Though Shenzen Proview Technology can’t count on the Chinses custom to ban import and export of iPads in their country, at least stores in China are joining their cause.
iPads were seized in the central city of Zhengzhou and the eastern port of Qingdao, reports a website run by newspaper China Business News, as well as in the cities of Shijiazhuang and Xuzhou, as stated in a report by the Washington Post.

Proview is asking other retailers to seize iPads in stores in other Chinese cities, but some are not obliging to their request since they have not been given any orders to do so.  The Chinese media still reports that Proview is in debt, and that’s why they are looking for Apple to settle–for a cash influx.

“We’ve appealed to Apple through its agents to have a settlement, but so far we haven’t received any response from them,” said a Proview lawyer, Xie Xianghui. He declined to say how much Proview wants.

As for the US lawsuit Apple filed against Samsung, which originally targeted the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the case now encompasses more Samsung products with the addition of more patents in the lawsuits.  The patents added are:  U.S. Patent No. 6,847,959 “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system,”  United States Patent: 8014760, named “Missed telephone call management for a portable multifunction device,”  U.S. Patent No. 7,761,414, “Asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices,” and  the United States Patent: 5666502, “Graphical user interface using historical lists with field classes.”

The lawsuit now includes the following Samsung devices: Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, and Galaxy S II for both T-Mobile and AT&T, the Galaxy Nexus, Illusion, Captivate Glide, Exhibit II 4G, Stratosphere, Transform Ultra, Admire, Conquer 4G and Dart,  Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0, and the  Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 8.9.

In other Apple news, as the address book debacle, wherein Path uploads users iOS address book without their knowledge, was made public, Apple is now faced with the daunting task of addressing the issue, fixing the problem and assuring users that it will not happen again.

Apple promised to close the loophole that allows apps to harvest the content of users’ address books without specific permission after a letter from Congress members Henry Waxman and G K Butterfield was sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“One blogger claims to have conducted a survey of developers of popular iOS apps and found that 13 of 15 had a ‘contacts database with millions of records’ – with one claiming to have a database containing ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s cell phone number, Larry Ellison’s home phone number and Bill Gates’ cell phone number,” reads the letter.

“The fact that the previous version of Path was able to gain approval for distribution through the Apple iTunes Store despite taking the contents of users’ address books without their permission suggests that there could be some truth to these claims.”

Google-MoMo Deal Reviewed In China

The Chinese Commerce Ministry’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau is reviewing the $12.5 billion Google-Motorola Mobility deal.

“It is still in the process of checking and verification of relevant issues and we will release any news of development in a timely manner,” spokesman Shen Danyang said.

China’s approval is pertinent to the deal, as it will not push forward without China’s permission.  According to a report from Reuters, under the Chinese law, enterprises that run businesses in China and that earn annual revenues of 10 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) globally and 400 million yuan in China must seek government approval for a proposed acquisition.

As for Motorola, though the acquisition is still pending, they already announced which of their devices will get the Android 4.0 upgrade.  The Razr and Xoom will get the ICS by the second quarter while the Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition will get the update by the third quarter.

Android 5.0 Coming Soon

Thought the Android 4.0 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich is faced with a painfully staggered rollout, supply chain makers in Taiwan stated that Android 5.0 Jelly Bean will be released by the second quarter of 2012 ahead of Microsoft’s Window 8 which is slated for a third quarter release.

Android 5.0 will be optimized for tablets with the integration of the Chrome system functions to push dual-operating system designs.  Vendors will be given the option to use the Android 5.0 solely or with Windows 8.  According to the report in DigiTimes, Google also wants to make their mark on the netbook and notebook market with Android 5.0.  But with the difficult rollout of Android 4.0, Google’s partners are wary about the future of Android 5.0.

NVIDIA Takes On iPhone 4S

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stated that they are planning on making smartphones like Apple’s iPhone 4S at a fraction of the cost by using Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor paired with a 3G modem.  The cheap phones will be under a new phone segment called the “1,000 RMB phone.”  RMB 1,000 is about 75% less than the price of an iPhone 4S, which currently retails for RMB 4,988 in China (nearly $800).

The announcement was made during their earnings call wherein the chipmaker reported a fourth-quarter net income of $116 million, or 19 cents per share, compared to $172 million a year ago, or 29 cents a share.