Apple looked to Sony for iPhone design inspiration, court documents show
Apple looked in part to Sony for inspiration in designing its first iPhone, even having an internal designer produce "Sony-like" mock-ups of cell phones that carried the name of the Japanese electronics company, according to internal Apple documents submitted to a federal court in California on Wednesday.
The documents were filed to the U.S. District Court in San Jose by lawyers for Samsung as part of an ongoing lawsuit with Apple over patent infringement. After months of in-court discussion and fighting, the two sides are scheduled to begin arguing their case in front of a jury on Monday.
A big part of the case revolves around allegations that some of Samsung's cell phones and tablet computers are too closely styled after Apple's products. With the recently filed documents, Samsung appears to be preparing to argue that Apple looked to other companies in designing its first cell phone and that such a practice is common in the consumer electronics marketplace. Read more...
HP caught with SIX Windows 8 PC packages up its sleeve
Windows 8 is being re-packaged into six versions in a move that looks like it might kill off four editions of the desktop client currently sold.
Documents posted on PC-partner Hewlett-Packard’s website here and picked up here say Windows 8 will come as a Windows 8 32- and 64-bit Edition, and an Enterprise and Professional Edition – both in 32-and 64-bit flavors.
It’s not clear, based on these documents, whether these are all the SKUs Microsoft has planned for the forthcoming Windows 8 or whether these are just the versions of Windows 8 that will be available on machines sold by HP.
If this is everything, then it’s almost certainly the end of Windows 7 Ultimate at the high end and also of Windows 7 Home Premium and Home Basic. Read more...
David Cameron gets custom prime-ministering iPad app
The crack coders assembled by the Cabinet Office have a new mission: making an iPad app for David Camerons.
The app will contain the latest figures on NHS waiting lists, crime, unemployment and other public sector data according to a report by The Times. It will also allow him to read Civil Service documents on the tablet and will pull in "real-time" information from Google and Twitter among other news sources. Advisers got the idea after a trip to the US.
But it seems it could take the gov coders three months to get it right. The app isn't expected to be ready till March according to the newspaper. Read more...