geekosystem

Attending conventions as press can be a beleaguering experience. This is especially true if, say, someone has offered you a plane ticket, hotel accommodations, and then threatens to leave you there if you don't comply with their wishes. This is apparently what happened to Clinton Jeff, of Unleash the Phones, and another unnamed blogger after they were brought to this year's IFA conference in Berlin by Samsung.

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.

Another day, another damning memo in the Apple-Samsung copyright debacle. How bad is this one? Pretty bad, if you're Samsung. The 13 page memo (6 in translated English and 7 in the original Korean) summarizes statements made at a 2010 meeting by Samsung's mobile communications director JK Shin, who more or less acknowledges that the design and user experience of Samsung's products compared to Apple's are the "difference between Heaven and Earth."

The absolute fervor for sleek smartphones doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. In its second quarter, Samsung managed to ship 50,500,000 units. That takes the record for the greatest number of shipments made by a smartphone company in a single quarter. In contrast, Apple only managed to ship around 26,000,000 in the very same quarter. Looks like somebody's finally catching up.

Apple plans to hit Samsung where it hurts in court next week: Right in the stuff they said. Not only did Samsung expressly state their intention to copy bits from the iPad and iPhone in their products, says Apple, they were also warned against doing so by a number of designers as well as Google. When Google shows up and tells you to consider redesigning your product, you should probably consider redesigning your product.

The patent war between Apple and Samsung was already weird enough, with each company attempting to block the sale of the other's tablets in courts around the world. Now, a U.K. judge is requiring that Apple place a notice on their website and in several newspapers stating that Samsung did not copy the iPad. Will this public embarrassment be enough to end the war?

Last night, Apple won a major fight in its ongoing patent war with Samsung when a U.S. District Court Judge in California issued a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The battle is being fought on the grounds that Samsung copied the appearance of the iPad and unfairly infringed on Apple's design patents. When the injunction enters effect, it will block all sales and importation of the tablet in the U.S..

Last weekend, a group of black-clad people carrying pre-printed signs poured out of a black bus outside the Sydney Apple store. They chanted "wake up!" and shook their signs which bore the same slogan. Most assumed it was some kind of guerrilla marketing campaign, with Samsung being a likely candidate. However, the Korean electronics maker has denied any involvement.

To celebrate the launch of the Galaxy Y Duos, a 2 SIM card phone, Samsung put together a nifty little bisected light show that is projected on a stoic actor's face. There's a lot of bilateral symmetry going on here to bring the theme back to the whole "2 SIM card" thing, but the real focus should just be how cool it looks. The projection uses facial mapping to center its visuals right on the guy's face, making for some really surreal masking effects. And the song's not bad either. By far the most interesting phone commercial I've seen in a while.

Patents are aimed to protect innovators and make sure they get their due. When you invent something, a non-obvious something, you patent it and these wonderful laws will make sure that, for a limited time at least, you alone reap the benefits of your genius. After all, it was your idea. It's all great in theory, but patent trolls have been turning it on its head for a while, and the ever increasing amount of things that can be patented isn't helping. Someone patented menus and buttons that assist users in writing emoticons, for instance, and RIM and Samsung are being sued over it.

Currently, the Samsung Galaxy S II is seen as the iPhone's biggest competitor. So, instead of getting the edge over their rivals by showing everyone whatever unique features the Galaxy S II sports, Samsung decided to insult Apple consumers -- not even Apple the company, but the people who buy their products -- for the length of a commercial.

As you may or may not be aware, Apple is in the process of suing Samsung for imitating the iPhone and the iPad. While the devices are fairly similar, you really have to ask if that's a matter of imitation or, in the case of the iPad vs the Galaxy Tab, the fact that tablets in general pretty similar; they're like 95% screen. I guess that's what court is for. In any event, the Samsung lawyers have been arguing that any normal person would be able to tell the difference between the two devices, largely because of the fact that Samsung is printed clearly on the Samsung one. Go figure.

Well, Judge Lucy Koh decided to test this hypothesis with a fairly simple experiment. She held both of the tablets above her head, and had the lawyers identify the one they were defending from 10 feet away. Neither one of Samsung's two lawyers was able to accomplish the task at a glance. Now, whether that illustrates the similarity of the tablets, or the incompetence of Samsung's legal team, they clearly didn't deserve to win that case either way. Needless to say, Judge Koh decided against Samsung.

In the ongoing struggle between Apple and Samsung over the Galaxy Tab tablet computer, Apple seems to have taken the lead for now. The Regional Court of Dusseldorf has sided with the iPad maker in granting a preliminary injunction over the sale and marketing of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in all European Union member states, save the Netherlands. This is the second injunction that Apple has won against the Tab, which was indefinitely blocked from launching in Australia.

On day two of its 2011 I/O Conference, Google unveiled two different models of what it calls the Chromebook, inexpensive, Chrome OS-powered laptops that are designed with web use rather than extensive desktop use in mind. One, made by Acer, will start at $349; the other, made by Samsung, will start at $429. Both laptops boast 8-second boot times and "instant" resumption, 3G and WiFi options, and tweaks that Google says will optimize their web performance. Both will be available to order from Amazon and Best Buy beginning June 15th. Google also announced two rental plans for its new laptops: Chromebooks for Business is a package which covers software, hardware, support, and warranty and replacements for enterprise customers for a $28 per user monthly subscription. Chromebooks for Education offers the same to schools and government entities for $20 per month per user. Specs below:

There's no denying that Apple has been extremely influential in consumer product design, but in a recent lawsuit with Samsung, Apple has accused its competitor of going a step further than merely soaking in vague influences in the air: Samsung, Apple alleges, has "slavishly" copied Apple's iPhone and iPad. Apple's suit singles out Samsung's Galaxy Tab, Nexus S, and Epic 4G as "infringing products," claiming that they copy Apple's "technology, user interface and innovative style." Above: The Samsung Galaxy S side-by-side with the iPhone 3GS. Ars Technica speculates that Samsung's TouchWiz interface may have particularly rankled Apple, "toeing the line in its mimicking of iOS." If this suit sounds familiar, it should: Apple is also involved in lawsuits with HTC and Nokia over allegedly infringing upon iPhone patents, although the US International Trade Commission recommended yesterday that HTC and Nokia not be found liable. Once again, Apple's lawsuit could be seen as a maneuver in its cold war with Google for the smartphone (and now, tablet) market: the Samsung devices called out in the suit are all powered by the Android operating system. (WSJ via Ars. pics via HuffPo)