This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone: in the latest chapter of the Apple-Samsung dispute over their smartphones’ resemblance, the latter company has just retaliated by filing lawsuits against Apple in three countries. Sammy’s load of ammo include five patent infringements in South Korea, two in Japan, and three in Germany, though we’ve yet to hear more details about these claims. Now we just sit back and enjoy the show — popcorn, anyone?

[Thanks, Jake L.]

Samsung strikes back at Apple with ten patent infringement claims originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, you — it’s January 3rd. You know, the day you’re supposed to return to work / school / life. And the day you’re supposed to catch a flight you’ve had booked for three months. And probably a day that you’re supposed to accomplish lots of other tasks. Unfortunately for you, you actually believed that your iPhone alarm would fix itself when today rolled around, but based on hordes of complaints seen on Twitter and Facebook, said fix is still hibernating. And thus, you’re still sleeping. Even here at Engadget HQ, we’ve seen iPhone 4 handsets not wake us as promised (on non-recurring alarms), so who knows when Apple will step up to the plate and address the issue. In the meantime, go ahead and set up a recurring alarm while gently crossing your fingers and toes. Or, you know, buy a battery-powered alarm clock off of your grandmother.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iPhone alarms still not working, worlds crashing left and right originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not exactly sure of the cause of this fancy new issue affecting Apple’s super cool iPhone line of cellphones, but apparently you’ve got trouble come 1/1/2011. According to an explosive stream of frustration-filled tweets on the Twitter microblogging service, when the clock strikes midnight, one off alarms will cease to sing out. The issue sounds eerily similar to recent Daylight Savings Time trouble we witnessed back in November, although we saw both repeating alarm and single alarm failures.

So how can you fix this potentially life-ruining problem? Well until Apple patches its OS — and it’s currently unclear if this is just iOS 4.2.1 or earlier versions as well — you can simply create a recurring alarm at the time you need to be woken up, and then disable it once your dreams are completely ruined. We’re taking a deeper look into the issue and have contacted Apple — if we get more news, you guys will be the first to know. In the meantime, feel free to commiserate in comments, and… happy new year?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

PSA: iPhone alarms not working come New Year’s Day 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa, Nelly! ThinkFlood won’t like this… not one bit. If you’ll recall, the RedEye universal remote dongle was well received, as a simple 3.5mm adapter added IR beaming to Apple’s slate of iDevices. But now, Mashed Pixel has taken the integration one step further, seamlessly embedding an Infrared emitter into a case. Simply pop the Surc around your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, download the (free) accompanying app and start programming. Before long, you’ll be dictating your home entertainment setup sans any external accessories, and heck, you may even improve your phone’s reception all the while. The only downside to this approach compared to ThinkFlood’s is that the iPad is obviously not supported, and once you upgrade to the iPhone 5, your trusty IR case becomes a glorified paperweight. If you’re kosher with that, though, you can get your pre-order in now for $69.95, with initial shipments expected to make their way out in Q1 2011.

Continue reading IR-embedded Surc case converts iPhone into a universal learning remote

IR-embedded Surc case converts iPhone into a universal learning remote originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t wait another minute for your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS to be carrier-unlocked once more? If and only if you’re already running the latest firmware, you can actually pilfer a bit of iPad code to pick the requisite locks — though there are some serious risks in doing so. The iPhone Dev Team has a new version of PwnageTool that uses the 6.15.00 baseband from iPad firmware 3.2.2, which which just so happens to run perfectly on the iPhone 3G and 3GS since both phones and tablets of that era use the same Infineon radio chip. If you know your way around an IPSW and regularly bench-press SHSH blobs, you can download all the software you need right now — but if you don’t, you might want to steer clear of the proceedings for the time being. We spoke about risks a moment ago, and in this case there are quite a few — like the inability to downgrade from baseband 6.15 or ever do a full restore again, and it’s fairly likely that Apple won’t look kindly on your warranty if they find you running iPad software. Them’s the breaks, kid.

iPhone 3G, 3GS get iOS 4.2.1 unlock, using risky ultrasn0w workaround originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your iPhone’s passcode entry can’t block everything, it seems — at least not with iOS 4.1. We’re hearing various reports that simply inputting a random number in the emergency call field and then promptly hitting the hardware lock button will take you to the Phone app, thereby granting you access to the call history, voicemail, and address book. We’ve tried this with iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, all with the same result. We can’t get out of the field without trying to place a call, and after that we’re still stuck back at the passcode screen. Additionally, selecting “share contact” and then the camera icon will give you access to the photo album. Pay mind that your particularly paranoid pals could probably use this to see if you really did stop calling your ex and delete all his or her pictures. We won’t judge, but they will. Video proof of concept after the break.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in

Continue reading iOS 4.1 glitch lets you bypass lock screen to access Phone app, photo album (video)

iOS 4.1 glitch lets you bypass lock screen to access Phone app, photo album (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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