geekosystem

Trademarks are important so that companies can keep people from stepping all over their brand, and few companies have their products as uniformly branded as Apple. They have the iPhone, iPad, iMac, iEtc. It made sense that they tried to get a trademark on the iPad mini, but they were denied one by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which said the addition of "mini" was merely descriptive."

Apple products like iPhones and iPads getting jailbroken is nothing new, but sometimes this freedom also leads to interesting discoveries within the digital bowels of these gadgets. Such is the case with a series of buttons within the iPad Music app found on jailbroken iOS 6.1 iPads by 9to5Mac. If these buttons are indicative of the future and not some leftover vestige of a former direction, it looks like some kind of radio functionality will be coming to the iPad.

As a preface, let's just go ahead and say that if you buy anything from a random stranger at a gas station, you're pretty much asking for it. Strangers working the counter are okay, but if they pull up next to you and offer to sell you any kind of gadget, chances are they're not on the up and up. A Texas woman didn't necessarily think the same, and dropped $200 on what she thought was an iPad. Turns out, the "iPad" she bought was just a mirror with an Apple sticker on it.

Apple tends to feature various apps that their products can run in their commercials. Since this is pretty much the only function these devices provide, it's a common occurrence. Developers love it when the company does this, because the general public really isn't that discerning. Thanks to a recent iPad commercial featuring a piano being used in GarageBand, piano apps across the board seem to be doing exceedingly well.

Cutting energy costs by fiddling with streetlights is something that's seen debate in the United Kingdom. Turning them off entirely isn't exactly a great option, of course, but there's little that can be done with the infrastructure as it currently exists beyond flipping them off and on. Westminster City Council is looking to change all that. Over the next four years, they'll be switching their 14,000 streetlights to smart alternatives capable of being controlled by an iPad, saving the council hundreds of thousands a year.

As we've previously reported, part of the ruling against Apple in the United Kingdom required the company to issue a statement on their website saying that the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and by extension Samsung, didn't infringe on the iPad's design. When they finally got around to posting the statement, however, it was tucked away in a linked page and included some extra bits that the U.K. court didn't request. Thanks to their attempts to circumvent the ruling, Apple's been ordered that they have to reissue their statement in order to comply with the original ruling.

It's finally time, folks. October 23rd means Apple's "special event" is actually upon us. If current speculation is correct, the company is all set to announce a smaller version of their widely-adopted iPad. Whether it will actually be called the "iPad Mini" is up for debate, but it's almost certainly on the docket to be revealed. Who knows? Maybe they'll actually unveil something surprising. The show starts at 1 P.M. EST and 10 A.M. in California.

As everyone probably guessed, adding technology to the classrooms has its advantages and disadvantages. Sure, it allows for students and teachers to interact with subjects and lessons in entirely new ways, but technology can also prove just how inept we truly are when it comes to gadgets. At Highland Middle School in Anderson, Indiana, four boys have been suspended after viewing a "partially-clad" photo of their teacher on a school-issued iPad. Their teacher had apparently not realized that her phone had synced with the device.

Back in July, a United Kingdom court ruled the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 didn't infringe on the iPad design patents as claimed by Apple. By filing the lawsuit and dragging Samsung's name through the mud, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Samsung in general were associated with patent infringement and illegal activity in the minds of the people. The United Kingdom court asserted that Apple would have to run what's basically a giant retraction by taking out advertisements saying Samsung didn't infringe on their patents in order to rectify the situation. Apple's just lost their appeal, so it looks like they actually will have to run the ads.

Not content with the fast food business, a McDonald's in Hampton Roads, Virginia is giving customers the option of free iPad use should they decide to leisurely dine inside the establishment, rather than the hit-and-run dining to which we're all accustomed when it comes to McDonald's. One can only imagine how dirty those screens must get from all the burger juice and fry grease.

For anyone that has children, Netflix's "Just for Kids" portal can truly be like a gift from above. The treasure trove of kid-friendly shows available dwarfs just about any other offering. This portal, unfortunately, has been mostly confined to the television via consoles or the web. There was no good way to have them watch their shows without occupying at least one major screen -- and therefore the entire room with the screen -- in the process. That time has come to an end; Netflix has finally launched "Just for Kids" on the iPad.

Who among us hasn't wanted to poke Einstein's brain at some point? It's every nerdy kid's dream, as well as a really good way to get kicked out of some pretty classy archives. Thanks to a new app from the National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago, anyone with an iPad and some kind of morbid inclinations can gawk at the brain that changed modern phsyics -- and in HD, no less! The catch? It's going to run you a couple of shekels to do so.

I'm going to say up front: I'm a bit of an Apple fanboy. I've never owned a non-Apple computer or smartphone. While I am a fan of Apple's products, I totally understand people are who get angry about their holier-than-thou fan club. The cult of Jobs is real people having a conversation with one of company's supporter can sometimes feel like a debate with a brick wall... or a Scientologist.

Workers in in the Chinese city of Shenzhen are due for a pay raise next year that could mean higher price on technology products across the board for the rest of us. Located in China's Guangdong province, Shenzhen is home to factories that supply parts for some of the world's biggest technology names, including Microsoft, HP, and Apple. Low labor prices in Shenzhen -- and in China more generally -- are largely responsible for keeping prices on consumer tech low. As those labor prices rise, you can expect the price of your next laptop, tablet, or cell phone to rise with them.

The jury of the Apple v. Samsung copyright trial has made their decision, and it was a bloodbath. After a surprisingly short deliberation period yesterday, the nine-member jury ruled that Samsung had infringed on every one of Apple's patents on nearly every device in question. Samsung has been ordered to pay Apple a whopping $1.049 billion for basing many of their phones off the iPhone's design as well as copying many of Apple's core features for touch-based designs.