Pro-tem Judge Russell Nadel handed down the decision in favor of Matt Spaccarelli in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Vally, bringing an end to the small claims case that was filed in January which asserted that AT&T unfairly reduces unlimited data plan users’ bandwidth speeds, reports the Associated Press.

The ruling could affect the roughly 17 million subscribers, or a little under half of AT&T’s smartphone customer base, who pay for a so-called unlimited data plan that was first introduced alongside the original iPhone.

The nation’s second-largest mobile carrier ended its all-you-can-eat plan in 2010, however the company allowed existing users to keep their unlimited service on the condition that the privilege would end if they ever opted to go with a tiered contract. In other words, an unlimited subscriber cannot return to the endless data plan if ever they choose one of AT&T’s tiered options.

As smartphones grew in popularity after the launch of Apple’s handset and smartphones running Google’s Android OS, data bandwidth became increasingly scarce. In an attempt to stem the swelling tide of data users, AT&T and other telecoms made the decision to throttle the download speeds of the top five percent of “heavy users.”

An inherent issue with the new throttling model is that an unlimited plan subscriber can see speed reductions if they are deemed to be within the top five percent of heavy users, regardless of the amount of data used. Tiered subscribers are never throttled.

In Spaccarelli’s case, speed was reduced after about 1.5 GB to 2 GB of data usage during a particular billing cycle, which is far less than the identically priced 3 GB tiered plan. Currently, unlimited access to AT&T’s network costs $30 per month for grandfathered-in customers, while tiered plans run $20, $30 and $50 per month for 300 MB, 3 GB and 5 GB, respectively.

According to an in-court argument by AT&T area sales manager Peter Hartlove, the carrier has the right to modify or cancel a contract if data usage is so high that it bogs down the network.

In addition, a clause in contracts signed by data users prohibits customers from joining a class action suit or jury trial, and instead must take any grievance to arbitration or a small claims court.

The agreement also claims that if a plaintiff wins an arbitration case, the minimum award from AT&T would be $10,000. Although Spaccarrelli asked for the same compensation, the small claims court judge only awarded him for $85 for each of the remaining 10 months of his contract.

Sample of AT&T's pre-throttle warning messages.

In theory, every customer who has been throttled could potentially take the Dallas-based carrier to court if they feel that the speed reduction is a violation of rights.

AT&T’s attempt to clear data congestion has been vague since its introduction in 2011, as the system is based on a sliding scale and not a set bandwidth cap. User also won’t know if they are part of the top five percent until a warning message is received, and by that point they only have a few days of regular usage before seeing a reduction of speed.

My Take: It’s apparent that AT&T don’t give a fuck about us so like an equation I say we balance it out by not giving a fuck about them too; Get a lawyer and sue their sorry asses. AT&T just increased the upgrade fees so let’s send a message by a class action lawsuit today! First test you speed with free Speedtest.net app for iPhone now. Take screen shot and keep copies if possible ALL original documents. If you gather any evidence to support your claim then you already won. “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

The finding, reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, comes on the heels of an announcement from Proview’s lawyer Xie Xianghui that the two companies were reportedly ready to negotiate.

Proview filed the suit against Apple in the Superior Court of the State of California in Santa Clara County on Feb. 17, almost one week prior to Xie’s claims made on Tuesday. The company made no previous mention of the U.S. complaint.

In the filing, the Shenzhen-based display manufacturer asserts that Apple committed fraud by purchasing the “iPad” name through a proxy company set up by one of the iPhone maker’s law firms.

Proview Shenzhen claims that Apple acted “with oppression, fraud and/or malice,” when it used U.K.-based IP Application Development, Ltd. to buy the rights from a Taiwanese affiliate in 2009 for a reported 35,000 British pounds, or $55,000.

The U.S. suit differs from its Chinese counterparts that claim the purchase to be void because Proview Shenzhen didn’t authorize its affiliate to sell the trademark.

The Hong Kong-based umbrella company for the Chinese firm, Proview International Holdings, alleges that it had no knowledge of the sale despite Apple’s assertions to the contrary.

It is not clear if the U.S. claim will affect the outcome of a pending Chinese court case, though it seems that the California filing is an admission that Proview was indeed aware of the trademark’s sale.

Apple continues to claim that it rightfully purchased the rights, and has threatened to level a defamation countersuit against the bankrupt Chinese company over the matter.

It was announced earlier today that Proview was unsuccessful in blocking sales of Apple’s popular tablet in Shanghai, one of China’s most affluent cities.

My Take: Proview absolutely suck in business well as handling legal matters too. Someone needs to put them out of their misery once and for all.

What’s new

Rio de Janeiro just got a whole lot wilder thanks to this first major update to Gangstar Rio. Check out all the new features coming to the City of Saints!

- Perform crazy stunts on the various new ramps added around the city.
- Hop inside the awesome new Monster Truck and crush anything in your path!
- Need more money for your gang? Take on new bank heist jobs as often as you like.
- Try on new swag including the SWAT Team outfit, Armored Police gear and powerful golden weapons!

App Store Link: Gangstar Rio: City of Saints, 99¢ (Universal)
Size: 826MB

Have a 2011 Mac mini, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac? If Software Update hasn’t yet told you about it, there’s an EFI Firmware Update available that you might want to install.

According to the release notes, “This update improves the reliability of booting from the network, addresses an issue that can prevent HDCP authentication after a reboot, and resolves an issue with boot device selection when a USB storage device is hot-plugged.”

The direct links to the updates are as follows:

• Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.6 - Mac mini (Mid 2011)
• iMac EFI Firmware Update 1.9 - iMac (Early 2011)
• MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.4 - MacBook Air (Mid 2011)
• MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.7 - MacBook Pro (Early 2011) and (Late 2011)

Apple’s annual shareholder meeting has just concluded at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, with the company declining to make any major announcements related to its operations. One of the biggest questions on the stock side has been speculation about a dividend, buyback, or stock split, and while Apple has indicated that it is continually evaluating the best uses for its cash stockpile, the company has not decided to adopt any of those strategies so far.

CNBC posted a live blog of the meeting, outlining the formal agenda, brief statements from Tim Cook, and a brief Q&A session with shareholders. One change the company did announce is its adoption of a measure that will require members of Apple’s board of directors to obtain majority votes from shareholders in order to be elected. The company had previously operated under a plurality vote standard in which directors need to obtain only a majority of the votes cast, omitting those who failed to vote their shares. Under the new policy, directors who do not receive a majority of outstanding voting shares will voluntarily step down. All current directors were easily re-elected.

Majority voting has increasingly become the standard among major companies, and major shareholders have been attempting to push Apple in that direction for several years. A non-binding proposal from shareholders on the topic was approved last year, but Apple declined to adopt it. The proposal was set to be revisited at this year’s meeting, and while Apple opposed it in its proxy materials sent to shareholders, the company agreed to implement it even before today’s vote results were released.

Tim Cook faced several other questions from shareholders today, touching on topics such as Apple’s commitment to education and the company’s lack of interest in owning music labels or television studios. Other topics included Apple’s advertising on controversial television shows, its relationship with Facebook (Cook called Facebook a “friend”), and the possibility of an Apple television set (no comment from Cook).

It used a slightly dumbed-down version of Infinity Blade style combat, but came packed with an interesting character progressions system with tons of upgradeable items and abilities. Maybe an even more important point was that it just oozed that Batman character through every facet of its visuals and presentation, adding a lot of fan appeal to the gameplay.

Today Arkham City Lockdown received its second update, with the most significant addition being a new section of the city, the Industrial District, which features Harley Quinn and new “timed thug fights.” There’s also a new Batarang mini-game and two new character skins, one for Bruce Wayne which is free and one for Batman Inc which is 99¢. Finally, the update gets rounded out with a level cap that has been raised from 30 to 35, additional achievements to earn, and a new Critical Strike branch to upgrade inside of the Waynetech combat training.

All in all a pretty nice update for Batman Arkham City Lockdown. Make sure to check it out, and hopefully NetherRealm has even more Batman updates planned for the future.

App Store Link: Batman Arkham City Lockdown, $5.99 (Universal)

“Our focus is to delight our fans and we’re excited to launch Angry Birds Space on multiple platforms,” Rovio’s North America general manager Andrew Stalbow said in an e-mailed statement. “In the build up to launch, we’re going to make a global online announcement on Thursday March 8th at 10 AM New York time on space.angrybirds.com, and we hope our fans from around the world will tune in for what will be an out-of-this-world experience.”

Angry Birds Space will be available March 22 for iOS and the Mac.

The 120GB and 240GB SSDs model’s are available worldwide and SanDisk will also launch the 480GB SSD probably later this year. The 120GB SanDisk Extreme SSD will retail for $189.99 whilst the 240GB version will retail for $399.99. The 480GB  version of the drive will ship later this year with an MSRP of $749.99.

“Computer wait times are becoming a thing of the past thanks to SSDs,” said Kent Perry, director, product marketing, SanDisk. “Our SanDisk Extreme SSD delivers virtually instant boot and shutdown times along with faster application launches. It’s a huge improvement to the computing experience.”

Following the collapse of a deal that would have seen T-Mobile USA acquired by AT&T, T-Mobile USA is seeking to reposition itself with a “challenger strategy” and move aggressively to roll out 4G LTE services beginning next year.

Other U.S. carriers have already been rolling out their LTE networks for some time, but T-Mobile has been behind that curve as it has relied on HSPA+ technology that previously gave it an advantage over some of the other carriers in data speeds. But with AT&T having upgraded its own network to HSPA+ even as it is already building out LTE, T-Mobile is now finding itself scrambling to recover from the holding pattern is was in while the AT&T acquisition deal was pending.

My Take: I would blame CEO of T-Mobile’s parent company Deutche Telekom for being incompetent of making a sound business decision by not getting on board to get the iPhone. If Sprint can make a $20 Billion Dollar Commitment what makes T-Mobile so good they can’t do the same? If Apple launch the iPhone 5 with 4G LTE in October then T-Mobile going to lose much as 50% of their customers between AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and C-Spire Wireless.