many of the other rumors that have spread across the net regarding Apple’s next iPad.

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Want to get a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 in Germany? Good luck, as Samsung’s most recent attempts to overturn the ruling that banned the 10.1 have failed. So why did Germany ban the 10.1 in the first place?

The design was deemed too similar to Apple’s unit. Despite Samsung’s best attempts to change the courts mind, the ruling will stick.

The good news is that Samsung fans can still get the 10.1 in its redesigned form, the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, specifically made for the German market to get around the ban. Even with the redesign, Apple attempted to shut Samsung done, but luckily last month the courts upheld Samsung’s rights to sell the 10.1N in a preliminary judgment. A final ruling in that case is expected on February 9^th.

The battle between Samsung and Apple will likely wage on for quite a while, both in Germany and elsewhere. Who will be the winner in the end? It’s hard to call, though Samsung has had some strong recent victories like with its Samsung Series 9 ultrabook success.

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Adam Lashinsky published a new book last week, titled “Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works?” 

Lashinsky’s book offers a very unique look inside Apple, the book sheds much-needed light on how Apple truly works and what goes around on Apple’s campus.  Apple is admired around the world for the iStuff it creates, and it is known around the world for being the most secretive as well.

Never before have we seen anything published that shows what goes on under the covers and behind the glassy walls of cupertino’s HQ in such great detail. Lashinsky’s book offers inside scoops on how Apple does what it does. For example: Lashinsky reveals how Apple hires new employees into fake projects just to test the newbie’s trustworthiness. That is just tip of the ice-burge, the book reveals a whole lot of other shenanigans that Apple gets into and how Apple uses many different  techniques to be the best at what it does.

For new recruits, the secret keeping begins even before they learn which of these building they’ll be working in. Despite surviving multiple rounds of rigorous interviews, many employees are hired into so-called dummy positions, roles that aren’t explained in detail until after they join the company. The new hires have been welcomed but not yet indoctrinated and aren’t necessarily to be trusted with information as sensitive as their own mission. “They wouldn’t tell me what it was,” remembered a former engineer who had been a graduate student before joining Apple. “I knew it was related to the iPod, but not what the job was.” Others do know but won’t say, a realization that hits the newbies on their first day of work at new-employee orientation.

Inside Apple is a great read for anyone who has always wondered what magical powers are behind Apple and how it maintains to be a company both successful and admired around the world.

Here is something you should check out for sure. Below is a 49 minute video interview of Adam Lashinsky the author of Inside Apple.

We know Apple has a strangle hold on which apps make it to the App Store. That’s why Google is preferred by many developers since their apps have more of chance to see the light of day on Android Market. But this freedom appears to have helped malware makers as well. According to Symantec, millions of Android devices have been infected by malicious chunks of code called Android.Counterclank.

Calling it the largest Android malware infection ever, Security software vendor Symantec has discovered 13 apps from three developers (iApps7, Ogre Games and redmicapps) which are carrying the Android.Counterclank spyware which is technically a trojan and is a minor modification of Android.Tonclank. Some of these apps have been available on Android Market for at least a month.

The malware is capable of receiving remote commands without your knowledge and can steal information from your device. According to Symantec, it has infected between 1 million and 5 million Android devices so far.

The list of apps (posted below) which carry the bug includes games such as Counter Elite Force and CounterStrike Hit Enemy, and naughty titles such as Pretty women lingerie puzzle.

If you have a doubt whether an application, which is not in the above list, is infected with the trojan, you can check by seeing whether a service with the same name is running at once when you open the app. It can also be detected by looking for an added Search icon above your home screen. According to one user who installed Deal & Be Millionaire, “the game is decent … but every time you run this game, a search icon gets added randomly to one of your screens. I keep deleting the icon, but it always reappears. If you tap the icon you get a page that looks suspiciously like the Google search page“.

If there is an infected app on your device, we encourage you to uninstall it and/or reboot your device entirely back to stock.

Some of the malicious apps have already been removed from the Android Market but we are waiting for an official comment from Google.  In the meantime, we have contacted the developers for a response.

Apple has just had their most profitable quarter ever and the company’s shareholders are celebrating this week. But it appears like some of that profit has come after the suffering of many thousands of people. According to the company’s former executives, Apple is culpable for not addressing poor working conditions at their supplier factories in China.

That’s according to a new comprehensive article on the New York Times. The report quotes Apple’s former executives as saying that the company has ignored “labor abuses” for years.

We know that reports about poor working environments at Apple’s supplier factories have come up earlier. But this is the very first time that the company’s former executives have come forward, although anonymously, against Apple’s policies.

According to one of them, “We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on. Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice”. But Apple won’t tell them as the company always demand perfect products and slim margins. And the company’s notorious secrecy influences everything.

An example which reveals Apple’s culpability is the case of the explosion which took place at a Foxconn factory caused by aluminum dust. If Apple had ordered consistent ventilation standards across all their supplier factories after that incident, the second explosion at a different factory would not have happened.

But Apple has conducted inspections at an increasing rate for the past few years. But it is not known whether they would drop major suppliers, such as Foxconn, if faults were found. As another Apple executive said, “Noncompliance is tolerated, as long as the suppliers promise to try harder next time. If we meant business, core violations would disappear“. And Foxconn has denied the accusations of labor abuses, as expected.

So, what do you think? Is Apple culpable? And what about the consumers, are they blameworthy as well for buying products and not demanding better labor policies from the companies?

Check out the NYT website to take a peek at their full article. It’s definitely worth the read.

Jailbreaking was once a major gray area not so long ago, and it stayed that way until a court decision was made ruling that the act was actually fully legal so long as it didn’t directly infringe on any copyrights.

While you would think this ruling would forever lay to rest the question of legality regarding a jailbreak, it might not be that simple in reality.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have begun lobbying for users to add their electronic voice to a petition which aims to ask the United States government to declare once again that jailbreaking an iPhone does not violate the DMCA. The EFF are also asking for this initial exemption — which is set to expire — to be extended to cover tablet devices as the Apple’s iPad. Right now, though very similar to the iPhone, it isn’t actually part of the current ruling as it stands.

One very well known iOS developer, Charlie Miller, is an advocate for voicing a change that will redefine the DMCA ruling and add even further credence to the right for users to jailbreak their device.

Not everyone feels this way, and many believe that you shouldn’t be worried as the current ruling should be permanent, and no further action is required.

Miller has been quick to point out that the exemption could expire, making sure that jailbreaking remains legal is very important.

If you wish to lend your voice to the cause and help ensure that, now and forever, jailbreaking remains legal, go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation website and send a comment to the Copyrights Office using the links provided. All comments must be received by February 10th at 5PM Eastern Time.

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