Apple Changes IPhone Connectors. World Freaks Out

When Steve Jobs launched the iTunes Store more than nine years ago, he also unveiled the third-generation iPod, the first device with a plug design that has become nearly as significant to independent manufacturers as iTunes has to the music industry. The bottom-mounted connector capable of transferring songs and charging the music player is now a standard Apple (AAPL) component. Makers of mobile accessories use the plug’s specifications when designing chargers, cases, speakers, and stands for iPods, iPhones, and iPads.

That $1.3 billion-a-year market will soon be upended by the connector’s first overhaul since April 2003, according to several people familiar with the design of the new iPhone expected this fall. These people, who were not authorized to discuss the change, say the new plug will have only

Google's Chrome tailors itself to Apple's Retina Display

Been wondering when Chrome was going to support Apple's Retina Display? Wonder no more. Also, Google throws a few more features into the latest Chrome release.

Google's Chrome can now serve up Web pages that show off Apple's Retina display in all its glory.

Until now, Google's popular browser did not support the display on Apple's newest MacBook Pro. The Retina screen has a 2880x1800 pixel density (220 pixels per inch). It is the highest pixel density, by far, of any laptop in its class.

Back in June, Google said: "Apple recently announced

German judge: Motorola violates Microsoft's FAT patent

Judge rules that Motorola's Android-based devices are infringing upon a File Allocation Table patent related to the use of "long and short filenames."

A German court has found Motorola Mobility in violation of a Microsoft patent, according to a new report.

Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court today ruled that Motorola's Android-based devices are infringing upon a File Allocation Table (FAT) patent related to "a common name space for long and short filenames," according to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who first reported on the case.

According to Mueller, who has aided Microsoft in intellectual property matters in the past, the software giant can enforce an injunction against Motorola's infringing devices after posting a 10 million euro bond. In addition, Judge Voss will allow Microsoft to

Apple reportedly to unveil iPhone 5, iPad Mini on Sept. 12

Both devices will be announced in the middle of September, followed by the release of the new iPhone on September 21, claims blog site iMore.

Apple consumers could perhaps see the debut of both the new iPhone and an iPad Mini come September.

Citing "sources who have proven accurate in the past," blog site iMore says that Apple will announce the two devices at a special event on Wednesday, September 12. The iPhone 5 itself would then go on sale 9 days later on Friday, September 21.

This latest report follows a tidbit last week from French site App4Phone.fr, which pointed to

Android loses ground to Apple in second quarter

Though still in top place, Android shed market share in the second quarter, while Apple's iOS gained ground, according to Strategy Analytics.

Android still owns more than half the U.S. smartphone business, but it declined in both shipments and market share in the second quarter.

Google's mobile OS grabbed a 56 chunk of the the market in the June quarter, down from 61 percent a year ago, according to a report released today by Strategy Analytics. Shipments fell to 13.4 million from 15.3 million in 2011's second quarter.

At the same time, the iPhone saw increased demand. Apple's smartphone market share surged to 33 percent last quarter from 23 percent a year ago. Shipments rose to

Mountain Lion hits 3M downloads on record pace

Apple says Mountain Lion was downloaded over 3 million times in its first four days of availability, "making it the most successful OS X release in Apple's history."

Apple's latest operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, has set a sales record.

The company announced today that Mountain Lion was downloaded over 3 million times in its first four days of availability, "making it the most successful OS X release in Apple's history."

Apple launched Mountain Lion last Wednesday, priced at $19.99. The operating system, which is available in the company's Mac App Store, comes with over 200

Expert claims Google's Nexus 7 display has flaws

Google's Nexus 7 tablet is a great LCD with lousy calibration, according to display expert Raymond Soneira.

Google's popular Nexus 7 tablet has display issues, according to an expert.

First of all, let's be clear: Google seems to have a certifiable hit with the Nexus 7 tablet and reviews have mostly been positive, if not very positive. And there have been no major complaints from review sites about the display.

That said, Raymond Soneira at DisplayMate Technologies says the tablet's display "falls short." Not mincing words, he says in a new blog post that he knew "something was seriously wrong" when he looked at the standard photos that DisplayMate uses to visually evaluate displays.

"Many of the images were noticeably washed out -- they looked like over exposed photographs with missing highlights, reduced image contrast, and weak colors," Soneira wrote.

But I was curious why these shortcomings weren't showing up in reviews -- and why Soneira seemed to be contradicting himself when he told me that the display itself was "high quality." So, I asked him to clarify this.

Here's what he said.

Anonymous begins dump of stolen ISP data

Anonymous has begun dumping details from its 40GB cache of what it is claiming to be AAPT's customer data.

Anonymous Australia has followed through with its promise to dump of what appears to be AAPT's customer data, releasing a sample of the stolen data.

The data was posted in several parts; six on Pastebin (one, two, three, four, five, and six), and four dump files. The information in these dumps appears to be about AAPT's business accounts and the contacts for these agreements.

The data appears to contain information about AAPT business customers and staff, including the names, numbers, titles and email addresses of a contact for each business agreement and how much the company spends (presumably with AAPT) each month. AAPT confirmed earlier this week that

Apple and Microsoft to team up for Kodak's patents?

The fierce competitors could once again pool their resources to snatch up a collection of high-value patents from Kodak.

Apple and Microsoft could once again join forces to bid on a collection of patents from a beleaguered technology giant, says a new report.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the two companies -- along with Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures -- plan to band together to snatch up some or all of Kodak's patent portfolio. Initial bids for that collection of 1,100 patents are due at the beginning of next week.

The companies could face an opposing team made up of other rivals including Google, Samsung, HTC, and LG, along with San Francisco-based patent buyer and licensor RPX, the report says.

In Apple and Microsoft's case, the collaboration would be a reprisal of sorts. In June of last year, Apple, along with EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft,

Apple working on Google Glass rival?

Oh sure, you want to know about the latest iPhone 5 rumor or if Apple really going to come out with an Apple TV that's not just a little black box, but what's more exciting still is that Apple's taking out patents on wearable computers, aka Google Glass.

According to Patently Apple, a site that tracks Apple's patents, Apple has been toying with the idea of wearable computers since at least 2006. Indeed, wearable computers are far from a new idea. I first played with them in the 90s. But those were niche devices. It wasn't until Google showed off with Google Glass in June 2012 at Google I/O that the idea of a heads-up computer display in your