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THX, the audio company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, sues Apple-- claiming iPhones, iPads and iMacs infringe on a 2008 patent for "narrow profile speaker configuration and systems."

According to Bloomberg, the THX lawsuit says the Apple caused “monetary damage and irreparable harm" and demands a court order stopping the alleged infringement as well as either royalties or compensation for lost profits.

The patent in question (no. 7433483) describes "A narrow profile speaker unit comprises at least one speaker outputting sound towards an internal surface and through a duct with an output terminus, such as a slot, having a narrow dimension, effectively changing the cross-section of the speaker's audio output wave. A pair of speakers may face one another, outputting sound towards a common output slot."

Following a shake up in Google leadership Android creator and former senior VP of mobile and content Andy Rubin steps down to a new, yet unspecified, role within the company.

Replacing him is Sundar Pichai, the senior VP in charge of the Chrome browser and OS. Interestingly Pichai will continue leading all things Chrome even as he takes over Android-- maybe Google will converge mobile and PC operating systems in the future?

“Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android-— and with a really strong leadership team in place-— Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google,” Google CEO Larry Page writes in his announcement. “Andy, more moonshots please!”

Seagate celebrates a milestone-- the storage maker claims it is the first to ship 2 billion HDDs, a total fueled by demand from mobile applications, cloud infrastructures, social media and various consumer markets.

The company shipped 1 billion HDDs on April 2008 after 29 years of operation, and the second billion after just 4 years.

“This is truly an impressive accomplishment and I am proud to lead this company as we celebrate this success," Seagate CEO Steve Luczo says. "This achievement is a testament to the commitment of our employees whose relentless dedication and personal pride continue to be the fabric of this company.”

Key for the manufacture of so many drives are Seagate's China operations. Established back in 1995, over 1 billion HDDs were produced in China during Q4 2012 alone.

Storage demands are only set to grow further in the near future-- according to IDC global 2013 HDD shipments will reach 585 million units, with HDD terabyte shipments growing at a 30% CAGR for the 2012-2016 period.

Go Seagate Celebrates Milestone

Shuttle shows off additions to its All-in-One (AIO) PC range at CeBIT 2013-- including the Shuttle AIO Barebone X70S, a 18.5-inch version of its  15.6-inch machines.

The X70S is the first Shuttle AIO with an LGA1155 socket allowing it to carry conventional Intel desktop processors (Intel Core i3/i5/i7) with up to 65W TDP.

The 5.7 x 46.8 x 36.4cm chassis includes x2 SO-DIMM slots (for a total of 16GB of DDR3 RAM), space for a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD, mini-PCIe slot, x2 USB 3.0 and x6 USB 2.0 ports, integrated card reader, HDMI port, wifi, webcam, microphone and stereo speakers.

Meanwhile x2 gigabit ethernet cards, x3 serial interfaces (COM) and a parallel interface (LPT) make the X70S ideal not only as a desktop PC, but also as a digital signage platform through the replacement of the pedestal stand (included) with a VESA wall mount, monitor arm or floor stand.

Go Shuttle 57mm thin AIO PC with Touchscreen