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Weeks after pictures and video of an unauthorized Apple store in China (including fake Geniuses) made international headlines, authorities in the city of Kunming have found 22 more Apple stores that have not been licensed by the company.

Each of the stores have been ordered to stop using the Apple logo anywhere in their stores, and Apple China has accused the stores of unfair competition and trademark infringement.

China's Administration for Industry and Commerce in the Yunnan provincial capital says they will increase monitoring of the stores, and set up a complaint hotline.

The Administration did not reveal whether the stores were selling knockoff Apple products, or genuine products that were smuggled into the country to avoid taxes.

Last month, a blogger living abroad revealed the pictures and video of the store, which was so elaborate that the workers even believed they were working for the 'real deal.'

In March, AT&T announced its intention to purchase rival carrier T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, barring any anti-trust setbacks.

Today, a partially-redacted document accidentally posted by a law firm under contract for AT&T leaked online, via the FCC website, and the general consensus is the letter shows that the company is willing to spend over three years of profit just to reduce competition in the market place.

AT&T has been telling regulators that the deal will lead to job gains and network investment, but the new letter, sent to potential investors, shows that is blatantly untrue.

While the carrier has been telling regulators the acquisition will increase network investment by $8 billion, behind the scenes the company is saying the deal will actually help them reduce investment by $10 billion over the next six years.

T-Mobile said last year it planned to spend $3 billion a year in new infrastructure investments.

Additionally, AT&T has been telling regulators that they need T-Mobile in order to increase LTE network coverage, but the letter seems to prove that is also a lie. The letter states that it would cost just $3.8 billion to increase LTE coverage from its current 80 percent to 97 percent (the other 3 percent will likely never get 4G service). Clearly they do not "need" T-Mobile, at a $39 billion premium, when the costs of expanding is just under $4 billion.

Kodawarisan has reported today that Apple has scheduled an iPhone event for September 7th, with the much-anticipated iPhone shipping either later that month or in October.

Additionally, Apple will launch the next generation of the iPod line, including Touch, Nano and Video models.

The Japanese-based site has accurately reported Apple rumors over the past 2 years, and Apple normally reveals new iPods in September as part of their customary cycle.

Apple is expected to add an A5 dual-core processor to the iPhone 5, along with an 8MP camera and a re-designed form factor.

The company is also rumored to be releasing an "iPhone 4S," a version of the iPhone 4 with less memory and storage that is deeply integrated with the new iCloud platform and will cost $0 with contract.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has allegedly filed for a patent that would bring an "airbag"-type system to smartphones and other mobile devices.

The patent application, from last February, shows a system where the phone detects it is being dropped and then deploys a damage protection system, similar to airbags in cars.

Reads the patent application (via PCW):

While the size and weight of portable devices make them convenient to carry around, these characteristics often make them more susceptible to damage and loss. With the number of cellular phones in use exceeding several billion and repairs typically exceeding $25, the costs of damage and loss of cellular phones amounts to billions of dollars per year.

According to ABI Research’s "Media Tablets" study, Android devices have now taken 20 percent share in the tablet market, slowly but steadily gaining on the iPad, the clear leader in the space.

The study notes that there have not been any "iPad Killers," not even close, and the 20 percent has been a collective effort.

Researcher Jeff Orr blames fragmentation on the hampered growth, with Android devices running a range of operating systems, from 2.2 to 3.2.

Overall, tablet growth should be huge in 2011, with "de-featured, low-cost media tablets are being introduced by more than fifty vendors in 2011," says Orr. "This will certainly help bolster year-over-year growth for the category, but it also creates a negative perception in the minds of the mass consumer audience about the readiness of media tablets to be fully functional within the next several years."

Orr adds that worldwide annual media tablet shipments are expected to top 120 million units in 2015.

More info here: Android Takes 20% Media Tablet Market Share from iPad in Last 12 Months

Rovio, the Finnish company behind the blockbuster hit 'Angry Birds' series, could be worth $1.2 billion, if reports are accurate.

The developer is allegedly in talks with investors for investments that would value the company well past the billion mark.

In under 2 years, all iterations of Angry Birds have been downloaded over 300 million times, and remain top hits on Android and iOS.

The game is free for Google Chrome users, and PC/Mac users can download a standalone game, as well.

Sources claim the investment will be a "strategic investment from a company in the entertainment business."

While a few names have been tossed around as potential suitors, two that stand out as high probability are Disney and Zynga.

HTC has announced an investment in Beats Electronics, the headphone maker.

The financials have not been released, but rumor has it HTC has spent around $500 million to purchase a 51 percent controlling stake in Beats.

Founded by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, Beats has quickly become a premiere name in "high-end audio" performance, as well as a status symbol in headphones.

HTC says Beats will continue to run "as usual," and upcoming HTC devices will include Beats audio technology.

It is unclear whether devices will come with a set of Beats headphones, as well.

According to Trevor Sheridan of Apple'N'Apps, Apple is looking to release an "iCloud iPhone" this year, alongside the launch of the iPhone 5.

The iCloud device will use the same parts as the iPhone 4, but with less memory and storage (to save money), and could cost $0 with contract.

Integrated directly into the cloud, the iCloud iPhone will help Apple keeps its 40%+ margins whilst releasing a device that can compete on a price level with low-end Android phones.

Says Sheridan:

The iPhone 5 will be a quality upgrade, but the star of the show will be the cheaper iCloud iPhone alternative. Apple wants to offer a lower priced iPhone while still maintaining their industry leading profit margins.

According to our sources, Apple is going to do this by using less on board Flash memory which are also falling in price. When looking at the iSuppli cost breakdown of the parts of the iPhone 4, the storage accounts for 15% of the cost to build the device, and that's true for the 3GS as well. Reducing 15% of the cost across millions of units is a substantial savings. The iCloud model will be for users who will want to use the iCloud heavily for storage, and keep a lot less on the iPhone itself. This will also help Apple make iCloud a feature by itself and reason to use the entire Apple ecosystem.

World's largest chipmaker puts money where mouth is.

The company will create a $300 million Ultrabook Fund to drive innovation for the new category of devices. Ultrabook systems promise the performance and features of today's high performance laptops will offering today's popular tablet-like features.

Ultrabook devices will deliver a highly responsive and secure experience in a thin, light and elegant design at mainstream prices. The Ultrabook fund will invest in firms building hardware and software solutions that benefit Ultrabooks, such as innovative physical designs, longer battery life and improved storage capacity at small form factors.

"Ultrabook devices are poised to be an important area for innovation in the $261 billion global computer industry," said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. "The Intel Capital Ultrabook fund will focus on investing in companies building technologies that will help revolutionize the computing experience and morph today's mobile computers into the next 'must have' device."

Pair brings end to long-running legal battles over patents.

Sony Corp and LG Electronics announced early on Thursday that the companies have moved to resolve patent disputes over products ranging from Smartphones to Blu-ray players. "LG and Sony recently agreed to drop patent infringement lawsuits against each other," a spokeswoman at South Korea's LG Electronics said.

Both companies have clashed in the United States and the European Union in recent years sine failing to renew a technology sharing agreement. Sony filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that sought a ban on the import of LG smartphones, such as the Rumor Touch.

In March this year, an LG complaint against Sony resulted in the seizure of PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles by customers officers in the Netherlands. LG also told the ITC in the United States that Sony's PS3 violated patents related to the Blu-ray Disc technology.

Sony offered no public comment on the resolution of the global patent fight.

"Cloud console" service to launch in the region on September 22.

Available in the United States for more than a year, Onlive allows gamers to play titles on a variety of hardware and gadgets. That's because the computation is done on remote servers, while only the video and sound is streamed to the user, while the user's commands are sent to the servers.

The promise of such a service is the ability to play high quality and graphically intense video games on systems with very low spec hardware. Onlive is not perfect yet however, but it is a good start and receives mostly favourable reviews.

"There are some sacrifices," said Scott Lowe, executive editor at games website IGN. "You lose a little bit of the clarity and the graphics don't stack up as well as something like a PC or a console, but you do get most of the major gist of the experience."

Onlive has put a lot of effort into making all the underlying hardware as low latency as possible, to minimise any delays in feedback experienced at home.

A concern that the service needs to address in the UK is its need for bandwidth and potential high data usage. It's lowest connection speed (to deliver compressed video) is 1Mbit/s, which can amount to more than 450MB of data downloaded easily per hour.

Small label Century Media, along with its associated labels "InsideOutMusic", “Superballmusic” and “People Like You" have pulled their music from Spotify, citing declining CD sales.

Says the label:

While everyone at the label group believes in the ever changing possibilities of new technology and new ways of bringing music to the fans, Century Media is also of the opinion that Spotify in its present shape and form isn’t the way forward. The income streams to the artists are affected massively and therefore that accelerates the downward spiral, which eventually will lead to artists not being able to record music the way it should be recorded. Ultimately, in some cases, it will completely kill a lot of smaller bands that are already struggling to make ends meet.

At the same time Century Media also believes that Spotify is a great tool to discover new music and is in the process of reintroducing their bands to Spotify by way of putting up samplers of the artists. This way, fans can still discover the great music released by the label.

Facebook has announced the launch of "Facebook Messenger," a standalone app for iOS and Android.

Messenger will focus on chat and messaging, give users a chance to message FB friends directly, without needing to open Facebook and navigate the site.

Additionally, the app will deliver the messages via notifications or texts, so your FB buddies are likely to see it more promptly.

You can create group convos, as well, notes FB.

Finally, the company says:

The Messenger app is an extension of Facebook messages, so all your conversations are in one place, including your texts, chats, emails and messages. Whether you're on your phone or on the web, you can see the full history of all your messages.

Court documents indicate iPad-maker is targeting another rival tablet in the EU.

Apple has a lot of patent warfare history with Motorola. In the United States, there are four ongoing federal lawsuits between the pair, and two investigations being carried out by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). In total, over 40 patents are part of the disputes.

Having scored a victory against Samsung Electronics in Europe by getting a German court to ban the import and sale of Galaxy tablet PCs, it has emerged that Apple is also targeting Motorola's Xoom tablet PC, launched in February, in Europe.

Apple claims that the Xoom tablet infringes its registered EU Community Design for the iPad tablet. In its complaint filed in the German court (against Samsung), Apple also said it filed a complaint against a company called JAY-tech for the same reason, and has obtained a preliminary injunction against it.

It's not clear if Apple has requested an injunction against the import and sale of the Xoom, similar to the one granted against the Samsung Galaxy Tab, yet.

Federal Communications Commission examines NG911 - Next Generation 911.

With the widespread use of smartphones, wouldn't it be much better if you could use their features in the event of an emergency? The FCC is pushing an upgrade to the 911 emergency system in the U.S. that would let users send video feeds, photos and other communications that would be sent to first responders.

"It's hard to imagine that airlines can send text messages if your flight is delayed, but you can't send a text message to 9-1-1 in an emergency," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said at the 2011 APCO Conference in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Next month, the regulator is expected to address the technical issues behind enabling text, photo and video transmissions to 911 services. One area of concerns is whether the broadband infrastructure can handle the necessary bandwidth for the service to work as proposed.

An official said that NG911 services could be available within 5-10 years, if the program is properly funded.

FCC Five-Step Action Plan to Deploy Next Generation 9-1-1

• Develop location accuracy mechanisms for NG-911: The FCC's Location Accuracy proceeding (July 2011 agenda item) has launched development of a framework for providing automatic location information in the NG911 environment.
• Enable consumers to send text, photos, and videos to PSAPs (NPRM): Next month, the FCC will consider an NPRM to accelerate NG911 adoption. The NPRM will help answer practical, technical questions about how to enable text, photo, and video transmission to 911, including how to ensure adequate broadband infrastructure to deliver the bandwidth PSAPs will need to provide NG911. As part of the NPRM, the FCC will examine interim solutions for ensuring that carriers/service providers support transmission of text-to-911.
• Facilitate the completion and implementation of NG911 technical standards: For NG911 to be effective, we need technical standards for the hardware and software that carriers and public safety answering points (PSAPs) use to communicate NG911 information. The FCC will work with NG911 stakeholders to resolve NG911 standards issues and facilitate consistent and coordinated implementation of a standards-based architecture.
• Develop a NG911 governance framework: Because no single governing entity has jurisdiction over NG911, the FCC will work with state 911 authorities, other Federal agencies, and other governing entities to provide technical expertise and develop a coordinated approach to NG911 governance.
• Develop an NG911 Funding Model: To assist 911 authorities and Congress in considering NG911 funding options, the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau will prepare a cost model focused on the cost-effectiveness of the NG911 network infrastructure linking PSAPs and carriers.