Summary: News: Apple vs. Samsung: the verdict After two and a half days of deliberations, the Apple vs. Samsung jury returned a decisive verdict in Apple's favor today — holding that Samsung owes Apple $1.049 billion for copying Apple's intellectual property. Specifically, the jury found that all three of Apple's software patents on the iOS user interface were valid and infringed by a long list of Samsung devices, that Apple design patents were valid and infringed by several Samsung phones, and that Apple's trade dress on the iPhone and iPhone 3G were diluted by several Samsung phones as well. On the other hand, Samsung lost every part of its case against Apple — the jury ruled that none of the Apple devices in the case infringe Samsung's patents, including patents that are part of the 3G networking standard. The only major decisions that went to Samsung were related to the iPad — the jury didn't think Samsung's tablets copied the iPad's design. http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/24/3266439/samsung-apple-verdict Google's Nexus 7 tablet pops up in rare home-page ad Google really wants people to take a look at its Nexus 7 tablet. The $199 tablet started popping up on Google's home page today, a rare instance in which Google is actively promoting one of its own products. It's similar to the way Amazon's front page is often dominated by Kindle advertising. That Google would go to such lengths underscores the company's desire to make a bigger dent in the burgeoning tablet market, one still dominated by Apple's iPad. Given the traffic that goes through Google, the home page would be one of the most coveted spots on the Web for advertisers. The company, however, has traditionally resisted attempts to run advertisements for paid products on its main page. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57501546-94/googles-nexus-7-tablet-pops-up-in-rare-home-page-ad/ Flipboard passes the 20 million user mark, with one new user per second Flipboard is celebrating its second year anniversary this summer, and has just announced some impressive statistics to boot. Just last year the reading app announced that it had passed the 5 million user mark, and now it reports more than 20 million. Some other relevant numbers it has just posted to its blog include the fact that Flipboard, which is available for iOS and Android devices, adds 1 new user per second on average, and sees 14.5 million social actions per month. Speaking of the social aspect of Flipboard, the company reports that 75 percent of iPad users have connected their account to a social network such as Facebook or Twitter (which recently made it clear with new API terms that apps like Flipboard could have a rough road ahead). Possibly the most impressive figure Flipboard has revealed is the fact that its 1.5 million daily users spend an average of 86 minutes per month in the app. Be sure to check out Flipboard's official blog for more stats in an attractive infographic format. http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/28/3274612/flipboard-20-million-users-one-new-user-per-second Hipstamatic Out Of Film? Camera App Lays Off Engineers And Others Is Hipstamatic, the iPhone photo app that was an early hit on the App Store, on the rocks? TechCrunch understands that Synthetic, makers of the app, has recently had to let go of much of its engineering staff, among others, as part of a wider restructuring as it looks for cash. A number of public tweets (embedded below) also point to people leaving. The news comes as a surprise, given that Synthetic says that it has been profitable since the second week after it launched. It is projected to make $22 million this year (from $10 million in 2011). Contacted for a response to the news, a spokesperson confirmed that Hipstatmatic is restructuring but nothing more: ”Business is moving forward as usual, and we’re heads down focused on making beautiful, creative and fun products for our community and the world.
