MacRumors

Bloomberg reports that VirnetX has been awarded a $368.2 million judgment against Apple in a 2010 patent lawsuit over virtual private networking (VPN) connectivity related to Apple's FaceTime video calling feature.

The VirnetX patents cover the use of a domain-name service to set up virtual private networks, through which a website owner can interact with customers in a secure way or an employee can work at home and get access to a company’s electronic files. VirnetX had sought $708 million in damages.

“For years Apple refused to pay fair value for the VirnetX patents,” Doug Cawley, a lawyer with McKool Smith in Dallas who represents VirnetX, said in closing arguments. “Apple says they don’t infringe. But Apple developers testified that they didn’t pay any attention to anyone’s patents when developing their system.”

The technology was developed as part of work conducted by defense company SAIC on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency, and VirnetX is a holding company created by former SAIC employees. VirnetX has indicated that it plans to seek a halt to continuing use of its technology by Apple, so it is unclear how the two parties will proceed toward a potential resolution that would keep FaceTime intact.

The Pixar Times reports (via 9to5Mac) that Pixar has recently named its main building in honor of Steve Jobs, with a Pixar employee tweeting a friend's photo showing the new name on the building.

Peering in through the windows, you can clearly see the outline of Sulley, confirming that this is the main building that Steve Jobs himself played a major role in designing. He came up with the idea that the building should be centered around a large atrium, which would lead to accidental collaboration that may not occur if everyone was stuck in their individual offices.

Jobs famously invested $10 million to purchase Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986, with the animation studio being sold to Disney 20 years later for $7.4 billion.

Back in July, Apple revealed during developer testing of iOS 6 that it would be launching new icloud.com email addresses for users of the service, with former MobileMe members using me.com or mac.com address also receiving equivalent icloud.com addresses.

Those new icloud.com addresses have been rolling out gradually over the past several months for former MobileMe members, and Apple now appears to have completed that transition, sending out an email to former MobileMe members notifying them of the new email address option.

All new iCloud Mail accounts now come with an @icloud.com email address. As an existing user, we'd like to offer you this new address as well. We have reserved [MobileMe user name]@icloud.com for you, and you can now use this address with your iOS devices and computers by following these simple instructions.

If you prefer, you can continue to use your current email address just as you always have.

No matter which address you use, you'll continue to receive all your mail, whether it's sent to your @me.com, @mac.com, or @icloud.com address.

There has been a significant amount of discussion about Microsoft's rumored plans to bring Office to iOS devices, and The Verge now weighs in with additional details and a few screenshots from the project. According to the report, Office Mobile for iOS and Android will launch in early 2013 but will not offer anything close a true Office experience, with the editing functionality it does offer coming through an Office 365 subscription.

Office Mobile will debut in the form of free apps that allow Android and iOS users to view Microsoft Office documents on the move. Like the existing SkyDrive and OneNote apps, Office Mobile will require a Microsoft account. On first launch, a Microsoft account will provide access to the basic viewing functionality in the apps. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents will all be supported, and edit functionality can be enabled with an Office 365 subscription.

Microsoft will allow iOS users to purchase an Office 365 subscription within the app, or let organizations distribute codes to enable Office Mobile editing for users. The apps will allow for basic editing, but we're told this won't go very far in attempting to replace regular full use of a desktop Office version.

The report indicates that Office Mobile for iOS is currently planned for launch in late February or early March, with the Android version following several months later.

SlashGear reports on an article [Google translation] from Chinese site DoNews claiming that Apple's iPad mini display partner AU Optronics has a Retina-resolution display in the pipeline for the next generation of the device, which is expected to be launched next year. There has been considerable discussion about how quickly Apple might be able to move to a Retina display in the device, and today's report suggests that Apple may not have to wait several generations to make the jump as it did with its other iOS devices.

A separate report from MENAFN claims that AU Optronics will be adopting indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) and Gate IC on array (GOA) technologies in order to reach the Retina resolution in a thin design required for the iPad mini.

It is said that ultrahigh resolution can not be developed without the technology of indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), and the technology of Gate IC on array (GOA) is also indispensable since the next-generation iPad Mini will have an ultra-narrow frame. The technology of GOA helps save the room of IC on the rim and narrow the frame of the screen to the largest extent.

Speaking of the progress of the development of iPad Mini, AUO claimed that it had solved the problem of yield and there would be no light leak as existed before. The company would ship the products in large scale in the fourth quarter.

One major issue with both of the reports is confusion over the pixel density on these panels. Both reports claim that the Retina-level iPad mini display would carry a density of 497 pixels per inch (ppi), whereas such a display would actually have the same 326 ppi seen on the last several generations of the iPhone. MENAFN also misstates the density of the full-size iPad's display as 326 ppi, while DoNews correctly lists it as 264 ppi.

Continuing the seemingly endless patent lawsuits between Apple and Samsung, Apple today argued that Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet infringes on its patents, as well as Samsung's implementation of the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system on its devices.

Apple has also said it wants to add a number of Samsung products with stylus pens to its lawsuit as well, Bloomberg reports.

Andrew Liao, an Apple attorney, told Grewal today that the Galaxy Nexus is the only phone with Jelly Bean that Apple seeks to add to the patent complaint. Liao also said Apple wants to add 17 devices that could use a stylus even though the products don’t ship with a stylus.

Victoria Maroulis, an attorney for Samsung, said the company wants to add only one product, the iPhone5, to its complaint. Maroulis said Samsung opposes the addition of "stylus products in 17 new devices" to Apple’s claims.

"By adding the stylus, Apple is going to enlarge the case significantly," she said.

The case regarding the Galaxy Note 10.1 and Samsung's implementation of Jelly Bean is scheduled for trial in 2014. Judge Lucy Koh will also consider appeals in the previously decided Samsung v. Apple case in December.

In what should not be a significant surprise, Apple is already hard at work on OS X 10.9, the next major version of its Mac operating system. Signs of OS X 10.9 showing up in web logs were publicized [Google translation] earlier today by Czech site Letem světem Applem, and 9to5Mac confirmed that some of the OS X 10.9 hits showing up on its own site were coming from Apple's corporate network.

A look at our own logs shows similar activity, although there has not been a noticeable uptick in hits over the past several months. Rather, we have been seeing a number of spikes in activity since at least mid-August, consistent with limited internal testing during the working week. Similar patterns were previously seen for OS X 10.8 in 2011 and OS X 10.7 in 2009/2010.

It is trivial to fake such identification strings, meaning that at least some of the data should be considered untrustworthy. But hits identified as coming from Apple's own networks carry a much greater likelihood of being legitimate, and so it seems fairly clear that Apple is indeed using systems running OS X 10.9 to browse the Internet.

A release date for OS X 10.9 is currently unknown, but Apple has stated that is moving toward a more rapid development cycle on OS X, with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion's July 2012 launch coming almost exactly one year after the debut of OS X 10.7 Lion. Assuming a similar timeline for OS X 10.9, Apple may begin releasing developer previews in early 2013 ahead of a public launch in the middle of the year.

Just as Apple's iPad mini joins the market of smaller tablets with displays of 7-8 inches, The Verge reports that Microsoft is preparing to launch its own 7-inch tablet. Interestingly, rather than simply being a smaller version of its just-launched 10-inch Surface tablet, the forthcoming "Xbox Surface" tablet will be a gaming-focused device running a scaled down version of Windows.

Alleged specs for the device leaked back in June, and The Verge now says that the leak was indeed accurate at the time, although the company's plans have continued to evolve.

The Xbox Surface will likely include a custom ARM processor and high-bandwidth RAM designed specifically for gaming tasks. We're told these specifications could be altered to accommodate an unannounced Intel SoC and that the Xbox Surface is being developed independent of specific hardware architecture. Microsoft's Xbox Surface won't run a full version of Windows, rather this 7-inch tablet will run a custom Windows kernel. Messaging and other tablet functions may be supported, but the focus is on gaming.

Microsoft is said to be operating in strict secrecy on the Xbox Surface project, locking down several buildings on its campus as it apparently brings teams on to develop games and other software for the device. Microsoft is said to also be planning for production of the device to take place at the same dedicated facilities being used for the larger Surface rather than using traditional contract assembly companies like Pegatron or Foxconn.

Following last Friday's launch of the fourth-generation iPad, Apple has apparently already come close to meeting demand for the new device. As noticed by 9to5Mac, Apple is now listing all Wi-Fi models of the new iPad as "in stock" in the company's U.S. online store.

The immediate availability appears to extend to a number of Apple's online stores around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Shipping estimates remain at 3-5 business days in most of Apple's other online stores for countries where the device has launched, but it is not unusual for changes in Apple's shipping estimates to roll out to different regions on slightly different schedules.

The iPad mini remains in short supply, with Apple continuing to quote shipping estimates of two weeks for new orders of Wi-Fi models. Cellular-capable models appear to remain on track, with Apple quoting "Mid November" in the United States and "Late November" in other countries.

Reuters reports that regulators with the European Union are preparing to approve an offer from Apple and four book publishers to settle an antitrust action related to e-book pricing.

Apple, Simon & Schuster, News Corp unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, made the proposal to the European Commission in September.

The move came after the EU antitrust authority opened an investigation into the companies' e-book pricing model, which critics say prevents Amazon and other retailers from undercutting Apple.

Officials in the U.S. and Europe have been taking on Apple and publishers over a shift to an agency model for pricing in which publishers set retail prices for books and distributors such as Apple and Amazon receive a set percentage of the sales price. The model, championed by Apple for the 2010 launch of the iBookstore, was intended to reduce Amazon's dominance in a market where it could purchase books at wholesale prices and sell them at a deep discount to undercut other retailers.

A key part of Apple's agency model was a "most favored nation" clause that prevented publishers from selling books to other retailers at prices lower than those offered to Apple. The clause was intended to prevent Amazon from striking deals to continue undercutting other retailers, but quickly drew criticism and the attention of regulators for potential price collusion effects.

Under concessions offered by Apple and publishers in the European case, Apple's agency model would be significantly unraveled, with Amazon and others being allowed to set their own pricing for books.

Following up on yesterday's report from Bloomberg that has rekindled discussion of Apple potentially making a switch from Intel's processors to custom ARM-based chips for its Mac lines, AllThingsD takes a closer look at the landscape to analyze the benefits and challenges of such a move.

The report contrasts Intel's focus on performance with ARM's focus on power efficiency and notes that there is no inherent reason why Apple couldn't push ARM technology more toward the performance end of the spectrum to make the chips more suitable for desktops and notebooks.

If a company decided it wanted to design an ARM chip that was, as [analyst Nathan] Brookwood put it, “hell-bent on performance,” it could be done. “You could get a pretty fast machine,” he says.

Trouble is, it would have to be not only be fast, but have a really excellent roadmap lasting well into the future that not only met but exceeded that of Intel. That’s a tall, tall order.

The report points to ARM's just-announced 64-bit processor designs as being key to any move into the Mac, and notes that Russian company Elbrus Technologies has developed a Rosetta-like emulation technology that could allow ARM chips to run software written for Intel processors.

On the flip side, Intel has a long track record of being at the forefront of processor performance and a strong history with Apple since the company's Mac lines transitioned from PowerPC chips seven years ago. As a result, any decision to switch from Intel to ARM obviously can not be made lightly, and Apple is clearly taking an extended timeframe to examine the possibility. But with Bob Mansfield now heading up a division of Apple dedicated new technologies in wireless and semiconductors, it seems that there may be a renewed focus on pushing the boundaries of the ARM platform even further.

Apple is considering dropping Intel CPUs in favor of its own chip design, according to a report from Bloomberg. It was rumored last year that Apple was considering switching from Intel to ARM processors in future laptops.

Apple engineers have grown confident that the chip designs used for its mobile devices will one day be powerful enough to run its desktops and laptops, said three people with knowledge of the work, who asked to remain anonymous because the plans are confidential. Apple began using Intel chips for Macs in 2005.

While Apple is now committed to Intel in computers and is unlikely to switch in the next few years, some engineers say a shift to its own designs is inevitable as the features of mobile devices and PCs become more similar, two people said. Any change would be a blow to Intel, the world’s largest processor maker, which has already been hurt by a stagnating market for computers running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software and its failure to gain a foothold in mobile gadgets.

Apple has recently moved away from using off the shelf chips in its iOS devices in recent years, launching its latest A6 and A6X chips based on custom designs. The company has acquired a number of hardware firms to ramp up its expertise in integrated circuit design.

Apple acquired chip designer P.A. Semi in 2008 for $278 million, ARM specialist Intrinsity in 2010, and most recently, Israeli flash memory firm Anobit earlier this year.

Apple first announced its move to Intel processors back in 2005, dropping PowerPC chips because of issues with power consumption and limited availability of high-performance processors.

Research firm IDC today released its preliminary estimates of worldwide tablet shipments for the third quarter of 2012, finding that several Android tablet manufacturers saw very strong growth as Apple stagnated during the lead-up to the iPad mini launch. As a result, Apple's share of the market fell to 50.4% from 59.7% in the year-ago quarter and 68.2% in the second quarter of this year.

"After a very strong second quarter, Apple saw growth slow as both consumer and commercial (including education) shipments declined, and rumors of a forthcoming iPad mini began to heat up," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Tablets at IDC. "We believe a sizeable percentage of consumers interested in buying an Apple tablet sat out the third quarter in anticipation of an announcement about the new iPad mini. Now that the new mini, and a fourth-generation full-sized iPad, are both shipping we expect Apple to have a very good quarter. However, we believe the mini's relatively high $329 starting price leaves plenty of room for Android vendors to build upon the success they achieved in the third quarter."

Second-place Samsung saw its shipments more than quadruple year-over-year and more than double from just the previous quarter. Amazon has also experienced strong growth with the Kindle Fire and its successors, moving rapidly to secure nearly 10% of the market.

Historically, tablet shipment numbers have been viewed as flawed as each new iPad competitor flooded the market with shipments only to see the devices languish on store shelves. But with Samsung, Amazon and others now beginning to establish some track records and momentum in the tablet market, these shipment numbers are likely to be increasingly reflective of customer preference.

Much of the discussion about the iPad mini has centered around the device's display, which reportedly represents 43% of the overall cost of manufacturing. While the display is said to take advantage of new "GF2" technology to allow for a thinner, high-quality display, it does not carry the Retina-level resolution users have become accustomed to in the iPhone and iPad.

DisplayMate's Ray Soneira has now put the iPad mini's display through its paces, publishing a new iPad mini Display Technology Shoot-Out comparing its performance to that of the full-size iPad, as well as Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Google's Nexus 7. Overall, Soneira found that the iPad mini's display is "very capable", but surprisingly falls short of competing devices in a number of areas.

The iPad mini is certainly a very capable small Tablet, but it does not follow in Apple’s tradition of providing the best display, or at least a great display – it has just a very capable display. What’s more, the displays on existing mini Tablets from Amazon and Google outperform the iPad mini in most of our Lab tests as documented below in the Shoot-Out Comparison Table. Some of this results from constraints within the iPad product line, and some to realistic constraints on display technology and costs, but much of it is due to a number of poor choices and compromises.

Among the issues Soneira found with the iPad mini's display:

- Lower resolution: This is obviously not a surprise given the cost and power requirements of putting in a full Retina-level display at 326 pixels per inch (ppi), but the 163 ppi screen of the iPad mini even falls short compared to the 216 ppi displays of the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7.

- Reflectance: The iPad mini's screen reflectance measures at a "surprisingly high" 9.0%, meaning that the iPad mini's display reflects 53% more ambient light than the Nexus 7's display and 41% more than the Kindle Fire HD's screen. Both of the competitors also offer better contrast under high ambient light.

- Color gamut: The iPad mini's color gamut registers at 62%, on par with the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4, but below the 100% figure for latest iPhone and full-size iPad models and below the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 at 86%.

While the iPad mini's display falls short of its larger sibling and more direct competitors on pure specs, Soneira does note that the display holds up fairly well in real-world usage due to excellent calibration and color management processing.

A detailed comparison among the iPad mini, Kindle Fire HD, and Nexus 7 can be found in the table accompanying the report.

In the wake of Apple's move to replace the Google-powered Maps app with its own app in iOS 6, Google has been reported by numerous sources to be working on a standalone version of its service to be submitted to the App Store.

But while Apple has been willing to advertise a number of alternative mapping solutions while it works to improve its own Maps app, The Guardian reports that sources within Google believe it is "unlikely" Apple will approve Google's app for inclusion in the App Store.

Sources at Google familiar with its mapping plans say they are "not optimistic" that Apple will ever approve a dedicated Google Maps iOS app. Though the app is reportedly in development and should be ready to ship by the end of the year, the sources say their plans are only proceeding in "the unlikely event" that Apple will choose to approve the app.

According to sources within Google, who appear to be split as to whether the departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall will improve Google's chances, there is little evidence that Apple is interested in embracing Google-based mapping solutions.

Specifically, they point to the lack of any mapping app in the "Find maps for your iPhone" section of the App Store - accessible only via iPhones or iPads - that use the Google Maps APIs to call wirelessly for location, routing or point-of-interest (POI) data. [...]

Apps such as the free Maps+ app, which uses Google Places APIs and Google Maps tiles to bring Google Maps back to the iPhone, and the £3 app Quick Route, which mashes Google's directions and locations database with Apple's Maps tiles, are noticeably absent from it, even though a Google source says they are the two apps that would give back many of the capabilities lost with the advent of Apple's Maps in iOS 6.

The Google sources reportedly believe that these omissions are deliberate in order to minimize the visibility of Google-based mapping apps, although Apple CEO Tim Cook did mention the web-based version of Google Maps as an alternative in his open letter addressing the Maps issue.

While a number of vendors have been launching unofficial Lightning accessories while Apple works to bring official partners up to speed on the new standard, Belkin today became the first official vendor to introduce accessories using the Lightning connector.

“Belkin was the first third-party manufacturer to develop accessories for the 30-pin connector back in 2003, and we are thrilled to be first to market again with solutions for the new Lightning connector,” said Martin Avila, general manager of Belkin’s core division. “People are eager for Lightning accessories and Belkin’s give them a reliable way to keep their new iPhone 5, iPad 4th generation, iPad mini or iPod touch charged, protected, and ready to go.”

Belkin's first two products include a car charger and a Charge + Sync Dock, each priced at $29.99. Belkin is currently accepting pre-orders for the new accessories, which will begin shipping by November 15.

The car charger is the only one of the two products to actually include a Lightning connector from Belkin, as the dock simply accommodates the standard Lightning to USB cable offered by Apple.