News written by James Delahunty (July, 2013)

According to a report in Korean media, Apple will launch a version of its iPhone 5S in South Korea that supports LTE-Advanced.

SK Telecom will carry the new iPhone on its recently launched LTE-Advanced network in South Korea. LTE-Advanced is true 4G wireless communication, offering considerable download speed improvements over the pre-4G LTE technology.

"SK Telecom is approaching Apple to put our LTE-A technology on the upcoming iPhone 5S. We are in the middle of negotiations," said an SK Telecom executive, requesting anonymity, told the Korea Times.

Samsung also announced its Galaxy S4 LTE-A for the same operator in Korea just last week. The SK Telecom network supports download speeds of up to 150Mbps, the fastest commercial mobile network in the world.

HP is reportedly going to re-enter the smartphone business despite its previous missteps in slicing a piece of the global smartphone pie.

It took a risky shot when it bought Palm for $1.2 billion, which produced devices that ran the much-praised WebOS software. However, in hindsight the move was a costly mistake for HP, but that doesn't mean it is done with smartphones just yet.

HP Senior Director Consumer PC and Media Tablets Asia Pacific, Yam Su Yin, was asked whether or not the company would release another smartphone.

"The answer is yes but I cannot give a timetable. It would be silly if we say no. HP has to be in the game," she said.

She also said that HP was focused on all segments, including tablet PCs, notebook PCs and all-in-ones.

Nintendo of America has failed in its attempt to gain control over the WiiU.com domain name after filing a cybersquatting complaint in February.

The WiiU.com domain is privately held, and Nintendo would like to take control of it for obvious reasons. However, the the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) declined to have the domain forcefully handed over to Nintendo.

WiiU.com was registered all the way back in 2004, around seven years before Nintendo first announced a Wii U console was on the horizon, in April 2011.

Nintendo will now have to try another approach to get the domain, like simply buying it from the current owner.

Microsoft is also seeking to get control of two domain names - XboxOne.com and XboxOne.net - both registered in December 2011 by a resident of London.

Regulators do differentiate between a legitimate use of a registered domain name, and the practice of intentionally registering large amounts of domain names with potential future trademarks in them, for whatever reason.

Germany has passed a law that sets fixed limits on the fines that can be imposed on Internet users who share music, movies or other material illegally.

The German government moved to impose limits in an effort to stop the practice of sending out massive numbers of messages to German Internet users demanding enormous sums of money for individual copyright violations.

"Some law firms have created a business model out of copyright-violation warnings. It has got out of control," said Germany's Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.

Under the new law, individual claims are limited to €1,000, and in the case of first time offenders the warning fine, to cover legal expenses, would be capped close to €200.

The Federation of German Consumer Organizations reports that over 4.3 million Germans down to the age of 14 have received warnings of this nature.

Copyright holders warn that this new law could give the wrong message to Internet users, while some digital rights advocates warn that the new law can still be abused due to a vaguely defined "special cases" exception.

Spain's Telefonica carrier will be the first to offer a smartphone running Firefox OS to consumers when it begins selling the ZTE Open on Tuesday, July 2.

Firefox OS is a smartphone operating system built by Mozilla that relies heavily on existing web technologies, such as HTML 5 to deliver apps and functionality to its users. It is described as a browser-based, open source operating system.

The ZTE Open is not a very powerful smartphone - Qualcomm MSM7225A Snapdragon, 1.0GHz Cortex 5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB RAM with 5.3-inch, 320x480 display - but it is not intended to rival smartphones coveted by the spec-anxious users.

Instead the ZTE Open is intended to provide a low-cost proof of concept of Firefox OS. Telefonica will offer the ZTE Open for €69, including €30 of balance for prepaid customers and a 4GB microSD card. For customers on contract, the ZTE Open costs €2.38 per month ex IVA for 24 months.

Apple has submitted a trademark application for 'iWatch' in Japan, according to the Japan Patent Office website.

The trademark application was submitted by the iPad-maker on June 3, but was only added to the website on June 27.

There has been plenty of speculation that Apple was going to release an iWatch device as the company - and the wider tech industry - explores the area of wearable technology as a potential new source of revenue.

Sony announced its new SmartWatch 2 last week, which combines with an Android phone to bring notifications, messages, updates and all kinds of stuff to a users' wrist.

Foxcon is also working on its own smartwatch device that will be compatible with iPhones.

Apple CEO Tim Cook did admit that Apple is exploring the area too, but appeared to be cautious about the willingness of consumers to wear tech.

"There's nothing that's going to convince a kid who has never worn glasses or a band or a watch to wear one, or at least I haven't seen it," Cook said.