Apple insists it will intervene on behalf of developers being sued by patent troll Lodsys,reports Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents. This insistence on behalf of Apple shows that the company is serious about stepping in on behalf of developers of software on the App Store that use the in-app purchasing components of Apple’s API’s. In June, Apple hadmoved to interveneon behalf of the developer defendants of Lodsys’ patent infringement suits. Lodsysthen replied, saying that Apple had no right to intervene because the developers weren’t actually Apple’s customers and didn’t have a de-facto license for the technology involved, even though Apple itself is a licensor....

At today’s ‘Spring Loaded’ event, Apple fired a shot that could remodel the whole podcast industry. And, damn, I’m excited. Tim Cook announced two major things that’ll have a large impact on the industry. The first is a long awaited redesign of the Podcasts app. Cook mentioned that each show will have a dedicated page, as well as a browsing function that will help people discover more shows. This is sorely needed — as anyone who has uses the current Apple Podcasts app is well aware of its limitations....

Remember Psystar? They’re a company that, back in 2008, began selling clones of Mac computers with copies of OS X installed on them. Essentially they were PC’s that were built with special hardware that was compatible with Apple’s OS. The company was eventually banned from selling its ‘OpenMac’ computers, which were powered by retail copies of OS X. Just yesterday, Judge Mary Schroeder, of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Psystar’s clones do violate Apple copyrights and that the ban will be upheld,reports Cnet....

Apple has filed a motion for preliminary injunction against Samsung in the U.S. today,reportsFlorian Miller of FOSS Patents. The injunction is specifically aimed at four Samsung products, the Infuse 4G, Galaxy S 4G, Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1.Updated with statement from Samsung below. The motion, if granted, would force Samsung to remove many of its flagship products from the market and make significant design changes to them in order to satisfy the conditions....

Credited with revolutionising mobile phone user interfaces, Apple sought to protect its brand by applying to patent its popular iOS icons and overlays. This week, the Cupertino-based company was granted 24 patents in relation to its icons and onscreen input buttons which also cover utilities and productivity folders. PatentlyApple reportsthat since the start of the year Apple has been busy protecting its brand, particularly in the EU, filing five major design patent documents....