The rumor of Apple's new iPhone 5S being made available in a light Champagne Gold color only surfaced in the last few weeks. As the rumors began to slowly turn into credible news, Samsung executives went into emergency meetings. The end result was an official statement made yesterday that they've decided to build a line for producing metal cases, e.g. magnesium and aluminum, in Gumi plant by the end of this year. The Korean report provided a photo of a metal case suggesting that Samsung will likely offer their future metal backed Galaxy smartphone in Gold.

In June we reported that an aggressive trade-in program was brewing at Apple. The report pointed to AT&T offering a similar trade-in program offering up to $200 for a working iPhone 4 or 4S. Today the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog is confirming that Apple's trade-in program starts today and it is indeed aggressive.

On August 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple's latest registered trademark for "Passbook" under registration number 4,391,155. The trademark which was officially granted on Monday was originally filed for in November 2012. The Passbook icon was granted registered status on August 01, 2013. Passbook is an application in iOS that allows users to store coupons, boarding passes, event tickets, store cards, 'generic' cards and other forms of mobile payment. Passbook debuted during Apple's World Wide Developer Conference on June 11, 2012 and released on September 19, 2012.

A patent application from Apple surfaced earlier this month in Europe revealing a new Korean patent filing. The patent was originally secretly filed in the US in 2011 under the names of the inventors without showing an assignee. In that way, a search for Apple's new patent filing in the US Patent Office's database would never reveal the original filing. The Korean filing covering the same invention now reveals that Apple is the assignee. Whether the secrecy is warranted or not is another matter. Apple's invention reveals an Aperture and/or iPhoto user interface designed for the iPad that uses a new method for editing photo brightness, color saturation, contrast and more. The new UI will offer users a sophisticated pop-up menu and sub-menu system.

On August 29, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new and elaborate collaboration system for videoconferencing that could be useful for the enterprise or for future distant leaning applications. The system introduces new interactive pie menus that will work with a sophisticated pen that will include memory and other advanced functions. Apple notes that as the pen advances toward the menu presented on a large presentation screen, an opening will automatically be created in the menu so that no content is covered by the presenter's hand or arm. Additionally, Apple notes that the new menu system will work with custom applications designed for this system yet also work with traditional software such as Photoshop, PowerPoint, and other common applications. Apple must think this is an important invention considering that this is a follow-up application to their already granted patent issued back in March.

On August 29, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new EarPod carrying case accessory. I don't know about you, but untangling my EarPod cable is always a dance I hate. Now Apple's lead accessory product designer Kurt Stiehl has come up with a solution for that.

In case you didn't already know this, Apple is still the number one target of patent trolls. These entities, who prefer to be called Non-Practicing-Entities (NPEs), are wreaking havoc in the tech sector. A recently published study provides us with a clear view of the top NPE targets and Apple clearly tops that chart. According to this new study, these "villain-ized" patent trolls have filed more than 11,000 actions since 1985.

In May we posted a report titled "How will Samsung Win against the iPad?-By Flooding the Market with Super Cheap Tablets over the Next Two Years." In that report we pointed to Samsung's co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun stating that they planned to grow their tablet business two-fold by selling some 33 million Galaxy Tabs. He vowed to expand its leadership in the smartphone to tablet sector. In translation that meant that Samsung would flood the market with super low-ball tablets and win the market share game against Apple. Today, that strategy has been confirmed in black and white.

A New Jersey man has filed a personal injuries lawsuit against Apple for his alleged pain and torment as a result of his severe, permanent, disfiguring and disabling injuries caused by his iPhone 4. The lawsuit claims that the plaintiff will be compelled to spend great and diverse sums of money for medical aid and treatment, and has been and will be prevented from attending to his usual occupation, duties, activities and future business. The Plaintiff is seeking $75,000.00 in damages excluding medical and other costs.

Another Non Practicing Entity (NPE) by the name of Remote Locator Systems has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. This time around the patent infringement lawsuit concerns the use of Apple's iOS features "Find my Friends" and "Find my iPhone."

It's being reported by Australia's TMWatch and repeated by AppleInsider that Apple recently filed for the trademark "Startup." The fact is that Patently Apple covered Apple's original USPTO application for this trademark back in April 2011, or 28 months ago. While it's nice to know that some in Australia are excited about this revelation, the fact is that it's anything but new for us in North America.

According to Taiwan's Apple Daily Newspaper, Apple has granted Quanta and Inventec orders for Apples iWatch for release in 2014. The report is relying on a research note by CIMB Securities analyst Wanli Wang bry who stated that "From our channel checks, Inventec is the major assembly source for 'iWatch', with about 60% of order allocation."