In a ruling issued last week in San Jose, California, US District Judge Ronald Whyte green-lighted a plan for Apple to pay $40 to everyone in the US who purchased an iPad 3G before June 2010.
The decision comes in response to several class action suits waged against Apple and AT&T, accusing them of advertising an unlimited data plan, and then taking it away after they purchased their iPad...
It's believed that with strong competition from Samsung and other handset makers, the iPhone isn't as big of a draw for consumers as it once was. Some carriers have even stopped offering the phone, figuring it's no longer worth the hassle.
But ask providers like T-Mobile or China Telecom, and it's a completely different story. T-Mobile just posted its strongest consumer growth in 4 years last quarter on the back of its iPhone launch, and China Telecom is seeing similar results...
In April, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ordered an import ban on the iPhone 3G/3GS/4 after determining Apple had violated Samsung's 3G cellular technology patent. Apple was hoping the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) would overturn ITC's decision on the basis that Samsung was asserting a standards-essential patent.
Needles to say, Apple asked ITC to stay an order while the court considered the appeal, arguing the sales ban would "sweep away an entire segment of Apple's product offerings." And in an interesting twist earlier this week, the nation's top carrier Verizon Wireless pressured President Obama to intervene in the Apple v. Samsung case and veto the impending ban...
The European Union six months ago launched a formal investigation into a potential breach of EU antitrust rules by Samsung. The antitrust investigation focused on the South Korean conglomerate's handling of industry-essential patents that EU regulators insist should be licensed to others on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND).
The investigation determined that Samsung was abusing its patent portfolio by seeking high royalties it knew didn't make business sense, just so it could later assert those patents against rivals such as Apple. ”Samsung has been involved in settlement discussions for several months now," an unnamed source told Reuters on Tuesday. "Samsung wants to settle”...
We've always contended that while Android has a numerical advantage over Apple's iOS, the iPhone and iPad see much greater usage.
More evidence of that belief: more than half of all 3G cellular traffic comes from Apple devices.
When combined, the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 account for about 53 percent of all 3G cellular traffic. Adding the iPad boosts the number to nearly 60 percent, according to a firm that analyzes cell network traffic. Where is Android? Samsung's Galaxy S, S2 and S3 combined make up a bit over eighteen percent of 3G traffic...
Apple scored another legal victory against rival Samsung. In a UK court, a judge Wednesday ruled that the iPhone maker does not infringe patents held by the South Korean-based Android smartphone manufacturer. The court's decision marks more than two-dozen failed attempts by Samsung to claim it is owed royalties on standard-essential patents.
The company had alleged Apple did not pay royalties to use its 3G wireless technology patents in the iPhone...
Right on cue, Apple has rushed out the new iOS 6.1.1 firmware update to the iPhone 4S owners to fix 3G connectivity issues, enterprise problems and quite possibly squash a few reliability related bugs. iPhone 4S owners can apply an over-the-air update by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Of course, if you're already jailbroken, do not update to iOS 6.1.1 until it becomes clear whether or not it breaks the jailbreak...
Like any software release, the January 28 iOS 6.1 firmware update did fix some known bugs, but also has introduced a new set of issues. Specifically, the update is said to contain a bug that affects your iPhone's battery life and 3G performance.
The battery inefficiencies could be related to an Exchange bug, clever people at AOL have learnt). Quick searches on the Apple Support Communities forum for iOS 6.1 battery and iOS 6.1 3G clearly prove these issues are more widespread than originally thought. While some people are seeing their iPhone 5 battery life dropping after updating to iOS 6.1, others are bitching about overheating issues.
To make matters worse, Vodafone advised its UK customers against upgrading to iOS 6.1 until Apple fixes 3G hiccups, which include the occasional difficulty in connecting to the network to make or receive calls or texts or connecting to the mobile Internet.
What are you seeing?
The nation's top carrier, Verizon Wireless, on Friday launched new wireless plans that are only aimed at owners of 3G-enabled smartphones and tablets. New prepaid plans expand options for "budget-minded consumers", Verizon said.
There are two plans to choose from: one costing $60 a month and the other a $70 value, tailored to your monthly data needs...
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...
For carriers, the name of the game is data consumption. The more data consumed, the more revenue. For observers, data consumption also provides a clue to how new devices are used.
For the first time, smartphones are outpacing tablets as the "hungriest" mobile devices.
In 2011, tablets comprised two out of three of the devices consuming the most data. By 2012, all of the top three mobile devices were smartphones, led by the iPhone 5.
According to Arieso, a European company helping optimize networks to meet changing demand, iPhone 5 users consume four times as much data as the iPhone 3G users, and 50 percent more than the iPhone 4S owners. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S III and the HTC Sensation XL rounded out the most voracious devices in Europe...