Another week passed, and the Apple v. Samsung battle in California finally headed to the jury. This article points out some interesting ways the author believes that the lawsuit hurt both parties, and this story (by an Apple fan-boy) points to some of the more obtuse stories to come from the lawsuit. In all, I think unless Apple pulls a major upset in a complex case, the only people on Apple’s side who will be [monetarily] happy are the lawyers. Now for the rest of this week’s stories:
- Samsung did score one victory late this week “across the pond,” when a South Korean (go figure) court ruled that South Korea’s Mother-Company didn’t copy the iPhone in its design and production, and found that the iPhone infringed on Samsung’s patents. The result: an import ban in South Korea. This probably won’t have much effect on Apple’s bottom line since many South Koreans already recognize the Android superiority and are using Android-based mobile devices.
- The FBI and Department of Justice moved this week to shut down several websites they believe were pirating Android apps. I didn’t recognize any of the sites, which were apparently “alternative market sites”, and my favorite site for grabbing apps that are not available on my device is still active. As always though, please purchase your apps from legitimate markets and support developers who create good applications.
- The Oklahoma Bar Association’s law practice management advisor, Jim Calloway, published this article in the Oklahoma Bar Journal discussing email encryption and security. One of the points Jim suggests, which I’m going to consider seriously, is to create a new “attorney only” email account for clients to use when communicating with you. Something to consider, especially for family law attorneys.
- If you’re into weird or funky products to go with your Android device, you might want to look at these. I’m kind of interested in the Android-enabled Samsung refrigerator, but I think Apple already has the patent on squares and rectangles.
- Android fan-boys beware. A flaw in iOS could allow a hacker access to your text messages. According to this article from Information Week, Android and Blackberry cornered this security market. I guess security was forgotten as soon as Steve said lawsuit.
- Chrome on Android 4.0 is getting a lot of love as the speediest of the Android browsers. Although the test results are obvious, my experience with the browser is somewhat disappointing. I’m finding that Dolphin Browser performs much faster when loading and rendering websites. Plus, Dolphin has flash support, for now.
- The Droid Guy has this post that lists 5 of the best apps for downloading music. I question the legitimacy of some music download sites and sources, and encourage you to purchase your MP3′s from Amazon MP3 or Google Play Music.
- Here’s an article from the Christian Science Monitor discussing why unlimited data plans are unnecessary. I recently switched to Verizon’s ShareEverything plan with 2GB of data. Even on The Great Adventure, where I heavily streamed music and used data, I barely used over 2GB of data. To save any overage charges, I just upgraded to 4GB for $10. Sweeeeet!
- Chris Summerfield of Land of Droid published this post giving five reasons you should avoid the iPhone. I’m especially fond of reason number 4, since I know a lot of people who love iPhone but depend on Google. Uh oh…
- This post is a good round-up of some of the best Android apps, but you may want to check out this article from The Guardian, which names 10 of this week’s best Android apps.
- Here’s a cool hack if you want to silence your Android phone at the office, but still want to know when you receive a notification. For me though, it’s a waste, since most of the notifications I receive are emails, which also popup in my email inbox (thanks Gmail for the on-screen notification).
- And finally, take a look at this video from Samsung (am I a fan-boy, or what?) about the Galaxy SIII design process. I think it’s cool to hear Korean and to see the process in action. What can I say, I’m a “making of” featurette addict.
