Schmidt insists Apple and Google are very good friends.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt is currently on a tour of Asia, where he announced the company’s $199 Nexus 7 tablet in Tokyo on Monday. During his announcement, Schmidt found some time to talk about Apple and its patent wars against other companies. Schmidt revealed that while Apple is a “very good partner,” he doesn’t agree with patent wars, and feels they “prevent choice” and innovation.

Samsung has once again sent the blogosphere into a frenzy by sending members of the media a save-the-date for August 15, and promising to unveil the next Galaxy device. What device are they talking about? Could it be the Galaxy Note 2, or perhaps the final version of the Galaxy Note 10.1? Your guess is as good as ours, but if it was our attention Samsung was looking for, they’ve sure captured it.

[Update: The event is over, stay tuned for more coverage on the Samsung Galaxy S III]

Get ready folks! Refresh for updates!

Our friends to the north received some good news from Samsung today. According to Samsung Canada, owners of select Galaxy devices will begin receiving their Android 4.0 updates starting today. A total of nine devices were listed in Samsung’s announcement and while only a few will see Ice Cream Sandwich today, Samsung will continue updating them all throughout the quarter. Owners of the following devices will at some point this quarter see Android 4.0:

Laaaaaaaaaaadies and Gentlemen, welcome to Friday Night Fights, a new series of weekly deathmatches between two no-mercy brawlers who will fight to the death — or at least agree to disagree — about which is better: Apple or Google, iOS or Android?

This week’s topic is one personal to both iOS and Android fans alike: is Samsung really copying Apple’s designs for its Galaxy series of Android smartphones and tablets? Samsung and Apple are brawling it out on pretty much every continent on Earth trying to get to the bottom of this issue, so it’s only fitting that we try to settle this one in the ring too.

In one corner, we have the 900 pound gorilla, Cult of Mac; in the opposite corner, wearing the green trunks, we have the plucky upstart, Cult of Android!

Place your bets, gentlemen! This is going be a bloody one.