While it’s well known that creating anything that even remotely resembles an Apple product will find you on the business end of a lawsuit from the Cupertino company, this one might be taking things a bit too far.
As reported from All Things D , Apple is suing Samsung, stating that Samsung has willfully violated patents, committed trademark infringement and exercised unfair competition. Why, you might ask? It all goes back to Samsung’s Galaxy line of phones and tablets.
According to an Apple spokesperson, quoted at Mobilized:
It seems that Apple is guns forward at Samsung on items such as the icons (which leads me to believe that Apple is bringing up TouchWiz), core technology and most notably the shape of the hardware.
Why most notably? Because there isn’t a lot of difference across the board in the shape of candybar-style phones. While some might have rounder corners or similar button placements, the overall form factor is almost identical across the board. In fact, looking at the images that are provided in the filing, you could easily mistake the Samsung phone used by Apple for comparison for many other phones on the market:
The problem inherent to the suit is that, if it is upheld, it opens the door for Apple to sue any other manufacturer that makes phones in a similar style. Hopefully a judge will understand the general idea of form factors and keep this ball out of Apple’s court.
It is reported that the suit also brings up the iPad in reference to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, though we’ve not yet gotten a chance to dig into Apple’s complaints specific to tablets.
We’re digging into the suit a bit more, as it’s very interesting to see what Apple is referencing with the accusations related to core technology and icons. As John Gruber questions on Daring Fireball , “has anyone ever won a lawsuit based on copying stuff like this?”
Samsung announces Galaxy Tab 2 with Android 4.0 and new cloud services, available March
Ahead of Mobile World Congress, Samsung has announced the forthcoming launch of the Galaxy Tab 2, a 7-inch-screened sequel to its popular Android tablet.
The new version of the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab sports Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) and a 1 GHz processor. It will be available in both WiFi and WiFi+3G models. The 3G option offers HSPA+ 21Mbps speeds, where supported. The screen is a WSVGA 1024×600 PLS TFT.
As you’d expect, the usual suite of Samsung apps is included, such as Music Hub, Readers Hub and Games Hub. A new Video Hub will offer over 1,000 film titles for purchase or rent, plus reviews, trailers and recommendations.
Also new with the Galaxy Tab 2 is AllShare Play, a content-sharing service that allows users to play or live-stream multimedia content on their tablet from PCs, Samsung smart devices as well as third-party cloud storage service, although Samsung isn’t saying which ones as yet. The company says that users will also be able to transfer content from the tablet to other devices or directly to Web services.
The Galaxy Tab 2 will be available from next month, although it’s unclear which markets will get it first. We expect that we’ll have a chance to go hands-on with it in two weeks, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. You can peruse the device’s full specs in Samsung’s announcement .
Apple Blocks Sales Of iHub Gadget, Lucky Few See Orders Fulfilled
A couple of days back we suggested that it wouldn’t be long until Apple blocked sales of a new iHub USB device, a gadget looks remarkably like a Mac Mini – it appears that is now the case.
The iHub was designed to look like it was made for your Apple laptop or desktop, operating as an un-powered USB hub with a light up Apple logo, just like the back of your laptop. It was made of white plastic with an inset Apple logo and came in white or black, until Apple asked the retailer to remove the device from sale.
9to5mac details how one of its commenters highlighted its removal, suggesting Apple had put pressure on M.I.C Gadget to remove it. As a result, the link to the product was pulled from the store, with the product page stating that “the product is no longer available”.
Customers received an email from the retailer, notifying them of Apple’s request to cease selling its device, also letting them know that if an iHub purchase was made before Apple’s request, they would see their orders fulfilled:
Some lucky customers will be getting their iHub gadgets within the week, others will have to look on with envious eyes.