Submitted by Jon Reed on
The biggest news of the week was the end of The Apple v Samsung case. After hearing four weeks of testimony, the jury deliberated for three days before it delivered a verdict. They found that many of Samsung's devices did indeed infringe upon several of Apple's patents, and awarded the company $119 million. This can hardly be considered a victory, as it sought $2.2 billion in damages. Samsung had a counterclaim that Apple infringed upon several of its patents. The jury agreed, but only awarded $158,000. The real impact of the verdict is that it opens the door for Apple to try to block Samsung devices (the ones that infringed) from the U.S. market.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Apple will join Google, Facebook and Microsoft in a stand against government data seizures. The tech giants will be updating "their policies to expand routine notification of users about government
data seizures, unless specifically gagged by a judge or other legal authority." The Justice Department believes this will serve to give advance warning to criminals, allowing them to destroy data and intimidate potential witnesses.
AT&T announced that it will devote a portion of its spectrum to an "LTE air-to-ground network." Travelers will be able to stay connected to a reliable, high speed Wi-Fi network while in flight. The company expects to launch the service sometime in late 2015.
Hulu is planning to stream free content for iPhone and iPad users this summer. The company's free content is currently not available on mobile devices. It will also launch its next generation Hulu Plus app for iOS sometime towards the end of summer.Apple announced that it will replace faulty sleep/wake buttons on all iPhone 5 models manufactured through March 2013. The repair is free and takes 4-6 days. Customers can choose to trade-in their device for an upgrade instead of having it repaired, and receive an extra $80 value on their device.
Newest iPhone FAQs
Apple is expected to make major upgrades to its mapping in iOS 8, and this week's acquisition of Wifarer cofounder and CEO, Philip Stanger, supports the rumor.
This week's App Store update added a new "Best of" the month section. It lists the top app and top game of the previous month, followed by lists of "Great Games" and "Amazing Apps." The new section appears on the iPhone and iPad App Store, but is curiously absent from the Mac App Store.