China’s well-known market for counterfeit goods, electronic and otherwise, has upped the ante: Now you can get knock-offs of products that haven’t even been publicly revealed yet.
As Mashable points out, a Chinese company called “Goophone” is advertising a device that it calls the “iphone 5.”
The actual iPhone 5 — the real one, the one made by Apple — has not been released yet. And even though the Internet is rife with images of mock-ups and supposedly leaked parts, Apple hasn’t officially shown the world what the real device will look like.
One safe bet for the real iPhone 5: It most probably will not run Android, like this Goophone does.
Meanwhile, in Japan …
In a case dealing with the transfer of media content between electronic devices, a court in Tokyo has absolved Samsung Electronics of infringing on Apple patents, according to the BBC.
The ruling comes less than a week after Samsung was hit with a $1 billion fine in the U.S..
The back-to-back rulings on opposite sides of the globe are indicative of the marathon legal duel between Apple and Samsung. The two companies have been litigating in, to name a few countries, Australia (where a judge called the proceedings “ridiculous”), the UK (where a judge said that Samsung didn’t infringe because it’s products weren’t nearly as cool) and the U.S. (where a judge asked lawyers if they were smoking crack).
Samsung has indicated that it will appeal the recent U.S. ruling, ensuring that this legal battle is nowhere near over.
Social Media Abuse May Have Landed Model in Psych Ward
Charlotte Dawson, an Australian model and a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model, was admitted to a psychiatric clinic Thursday after what The Age described as a “social media onslaught.”
The Age describes the various Twitter remarks that Dawson — who reportedly has a history of depression — was responding to and retweeting. Social media attacks on Dawson included telling her to hang herself, calling her an “attention whore” and more.
The report posits that Dawson’s interaction with the harassers simply made matters worse. In addition to bantering with people on Twitter, Dawson went so far as to call the boss of a woman who was abusing her online.
Dawson’s saga has reportedly sparked a debate about social media abuse in Australia, which has been dealing with the topic for some time.
Another incident of social media abuse happened in the UK, where a police office was arrested for harassing a women via Facebook, according to the Daily Mail.
Search Engine War Rages On in China
Baidu and Qihoo 360, a pair of Chinese companies which each have search engines, have escalated their ongoing tit-for-tat, according to Tech In Asia.
The most recent move: Qihoo, which was launched recently, has replaced Baidu’s image results with images from government-owned Jike. Qihoo had previously linked to Baidu images, but now, after blacklisting Baidu maps, news, MP3s and so on, the company has completely cleansed its results of anything Baidu-related.
Baidu, which is the country’s most popular search engine, had recently made it so anytime users tried to access Baidu content through Qihoo, they were automatically directed to Baidu’s homepage.
Google Maps Euro Bike Paths
Google has added more than 330,000 miles of bike lanes to Google Maps.
The bike lanes, which will be accessible on Android devices, span a slew of European countries — Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and more. This will turn any Android device in Europe into a ready-made navigation tool.
Google added bike paths to U.S. and Canada maps back in 2010.
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