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Apple settles with teen who sold white iPhone 4 kits

Posted by Harshad

Apple settles with teen who sold white iPhone 4 kits


Apple settles with teen who sold white iPhone 4 kits

Posted: 27 May 2011 09:35 PM PDT

Apple settles with teen who sold white iPhone 4 kitsApple has settled their lawsuit against teenager Fei Lam, although the settlement figures were undisclosed.

In 2010, Fei Lam, a 17-year-old student from Queens, NY, started the website whiteiphone4now.com which sold unauthorized kits to turn your black iPhone 4 into a white version.

Lam had secured a large supply of white iPhone 4 parts from Foxconn in China, even though Apple had delayed the model until February 2011.

The teen says last November he received a letter from a private investigator hired by Apple, accusing him of dealing in stolen goods.

Apple filed a lawsuit against against Lam this week, accusing him infringing on Apple's trademarks. The suit asked for an injunction and damages.

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Microsoft has made more from Android phone sales than on WP7

Posted: 27 May 2011 08:42 PM PDT

Microsoft has made more from Android phone sales than on WP7Horace Dediu of Asymco has posted some interesting figures today, noting that Microsoft has actually made a lot more money off Android phone sales than it does off of phones sold running Windows Phone 7, its own operating system.

Citigroup analysts says that HTC pays Microsoft $5 for every Android device sold, which will add up to an expected $150 million in revenue this year.

So far, Microsoft has sold just 2 million Windows Phone 7 licenses at an estimated $15 per license. $30 million is significantly less than what the company will make from HTC only this year.

Microsoft is expected to strike similar deals with other Android manufacturers that it has sued over the past two years over patent disputes.

When they do, revenue from Android could outshine WP7 sales for at least a couple of years.

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Apple unlikely to use Samsung AMOLED displays for next iPad

Posted: 27 May 2011 11:40 AM PDT

Apple unlikely to use Samsung AMOLED displays for next iPadRecent reports stated that Apple was considering using a new Samsung AMOLED display for their upcoming iPad 3 tablet but OLED-display.net says this is highly unlikely as production will not be able to hold up to expected demand.

The site says Samsung would not be able to produce enough 9.7-inch screens, especially since the company has already announced it will sticking to smaller and medium sized panels, mainly for smartphones.

Samsung's expected capacity is 8 million 4-inch AMOLED displays per month for the next six months. Tablet-sized displays are also said to have been delayed until early 2012.

The company will also use the larger (6 or 7-inch displays) for their own upcoming Galaxy Tab tablets.

Adds Barry Young, director of the OLED Association:

If anything, it would have to be after 2011, maybe 2012. It's just not going to happen for Apple.

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iPhone 4 goes on sale in India

Posted: 27 May 2011 10:39 AM PDT

iPhone 4 goes on sale in IndiaThe Apple iPhone 4 has finally made its way to India, 11 months after its global launch.

India has 800 million mobile phone subscribers but 3G has been slow to rollout in the nation, making smartphones a tougher sell. Smartphone sales only account for 5 percent of all mobile sales.

Aircel will sell the 16GB iPhone 4 for 34,500 rupees ($764 USD) or 40,900 rupees ($906 USD) for the larger 32GB version.

Bharti Airtel, the clear market leader in the country, will have similar pricing, and does already offer older models of the iPhone.

In 2011, however, Aircel and others have begun aggressive rollouts of 3G services and smartphone sales are expected to double in 2011 year-over-year.

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Sony said to be bringing PSN back online in Asia on Saturday

Posted: 27 May 2011 10:25 AM PDT

Sony said to be bringing PSN back online in Asia on SaturdayWeeks after it restored access in the United States and Europe, Sony has said today that it will begin restoring the PSN in Asia beginning on Saturday.

Sony says online gaming and chat will be restored in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand this week. PSN will be down in South Korea and Hong Kong indefinitely.

The Asian rollout was delayed because officials in Japan and other nations forced Sony to prove that its services were completely secured following the breaches that led to 101 million gamers having their personal info stolen.

As "compensation," Sony is also giving a gift package to gamers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia just like it has in the NA and EU regions.

Sony noted last week that the breaches will cost the company $171 million.

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Dish drops prices of Blockbuster in-store rentals

Posted: 27 May 2011 09:16 AM PDT

Dish drops prices of Blockbuster in-store rentalsJust weeks after acquiring the struggling movie rental company Blockbuster, Dish Network has dropped prices across the board for in-store rentals at the 1700 stores that are still open.

Starting today, thousands of films will be just 99 cents per day, matching the price of the popular Redbox kiosks.

Additionally, brand new releases will be $2.99 for the first day, and 99 cents for each day thereafter.

Says the CEO of Blockbuster, Michael Kelly (via THR):

Our customers are seeking a better value - we've answered with new pricing and the flexibility of single day rentals. Our new pricing gives our customers the best of both worlds: access to the latest releases – many 28 days before Netflix and Redbox – and the most movies at low prices.


As a special promotion, Dish has started unlimited movie rentals in-store through July 4th. If you rent a new release (priced at $2.99) you can get any other movie (priced $1.99 or less) for free on the first day. You can then return that free film and get another one for free.

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Sony to downgrade NGP specs before launch?

Posted: 27 May 2011 08:46 AM PDT

Sony to downgrade NGP specs before launch?According to 01.net, Sony will release the NGP this year in Japan only, with Europe and North America getting the handheld in early 2012.

Furthermore, Sony will have to downgrade some of the console's powerful specs, in order to stay competitive with the Nintendo 3DS' $250 price tag.

01.net gets a slight benefit of the doubt for the report because they leaked the full accurate specs for the NGP two weeks before it was unveiled officially by Sony.

If accurate, Sony will sell the low-end (non-3G) NGP for $250, but with 256MB RAM instead of the 512MB announced. The company may also remove most of the 16GB internal flash memory, meaning there may be a cloud offering or gamers will have to buy external storage.

To make up for cutting the RAM in half, Sony will allegedly reduce "the size of the OS footprint in memory."

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Nokia will support Symbian until 2016

Posted: 27 May 2011 08:21 AM PDT

Nokia will support Symbian until 2016Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has said this week that the company will continue to support phones running the Symbian OS until 2016.

Earlier this year, Nokia made a billion dollar pact with Microsoft to turn Windows Phone 7 into its primary smartphone OS, pretty much leaving Symbian for dead.

Says Elop:

We're in a period where the investment in Symbian absolutely continues.

Even as we go through a transition towards our primary smartphone platform, Windows Phone, you will see that continued investment. And I know there's been questions about--so how long does that continue--and we've now been very clear about that, that software updates to Symbian devices are expected until at least 2016. So there's a long history still to be paved for Symbian in the future.


Elop adds that the company will continue all customer service for Symbian customers.

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