Apple Loses Appeal in Samsung Case: Two Patents Ruled Invalid, $120 Million Verdict Overturned

The long-running dispute between Apple and Samsung continues, with an appeals court today handing the Cupertino-based company a defeat by invalidating two Apple patents and ruling a third had not been infringed by Samsung (via Bloomberg). The ruling, which covers Apple patents related to slide-to-unlock, autocorrect, and interactive phone number features, also threw out the original $119.6 million in damages Apple had been awarded in the case.

In addition, Apple’s guilty verdict from nearly two years ago has been upheld: the company still has to pay $158,400 for violating Samsung’s patent describing an “apparatus for recording and reproducing digital image and speech.” Regarding the three operating system features Apple attempted to validate, the court ruled that Apple’s claim for Samsung’s patent infringement was “invalid.”

In this case, Apple claimed that Samsung infringed patents for the slide-to-unlock feature, autocorrect and a way to detect phone numbers that can then be touched to make phone calls. The autocorrect patent is invalid and the detection patent wasn’t infringed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in an opinion posted on its electronic docket. The court upheld the jury’s verdict that two other Apple patents, for universal search and background syncing, weren’t infringed.

In a separate court battle over patent infringements, last December Samsung decided to submit an appeal to the Supreme Court in one final effort to avoid paying $548 million to Apple. Just this month, Apple attempted to convince the Supreme Court to deny Samsung’s appeal in the five-year-old case, claiming that the South Korean company was simply attempting to prolong the case even further following the announcement of the settlement.

Tags: Samsung, lawsuit
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Apple’s Upcoming 4-Inch Smartphone May Be Called ‘iPhone SE’

Rumors surrounding the 4-inch “iPhone 5se” continue today with new information pointing to the possibility of Apple dropping the “5” from the name altogether and simply calling it the “iPhone SE.” As reported by 9to5Mac, the new name would be a shift in focus on the 4-inch iPhone’s “enhanced and special edition” status, making it stand out from the numerically named crowd of the iPhone family.

A design mock-up of the iPhone SE shows similarities to the iPhone 5s

Based on Apple reinvigorating the 4-inch iPhone screen size at a time where the market is mostly moving toward larger smartphone screens, it would make sense for Apple to position this device as simply the “SE.” Sources say that the dropping of the “5” from the name also simplifies the iPhone lineup as bringing back an iPhone “5” variant amid the iPhone “6” lifecycle could potentially confuse customers. The iPhone SE will replace the existing iPhone 5s and will take its price points.

Mock-ups from earlier in the week suggested that the iPhone SE will look near-identical to that of the iPhone 5s, with a body measuring in at 123.8mm tall, 58.6mm wide, and 7.6mm thick. The device is said to have an A9 processor, an M9 chip to accommodate the new fitness tracking features of iOS, and include “Hey Siri,” Apple Pay, and Live Photos support.

The design renderings of the iPhone SE show conflicting claims in regards to the new iPhone’s power button placement and camera, but the latter feature is said to support an 8-megapixel system. The iPhone SE is believed to come in the four expected color options of the iPhone line — Silver, Space Gray, Rose Gold, and Gold — and be available in 16GB and 64GB sizes.

It won’t be long until we find out everything about the iPhone SE, with reports pointing towards a March 15 media event for the reveal of the new 4-inch iPhone. On the same day, Apple is predicted to announce what was thought to be called the “iPad Air 3,” but is now believed to be a smaller 9.7-inch addition to the iPad Pro family.

Related Roundups: iPhone 5se, iPhone 6c
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MacRumors Giveaway: Win a MOS Pack Backpack With Built-In Power Strip

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with MOS to give away three of its MOS Pack backpacks. The MOS Pack, which got its start on Kickstarter, features a built-in MOS Reach power strip and cable management system that allows devices stored inside to be charged using a single cord and without removing any items from the backpack.

The MOS Pack can accommodate a MacBook (up to 15 inches), an iPhone, and an iPad all at once, with each one plugging into the power strip, which is equipped with a standard port for charging a MacBook and two USB charging ports.

Inside the MOS Pack, cords are threaded through cable management sleeves to keep them hidden from sight, while the power strip is tucked away in a special compartment and held in place with magnets. The MOS Pack has a padded laptop sleeve, tablet sleeve, iPhone pocket, waterproof water bottle pocket, passport pocket, a padded case for glasses, and slots for pens, pencils, and other accessories.

Available in Onyx and Slate, the MOS Pack is made from rugged nylon, with nylon infused rubber at the bottom. It has a rigid (but soft) back and foam-padded straps for comfort. While it looks slim, the MOS Pack has a 20-liter storage capacity. The MOS Pack is available for $149.95, but MOS is offering MacRumors readers a 20 percent discount.

Three MacRumors readers will also have a chance to win a MOS Pack through our giveaway. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (February 26) at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 4. The winners will be chosen randomly on March 4 and will be contacted by email. The winners have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen. The prizes will be shipped to the winners for free.

Tags: giveaway, MOS
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Make use of space over the kitchen sink with this DIY pot rack – CNET

Frohoss/Reddit

Notoriously, pots and pans are the most frustrating items to store. They’re bulky, never sit flat and crash out of the cabinet every time you open the door.

Often, the best solution is to hang your pots and pans. Chances are, if you aren’t hanging them already, it’s likely because there isn’t a viable place to hang them.

If you have a gap between your cabinets, Reddit user Frohoss has an elegant and simple DIY solution.

What you will need

The design is both clever and simple to construct, and the materials will cost between $30 and $40.

To make the cross pieces or slats, you will need a total of six pieces of 1 inch by 2 inch (2.54 by 5.08 centimeter) hardwood which are longer than the distance between the cabinets. For the support braces on the ends, you need two pieces of wood approximately the depth of the cabinets — or short enough to slot into the trim along the top of your cabinets.

Additionally, you will need a handful of wood screws, wood glue, and some swivel hooks. You will also need a stain to match your cabinets or paint for an accent color.

How to make a pot rack

Essentially, you will need to cut all the cross pieces to the same length. The total length will equal the sum of the width of the gap between the cabinets, the width of the trim on top of both cabinets and the width of both support braces.

Frohoss/Reddit

Use the cross pieces in groups of two, spaced just far enough apart to account for the width of the swivel hooks. The groups of slats should be spaced evenly across the support braces at both ends. Apply wood glue to the bottom of each cross piece and screw the braces on the end into the cross pieces.

Drop the swivel hooks through the slats and rotate the hook to hold them in place.

The pot rack should slot perfectly into the tops of the cabinets, and the weight of the rack and the pots and pans will hold it in place. Thinner sauce pans and skillets can be hung from the hooks, while lids and larger pots can be stored on top of the rack.

5 ways orange peels help your kitchen appliances – CNET

Alina Bradford

Think orange peels are trash or that they need to go straight to the compost bin? Hold up! That peel can do a lot. In fact, your kitchen appliances are probably begging for that peel.

Shine your stainless: Orange peels produce natural oils that are used in many cleaning products because the oils shine surfaces so well, especially stainless steel. You can skip the cleansers and go straight to the source, though. Every time you eat an orange, take a few seconds and use the orange side of the peel to polish smudges on your fridge or stove. I find that the fresher the orange, the better this trick works.
Clean your microwave: Throw your orange peels in a bowl with some water and put it in your microwave for 60 seconds. The steam will loosen dried on food for quick clean up and the peels will freshen any bad odors in your microwave.
Make a natural cleanser: You can also use peels to make an all-natural appliance cleaner. Put your peels in a jar and fill the jar with white vinegar. Let the mixture soak for two weeks, then strain it into a spray bottle. This cleaner is great for stovetops, fridge doors, microwaves and more.
De-funk your disposable: Is your garbage disposal smelling a bit funky? Grate some orange zest into the disposal and let it sit for a few minutes. Run the disposal with hot tap water for a few seconds and the funk with transform into a citrusy clean smell.
Get your fridge fresher: Stinky fridges can be caused by many different problems. To make it smell better, make an orange peel powder. Dehydrate your peels in the oven at 200 degrees for two to three hours and grind them into powder using your food processor. Mix the powder with baking soda, put your mixture in a bowl and place it in the back of your fridge. Your fridge will smell sweet and fresh.

Oven tips to make baking go smoothly

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Use this hack to keep your cabinet doors shut – CNET

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Taylor Martin/CNET

Through most of my high school days, I lived in a 1960s construction house that had settled a lot. Some doors wouldn’t close all the way, the paint on the walls and ceilings had cracked and, worst of all, there was a specific spot on the kitchen floor that when stepped on would cause two or three cabinet doors to swing open.

If you have similar issues in your home, there is a very simple fix you can apply to every cabinet door in your kitchen or bathroom in minutes and without breaking the bank.

Here’s how it’s done.

What you will need

The most important parts of this hack are the magnets. While just about any magnet will help, what you’re actually looking for are neodymium magnets, also known as rare-earth magnets. These have a much stronger pull than your typical ferrite magnets.

You can usually find them near the fasteners in your local hardware store. You will need at least one magnet per troublesome cabinet door.

Taylor Martin/CNET

You will also need one large binder clip per cabinet or some other thin piece of metal. I chose to use binder clips because they’re cheap and easily removable if you decide to upgrade to something more official later on.

How to hack your cabinets

Taylor Martin/CNET

On the inside corner of the door, find a place where the magnet will make contact with the cabinet trim. Use the adhesive to mount the magnet.

Next, line up and attach the binder clip. Pull the arms back and stretch the clip over the trim inside the cabinet, then pinch the sides of each arm to remove them from the binder clip.

When you close the cabinet door, you should feel a small amount of pull from the magnet. This will help keep the door closed when it would otherwise swing open.

As inconspicuous as this is, it obviously isn’t meant to be a permanent solution, especially when you consider that more permanent latching mechanisms for cabinet doors are relatively inexpensive. However, this is useful if you have only a few cabinet doors that won’t stay closed and it will hold you over until you can find a more permanent solution.

Use voice commands to write and format text with Google Docs – CNET

Google Docs added voice typing last year, and I hope you’ve never heard someone writing in this manner at Starbucks or a nearby cubicle at work. Should you have a workspace to indulge in voice typing, however, then you should know that Google has expanded the capabilities of voice typing. In addition to using your voice to type, you can now also use your voice to edit and format your document.

You may see a prompt the next time you open a Doc file on Google Drive that asks if you want to try using your voice to type, navigate or format. If you missed that offer, you can enable voice typing by going to the Tools menu at the top of your document and selecting Voice typing. When enabled, you’ll see small window with a large microphone icon pop up along the right edge of your browser.

Voice typing is available only in the Chrome browser. And while voice typing is available in dozens of languages, voice commands to edit and format are available only in English.

To start voice typing in a Google Doc, click the microphone icon and — if you have never used the feature before — allow it to access your computer’s microphone when prompted. You can use your voice to type, but there are also a wide variety of commands you can use to edit and format.

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Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

For example, you can say “select next word” or “select line” or “select paragraph” or other parts of your document to highlight a portion to edit or format. You can then edit by using cut, copy or paste voice commands, among others. You can apply text formatting options such as bold or italics, change the alignment on the page or change the text color. (For the curious, the text colors Google recognizes are red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple and magenta.)

You can also use voice commands to move the cursor around on the page, which means you can really go all-in with voice typing by not constantly reaching for your mouse or touchpad. Use the “move to” or “go to” command to go to, for instance, the end of a line, the start of a paragraph or to the next or previous character or word.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly because like any voice app, Google’s voice typing doesn’t always hear you right, you can say “undo” to take back a previous command.

To see all of the voice commands available for Google Docs, check out this informative Google support page. And watch this YouTube clip from Google Docs to see voice commands in action.

Use Amazon Echo to never run out of pizza again – CNET

Chris Monroe/CNET

The Amazon Echo is one of the most useful additions to your smart home, especially with the latest update. It’s now much smarter and it plays nicely with even more smart devices, making it much easier to use Alexa to automate your home.

However, with the help of one particular skill, the Echo’s abilities extend outside your walls and into your nearby Domino’s location. Here’s how you can order pizza with your Amazon Echo.

Setting up the Amazon Echo for Domino’s Pizza ordering

To add Domino’s ordering to the Amazon Echo, you will need to enable the Domino’s Pizza skill. Open the application on your phone or go to echo.amazon.com and navigate to the Skills section. Search for Domino’s and click Enable. A new browser tab will open where you will need to login to your Domino’s account and approve the connection.

In order for the skill to work, you need to have a Pizza Profile. To create one, go to dominos.com and click Create One in the upper right corner. Fill out all the appropriate information and click Create your profile.

With a linked Pizza Profile, you can use the Amazon Echo to quickly order your preset Easy Order or reorder your most recent order from Domino’s.

To create an Easy Order, begin placing an order at dominos.com, choose carryout or delivery and enter your payment information. Before clicking Place your order, make sure to check the box beside Save this order as your Easy Order. Give the Easy Order a name and click Place your order.

Order pizza with the Echo

After the skill is enabled and your Easy Order is set up, you won’t even need to lift a finger to place your next pizza order. Just say: “Alexa, open Domino’s and place my Easy Order.”

The order will automatically be placed using all the saved information from the Easy Order — your billing information, address, preferred Domino’s location and whether you want the order to be delivery or carryout.

You can also get updates on the status of your order with the Amazon Echo. Say, “Alexa, ask Domino’s to track my order.” It will tell you what stage the order is currently in so you will know when to expect the delivery or when you should leave to pick up your carryout order.

How to easily toggle alerts in Skype chats – CNET

Skype’s group conversations are a convenient way to stay in touch with family, friends, or coworkers from your computer. But sometimes the constant stream of blips and beeps for new messages can be frustrating if you need to focus on another task.

Disabling notifications for all chats means you may miss something important if you also use Skype for work. And leaving a group conversation means you can’t catch up on what was said later. Luckily, there’s a quick way to disable alerts on a group-by-group (or individual) basis, and still get notified if someone mentions you by name. Here’s how:

Note: For Mac users, these commands are available, but do not work consistently, according to Skype support.

Toggling alerts

• Open the chat window you want to disable alerts for. This can be a group or individual chat.
• Type /alertsoff, then press Enter. You will not see a confirmation message, but alerts for this chat are now disabled and no notification counters will appear on the Skype icon.
• When you want to enable alerts for the chat again, simply type /alertson. Again, you will not see a confirmation message.

Trigger word alerts

After turning off alerts, you can set up trigger words that will still alert you when mentioned in the chat.

• If you type /alertson [yournamehere], you’ll be notified and your name will be highlighted.
• You can expand on this trigger by adding more words with spaces between them. So if your name is David and you like talking about basketball, you can use /alertson david basketball.

Now you won’t have to hear every alert, just the ones pertaining to you or your interests.

How to export a PDF using 3D Touch – CNET

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Sarah Tew

Apple has long provided a means to print webpages or documents from an iOS device to an AirPrint-equipped printer. However, the ability to save an item as a PDF isn’t as straightforward.

Third-party apps have typically provided the ability to turn a document into a PDF, and now it turns out, Apple is providing a native solution to quickly and easily save a document as a PDF instead of printing it.

This tip comes courtesy of MacStories.

The only caveat is that it appears the feature is currently limited to the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, both of which are equipped with 3D Touch.

The next time you need to save a webpage or convert, say, a Word document to a PDF, this is what you need to do:

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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET

Step 1: When viewing the document, tap the Share button and select Print. (The option shows up regardless of nearby printers or a Wi-Fi connection.)

Step 2: A preview of the document will load below the print options. You can scroll to the left or right to preview the pages.

Step 3: Instead of continuing the print process, force-touch on the document preview.

The document will then fully open, presenting another share button. Select it and save the document to Dropbox, iCloud or send as an email attachment.