Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of US$73.7 billion. Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at US$76.4 billion.

The next generation of solar cells may be printed on ordinary paper.

Samsung Electronics, maker of the Galaxy mobile phone, may have surpassed Nokia and Apple in smartphone sales for the first time on demand for devices that run on Android software, a research company said.

The iPhone 4's super-crisp Retina Display will not remain an Apple exclusive, according to LG Display chief executive Kwon Young-soo

As of the end of June 2011, it had US$76 billion in cash and investments. No tech company has more.

Japanese consumer electronics giant Sharp Corporation and Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Ltd - more famously known for its subsidiary Foxconn which manufactures some of the world's most popular products including the iPhone and iPad for Apple, as well as the Playstation 3 (PS3) for Sony - have joined forces to cut the costs of LCD TV panel supply. Both parties hope that this alliance will enable them to compete more effectively against South Korean rivals like Samsung and LG.

That Apple is making a follow-up to the iPad 2 is no surprise. That it might be sourcing one of the most important components from a company it's currently involved in a massive legal spat with makes for an interesting story.

Samsung Electronics and LG Display, the world's two largest makers of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), are close to securing big orders from Apple, industry sources said.

TSMC has begun trial manufacturing of next generation chips for Apple's mobile devices, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

Apple originally asserted 10 of its patents against HTC in March 2010, and the judge ruled today that HTC infringed on two patents, according to an HTC statement.

The news comes just weeks after Apple and Samsung accused each other of copying designs and technology.

South Korean consumer electronics giant LG Electronics has slashed its forecast for 2011 smartphone sales as the company struggles to compete against aggressive giants like HTC, Samsung and Apple.

FBR Capital analyst Craig Berger asserted in a research note that OmniVision could be at risk of losing its status as the dominant provider of image sensors for the Apple iPhone.

Chipmaker Wolfson Microelectronics has lost a quarter of its value after it warned on profits after customers sold fewer products than expected and delayed new launches. The company supplies chips for smartphones and tablets for the likes of Samsung, LG and Research in Motion (but crucially, not Apple).

Judge E. James Gildea found that Apple infringes US Patent No. 6,658,146 directed to systems and methods for compressing images and US Patent No. 6,683,978 directed to image data formats, both of which belong to S3 Graphics. In the industry, that technology is known as S3 Texture Compression (S3TC).

Shares of Taiwan's HTC are up more than 15% this year as the company cashes in on Android. Investors might be wise to seek out international funds that own the stock.

TSMC may first appear, in the fourth quarter, as a second-source supplier of the A5 processor, according to Gus Richard, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, who wrote about this in a research note last month and still maintains this outlook. Then TSMC would take on the next-gen A6.

"Common sense suggests that allegations of copying are necessarily directed at Apple's existing products, to which Samsung has access and could potentially mimic," said US District Court Judge Lucy Koh, "and not at Apple's unreleased, inaccessible, next-generation products."

Texas Instruments has agreed to license two patents from Eolas Technologies, which two years ago sued more than 20 companies for alleged patent infringement including TI, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Amazon.com.

Apple ramped up the rhetoric in its patent infringement battle with Samsung on Thursday, filing an amended complaint that includes more allegedly infringing devices and stronger accusations that the company copied the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad.