damaged

If you bought Apple's iPhone 5 today and noticed a ding on it, you're not alone.

On message boards and social media, new iPhone 5 owners are complaining of small scratches and nicks on their new smartphones, purportedly located near the antenna markers on the side of the device or near the screen. The issues appear mostly limited to the black version of the iPhone 5. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

We spotted at least three dozen examples of consumers frustrated with small abrasions discovered after unboxing their shiny new iPhone.

… Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The $2.4 billion Apple says Samsung earned on devices with Apple's looks and technology is certainly a hefty sum, but about $1.7 billion off, according to Samsung.

To prove that, the company called on Michael Wagner, a former partner at PriceWaterhouse with 36 years of calculating corporate damages, who said that Apple's own damages expert had left out major parts of Samsung's financial data when making its calculation.

"[Apple's] total calculation of total profits did not include the total cost to figure out the profits," Wagner told the … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- $2.5 billion is a lot of money, and it's the low end of what Apple says Samsung should pay for selling products that look and feel like the iPhone and iPad.

But just how did Apple reach that tally?

To explain, Apple today called on Terry Musika, a certified public accountant who has been involved with more than 200 intellectual property cases, including this one between the two tech giants.

In short, it's complicated.

"The calculation had to be done on a phone by phone, tablet by tablet basis," Musika said. &… Read more

Every iPhone owner should have two things: a protective case, and a warranty that covers accidental damage. You know, the kind inflicted by toddlers, car tires, and sudden bursts of gravity.

Don't believe me? A post I wrote two years ago -- "Shatter your iPhone 4 screen? Here's how to fix it" -- has been viewed more than any other post I've ever written. In other words, iPhone damage happens all...the...time.

You can buy a case, yes, and you can buy accidental damage protection from the likes of Apple or SquareTrade. Or you … Read more

Samsung says that its Galaxy S3 has been exonerated following an earlier report of it burning up.

According to the company, it hired a third-party organization, Fire Investigations U.K., to inspect the damaged device. That investigation found that the trouble occurred in June after an "energy source" was used to heat the device and cause the damage.

"The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner's damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave," the investigation found, according to Samsung.… Read more

Apple has won a patent related to detecting water damage in a gadget.

The patent, 8,210,032, describes a method by which customer service representatives can quickly determine if a product has been damaged by water. In order for the invention to work, Apple says that a detector would be placed inside an enclosed device and provide "at least one visual indication after being immersed in water." The detector, Apple says, is strategically placed within the enclosed device so users can determine water damage from the outside.

Apple filed for the patent in January 2010. However, the … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--In what might have been the shortest hearing yet during the case of Oracle v. Google, legal teams from both sides met Monday at the U.S. District Court to clean up unresolved financial issues surrounding the case.

There were three major points discussed and finalized during the 25-minute session.

First, Oracle filed a stipulation earlier in the day in which Google has been asked to pay $0 in statutory damages (in reference to the nine lines of code in the rangeCheck method and the test files). Oracle has done this to move proceedings along faster as it works … Read more

After the story of a ransacked home surfaced last year, accommodations marketplace Airbnb has decided to offer hosts security with promises of more money.

Airbnb committed to covering up to $1 million in damage resulting from a booking, up from its $50,000 "Host Guarantee," the company announced today.

It said the host guarantee, backed by Lloyd's of London, is not insurance, and it doesn't cover cash and securities, collectibles, rare artwork, jewelry, pets and personal liability. The company called the move "an unmatched level of protection in the industry."

When asked for comment, … Read more

Sometimes we need to see to believe. I remember understanding on an intellectual level, from a young age, that smoking was bad, but I didn't really get it on a visceral level until I saw a smoker's blackened lungs. The effect was so profound that, to this day, I go so far as to hold my breath when walking past people smoking.

Unfortunately, it's not easy to peer inside our own bodies and check out the health of our lungs. It's also difficult to see the effects sun exposure is having on our skin, especially when … Read more