Monday, August 8, 2011

Apple : Apple sued over OS X Fast Boot feature

Apple : Apple sued over OS X Fast Boot feature

Apple sued over OS X Fast Boot feature

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 07:29 AM PDT

No rest for Apple's lawyers, with yet another patent infringement case filed against the company, this time relating to Mac OS X's fast boot feature.

The patent, which relates to the quick start-up of the OS, is owned by a company called Operating Systems Solutions (OSS), but the original owner that the patent was granted to was LG Electronics.

The patent involves "a method for fast booting a computer system" comprising of several specific steps.

It's very likely that the OSS suit is simply a case of patent trolling – companies bringing a case against a competitor despite having no real intention to make use of the technology themselves, just hoping to cash in.

Trolled

But the existence of LG somewhere along the line is what makes it interesting; LG is one of the few manufacturers that aren't currently directly embroiled in a patent dispute with Apple.

The company is a staunch Android supporter, having enjoyed reasonable success with its LG Optimus line of Android-running smartphones and tablets; in this free and easy patent suing time, it's not beyond the realms of possibilities that this lawsuit could be a stealth attack on LG's part.

But at this point, there's no evidence to suggest that LG is involved in the lawsuit in any way, other than having once owned the patent.

Apple is currently fighting off and launching patent lawsuits against Samsung, HTC and Google.

Updated: Apple to launch updated low-spec iMac for students?

Posted: 08 Aug 2011 06:42 AM PDT

The latest word on Apple Street is that a new cut-down iMac is in the offing as part of the company's education scheme.

Updated: Apple has unveiled the official tech specifications for the 21.5-inch iMac, with the mooted 3.1GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and AMD Radeon 6750M processor intact. Looks like these puppies will be getting a UK release date of 'Late 2011'; no word yet on pricing.

The rumoured iMac is said to rock a 3.1GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB hard drive and an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor.

That's not much processing power or storage space compared to the current lowest-end consumer iMac, but debt-laden students and struggling university lecturers may be willing to sacrifice on spec for a cheap deal.

Bargain basement

Apple's last education iMac deals started at £880, so we'd be anticipating a similar kind of deal for these updated version - but with the quad-core iMac coming in at around £990, you'll only be saving around £100 for a severely reduced machine.

9to5Mac's anonymous source tips the new desktops as arriving later this month, citing 16 August as the scheduled 'soft launch' date.

Given that the new academic year will start in September in the UK, that timing makes sense to us.

rumourometer
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