In today’s mobile news roundup:  Apple gets fined in China; BlackBerry 10 features leaked; and take cool 360º photos with Cycloramic app.

Apple gets fined in China

The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court has fined Apple to pay 1.03 million yuan or $165,908 to eight Chinese writers and two companies for being guilty of copyright infringement.

Earlier this year, a number of Chinese authors filed a case against Apple for selling their works the year earlier, in digital format without their knowledge.  According to the plaintiffs’ lawyer, the unlicensed e-books were downloaded so much that it cost them significant revenue.  They were originally asking for $1.9 million before 23 more authors joined the claim in March, upping the ante to $7.7 million in total damages.

While the Beijing Court did not grant the authors damages claims, it’s a rare win against Apple when it comes to patent lawsuits.

BlackBerry 10 features leaked

A certain amount of RIM’s success with BlackBerry devices can be attributed to the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app that keeps users in constant contact with friends, without having to worry about going over their network plan.  And it seems they haven’t forgotten to pay tribute to their roots, according to the latest BB leaks.  It could very well be that BB10 will have a BBM service that features video chat and screen sharing – which means more ways of sharing and connecting with friends.

BB10 will also feature a new task manager dubbed as “BlackBerry Remember,” which syncs Outlook contacts, and based on its description, will integrate the productivity app Evernote as well.  Though the leaked images surfaced, RIM declined to comment on the matter and stated that people would have to wait until January 30, 2013 for details to be revealed.

In other RIM news, they’ve made the first wave of a series of payments to Nokia for their most recent patent licensing agreement.  According to AllThingsD, RIM made an upfront payment of $65 million to the Finnish phone maker.

“On December 21, 2012, Nokia and RIM announced that they have entered into a new patent license agreement,” RIM explained in a 6-K filing. “The agreement will result in the settlement of all patent litigation between the companies and Nokia’s dismissal of all pending actions in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. The financial structure of the agreement includes a lump sum EUR50m (approximately $65m) one-time payment, which has been recorded in the Company’s consolidated statement of operations in the third quarter of fiscal 2013.”

Take cool 360º photos with Cycloramic app

If you’re tired of taking snapshots or Panorama shots, even with the new iPhone 5, then maybe a 360º shot would tickle your fancy.  Cycloramic takes taking photos to a whole new level as it allows your iPhone to rotate on its own to take a continuous photo of you and your friends or family around a dinner table.  All you need is to download the 99-cent app, a flat surface, and a table full of your loved ones.

“Gathered around a dinner table, in a bar, in a club, at home, at a conference table, or at a historical monument? Cycloramic allows you to capture the moment (handsfree) in a unique and fun way whilst making you and your phone the talk of the event,” the app’s Facebook page description reads.

Be sure to let us know if you try this app out.  We’d love to hear how “hands free” it really is.