Apple has won another battle this month at the U.S. International Trade Commission. The ruling dismissed patent claims by Google's Motorola Mobility against Apple's iPhone. If Motorola had prevailed, the ITC could have instituted a ban on imports of the iPhone into the United States from Apple's manufacturers in China.

Apple has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit related to children inadvertently making purchases in the Apple Store for iOS devices, according to Reuters. The class action lawsuit concerned customers who were charged when their children downloaded applications from the company's online store.

Apple should probably get ready for a lawsuit or a settlement agreement in Brazil. Brazil’s patent authority announced on Wednesday that Apple does not own the iPhone name in Brazil. That distinction belongs to a local company called Gradiente SA. While this ruling from the agency doesn't mean that Apple can't use the name for its products in the region, it does mean that Apple may have a court fight on its hands somewhere down the road.

It's hard to argue against a culture of violence influencing children when you release an iOS app that teaches kids ages 4+ how to aim a gun and more accurately shoot. Not that the newly released NRA-licensed game developed by MEDL Mobile, Inc. will turn your tiny tot into a killing machine - nor does the game include any type of violent content save the ability to fire a handgun at human shaped targets and clay targets. And to its credit, the game also offers plenty of safety tips for players to keep them from doing stupid things - we assume - in real life.

The Federal Trade Commission issued a Consent Order (PDF) this week forbidding Google from charging a lot of money for certain critical patents it gained when it bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in May 2012. This is good news for both Apple and Microsoft, but particularly for Microsoft because (according to Microsoft) Motorola Mobility wanted to charge $4 billion a year in royalties for patents Motorola holds on Wi-Fi and video technology.

Following yesterday's ruling by U.S District Judge Lucy Koh that rejected Apple's motion for a ban on the sale of three older Samsung devices still being sold in the U.S. that infringed on the company's iPhone-related patents, Samsung has decided to withdraw all of its requests for injunctions against Apple products currently pending in European courts.

According to All Things D, Apple has secured the regulatory approvals it needs from China to bring the iPhone 5 to the region, and this morning the company announced a release date for the phone: Dec. 14. Apple will launch the iPhone 5 after it launches the Wi-Fi versions of the iPad Mini and its fourth-generation iPad on Dec. 7

If you have ever thought to yourself "what would happen if Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and actor Danny Trejo teamed up to fight crime?" then the iOS game "Vengeance: Woz With A Coz" may be worth a look. The game turns that "other guy" that helped start Apple into an 8-bit hero in a side-scrolling beat 'em up, alongside popular actor Danny Trejo (Machete, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sons of Anarchy). Woz solicits the help of Trejo after his wife is kidnapped.

According to this Reuters report, Apple is now complying with local warranty laws in Italy after the company was threatened by the Italian government with shut downs of its local businesses and hefty fines if it did not comply. Last week Apple stopped selling its AppleCare warranty plans in its retail stores in Italy. The paid warranty program from Apple offers coverage after the limited warranty on an Apple product expires.

iPhone iOS 6 users are complaining that since they have started using Apple's new operating system for its hand-held devices, they have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of data they consume. UK publication The Guardian is reporting that a number of iOS 6 users have been complaining about a "significant hike" in their data usage, which translates into higher monthly mobile data usage bills.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is not happy with the direction of Apple. He has called the company "arrogant' while speaking out against the iPhone 5's design in a recent interview with Tech Central.

Wozniak says that Apple is arrogant for refusing to make the iPhone 5 larger. The phone is a bit smaller than competitors' phones - like Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Wozniak thinks this is a big mistake.

Samsung got some good news today: an appeals court has lifted the injunction against the Galaxy Nexus, which Apple won in a lower court. The court ruled today that Apple should not have been granted the ban in the first place.

According to this GamesIndustry International report, thousands of Foxconn employees continue to protest at various locations in China. The labor strike is the result of complaints about working conditions, which workers say have not been adequately addressed by the company. In case you have forgotten Foxconn helps build a variety of high end electronics for multiple companies including Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and many others.

According to this Tech Radar report, Samsung has gone ahead and added the iPhone 5 to the list of apple devices that infringe on its patents. The company has added the latest iPhone to eight complaints it has filed against Apple, claiming that its devices infringe on various patents it holds.

While Apple is celebrating the fact that it sold five million units of its iPhone 5 phone in three days since launch, the owners of the plant that make the device are not celebrating very much today as chaos and riots take all of its production offline.

World domination continues for the house that Steve Jobs built. In just three days of being on sale around the world, Apple proves that its iPhone is still the coolest cat on the block - at least according to the droves of consumers who continue to buy it. Apple announced this morning that in the first three days of launch it has already sold five million iPhone 5 phones around the world.

Apple has surpassed juggernauts like Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, Google and others as the most valuable company in history. The company responsible for the iPad and iPhone has reached a world record valuation of $623 billion today, making it the most valuable company in history. This beats out Microsoft's 1999 record of $620.58 billion (the figures were not adjusted for inflation, so it's still up for at least some debate).

Travis Baldree, president of Runic Games is publicly calling out Chinese mobile developer EGLS for stealing art assets and sound files from his company's game, Torchlight. The game in question is an iOS-based massively multiplayer game called Armed Heroes Online. Baldree noticed the striking similarities in the character art from the game and Torchlight and took to Twitter earlier this month to point it out:

In what could be considered taking a great stride towards the promise of Microsoft’s Smart Glass, the company has revealed that its My Xbox Live app is now fully compatible with Apple's iPad. Microsoft's app now provides the same capabilities that were added to other Apple devices last month including the iPhone and iPod touch.

Another day, another court doing the dirty work of one corporation against another. This time around it is Samsung who finds itself in the unenviable position of having the sale of its products banned in the United States.

Florian Mueller, patent law expert and proprietor of the wonderful web site Foss Patents, passed along a note letting us know that the Federal Trade Commission recently sent a letter to the International Trade Commission asking the organization not to ban the sale of the iPhone, iPad or Xbox 360 related to complaints filed by Google.

A horrible story out of China details a double murder that happened after a man found out he'd been sold a counterfeit iPhone. A man in the Zhenzhou, Henan province of north-central China spent $330 on a device that he thought was an Apple iPhone. Later he realized that the phone was a fake and was furious. The man, identified in news reports only as "Feng," was out for blood. He came across a gang of men trying to sell the same fake phone to a young boy. At this point he apparently lost all sense of self control and pulled out a knife.

Apple's social gaming network currently on the iOS will be supported by Mac OS X with the release of Update 10.8 Mountain Lion, according to Edge. Update 10.8 Mountain Lion is a paid update that will be released this summer. Like its iOS counterpart, Game Center on Mac will include support for achievements, scoreboards, online play, game invites and matchmaking, and add cross-platform play and in-game voice chat.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that his company is committed to working with manufacturing partners that offer its employees a "fair and safe work environment."

"Where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely. Apple's suppliers must live up to this to do business with Apple," he said.

In 2011 AT&T warned its heavy data using mobile customers that it would reduce their connection speed if said usage inched in to the "top five percent." AT&T is defining that metric as anyone who uses more that 2.1 GB of data a month. As chronicled in this NYT blog post, one of AT&T's customers hit the 2.1 GB mark and had his connection throttled. The problem, that customer says, is that he has a data limit of 3GB a month because a legacy unlimited plan.

Those who use jailbroken iPhones and enjoy pirating software are in for a rude awakening as Apple uses the DMCA to take out a frequently used service - Apptrackr. According to Apptrackr developer "Dissident," Apple has sent what he calls "huge takedown notices" to cut off access to pirated apps found through the software. Apptrackr has decided to move the physical location of its servers outside the United States to get around Apple's legal maneuvers and is also employing a form of redirection to avoid "direct" links to infringing content.

In a press release issued this morning video game retailer GameStop trumpeted the success of its iPod, iPhone and iPad buy-back / trade-in program. The company claims that in the months since it began accepting trades on iOS devices, it has seen "strong consumer enthusiasm for the program." GameStop customers trading in an iPod Touch get up to $180 in cash or in-store credit, up to $300 for an iPhone, and up to $400 for an iPad.

While Apple managed to get a number of preliminary injunctions against Samsung in other countries in their ongoing battle of trademark disputes related to iOS devices, it looks like the US courts aren't playing ball. US District Judge Judy Koh has denied Apple's request for a preliminary injunction that would have barred Samsung from selling its Galaxy brand tablets and smartphones on Friday. While thing could go Apple's way eventually after a full trial, the decision allows Samsung to continue to sell its Android-based devices without interference from the courts or Apple.

Apple announced today that its latest phone, the iPhone 4S, has broken sales records, with its latest offering enjoying 4 million in sales in its first weekend at retail. Apple started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4S in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan on October 7. On the first day of pre-orders, over 1 million customers reserved the device for its October 14 delivery date. The iPhone 4S launched on Friday.

According to a new report called "Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing US Digital Media Consumption Habits," Apple's iPad held 97.2 percent of all tablet internet traffic in the US in August 2011.