Rare working Apple-1 computer to hit auction block this month
A German auctioneer will put a working Apple-1 computer on the block later this month, and expects the handmade computer to fetch between $261,000 and $392,000 at Thursday's exchange rate.
The record price for an Apple-1 was $640,000, paid last year in an auction also run by Breker, of Cologne, Germany.
Retired, Computerless Woman Fined For Pirating ‘Hooligan’ Movie
Despite not owning a computer or even a router, a retired woman has been ordered by a court to pay compensation to a movie company. The woman had been pursued by a rightsholder who claimed she had illegally shared a violent movie about hooligans on the Internet, but the fact that she didn’t even have an email address proved of little interest to the court. Guilty until proven innocent is the formula in Germany.
The just-concluded case in Germany demonstrates perfectly that in some jurisdictions the standard way to deal with a file-sharing claim is guilty until proven innocent.
At 09:10 during a cold January morning in 2010, the defendant in the case says she was tucked up in bed. A movie copyright holder, however, insists the retired single woman was illegally sharing files on the Internet.
The settlement letter sent to the woman by the copyright holder stated clearly that on January 4th she’d been using the eDonkey network to share a violent film about hooligans. For this offense she must pay compensation of around 650 euros or face court, they said. Read more...
Germans create physical iPhone 5 prototype based on design rumors
We won’t know until Tuesday what Apple’s next iPhone will look like in real life, not officially, at least. But if the rumors or true, we might just have a sneak peek thanks to some highly motivated Germans. The gadget heads at Germany-based technology website Giga.de have created their own iPhone 5 prototype based on a variety of iPhone 5 rumors. That’s right, they made an actual iPhone 5 – or at least something that might look just like one.
The Giga team created a computer mockup based upon “CAD designs, hardware components, several leaked hints, cases and recent, believable mockups,” according to a post on the sit. Their device was made using the same process that’s used to create the iPad, they say, which includes machining the rounded-edge back plate from a solid block of aluminum, which they later treated with glass pearls to give it “the same slightly rough touch” as the iPad. Read more...
German court bans sales of Samsung’s new 7.7-inch tablet
Samsung Electronics Co has stopped promoting its new tablet computer at Europe's biggest consumer electronics fair after a court-ordered sales injunction in Germany, the latest setback in its global patent battle with Apple Inc.
A Dusseldorf court ordered the South Korean company to stop selling Galaxy Tab 7.7 on Friday when the annual IFA electronics show started in Berlin. The move follows an earlier ban on German sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 by the court in late August until its final ruling on September 9.
The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the latest addition to Samsung's range of Galaxy products. It was first unveiled at the show along with 5.3-inch Galaxy Note, which Samsung hopes to create a new product category with and fill the gap between smartphones and tablets. Read more...