As of today, 78% of Apple iPhone users have updated to the new iOS 7. And when there's an update or fix to be had, users easily get it when on iTunes charging up their devices. On Friday we reported on HTC's head designer being indicted for leaking trade secrets and in that we report we presented a ridiculously lengthy graphic from HTC illustrating the long and tedious maze that the Android OS goes through just to get OS updates to Android users. Today, a premier mobile industry news site in Canada has published a new report titled "The Anguish of Updates" wherein the author bemoans the snail-like pace of OS updates for users, especially outside the US.

News out of The Hague this morning states that thieves slammed their car through the glass front wall of Apple's recently opened store in the Dutch city of Haarlem.

On New Year's Eve 2013, the US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 43 newly granted patents for Apple. In our overview summary of today's granted patents, we specifically cover five inventions including Apple's unibody MacBook Pro, their Micro SIM smart card and more. We also cover two design patents and conclude our report with our traditional list of the remaining patents that were granted to Apple today for those wishing to explore them further.

Microsoft once branded their mobile device user interface for use with Surface tables and Windows smartphones as "Metro." The concept is now in play and is based on moveable, resizable live tiles. It was meant to challenge Apple's iOS winning interface that is more App icon centric. Their plan never quite worked out for them as they first planned, and a new patent filing strongly suggests that they may actually be thinking of reinventing their mobile OS once again. Then again, one has to wonder if it's a real plan or just a corporate fantasy.

Mediabistro's Unbeige is reporting today that Apple has hired NY Times Magazine Arem Duplessis as Creative Director who replaces Scott Trattner who was hired by Facebook.

In November we reported that Samsung and Apple would restart top tier efforts to try and meet a court-ordered Jan. 8 deadline to find an amicable solution to their patent dispute. U.S. federal judge Lucy H. Koh, who presided over the case, ordered such a meeting. Today, a Korean report confirms that the negotiations between the two companies have now resumed.

Yesterday we posted a report titled "Apple's iPhone Success Points to a Bad Q4 for Samsung," wherein we stated that Apple's iPhone scored a hat trick of key online retail sales victories in December that likely contributed to the estimates for Samsung Electronics' fourth quarter operating profit being revised downward by more than a billion dollars US. Today we learn that the Samsung's Galaxy S4 is one of the key burdens dragging Samsung's financials down. In fact, the Korean press describes it as shocking at just how bad the numbers are likely to be for Q4. Yet the news shouldn't really surprise anyone.

News out of Taipei today states that Taiwanese prosecutors have indicted a chief designer and five employees at smartphone maker HTC for allegedly leaking crucial trade secrets to China and breach of trust. Specifically, Chien Chih-lin, vice president of product design, was charged with leaking information relating to "highly valuable" designs for a yet-to-be-launched smartphone interface to unidentified individuals in Beijing in an attempt to set up a joint new company in China, prosecutors said.

Dragon Intellectual Property LLC is suing Apple for patent infringement. The case revolves around Apple's iPod nano.

In light of Apple's iPhone sales surge worldwide and their hat trick victory in online sales this holiday season, the South Korean Press is now predicting that Samsung Electronics' fourth-quarter operating profit will likely fall short of 10 trillion won (roughly 9.4 Billion US). The news is sending Samsung Electronics' stock price in a downward trend. As this news hits the wires, we hear that Samsung is preparing to push Tizen OS hard in early 2014. Whether Samsung's move to push Tizen based smartphones will have any bearing on future profits is unknown at this time.

Apple's iOS has scored a perfect hat trick against Google's Android this holiday season. It began with iOS destroying Android in the battle for Black Friday mobile shopping sales followed by its crushing victory on Cyber Monday. Today, IBM is reporting that Christmas Day sales show that Apple's iOS Obliterated Android. This is why developers flock to Apple's World Wide Developer Conferences annually to stay ahead of the game with the latest and greatest iOS upgrades. Even with a much smaller user base than Android worldwide, it's a proven fact that Apple's iOS iDevices are purchased by a distinguished and advanced customer base. It's a fact that continually puts more profits into developers' hands than Android hands down.

On December 26, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of 28 new patent applications from Apple. This particular report covers Apple's second invention relating to a 3D printer in the last month along with a spattering of links to patents covering everything from 3D navigational maps to the technology behind Apple's EarPods and more.