In the most recent Apple vs. Samsung debacle, Apple’s Notification Center is the hot topic. More specifically, Korean News site iNews24 reports that “Samsung Electronics has brought a lawsuit against Apple in a court in South Korea over its ‘Notification Center’ patent infringement.”.

Notification Center was introduced alongside iOS 5 in October of 2011. Furthermore, Apple has been suing Samsung over various software and device similarities. Now, Samsung looks to turn the table on Cupertino with this court case.

However, it is easy to tell that Samsung is not the owner of any patents relating to a notification system. Google, on the other hand, just received their first notification system patent. At this moment, there is little information related to the case and we wouldn’t be surprised if Google got involved, specifically on Samsung’s side. Finally, it is notable that the case is only against Apple in South Korea.

Who do you think will win this trial? Do you think that tech companies should stop suing one another over these kinds of things altogether? Let us know in the comments below.

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If you’ve been following his adventures, then you’ll know that Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz in Germany) is currently out on bail, but the United States is looking to have him extradited from New Zealand to face charges related to the distribution of copyright-protected content like movies and music. Dotcom earn over $100 million from Megaupload over the years.

Things aren’t exactly looking all that hot for Kim. Police raided his Auckland mansion earlier this year and the New Zealand high court has ruled that his online operation was illegal. As it stands, Dotcom is facing an extradition hearing in March. In the meantime, he’s apparently working with Pacific Fibre (a New Zealand company) to build up enough money to build a fiber optic web cable across the Pacific to the United States.

This would double the available bandwidth for Kiwis, but it would cost 200 million GBP to build. Kim hopes to supply broadband for free to domestic users, charging businesses and government users. The initial capital, he hopes, would come from the proceeds of his lawsuits against the US government and film studios for their “unlawful and political destruction” of Megaupload.

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At the moment, this is only affecting versions of the S III being sold by Sprint in the United States, but an over-the-air update could just as easily be pushed to other versions of the ICS smartphone being sold across the country wiping out the feature all together. What this means is that when you type in your search in that homescreen search bar now, all you’re going to get are search results from Google and nothing from the insides of your phone.

To make matters worse, this is affecting more than the Galaxy S III. Apparently, a “security patch” is about to be sent out to the Galaxy Nexus too. Under the guise of patching up security holes, this software update will also remove Universal Search from the Galaxy Nexus. To skirt this issue, you can install Google Quick Search Box, which is available as an .apk on the Android Central Forums (post #41). Other forum members are saying that it works, but as always, proceed at your own risk and discretion.

The post Universal Search Removed from Samsung Galaxy S3 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Naturally, Tim Cook got on the line with his legal counsel as soon as the Microsoft Surface was announced and the promo video was played.

Yes, the video below is outwardly mocking Apple’s approach to the competition, but it’s worth a good laugh. We know that Apple has developed a habit of suing everyone over just about everything, so it would not at all be surprising if the legal team in Cupertino found more than a few “patent infringements” with Microsoft’s new tablet device.

“A square device on a pedestal? Oh my God! We patented that, like, 20 years ago.” And yes, they invented magnets and kickstands too.

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The allegation is that Apple colluded with several book publishers to keep the prices of e-books higher in an effort to limit competition. More specifically, it says that this collusion was in direct response to the lower prices being offered by Amazon, which is known to sell best-seller e-books at $9.99. The publishers still wanted their books sold, but at $9.99, they weren’t making enough money.

And thus, the publishers had the same goal as Apple: keep the prices higher. It is “hard to settle a lawsuit when you know you have done no wrong,” said Macmillan (Holtzbrinck Publishers) CEO John Sargent. “Macmillan did not collude.”

The iBookstore from Apple is estimated to have about a 10-15% market share among e-books, compared to the around 60% that the Amazon enjoys, though that figure is down from the 90% it had some time back.

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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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Think about that for a moment. Rather than going after the Googs directly, Apple is systematically approaching the various manufacturers that produce Android tablets. In addition to Samsung, Apple also has active legal battles with the likes of Motorola and HTC, among others, citing “slavish copying” of the Apple design.

Apple has already managed to block sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and the EU, for instance. Perhaps Apple’s legal team thinks that it’s easier going after specific products in specific markets, rather than launching a broad-sweeping battle against the entire Google Android operating system and ecosystem. One way to beat the competition is to prevent them from selling their products in the first place.

Android has already usurped iOS on the smartphone front and it’s steadily picking up pace with tablets too. In fact, projections have Android tablet sales skyrocketing to 230 million by 2015. Compare that to last year’s 20 million. By going after the manufacturers, Apple could charge them licensing fees to use Apple-esque features that are found in Android, making the latter OS less “free” to implement.

The post Apple lawsuits against Samsung, etc. are really against Google? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In the OSS Patent RE40,092 Abstract, it basically describes a system wherein the computer checks to see if the current state of the OS has been saved to the hard disk, quick booting into that when available. The concept sounds basically like “hibernate” in Windows, as far as I can tell, but there may be some technicalities that set it apart.

In any case, OSS is going after Apple for this. Somehow, I have a burning suspicion this is just a hopeful cash grab, wishing that Apple will settle out of court for an undisclosed amount. After all, OSS says that it is simply “seeking damages.” The case was filed in Florida Middle District Court and Judge James S. Moody will be overseeing the proceedings.

The post Apple on other side of the lawsuit equation with fast-booting OS X appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Can’t we all just get along? The legal battle between Seoul and Cupertino is continuing to heat up, this time taking the combat down under. Because of the current patent dispute launched by Apple, Samsung has agreed to halt sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia until further notice. After going through a hearing in an Australian federal court, Samsung agreed to stop advertising the Android tablet and it will not sell the device until it gets a go-ahead from the courts that the disputes have been resolved. So, Samsung is the loser here, right?

Not necessarily. Since Samsung isn’t selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia anymore, Apple has also agreed that it will “pay damages” if it loses the infringement lawsuit. It is then up to the Samsung lawyers to justify a number that would represent lost sales and other damages. Remember that, for now, this is only Australia. There’s no saying that Apple and Samsung won’t end up with similar (or totally different) arrangements in other markets.

Does this mean that Aussies can’t have a Samsung tablet? No, that’s not true either. The ban is on the US version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung will develop an Australian version that’s different enough, whatever that means, providing samples to Apple before it starts shipping them out to Aussie vendors.

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An eye for an eye makes the world go blind. Realistically, the exchange of lawsuits is really much the same kind of phenomenon. So basically, let’s just iron things out, get to a mutually agreeable resolution, and move along so we can continue making money from the masses.

That’s effectively the message that HTC chief financial officer Winston Yung has for Apple. He says that they “have to sit down and figure it out,” continuing on to say that HTC is, “open to having discussions… as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable.”

Based on the ITC rulings in the past month, both parties have scored some minor victories. The US ITC said that Apple violates two S3 Graphics patents related to compression technology, and HTC has a confirmed deal to buy S3 Graphics. On the flip side, the same ITC also ruled that HTC infringes on two Apple patents for data detection and transmission technologies.

Can’t we all just get along? Let’s get Samsung into these talks, since they’re involved in a double-ended patent dispute with Cupertino too.

Image: TG Daily

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