Infinite Loop

Apple has won another victory against HTC thanks to a new ruling by the International Trade Commission. On Friday afternoon, the ITC dismissed HTC's original patent complaint against Apple, upholding its initial ruling from October that said Apple had not violated HTC's patents in its implementation of iOS.

Apple first began its attack on HTC in March of 2010 by filing a federal patent infringement suit along with a similar complaint with the ITC. HTC responded with its own counterattacks on Apple, the two bickering over who owns certain parts of each other's respective operating systems. In October of 2011, the ITC's Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) made an initial ruling that Apple had not violated HTC's patents, but the decision was not final and remained subject to a six-person review panel.

Friday's ruling upholds the decision of the ALJ, leaving HTC out in the cold. This, however, isn't the only case going on between HTC and Apple—the ITC had ruled in favor of Apple on a different case between the two companies in December, saying that HTC's smartphones would face an import ban if they didn't remove a feature that allowed users to tap on data to bring up other information. (HTC says it has already found a solution and won't be facing the ban after all.) The ITC also sided with Apple in a patent infringement claim brought by HTC subsidiary S3 Graphics in November, and another ITC decision between HTC and Apple is currently on the calendar for November of this year.

Another Mac OS release, another moment of truth for those using old Macs. Apple's next OS X release, code-named Mountain Lion, will drop support for some older machines as the company continues to move forward with the iOS-ification of the operating system. The list of supported machines has not been publicly published (yet) by Apple, but a developer source has now passed that list along to TUAW after having downloaded the Mountain Lion developer release.

So which Macs get to stay on the island? According to TUAW's source, Mountain Lion will run on:

Anything earlier than those machines will not be able to install OS X 10.8 from the Mac App Store. The list of those getting the axe include the original MacBook Air and all pre-unibody plastic MacBooks, iMacs from 2006, pre-June-2007 MacBook Pros, pre-mid-2007 Mac minis, the original and 2007 Mac Pro, and Xserves from 2006 and 2008. Most of those machines were released early enough that it makes sense for Apple to drop support, but there are plenty of Mac users who like to hold onto old hardware and won't be pleased with the latest restrictions. Are you one of them?

A German court ruled on Thursday that Motorola's smartphones infringe on an Apple patent that covers certain implementations of the iPhone's "slide-to-unlock" feature. Presiding Judge Dr. Peter Guntz of the Munich I Regional Court awarded Apple a permanent injunction it can enforce against the sale or distribution of Motorola's Android-based smartphones within the country.

The patent in question, EP1964022 "Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image," was already at the center of a patent dispute between Apple and Samsung in The Netherlands. A judge there did not grant a preliminary injunction against Samsung devices on the basis that he believed the patent may be ruled invalid.

The German court disagreed, noting that two different "slide-to-unlock" implementations used in Mototrola's Android smartphones violated the claims of that patent. The court ruled that the Xoom tablet's particular implementation did not infringe on Apple's patented claims, however.

Apple is asserting the same patent against Samsung in Germany, as well. The win today makes it more likely that German courts could rule against Samsung or other Android handset makers based on this patent. However, it is currently subject to a validity review in a separate court case; if Apple wins injunctions which are later overturned because the patent is ruled invalid, it will be required by German law to pay out damages to Motorola and any others affected by such injunctions.

The "slide-to-unlock" decision follows a recent win Apple gained over Motorola concerning standards-essential 3G patents, and reverses a string of losses against Motorola in Germany. Apple and Motorola are also currently duking it out over smartphone patents in US District Court as well as at the ITC.

Apple is planning to swing back at Kodak with yet another patent infringement lawsuit in the US, but first it wants permission from New York's Bankruptcy Court. The company showed its hand in a filing with the court this week, as noted by Bloomberg, saying that it planned to file lawsuits in US District Court and with the International Trade Commission over patents that Kodak has allegedly violated.

Apple isn't necessarily required to obtain bankruptcy's court's approval in order to file the new lawsuits against Kodak, but apparently did so out of "an abundance of caution," according to the company's filing. Kodak can then ask the court to put a hold on the case in district court until the ITC makes its own ruling on the case.

The request comes just over a month after Kodak accused Apple of infringing on Kodak's digital imaging patents in the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The new suits that Apple is planning to file against Kodak appear to be a response to that accusation, as Apple believes it's the true owner of the digital imaging patents in question and Kodak is the one infringing. And those lawsuits were in addition to an already ongoing ITC investigation that Kodak initiated against Apple and RIM last year—Apple fired back with its own counterclaims, though the ITC's initial ruling implied that Apple and RIM may have something to worry about after all when it comes to infringing on Kodak's patents.

When we last wrote about Kodak suing Apple, we said it seemed obvious that Kodak was trying to prove its patents as it prepared to file for bankruptcy. Kodak has gone ahead and filed for bankruptcy, but is still working on selling its portfolio of roughly 1,100 patents—whoever ends up buying them will inherit the legal agreements that come with them, which is undoubtedly why Apple is continuing to push for court decisions in its favor.

The Wall Street Journal has gone ahead and called it on LTE support being included in the next iPad, claiming both AT&T and Verizon will carry the 4G-capable device. The publication cites its usual "people familiar with the matter," noting once again that the next-gen iPad—currently dubbed the "iPad 3" by the rumor mills—is expected to be announced the first week of March. Meanwhile, in a separate report, the Journal claims Apple is actively testing an 8" version of the iPad.

The idea of LTE support being included in the iPad 3 isn't new—previous rumors from other reputable sources (most notably, Bloomberg) have made the same claims, though skeptics have been hesitant to believe it fully. Part of the reason for that skepticism is that LTE networks are still largely limited to the US, and there only in some metropolitan areas. This means the majority of would-be iPad 3 buyers wouldn't have access to a high-speed LTE network just yet, although both AT&T and Verizon are actively working on rolling out their networks to more markets.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has listed out the downsides of adding LTE support to Apple's devices in the past, claiming that the trade-offs in battery life and chip size weren't worth it for the time being. ("LTE would force design compromises we're not willing to make," Cook said when the Verizon iPhone was announced in early 2011.) But things could certainly change this year thanks to the latest Qualcomm chips expected to be integrated into iOS devices this year.

As for the alleged 8" iPad in testing, the WSJ claims it would have a similar screen resolution to the iPad 2. Citing "officials at some of Apple's suppliers," the publication does note that Apple often tests new designs with its suppliers and may not even choose to make this 8" iPad if it decides the costs are too high or the market segment isn't worth chasing. Again, Cook has repeatedly said during Apple's fiscal calls that he believes the current iPad form-factor is the most ideal for reading and surfing the Web, so it would seem unlikely that Apple would dive into that market now. Then again, his predecessor Steve Jobs made a habit of talking trash about certain products just before rolling out an Apple version, so there's no way to know—at least from the outside—how serious Apple is about this supposed "iPad mini."

ThinkGeek announced on Monday a new iCade-compatible gaming controller called the iCade 8-bitty. The D-pad style controller will get its first public showing at the 2012 Toy Fair in New York City this week.

The iCade 8-bitty looks a bit like the classic NES D-pad controller, but redone with fake wood veneer reminiscent of Atari consoles form the 1970s. It connects to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using Bluetooth, and is compatible with a growing number of game titles including Atari Arcade Classics, Pac-Man, and Frogger Decades, among others. Developers can add support for all iCade devices using a free SDK.

ThinkGeek hasn't announced when the 8-bitty will ship except to say it will be sometime "later this year." At $24.99, though, it will be much less expensive than the original (and in our view, excellent) $99.99 iCade iPad cabinet.

Ion, which helped ThinkGeek turn the the original iCade from an April Fool's joke into a real product, recently unveiled its own iCade devices at CES this year. The expanding line now includes an iCade Jr for iPhones and iPod touches, the iCade Mobile for iPhone and Android devices, and the iCade Core fighter stick.

Apple announced on Monday that independent third-party inspections of its final assembly plants in China have officially begun in "Foxconn City." The factory in Shenzhen is one of several facilities that will be audited by the Fair Labor Association, a labor rights activist group that admitted Apple as a member in January.

Factories owned by Foxconn, Quanta, and Pegatron—responsible for final assembly of over 90 percent of Apple's computers, iPhones, iPads, and other accessories—will be inspected by a team of labor rights experts led by FLA President Auret van Heerden. The team will reportedly interview employees, inspect safety equipment and worker dormitories, and examine all available documentation on worker safety, wages, and working hours. Apple's suppliers have reportedly agreed to cooperate fully with FLA's inspection team.

Apple said that the results of the independent audits of Foxconn facilities should be available on the FLA website in early March, while audits of Quanta and Pegatron facilities should be published in "late Spring."

The FLA inspections come shortly after details of working conditions in China sparked a controversy in light of Apple's soaring profits. Apple first began dealing with workers' rights issues when a 2006 investigation revealed widespread abuse of China's labor laws; since then, Apple has performed its own yearly audits and publishes the results in a public report. The company announced its partnership with the Fair Labor Association when it released the results of its 2011 audit in January.

"We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we've asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement on Monday. "The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports."

Despite the audits, labor activists believe Apple should do more than try to make sure factories are operating within Chinese law. "Although we think Apple is among the best in terms of auditing, we still think that Apple can do more because it is the most profitable company in the world," activist Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, said. "As soon as Apple is willing to give a small percentage of its profits, the workers can benefit a lot. But Apple is not willing to do that."

Apple is once again circling back to the US in its legal patent squabbles. The company has filed a new infringement suit against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus covering four features of the Android 4 operating system, and another lawsuit against Motorola over Motorola's legal actions against Apple in Germany. Given Google's imminent acquisition of Motorola, both suits constitute a home-turf blow at Google and its mobile business.

The suit against the Galaxy Nexus covers four patents that Apple has filed for, three of which were filed in the last few months. The first, older patent covers ways for the OS to mark up content in one context, like phone numbers in an e-mail, and open a new app from that content, like a phone application by clicking on the phone number. Apple successfully sued HTC for using this functionality in its phones in December 2011. The remaining three patents relate to Siri and the OS's use of unified search, the use of slide-to-unlock, and word completion for text entry, respectively.

The strangest thing about the case is the target: a single phone, and not either of the companies involved in making it. Still, the suit is a closer strike at Google than Samsung, since the patents deal with software features that will, for the most part, extend to every phone with Android 4.

The second lawsuit is a continuation of Apple and Motorola's slapfight in Germany, where Motorola asked that Apple pay a 2.25 percent royalty on each iPhone and iPad sold for use of Motorola's 3G-related patents. A judge in Germany ruled in Apple's favor. Now Apple is suing Motorola in the US over the 3G patents, as noted by Reuters, claiming that Motorola's actions in Germany violated one of Motorola's patent licensing agreements with Qualcomm. Apple claims that as a customer of Qualcomm (its chips are inside the iPhone 4S), the company is a third-party beneficiary of the Motorola-Qualcomm agreement, so Motorola shouldn't be allowed to sue Apple over the relevant 3G materials.

Apple officially removed the last vestiges of its white, polycarbonate MacBook earlier this week, which had been a budget offering only available to education institutions since last July. Serving as somewhat of a replacement, Apple is now offering a $999, stripped-down 13" MacBook Air to schools that purchase in bulk quantities.

The new EDU-only 13" MacBook Air essentially matches internal specs with the current entry-level 11" MacBook Air, as noted by MacRumors. It comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 2GB of non-upgradeable RAM, and a 64GB SSD. However, it comes equipped with a 13.3" 1440x900 pixel display. Apple offers the machine in a five-pack for $4,995, or in 10- or 20-packs that come with a laptop cart and an AirPort Extreme base station ($11,399 or $21,599, respectively).

Apple is offering three other standard MacBook Air configurations in five-pack bundles, with or without AppleCare. The bundles save schools an extra $20 per machine over purchasing individually.