The United States Patent and Trademark Office has denied an Apple’s application for a trademark on the term Multi-Touch, applied by the company on January 9, 2007, the day the iPhone was introduced. Receiving deny, Apple appealed to the Appeal Board. The board also refused to grant the trademark, noting that the term "multitouch" has taken on generic meaning, being used by a wide variety of publications to describe the touchscreen technology on Android phones, tablets, and notebooks.

Thus, from the foregoing, we find that “multi-touch” not only identifies the technology, but also describes how a user of the goods operates the device. Based on the evidence discussed above, as well as other evidence in the record, we agree with the examining attorney that MULTI-TOUCH indeed is highly descriptive of a feature of the identified goods. We now consider whether applicant has submitted sufficient evidence to establish acquired distinctiveness of this highly descriptive term.

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Blurred screenshot of PDF file deployed by OSX/Revir.A

Late last week, a new trojan threat has targeted Mac users. It consists of two parts, with the first being a trojan downloader known as "OSX/Revir.A" that downloads and opens a PDF document containing "offensive political statements" written in Chinese, and installs a a backdoor known as OSX/Imuler.A that allows to get access to the user's machine.

When the backdoor is installed, it will set up a launch agent on the system that is used to continually keep the malware active on the system. It will then connect to a remote server and send the system's current username and MAC address to the server, after which the server will instruct it to either archive files and upload them, or take screenshots and upload them to the server.

Apple has quickly responded having updated its malware definitions for Snow Leopard and Lion systems so that they can recognize the trojan.

CNET has also reported that another trojan horse, known as OSX/flashback.A, has been discovered. The new trojan masquerades as a Flash Player installer to trick users into installing the package.

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The fourth fiscal quarter ends on this Saturday, September 24th, and as usual Apple will hold its conference call webcast to announce results, this year on October 18th.

Apple’s conference call webcast discussing Q4 – 2011 financial results will begin at 2:00pm PT/5:00pm ET on Tuesday, October 18, 2011.

Please note that comments made during this call may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. For more information on the factors that could influence results, please refer to Apple’s SEC filings.

In Q3 2011, Apple managed to earn $28.57 billion of revenue with net profit of $7.31 billion, sold 20.34 million iPhones, 9.25 million iPads, and 3.95 million Macs. The previous quarter was record for Apple, especially comparing with the results of the year-ago quarter, when Apple posted revenue of $20.34 billion with 3.89 million Macs, 14.1 million iPhones and 4.19 million iPads sold during the quarter.

JPMorgan analysts have recently predicted that Apple slashed its fourth quarter iPad production plans by 25%, suggesting significant price cut. But The Wall Street Journal believes that such argument is insufficient to make these predictions. Other analysts not that Apple appears to have actually accelerated production ahead of the holiday shopping season. Sources also indicate that Apple plans to begin production of the iPad 3 at the end of the fourth quarter or early in 2012, so accelerating production now, the company tries to ease that transition.

We believe chatter regarding iPad production cuts are misleading – we have seen pull-ins, not cuts. We have noted recent comments by competitors discussing iPad production cuts for 4Q. Our recently published AAPL supply-chain checks noted a sequential decline in 4Q iPad builds from 17 mln-19 mln units in 3Q to 11 mln-13 mln units in 4Q. However, the 4Q sequential decline was accompanied by an increase in 3Q builds, leading us to conclude that production was likely pulled-in from 4Q to 3Q.

Some analysts suggest that the fourth quarter production cuts may be connected with shifting some production to Brazil by the end of the year.

Sources close to Apple’s supply and manufacturing chain (via DigiTimes) say that Apple and other companies from “non-Apple camp” are preparing to manufacture devices with curved glass, mainly touchscreens, in the beginning of 2012.

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9to5Mac reveals features of the "Assistant" voice-powered personal application that will appear on the next-generation iPhone. The site claims that Assistant allows users to handle scheduling, reminder, and messaging tasks by voice. The system will be also capable to ask user questions to clarify what is being said.

The system will actually speak back and forth with the user to gain the most information in order to provide the best results. The user essentially can hold a conversation with their iPhone like it is another human being. For example, if a user is making a meeting with me, they will say “setup meeting with Mark” and the first “bubble” of the conversation thread will say that. After that, the system will speak back: “which e-mail address should Mark be notified at, work or personal?” This question will both be spoken out loud by the iPhone Assistant and shown as a new “bubble” in the conversation thread. The user will then respond with the email address they want to notify me at, and the appointment will be made. The iPhone will even show a quick glance at a calendar view to confirm the appointment. If the Assistant was sending an SMS, as another example, a mini SMS view would appear so the user has a quick glance at the SMS thread.

Assistant will also integrate with WolframAlpha that will help users receive answers to factual, and  "Find My Friends" service and speech-to-text transcription from Nuance. Of course, such power-consuming application will require more powerful hardware, suggesting that Apple will integrate  A5 chip and RAM to 1 GB to support the heavy workload into the new iPhone.

Appleinsider reports that analyst Chris Whitmore from Deutsche Bank is predicting Apple will release two devices next month - a redesigned aluminum unibody iPhone 5 and a low-end iPhone 4S.

The 'iPhone 4S' will have a material cost lower than $150. This will let Apple sell the device for the price between $300 and $350 without a subsidy. The device is described as 8GB iPod touch with a cellular antenna. We've heard these rumors for a long time.

Whitemore also said he expects the iPhone 5 to be a completely redesigned smartphone with an aluminum unibody construction to replace the glass back on the current device. It will have a better camera and slightly larger screen.

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The first hearing over Samsung’s claims that Apple’s iOS devices violate the Samsung’s wireless patents has already begun in The Hague.The Korean company requested to ban Apple’s devices in The Netherlands.

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Such products like iPhone, iPad, Macbook are cool and very popular. Were there any bad products from Apple? Well.. there were a few. Let's take a look at top 5 list of Apple's biggest flops:

Here's how Steve Jobs describes his vision for iCloud during his Q&A session with developers at WWDC 1997.

Well, this is just amazing. Samsung indeed released a phone and a tablet that look similar to Apple's iPhone and iPad. Similar, but not a 100% copy. We cannot say the same about the USB AC power adapter from Galaxy S II. It is almost an exact replica, within a millimeter in every direction. I guess Apple will have one more reasonto ban Samsung products in courts all over the worls. By the way the previous Samsung USB power adapter looked very different.

Take a look at more photos:

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John Paczkowski at AllThingsD claims that the next keynote, where Apple is rumored to announce its next-generation iPhone, will be held on Apple Campus in Cupertino, rather than the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where Apple usually holds its fall media event. We’ve heard various rumors that Apple might work on two iPhone models: completely redesigned device and a minor update unofficially dubbed “iPhone 4S”. It is widely believed the new device will come with iOS 5, pre-installed and ready to be configured with iCloud.

Perhaps, the company felt a more intimate venue was best for newly installed CEO Tim Cook’s first media event. Perhaps YBCA was simply already booked. Whatever the reason, the world will get it’s first look at the next iPhone at Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium in early October.

Apple has already used Town Hall Auditoriumon several occasions to preview upcoming versions of iOS, OS X, Lion, iLife ’11 and announce updated MacBook Air models.

Comcast, the U.S. largest internet and cable provider, plans to release a television streaming service for iPads. The company will compete in this market segment with Time Warner and Cablevision. The details of this product and its release dates haven’t been disclosed until now.

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Electronic Arts iPad games are on sale now. Here is the list of games and prices:

• Scrabble - $9.99 → $2.99
• Risk: The Official Game – $6.99 → $2.99
• Sim City Deluxe - $6.99 → $2.99
• Monopoly – $9.99 → $2.99
• Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition – $9.99 → $2.99
• Shift 2 Unleashed – $4.99 → $2.99
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert – $4.99 → $2.99
• Max and the Magic Marker – $2.99 → $0.99

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Apple has joined the Digital Due Process coalition, which is focused on pressing Congress to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

ECPA was passed by Congress in 1986, before the World Wide Web was even invented and when cell phones were still a rarity. Yet to this day, ECPA is the primary law governing how and when law enforcement can access personal information and private communications stored by communications providers like Google, Facebook, your cell phone company or your ISP.

The aim of the Digital Due Process group is to "simplify, clarify, and unify the ECPA  standards, providing stronger privacy protections for communications and associated data in response to changes in technology and new services and usage patterns, while preserving the legal tools necessary for government agencies to enforce the laws, respond to emergency circumstances and protect the public." Digital Due Process highlights email, mobile location, cloud computing and social networking as new technologies that need to be included in the law. Other coalition members include Amazon, Intel, AT&T, Google and many more.