MANILA, Philippines — Apple recently lost a battle in its global patent wars against Samsung.

Recently, a U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, refused the Cupertino company’s petition for a sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States. A couple of weeks ago, an Australian court approved a similar request made by Apple.

Apple has had more successes in Europe, where some 30 countries have placed a temporary sales ban on the Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, and Ace smartphones and Galaxy Tab slates.

European consumers will not be able to buy these Samsung devices while the courts try to determine who’s telling the truth and who’s telling lies in the patent-infringement lawsuits filed by Apple and Samsung against each other.

Not an easy job, most legal experts would say.

This early, however, some observers believe that Apple is losing more PR points than Samsung does.

The Korean electronics vendor might be losing sales in Europe and Australia, but in this legal soap opera, the American consumer tech company is emerging as an 800-pound gorilla using the courts to throw tantrums in the global china store.

Xbox Entertainment

Microsoft is partnering with some of the largest content providers to add plenty of entertainment muscles to its Xbox Live service.

The software giant, deciding it is not giving up the living-room entertainment market to Apple and Google without a fight, has added several hubs to the Xbox gaming hardware.

These entertainment options include new TV, sports, movies, and news. Microsoft has also implemented a unified user interface for its gaming mobile product lineups.

Meanwhile, Windows Phone users can download the application aptly titled Xbox Companion, which will directly link up with the videogame platform.

Kinect-enabled Xbox systems will enable consumers to access and control their entertainment options via the wireless gaming control’s motion-recognition features. That is one cool living room.

RIM and Stampedes

The head executive of Research In Motion’s Indonesia business is reported to be under police investigation over a stampede of consumers at a BlackBerry smartphone launch in November.

Police reports revealed that thousands of consumers crowded a RIM outlet after the company announced a 50-percent discount promo for the first 1,000 customers to buy the new BlackBerry.

As any group of people intent on outdoing each other over some measly savings, panicky shoving soon erupted.

Dozens of people passed out in the resulting melee, Jakarta police said.

Now, authorities are saying that RIM’s Indonesia boss, Andrew Cobham, is being investigated for possible ultimate blame for the incident.

No, sir, stampedes like that don’t happen here over smartphones. Over here, we dash madly and trample other people to death over prizes given away by noontime TV shows.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.