Great in-depth coverage of the lawsuit by Patel. Highly recommended. With a background in law, Patel provides great explanations in lamen's terms as to what exactly the suit is about. In a nutshell, Apple claims that Samsung "slavishly" copied their IP -- hardware & software.

I'm no lawyer, but I can spot a copycat in a heartbeat. Looks like Apple has a pretty solid case. Time will tell.

Everyone knew her as "Granny". She was the woman who loved me unconditionally. The woman who taught me respect. The woman who showed me that there's always a reason to smile and laugh, even in her last moments. The woman who took me to see Star Wars 11 times (yes, 11 times!). The woman who gave me all that I needed, when I needed it, and yet never asked for anything in return. The woman who left little notes on napkins in my lunch everyday in elementary school. The woman who told everyone "I love you", even her nurses whom she only knew briefly. A woman who gave me comfort when I needed it most. In all, she is an angel that was placed on this Earth who helped make me the man I am today.

Granny, I can't even put into words how much I love you and will miss you! You will always be with me. And I will always strive to be like you and make you proud. Thank you for everything, Granny! I love you.

But I would also argue that by moving to be less "open", Google may be attempting to improve the platform to attract the better third-party developers. Third-party Android apps are still seriously lacking in terms of quality. This is an advantage that Apple still enjoys to this day. The iOS App Store makes developers money. iOS customers are willing to pay for quality apps because there are more quality apps to choose from. To this day, it is still difficult to name an Android third-party "Must Have" exclusive app. There are several for iOS.

We are starting to see the effects of fragmentation on Android's mobile market. Could this be the reason Google is pulling in the reins?

Number of native iPad apps in Apple's App Store = over 65,000.

Number of native apps that Steve Jobs credited for Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets = up to 100.

Actual count (according to Justin Williams) = approx. 17.

One thing has become quite obvious -- iOS has become the premiere development platform in the mobile space. 

For the past several years, I suffered from "too old for this" syndrome whenever Halloween rolled around. But this year, I was determined to partake in the fun of becoming someone you normally don't have a chance to become in everyday life.

I am a geek at my core who grew up with Star Wars. So the Star Wars franchise has been a huge part of my life since very early on. When thinking about who I wanted to become, I knew I wanted to be a Star Wars character. I could have done something simple, like Han Solo (my favorite character) or just a typical Jedi in a robe.  But I thought I'd give tribute to a character who met his end WAY too early in the Star Wars prequels. I am talking, of course, about Darth Maul.

This follow-up post from them just goes to show that this issue has been blown-up larger than it really is due to a faulty signal level indicator, which leads people to believe that they are loosing more signal than they really are when holding the iPhone with the ridiculously named "death grip". Is it an issue? Well, people can definitely make the antenna attenuate by holding it a certain way. But overall, the iPhone 4's antenna design has been leading to better reception for most users. This is based on a full week of reading numerous blog posts from actual users who are now claiming that they are receiving calls where they were unable to receive them before with previous phones.

I, like everyone else, am looking forward to how Apple will handle this issue. But I hope more people will make an effort to read AnadTech's post and get a better idea of exactly how much of an issue this really has turned out to be. The iPhone 4 is flat out the best iPhone released to date, with better reception, an industry-leading screen, and much more speed. It would be a shame if this issue ended up distracting everyone from all of the benefits of owning the phone. The "Pros" definitely outweigh the "Cons".

Check out AnadTech's post here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNN1217743120100712?rpc=44

At Microsoft's annual partner conference in Washington, D.C. today, CEO Steve Balmer stressed that Windows 7-based "slate" devices are one of the most important things that his company will do this year. According to the Reuters article credited above:

“This year, one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates,” said Ballmer. “This is a terribly important area for us.”

He then went on to list the partners who have plans to release Windows 7-based tablet devices this year, mentioning Acer Inc, Dell Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and several other PC makers. But he failed to mention Microsoft's largest partner by far -- HP. Was this an unlikely oversight, or could it be that HP has elected to pass on using a desktop OS from Microsoft and instead has chosen to pursue tablets running their recently acquired WebOS? For years, tablets running a desktop OS have failed to attract customers beyond a small niche group. This has been primarily due to the fact that a desktop OS is not ideally suited for a touch interface.

Via AppleInsider:

Apple's market capitalization hit $222 billion on Wednesday, leaving it ahead of rival Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world when the closing bell rang on Wall Street.

The dethroning of Microsoft now makes Apple -- for now -- the second largest American company, behind only Exxon-Mobil. Apple has a ways to go to catch the oil giant, which has a market capitalization of nearly $280 billion.

Of course, market capitalization doesn't tell the whole story. But it definitely proves one thing...

"The times, they are a-changin'."

- Bob Dylan

Jason Chen's computers, servers, and other equipment was seized by authorities with a felony warrant last week. According to AppleInsider, Chen and his wife were not home during the seize but later came home while it was in process. Chen was not arrested.

This has been expected after the much hyped story of Gizmodo's acquisition of a prototype iPhone. The phone was purchased for $5000 from an individual who came to possess it after an Apple engineer lost it in a German bar.

This whole story has stunk to high heaven of shady journalism and blatant illegal activity on the part of Gizmodo and the individual who sold them the stolen phone. I use the phrase "stolen", because the individual (and Gizmodo) did nothing to return the phone to the rightful owner. And purchasing a prototype that is so obviously the property of a company from a shady individual who was looking to turn a buck is inexcusable...and ILLEGAL!

This is the tech story that keeps on giving. Personally, I have deleted my Gizmodo bookmarks, unsubscribed from their RSS feed, and am now using Engadget as my gadget fetish blog. I recommend others do the same if they value quality blogging, the cannons of journalism, and the law.

Full Story: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/04/26/california_authorities_seize_computers_of_gizmodo_editor.html