Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of a patent licensing company Interval Licensing, has filed a suit against 11 companies, including Apple, over several patents related to Web search technologies and e-commerce.

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The Yerba Buena is full of preparations for Apple’s upcoming Special Event for the media on September 1^st. Now the huge banner proudly shows the same Apple guitar that was printed on the invitations sent earlier this week.

The image has given rise to much speculation in the Internet community, and now there are rumors that Apple is going to be releasing new Apple TV with rental services, new iPods and many other devices.

We’ll know it all on September 1^st at 10 am Pacific Time!

The Japan Sumo Association has carried out their decision to hand out 60 iPads to 51 wrestling club in the country. The idea was to improve communication between the wrestlers themselves and the sports body. The Association decided that the wrestlers’ fingers weren’t small enough for ordinary mobile phones and that iPads might help them not to miss the information sent by fax or phone – something that had often happened before.

However, first of all the Association’s princely gesture was aimed at making amends after some scandals that involved gangsters, match-fixing and illegal gambling. Sumo came under harsh criticism for the lack of investigation and control, which was partly due to poor communication.

The iPod touch 4G is most probably going to change its shape. The back of the device will be neither flat glass, like for the iPhone 4, nor is it going to be a curved surface, like a dome.

The anonymous source claims that the shape is going to be

Familiar. Think of the top of a MacBook Pro, only smaller, which is to say flat rather than curved at the center—closer to the look of the first-generation iPod touch’s back, only with modifications. The rear camera is there, but there is still some question as to whether what’s next to it will be a LED flash like the one in the iPhone 4, or a microphone like the one next to the video camera of the iPod nano. We’ve been told to expect a microphone rather than a flash, with a continuation of the bottom-mounted headphone port and Dock Connector port.

The new iPod touch is going to be announced at the Special Event on September 1^st.

It became known that this morning at 4:20 a.m. one of the Apple’s stores situated in San Diego, California, was robbed. The thieves were dressed in jeans and hoodies. They did it at night and stole a dozen of iPhones.

According to 10News, two guys were involved in the burglary. They robbed the store, which is located in a shopping center of San Diego. According to preliminary estimates, they stole 12 iPhone 4s and 3GS’, which were displayed there.

They smashed the glass door into small pieces, as you can see in the photo.

The investigation has already started, but there are no reports yet about who was involved in the robbery. It is strange that the guys have not taken any other device. Were they looking just for the iPhone is 4 and 3GS?

Apple on Thursday seeded with developers the third beta of Mac OS X 10.6.5, its latest security and maintenance update for Snow Leopard, with just one known issue.People familiar with the latest build, reportedly known as 10H531, said the lone issue is associated with VMware. Having it installed can cause USB devices to not work when the Mac is awoken from sleep mode.

Those same people said Apple has asked developers to focus on a few key areas for the latest beta, including iCal, Mail, USB Devices, QuickTime, Time Machine and 3D graphics. The delta update is said to be a 557MB download.

Regular Mercedes-Benz tuner Brabus today showed off a special package for the S600 that gives it an Apple-focused mobile office. The S600 iBusiness package gives the two rear seats an iPad each as well as a 64GB iPod touch. Both of the iPads can not only be used for work but can control the car's audio, navigation and phone systems.
A Mac mini is shared by both with a central 15.2-inch LCD and two breakout USB ports in the rear to attach peripherals. Brabus provides one mouse but two Apple Wireless Keyboards to let either passenger control the Mac, and the entire rear seat electronics can reach the Internet on the road.

And it's all built into a car that goes from 0 to 62 in 4.0 seconds, with a top speed of 211 miles per hour, runs on a 750HP. There's leather everywhere, wood trim, color-changing interior lighting, LED running lights outside, the sport steering wheel.

Brabus doesn't give a price, but the car itself (without any options) starts around $150k.

Apple’s recent deal with Liquidmetal Technologies will give it access to the most advanced manufacturing machinery on the planet. And probably Apple will soon start experimenting with a new machine.

• It may allow Apple to make advanced iPhone antennas and seamless gadget cases with holographic logos cast right into the metal.
• Made for the aerospace industry, it would have undergone several rounds of cutting, milling, drilling, threading, deburring, routing and sandblasting. Instead, the part was cast in one operation and requires no further processing.
• The alloys, also known as bulk metallic glasses, are as strong as titanium but use only one-third of the material. It can be mixed with very small amounts of precious metals to make jewelry-like finishes, or optimized for functions such as an antenna. Liquidmetal is scratch and corrosion proof, and resistant to greasy marks. You get fingerprints all over them and they just disappear.

As stated previously, case images for the upcoming iPod nano have leaked on the Internet, and they show that it is going to be a very small square device with a touchscreen.

The cases for the next generation of iPod touch and iPod nano models were manufactured by a Chinese company X-Doria, and the images were obtained from a Chinese website.

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Yesterday Facebook released some astonishing statistic results showing an astronomical number of monthly active users – over 100 million on iPhones, almost 60 million on BlackBerry and 12 million on the Android client. However, double-checking, these numbers seem a little bit strange: can there really be more than 100 million iPhone users, when by June 2010 only 100 million iOS devices had been sold, and this includes the iPod touch, iPad and iPhone? Turns out, the explanation is just in the definition of “active”. Here’s how a Facebook spokesman accounted for the figures:

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Netflix has finally released their updated application to support both the iPod Touch and iPhone, as well as the iPad. It is now available at the App Store.

Get Netflix on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.

• It's part of your Netflix unlimited membership. Not a Netflix member? Start your FREE trial today.
• Watch as often as you want
• Resume watching where you left off on your TV or computer
• Browse movies and manage your instant Queue right from your device

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iLounge states that the Chinese website has new cases for iPod touch and iPod Shuffle. We have already seen retina cases for iPod touch with a hole for the camera, but it seems that new cases for iPod Shuffle/Nano show us that they are ideal for 1.8-inch screen devices by Apple.

According to iLounge, 1.8-inch screen will be touchscreen and on its sides or back panel we can find control buttons.

If we look at the iPhone 4 and Galaxy S, we’ll see a big difference between them. No, we're not talking about iOS against Android 2.1. We are talking about batteries: one of them is removable, and the other is not - guess which one? Although today you can find a lot of accessories that offer incredible opportunity to recharge your favorite devices.

If you do not want to bring bulky chargers or extra batteries, then you should pay attention to Mili PowerSpring 4.

So, it is the latest and one of the first cases designed for iPhone 4 with an expanded space for the battery. Mili PowerSpring 4 is available at $ 54.99 (or $ 85 on Amazon). It is said to be the thinnest battery for iPhone 4 in the whole world, sporting 1600mAh capacity.

The recently released application MiTime for the iPhone 4 fixes and activates FaceTime on unlocked iPhone 4s that run on T-Mobile USA or other unofficial unsupported carriers. According to the MiTime’s description, it should work with almost any carrier in the world. You should be able to receive international SMS messages to activate FaceTime via MiTime.

The application MiTime sends two international SMS messages for activation, so it can not be free. Thus, until there is no other way to activate FaceTime on unlocked iPhone 4s, this is the only way with an affordable price.

More information and tutorial is here.

Apple on Wednesday invited members of the media to its annual media-centric keynote, where it is expected to introduce new iPods and an updated Apple TV, set for Sept. 1 in San Francisco, Calif.

The event will be held next Wednesday and will start at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, 1 p.m. Eastern, and will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Alluding to the music-themed nature of the event, the invitation includes an acoustic guitar with a sound hole in the shape of an Apple logo.