• Apple Gets Early Access to Unreleased Samsung Prototypes Over Copy Infringement

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Featured, Gadgets, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, News, Patents, Rants & Raves 1 Response

    The legal battle between Apple and Samsung has taken a new ride. Apple is suing the Korean corporation over alleged copying the “look and feel” of the iPhone and iOS with its Galaxy range, and a federal court is forcing Samsung to hand over samples of new phones for Apple to pore over. Only Apple’s legal team for this case will see the products, so no-one from Apple or even Apple’s in-house lawyers will see the rival devices.

    Samsung Galaxy S 2 and Infuse 4G are on sale now, the other three devices Droid Charge, Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 aren’t yet on the market. As noted by Cnet UK

    Apple’s legal battle with Samsung has taken a new twist. The California outfit is suing the Korean corporation over alleged copying of Apple products in Samsung’s Android range, and a federal court is forcing Samsung to hand over samples of new phones for Apple to pore over.

    Normally, there’d be three months before Samsung had to hand over samples, but San Jose Judge Lucy Koh has decided that Samsung has already been shooting its mouth off about the unreleased phones and can’t claim they’re secret models, Courthouse News reports. Apple points out that Samsung even gave away a Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet to all 5,000 people at the recent Google I/O developer conference.

    Apple claims Samsung is causing confusion in the minds of the phone-buying public by copying the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad in the design of phones and tablets, the interface and even the packaging. Samsung even has its own version of the iPod touch, which strips out the phone functions — the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 and Galaxy S WiFi 4.0.

  • Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Incredible Gameplay Trailer

    // Gradly // blog, Featured, Games, News, Poster, Trailer 1 Response

    Activision has finally released the first proper footage of Infinity Ward’s 2011 blockbuster, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The game takes place in some of the biggest cities in Western Europe and the United States. MW3 has the largest production scale of any COD game so far since there were two studios working on it.

    In addition to the trailer, we have also learned a few details about the game’s release as a major leak happened revealing a lot of game details. However, Activision also confirmed that the Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer developed title will launch worldwide on November 8, 2011. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg labelled it the “year’s most anticipated entertainment launch”.

    Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is by far the most epic Call of Duty experience yet. The teams at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have worked tirelessly to create for the Call of Duty player a scale that is unimaginable with a level of polish and creativity that will push the genre forward.

    “The passion and energy of our developers is reflected in everything about the title. From the innovative gameplay, to the cinematic intensity, to the most advanced multiplayer ever, Modern Warfare 3 will raise the bar for this already incredible franchise.”

  • Sony Music Japan Hacked Through SQL Injection Flaw

    // Gradly // blog, Featured, News, Rants & Raves, Scandal, Sony No Responses

    Another day, another attack on Sony. Just when you couldn’t imagine it getting any worse for Sony, a new attacks on the Sony Music Japan and Greece websites (SonyMusic.gr, SonyMusic.co.jp), exposing databases using SQL injection techniques. Sony has suffered from two hacks last month lead to compromising over 100 million accounts along with usernames, password, credit cards info.

    The good news? The database information that was published does not contain names, passwords or other personally identifiable information. The attackers noted that there are two other databases on the site that are vulnerable and it remains unclear whether they contain sensitive information.

    It isn’t clear whether the hackers are able to inject data into the database, or simply access the tables and records it contains. If they are able to alter the records, this could be used to insert malicious code that could be used to compromise people browsing the site.

    While there is an enormous target on Sony’s back as a result of these very public attacks it is unclear why this is happening. Is Sony taking security seriously or are there simply so many flaws from the past that exist in their public facing sites that it will take them a long time to patch them all?

    I hope this is the last time to report on a flaw at Sony. Sony has announced they are working with several professional organizations to get their security house in order and for their sake I hope this happens sooner rather than later.

    [via nakedsecurity]

  • 500,000 iOS apps in the App Store and Counting

    // Gradly // Apple, blog, Featured, Infographic, News, Rants & Raves, Rumors 1 Response

    The App Store has apparently crossed 500,000 app approvals in two years and ten months since its inception. The news came from Chomp, 148apps and EA-owned games publisher Chillingo. They posted an awesome infographic which you can see below. According to Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

    Sometime after midnight Tuesday morning,  the iTunes team pushed through a batch of app submissions that sent the total over a six-figure milestone. In 34 months, Apple has approved more than 500,000 iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps for the company’s U.S. store. (Through attrition, replacement and withdrawal, number of apps currently available for download is 20% lower, around 400,000.)

    To celebrate the event, three app-related companies — mobile app blog 148apps, search company Chomp and game developer Chillingo — have issued a jumbo-sized infographic, a portion of which is reproduced above. The fact-packed poster includes a timeline, loads of factoids and a best-seller list topped by Angry Birds, which spent 275 days in the No. 1 spot.

    As of January, more than 10 billion apps had been downloaded from Apple’s App Store. Its closest competitor, the Google Android Marketplace, launched 8 months later, currently boasts 294,000 apps and 3 billion app downloads.