Today’s mobile news roundup features: Apple and Samsung being found guilty of patent infringement; Facebook’s improved iOS app; Amazon to launch second Kindle on September 6; no Jelly Bean for Verizon and Sprint Galaxy Nexus; and China Mobile to acquire portion of iFlytek.

South Korean Court fined Apple and Samsung

As Apple and Samsung await the outcome of jury deliberations in the US, a court in South Korea found both companies guilty of infringing each other’s patents.  Samsung was found guilty of infringing one of Apple’s patents that refers to the bounce back technology which lets users know they’ve reached the end of a screen.  While Apple was found guilty of infringing two of Samsung’s patents, which involves telecom standards such as the technology that makes the transfer and transmission of data between devices more efficient.

The court imposed a limited ban on Apple’s iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2, and Samsung’s Galaxy SI, SII, Galaxy Tab and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.  Apple is to pay 40 million won in damages to Samsung while the South Korean company has to pay the Cupertino company 25 million won.

District court judge Bae Jun-hyun also stated that though there are a lot of similarities between Apple’s and Samsung’s devices, like the rectangular shape with round corners, “these similarities had been documented in previous products.”

He also added that, “Given that it’s very limited to make big design changes in touchscreen based mobile products in general… and the defendant [Samsung] differentiated its products with three buttons in the front and adopted different designs in camera and [on the] side, the two products have a different look.”

Facebook revamps iOS app, now faster

Facebook’s iOS product manager Mick Johnson announced that there’s a new version of Facebook for iOS available for download in the App Store.  The revamped app is now faster, as it’s written in native code wherein a layer of processing was effectively removed.  The older Facebook app version was built in HTML5 and though the app was quite fast, the new version is faster.

“We’ve rebuilt the app from the ground up, so now the app opens much faster and your news feed and notifications load right when you open Facebook,” said Johnson.

Amazon to launch 2nd Kindle on September 6

Amazon has sent out text invites for a press conference on September 6 in Santa Monica, California.  If you’re wondering what the text invite contains, here it is:

“Please join us for an Amazon Press Conference.”

Yes, just like most other invites from companies, this one offers no clue as to what people can expect at the conference.  But sources are suggesting that the second generation Kindle Fire will be unveiled at the press conference.  The timing is also significant, scheduled just days before Apple’s September 12 event where they’re expected to unveil the iPhone 5.

Verizon and Sprint yet to offer Jelly Bean update for Galaxy Nexus

If you’re a Galaxy Nexus users and wondering why you haven’t received the Android Jelly Bean upgrade yet, it might be due to your network provider.  If you’re on Verizon or Sprint, you’ve already probably noticed that the update hasn’t come yet.  The reason is still unknown, some suggests that Sprint and Verizon’s Nexus are CDMA version, which makes it harder to upgrade compared to the GSM version.  Another possible explanation is that the two networks are just slow in rolling out the upgrade.  Some suggest rooting your Galaxy Nexus but we all know the hazards of rooting one’s device: vulnerability to malware attacks.

China Mobile takes a chance on speech recognition buy

China Mobile has agreed to buy 15 percent or 70.3 million shares in voice recognition company Anhui USTC iFlytek Co.  The acquisition will amount to 1.36 billion yuan, or $214 million, at 19.40 yuan a piece.  Once the acquisition is finalized, China Mobile will collaborate with iFlytek for Mandarin voice recognition.  Having a voice recognition technology that recognizes Mandarin will surely help Chinese consumers with their hands-free tasks.  It’s not a secret that Apple’s Siri has some trouble recognizing foreign speech patterns.