MacRumors

Engadget points to a growing thread in Apple's discussion forums documenting an issue in which users on pre-iOS 4 devices are unable to purchase or download apps from the App Store on their devices. The issue appears to have started on December 16th with a change in the way Apple is serving App Store content to the devices.

Whenever I go into a specific app in the app store, none of the buttons work properly.

1) clicking on the price no longer downloads the app,
2) the ratings button does nothing,
3) the 'tell a friend' and 'git this app' buttons jump back to the top of the app window,
4) pictures usually don't show up. They usually appear as five gray rectangular boxes with white borders (though in one app one too-large-for-the-window picture shows up (see pic),
5) the 'app support' button still goes to the developer's website.
6) the 'top in-app purchases' banner is just text now.

Users are reportedly having difficulty convincing Apple support staff that the issue on Apple's end, with support staff so far only suggesting a range of potential solutions that could help address device issues but which have proven unsuccessful for affected users.

Given the display anomalies experienced by affected users, it seems likely that the issue is a bug on Apple's end rather than any sort of planned obsolescence of pre-iOS 4 operating systems and devices by cutting off App Store access. For the time being, affected users can still download apps via iTunes on their computers and then sync them to their devices. It is unknown when Apple might roll out a fix for the on-device App Store access problems.

The original iPhone and first-generation iPod touch do not support iOS 4 and are thus limited to a maximum of iOS 3.1.3. Other users of devices such as the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod touch have elected not to upgrade to iOS 4 for a number of reasons, most commonly due to complaints over those devices becoming more sluggish with the upgrade to iOS 4.

Update: Engadget now reports that the issue has been fixed. Readers in our forums have been reporting mixed results over the past few hours, with some seeing improvement while others were still having difficulty fairly recently.

While Apple and Samsung remain locked in a war involving numerous lawsuits related to alleged patent and design infringement in their tablet and smartphone products, Apple has now brought cases for the devices into the mix. As reported by Bloomberg, Apple disclosed during an Australian court hearing that it has sent a notice of infringement to Samsung over the company's tablet and smartphone cases, and will be pursuing legal action.

Apple Inc., which on Dec. 9 lost a bid to keep Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy 10.1 tablet out of Australia, claims the case for the device and cases for Samsung phones infringe its patents and registered design.

Apple issued the notice of infringement to Samsung in Australia over the cases, and will file a statement of claim, Apple’s lawyer Stephen Burley said at a hearing in Sydney today. Samsung’s lawyer Katrina Howard said at the same hearing the company was served with the notice that the cases infringe at least 10 patents.

It is unclear exactly what Samsung cases Apple is targeting with its new infringement claims.

Samsung did, however, find itself amid controversy earlier this year after accessory company Anymode offered a "Smart Case" for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that closely resembled the iPad 2 Smart Cover. While the product initially appeared to carry Samsung's stamp of approval and came from a company with familial connections to Samsung, a blog post issued by Samsung quickly clarified that the product was not in fact approved by Samsung and was immediately pulled before it had begun selling.

But given that the Smart Case was not directly produced by Samsung, it does not seem that Apple's claims of infringement would relate to that product. Samsung currently offers several styles of cases for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and it is not immediately clear which designs Apple might consider to be infringing upon its own case designs.

Update: Samsung has released an official statement on the issue, noting that the term "case" was misinterpreted in early media reports as referring to protective case accessories. In fact, the term was referring to the external design of the devices themselves.

We would like to clarify that the additional claims filed by Apple in Australia do not relate to protective case accessories, as has been indicated in some media reports. In fact, the intellectual property asserted are patents related to the utility of mobile devices and design rights related to the external appearance of devices.

We are confident we can demonstrate that the GALAXY range of devices is innovative and distinctive, and will take all available measures to ensure our products remain available to consumers in Australia.

Just hours after we reported that Apple appeared to have begun shipping out current-generation iPod nanos as replacements for recalled first-generation units, users are beginning to report in that they are indeed receiving the current models.

Just received our replacement today - Fedex truck pulled up late in the evening. Inside was our replacement for our 1st gen ipod nano that was sent into Apple 1 month ago.

It's a 6th generation ipod nano, serial number shows that warranty has expired. Not sure if that means that it's a refurbished model or if it's a brand new model and they've deactivated the warranty. It's silver.

Apple had initially been issuing refurbished first-generation models to replace the recalled first-generation units at risk of overheating. But it appears that the company has run out of spare first-generation units and is now supplying users with current-generation units as replacements.

Apple initially launched the iPod nano in 2 GB and 4 GB capacities priced at $199/$249 back in September 2005, adding a $149 1 GB model a few months later. The device utilized a click wheel for navigation and contained a 1.5-inch screen for displaying the standard iPod software interface. Battery life was advertised at 14 hours of music playback and four hours of photo slideshows with music.

The current iPod nano is less than half the size of the original iPod nano and utilizes a 1.5-inch touch screen with software skinned to look like iOS. It is available in 8 GB ($129) and 16 GB ($149) capacities and offers up to 24 hours of music playback.

While Apple has long offered a "Complete My Album" feature in the iTunes Store to allow users who have previously purchased individual tracks to upgrade to the full album at a discounted price reflecting their single-track purchases, users have not had the flexibility of a similar option for TV shows.

That appears to have changed this week with the addition of a "Complete My Season Pass" feature now available in the iTunes Store. When logged in and viewing an iTunes Store page listing for a single season of a TV show, the Season Pass purchase price will be reduced by the amount of previous single-episode purchases, allowing users to upgrade to the full season without having to essentially repurchase the episodes they had previously acquired individually.

Season passes for TV shows typically come at a significant discount compared to buying each episode of the season individually. Consequently, the new Complete My Season Pass feature should offer users who find themselves having already purchased several episodes of a season and wishing to upgrade to the full season a way to save some money.

(Thanks, Charles!)

Israeli newspaper Calcalist reports [Google translation] that Apple has finalized its previously-rumored acquisition of flash memory firm Anobit, with company executives having gathered employees to share the news. According to the report, Apple is paying $400-500 million for the Israeli firm.

The article also claims that Apple has confirmed plans to open a research and development arm in Israel, the company's first outside of the United States. Apple has reportedly hired Israeli technology executive Aharon Aharon to lead the initiative.

Anobit specializes in signal-processing technique that improve the performance and reliability of flash memory. The company's technology is reportedly already being used in a number of Apple products including the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air.

Last month, Apple announced a worldwide replacement program for the first-generation iPod nano due to continuing issues with overheating related to defective batteries from one of Apple's suppliers.

While some users began receiving their replacement units, which apparently came through as like-new refurbished first-generation units, almost immediately, many other users have been complaining of slow turnaround time for either receiving shipping boxes for returning their defective iPods or receiving the replacement units from Apple. According to reports from users who have corresponded with Apple support staff about the delays, the company has been experiencing shortages of boxes and other items necessary to complete the replacement process.

It now appears, however, that Apple may have run out of refurbished first-generation iPod nano units and may now be shipping out current-generation units as replacements. Several users have reported over the past few days that they have received emails acknowledging shipment of their replacement device's and checking the serial numbers of the replacement devices on Apple's support site has shown them to be sixth-generation models. The sixth-generation iPod nano was originally released in September 2010, and while the line received a price drop and software update a few months ago, Apple still considers the current iPod nano to be a sixth-generation model.

We have not yet received word from any users who have received the sixth-generation iPod nano units as replacements, and thus it remains possible that the serial numbers are simply registering incorrectly in Apple's support database. While we are waiting for confirmation on the possible upgrade, several users have indicated that their shipments are due to be delivered this Wednesday.

Bloomberg reports on comments from money manager Howard Ward claiming that Apple is preparing to begin offering a "significant" dividend to its shareholders early next year.

“We’re going to see a dividend announced for Apple at some point in the first half of 2012,” Ward, a money manager who helps oversee about $36.1 billion for Gamco Investors Inc., said in an interview today with “Street Smart” on Bloomberg Television. “That could easily be a 3 percent dividend-yielding stock or even higher.”

Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, declined to comment.

The basis of Ward's claim is unclear, but Apple CEO Tim Cook has signaled increased willingness to consider alternative uses for Apple's growing cash hoard.

Apple began offering a quarterly dividend to investors in mid-1987, but canceled it at the end of 1995 as the company foundered. With the return of Steve Jobs, the company was eventually able to turn itself around and become one of the world's largest companies, but has so far been unwilling to offer dividends again, opting instead to hold onto its profits for its own uses.

Apple has argued that its significant cash hoard gives it the ability to make major long-term deals for components at favorable terms, as well as putting the company in a position for a major strategic acquisition should the right opportunity surface. But with Apple's cash and investments now topping $80 billion, calls for the company to return some of that money to shareholders have been on the rise. And if Ward's claim is correct, it appears that Apple under Tim Cook may now agree with that sentiment.

The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled in favor (PDF) of Apple in a patent dispute with Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC. The commission found that a number of HTC devices violate two claims related to an Apple patent. As a result of the decision, an actual ban on the importation of some HTC devices goes into effect in April of 2012.

Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents on the decision:

What Apple has won is a formal import ban scheduled to commence on April 19, 2012, but relating only to HTC Android phones implementing one of two claims of a "data tapping patent": a patent on an invention that marks up phone numbers and other types of formatted data in an unstructured document, such as an email, in order to enable users to bring up other programs (such as a dialer app) that process such data. The import ban won't relate to HTC Android products that don't implement that feature, or that implement it in ways not covered by those patent claims.

Mueller goes on to note that it is possible for Google to implement the feature in a way that doesn't violate Apple's patents, which would render the ban meaningless. However, it does give Apple a bigger bargaining chip in its many lawsuits against Android manufacturers.

According to the decision (PDF), the patent being infringed is:

- U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 on a "system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data."

This ruling echoes an earlier one by an ITC judge from July in the same case.

The United States International Trade Commission is an independent federal agency that, among other things, adjudicates cases involving imports that allegedly infringe intellectual property rights." It has the power, in rare cases, to ban infringing products from the country entirely.

Update: In a statement given to BGR, HTC says it is "well prepared for this decision, and our designers have created alternate solutions for the ‘647 patent."

AT&T announced today that the company would end its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA.

The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.

The acquisition intention was announced back in March, 2011. Under the original terms of the deal, AT&T would have paid $39 billion in cash and stock. The deal, however, was heavily criticized in an analysis by Federal regulators who believed that the merger would limit competition in virtually every U.S. city and lead to higher prices for customers.

AT&T now owes T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom $3 billion in cash plus $1 billion in spectrum (at market rates) as a breakup fee for the failure of the merger. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T's bottom line will not feel the full brunt of the cost because it should be fully tax deductible, meaning the cash hit of the breakup fee would be closer to $1.5-$1.8 billion.

While T-Mobile USA has yet to officially offer the iPhone due to an inability to reach an agreement with Apple on the development of new hardware to support T-Mobile's 3G/4G network standards, that hasn't stopped the carrier from quietly targeting iPhone owners with micro-SIM cards and over one million users from taking their unlocked iPhones to the carrier.

Those users have, however, been limited to T-Mobile's slower EDGE network due to the iPhone's incompatibility with the 1700/2100 MHz bands used by the carrier for its faster data networks.

TmoNews now reports, however, that T-Mobile USA has begun refarming some of its spectrum capacity in order to advance its next-generation HSPA+ 84 network, with those changes resulting in the carrier's 3G network moving over to the iPhone-accessible 1900 MHz band in some "pockets" of the country.

First and foremost, the area we’re specifically talking about is Nevada as that is where this individual unlocked iPhone owner lives. However, Nevada, parts of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest are also seeing some pockets of 1900MHz spectrum refarming for HSPA+. There are other parts of the country T-Mobile can refarm the 1900MHz spectrum but, the focus is on the Pacific Northwest, Nevada, Utah and California for right now from what we’re told. We should emphasize and emphasize greatly that this post does not mean that all of the aforementioned areas are seeing this refarmed spectrum, just pockets inside those areas.

The report notes that T-Mobile iPhone user access to 3G will remain "rare" as the spectrum refarming will only result in the required transition taking place in limited areas around the country. But for those users lucky enough to be in one of those pockets, they are already seeing data speeds well above what the iPhone has until been limited to on the carrier's EDGE network.

The New York Post reports that a sting conducted by the New York Police Department last week targeting vendors suspected of selling stolen iPhones resulted in 141 arrests as the city works to cut down the market feeding on such thefts. According to the report, undercover officers approached workers at over 600 locations suspected of participating in sales of stolen iPhones and offered the devices to workers at low prices while stating that they had been stolen from their owners.

Undercover NYPD officers sold the electronics to merchants at more than 600 stores around the five boroughs this week — asking from $50 to $200 for iPhone 4s and iPad 2s — after clearly stating the popular gadgets were stolen, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

The sting — which nabbed clerks and workers at businesses such as supermarkets, barbershops, pawnshops and bodegas — began Tuesday and continued through yesterday.

“That’s our intention, to reduce the places where people who steal these things can go and sell them,” said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. “If someone is offering you an iPad for way below market value, you have to realize that it’s most likely stolen.”

iPhones are popular targets for thieves in New York and elsewhere, with an officer in one New York precinct reporting that in some months more than half of the reported robberies involve an iPhone.

The popularity of Apple's devices has not only driven an active market in thefts and resales of the stolen property, but also in counterfeiting. Apple has been targeting vendors selling counterfeit Apple products in New York City and elsewhere, seeking to shut down those companies making unauthorized profits on Apple's name with knockoff products.

The New York Times reports on Apple's and Google's efforts to develop wearable computers with the aim of augmenting their existing mobile product lines. In addition to peripheral devices that could communicate with a user's iPhone or iPod, Apple is said to also being looking at ways to make the device's themselves wearable, moving beyond the current iPod nano's wristwatch-like functionality when paired with third-party wristbands.

Apple has also experimented with prototype products that could relay information back to the iPhone. These conceptual products could also display information on other Apple devices, like an iPod, which Apple is already encouraging us to wear on our wrists by selling Nanos with watch faces.

A person with knowledge of the company’s plans told me that a “very small group of Apple employees” had been conceptualizing and even prototyping some wearable devices.

One idea being discussed is a curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist; people could communicate with the device using Siri, the company’s artificial intelligence software.

Last year, Apple hired wearable computing expert Richard DeVaul to work on prototyping concepts in a secret lab under the direction of Jony Ive. DeVaul spent only 18 months at Apple, however, before moving on to Google where he is presumably working on similar projects.

The Wall Street Journal provides some of the first hints about Apple's internal television project. While rumors of such a project have been ongoing for years, there has been a renewed interest in it since Steve Jobs described having "finally cracked" the TV interface in his recently released biography.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has been in ongoing discussions with media executives at several large companies about their vision for the future of TV. Apple's Senior Vice President Eddy Cue is reported to have outlined new ways Apple's technology could be used across phones, tablets and TVs. The overall concept, however, remains rather vague. It seems that Apple has discussed a number of possibilities with executives, but stopping well short of outlining their exact vision.

Of course, voice and movement controls have been suggested, though in a long term view:

In at least one meeting, Apple described future television technology that would respond to users' voices and movements, one of the people said. Such technology, which Apple indicated may take longer than some of its other ideas, might allow users to use their voices to search for a show or change channels.

Beyond that, Apple's TV plans seem to revolve around wireless streaming technology to access shows and movies. The use of Apple's AirPlay technology could allow users to control the device from their iPhone and iPad, possibly eliminating the need for a set top box. As an example, users could watch video on their TV and then move over to their iPhone or iPad seemlessly. Other sources indicate that Apple has worked on integrating DVR storage and iCloud into their future TV device.

The question of what content will be shown on the new device remains up in the air. Apple is not said to have pursued the necessary content deals at this time, though have considered the possibility of licensing content directly to create a subscription-TV service. Steve Jobs, himself, was reportedly part of these early talks as far back as 2010.

Apple's ongoing secrecy should come as no surprise. We've previously reported that competitors are already "scrambling" to react to Apple's rumored entry into the television market.