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The lovely thing about advertising is that most of it is forgettable.

Which makes the task of remembering the very good and the very bad at the end of the year much, much easier.

The best, most certainly, is barely even a contest. As the spittle flew in court between Apple and Samsung, the latter had some very clever ad people produce ads that, at last, began not only to improve Samsung's own image, but also to dent Apple's.

Indeed, from the Super Bowl onward, Samsung relentlessly pressed Apple on its cultism, its allegedly sheep-like following and its, … Read more

Key Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is reportedly at work on some "initial testing" on Apple TV sets, according to a new report.

Citing a source at Hon Hai (otherwise known as Foxconn), Focus Taiwan says the manufacturer is at work on some early testing of TV sets that range between 46 and 55 inches.

The report comes a week after similar claims from The Wall Street Journal that work had begun on an Apple TV set as part of a partnership between Sharp and Hon Hai.

As for timing, Focus Taiwan's source says the production schedule hints … Read more

The original iPhone has finally won a patent for Apple nearly six years after its debut.

Granted yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent is actually for the design of the phone, specifically "the ornamental design of an electronic device."

In addition to Apple design guru Jony Ive and the late Steve Jobs, other people credited for the invention are Bartley Andre, Daniel Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Richard Howarth, Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Rohrbach, Douglas Satzger, Calvin Seid, Christopher Stringer, Eugene Whang, and Rico Zorkendorfer.

The original iPhone was unveiled by Jobs in … Read more

Shipments of 4G LTE smartphones will triple next year, research firm Strategy Analytics predicts.

The research firm sees shipments rising to 275 million next year from this year's 91 million, a rise of 203 percent resulting in a record year for LTE phone vendors. Companies that stand to benefit the most include Apple, Samsung, and LG, with the iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3 among the most popular handsets.

But other vendors will participate in the LTE push, such as Nokia, HTC, Motorola, Blackberry, Huawei, ZTE, and Pantech. Growth in LTE smartphones will be driven by demand in … Read more

Worries over Apple's apparent cutting back on parts orders for the iPhone 5 are nothing to worry about, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz.

In an investor note today, Moskowitz points out that recent reports have indicated a 20 percent cut in Apple's March-quarter supply chain orders for the iPhone 5. That news has some analysts fretting over Apple's near-term prospects, but Moskowitz believes their fears are overblown.

Though the analyst can't confirm the specific reason for the cut, he believes it might simply have resulted from an improvement in production. Apple may have … Read more

It's been a busy week for Apple and Samsung, and there's still much more action expected.

The most recent move was a pair of orders late Monday that put the kibosh on Samsung's attempt to get a retrial, as well as Apple's bid for a ban a number of Samsung devices. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh shot down both efforts.

What's left -- with this trial, at least -- is a judgement on damages: the amount Samsung needs to pay Apple, and one that's hotly contested by both sides. Apple wants to … Read more

Believe it or not, few in the business of suing people for patent infringement or defending against patent suits believe 2012 brought more patent litigation than any other year.

That's right. The tech industry is worked into a lather about something that's always been a problem and probably always will be a problem. Despite Facebook's giant initial public offering, the heated and often entertaining competition among smartphone makers, and Microsoft's new operating system, one story dominated them all this year: the U.S. patent system.

So why are people so upset?

Let's start with this: … Read more

A surge of people adopted Apple's iOS 6 since last week, but it has been months since the latest operating system was released.

This growth in iOS 6 upgrades may not be as random as it sounds. According to TechCrunch, which got data from mobile ad exchange MoPub, iOS adoption has bumped 30 percent since Google Maps released its app for iOS. MoPub surveys more than 1 billion ad impressions a day across more than 12,000 different apps and got its data from seeing users upgrade to iOS 6.

"We observed since the launch of Google Maps … Read more

Apple's iPhone does not infringe on a sensor patent held by Motorola Mobility, a judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission said today.

In an initial determination, ITC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender said Apple's iPhone did not infringe on a patent covering proximity sensor technology, because the main claim in that patent is invalid.

The ruling is preliminary and needs to be approved by the ITC's full six-member commission.

"We're disappointed with this outcome and are evaluating our options," a Motorola representative told Bloomberg, which reported the news Tuesday afternoon.

The spat … Read more