IPAD

Despite an earlier dismissal of a 7-inch iPad by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, rumors of an iPad mini have been around for quite some time now. Adding to the already churning rumor-mills, a new report surfaced Tuesday, saying that the Cupertino tech giant is indeed planning to launch a smaller and cheaper iPad by year-end.

Slowly but surely, Apple's operating systems are converging, but bonding these two separate systems together would be impossible without iCloud. On Monday, Apple introduced two new additions to the iCloud Beta portal for iOS 6 developers, including the Notes and Reminders apps, before it releases Mountain Lion this month and iOS 6 this fall.

Apple will pay a $60 million settlement to secure the iPad trademark in China, opening up sales to the Chinese market, Apple's most profitable after the United States.

Apple is set to unveil a 7.85-inch iPad mini, alongside the iPhone 5 in October, according to a Pacific Crest research analyst.

Apple's two-year-long trademark battle with Proview Technology over the use of the name iPad has finally come to a close. The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer giant has reportedly agreed to pay the Chinese electronics maker $60 million to settle the dispute of ownership, which will removes any further obstacles to selling its popular line of tablets in China.

In a series of big announcements including the launch of the new version of Android (4.1) called Jelly Bean with upgrade for the Galaxy Nexus and the introduction of the Nexus Q, Google also unveiled the Asus-made Nexus 7 tablet last week. Here's a comparison between the newest Nexus 7 and the current dominant device in the category, the third generation Apple iPad.

Now that we?ve passed through the first half of 2012, it?s time to reflect on some technology events and anticipate what might be ahead. Maybe we can make a few predictions.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) scored its second major win of the week over Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: 005930) in intellectual-property litigation on Friday, as Apple was granted a court order blocking U.S. sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

Apple will begin transitioning the leadership role within its hardware engineering department, now that Bob Mansfield has announced his retirement. Apple was quick to name Dan Riccio as Mansfield's successor, mentioning that Riccio will learn the new role over several months. During that time, the hardware engineering team will continue to report to Mansfield.

Many industry analysts have predicted that Apple may face a drop in sales of iPhones, ahead of the release of its next generation iPhone, aka iPhone 5, later this year. But the slowdown in iPhone sales will be short-lived, thanks to the expected high demand for the new iPhone model, which will continue to dominate the smartphone market throughout 2013, according to an analyst's report.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, has posted a $2.6 million bond with a U.S. district court to enforce an injunction against its supplier and rival Samsung Electronics (Seoul: 005930).

After announcing a slew of new Android-optimized hardware and software products on Wednesday, Google announced on Thursday it will finally port Google Chrome, the second most popular Web browser in the world, to the iPhone and iPad operating system (iOS). In addition, Google will also release an iOS-optimized version of Google Drive, which is the company's cloud service for syncing and sharing information from your Google accounts to all your devices. Google Chrome Coming To Apple iPhone, iPa...

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, may change the way iTunes works so that it?s more closely integrated with the iCloud file-storage service, news services said.

Aggressively priced at $199 for the 8GB model and $249 for the 16 GB model, the Nexus 7 is smaller than an iPad at 7 inches, but it's still packed with impressive innards, including a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, a 1.2-megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, a 4,325mAh battery and NFC built in. The Nexus will start shipping next month with Google's updated Jelly Bean 4.1 OS.

At its I/O Conference for developers in San Francisco, Google unveiled a new Android operating system called Jelly Bean, a brand-new tablet from Google called the Nexus 7, and even gave a demonstration and pre-order information for its highly-anticipated, high-tech headgear, also known as Project Glass. But one of the strange unveilings at I/O was the orb-shaped hub known as the Nexus Q, which was Google's response to the Apple TV.

Google has finally unveiled its own Android tablet, the Nexus 7, in collaboration with Asus; however, it will ship the same week as Asus's Transformer Pad Infinity Tf700m which adds another tablet into the rival pool, alongside the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Applesauce might be on the menu if Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) doesn't take swift actions to ameliorate members of a coalition representing Iranian-Americans and speakers of Farsi who were allegedly denied sale of iPads and other merchandise by Apple store employees in recent weeks.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine, Wednesday showed its first tablet, the Nexus 7, priced at $199, as part of its annual Google I/O developers conference.

Google's annual developer conference is just hours away, but an Asustek executive has already confirmed that Google Inc. is set to unveil a tablet co-branded with Asus that is set to rival Amazon's Kindle.

If you hoped pre-ordering a new MacBook Pro with Retina Display would make you the first one on your block with Apple's latest, greatest laptop, think again. Many customers that placed orders for Apple's 15-inch Retina Display-powered MacBook Pro were originally quoted a 7-10 day waiting period. Those same customers are now receiving e-mails from Apple, stating their beautiful new laptops won't ship until or after July 25.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, has won a U.S. district court injunction against its supplier and rival Samsung Electronics (Seoul: 005930), which should help sales of the iPad.