Linked List: August 6, 2014

Wednesday, 6 August 2014

Apple, Samsung Agree to End Patent Suits Outside U.S. ★

Adam Satariano and Joel Rosenblatt, reporting for Bloomberg:

The companies said in a joint statement today that they have agreed to drop all suits against each other in countries outside the U.S. Claims are being abandoned in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, the U.K., France and Italy. […]

Still, they said in the statement that they aren’t ending the legal battles completely, nor have they reached any cross-licensing agreement.

Why not drop them everywhere? What’s different about the U.S.? (My only guess: the U.S. is the country where Apple is faring the best against Samsung, and so that’s where Apple wants to concentrate its remaining efforts.)

Update: Amicus brief arguing that Apple is entitled to $400 million in Samsung’s U.S. profits.

Brian Krebs’s Q&A on the Reported Theft of 1.2 Billion Email Accounts ★

Brian Krebs:

Q: Is this for real?

A: Alex isn’t keen on disclosing his methods, but I have seen his research and data firsthand and can say it’s definitely for real. Without spilling his secrets or methods, it is clear that he has a first-hand view on the day-to-day activities of some very active organized cybercrime networks and actors.

Russell Brandom at The Verge cast some well-reasoned skepticism on Hold Security’s claims, but Krebs vouching for them is huge.

‘Rob Frankel Has Been Called “The Best Branding Expert on the Planet”’ ★

He has been called other things as well.

Bizarro Insider ★

The Macalope, quoting Jay Yarow:

If there’s one thing that’s clear today it’s that Apple has been completely right in its smartphone strategy so far.

Oh! Oh! Gosh, if only someone had tried to tell Business Insider that for the past four years. What a tragedy. You know, there are those who engage in a destructive lifestyle and those who enable those who engage in a destructive lifestyle. Sure, the Macalope wrote possibly hundreds of columns telling Business Insider’s Yarow and Henry Blodget how wrong they were, but did he drive over to their houses and stage an intervention? No he did not.

Like I said the other day, it seems to be getting through everyone’s heads, finally, that Apple doesn’t need to pursue market share via low-cost iPhones. It’s reflected both in punditry such as Yarow’s Business Insider piece and in Apple’s stock price.