An agreement that will last 10 years! ... sharing licenses, patents and IPs.

"Apple and Taiwanese phonemaker HTC have settled all their outstanding disputes over patents, ending a fight that began in March 2010. The two firms also signed a 10-year licence agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one another.

HTC competes with Apple, Samsung and others in phones and tablets. Apple has been embroiled in a series of "patent wars" with phone makers and with arch-rival Google.

Unlike its rivals, HTC's sales have been in decline since the second half of 2011, despite having become a major global phone company by aligning itself to Google's Android platform.

The firm has upgraded its HTC One flagship phone and introduced two new models running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software. "HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation," said Peter Chou, the head of HTC."

Source: BBC

It's just your usual day on the internet ... being hacked is part of everyday life these days. Oh well, just make sure you change your passwords on a regular basis.

"Thousands of Twitter users have received emails warning their account has been compromised by a third party. Some accounts had been compromised, but other users had received the emails after Twitter had unintentionally reset unaffected passwords, the company said.

The mass email coincided with incidents involving several high-profile accounts, including at least one account belonging to the BBC.

Other media organisations, such as the TechCrunch blog, reported being warned. Twitter gave no indication of the cause or source of the compromise, and would not share details of the size of the issue.

In a statement, it said: "When we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users."

Source: BBC

Gabon ... a west African country with an internet domain ending in .ga has blocked "Me.ga" ... the proposed sequel to Megaupload founded by Mr. Dotcom.

"Efforts to create a follow-up file-sharing service to Megaupload have been dealt a blow after Gabon blocked access to its intended web address. The West African nation said it was worried the Me.ga site would host copyright infringing files.

Kim Doctom - the tech entrepreneur behind the scheme - said the move was a result of a "bad faith witch hunt" being carried out by the US government. The 38-year-old faces charges of money laundering and fraud, which he denies.

He is currently living in New Zealand and engaged in a legal battle to prevent his extradition to the US, where he faces a jail sentence of up to 20 years if found guilty of earning about $175m (£109m) through illegal means."

Source: BBC

Now that's taking the pi$$ isn't it ... 2% tax on USD $36.8 billion profit! ... No wonder they're the richest company in the world, all thanks to you :P

"Apple paid less than 2% corporation tax on its profits outside the US, its filing with US regulators has shown. The company paid $713m (£445m) in the year to 29 September on foreign pre-tax profits of $36.8bn, a rate of 1.9%.

It is the latest company to be identified as paying low rates of overseas tax, following Starbucks, Facebook and Google in recent weeks. It has not been suggested that any of their tax avoidance schemes are illegal.

All of the companies pay considerable amounts of other taxes in the UK, such as National Insurance, and raise large sums of VAT.

Apple's figures for foreign tax appear on page 61 of its form 10-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The form is used to summarise the performance of public companies."

Source: BBC

Motherboard & CPU:

Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT (A85X) on eTeknix.

ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M on Hardware Secrets.

RAM:

Patriot Viper 3 PC3-15000 8GB Dual Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown.

Kingston HyperX Predator 2666MHz 8GB Kit on Pro-Clockers.

Video Card:

Patriot Viper 3 PC3-15000 8GB Dual Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown.

Kingston HyperX Predator 2666MHz 8GB Kit on Pro-Clockers.

Storage:

Intel 335 series 240GB SSD on Guru3D.

Vantec NST-D400SU3 NexStar Dual Bay Hard Drive Dock on Pro-Clockers.

LOL!  @Apple, the world's "richest" company ... can't even get their words right! Which begs the question ... how much are they paying for their lawyers? Oh well ...

"Apple has 48 hours to re-write a statement on its website relating to its design rights dispute with Samsung, UK judges have ruled. Apple was forced on 18 October to publish a message making it clear that Samsung had not infringed the iPad's registered design.

However Samsung complained the statement Apple had posted did not comply with the court order. Judges agreed and have told Apple it must be removed within 24 hours.

A new, compliant version must then be posted. Michael Beloff QC, representing Apple, told judges that the company had thought that it had complied with the court order. "It's not designed to punish," he said.

"It's not designed to make us grovel. The only purpose must be to dispel commercial uncertainty." He asked that the company be given 14 days to post the replacement - but the request was firmly denied."

Source: BBC

One of our long time supporters, OCZ Technology has been hit hard by the downturn over the past few years. Our friends at Dailytech has reported that OCZ will be restructuring their business and reducing their workforce by as much as 28% ...

"OCZ Technology Group, Inc. OCZ +16.30% , a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today issues this update to better inform its customers, investors, partners, and stakeholders about the status of its current business operation.

"We are undergoing a transition phase in the Company's evolution in which we are refocusing our efforts on products and strategies that will benefit both OCZ and our stakeholders over the long term," said Ralph Schmitt, CEO of OCZ Technology. "We have already taken aggressive steps to address some short-term tactical challenges and have begun streamlining the organization to help ensure that OCZ will be in the best position moving forward to address the fast growing consumer and enterprise SSD markets."

Source: Marketwatch

Megaupload is no more ... long live Me.ga.The new site will be launched around around January 2013.

"Kim Dotcom has announced plans for Mega, a service to replace his shut down file-sharing website Megaupload. Mega is expected to use encryption methods which will mean only users will know what they are uploading.

It will be decided in March whether Mr Dotcom should be extradited from New Zealand to the US to face charges relating to copyright theft. The 38-year-old said he would launch Mega on 20 January 2013 - a year to the day since his arrest.

By keeping details of files uploaded on Mega secret from the site's administrators, Mr Dotcom said he believed this would mean the site was not in violation of US laws. "The new Mega will not be threatened by US prosecutors," he said.

"The new Mega avoids any dealings with US hosters, US domains and US backbone providers and has changed the way it operates to avoid another takedown."

Source: BBC

Well what did you expect ... they do make the iPhones, iPads, iPods and anything with an Apple logo on it!

"EMS provider Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) has reported unconsolidated revenues of NT$711.06 billion (US$24.33 billion) for third-quarter 2012, with net profit rising 139.94% sequentially to NT$30.256 billion.

Foxconn's board of directors on October 30 decided to issue unsecured corporate bonds worth up to NT$18.0 billion (US$614 million), the company indicated."

Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, October 2012

Japanese manufacturers have been hit hard over the last few years, including Sony, Sharp and others too.

"Panasonic has projected that it will make a loss in the current financial year because of falling sales and a jump in restructuring expenses. It has forecast a net loss of 765bn yen ($9.6bn; £5.9bn). It had earlier projected a 50bn-yen profit.

The firm has been trying to restructure its business and said costs relating to that were expected to be almost 11 times more than previously estimated.

Its sales have been hit by slowing demand for TVs and a strong yen. Panasonic also reported that it made a loss of 698bn yen in the July-to-September quarter.

The firm said that continued uncertainty in the global economy over the eurozone debt crisis and the slowdown in Asian economies, including China, had hurt demand for electronics goods."

Source: BBC