MacRumors

Apple has licensed its design patents to Microsoft -- the same patents at issue in the Samsung case -- according to Boris Teksler, director of Patent Licensing & Strategy at Apple. The development was revealed today in the Apple v. Samsung trial according to Dan Levine, a legal reporter for Reuters who is covering the trial from the courtroom.

Apple patent licensing director Teksler: Apple has licensed its design patents to Msft, but they have an "anticloning" agreement.

Ian Sherr, legal reporter for Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, adds additional information on the statement, saying that the design patents are covered under Apple and Microsoft's patent cross-licensing agreement. Apple could be making this point to show that Samsung should have licensed the patents as well.

In June, Microsoft introduced its 'Surface' tablet to compete with the iPad and Android tablets. Though there are significant physical similarities to the iPad, the Metro user interface is significantly different from iOS. The "anticloning" agreement between Microsoft and Apple may be satisfied by the Surface's very dissimilar operating system.

A Reuters article by Levine sheds some additional light on the agreement:

Apple's decision to license its design patents to Microsoft was consistent with its corporate strategy, Teksler said, because the agreement prohibited Microsoft from manufacturing copies.

"There was no right with respect to these design patents to build clones of any type," Teksler said.

The agreement is especially notable given the history of lawsuits between Microsoft and Apple, including the "look-and-feel" trial that Apple largely lost.

The Samsung trial has given Apple-watchers an unprecedented look behind the curtain at the incredibly secretive company, including detailed numbers of U.S. iPhone and iPad sales as well as a look into Apple's marketing strategy and the fact that Eddy Cue had worked to convince Steve Jobs of the need for a 7-inch iPad.

BGR reports that AT&T is apparently targeting an iPhone launch in the third or fourth week of September, shifting to an "all-hands-on-deck policy" through mid-October to help handle the surge of customers that inevitably accompanies new iPhone launches.

According to a trusted AT&T (T) source, the carrier is currently planning to launch Apple’s (AAPL) next-generation iPhone during the third or fourth week of September, with an all-hands-on-deck policy in place for employees that will extend through to the middle of October.

AT&T has reportedly even gone as far as to reschedule a training event originally planned for the first week of October so that it's employees can remain available to help with the iPhone launch.

Numerous sources have all but confirmed that Apple will be introducing the next-generation iPhone on Wednesday, September 12, with iMore adding that the first round of launches will take place on Friday, September 21.

BGR has reported on carrier vacation blackouts and staffing ramp-ups a number of times in the past, but has a mixed track record with such reports. Back in late July 2011, the site reported that AT&T was planning for an early-to-mid September iPhone launch. As that timeframe passed with no announcement from Apple, the site reported that AT&T was setting vacation blackouts for the first two weeks of October. The iPhone 4S debuted on AT&T on October 14, at the end of that window.

Technology Review takes a look at the evolution of security on the iPhone, noting how Apple has been able to gain acceptance in government and enterprise by overcoming its initially lax stance on device security to roll out industry-leading encryption options that can defeat essentially all attempts at accessing properly protected devices.

At the heart of Apple's security architecture is the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm (AES), a data-scrambling system published in 1998 and adopted as a U.S. government standard in 2001. After more than a decade of exhaustive analysis, AES is widely regarded as unbreakable. The algorithm is so strong that no computer imaginable for the foreseeable future—even a quantum computer—would be able to crack a truly random 256-bit AES key. The National Security Agency has approved AES-256 for storing top-secret data.

As Apple highlights in a recent white paper (PDF) on iOS security, this hardware security involves the incorporation of a unique AES-256 key fused into each iOS device and which can not be directly read.

Access to the device's software can be restricted with a PIN passcode, and while the default passcode option for iOS is a four-digit number, users can opt to use significantly longer and more complex passcodes. And with brute-force attacks required to break iOS passcodes needing to be run on the device itself at a speed of 80 milliseconds per attempt, a device with an eight-digit passcode could take up to 15 years to compromise.

"There are a lot of issues when it comes to extracting data from iOS devices," says Amber Schroader, CEO of Paraben, a supplier of forensic software, hardware, and services for cell phones. "We have had many civil cases we have not been able to process ... for discovery because of encryption blocking us."

Most of the information included in this report is not particularly new, and Apple's white paper goes into more detail on the company's efforts to address security on iOS devices, but the report offers an overview of the layers of security Apple has built into its products.

French site Nowhereelse.fr points to two new photos originally posted to Chinese forum Weiphone. The photos appear to be the front and back of the next generation iPhone logic board which houses the processor and other support chips for the device. The board is distinct from both the Apple's iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 logic boards.

Nowhereelse notes that the screw holes of the logic board lines up exactly with those of the previously leaked shells The site even created this animated GIF which shows how the holes line up. The image appears to be mirrored, presumably for clarity.

We've seen a larger number of part leaks for the next generation iPhone, but this is not a new phenomenon. Last year, we saw many parts for what would become the iPhone 4S, including its logic board revealing an A5 processor. This leak is somewhat less revealing as much of the shielding remains in place.

The increased number of part leaks likely corresponds to the belief that Apple is already ramping up production of the next generation iPhone. Apple is expected to launch the new iPhone on September 12th.

Update: The same forum poster posted early photos of the iPhone 4S logic boards last year.

Google has released a statement saying that it is aware that some iOS users are having difficulties connecting to Gmail and that they are working on a fix, according to All Things D.

Users have reported receiving an error -- "mail service imap.gmail.com is not responding" -- when trying to fetch new mail on the iPhone or iPad.

We're aware of a problem where Apple Mail IMAP users are unable to sync with their Gmail account and are seeing a username and password error. We have found that a vast majority of users are exceeding IMAP bandwidth limits and are continuing to investigate.

Google has posted about the issue and some possible temporary fixes in its Gmail Known Issues help forum under 'POP, IMAP and Sync', but the company does not yet have an ETA on a final resolution.

Following on the heels of our report from Wednesday about Apple's preparations for developer seeds of OS X 10.8.1, Apple has now released the first build of the Mountain Lion update to developers, according to 9to5Mac.

The release has a build number of 12B13 and Apple reports no known issues, but asks developers to focus on a wide variety of areas for their testing. The delta update -- where only items that have changed are downloaded -- weighs in at 36.4MB.

According to 9to5Mac, developers have been asked to test Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange in Mail, PAC proxies in Safari, SMB, USB, and Wi-Fi and audio when connected to the Apple Thunderbolt display.

The OS X 10.8.1 seed is available for download via the OS X Developer portal at developer.apple.com.

Industrial designer Don Lehman takes a look at the iPhone casing leaks that have surfaced so far, analyzing in great detail how Apple appears to have refined its iPhone with a new unibody design that should make the device stronger, lighter, and thinner than previous models.

In looking at the probable antenna design of the next-generation iPhone, Lehman notes how the antenna design evolved between the GSM iPhone 4 and the CDMA iPhone 4, the latter of which then carried over to the iPhone 4S. Following the "Antennagate" controversy with the original iPhone 4, Apple redesigned the antenna system in order to push the antennas to the top and bottom portions of the stainless steel band wrapping around the device, leaving the portions along the two long sides as structural and decorative pieces.

Lehman believes that Apple is using a similar principle for the next-generation iPhone, but has made the move to a "unibody" design in which the long side pieces and the large central section of the rear shell are machined from a single piece. The texture seen on the inside of the shell in leaked photos are in fact the tool marking showing how Apple machined the part out of a single block of metal.

The leaked design has three pieces of metal instead of four. It still has two U-shaped pieces at the top and bottom, but this time the two flat sides become one single piece of metal that also comprises the back of the device. That single piece of metal is the unibody backplate.

The same properties that unibody designs give to Apple’s laptops apply to this design as well: stronger, lighter, and thinner. You can see from this picture the tool path of the CNC machine that made the unibody backplate of this design. The tool path sort of looks like the lines that are made when a farmer plows a field. This started out as a single block of metal and the CNC carved that metal out until you have what you see here.

Lehman notes that even the bosses where screws for other components will attach are machined out of the single rear shell piece, increasing strength while reducing thickness and weight.

While Apple would certainly prefer to build the entire rear shell out of a single piece of metal, the realities of signal transmission mean that the company needs to use more transparent materials in locations where the antennas are. With the iPhone needing to send and receive Wi-Fi, cellular, GPS, Bluetooth, and perhaps NFC signals, Apple has pushed those hardware functions to the top and bottom of the device where they are the least shielded by other device components and the user's hand. Accommodating those functions has led Apple to adopt its new strategy of using a high-quality, thin metal shell wherever possible on the back of the device to increase strength and decrease size and weight while using glass or plastic windows for the antennas.

Lehman wraps up his post by addressing several other design aspects of the next-generation iPhone shell, including an examination of Apple's tinting of the metal on the black version of the device and placement of the rear camera with respect to the device design, as well as giving an overview of some of the other changes Apple has made for the forthcoming device.

Exactly one month ago, we noted the presence of a "MacBookPro10,2" entry in the Geekbench results database, suggesting that a 13-inch version of the Retina MacBook Pro is indeed in the works, as has been rumored for October. In comparison, the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro carries a "MacBookPro10,1" identifier, while current non-Retina versions of the MacBook Pro carry "MacBookPro9,x" identifiers.

While much of the data presented to Geekbench by machines can be faked and many Hackintosh enthusiasts go to great lengths to match their machines' details to those of actual Macs, the details of the MacBookPro10,2 were consistent enough with expectations that both we and Geekbench developer Primate Labs believed the entry to be genuine.

Following the original entry, a second MacBookPro10,2 has now appeared in the results database, with the data bearing very strong similarity to the original entry but with some differences that suggest this entry may also be legitimate.

Like the machine that appeared first, the new machine runs a 2.9 GHz Core i7-3520M, the same processor found in the current high-end model of the non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro. The machine's motherboard identifier also matches the previous machine, which itself matched a previously unaccounted for identifier seen in early developer builds of OS X Mountain Lion. And as would be expected for machines running the same specs, the two machines have very similar Geekbench scores of roughly 7800.

There are a few differences, however, with one of the key ones being a custom 12A2066 build of the unreleased OS X 10.8.1. Just two days ago, Apple gave the first indication that it will begin seeding OS X 10.8.1 to developers, but it has yet to do so. In addition, the four-digit build number suffix is sometimes used internally by Apple on its test machines, although such four-digit build numbers are sometimes also used publicly for special builds such as the version of OS X 10.7.4 that shipped on new 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro models.

In addition, this new entry reflects a MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM, in line with what ships paired with the Core i7-3520M on the corresponding non-Retina model. The previous MacBookPro10,2 entry showed a machine with only 4 GB of RAM. Finally, the BIOS string for the new entry appears to show an updated date code of July 18, 2012, compared to the previous one registering as June 11, 2012.

Geekbench results have on several occasions revealed upcoming Mac models, most recently in mid-May with the MacBookPro9,1 that turned out to be the non-Retina 15-inch MacBook Pro upon its release the following month. Notably, an iMac13,2 entry that also appeared to be legitimate surfaced around the same time, but Apple has yet to release updated iMacs.

(Thanks, Matthew!)

French site Nowherelse.fr is continuing its string of parts leaks surrounding the next iPhone, sharing photos [Google translation] of what it has been told is the dock connector for the cable to be paired with the next-generation iPhone. The connector portion of the cable is shown next to the USB end of the cable, giving an idea of the size of the new connector.

The site notes that it can not confirm the validity of the images, but they do appear to show some features that could be consistent with what has been claimed about the new smaller dock connector. The connector shown in the images is considerably smaller that the existing dock connector, and the metal insertion piece appears to have 8 gold pins for making contact inside the corresponding port on the device. The insertion piece also appears as if it could be inserted into the iPhone in either orientation, as has been rumored.

Nowhereelse.fr had a poor track record of leaks leading up to the launch of the original iPad, but has been relatively quiet until earlier this month when it began sharing photos of next-generation iPhone parts. Those leaks are believed to be legitimate, as they are originating from Asian websites and are consistent with other leaks seen to date.

Update: Kyle Wiens of iFixit tells us the metal frame counts as a grounding pin, which means it's effectively a 9-pin connector. There has been some debate about it being an 8-pin vs 9-pin port, and this could reconcile those different claims.

The patent and design dispute between Apple and Samsung has continued to yield a treasure trove of information, with the latest revelations shared by AllThingsD revealing each company's United States sales of a number of their mobile devices.

While Apple reports its worldwide iPhone and iPad sales on a quarterly basis, the new document addresses Apple's U.S. sales specifically and includes number for the iPod touch, which Apple has traditionally referred to only generally as representing more than 50% of total iPod sales. Samsung's numbers are also of interest given that the company halted public disclosures of its device sales in mid-2010, citing competitive reasons.

Apple's numbers reveal that the company has sold nearly 86 million iPhones in the United States, or roughly a third of the company's total sales of nearly 250 million units worldwide. The data also reveals for the first time that Apple has sold 46.5 million iPod touch units in the U.S., having peaked in 2010 at over 13 million for the year. On the iPad side, Apple's sales of 34 million units in the United States represents approximately 40% of the company's total iPad sales of 84 million units worldwide.

Samsung's numbers include only those devices that are included in the lawsuit and thus omit a number of recent popular smartphones, as well as several tablet models, but they do reveal some interesting information on Samsung's sales patterns.

Perhaps most interesting are Samsung's tablet sales numbers, which include a total of just 1.4 million units sold through the second quarter of 2012 for the three devices included in the lawsuit: the original Galaxy Tab, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE. This is compared to a total of 34 million iPads sold in the United States since its original launch back in 2010.

On the smartphone side, Samsung's filing offers a complex picture of sales of two dozen models, although a number of them are simply carrier-specific versions of the same device. All told, the Samsung sold over 21 million of the smartphones included in the lawsuit, representing $7.5 billion in revenue.

Documents filed by Samsung lawyers on Thursday reveal that, from June 2010 through June 2012, Samsung sold 21.25 million phones, generating $7.5 billion in revenue. On the tablet side, the company sold 1.4 million Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices, producing $644 million in revenue.

In terms of individual phone models, the largest in units were the Galaxy Prevail with 2.25 million phones sold, the Epic 4G with 1.89 million phones sold and the Epic 4G Touch variant of the Galaxy S II, which sold 1.67 million units in the U.S. All told, Samsung sold 4.1 million Galaxy S II devices, when all models are included.

The report notes that these sales numbers are just some of the key internal data that both Samsung and Apple have been fighting to keep private but which have been brought into the open as part of the ongoing dispute. Overall, the trial has yielded quite a bit of interesting information on the both Apple's and Samung's mobile businesses, including some insight into Apple's early development of the iPhone and iPad.

Part photos of the new battery for the next generation iPhone have been posted by 9to5Mac. The part shows only a minor increase in capacity from 3.7V/1430mAh/5.3Whr in the iPhone 4S to 3.8V/1440mAh/5.45Whr in the rumored iPhone 5. No dimensions are provided to compare the size of the battery to the current iPhone batteries.

The next generation iPhone is believed to be a taller but thinner device. The increased height, however, is more than offset by the reduction in thickness which results in a decreased internal volume of the device as compared to the iPhone 4 and 4S. If this part leak is to believed, Apple hasn't been able to significantly increase the battery capacity on the new iPhone.

The new iPhone is expected to include LTE data networking for the first time. LTE has traditionally required more power than the currently supported 3G networks. Apple's Tim Cook has said that the reason that Apple hadn't used LTE in iPhones is due to the "design compromises" required to build such a device. This has widely believed to have referred to the increased power requirement of existing LTE chips. Qualcomm is poised to release a new LTE chip that Anandtech believes will "likely increase LTE battery life to reasonable levels".

Hidden files in the Mountain Lion version of Boot Camp appear to confirm the next generation of both the Mac Pro and iMac, according to information dug up by AppleInsider.

Within a Boot Camp configuration file lies information that tells the software what models of Mac can boot Windows from a USB-drive, a task that only Macs of a more recent vintage can accomplish. The file includes mention of the existing Mac Mini and MacBook Air, but also mentions iMac 13,0 and MacPro 6,0 models -- machines that don't currently exist.

Earlier this year, Geekbench 2 benchmarks for an unreleased iMac 13,2 model were discovered that appear to be legitimate and fueled speculation that the iMac would be updated soon. The current model iMacs have gone more than a year -- 464 days -- without an update, and are well overdue.

After the Mac Pro was given a quiet update this year, many were wondering about the future of Apple's desktop line of Macs. Both Apple CEO Tim Cook and an unnamed Apple spokesperson have confirmed that the Mac Pro will receive a full redesign for delivery sometime in 2013, nearly three years after the last significant update to the product.

Update: It's been pointed out that these strings were in Boot Camp as early as November 2011.

With a number of retailers and carriers beginning to drop prices on the iPhone as the introduction of Apple's next-generation hardware approaches, Apple has officially continued to maintain standard on-contract pricing of $199/$299/$399 for the iPhone 4S, $99 for the iPhone 4, and free for the iPhone 3GS.

But a source has now revealed to MacRumors that Apple's retail stores have been given authorization to match these discounted prices from approved major retailers and carriers. In all cases, Apple will discount iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 models by $49.01 upon request to bring pricing down to $349.99/$249.99/$149.99 for the iPhone 4S and $49.99 for the iPhone 4. As with most price matching offers, consumers will likely need to cite the source offering the lower pricing in order for Apple to honor the price match.

Notably, the price matching policy applies only to Apple's retail stores and is not available for orders through the online store.

In line with last month's report on negotiations between Google and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the company's circumvention of privacy settings in Safari, the FTC has officially announced that Google has agreed to pay a record $22.5 million penalty to settle the case.

The settlement is part of the FTC’s ongoing efforts make sure companies live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers, and is the largest penalty the agency has ever obtained for a violation of a Commission order. In addition to the civil penalty, the order also requires Google to disable all the tracking cookies it had said it would not place on consumers’ computers.

“The record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order,” said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC. “No matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place.”

Google took advantage of a loophole in Safari's privacy settings designed to prevent placement of third-party cookies by default, using invisible web forms to trick Safari into thinking that users had interacted with Google's ads and thus allowing cookies to be placed on the device.

The FTC specifically charged Google with violating an October 2011 order related to a previous case of privacy violations. In the new Safari case, FTC commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the settlement, with the dissenting commissioner arguing against the settlement allowing Google to deny all liability related to the issue.

Following up on a fresh leak of claimed next-generation iPhone parts, Nowhereelse.fr now shares [Google translation] new photos from the same source that provide an interesting comparison between several of the new components and their predecessors found in the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4.

As shown in the top row, Apple appears to be returning to the rotational electric motor design for the vibrator that was used in the GSM iPhone 4 and earlier devices. In the CDMA iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, Apple has been using a larger drum-shaped linear oscillating vibrator that gives a softer feel and sound.

Apple's flex cable designs have also continued to evolve through the generations, with the company tending to group components on cables by function and physical proximity. With the move of the headphone jack to the bottom of the device and tweaks to the camera and sensor arrangements, it appears that Apple has in some respects been able to simplify its cable designs.

The second row of parts shows how Apple has modified the design of the volume control cable over time. While the part previously included the volume control button/mute switch assembly and the headphone jack, with the headphone jack having moved to the bottom of the device the cable now stretches across the device to also contain the power switch, consolidating all of the exterior button and switch functionalities on a single cable.

In previous iPhones, the power switch was included on the sensor cable, which also contained both the proximity sensor and the ambient light sensor, as shown in the third row of parts. But with the power switch now having been moved over to the volume control cable, the sensor cable has been simplified.

Not shown in these photos is the headphone jack and dock connector part. That part was one of the first to leak back in May, but the dock connector was initially misidentified as the earpiece before it was discovered that the headphone jack would actually be located on the bottom of the next-generation iPhone.

French site Nowhereelse.fr points [Google translation] to several new photos of what are claimed to be parts for the next-generation iPhone. While a number of the parts are similar to those that have previously been seen, including a SIM card tray leaked earlier this week that appears to have come from the same company, one notable addition in the lower left of today's photos is what appears to be the protection shield that will attach to the back of the new iPhone's larger 4-inch display.

Other parts include the home buttons and front panel that have been seen a number of times previously, as well as flex cables for the device's sensors and external buttons and switches at the top left of the photos.