Apple files another lawsuit as court battle with HTC heats up

Seeing the rate at which lawsuits are being filed in the mobile industry, we are starting to worry that soon there will be more people in the legal departments of smartphone manufacturing companies than in their R&D centers. Apple and HTC are stepping on the court ring once again as the Cupertino-based company has filled another complaint with the ITC.

Apple believes that 16 of HTC smartphones and the Flyer tablet infringe on its patents and want to have them banned from the US. The 17 Android-running devices are allegedly infringing on five Apple patents.

Interestingly, the latest batch of smartphones that HTC announced isn't among the alleged offenders. Obviously, Apple feels that HTC changed something in the Wildfire S, Desire S and Incredible S, Sensation and the EVO 3D production so they aren't violating its intellectual property.

This is the fourth lawsuit involving the two companies in the US alone. Last year Apple filled a couple of complaints, while HTC is also suing its competitor for patent infringement.

The HTC general counsel Grace Lei commented on the latest development of events by saying that: "HTC is dismayed that Apple has resorted to competition in the courts rather than the market place. HTC continues to vehemently deny all of Apple’s past and present claims against it and will continue to protect and defend its own intellectual property as it has already done this year."

Obviously both companies feel they have the justice on their side, but there can only be one winner here. We'll continue to keep an eye on the development on that and the other nearly fifty court-battles between the top smartphone manufacturers.

Apple strikes on Samsung, wants to ban the Galaxies in the US

Apple has made the next step into the patent war against Samsung. Yesterday Apple has filed a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (USITC) requesting a ban for every Galaxy S phone in the USA.

Samsung might be dropping its latest complaint against Apple in the USA (which by the way had the same purpose - ban the iGadgets in the USA), but Apple doesn’t really care. It has just filed a counter suit in the USITC requesting to stop the import of all flavors of the first generation Galaxy S phone - Captivate, Fascinate, Infuse 4G and Galaxy S 4G, the QWERTY droids Intercept and Transform, and the Galaxy Tab and Tab 10.1.

The reason for the ban request is once again the infringement of 6 patents - 4 technical and 2 design ones.

As it seems, the patent war is nowhere near its end and we will be seeing more of these for sure. We bet everything will eventually be settled with the help of a huge amount of cash and patent exchange between the two sides.

Samsung quietly drops its latest counter-suit against Apple

Samsung has dropped its latest suit against Apple in the United States. This is not retreat, nor is Apple winning the case. According to Samsung it just needs to "streamline the legal proceedings".

All of a sudden, Samsung drops the patent suit it filed a few days ago. It was an answer to the latest Apple patent complaint and was filed at a US federal court.

Samsung made it clear that it will continue to defend and protect its intellectual property. Samsung has already other claims against Apple in South Korea, Japan, Germany and another one in the USA.

The only possible reason for Samsung to drop this suit is that it was filed in a hurry and probably wasn't prepared that well. We are yet to see how things will turn out.

Court battle ends, Apple to pay Nokia royalties

Nokia and Apple have just announced that they signed a patent license agreement, which settles all the patent litigation between the companies. Apple will make a one-time payment to Nokia and on-going royalties for the term of the agreement and both sides will withdraw their patent complaints.

After several months of court battles and several lawsuits filled by the parties it all ended with a settlement, rather than a court order. Obviously it was Nokia that had the stronger arguments in their favor as Apple has agreed to make pay an undisclosed amount upfront as well as on-going royalties to the Finnish company. Unfortunately, given the confidential nature of the agreement we'll probably never learn the actual numbers.

Here is the relevant part of the official Nokia press release:

The financial structure of the agreement consists of a one-time payment payable by Apple and on-going royalties to be paid by Apple to Nokia for the term of the agreement. The specific terms of the contract are confidential.

"We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees," said Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia. "This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."

So, the Nokia vs. Apple thing is over for now. Now would everyone just focus on making better smartphones?

Unlocked iPhone 4 now on sale in Apple Store, prices start at $649

Yesterday we reported that unlocked iPhone 4 are making their way to Apple Stores in the US. The date we heard was Wednesday but Apple has released them a day in advance and the iPhone 4 is now available on Apple’s online store for purchase, in all its unlocked glory.

The prices are slightly higher than what we expected. The 16GB model is available for $649 and the 32GB model is available for $749, in both black and white colors.

Now before you head out to buy one do remember that the iPhone 4 only works with micro-SIM cards. That problem was taken care of with locked handsets as the carrier would provide the micro-SIM card but now you would have to get your own. Make sure the operator you choose has a micro-SIM card to offer you or else you would have to rely on some online tutorials, such as this one, for cutting out your own micro-SIM out of a regular SIM.

Now if you are thinking that Apple is probably doing this to get rid of old stock before the next iPhone comes out, do remember this isn’t going to stop with the current iPhone and will continue with the next generation iPhone. Also, unlocked iPhones are in great demand worldwide and those markets which sell them are often out of stock, so they are definitely not doing it to get rid of old stock. One can only wonder then what took them so long to do this.

iOS 5 beta is barely out the closet, already jailbroken

The jailbreak was done using the LimeRa1n exploit, which is used from iOS4 up until 4.3.3. Still it's only a tethered jailbreak, meaning that each time you reboot your iDevice you'll need it hooked up to a computer to work the jailbreaking magic anew.

Naturally, people are hoping that an untethered jailbreak will be available for iOS 5 even before it launches in the fall. But it seems that Apple has removed the possibility of jailbreaking iOS 5 (the untethered way) by patching the current ndrv_setspec weak spot in it.

This was revealed by a dev - i0n1c in a tweet, saying that if this is true, then "unthether is dead". Maybe he should have used "unthether in its current form is dead". We'll have to wait and see.

Still, the already available tethered jailbreak will remain available for the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4th generation, as closing its loophole requires a change on a hardware level. But with an upcoming iPhone 4S or 5 and next generation iPod Touches, it's highly likely that Apple will close it for good meaning next-gen iPhone hackers will have a new challenge ahead of them.

Gresso's iPhone 4 Time Machine edition packs six Swiss watches

Apple didn’t announce a new iPhone yesterday, so we have to look to Gresso to get our "new iPhone" fix. The Gresso iPhone 4 Time Machine features six Swiss mechanical watches on its back and yet is amazingly thin.

Gresso are well known for their tenacity to slap mechanical watches onto mobile phones - it matches their sense of classiness, we guess. Their new offering is not a new phone but a modified iPhone 4 called Time Machine (and yes, it has nothing to do with Apple's Time Machine).

The usual glass back of this new iPhone 4 is replaced by a mineral glass with diamond coating and houses six independent mechanical Swiss watches, each taking hundreds of man-hours to construct and days on end of accuracy testing. The watches keep the time at the six leading business centers from across the world - New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Gresso iPhone 4 Time Machine

Amazingly, Gresso claim that the iPhone 4 Time Machine is only 1mm thicker than a vanilla iPhone 4 (which measures 9.3mm). Now, either this is some ad-speak that tries to conceal the actual thickness of the device, or Gresso has freed up some room inside the iPhone 4.

Or maybe it's just that we don't know anything about making mechanical watches, but 1mm for glass + watch mechanism sounds impossible.

Anyway, the Gresso iPhone 4 Time Machine is coming out in 2011 (vague, we know, but you can't rush perfection) and it will set you back $6000. Pricey but you can update it to iOS 5 and use iCloud - that's more than can be said about some of the other Gresso offerings.

Apple iCloud is a syncer's dream, iTunes music store gets better

iCloud was the second major announcement today by Apple for their mobile devices - it's a collection of 9 apps that are all connected to the cloud to keep your content synchronized across your devices. First the good news - it's free! And no ads either.

Here's how iCloud works - one device gets a new bit of content, which it then pushed to iCloud and from there it rains down on all your other devices (iPhones, iPads, Macs, even PCs, anything). There's a total of nine apps that work with iCloud to handle the various types of content.

Those apps are: Contacts, Calendar, Mail (the original three from MobileMe), then App Store, iBooks, backup, Documents, Photo Stream and iTunes.

First up is contacts - add or change a contact and iCloud will copy that contact or change to the other devices. Calendar notes are synced the same way and you can share your calendar with other people.

Next up, Mail gives you a free @me.com account and 5GB of free storage. That storage is shared with a couple of other apps. Emails are synced to all devices.

Contacts, Calendar and Mail sync with iCloud

iCloud lets you look at a list of all the apps you've purchased and with a tap of a button, you can download them to the device if it doesn’t have it installed already. Buying a new app will push it to all devices, so that's only needed for apps you have right now, before the update.

iBooks has an equivalent function for books. Apps and books can be downloaded to up to 10 devices for free. Everything on the device is backed up daily over Wi-Fi, from settings through photos to application data.

Documents in the Cloud keeps your Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents synced across your devices. Documents and device backups count towards the 5GB storage limit.

Apps and iBooks • Back-up • Documents

Photos also go in the cloud - Photo Stream lets you snap a photo on one device and before you know it, it's already available on your other devices. Photos that come in from Photo Stream have their own album. Photos are synced on your Apple TV as well, which will make showing them completely effort-free.

Note that up to 1000 photos are kept in iCloud and up to 30 days - mobile devices keep that many for that long too, but Macs and PCs keep all photos, always. If you move photos to another album (other than the Photo Stream album) they will be preserved after 30 days too. Photos here don't count towards your 5GB storage limit.

Photo Stream juggles photos in the iCloud

Finally, perhaps the best feature in iCloud - iTunes in the Cloud. If you've purchased a song on another device, tap the cloud button and you can download it on the current device as well. This happens at no extra charge - a first in the industry, Apple says. Newly purchased songs are simply downloaded to all devices automatically.

But it goes beyond keeping your music library synchronized across all the devices. iTunes Match is a great feature if you have a large music library that's not from iTunes. Those songs are scanned and you can listen to high-quality copies of those songs from iTunes (256Kbps AAC, no DRM, same as songs you buy from iTunes). Match isn't free however, it costs $25 a year but that's for 20,000 songs. It's US only too.

iTunes in the Cloud is great

Still, the whole scanning process isn't without merit even without Match - iCloud will sync only songs that aren’t already on the device, making the whole process much faster (it should be done in minutes, Apple claims).

Now, the whole of iCloud will launch in the fall with iOS5 - but iTunes in the Cloud can be had in beta form sooner, with iOS 4.3 beta.

Those are the 9 core apps of iCloud that Apple provides. But fret not third developers - your apps can also use iCloud to sync their own content across the various devices that have the app. That works for iOS, Mac and PC apps - cool!

Syncing videos is conspicuously missing - the press release says nothing about that and neither did Steve during the presentation.

By the way, the AppStore update is already live, you can now see the full list of apps you've ever downloaded and you can also see the apps you have downloaded on other iOS devices. Go check it out from your device!

Apple unveils iOS 5, brings notifications but little else

This year's WWDC keynote saw no new hardware announcements and instead it was iOS that took center stage. Apple unveiled the next major release, iOS 5, for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which packs over 200 new features or say they say.

The greatest new feature of iOS 5 is the notification area, which comes to replace the annoying pop-ups. Taking a leaf of Google's Android book, the company has added a dedicated screen that you open by pulling from the top of the screen downwards. It contains all your notifications and if you click one of them it takes you to the app responsible for it.

The new notification area

Clicking on the X icon on the right removes the notification. We didn't see an Android-like button for clearing all notifications, or quick radio settings (i.e. Wi-Fi, GPS or Bluetooth toggles) though. By the way the Notification center, as Apple likes to call it, also features stock updates and weather information. Also visually, it looks like quite a ripoff of David Ashman's popular LockInfo app available as an unofficial tweak from Cydia. But is Apple running out of fresh ideas?

Next came Twitter integration, which covers Contacts, Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube and Maps. You can now Tweet from all those apps and your contacts are automatically synced with their Twitter accounts. It's a rather strange move from Apple adding Twitter integration, when fans have been asking for Facebook for what seems like ages. makes us wonder if perhaps there's some grudge going on between the two companies.

Twitter integration is fine, but what we really wanted was Facebook

The company is also launching the iMessage service, which is basically an IM client built-in right into the Message app. It supports sending texts, photos, videos, contacts to both single users and groups over encrypted connection. And yes, this time it works over both Wi-Fi and 3G from the start.

iMessage is the iOS version of BlackBerry Messenger

Reminders were also unveiled, bringing all your to-dos together and allowing you to set-up, well, reminders. The good news is that the app is location aware so it can now remind you of events based on where you are. It’s nothing that you couldn't achieve with an app anyway, but it's always better when things come built-in (for free!).

Reminders

The camera department got an upgrade, too, with a dedicated camera shortcut landing on the lockscreen and some settings finally making their way to the UI. You now get the option to add grid-lines to your viewfinder, lock exposure and focus by pressing on the screen and using the digital zoom by pinching in ala Galaxy S II.

The camera got its due update

Oh, and you can now use the volume key for taking photos - it's not as good as a dedicated two-position camera key, but it's way better than nothing. And yes, it's the same tweak that Apple banned from the AppStore a while ago.

The Safari browser was arguably the app to get the most significant update, but alas, those were mostly for its iPad version. The Apple slate got tabbed browsing, bringing it on par with the competition. The Reading list plug-in for both the iPad and the little iOS devices allows you to save pages for reading later. Those get synced between devices too.

Safari was probably the app to get the most significant update

A particularly cool-sounding new feature of the Safari, called Safari Reader, Safari Reader lets you see web articles sans ads or clutter so you can read without distractions. It also supposedly merges multi-page articles in one big page for more convenient reading.

Moving on, the iOS5 brings the Newsstand app - it gathers all magazine and newspaper subscriptions in one place, making it easier for you to access them.

The Newsstand app

The photos app gets image editing, allowing you to crop and edit images straight on your iOS device. Editing boils down to red-eye removal and Auto-enhance so don't get your hopes too high, though.

The Game center is another one of the iOS key features to benefits from iOS 5. The new version of the platform will enable posting of profile pictures, new friends recommendations based on the games you play and the players you already know. New overall achievement scores are introduced, too.

iOS will also Apple decided to break the computer-chains imposed on their iOS devices. You will no longer need to connect your iPhone/iPad/iPod to a computer before your first use or for each firmware update. Starting with iOS 5 updates will be pushed over the air and they will come in smaller sizes thanks to the implemented Delta encoding. While it sounds good, it sure sound like it's going to make the job of jailbreakers all the harder.

Among the other noteworthy updates are a system-wide dictionary as well as rich text formatting and flagging of messages in the email app.

iOS 5 will be pushed to end users this Fall, which seems like a pretty long wait considering that it isn't the major step forward that everyone was expecting it to be. At least that gives us a rough estimation as of when we should expect the next iPhone - be it iPhone 5 or 4S. Obviously a late September release is the best we can hope for.

The iDevices eligible for an upgrade are the iPhone 3GS and 4, the iPad and iPad 2 and latest two generation of iPod touch - 3rd and 4th.

The good news is that Apple announcements didn't end with the iOS 5. The company introduced its iCloud online synching service, which might as well be more beneficial to iOS users than the firmware update. Check out what that's all about here.

In case you feel like getting a dose of video demos, you can check out the iOS 5 new features coverage in our blog.

iOS 5 to be unveiled later today, here's our rumor roundup

We are about ten hours away from the start of the WWDC ’11 where Apple will demonstrate the new iOS 5. Now the last few weeks have been quite busy with all sorts of rumors of what’s going to be changed or added to this next version. So we’ve compiled a little list of things that we have heard so far and are sure would make it to the final version.

iCloud Integration

This one’s a no brainer. From what we’ve heard about this service so far, we know it was designed specifically for Apple’s mobile products, which means you can expect tight integration of iCloud with iOS 5.

For now we know that it will allow you to upload your music to the cloud so you can stream it over the internet any time you want. But it could very well move beyond that, as you can figure out from the name itself. The name doesn’t just hint at music service the way, say, iTunes does. We can expect a lot more from iCloud, like the ability to upload/backup other kinds of data such as movies, contacts, bookmarks, game saves, application settings, etc. to the cloud and then transfer it to another device or restore it to the same device later. Perhaps, finally we wouldn’t have to connect the iOS devices to a PC or Mac anymore so that we may start using them. It could all be done over-the-air.

Improved Notifications System

There is a reason we would like to call it an “improved” notification system instead of a “new” notification system because anything would be better than what iOS currently ships with. And by the looks of it it seems Apple has a pretty decent job of it.

What you see above is something that was uncovered by Techcrunch just a few hours ago. Here you can see what we hope is the new iOS 5 screen. Notable changes include a new top bar, which has doubled up in size, as it usually does when it wants to get your attention, and displaying notifications, new tweets in this case. We assume when you tap the top bar it will take you to the app responsible for the notifications and if the notifications are from multiple apps it will show some kind of list.

Of course, the above image might just be a fake and someone could be playing with our emotions here, knowing how badly we want a new notification system in iOS. In which case that person can go to hell.

Also note the dark gray camera icon. Much cooler than the current light gray version.

Widgets

Ah, widgets. Android has them. WebOS has them. Symbian has them. Windows Phone 7 sort of has them. iOS was the only major OS that did not have them so far. But if the rumor mills are to be believed, Apple might just be looking at implementing them in iOS 5.

We have absolutely no idea how they will work though. In fact after looking at the above screenshot we are even doubting if at all it will be there in the OS. The current iOS homescreen is designed in a way that places application icons at the forefront, instead of in a separate list, unlike the aforementioned platforms. Implementing widgets would probably involve reworking of this entire system. And if the above screenshot is true, Apple hasn’t done that in iOS 5.

Of course, it could be done differently. The app icons themselves may show information. Currently only the Calendar icon changes according to current date; every other icon is static. Perhaps Apple will implement a feature that will let developers animate their icons to show information. Like the weather app showing the actual temperature, for a change. The iPod icon can show the album art of the currently playing track. Photos app could show the last taken shot. Clock app could show the time you set for the alarm. Maps could show your current location. And with the high resolution Retina display on the new iPhone and iPod touch, developers also have plenty of pixels to play around with.

New Multitasking System

The current multitasking method on iOS was welcomed by its users because any kind of multitasking is better than no multitasking. However, when seen on its own, it isn’t particularly great and nowhere near as good as it is on Symbian^3, WebOS or even Android. We are not talking about the way it works, i.e., by pausing apps instead of actually running them in the background, but more about the way it looks. Having a row of icons below and then scrolling through them four at a time wasn’t very convenient.

You may remember the video that was leaked that showed a white iPhone 4 with a very different kind of multitasking. It looked and worked similar to the way windows do in Safari on the iPad, with the last nine apps showing their windows in a grid. You could also see the Spotlight window now part of this screen instead of a different homescreen altogether. We do hope this is the new multitasking system as in our opinion it beats the current system hands down. We just wonder what happened to the audio playback controls along with the UI rotation lock that are present in current iOS as they are not shown in in that video.

Stream your own music with Apple iCloud, costs $25 per year

Much as been speculated about Apple's upcoming iCloud service that they are planning to announce on June 6 at WWDC '11, but Los Angeles Times has some information as to what it's actually about. According to their sources, iCloud users will be able to upload their music to Apple's servers and then stream it over the internet from other devices.

This service will initially be free for iTunes customers but will then be charged at a fee of about $25 per year.

Apple has signed contracts with four music labels that would allows them to let customers upload their music. So far Warner Music Group, EMI Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment are on board.

According to the agreement, Apple is expected to share 70% of the revenue with these record labels, 12% with the music labels who hold the songwriting laws and to keep the remaining 18% for themselves.

Although the service initially will only include music, it would later be expanded to allow uploads of movies, TV shows and other digital content.

This service is similar to the Amazon Cloud Player, that offers 5GB free storage space and any additional space is charged and the recently launched Music Beta by Google, which offers users to upload 20,000 tracks and is free for a limited time.

Apple to unveil iOS 5 at WWDC '11 on Monday, June 6

We knew that Apple was going to hold the Worldwide Developer Conference or WWDC '11 on June 6 but could only guess what it would be about. Well, we no longer have to guess as Apple has just released a PR confirming the list of things that will be addressed in the keynote by Steve Jobs and Apple executives.

First of all it would be Lion, the next version of the Mac OS X operating system. Then they would also be talking about iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud service. But what we are interested in most is iOS 5.

So what can we expect from iOS 5? Well for starters, full integration with Apple's iCloud services. We might also see that revamped multitasking system that was leaked a while back. And for the love of God a new notification system! Apart from these your guess is as good as ours.

After the event, Apple would surely make iOS 5 available to developers as they usually do for them to test their applications and report any bugs that they may encounter and then soon it will be released for the general public.

Apple is readying a TD-LTE capable iPhone for China Mobile

China Mobile still doesn’t offer the iPhone officially, but this will change soon. China Mobile’s president announced a deal with Apple for a TD-LTE capable iPhone.

And while the fact that the carrier will be getting the Apple smartphone interests mostly its subscribers the fact that it will pack TD-LTE radio is pretty major news for everyone.

You see LTE and the Chinese home-grown TD-LTE are two different standards, but they use essentially the same technology. Basically the chip inside the China Mobile’s iPhone could be used with any LTE network without the need to change anything about the production process.

So while early reports suggested that the next iPhone won't have LTE support, this suggests that the feature shouldn't be written off just yet. If another of the numerous iPhone 4S (or 5) rumors is to be believed we will have to wait until September (when the handset will be released) to have all our questions answered.

The Android Market will overtake Apple's App Store by August 2011

It's been a strong possibility for some time now but the Android Market looks like it'll finally overtake Apple's mighty App Store by August 2011.

The culmination of the decelerating growth on Apple's App Store paired with the Android Market's growth still tenaciously accelerating, have meant that analysts have been able to predict this monumental shift.

App store analytics company Distimo were one of the first groups to predict the Android Market's overtake with another organisation, Germany-based research2guidance having information that complemented the original research stating that Android Market will overtake the App Store by August 2011, assuming it hits its target of 425,000 new apps by the start of the month. In April 2011, Android Market added 28,000 new applications to its ranks, whereas Apple's App Store only managed a comparatively small 11,000.

This is good news for Google in terms of offering a greater choice, but in the grand scheme of things, just how much does this affect anything? The majority of the apps on both stores go unnoticed with the 'cream usually rising to the top', quickly. And having the store with the most available apps does not mean the majority revenue, especially for developers. The research conducted by research2guidance actually discounts this and sways towards the opposite, the idea that; "success of an app store is negatively correlated to the success of an average developer. All analysis on the early months of an app store including the Android Market shows that average download numbers decrease dramatically after the first months or even weeks after the launch of the store. The long tail gets longer and longer while the top 5% gets richer and richer."

Also, one might argue that the majority of apps between both stores are geared toward different users. iOS and its apps, aimed at a premium market and as such, charge a premium for their services with Android going for a more mass-market approach.

Apple Suppliers Gear Up for IPhone 5

Taiwan-based Pegatron, an Apple supplier reported a 50 percent drop in profits for the first quarter, the latest evidence that Apple is reducing orders of the iPhone 4 to prepare for the iPhone 5.
Pegatron, which had originally planned to ship 10 million iPhone 4s in 2011, reporting a loss of $19.4 million and now expects to ship half around 5 million before the end of the year.

"To improve the situation, Pegatron is already in negotiations with its clients about raising manufacturing quotes and has already received good feedback," Chang noted.

Whether Chang’s statement suggests Pegatron will make the iPhone 5 as well is not yet clear. What is clear is that consumer demand for the iPhone 4 is waning as expectations rise for the iPhone 5. Apple sold 60 million iPhone 4s last year but projects that consumers will snatch up more than 100 million iPhone 5s in 2011.

The iPhone 5 is rumored to be both a CDMA and GSM phone, so Apple can sell just one model universally. It is also expected to have a Qualcomm chip with NFC mobile-payment capabilities, a wider touch screen, and possibly an 8-megapixel camera.

Apple usually releases new products in June, but the iPhone 5 is projected to arrive sometime this fall.

In March 2010, reports surfaced that Pegatron was planning to mass production the Verizon iPhone in September.

Samsung Files Patent Suit Against Apple

The South Korean company claims Apple copied many of its design features, covered in 10 alleged patent infringements, in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in California federal court.

"The ten infringements are related to mobile telecommunications and user interface technologies," said James Chung, a Samsung spokesman.

Samsung's counter-action is in response to Apple's suit against its line of Galaxy devices -- including the Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Nexus S and Galaxy Tab -- which run on Google's Android platform, putting it as one of Apple's fiercest competitors.

Apple claims they copy the design of its iPhone and iPad, which Samsung denies. In response, Samsung countersued a week later in Asia and Europe, alleging Apple violated its patents covering cell phone transmission technologies.

Interestingly, Samsung, the world's second–largest handset maker behind Nokia, also supplies Apple with semiconductors and display panels.

Samsung and Apple join other phone makers and software firms in several lawsuits to determine just who owns which patents. Apple is also involved in litigation with Nokia, HTC and Motorola over smartphone patents.

NUTS: Apple, Google Fight Privacy Onslaught, Patent Lawsuits

Apple, Google Tracking Debate Intensifies

Apple and Google's location-tracking problems continued full-steam this week, as Apple's CEO Steve Jobs admitted the company made mistakes in handling geolocation data.

Apple maintains that two bugs were found to be gathering data from the iPhone and iPad, and promised to fix them immediately.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is handling lawsuits from consumers, as well as criticism from House Republicans, state officials and even South Korea for failing to inform people of the issue.

Google, too, opened up about the matter, explaining how it encrypts data to keep it safe. Nevertheless, the Internet search giant was sued by disgruntled Android owners for not saying something sooner.

Microsoft came out looking like the winner in this debacle. The software giant preemptively declared how it manages its own secure location data, winning itself a much-needed image boost.

Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile all ran for cover, telling federal regulators they abide by laws, but can't do anything to stop Apple or Google from collecting data triangulated from their cell towers.

In addition to mobile devices, both Apple and Google admitted they also track computers.

IDC releases Q1 2011 shipments data, Apple doubles marketshare

According to the analysts from IDC, the global mobile phone market grew by almost 20% compared to Q1 of last year. This is mostly due to the skyrocketing in smartphone sales, especially in emerging markets all over the world.

The 20 percent difference in units shipped amount to some good 61.3 million handsets. It's a record number and a huge leap, proving that the mobile phone business is out of the financially challenging woods.

According to the IDC, the smartphone market grew in the Asia/Pacific, Africa, Latin America and Middle East regions, boosting the number of overall shipments.

Smartphones are quickly gaining ground over feature phones and demand for them will keep increasing. But IDC is skeptical about feature phone extinction as there's still high global demand for them.

In the US and Canada smartphones, like the iPhone, Blackberries and Android devices were the top selling phones in Q1 2011. The iPhone 4 and HTC Thunderbolt were the most wanted gadgets there.

The market in Western Europe was good for Android and iOS too, as they were the main focus of buyers attention.

Check out the top 5 chart with detailed information on units shipped and market share percentage over the course of the last year.

Manufacturer	Q1 2011 Shipment volumes	Q1 2011 Market share	Q1 2010 Shipment volumes	Q1 2010 Market share	Year-to-year change
Nokia	108.5	29.2%	107.8	34.7%	0.6%
Samsung	70.0	18.8%	64.3	20.7%	8.9%
LG Electronics	24.5	6.6%	27.1	8.7%	-9.6%
Apple	18.7	5.0%	8.7	2.8%	114.9%
ZTE	15.1	4.1%	10.4	3.3%	45.2%
Others	135	36.3%	92.2	29.7%	46.4%
Total	371.8	100.0%	310.5	100.0%	19.8%

Nokia still remains at the top of the mobile food chain, although it did lose some 5.5% of market share year-to-year. LG also gave up some ground with its market share going from 8.7% down to 6.6%, but this will probably change as its new 3D-capable devices hit the shelves in mass numbers.

Apple doubled its market share due to their consecutive record quarter.

White iPhone 4 took so long because its hard to make: Schiller

The mythical, highly-anticipated white iPhone 4 from Apple is finally available for purchase today, but why did it take so long from the time it was announced last year to come out? An interview by All Things D with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and senior vice president Phil Schiller has revealed some details as to why the white iPhone 4 took so long to hit the market.

"It was challenging," said Schiller. "It's not as simple as making something white. There's a lot more that goes into both the material science of it?how it holds up over time?but also in how it all works with the sensors."

Apparently, the white color presented a lot of challenges with UV protection and interactions with other components of the phone. Schiller went on to say that by waiting and refining the development of the phone, Apple was able to provide a product to its customers that lived up to Apple's reputation of quality and reliability. Jobs chimed in to say that the work Apple had to do to produce the white iPhone 4 benefited the company in other product areas as well. "We obviously think about this in a generic way because you have a white iPad," said Jobs.

The white iPhone 4 is now available in the U.S (and worldwide) for $199 and $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively.

Android Market surpassed the Apple App Store in free app count

Apple’s App Store has held the top spot pretty much since the dawn of app stores but the times they are a-changin’. The Android Market has already surpassed the App Store in terms of free apps and analysts from Distimo estimate it will soon overtake it in terms of total apps too. Well we'd be more conservative in using words like "soon" but the guys over at Distimo might have a point there.

The Android Market has 134 thousand free apps on its virtual shelves, while the Apple App Store for iPhone offers 121 thousand free apps. Still, the iOS store has the lead in total count, having about three times as many paid apps as the droid store.

Free vs. paid apps and total app count for the various app stores

The iPad section of the App Store holds about 75 thousand apps, 30% of which are free. iPad-only apps number 34,000. App Store for iPad grew by 12% in March, but paid apps in there are getting pricier and apps with in-app purchases are declining.

The iPhone and iPad sections of the App Store combined hold 367 thousand apps and they are still growing. The Android Market is expected to overtake it in total apps soon – in five months or so, by Distimo’s estimates.

Android Market is set to overtake the Apple App Store

The smaller app stores will have their day too - BlackBerry App World is expected to shoot ahead of Ovi Store by the end of next month and a couple of months after that, the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will get pass the Ovi Store too.

Many developers have also gone multi-platform, posting their stuff on not just iOS but Android, Ovi, App World and the rest. This also chips away at the iOS advantage.

App Store for iPad statistics (US, March 2011) • Chart of top multi-platform developers

What do you think - are free apps more important than paid ones? Does the total number of apps even matter or do you need just a few essentials?