Investors, market observers and mobile device users are all anxiously awaiting the launch of the iPhone 5 and the possible launch of the iPad Mini. While everyone is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next generation iPhone, the price of Apple shares has skyrocketed to new highs. Last Friday, the price of the tech giant’s stock closed at an all time record high. During trading on Friday, the stock increased by over $12 and closed the week at $648.11. Many experts on Wall Street attribute the... 

A judge in California ruled in favor of Hewlett-Packard in a lawsuit over a decision by the Oracle Corporation to end support for certain H.P. manufactured servers.  Oracle decided last March that it would no longer make new versions of its database software compatible with H.P. servers based on Intel Corp.’s Itanium chips.  The servers containing Itanium chips are used mostly by large corporations with rigorous computing needs. Hewlett-Packard accused Oracle of violating a contract when it made... 

On Thursday, the foreign minister of Ecuador announced that the country has agreed to grant asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The announcement defied the threats by the government of Britain to raid the embassy and have Assange extradited back to Sweden. Assange is wanted by Swedish authorities for questioning regarding alleged sexual molestation and rape cases. Richard Patino, the foreign minister said in a long statement that was televised, that Ecuador had decided to give Assange... 

Internet behemoth Google, Inc announced on Monday that it was cutting 4,000 people from the workforce of Motorola Mobility. The job cuts amount to nearly 20% of the entire workforce at Motorola Mobility. The cuts are also the largest that Google has made since its inception. Nevertheless, shares of Google increased by 3% after the news was released. Analysts however are not completely convinced that the job cuts will be enough for Motorola Mobility to right its fortunes. The cell phone maker has... 

Research in Motion has been found liable for $147.2 million in damages for infringing patents held by Mformation Technologies.  Mformation sued RIM in federal court in San Francisco in 2008, accusing it of infringement of two patents.  Mformation is a maker of mobile-device management software.  The software in question is called BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Mformation claimed that during licensing discussions, it had disclosed details of the technology to RIM.  The company said in its complaint... 

A computer analyst says he feels that based on prior models’ sales the new iPhone 5 will sell about 170 million units through the middle of next year. He said that out of the more than 200 million iPhones that should be sold in the next 12 months, the new generation iPhone 5 will account for close to 170 million. The analysts said sales of all iPhones should reach 200 million and that the iPhone 5 will get close to 85% of the total. He arrived at the figures by quoting Phil Schiller the marketing... 

One of Apple’s senior executives has said that Steve Jobs the founder of Apple was willing to have the company design a smaller tablet, says an email that was revealed this Friday. Rumors are that a mini-version of the 10-inch iPad will be made available soon to counter the competition that is starting to make dents in the armor of Apple in the tablet industry. However, no one at Apple has confirmed that a mini is in the works. Eddy Cue a vice president of Apple urged Tim Cook, the then COO in... 

The judge presiding over the legal battle between Samsung and Apple is said to be livid. One of Apple’s attorneys said that a Samsung attorney had issued a press release that aired evidence that was not allowed to be admitted by the judge at the patent infringement trial between the two tech giants. John Quinn, one of the attorneys for Samsung said on Wednesday he did not issue the press release. He said he authorized a specific response to queries made by the press. News of his move was aired... 

The European Commission announced a new set of antitrust proceedings against Microsoft.  The European Commission said that the company  failed to live up to a agreement made three years ago to give users of  Windows software better access to competitors’ Internet browser software.  Microsoft immediately apologized, saying in a statement, “We deeply regret that this error occurred and we apologize for it,” and calling it a technical problem that the company had recently learned of. Microsoft... 

A new court battle between Apple, Inc. and Samsung Electronics, two of the largest technology companies in the world begins on Monday. The latest of many court battles between the two will be one that is closely watched, as it might have huge ramifications over what company will control the tablet and smartphone industry in the United States. Apple sued Samsung alleging the South Korea based electronics giant infringed on Apple’s designs of its iPhones and iPads. Apple has asked the court for damages... 

Yahoo’s quarterly financial report shows that revenue and net income have stalled at last year’s levels.  Yahoo’s revenue from online display ads rose just 2% in the second quarter compared with a year ago, and it continues to lose market share. With 700 million users, Yahoo draws one of the largest audiences on the Web, but some advertisers have been looking elsewhere.  Advertisers have come under financial pressures, prompting many to buy ads cheaply and quickly through auction-based sales... 

Apple’s slow pace of expansion in China has been causing major headaches for the company.  Apple’s stores in China are usually very crowded and customers often have to wait in long lines for repairs for their iPhones. Apple has recently agreed to settle a lawsuit over the iPad trademark by paying Proview Technology $60 million, freeing it to sell its latest tablet computer throughout mainland China.  Apple earns a nearly 20% of its revenue in China. With six stores in China, Apple has more... 

Samsung, the South Korea based electronics giant said its shipments for smartphones number more than 52 million for the recently ended second quarter. That number was more than double the number of iPhones Apple shipped during the same period, according to industry research. Worldwide Samsung shipped the huge quantity of smartphones, which also outpaced the worldwide shipments of Blackberry by Research In Motion, which only made 7.4 million shipments in the same period. Nokia shipped more than 10.2... 

The European Commission of the European Union announced yesterday that it has started an investigation into possible price fixing by 13 makers of optic disk drives. The allegations are that the makers of the drives participated in a cartel around the world. The Commission did not reveal any names of the companies involved in its investigation, but said via a prepared statement that it suspects the 13 companies of conspiring to control the supply of optical disk drives used in computer servers and... 

A hacker from Russian was taken into custody last week in Cyprus for two cyber attacks he is alleged to have performed against Internet giant Amazon.com. Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha was taken into custody by local and international law enforcement officials under a worldwide warrant. He was indicted back in May 2011 for attacking the Internet sites. On Saturday, the indictment was unsealed following the arrest of the Russian computer whiz. The indictment details the hacker attacks, which were denial... 

On Friday, Viacom and DirecTV came to a new seven-year agreement. The agreement makes over 20 million DirecTV subscribers very happy as they will now receive their favorite shows once again. The satellite TV provider reached the agreement to have the shows telecast from Viacom. However, the dispute’s size, scope and high profile could make all future programming battles different. The dispute between the two companies caused more than 20 million subscribers to lose 26 networks for a full nine days.... 

Social-media pioneer Digg, Inc. once considered to be valued at over $160 million is selling for a discounted price of only $500,000, said people familiar with the situation. Betaworks, a technology development company based in New York is buying Diggs. The company said it was attempting a revival of the news-sharing website that was out maneuvered by both Twitter and Facebook. On Thursday, Digg confirmed it had sold its website, technology and brand to Betaworks. The sales price is practically nothing... 

Apple has withdrawn its products from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) certification, which is a program that gives products ratings of gold, silver and bronze classification. The classifications are based on how they stack up against a variety of criteria that is environmentally themed including energy consumption, environmental impact and recyclability. Apple appeared to have taken the program very seriously up until it requested to be removed early in June. Apple, in... 

Yahoo and Facebook have buried the corporate hatchets to settle their lawsuits and have agreed to form a broader partnership for licensing and internet advertising. The agreement settles the technology patents infringement allegations brought against Facebook by Yahoo. The new settlement between the two giants of the internet comes following Scott Thompson’s ouster, the former CEO of Yahoo over some inaccuracies found in his curriculum. The new deal would see Yahoo and Facebook extend and broaden... 

Twitter released its first transparency report Monday and it revealed that the United States leads when it comes to government demands for user data. According to the report, the US government filed 679 requests in the first half of 2012. Twitter said that it has received more government demands for data in the first half of the year than the whole of 2011. In its Transparency Report, Twitter said that it complied with 75 percent of user-data disclosure demands made by the US government. The global... 

On Friday, Apple Inc. was awarded another sales ban against Samsung. A judge in the U.S. ordered South Korean based Samsung Electronics to stop sales of its Nexus smartphone while the an Apple claim is considered by the court over patent infringement. The ban was the second Apple was awarded this week against Samsung. A northern California court said the Nexus smartphone might infringe on four of Apple’s patents, including one used in the voice activated system Siri found on the iPhone 4S. Apple,... 

Microsoft announced plans buy Yammer, a social network service for businesses.  Yammer’s web-based service allows companies to create private social networks where employees can privately chat, shares files, and collaborate on projects.  The purchase is intended to strengthen Microsoft’s enterprise software business and allow the company to compete directly with Salesforce.com.  Microsoft will pay $1.2 billion in cash for the deal. Yammer allows Microsoft to have a proven social networking... 

Oracle’s reported financial results exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.  Oracle’s results indicate that there is still a strong demand for technology that helps companies automate administrative tasks.  Oracle’s chief financial officer, Safra Catz, said that the company did not think investors would mind hearing about a solid quarter amid fears about Europe’s shaky economy and its effect on business conditions. Oracle reported an 8% increase in net income for its fiscal fourth quarter. ... 

A French court dismissed a copyright lawsuit against Google’s YouTube, an online video-sharing platform that lets people post videos to the site.  French television company TF1 filed the lawsuit and had sought €141 million, or $176 million, in damages.  TF1 is the biggest television company in France. The Tribunal de Grande Instance declared that YouTube had made suitably adequate efforts to remove programs like “Heroes” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” for which TF1 owned French broadcasting... 

Research In Motion, the Canadian based maker of Blackberry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet could see its cash dry up and fail, even with the proposed launch of its Blackberry 10 early next year, says Wall Street analysts. The price target for RIM stock was cut by 10 brokerages, some cut it be 50%. This comes a day after RIM reported much worse than expected results from their first quarter and announced it would have to delay the launch of its new Blackberry until sometime in early 2013. Shares...