Samsung

Memo to bloggers: If Samsung offers to fly you to an event, make sure you have your own return-trip ticket.

According to a detailed story in The Next Web, some time back Samsung reportedly reached out to some mobile-tech bloggers in India and offered to fly them to the IFA 2012 conference now underway in Berlin. One of the bloggers -- Clinton Jeff of New Delhi -- said he made clear that he would only attend the conference as a reporter, and that he would not be doing any promotional work for the company. Samsung reportedly had no issues with that.

The first Windows Phone 8 handset was revealed today at IFA in Berlin. Dubbed the Samsung ATIV S, it has a 4.8 inch "HD" (presumably 1280x720) Super AMOLED screen, a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, 8MP rear and 1.9MP front-facing cameras, 1GB RAM, 16 or 32 gigabytes of storage, a micro SD slot, NFC support, and a 2,300 mAh battery—all in a 8.7mm (0.34") thick device.

With the trial stage just completed last Friday, Apple wasted no time filing a notice with the court identifying which Samsung products it will now seek to have banned in the US. Despite having received a finding of infringement from the jury on most of the 28 products in play in the case, it looks like Apple is only going after an injunction on eight of them — all smartphones. That's not terribly surprising given the fact that many of the products in the case are no longer available in the US. The eight Samsung devices are:

Don't mess with Apple about the curves on the corners of its smartphones. Oh, and if you're an Android developer, God forbid if you try and copy the Bounce.

A jury of seven men and two women has just read the Apple v. Samsung verdict to a packed courtroom—and it was all bad news for Samsung. The Korean electronics giant has been found to infringe all of Apple's utility patents and all but one of the four design patents asserted, and was ordered to pay more than $1.05 billion in damages to Apple.

What may be the biggest tech lawsuit of all time is now in the hands of a nine-person jury. Apple and Samsung lawyers gave their final arguments today in a San Jose courthouse that was, once more, packed to the brim with reporters and observers.

It was mostly a civil day, by the standards of this trial—but that might just be because both sides are so tired, and because the jury isn't around to watch. Apple and Samsung attorneys fired off their final concerns about the jury instructions and the jury verdict form to US District Judge Lucy Koh today, less than 24 hours before the case heads to a jury.

Apple on Monday rested its case on that Samsung ripped off the design of the iPhone and iPad while building its own mobile products. Meanwhile, three of the Samsung phones that Apple labeled as infringing were tossed from the trial.

With the Apple v. Samsung patent trial underway, Samsung has angered both US District Court Judge Lucy Koh and Apple by providing the press evidence that had been ruled inadmissible in court. Koh demanded that Samsung lawyers explain the leak, and Apple today asked Koh to issue sanctions against Samsung for trying to influence the jury through the media.

Last week we found out that back in 2006 Apple Industrial Designer, Shin Nishibori, was asked to create mockups of what an iPhone-like device would look like if created by Sony. Nishibori’s prototype mockups have become a hot item of debate in the Apple vs Samsung trial as Samsung was hoping to use them as evidence that Apple copied Sony.