Apple has sued Samsung this week, accusing its rival of "copying" iOS devices when creating its Galaxy line of tablets and phones.

The lawsuit alleges Samsung violates many Apple patents and trademarks relating to design features.

Samsung says it will actively respond to the suit and the accusation that it "blatantly copied" Apple gadgets.

Apple's suit is over 16 different claims "including unjust enrichment, trademark infringement" and 10 patent claims.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S devices have all sold well in the United States, and feature Android software.

Permalink | Comments

---

The RIM Blackberry PlayBook is now on sale in the U.S. and Canada, hitting stores with a mixed bag of critical reviews.

Selling for $499 for a 16GB/Wi-Fi model, RIM is hoping to break into the tablet market dominated by the Apple iPad.

The PlayBook features the standard 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM but its real differentiating factor is its Internet experience. The browser has support for Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, and HMTL 5 and many reviews say it is the best browser on a tablet, ever.

Additionally, the PlayBook has a 7-inch screen, 1024x600 resolution, dual cameras, a microHDMI port and the BlackBerry App World, which has thousands of apps.

Models with 4G access will be available during the summer.

Permalink | Comments

---

Following Best Buy's drop last week, most other major retailers have also dropped the price of the Nintendo Wii to $170 this week.

The price drop lends more credibility to the rumor that Nintendo is ready to unveil the Wii 2 at this June's E3 event, with a 2012 release date.

Target, Amazon, Wal-Mart and GameStop among other retailers now show the $169.99 price tag on the Wii bundle.

The white and black colorway bundles, which each include Wii MotionPlus Remote, a Wii Nunchuck Controller, "Wii Sports," and "Wii Sports Resort" have seen the price cut while the special edition red colorway remains at $200.

A couple retailers have also dropped the price on other special Wii bundles, best idea is to check each respective site.

Permalink | Comments

---

After searching for buyers of its money-losing HDD division, Samsung has announced today that Seagate has taken the business for $1.375 billion, in a cash-and-stock transaction.

Seagate is the largest HDD manufacturer in the world.

As part of the deal, Samsung gets a 9.6 percent ownership stake in Seagate.

Seagate, for its part, will become the sole provider for HDD in Samsung PCs, notebooks, NAS and DVR alongside the extension of a number of cross-license agreements.

Additionally, Seagate now has a guaranteed supply of NAND flash memory for SSD, a huge bonus for the drive maker.

Just last month, Western Digital purchased Hitachi's HDD business for $4.25 billion, as the market continues to consolidate.

Says Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and CEO:

We are pleased to strengthen our strategic relationship with Samsung in a way that better aligns both companies around technologies and products. With these agreements, we expect to achieve greater scale and deliver a broader range of innovative storage products and solutions to our customers, while facilitating our long-term relationship with Samsung.

Permalink | Comments

---