BTG International has accused several technology giants--including Apple, Dell and Sony--of infringing five patents related to flash memory technology by using chips from Samsung Electronics.

Apple, Microsoft, and 18 other companies are being sued for patent infringement by Texas-based Tsera which claims to have invented the touchpad.

Sources again claim that Apple has a tablet ready to release "in time for the holidays," and will be partnering with Verizon to provide mobile data services and possible subsidies.

Apple said that it has made a US$500 million prepayment to Toshiba for flash memory chips and indicated the market is stabilizing. Intel, which makes flash chips jointly with Micron, is also seeing a recovery in pricing.

An employee at a factory that makes iPhones in China killed himself after a prototype went missing. Apple Inc. offered its condolences Wednesday as the company waits for the results of an investigation.

Foxconn, the contracted iPhone maker for Apple, is manufacturing a 3G version of iPhone tailored to customers in China, disclosed sources familiar with the matter on July 15.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft's COO, told partners during his Worldwide Partner Conference keynote about how Apple's lawyers wanted Microsoft to take down their Laptop Hunter ads.

Fresh rumors from sources claiming to be inside Apple's supply chain suggest that an US$800 tablet-like "netbook" will launch this October.

Apple has touted new HTTP Live Streaming features of the iPhone OS 3.0 and the upcoming Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X—and it has submitted the spec to the IETF. Will it be enough to supplant Flash as the de facto standard for delivering live or on-demand streaming online?

"Contents and services drive sales of devices ... Our No. 1 mission is to raise the software value of our devices," Lee of Samsung's Media Solution Center, said at a conference in Seoul.

Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and others have agreed to adopt a charging standard for "data-enabled" mobile devices based on USB. The current agreement only applies to the European Union, though it is hoped that the standard may be adopted worldwide.

In an oddly uncharacteristic move, Apple has quietly changed the way it is spelling the new iPhone 3GS, which now appears without a space all of Apple's press materials.