Allegation is that Apple created images where they changed the dimensions of the Samsung Galaxy Tab to make it look more like the iPad — to convince a German court that Samsung’s product is a clone and a ripoff. Hard to believe that Apple would do this. The GT may violate all sorts of Apple patents — who knows? — but in terms of physical size you would not mistake one for the other. Nevertheless, Computerworld has the photos and makes the case against...
Learn MoreEveryone was baffled when Google made those crazy bids for the Nortel patents last month. Remember? They bid things like the distance from the earth to the sun, the number pi, and some other wacky numbers from mathematics. Which led ultra Apple fanboy MG Siegler to crow that Google had got “pi in the face” and was “living in a dream world” and “look like huge asses in retrospect.” Then MG went on to drool about how Android was doomed, penning a ridiculous piece that compared Apple to James Bond and Google to Le Chiffre, the evil villain in “Casino Royale.” And today it all makes sense. Google just sandbagged its rivals. The whole thing was a rope-a-dope maneuver. Google never cared about the Nortel patents. It just wanted to drive up the price so that AppleSoft (those happy new bedmates) would overpay. Today, with the Motorola deal, Google picks up nearly three times as many patents as AppleSoft got from Novell and Nortel. More important, Google just raised the stakes in a huge way for anyone who wants to stay in the smartphone market. Better yet, Google got its rivals to spend a few weeks defending the practice of using patents to attack other companies. Apple fanboys bent...
Learn MoreMG Siegler of TechCrunch says everyone hates Google because Google is trying to do too much. Meaning: Apple was fine with Google until Google decided to invade Apple’s turf by making a smartphone operating system, and then started having some success. Keep in mind that MG is an Apple fanboy who recently compared Apple to James Bond and compared Google to Le Chiffre, the villain in Casino Royale. This was when Microsoft was so desperate to screw Google that they (a) actually spent money to buy patents for which they already had a license and (b) held their noses and teamed up with Apple, their longtime nemesis. I would point out one thing. In tech, whenever you see companies teaming up and forming partnerships and alliances against one company, it always means the same thing: that company is...
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Much love and thanks for all the advice on my post about the saga of my crashing MacBook Pro. I got a lot of good tips, especially from people on Facebook. Maybe it’s the fans. Maybe it’s some wire. Maybe it’s a thermal issue. The MBP is still out at the Burlington Mall store, and higher powers at Apple have become involved, and I know they’re all doing their best to deal with what is admittedly a really tricky problem — intermittent glitches are the worst — and maybe they’ll be able to fix it this time and maybe they won’t, and anyway the thing is off warranty and never had Apple Care so if it’s gone it’s gone. So to hell with it. The best advice I got was to just go get a new machine. And this morning that’s what I did. Got the 13-inch MB Air and this time I got the Apple Care plan too. I ordered online, so unfortunately I won’t have it in time for my trip to the Bay Area this week. But I’m excited to get my hands on it, and I’m grateful to the guys at the Apple store who have been really great about trying to find and exterminate...
Learn MoreThis because yesterday I posted an item wondering if the market collapse means the IPO window has shut down again, and if so, what happens to the VCs who are sitting on a bunch of deals where they’ve paid ridiculously high valuations? They were hoping to flog this stuff off to bigger fools in the public markets, which is why they were going around repeateing the “there is no bubble” mantra. But now they’re stuck with this stuff, and will have to fall back on the rhetoric about being patient, long-term investors who are so proud to be associated with these wonderful entrepreneurs. Last night I got an email from a VC in the Valley saying that I sound “bitter and angry.” I had to admit that the guy has a point. But as I told him: Look, I’m Boston Irish. “Bitter and angry” is what we do around here. It’s our normal state of mind. The stuff that normal people see as anger and bitterness is stuff that in Boston we think of as cheeky humor. No hard feelings, Valley investors. Your eternal optimism makes the world a better place for all of us. Oh, and today comes word that Dropbox is raising money at a $10 billion...
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