According to a court filing from Apple, the company sent representatives to Apple Story and Fun Zone in Flushing on “multiple occasions over several weeks,” where they bought an assortment of iPod, iPhone and iPad cases, as well as stereo headsets designed for use with iPhones.

All of the purchased goods carried an Apple trademark, according to the amended complaint. They were also marked with the phrase “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China,” and included markings similar to those found on genuine Apple goods.

The headsets came with packaging that was “nearly an exact duplicate” of that for genuine Apple goods, the lawsuit said.

Apple was granted a warrant to seize the counterfeit products on July 27th, and the courts have granted a preliminary injunction barring the two stores from selling the knockoff products. Apple has also requested that one of the stores, Apple Story, change its name in order to prevent confusion with Apple’s own stores and branding, but the court has yet to rule on that issue. A settlement between Apple and the stores’ owners is said to be under negotiation.

Apple’s case appears to extend beyond the two stores, however, as the lawsuit seeks to include people and businesses engaged in the production, sale, and distribution of the products, although those defendants have yet to be identified.

More clarity came to the situation in January when Apple announced as part of an earnings conference call that it had made $3.9 billion in long-term investments with three companies in order to secure components over a two-year period. We concluded that the investment was most likely related to displays, with the Sharp and Toshiba deals appearing to make up a significant share of the total investment.

By April, word came that Sharp had been tabbed to supply displays for the sixth-generation iPhone, presumably set for release in 2012. The new poly-silicon (p-Si) displays reportedly have electrical components embedded into the glass surface, allowing for thinner and lighter displays.

Reuters now revives the rumors with a new report focusing on Apple’s claimed investment in Sharp’s factory while also referencing the Toshiba deal. The investments are presented within the context of Apple’s patent dispute with Samsung, a dispute that some have suggested may be driving Apple to decrease its reliance on Samsung for components.

Apple Inc plans to invest in a Sharp Corp factory to secure a supply of LCD screens for iPhones and iPads, sources said, triggering expectations Apple may step up orders to Japanese parts makers.

The proposed move, along with an investment in a new LCD factory of Toshiba Corp, comes as Apple and key supplier Samsung Electronics battle in courts over patent disputes, spurring talk that Apple may diversify suppliers.

Sharp’s shares jumped slightly today after brokerage firm MF Global FXA Securities issued a research note highlighting the probability of an investment by Apple, apparently spurring Reuters to summarize what its sources have been indicating for some time.

Apple already appears to be shifting away from Samsung for production of its custom processors for its iOS devices, with TSMC reportedly beginning trial production of Apple’s next-generation A6 system-on-a-chip. Today’s report also indicates that flash memory manufacturers Elpida and Toshiba are hopeful that Apple will look to diversify its suppliers in that area as well.

Barron’s on a brief note from RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, who shares some of his “takeaways” from a meeting with Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.

According to the note, Cook and Oppenheimer continue to believe in a “massive opportunity” for Apple in China, seeing the potential for significant growth there with the company’s recent explosion to $9 billion in annual revenue for the market being only the beginning.

Many have viewed the introduction of a low-cost iPhone for the prepaid market to be key for Apple’s future success in China and many other countries, and the Apple executives reportedly noted that any such device would have to be “an innovative, category-killer experience”. Cook and Oppenheimer obviously did not specifically confirm plans to launch a low-cost iPhone, but it is clear that Apple is working hard on finding a way to break into and succeed in that market.

They include the fact that Apple has a “massive opportunity” in China, with the market there “significantly untapped” despite Apple revenue of $9 billion in the country. Despite an “explosion” of devices based on Google’s (GOOG) “Android” operating system, Apple can maintain a competitive advantage through its integration of hardware and software, and its “curation” of the “application ecosystem.”

Regarding a low-cost iPhone, Abramsky writes that “Apple’s primary criterion for launching a lower-end iPhone is an innovative, category-killer experience.”

Other topics of the discussion included word that Apple’s gross margins for the quarter may be better than expected due to it currently being a “buyer’s market” for components, and the company’s efforts to settle with Android handset manufacturers in the numerous ongoing patent disputes.

These design aspects were previously reported in April by ThisIsMyNext. Their report at the time claimed many of the same features:

the home button is doing double duty as a gesture area; this falls in line with testing we’ve seen for gestures on the iPad, and our sources say that gestures are definitely coming in a future version of iOS. The home button will likely be enlarged, but not scrapped altogether. Furthermore, we’re hearing that the screen on the device will occupy the entire (or near to it) front of the phone, meaning almost no bezel. Our source says the company is doing very “interesting things” with bonded glass technology, and has been exploring designs where the earpiece and sensors are somehow behind the screen itself, making for a device where the display is actually edge-to-edge.

The images do seem to be circulating from Chinese case manufacturers. The above image was posted by a Norwegian accessory manufacturer just the other day. This is the same image that MobileFun.co.uk also received and posted.

We suspect all of the images and information are coming from a common source, but we don’t necessarily believe it to be true. At the time of ThisIsMyNext’s posting, we received a reliable tip that this is not what the iPhone 5 will look like. As well, several other credible news outlets have said that the iPhone 5 will “look largely similar to the current iPhone 4″.

“Media should not misunderstand the situation and jump to conclusions. Some overseas media has made it appear the stores sold fake Apple products,” said Chang Puyun, spokesman of Kunming government’s business bureau.

“China has taken great steps to enforce intellectual property rights and the stores weren’t selling fake products.”

Officials are investigating whether Apple had applied with the Chinese government to have its store design and layout protected by law, Chang added.

The report notes that Chinese law prohibits companies from copying the “look and feel” of other stores but that enforcement of those laws is “often spotty”. Many customers of the stores in question have expressed outrage over the news, feeling that they had been misled into thinking that the stores were genuine Apple-run shops and worrying that they had been sold fake products.

Apple has of course been making a significant effort at penetrating the Chinese market, having opened four large retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai and planning to open several dozen more stores there. During last week’s earnings conference call, Apple executives noted that the company’s sales in “greater China” totaled $3.8 billion for the quarter, six times that of the year-ago quarter

Some companies make “joysticks” that try to bridge the gap, but it’s still a far cry from having physical buttons like a Nintendo DS. One solution is the iCade, which started as an April Fool’s Joke, but was so popular that ThinkGeek turned it into a real product. It’s great, but not exactly portable.

Now, we have the iControlPad. It’s a Bluetooth control pad that’s been in the works for more than three years — and it’s finally shipping.

Now, the iControlPad is great in theory, but it’s not exactly an answer to gamer prayers — through no fault of its own. No, the problem is that there aren’t many games on the App Store that support it because of the restrictions Apple places on how bluetooth devices interact with apps. TouchArcade explains:

While, due to the aforementioned restrictions, the iControlPad can only interface with un-jailbroken iOS devices by way of keyboard emulation, it can interface with other platforms, including Android and WebOS, via the more robust protocols and, thus, deliver its full range of capabilities. Keyboard emulation does allow all other controls on the device to work under iOS — but no analog sticks, which need to send a constant stream of positional data to the host device.

A few hours later, iTunes 10.3 did in fact become available for download, bringing compatibility with some early iCloud features making their way to iOS devices.

What’s new in iTunes 10.3

Introducing iTunes in the Cloud beta. The music you purchase in iTunes appears automatically on all your devices. You can also download your past iTunes purchases. Where you want, when you want.

- Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.

- Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music purchases again at no additional cost. Your purchases are available in the iTunes Store on your Mac or in the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.

iTunes 10.3 also adds Books to the iTunes Store, where you can discover and buy your favorite books on your computer and automatically download them to iBooks on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

This version also allows you to use Automatic Downloads with apps and books or download previously purchased apps and books from your computer or iOS device.

iTunes 10.3 is available in a Mac version for systems running Mac OS X Leopard or later, as well as in 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Windows.

A separate iTunes 10.5 release will ultimately bring full support for iCloud and iOS 5 later this year, and an initial beta of that version has been seeded to developers for testing alongside the other forthcoming software offerings.

Update: It’s worth mentioning that limera1n is a bootrom exploit that Apple can’t patch on the iPod touch through firmware alone. The real test of the Dev Team’s wits will be an untethered jailbreak for the iPad 2.

Appsfire crossed 1 million downloads in February, and then the 2-million mark in May. Ohayon says its various apps for the iPhone, Android, iPad, and kid’s apps is generating 3 million leads to app developers each month. Appsfire lets you share your favorite apps with your friends via the web, your mobile device, or Facebook.

Previously, in February, 2010, company raised a seed round from a group of French angel investors including Marc Simoncini (CEO of dating site meetic.com), Jacques-Antoine Granjon (CEO of Vente-Privee.com), Xavier Niel (CEO of French ISP Free), and entrepreneur and angel investor Jean-David Blanc.