Singapore-based iOS developer Arun Thampi has discovered that the iOS Path app uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers - without asking. Path CEO Dave Morin offers everyone to have his/her data deleted as well as a future opt-in option. However, a lot of users (including developers) voice their anger on this breach of privacy.

A new organisation is introduced to the technology community at the CES: the Application Developers Alliance. The organisation wants to be the one professional association for mobile app developers, claiming to help them "build, test and ship great ideas." It seems quite US centric, but some services might come in handy for Europeans and others as well.

Courts in Australia and in the US have ruled in favour of Samsung concerning the blocking of its Galaxy Tab 10.1. Most likely, the device will make it to the shops in time for Christmas shopping.

CTIA and ESRB have now officially announced an age rating systems for apps. It will apply to six different storefronts, so developers/publishers selling their apps in American markets should take note of the new procedures to come. The two largest app store providers, however, decided not to join.

Christmas is a time of giving. Technology companies like to give, temporary injunctions that is. Now HTC might lose out on the 2011 Christmas business, as a patent firm insists on a 2009 court decision. Nevertheless, HTC is confident.

What you know from the movies is now to come for apps, at least the U.S. markets: age-ratings. So expect a new disclaimer: The following app is not recommended for viewers under the age of ...

The fight between Apple and Samsung continues and the Koreans had to take stick today. An Australian court granted a temporary ban on the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung might miss the Christmas sales. However, the company does not plan to rush into defence and risk an overall defeat.

If your impression right now is that everybody is suing everybody in the ICT industry... it's not that wrong. A study of Boston University researchers now found out, that the whole patent trolling costs 83 billion US-Dollars per year - that is more than a quarter of US industrial research and development spending.

Samsung sued Apple back in Down Under, reacting to a previously filed lawsuit by the iPad maker. While Apple accuses Samsung of copying their designs, Samsung responds with allegations of violating a number of their wireless-technology based patents. Meanwhile President Barack Obama has signed the US patent reform bill, bringing the biggest change in the American patent system since 1952.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 will not be allowed to be sold or marketed in Germany. The Düsseldorf district court decided to uphold the ban demanded by Apple. The judge followed Apple's reasoning, stating that the design of the Android-powered Galaxy Tab is too similar to the iPad and not the only technical solution for a tablet.

The Apple vs. Samsung legal dispute over copyright and patent issues reached Japan. After filing a suit in Germany and successfully stopping the sales of the Galaxy Tab 7.7, the Cupertino company now took the case to Japanese courts. A similar battle is going on in Australia, a Dutch court is also dealing with the same matter.

Google is a large multinational power, in a lot of ways. National powers, i.e. countries, have engaged with the company several times to make sure (or at least try) to limit Google's power to an acceptable level. Google's Android, running on nearly half of the smart phones worldwide, has attracted not only the antitrust officials in the US, but now also in South Korea: Yesterday, officials searched the company's offices in a raid.

The Galaxy Tab 7.7 was one on the highlights for Samsung at this year's IFA. Was, because it isn't any more. The tablet had to be removed from the Samsung booth because of a complaint by Apple. This is yet another chapter in the ongoing legal battle between the two companies over copyright and intellectual property issues. According to Apple, some of Samsung's products are too similar to their own designs.

The US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) holds a panel on questions around the Lodsys patent claims, which has also reached several developers now. The panel will be streamed live on 9 September at 9pm CEST (10pm EEST). Developers can post questions via Twitter or Email.

Samsung has made a move that shows how ridiculous they see Apple's claim that they have "slavishly copied" the iPad to create the Galaxy Tab: They have presented a clip of the 1969 movie "2001: A Space Odyssey", showing two astronauts using what looks very much like two iPads, to court. Implication: Apple stole design patterns from Stanley Kubrick.