Just one week after Samsung’s patent trial loss against Apple in the United States, a Tokyo-based court ruled in favor of Samsung in regards a media syncing patent. According to Bloomberg, the Tokyo court ruled that Samsung does not infringe an Apple patent “related to synchronizing music and video data in devices to servers.” (Image: AllThingsD)

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The App Store on iOS 6 beta, which is software currently only available to those a part of Apple’s Developer Program, scored a nice little update this evening. Most notably: the layout when searching for an app was given a considerable redesign. It now displays apps in swipeable cards on both the iPhone and iPad. In the nifty cards, users are presented with a screenshot of the app, along with the five-star rating system, and a handy button to install the app on your device.

Video of the new App Store changes:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrgqjOKJVAM]

Also adding to the iOS 6 App Store updates, Apple enabled the Genius recommendation section this evening to provide users with apps that may be in their interest to download. Furthermore, the purchased section also joined the party. It displays all the apps users have downloaded to their accounts, making it easy to retrieve favorite apps. Last but certainly not least, the iTunes Store was updated with the ability to once again search for podcasts. When a podcast link is opened, it requires Apple’s Podcast app to listen. All three features were available in the previous version of the App Store on iOS 5, so there is really nothing new here—except that Apple has finally chosen to give them the light of day within iOS 6.

The revamped iOS App Store and iTunes Store were both introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in June as a part of iOS 6. Apple is expected to unleash iOS 6 to the masses this fall, with more details expected to be announced at the company’s rumored Sept. 12 media event. We previously reported that Apple is working on a revamped desktop version of iTunes, but there is no word if it will be highlighted at the upcoming event. At any rate, this evening’s changes seem to show that Apple is getting closer and closer to a final product for its iOS 6 stores. Find any thing we have not mentioned? Let us know below!

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ZAGG, perhaps best known for its invisibleShield screen protector, is adding two new additions to its also popular lineup of keyboards and cases tonight with the unveiling of two super-thin Bluetooth keyboards designed specifically for iPad.  The keyboards, ZAGGKeys PRO for $99 and PRO Plus for $129, feature the usual iOS specific functions such as media playback and volume controls, copy and paste keys, as well as keys for the Home button, search, etc.

Think the backlighting might drain the battery? HA! If you use the keyboard for eight hours a day, you will get up to three weeks of normal use…and remember that is the backlit model! The keyboard will come in English, French, and German models at launch.

We got our hands on the new keyboards tonight at the ShowStoppers IFA press event and were quiet impressed with the overall build quality. They do not feel cheap (the opposite), which is not too surprising given ZAGG’s reputation of building military grade screen protectors and other quality protective accessories.

The two models are identical to one another, including a magnetic closure that allows it to act as a screen protector when not in use. However, an extra $20 will upgrade you to the Pro Plus model with a backlit keyboard, which is a feature that has noticeably been missing from the go-to iPad keyboards currently on the market.

Will Zagg leapfrog our current favorite ultrathin iPad keyboard from Logitech?

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Adobe just announced on its blog that Photoshop CS6 would recieve a Retina update this fall:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNLbm7XP5qg]

LifeProof already made a splash with its water, dirt, snow, and shockproof cases for iPhone 4 and 4S ($54). Today, at the ShowStoppers IFA event in Berlin, we were able to get our hands on LifeProof’s latest creation: an iPad version of the popular Nüüd case. If you are unfamiliar, the Nüüd cases feature no screen protection (although there is now an optional display cover that doubles as a stand), but it instead protects your iPad from the elements by creating a seal around the perimeter of the display. The case is currently available for iPad 2 and 3 through the LifeProof website and bundled with the screen protector/stand for €127.53 ($160 USD). Go past the break for another video demo of the Nüüd case ‘skinny dipping’ (being submerged in water).

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The place where Steve Jobs got his start, Atari, has been porting its classic games to HTML5 on a browser for cross-platform capabilities. Sure, Microsoft is doing some of the promotional work, but the games work across platforms and browsers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=J6QXRFuUSZs#!]

Step into a bizarro time warp and play games like the re-imagined Centipede, Combat, or six others. More importantly, Atari is building HTML5 frameworks for more games in the future, which could benefit other developers.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Larry Page are reportedly in talks regarding mobile patent disputes between the companies.

According to Reuters, which cited “people familiar with the matter,” both chiefs spoke on the phone last week while more discussions between “lower-level officials” are also underway:

Page and Cook are expected to talk again in the coming weeks, though no firm date has been set, the sources said. One source told Reuters that a meeting was scheduled for this Friday, but had been delayed for reasons that were unclear.

The two companies are keeping the lines of communication open at a high level against the backdrop of Apple’s decisive legal victory in a patent infringement case against Samsung, which uses Google’s Android software.

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French website Nowhereelse [translated] posted more part leaks for the next-generation iPhone this morning, and while we get a new glimpse at the front screen, neither of the pictures show anything terribly new. The bronze piece pictured was originally thought to be an NFC chip, but more conventional wisdom suggests it is a speaker for the headset.

We also received an image of 4 iPhone motherboards before being chip loaded:

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…And, perhaps our most sketchy image:

Adding to the slew of alleged leaks, a new image of a purported logic board for the next-generation iPhone has surfaced. The crisp picture shows the logical board without any protective EMI shielding for an internal look at the A6 chip that supposedly sits inside. We are a bit wary about the authenticity of this picture, as its originator, Sonny Dickson, said it needed to be “enhanced with Photoshop.”

It is speculated the A6, or a variant of the A5X chip, would appear in the next iPhone, and many thought Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s 28nm process would manufacturer the quad-core chip, but the latest reports claimed Apple is stuck with Samsung for at least CPU and/or baseband chip building after TSMC rebuffed an exclusive bid.

We also see another 9-pin dock cable from Sonny below:

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A gallery of new parts is below—including a video from Sinocent.
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As we detailed last week, Parallels released version 8 of its market-leading Virtualization software for Mac this morning.

Existing users can download Parallels 8 now. New users will be able to update Sept. 4.

Parallels also announced the availability of Parallels Desktop 8 Switch to MacTM Edition, which includes Parallels Desktop 8 software and a set of switching tools to automatically move programs, files and browser favorites to Mac, as well as in-box video tutorials to learn about the Mac. Details are available at www.parallels.com/products/desktop/stm.

New and improved features in Parallels Desktop 8 include:

Life Simplified

• Speak, don’t type – Use the new Mountain Lion Dictation tool across both Windows and Mac environments
• Open in Internet Explorer – When a website doesn’t render well within Safari, launch it in Internet Explorer with a click of a button
• Drag and drop email attachments – Simply drag and drop files from the desktop onto the Dock icons for Outlook and other Windows email clients to attach and share them
• Multilingual keyboard – Keyboard language changes made on the Mac automatically sync, to simplify switching languages in Windows
• Parallels Wizard –Download and automatically install Windows or other operating systems (OSes) including Google Chrome OS, Ubuntu and Android on your Mac. Parallels Desktop customers have downloaded more than 500,000 copies of Windows using the Parallels Wizard to-date, and many additional customers have moved their Windows PCs to their Mac or added Windows and other OSes.
• Bluetooth-sharing – Multiple Windows and Mac devices can now share Bluetooth connections
• Windows apps on OS X Launchpad – Add Windows applications to the Mountain Lion or Lion Launchpad to quickly launch Mac and Windows applications used most
• Consolidated notifications – Integration of Windows notifications into the Mac OS X Notification Center makes it easy to stay updated on Windows virtual machine operations
• Resource monitoring – Disk space and memory usage of virtual machines are conveniently displayed for easy customization and management
• Mountain Lion gestures for Windows apps – Enjoy seamless integration of Mountain Lion gestures with Windows apps – such as pinch to zoom, Mission Control, three-finger drag, swipe between full-screen apps, two-finger scroll, Launchpad and rotate
• USB 3.0 devices support – Benefit from easy access to all-important files and data from a virtual machine
• Visually Stunning
• Brilliant Retina display support – Enjoy stunning Retina display resolution in Windows OS and Windows applications to see crisper fonts, vivid photos, images and animations
• No-hassle presentations – The new Presentation Wizard makes presentations interruption- free by disabling screensavers on Mac and Windows, optimizing the full-screen display and automatically adjusting resolution
• Improved graphics – Don’t compromise, even with graphically intensive applications


Proven Performance
Unmatched performance – Enjoy improved Parallels Desktop 8 performance that is up to 30 percent faster for input/output (I/O) operations, 30 percent faster for games and up to 25 percent faster for virtual machine operations such as boot, suspend, shutdown and resume, when compared to Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac**. Parallels Desktop 7 beat the leading competitor in nearly 75 percent of the benchmark tests conducted by MacTech magazine and won 60 percent of the tests by a factor of 10 percent or more.

Availability and Pricing
Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac is available beginning Aug. 30, 2012, as an upgrade for current Parallels Desktop for Mac users. The full version will be available to new customers on www.parallels.com/desktop starting September 4. Packaged software will also be available starting September 4 at Apple retail stores, Apple.com, Amazon.com, Fry’s Electronics, MicroCenter and hundreds of other resellers and retail locations nationwide.

Full Press release follows:
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