Three UK judges are not pleased with Apple's shenanigans in complying with court orders to publicly acknowledge that Samsung did not copy Apple's iPad. Stalling, delays, "false and misleading" additions to the statement, and website design tricks have gotten the British judges a little hot under the collar.

Verizon Wireless CFO Fran Shammo said on Thursday that he expected the network's rollout of LTE to be completed by mid-2013. This is ahead of the earlier stated end-of-2013 projection, and it will put the LTE network on par with the carrier's 3G coverage and make it the biggest LTE network in the U.S.

AT&T is getting set to offer a US$100 discount on tablet devices, including the LTE iPad, when sold with a two-year data plan contract. This would be the first time an iPad has been subsidized by a carrier, a tactic that has been applied to iPhones and other smartphones for years.

Apple argued in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in San Jose, California, that the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system should be added to an existing lawsuit against Samsung. The company also sought to add the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 to the suit, claiming that it too infringes on Apple's patents.

Apple's lawsuit over the library of patents Google acquired when it purchased Motorola Mobility was set to go to trial in Madison, Wisconsin today. That is, until District Judge Barbara Crabb threw out the lawsuit just hours before the trial was scheduled. She dismissed the case based on her concerns that she did not have the authority to hear the claims.

Apple updated iPhoto to version 9.4.2 on Thursday, adjusting many of the social features of the software including the "Shared with" and "Like" options of the Photo Stream, among other things.

The online Apple store is now showing a 1-week delay in shipping for the 4th generation iPad. The delay applies to all colors and configurations of the device. The iPad mini, introduced just a week ago, also sold out quickly and has been showing a 2-week delay in shipping since Monday morning.

Apple revamped Euro App Store pricing Friday morning, raising the minimum price of app in the process. The lowest price tier increased from  €0.79 to €0.89, now roughly US$1.15, and the company cited changes in currency exchange rates as the reason for the change.

After eight years, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is parting ways with Research In Motion's BlackBerry and moving to iPhones. The switch will involve devices for 17,600 employees and US$2.1 million. ICE said BlackBerry "can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency."

The Mac Observer Spin: Having your market disrupted can hurt, and RIM and Nokia both have been struggling. RIM has been able to count on strong support in corporate and governmental IT departments, but that support is eroding.

Apple has begun construction on its Prineville, Oregon data center. They purchased 160 acres of land  in February for US$5.6 million for such a facility. The first phase of construction will be for a 338,000 square-foot building that could be the first of two at the location.

Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm that works with the U.S. government, has eliminated support for BlackBerry. It will no longer purchase BlackBerry devices for its employees and is removing its BlackBerry server, effectively cutting off email to existing BlackBerry devices.

The Mac Observer Spin: RIM has promised a worth-the-wait upgrade with its BlackBerry 10 phones, but will the twice-delayed phone is now expected in early 2013, it seems that many are finding it not worth the wait.

Apple will be holding a conference for MFi accessory manufacturers in Shenzen, China on Nov 7-9. The hot topic will be the new Lightning connectors that were introduced with the iPhone 5. Apple has changed its policies regarding accessories and will use the venue to discuss those changes with the industry.

Apple is reportedly set to sole-source its quad-core processors from the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). TSMC specializes in 20nm process and is expected to be the only supplier of these types of chips to Apple for the next year or two.

The Mac Observer Spin: This move toward TSMC would shut out Samsung as a supplier for these chips, and with Apple recently hiring Jim Mergard, a lead chip designer, from Samsung, it seems Apple is doing its best to part ways with Samsung, at least for processors.

Apple has hired Jim Mergard, a chip designer who has worked for AMD and most recently Samsung.  Of course Samsung and Apple have a convoluted relationship, with Apple using Samsung as a supplier at the same time each company is suing the other for patent infringement. Any movement of high-level talent between the two is notable.

In case you thought the Apple vs. Samsung trial was over, last week Samsung asked for a new trial based on juror misconduct. And this week Apple countered with a response calling such claims "baseless" and "frivolous."

Samsung has added new prior art to its case against Apple in a German court that may threaten the preliminary injunction that is in place against the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is one more move in a long legal contest and a ruling isn't likely anytime soon. Even then it will be subject to appeal.

When Apple finally decided to add a clock app to the iPad, it went with a classic, timeless design - one owned by the Swiss national rail company (SBB) since 1944. Rather than take umbrage at the move, SBB is looking at the bright side of life and seeing the potential exposure the app can have for them. They will, however, be meeting with Apple to discuss the situation.

Apple has asked the courts for another $707 million in damages from Samsung, and that's on top of the $1.05 billion already awarded by a federal jury after it found Samsung guilty of willful infringement on Apple design and utility patents.  For its part, Samsung has called the existing damages "unfair" and asked for a retrial.

The Mac Observer Spin: Samsung's comments suggest the company remains unrepentant. The "monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners" comment is particularly odious. It might play well with Android zealots who believe that innovation just happens, but it's utterly divorced not only from reality, but from the very case the company is whining about.

Apple has purchased another 200 acres near its Maiden, NC data center, presumably for a second solar farm in an effort to meet its pledge to run the facility on 100 percent renewable energy by the end of the year. This new land will double the size of the solar array producing power for the center.

Apple is reportedly looking to build yet another data center, this time in Hong Kong. This would be the company's first data center located outside of the United States. It's another indication of Apple's interest in the Asian, and specifically the Chinese, market.

A report out of Taiwan has production of the rumored iPad mini being split between two manufacturers. Until now, Foxconn has been the sole producer of Apple's existing iPad line, but Pegatron will reportedly be picking up 50-60 percent of the production of the iPad mini.

The Mac Observer Spin: It's always good to have your eggs in more than one basket. When you're a manufacturer of Apple's size, anything you can do to diversify your supply chain will make for a more stable supply chain in the long run.

Apple released a security bulletin listing 163 vulnerabilities in iTunes that were patched with version 10.7 this week. The underlying WebKit engine is the (open) source of these vulnerabilities. And Google was credited with fixing 74 of the 163 issues.

T-Mobile is the US's fourth largest carrier and it doesn't sell the iPhone. But that doesn't mean it isn't an iPhone network. In a new "Unlocked & Unlimited" promotion, T-Mobile is wooing owners of off-contract, unlocked iPhones to bring their device and take advantage of its unlimited data plans.

The Mac Observer Spin: T-Mobile could find iPhone customers to be even more profitable than Apple's actual U.S. partners (AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint). Those partners are paying the industry's steepest subsidies, as much as $400 per device, a subsidy that T-Mobile won't be paying.

A report out of China says that classes have been suspended and students have been bussed to Foxconn factories as "interns" to help meet the demand for workers to build the new iPhone. While these internships are paid, the students must pay for room and board, and the work may or may not be related to their studies. Perhaps more seriously, some reports suggest that they may not have the freedom to leave.

Adobe confirmed on Thursday that many of its Creative Suite 6 products will soon be optimized for HiDPI displays such as the Retina Display on the MacBook Pro. This enhancement will be available first to those Adobe customers subscribing to the Creative Cloud service, while other customers will need to wait for the next release of their software.

Nearly 300 million people worldwide have visited an Apple store since October 2011. That’s nearly the entire population of the United States. Through only 375 stores. That’s an average of 800,000 people per store. And if the number is current through July 2012, that’s 80,000 people per store per month. Whew!

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Sir Jonathan Ive, was interviewed by British paper The Telegraph, where he reiterated the company’s focus on design rather than profit.

The Taiwan-based National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) sued Apple in a Texas district court over two speech-recognition patents that it believes are used in Siri. It is seeking a permanent injunction as well as damages and expenses.

After a day-long hearing, U.S. District Judge George Daniels denited a request from Apple that its patent dispute with Kodak be moved to a federal district court in Manhattan rather than the bankruptcy court where it is currently under consideration. Judge Daniels wants to give bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper a chance to rule on some of the key issues first.

The lawyers in China representing Proview in its battle with Apple over the iPad trademark haven’t been paid yet. Proview claims it isn’t obligated to pay immediately since it isn’t operating under normal conditions. So like good lawyers, they filed a lawsuit against Proview for what they are owed.

Opera Software, makers of the web browser, released its first State of Mobile Advertising report Friday. The company found that iOS leads in effective cost per thousand impressions, followed by Android, and then in a very distant third place is Windows Phone.

The Clueful app  is no longer available on the App Store. Bitdefender’s app that scanned other installed iOS apps for their use of permissions and personal data had a brief two month run before being pulled off the virtual shelves.

HTC responded to a lawsuit by Apple by countersuing and adding in a couple of new patents of its own. HTC had been looking for patents to use in the ongoing “patent wars” when it acquired these from HP last December.

Apple is under fire again for its AppleCare warranty practices in the EU. The Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection (DECO) says it will sue Apple for misleading consumers into purchasing Apple Care extended warranty plans.

Apple has tried several methods to block both a hacker that last week announced a scheme that allows users to get in-app content without paying for it. So far, however, Apple has not yet succeeded in taking it down completely.

A new Food & Drink category is now available in the iTunes App Store. The category is meant for apps that “help users cook and bake, mix drinks, manage recipes, find new restaurants and bars, and learn what their friends like to eat and drink,” according to Apple.

The European Union has proposed changes in licensing rules for digital music that would allow music to be sold across all 27 EU countries. This would allow Internet music services such as iTunes to have one European store rather than a separate store in each of the 27 individual countries.

Amazon announced the introduction of GameCircle services for the Kindle Fire on Tuesday. Taking cues from Apple’s iOS (and soon to be Mac) Game Center, it tracks achievements, leaderboards, and allows for the syncing of games.

Apple was granted 22 new patents this week, three of which relate to iOS and are of some interest to end users. Those three involve prioritizing mobile media player files, song flow methodology in random playback, and a graphical user interface for viewing multiple application windows.

On July 10, AT&T will begin blocking phones that have been reported to a customer service representative as stolen. This will prevent the phone from being able to access data, text, or voice services but it does leave the account open rather than blocking the SIM entirely.

Apple updated Configurator to version 1.1 on Thursday. The new version of the enterprise iOS management software includes new preferences to change how automatic configuration is handled as well as improvements with the Volume Purchase Program.

Apple has been hit with yet another lawsuit in China over patent infringement. Zhizhen Network Technology claims that Apple’s Siri infringes on a patent the company has held since 2006.

The High Court in London has ruled that HTC did not infringe on patents which Apple claimed it had the rights to. Most notably, the slide-to-unlock feature was considered an “obvious” improvement to an earlier Nokia unlock screen and therefore Apple’s claim to innovation was rejected.

Chinese company Jiangsu Xuebao has filed suit against Apple accusing the American company of infringing on its Snow Leopard trademark in China. The company is best known for household products, but holds some trademarks in the electrical equipment and software categories.

California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday approved Apple’s new campus for fast-track treatment during its environmental review process. However, the fast-tracking will not affect either the scheduled mid-2013 start date or the 2015 completion date for the project.

Apple appears to be testing out a new configuration of the Genius Bar space in at least one of its stores. The table has been rotated 90-degrees to be perpendicular to the wall rather than parallel. This allows Geniuses to work on both sides and increases the capacity by 71%.

The Italian competition and market authority is still not happy with Apple’s AppleCare practices. After fining Apple €900,000 (US$1,132,559), it says Apple has not changed its ways. The regulatory body is considering another fine, up to €300,000 (US$377,519) and possibly closing down Apple operations for 30 days.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh granted Apple a second pre-trial injunction in just one week against Samsung, this time in regards to the Galaxy Nexus phone. The ban prohibits sale of the device in the U.S., and if upheld, represents a serious blow to the South Korea company.

The new iPad may be many things, but it’s not a power hog. A recent analysis shows it costs just $1.36 a year for all the email reading, web surfing, game playing, and app using that the iPads are known for.

Apple employees are now eligible for employee discounts of US$500 on Macs and $250 on iPads, discounts that are on top of the 25 percent discount already in place, according to online reports. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the plan back in January at a Town Hall meeting, and it went into effect this week.