Apple seeks $2.5 billion in damages from Samsung, offers half a cent per standard-essential patent  —  With their California trial approaching fast, Apple and Samsung made filings during the last few hours that shed light on what's at stake and on why the parties haven't been able to settle their dispute so far.

Apple Warms Up to Hackers, Plans Presentation at Black Hat  —  Attendees are seen through a Black Hat logo during the Black Hat and Defcon hacker conferences in Las Vegas.  —  In the 15 years that computer hackers have gathered in Las Vegas for the Black Hat conference …

iOS Soars Ahead of Android Development As Apple Quietly Makes Move Into The Enterprise Market  —  The Apple iOS is surging ahead of the Google Android platform for enterprise development, according to survey results from Appcelerator, the mobile platform development company.

Nice-ira: Andreessen Horowitz returns first fund twice over  —  Silicon Valley firm hits major milestone. … Andreessen Horowitz has returned its debut fund two times over, following news that VMWare (VMW) will acquire Nicera Inc. for more than $1 billion in cash, Fortune has learned.

Mark Zuckerberg Wins Approval For His First-Ever Patent Application - From 6 Years Ago  —  In the last few months, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took his company public, got married and scored a nearly $6 million home loan at just over 1%.  What could possibly top all that?

YouTube Fights Horrible Commenters by Naming Names  —  YouTube is pushing its notorious commenters to name themselves.  —  When you comment on, or upload a video, YouTube will now urge you to “start using your full name on YouTube,” and ask if the video-sharing site can begin displaying …

Hardware accelerating everything: Windows 8 graphics … In computer graphics, high performance is a guiding principle.  In the early days of personal computing, discrete, add-on graphics cards were mostly focused on specialized applications such as CAD/CAM and gaming.

Noted analyst shares predictions for next-generation iOS devices, MacBooks, iMacs  —  MacRumors reports on new research notes from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.  The reports are broken down into discussions about the next-generation iPod touch and iPod nano, iPad mini and iPad, and 13-inch MacBook Pro and iMac.

AT&T posts Q2 profit of $3.9B, sells 3.7M iPhones  —  The telecom giant posted earnings per share that topped Wall Street expectations thanks to cost cuts and lower wireless turnover.  —  Follow @RogerWCheng  —  AT&T posted a modest increase in its second-quarter profit even as it sold 3.7 million iPhones in the period.

Silicon Valley Worries About Addiction to Devices  —  Stuart Crabb, a director in the executive offices of Facebook, naturally likes to extol the extraordinary benefits of computers and smartphones.  But like a growing number of technology leaders, he offers a warning: log off once in a while, and put them down.

Bob Feldstein, the man who helped AMD land the next console generation, leaves for rival Nvidia  —  You've probably never heard the name Bob Feldstein, but Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft surely have.  He was the vice president of strategic development at AMD, and according to our sources …

4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook launching July 31st, will retail for $550  —  Here it is!  The much talked about launch of RIM's 4G LTE-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is upon us.  This tablet was originally announced back at Mobile World Congress in 2011, but subsequently delayed.

Benchmark, Greylock And Others Go In For $18.6M On Nextdoor, A Facebook For Local Communities  —  Localized social network Nextdoor is announcing an $18.6 million dollar round today, led by Benchmark Capital and followed on by DAG Ventures, Greylock Partners and Shasta Ventures.

Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 quietly goes on sale as the Gobots of transforming tablets  —  Lenovo's 10-inch IdeaTab S2 was one of the belles of its CES ball in offering a distinctly Transformer Pad-like experience for those not beholden to ASUS' view of the world.  While there wasn't much attention given …

Viber Updates iPhone, Android Apps To Version 2.2: Group Messaging, Improved UI, Enhanced HD Calling  —  Viber has just released version 2.2 of the app for both Android and iPhone, bringing some much-requested features to the platform for the very first time including group messaging and improved call quality.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 unboxed, has 2GB of RAM and phone messaging capabilities  —  Since being announced way back at MWC, Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 has seen a steady stream of leaks and design tweaks, and now it appears to have landed in the hands of one new owner.

Martin Scorsese does Siri commercial in NYC cab  —  This is the fourth ad in Apple's line of popular Siri commercials.  Martin Scorsese (via MacRumors) follows Samuel L. Jackson, Zooey Deschanel, and a pair of stinkers with John Malkovich.  Scorsese is found in his natural environment—on the streets of Manhattan in the back of a cab.

Report suggests malware hits Iran atomic organization, blasts AC/DC at night  —  A purported Iran scientist working for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran e-mailed an SOS to F-Secure Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen this weekend, saying the AEOI was under a cyber attack.

Apigee Raises $20M, Looks to Grow API Business Internationally  —  Apigee, the Palo Alto-based company that provides application programming interface (API) support, management and service, today announced a new $20 million round of venture investment, led by Focus Ventures …

Mobile Coding Start-Up Xamarin Lands $12 Million From Charles River, Ignition and Floodgate  —  Xamarin, one of many companies working to make it easier for businesses to create mobile apps, is announcing on Tuesday that it has raised $12 million in Series A funding from Charles River Ventures, Ignition Partners and Floodgate.

August Capital Raising $550M For Sixth Venture Fund, “Sticking To What Works”  —  August Capital, the 17-year-old Sand Hill venture capital firm, is raising a new $550 million investment fund, according to documents filed this morning with the SEC.  —  August Partner Howard Hartenbaum …

Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Samsung to launch Windows RT tablets this year.  Others await Microsoft's permission in January  —  Apart from Surface, which is made by Microsoft itself, we know very little about who else will launch Windows RT based tablets this year.  And there's a good reason for that.

Y Combinator startup Chute lands $2.7M, connects dots between developers and media  —  Chute, a startup that helps developers quickly and easily bring multimedia content into their apps, has just sealed a $2.7 million funding deal with a few of the usual suspects in Silicon Valley early-stage investment.

Yahoo Employee Makes A HOPE Poster With Marissa Mayer's Face Instead Of Obama's  —  There are posters hanging on the walls of Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters.  They depict the company's new CEO, Marissa Mayer, in the style of Shepard Fairey's iconic “Hope” poster.

The Sparrow Problem  —  We've all read stories about and been enthralled by the idea of App Store millionaires.  As the story goes... individual app developers are making money hand over foot in the App Store!  And if you can just come up with a great app idea, you'll be a millionaire in no time!

Verizon and Redbox Start Testing Their New Web Video Service: Here's What to Expect  —  Back in February, Verizon and Redbox announced a joint-venture video service but said little else about it.  —  Now they're back, and they're saying a little bit more: The service has a name …