Apple holds more cash than US govt

Apple now has more cash to spend than the US government, according to the BBC.

Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show the country has an operating cash balance of $73.7 billion. Apple's most recent financial results put its reserve at $76.4 billion.

The US currently spends around $200 billion more than it collects in revenue every month. Apple, on the other hand, makes money hand over fist, according to its financial results. In the three months ending 25 June, net income was 125% higher than a year earlier at $7.31 billion.

Google has agreed to purchase upwards of 1 000 patents from IBM in a move experts believe could impact its legal feud with Oracle, says V3.co.uk.

Search engine news blog SEO By the Sea discovered that the two firms had agreed to transfer approximately 1 030 of IBM's intellectual property holdings to Google.

The transferred patents include holdings in areas such as search, data mining, linking and networking. The deal is also said to cover areas such as semiconductors and hardware architecture.

Apple, followed closely by Samsung Electronics, overtook Nokia in global smartphone market share during the second quarter, reveals Cnet.

Apple controlled nearly a fifth of the smartphone market, or a share of 18.5%, as it shipped more than 20 million iPhones, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Samsung Electronics wasn't far behind, with 17.5% of the market share and 19.2 million smartphones shipped. Nokia fell to third, with its market share plunging by more than half to 15.2% from 38.1% a year ago.

The family of a budding computer programmer on Saturday started a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox, writes AFP.

A post-mortem revealed that 20-year-old Chris Staniforth - who was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University - was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.

Deep vein thrombosis normally affects passengers on long-haul flights, but medical experts fear youngsters who spend hours glued to their consoles might also be at risk and have urged them to take regular breaks.