A court in Germany has ruled that Apple's iPhone infringes upon Samsung's patents related to 3G wireless technology and has issued an order to stay a German Samsung v. Apple lawsuit. Patent blogger Florian Müeller who follows tech litigation explains that the case will be adjudicated only after the validity of this patent. Apple, of course, is challenging the validity of Samsung's patent, but that will likely take years to resolve...
Google has been on fire lately with its iOS apps, displaying a newly-found sense of design that features a clean, simple interface with a large helping of Helvetica Neue. Just look at Google Maps, YouTube, or Google+ and you'll see what I mean.
Today, the search giant has updated its Flipboard-style news aggregation app, Google Currents, with that design, as well as other new features and improvements. Navigation in the app is now quicker, and news stories are much easier to find...
Apple released its latest Supplier Responsibility report late last night, detailing 339 audits focused on the plants and suppliers that help make its hardware. These were internal audits, which are separate from those performed by the Fair Labor Association.
While Apple was quick to point out supplier compliance, an impressive 92%, it also mentioned that it has severed its relationship with a China-based third-party labor supplier after discovering a conspiracy to employ dozens of underage workers...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvNfhojILPU
Welcome to The Daily Recap for January 24th, 2013. Watch our video for a quick look at some of the top stories from the day in less than two minutes. If you missed out on any of today's big news, this is a great way for you to get caught up fast.
For your convenience, you'll also find links to all of the stories listed in today's recap inside...
Earlier today, Apple seeded its latest beta build of OS X 10.8.3 — dubbed 12D58. The release comes with no known issues, though developers are urged to focus on a few areas of interest including: AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, graphics drivers, and Safari.
If you're a registered Apple developer, you can head over to Apple's developer portal and download the full version, or a handy delta update if you're already situated on the previous 12D54 build.
Want to play retro-style games on your Mac or PC, but don't have a controller handy? While we wouldn't recommend using touch screen controls for every game, if you're in need of a quick retro fix you can download Joypad Legacy for your iPhone and quickly play retro games with 'classic' controls.
Joypad Legacy comes in two parts: the first part is the controller app for your iPhone that comes with layouts for NES, GBA, SNES, Genesis, and N64. You'll also need a second piece of software called Joypad Connect, running on your Mac or PC. You can use Joypad Connect to build profiles for the games and emulators you want to play with Joypad Legacy...
There's a suggestion floating around on tech blogs for setting 'unguessable passcodes' in iOS. The idea is to use alternate accented characters, which are hidden but easily accessible by holding down letters on the virtual keyboard. The thinking is these accented characters could be especially effective at thwarting guesses, as English speakers might not even realize that there are accents beneath the keys...
Following up reports from Apple and Verizon, AT&T has just released its earnings results for the 2012 holiday quarter. And they actually look pretty good. The carrier sold a record amount of smartphones during the three quarter period, and activated a record amount of iPhones. Full breakdown of the results after the break...
Want to take a load off your iOS device's CPU, battery life, and cellular bandwidth by preventing certain apps from running in the background? Sure, you could install a tweak like WeeCloseApps, but it doesn't set automatic profiles for app behavior, and it doesn't work on non-jailbroken devices.
Luckily, there's a powerful iOS file browser for Mac and PC called iFunBox, which works on both jailbroken and non-jailbroken devices. Among its features, iFunBox allows users to edit 'Power Saving Mode' profiles. Right click on an installed app and you can set one of three multitasking states: allow background, always background, and kill switch. 'Allow background' is the default state of most apps, while 'always background' is normally applied to music and podcasting apps that you'd want active in the background, and 'kill switch' is applied to power-hungry games...
Do you love iTunes 11's MiniPlayer so much you wish you could just take it with you when you leave the house? If so, Sentry's latest concept for an iOS MiniPlayer will be a dream come true.
Sentry's iOS MiniPlayer concept is a bar-shaped widget which displays the name of the song currently playing, along with the album art and subtitles for the album and band. Tap on the title, and you've got basic playback controls for pause, fast forward, and rewind. There are even bars at the side of the MiniPlayer which you can drag to hide or reposition the widget...
Yesterday, Pebble Technology started shipping the first round of watches to its Kickstarter backers (a companion iOS app went live this morning). We also spotted a number of promising smartwatches at CES, like the iOS-friendly Cookoo, Casio's G-Shock and lots more. Even Apple is rumored to be collaborating with Intel on an iWatch and now Google is apparently considering making one as well...
If you're interested in taking matters into your own hands when it comes to unlocking you iPhone, then you may want to act fast, or else potentially be at risk of being labeled a law breaker. According to a report by Tech News Daily: On Saturday, January 26th, a DMCA exemption expires that made unlocking a phone on your own terms fully legal.
In all actuality, the exemption was nullified back on October 26 (read the final ruling here), but due to a 90 day grace period of sorts, the final expiration date takes place this weekend. Obviously, unlocking is a big subject here at iDownloadBlog, so we're interested to hear your thoughts on the matter. Bear in mind that it's not all gloom and doom, though...