In the heat of the social network war between Google+ and Facebook, making mistakes, however simple they are, is not an option. Nevertheless, about a month ago in its effort to shine brighter than the constantly growing presence and usage of Google’s social service, Facebook made a rushed decision. And, as it usually happens with rushed things, it don’t end up much good.

The decision in question involved bringing Facebook chat onto the screen. Permanently. There wasn’t any option to close it or even minimize it. The list of all your friends regardless of their status was poking you in the eyes constantly. Not only was this annoying to look at and use, but it was also messing up with social network’s recent chat integration with Skype. And that was just not cool, making more people look even more in Google+’s direction. Read more »

26,691 South Korean iPhone users have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for alleged privacy violations over the collection of location data. Each of them demands a compensation of 1 million Korean wons ($936) as their handsets violated their privacy by recording their location without their knowledge.

The lawsuit is filed just over a month after the Cupertino-based company was forced to pay the same compensation to a customer of their over the same issues. Mr. Hyung-suk, who won the case back then is actually a lawyer and he and his company have been preparing the class action ever since that initial victory. Read more »

You’ve probably heard that Apple managed to block the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 shipments in Europe through a preliminary injunction by a German court. The court’s decision was made without a hearing (that’s the standard practice) and now it’s up to Apple to prove they have a case.

But Dutch site, Webwerld, has done some investigating and they’ve discovered that Apple may have tried to bolster their chances of success by manipulating the evidence. Read more »

Nokia shares jumped over 10 percent today (from €3.70 up to €4.09) after the news about Google acquiring Motorola Mobility. All this boosted the speculations that Nokia is being once again targeted for a takeover.

Nokia hasn’t been doing all that well recently with their shares down by 45 percent just this year, due to the poor financial results of the Finnish company. This has reduced the price and has made Nokia easier to acquire by companies such as Microsoft and Samsung (as the rumors have it). Read more »

Rumor suggests that the annual Fall event, held by Apple, will take place on 7 September this year. This is the event usually dedicated to the refresh of the iPod series, but should this year also see the announcement of the next iPhone and possibly a new iPad.

The scoop comes from Japanese website KODAWARISAN and they say that the information is legit, coming from some kind of an inside source. In previous years Apple held their Fall events on 09.09.08, 09.09.09 and 01.09.10. If a new iPhone does make it to the scene it could become available as soon as later next month or in early October. Read more »

Sony and LG have finally settled their patent dispute that concerned infringed patents on smartphones, TVs and Blu-ray technology.

The dispute began after a technology sharing agreement expired three years ago and the two companies have exchanged a couple of blows in the US and European courts since then. A complaint was filed by Sony concerning LG smartphones in the US and LG accused Sony of infringing its Blu-ray video technology in the PlayStation 3. LG even got a court injunction in the Netherlands, where PlayStation 3 consoles were seized by customs. Read more »

Over the past few days riots have broken out across London and even spread to other cities throughout the UK following the death of a 29 year old man shot by police last Thursday. What was initially a peaceful protest designed to question the legitimacy of the man’s shooting soon evolved into a violent riot.

As the days have passed, more and more groups of people, which the news have stated are ‘primarily made up of youths’, have congregated across London to riot, committing acts of vandalism, theft and arson in their wake. Read more »

The until-just-recently Chief Marketing Officer of GetJar – Patrick “Mad” Mork will head over to Google-land as Director for Mobile Applications. He has been a part of GetJar since 2008 and as he wrote in his personal blog – it has “come a long way from the small, 7-man company I was supporting from my kitchen desk in London in 2008!”.

Mork will start off with Google from September and also said in his “see you soon” letter that he’s very excited about “some of the new products and improvements we [that's GetJar, not Google] will be introducing over the next few weeks and months.” Read more »

Speed Dots is a California-based company that makes a special kind of screen protector for iPhones and iPod touches. These screen protectors have dots placed at strategic locations that helps visually impaired users operate these devices with ease.

These screen protectors work with the Voiceover feature in iOS devices that reads out functions on the screen to help visually impaired users but thanks to the dots, it makes locating a particular area on the screen much easier. Read more »

Research in Motion (RIM), BlackBerry’s owner, announced it will cut its workforce by 11 percent in order to cut down costs and be able to stay in the game with competitors such as Apple and Android. The total number of people getting fired is 2,000, which is huge and would leave the company with 17,000 people on staff.

RIM has announced a number of changes to its executive board, including the retirement of Chief Operating Officer Don Morrison. Some senior executives at RIM have jumped the boat and joined rival Samsung Electronics. Read more »

GSMA has just announced it has decided on the city to host the Mobile World Congress from 2013 to 2018. It’s once again Barcelona, Spain. As you might have heard, GSMA had to decide between four cities – Barcelona, Paris, Milan and Munich. The MWC 2012 was supposed to be Barcelona’s last one but it seems the city once again came up with the best bid.

There will be some changes though. Starting 2013, the MWC will be held at a new venue – the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via. Judging by the few photos we found, the new fairgrounds look awesome and we can’t wait to see the new place in two years. Read more »

Microsoft has just released their financial results for the quarter ending in June and it appears that all is rosy at Redmond. The company recorded its highest ever revenue – $17.37 billion, which is 8% higher than Q2 of 2010.

Profits rose by the amazing 30% over the same period of last year and reached $5.87 billion. Just about every division of the company had a good quarter, but the Entertainment & Devices division is certainly the most impressive with its 30% growth in revenue, driven by the hugely successful Xbox 360. Read more »

The world’s largest chip maker, Intel, has posted its Q2 2011 financial results and has reported that this was their 5th consecutive quarter with record revenue. The company has done great to score revenue of $13 billion, which is 1% higher than in previous quarter and 21% better than in the same quarter of last year.

However, the $3 billion dollar profit is 7% lower than what the company achieved in Q1 of this year and only 2% higher compared to Q2 of 2011. The earnings per share have also dropped 4% sequentially to 54 cents and while this is still a 6% increase Year-on-Year, it has had a negative impact on the Intel stock (down almost 2% in the after hours trading). Read more »

Apple has launched the world’s first Thunderbolt display. This new display is mostly identical to the old 27-inch LED Cinema Display but has a couple of new additions.

The first one is the most obvious. The new Thunderbolt Display uses a Thunderbolt connector instead of a Mini DisplayPort. The Thunderbolt connectivity takes care of the display, sound as well as data transfer. Due to this the new Thunderbolt Display does not have a separate USB cable unlike the old LED Cinema Display. Read more »

Now here’s an interesting concept for you – a smartphone that is able to change its weight-balance on command, giving you another way to interact with it and thus enriching the user-experience.

This idea was introduced by Fabian Hemmert, who used a moving battery on an axis to change not only the center of gravity, but also the shape of the gadget. Read more »