Apple has reached a settlement in the region of $60 million equivalent of £38 million to secure the ownership of the ipad name in China.

There has been a long dispute over ownership with Chinese company Proview Technology. Apple claimed that they had already bought the rights in a deal with the company in 2009 but they never transferred the rights.

A Chinese court declared that Proview still owned the name, which led to negotiations by Apple to buy the rights once and for all.

Proview where believed to have pitched for a sale of $400 million but came under pressure from the Chinese government to settle. As they want to attract technology investors to further enhance the Chinese economy.

The final settlement was $60 million, which will allow Apple to push on and launch the ipad 3 in China. There is a huge demand in China for ipads so the pay out will soon be re-compensated for Apple. It is their second biggest market after the USA.

It is important to point out in this case that Proview where not trademark squatters who had registered the name. They had bought the name before the launch of the ipad which is why they had a legitimate case.

It’s an app that allows you to make smartphone photos look dated, blurred, and more. Bought by Facebook for $1billion.

Take a picture then use the different filters that include Polaroid, sepia and black and white styles. You can blur distort and generally play around with your photos adding another element to your standard photo. Before sharing via your social networks.

The founders of Instagram are Kevin Systrom and co-founder Mike Krieger they set up the company 18 months ago and have already gained over 30 million users on iPhone and android devices. The company has 13 employees and are all set to benefit from the sale.

It’s gained some famous fans with Justin Bieber, Rhianna among some of their regular users having posted snaps on their twitter and Facebook pages.

Mark Zuckerberg became aware of the company and was impressed by the 5 million images being uploaded daily. The potential and the surge in popularity meant the facebook founder was willing to offer $1 billion to secure the rights.

Many independent games publishers have been spurred on by the success of Rovio the Finnish games producers who produced Angry Birds. OMGPOP is an independent producer who released ‘Draw Something’ which was released 2 months ago and has already reached 30 million downloads from android and iphones.

If I was to describe the game, it’s kinda like Pictionary. You are given a word to draw like football , Elvis, monkey etc. you then draw your picture on screen for facebook friends to guess what it is. It’s a very clever way to combine gaming and social elements.

With over 13 million daily users currently the game has sparked interest from big game producers like Zynga negotiations are rumoured to be taking place and only an offer in excess of $200 million dollars could tempt the producers to sell.

The real genius of this game is it appeals to everyone not just the gamers. It has a real social element which is drawing in friends that may not of traditionally played mobile games.

My advice is to –  try it, draw it, share it !

Apple have organised an event next week which we presume will see the announcement of the iPad 3.

The title of the event is “We have something you really have to see. And touch” will take place in San Francisco next week.
Apple generally update their products on an annual basis and the iPad 2 was announced in March last year.
It is believed the iPad3 will have a better display with twice the resolution of the iPad 2.
We expect other developments to the processor, improved storage and camera, and hopefully an improvement to Siri- the voice controlled assistant that Apple produced.
The first iPad launched in 2010 and sold 55 million devices since. The CEO for Apple Tom Cooke has expressed the importance of the product in the companies portfolio so we see a continued success for the iPad 3
Apple has sold 55 million iPads since the device first launched in 2010.