APPLE'S A5 CHIP BEING MADE IN TEXAS BY SAMSUNG

Apple and other consumer electronics companies typically look to the Far East for components, but a new report suggests that the production of Apple’s current mobile processors has now moved to the United States. Reuters on Friday reported that the chip powering Apple’s current iPhone, iPad and iPod touch models is now manufactured in a new 1.6 million square foot Samsung factory located in Austin, Texas. The report cites unnamed people familiar with Samsung’s operations. Samsung’s new Austin facility — which is the size of nine football fields — reportedly reached full production earlier this month, and it was built to manufacture non-memory chips. The South Korea-based company confirmed that its Texas plant was recently expanded to manufacture logic chips, though it would not comment specifically on Apple or its A5 processor. Reuters reported earlier this year that Samsung lost the contract to build Apple’s next-generation A6 processor, which will instead be manufactured by Taiwan-based chip maker TSMC.

SAMSUNG GETS TABLET BAN LIFTED IN AUSTRALIA

A ban that prevented Samsung’s local subsidiaries from marketing and selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia was lifted on Friday, marking another victory for Samsung in its ongoing legal battles with Apple. An Australian High Court ruled that Samsung’s 10-inch tablet does not “slavishly rip off” Apple’s iPad, and sales of the slate will resume next week according to The Sydney Morning Herald, in time to catch the tail end of the holiday shopping rush. Read on for more.

The ruling comes following Apple’s appeal after a judge overturned a ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales late last month. This new victory for comes on the heels of another win for Samsung; a U.S. district judge on Monday decided against banning sales of Samsung’s tablet in the United States, saying that such a ban would not prevent Apple from being irreparably harmed.

Apple and Samsung currently have more than 30 pending lawsuits filed against each other around the world.

GAMESTOP STARTS SELLING ANDROID TABLETS PRE-LOADED WITH 7 GAMES

GameStop recently began carrying several Android Honeycomb tablets pre-loaded with seven free games. It was originally rumored that the game retailer would begin selling its own custom Honeycomb tablet, although it appears that is no longer the case. GameStop currently lists the Acer Iconia, Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola XOOM, ViewSonic VPAD7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in stock with prices starting at $300. The seven free games include Dead Space, Madden NFL, Monster Madness, Sonic CD, Re-Load, Riptide GP and Cordy. GameStop is also bundling a special tablet-friendly own-brand Bluetooth controller with its slates for an additional $39. The devices are currently only available in 200 of GameStop’s stores, although you can also purchase one directly from the company’s website.

SAMSUNG'S FLEXIBLE DISPLAYS COMING IN 2012

A few days after Nokia showed off its Kinetic Device prototype under the blue lights of Nokia World, Samsung made mention of its own plans to unleash some bendy mobile devices on the world. A spokesperson for the company was scarce on details, but noted that the flexible displays are targeted for 2012. The technology, which was showcased at this year's CES, will initially be incorporated into handsets, with tablets following down the road.

U.S. JUDGE SAYS SAMSUNG INFRINGES ON APPLE, BUT.....

Reuters is reporting A U.S. judge said Samsung's Galaxy tablets infringe Apple's iPad patents, but also that Apple might have a problem establishing the validity of its patents. The comments from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh came on Thursday in a court hearing on Apple's request to bar some Galaxy products from being sold in the United States.

Apple and Samsung are engaged in a bruising legal battle that includes more than 20 cases in 10 countries as the two jostle for the top spot in the smartphone and tablet markets. Apple must show that Samsung infringed its patents and that its patents are valid under the law. At the hearing on Thursday in a San Jose, California federal court, Koh also said she would deny Apple's request for an injunction based on one of Apple's so-called "utility" patents.

She did not say whether she would grant the injunction based on three other Apple "design" patents.

SAMSUNG AND GOOGLE POSTPONE ICE CREAM SANDWICH AND NEXUS EVENT

It appears that Samsung and Google have decided not to launch the Galaxy Nexus (or Nexus Prime, or whatever it's called) and Ice Cream Sandwich at their October 11th Unpacked event. The two companies sent out a joint announcement reading:

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

The press event on the 11th was expected to be not only the debut for the successor to the Nexus S, but our first good look at the next version of Android. For whatever reason the companies have decided to delay that launch. But, if Eric Schmidt is true to his word, we shouldn't have to wait too much longer... he did promise us that it would launch by November.

SAMSUNG AND MICROSOFT SIGN HUGE PATENT DEAL

Microsoft is announcing today the biggest Android-related patent deal to date, signing a broad cross-licensing agreement with Samsung.
With the deal, Microsoft will get royalty revenue on every Android smartphone and tablet that Samsung sells. Redmond already has a deal with another major handset maker — HTC — that sells both Android and Windows Phone devices.

“Together with the license agreement signed last year with HTC, today’s agreement with Samsung means that the top two Android handset manufacturers in the United States have now acquired licenses to Microsoft’s patent portfolio,” Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith and top IP lawyer Horacio Gutierrez said in a blog post. “These two companies together accounted for more than half of all Android phones sold in the U.S. over the past year.”

Microsoft currently earns more money of licensing to Android handset manufacturers than it does from its own Windows Phone OS.

RUMOR: SAMSUNG'S BADA MOBILE OS TO GO OPEN SOURCE

Samsung launched its own smartphone OS, Bada, almost two years ago and so far adoption by consumers, and developers, has been lukewarm at best. If a Wall Street Journal rumor is true however all that may change. According to the report Samsung is going to make Bada open source for developers and manufacturers. Citing the usual "person familiar with the situation", Samsung apparently isn't interested in snagging any outside companies like, say, webOS, but wants to strengthen its independence from Android after Google announced it will purchase Motorola. Right now, it feels like we've already seen this story play out for the still-kicking Symbian. On the other hand, maybe Samsung, with its massive manufacturing capabilities and current hit-making prowess, can strike the right balance of hardware, software and apps to make it worthwhile.

APPLE IGNORES SAMSUNG, COZIES UP TO TSMC FOR CHIPS

Apple will favor Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) over Samsung to power its next-generation iOS devices, DigiTimes said on Friday. The report aligns with an earlier Reuters report that suggested TSMC would build the next-generation A5 processor for future iPhone and iPad devices. TSMC will use its 20nm and 28nm technologies to create the new chips but may not begin supplying Apple with parts until next year. The Taiwan-based chip builder may have inked a deal to supply the successor to the A6 chip, too.

Earlier reports suggested TSMC already started to test its first batch of A6 chipsets, which may offer dual or quad-core ARM-based architectures. Prior to its agreement with TSMC, Apple typically gave Samsung exclusive orders for its silicon. The move could be tied to multiple ongoing patent lawsuits with the South Korea-based electronics giant.

SAMSUNG PULLS GALAXY TAB 7.7 FROM IFA DUE TO APPLE INJUNCTION

Apple's ongoing patent battle with Samsung has taken yet another twist, now that Cupertino has won an injunction blocking German sales of the recently unveiled Galaxy Tab 7.7. According to FOSS Patents, Samsung pulled its new Android tablet from both the IFA show floor and its German website on Saturday, in compliance with a Friday decision handed down by the same Düsseldorf Regional Court court that banned sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 last month.

The 7.7-inch slate had previously been on display with a sticker that read "Not for sale in Germany," but, as we noticed yesterday, all demo models, posters and other promotional materials have since been removed. Samsung spokesman James Chung told Bloomberg that the new injunction "severely limits consumer choice in Germany," but confirmed that the Korean manufacturer "respects the court's decision," and vowed to do everything it could to defend its intellectual property.

SAMSUNG CEO SAYS THEY WILL NEVER BUY WEBOS

During the IFA trade show in Berlin on Friday, Samsung Electronics CEO Choi Gee Sung addressed rumors and speculation that Samsung was considering purchasing webOS from HP. Choi said Samsung would “never” make the purchase, according to Bloomberg. “It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” he said. Samsung Mobile already has its own mobile operating system called bada and just released version 2.0. It also sells smartphones running Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. HP, which recently announced that it is ostensibly killing off the mobile operating system, has been working with other technology firms to license webOS. While Samsung may not buy webOS outright, the Korean-based company has held talks to license webOS for new smartphones, Bloomberg said, but it is still unclear how those discussions turned out. Considering the success Samsung is currently enjoying with Android and bada, however, we’re not sure HP will be able to convince Samsung that there is any real value in adopting an OS that it couldn’t even sell to users itself.

SAMSUNG TO RELEASE CHATON APP FOR iOS, ANDROID, BB AND BADA

Samsung has promised ChatOn for “all major smartphone platforms,” which appears to mean Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Bada right now. With Samsung also developing Windows phones, it wouldn’t be surprising to see ChatOn appear there, too. Users will be able to send messages and photos, as well as share calendar items. Samsung’s also going to release a web client for carrying on conversations from any device with a modern browser.

GALAXY TAB 10.1 LAUNCH DELAYED IN AUSTRALIA DUE TO APPLE LAWSUIT

Just a few days after suffering a legal setback in Dutch court, Samsung has now decided to delay the launch of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, amid its heightening patent infringement battle with Apple. In a hearing today, the Korean manufacturer announced that it would refrain from selling or marketing its new tablet within Australia, before September 30th. Samsung made a similar concession earlier this month, agreeing to halt sales of its slates until today's hearing and to provide Apple with product samples at least seven days prior to its Australian launch. The company says it presented the samples on Thursday, but Cupertino's lawyers insisted that the Australian version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 still infringes upon its patents. Samsung, meanwhile, said in a statement that it's preparing to launch a counter-attack down under, telling reporters that it "intends to file a cross claim against Apple Australia and Apple Inc regarding the invalidity of the patents previously asserted by Apple and also a cross claim against Apple regarding violation of patents held by Samsung by selling its iPhones and iPads." The next formal court hearings are scheduled for September 26th and 29th.

RUMOR: SAMSUNG BUYING HP PC BUSINESS

According to a new report from DigiTimes, Samsung may be eyeing a purchase of HP’s PC division, which would catapult the South Korea-based electronics giant past Dell and into the No. 1 PC vendor spot globally. The report states that Samsung is currently meeting with various leading manufacturers including Quanta and Compal to investigate outsourcing the production of its own netbook computers. Samsung has held similar meetings in the past to no avail, but anonymous source tell DigiTimes that the company may be particularly motivated this time around as it negotiates a deal to take over HP’s PC business and free up space to build the machines in its own factories.

APPLE FOUND TO BE MANIPULATING IMAGES IN SAMSUNG LAWSUIT AGAIN

Dutch technology news site Webwereld on Friday uncovered new images that suggest Apple may again be tampering with photographic evidence used in its case against Samsung. In this instance, it appears as though an image submitted to a court in the Netherlands intentionally misrepresents the South Korea-based company’s Galaxy S II smartphone. While the Galaxy S II is both wider and taller than Apple’s iPhone 3GS, the image Apple submitted as evidence shows a device that is exactly the same height as the iPhone that appears next to it.

This past Monday, we reported that Apple may have altered the dimensions of an image of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in an effort to make it look more like the iPad when submitted as evidence to a German court. While that instance seemed extremely dubious — Apple’s legal team actually presented an image where the physical proportions of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 were altered to match the iPad — the Galaxy S II image seen above appears to just be reduced in size. The accusations are serious nonetheless, and Samsung’s legal team is undoubtedly examining the images in order to determine whether or not to take action.

RUMOR: APPLE TO INVEST $1 BILLION IN SHARP LCD FACTORY

Apple may invest $1 billion in a Sharp LCD factory to ensure adequate production of screens for its iPhone and iPad, according to MF Global FXA Securities analyst David Rubenstein. Apple typically buys its LCD displays from Samsung, LG and Chimei Innolux, although recent reports have suggested the iPhone maker has boosted its orders with Samsung after LG failed to meet iPad 2 display requirements.

Apple’s recent legal battles with Samsung in the United States, the European Union and Australia could be why the company is looking to invest in other manufacturers. “If the situation escalates into a state of war, this could mean a huge shift in orders,” a source told Reuters, suggesting that Apple could give larger orders to Elpida Memory and Toshiba.

Sharp is expected to provide the LCD displays for Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone, which is expected to launch next year.

TABLETS NOT SELLING WELL FORCING PRICE CUTS, UNLESS YOU ARE APPLE

While Apple’s iPad continues on its warpath, other tablet makers are not finding it quite as easy to offload their Android and Windows slates — which is understandable, considering they’re doing it wrong. While Apple managed to ship 9.25 million iPads last quarter and some retailers are still having trouble keeping inventory in stock, other consumer tablet vendors are reportedly having a difficult time pushing their wares past retail channels and into the hands of end users. Even the success stories among tablet vendors are exhibiting less-than-stellar sell-through, with companies like ASUS, creator of the popular Eee Pad Transformer, said to have left nearly 30% of the 700,000 tablets it shipped between May and July on store shelves. As a result, tablet vendors like Samsung, Motorola and HP will be forced to lower their prices in an effort to bolster weak sales, DigiTimes reports. HP has already offered two limited-time sales on its TouchPad tablet since it launched just last month, and now the company has permanently shaved $100 from its tablet’s price tag. Motorola also recently lowered the price of its XOOM tablet, leaving the 32GB model priced evenly with Apple’s 16GB iPad. DigiTimes says its sources are anticipating two more waves of tablet price cuts this year, one in September and another approaching the holiday season.

PHOTOS USED IN APPLE'S INJUNCTION AGAINST SAMSUNG TABLET IN GERMANY ALTERED

Apple has been suing Samsung in various courts across the globe. Apple's beef is that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is too similar to the iPad 2. Recently, Apple filed, and won, an injunction in Germany to keep Samsung from importing and selling the Galaxy in that country.

It has now come to light that the photos used for comparison of the two products, supplied to the court by Apple's lawyers (page 28 of filing), have been altered to make the Galaxy Tab more similar to the iPad than it really is. In the photo above you can see that the tablets look remarkably similar, in reality they are not.

Samsung's tablet measures 10.1" x 6.9" x 0.3" with an aspect ration of 16:10 while the iPad2 measures 9.5" x 7.31" x 0.34" with an aspect ratio of 4:3. You can see by the picture below the size difference between the two. Did Apple purposely alter the photos to make its case or is this a result of an overzealous lawyer in Germany?

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 10.1 TOUCHWIZ UPDATE IS OUT

For the tens of people with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the long promised Touchwiz update has finally arrived. The update provides a number of visual enhancements to the user interface including a live panel view, a new mini mode tray for quick access to open applications, a clipboard, an indicator quick panel and a photo editor. Samsung also added Amazon Music Player, Words with Friends, Samsung Media Hub, Social Hub, the Swype keyboard and Kindle software. To update simply go to Settings > About Tablet > Update.

Users who decide to update to the new interface should be warned that you cannot go back and as always back up your device.

HP IN TALKS TO LICENSE WEBOS

During an interview with Bloomberg recently, HP’s CEO Leo Apokether said that his company is in talks to license its webOS software to other manufacturers. “We are talking to a number of companies,” he said.”I can share with you that a number of companies have expressed interest. We are continuing our conversations.” Apotheker said there’s no specific time frame for when another company may announce that it’s using webOS and noted that “there is no time pressure.”

However, Bloomberg said that Samsung has been named as one of the potential licensees, but that information is still being kept private. “Samsung will continue to strengthen its relationship with Google to provide ultimate values to customers,” Jason Kim, a Samsung spokesperson, said — hinting at the firm’s commitment to Android. HP’s first webOS tablet, the TouchPad, will make its debut later this week on July 1st for $499.99.