Apple Accused of Unfair Competition; Designer Granted Knighthood

Every week, makes news with technology developments, business deals and, more often than not, controversies.

That’s where our weekly "Core Bytes" column on Apple comes in. We’ll relay the past week’s news highlights from our favorite backyard tech giant.

Controversies
Apple has been smacked with another lawsuit, this time from eBizcuss, the largest Apple reseller in France. They claim that Apple has an unfair competition advantage by favoring its own retail stores with its new product inventory.

Italian authorities are fining Apple $1.2 million for not providing consumers with a two-year warranty, which the company plans to appeal. The warranty is mandatory under both European Union law and the Italian Consumer Code.

New Products
Forget about passwords. Soon iPads and iPods could recognize individual users through a forward-facing camera. Apple published a patent earlier this week for “Low Threshold Face Recognition” to quickly access if you are, indeed, the correct user.

Business Deals and Developments
Apple is going (more) global, opening stores in Canada and considering opening a flagship store in Brazil. Its latest store made its launch at a shopping mall in Ontario.

Steve Jobs is a household name, but not everyone knows about Jonathan Ive, the senior designer at Apple. Maybe that will change in the UK, now that Ive has been awarded knighthood. Ive works at Apple’s Cupertino’s headquarters, but was born and raised in the UK.

It's well known that Zen Buddhism had an impact on Jobs', but an Apple Insider article details how Japanese culture in general influenced Face of Apple's public and private life.