• WRAPUP 3-World mourns Steve Jobs; Apple shares edge higher October 6, 2011
  * Apple shares up 1 percent (Updates links to stories, graphics, Breakingviews; updates shares)
• Rambus asked about shredded records in Nvidia case October 6, 2011
  * Appeals judge says Rambus doesn't know what was shredded
• UPDATE 2-Sony near buying Ericsson out of phone venture-WSJ October 6, 2011
  * Sony and Ericsson decline to comment on reported talks
• Carlos Slim increases stake in NY Times October 6, 2011
  Oct 6 (Reuters) - Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire who loaned the New York Times Co $250 million, has upped his stake in the company for the third time in two months.
• UPDATE 1-Oracle to pay $199.5 mln to resolve false claims case October 6, 2011
  * Oracle denied engaging in fraud, but agreed to settle (Adds details of case, Oracle comment)
• Ex-reporter claims hacking at Trinity Mirror paper-Sky October 6, 2011
  LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A former reporter on a tabloid owned by Trinity Mirror has claimed the newspaper hacked into the phones of celebrities, Sky News reported on Thursday, potentially broadening a scandal that has so far largely affected Rupert Murdoch's News Corp .
• UPDATE 1-US regulator unveils plan for universal broadband October 6, 2011
  * Cable group says gives phone companies unfair advantage
• UPDATE 2-BBC to shrink as it shares in UK spending cuts October 6, 2011
  * 2,000 jobs to be axed, senior manager roles to be cut
• Dog eats dog as Britain's tabloids bare all October 6, 2011
  LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Fleet Street's finest jostled furiously at the start on Thursday of a government inquiry, trying to grab public attention with tales of shock and horror.
• Satellite problems cut phones in Canada's Arctic October 6, 2011
  *Flights canceled, bank machines, cell phones stop working

• Andy Zaky: Apple has hit bottom and is about to bounce May 18, 2012
  A cult figure among day traders issues a rare "buy" recommendation Zaky FORTUNE -- With Apple (AAPL) trading just over $530 a share -- under 13 times last year's earnings and 10.56 times his estimated October earnings -- Bullish Cross' Andy Zaky on Thursday told his readers to buy: "Those who have been waiting for a correction in Apple to buy the stock now have that opportunity to do so. On a technical basis, Apple is the second most oversold it has been since the lows of the financial crisis. Only on June 20, 2011 — when Apple bottomed at $310.50 a share ahead of a 30% July rally — did we see more oversold conditions on Apple. Even the flash crash didn't result in more oversold conditions." (link) For those of you who've never heard of Zaky, he was one of the first independent Apple analysts to challenge Wall Street, issuing estimates quarter after quarter that were considerably more accurate than the professionals'. (See, for example, here.) Through his articles on Fortune.com, Apple Insider and Seeking Alpha, Zaky became something of a cult figure among Internet-oriented day traders. In 2011 he started a hedge fund -- Bullish Cross Asset Management -- that was quickly oversubscribed. At the 2012 Apple Investors Summit in Los Angeles, he was mobbed by his young admirers. Between July 2006 and and July 2011 Zaky issued four "buy" recommendations on Apple, and his timing has been -- as he would be the first to tell you -- "impeccable." Each was made at or near a bottom, and the stock not yet failed to reach his price targets. See here. He was warning subscribers to expect a correction long before April 9's all-time intraday high of $644, which he felt was unsupported. Thursday's call to buy Apple was Zaky's fifth: "Today we feel that Apple is a strong buy anywhere between $500 and $530 a share and a buy between $530 and $550 a share. We expect Apple to test $750 a share sometime before the end of this coming January. That is roughly 50% higher than where the stock is trading today." You can read his full post here. Apple closed Thursday at $530.12, down nearly $114 (17.7%) from its peak in April. It was up more than $12 in early morning trading Friday. UPDATE: Asymco's Horace Dediu tweets: "Apple's P/E ex cash is about 10. On a forward basis ex cash $AAPL P/E is 7." Filed under: Apple 2.0
• Chart of the day: A snapshot of 3,997 distinct Android devices May 17, 2012
  A record of the Android phones and tablets that downloaded a single app over 6 months FORTUNE -- Suddenly you can see the advantage -- both for developers and users -- of Apple's (AAPL) approach of limiting the number of iOS devices on sale at any time to a handful of iPads, iPhones and iPod touches. Google (GOOG) executive chairman Eric Schmidt downplays the challenge of knowing ahead of time which Android apps will run on which devices. Developers complain about "fragmentation" of the Android ecosystem. He suggests that they think of it, instead, as "differentiation." You can see a live, mouseable version of the chart at OpenSignalMaps' website here. The products represented range from the popular Samsung Galaxy SII (61,389 downloads) to more than 1,300 single downloads from relatively obscure devices such as the Concorde Tab (a 10.1-inch Hungarian tablet), the Lemon P1 (a dual SIM Indian phone), the Energy Tablet i724 (a Spanish tablet aimed at home entertainment). Via TechCrunch. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Meet the men who carved $96B out of Apple's market value May 17, 2012
  A gathering of hedge fund managers in Manhattan sends the share price on a wild ride. Jeffrey Gundlach. Reuters FORTUNE -- See on the chart at right where Apple's (AAPL) share price dropped to just over $540 shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday? That corresponds roughly to when the fund manager pictured above left, DoubleLine Capital's Jeffrey Gundlach, told a room packed with investment managers that he was shorting Apple. "I just wonder how many people will queue up around the block for an iPad 87," he said. David Einhorn See where the share price popped back up just before the closing bell? That happened after the next speaker, David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, a hedge fund famous for taking very large short positions, said Grundlach was flat wrong. Apple won't lose its appeal if it stops making a new hit product every year. That "assumes that Apple is a hardware company. It's not," he said, according to the Wall Street Journal's account of the meeting. "Apple is a software company. Its value comes from iOS, the App Store, iTunes and iCloud." According to Einhorn, hedge funds own only 5% of Apple's 935 million shares, as if to suggest that weren't enough to make a dent in the stock price. But those funds are managed by guys who know a thing or two about leverage. So if you are wondering who could have brought Apple's share price down more than $100 from its all-time high of $644 on April 9 to its low for the day of $541.04 -- carving $96 billion out of the company's market cap in the process -- you might start with the men who gathered Wednesday in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall for the Ira Sohn Conference to talk about the market and raise money for pediatric cancer research Here's the list of the day's speakers, courtesy of ValueWalk: Bill Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Dwight Anderson, MP of Ospraie Management Dan Ariely, Professor, and expert in Behavioral finance David Einhorn, CEO of Greenlight Capital Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of Doubleline, Bond Guru Jonathan Kolatch, CEO of Redwood Capital Philippe Laffont, PM of Coatue Management John Lykouretzos, PM of Hoplite Steve Mandel, CEO of Lone Pine Capital John Paulson, PM of Paulson & Co Larry Robbins,  CEO of Glenview Capital Management Kenneth Rogoff, Professor, Co-Author of Eight Centuries of Financial Folly John Wilder, Chairman of Bluescape Resources Meryl Witmer, GP at Eagle Capital Partners Filed under: Apple 2.0, Fastest-Growing Companies
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Three scenes from Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs biopic we can't wait to see May 16, 2012
  Apple's CEO left the master of dysfunctional relationships a lot of material to work with From Sorkin's The Social Network FORTUNE -- Viewers who have followed Aaron Sorkin's TV and film work over the years were delighted to learn Tuesday that one of Hollywood's most gifted screenwriters has officially signed on to adapt Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs for Sony Pictures' (SNE) film. Sorkin is the master of romantic relationships that are painfully, hilariously dysfunctional. The opening scene of The Social Network, in which Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is dumped by his college girlfriend (Rooney Mara), is the most famous example, but Sorkin's ouvre is littered with the casualties of misdirected love. There's Casey McCall (Peter Krause) and Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman) in Sports Night. Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) and Amy Gardner (Mary Louise Parker) in The West Wing. Danny Trip (Whitford) and Jordan McDeere (Amanda Peet) in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Although Steve Jobs eventually settled down in what Isascson describes as a happy, supportive marriage, Apple's (AAPL) co-founder gave Sorkin plenty of material to work with. Here are three scenes from the biopic we're dying to see: Life with a narcissist. Perhaps the closest thing to a classic Sorkin love affair was Jobs' tumultuous five-year relationship with the ethereal Tina Redse, who says that when she found the description of Narcissistic Personality Disorder in a psychiatric manual she finally realized what she'd been putting up with. At one point she scrawled on the hallway to their bedroom: "Neglect is a form of abuse." Jobs and Powell. SFGate Joan Baez's red dress. In this scene, Jobs tells the folksinger early in their relationship that there's a red dress at Ralph Lauren's Polo Shop that she'd look beautiful in. He drives her to the Stanford Mall, shows her the dress, and tells her she ought to buy it. She says she can't afford it. He buys himself a couple of shirts and, to her enduring puzzlement, they leave without the dress. She still doesn't understand what that was about. The marriage proposal. Jobs proposed to Laurene Powell on Jan. 1, 1990, and she accepted. Then he said nothing more about it for many months. Furious, she finally left him. Even after they reconciled and she had gotten pregnant, he had very public second thoughts, asking a wide variety of friends and acquaintances whom they thought was prettier, Tina or Laurene. There's lots more where that came from. Sorkin should have a blast. See also: Ashton Kutcher is not playing Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• The Zooey Deschanel effect May 16, 2012
  The iPhone's "buzz" got a bump after Apple started using celebrities in its Siri ads Click to enlarge. Source: YouGov Deschanel with iPhone FORTUNE -- Some purists used the fact that Apple (AAPL) had replaced the always appealing but generally anonymous faces in its TV ads with a couple of Hollywood celebrities -- Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson -- as evidence that the company had gone to hell without Steve Jobs at the helm. (See Siri takes a star turn.) But a new YouGov BrandIndex survey suggests that Apple marketing may still know how to do its job. According to a report issued Tuesday, the Siri ads featuring Deschanel and Jackson coincided with a boost for the iPhone brand among the all-important demographic of 18–34 year old Americans: "Just as the new Siri campaign premiered on April 19th, iPhone's buzz score in the 18 – 34 demo was 16, several points below Android's 26 score. Five days later, iPhone's buzz score passed Android, 30 vs. 29... The iPhone's buzz score peaked on May 4th with a 51 score, while Android moved a couple of points down to 27." Both men and women responded positively to the ads, according to YouGov, but men registered the strongest push. YouGov BrandIndex's Buzz score was determined, as usual, by asking respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" Brands tested included Apple, Google's (GOOG) Android, BlackBerry (RIMM), Motorola (MOT), Nokia (NOK), HTC and Samsung. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Apple bites Android: Customs halts U.S. sales of HTC phones May 16, 2012
  Two models held for inspection after a December patent ruling in Apple's favor Stopped at Customs: The HTC One X. Engadget photo. FORTUNE -- In what is believed to be the first tangible effect of the two-year-old proxy war Apple (AAPL) has waged against Google (GOOG) though the makers of Android phones, U.S. Customs officials have delayed shipment of two of HTC newest models pending inspection. The delay is indefinite, but may turn out to be brief. In December Apple won a narrow victory over the Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones and tablets when the International Trade Commission found that some earlier HTC phones had violated a single Apple patent provision covering the way smartphones make sense of unstructured data, such as e-mails. (See: Apple wins limited ruling in important Android patent case.) The ITC delayed its mandatory exclusion order until May 19 to give HTC time to devise a workaround. In a statement issued Tuesday, HTC said it believed the new phones -- the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE -- are in compliance with the ruling, and that it is working with U.S. Customs officials to secure their release. Nonetheless, HTC shares fell more than 6% in the Asian markets on the news. HTC, you may recall, was the first maker of Android phones that Apple took to court. The suit was filed on March 2, 2010, and in an oft-quoted statement, Steve Jobs threw down the gauntlet: "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours." Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Tim Cook meets John Boehner May 16, 2012
  In Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Source: Speaker's Blog FORTUNE --The photo was posted on the Speaker of the House's website with no details beyond the date. Until we find out what he and the CEO of Apple (AAPL) discussed, we'll leave it to our readers write their own captions. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Google's Android profits: '40% of a little is a lot less' May 15, 2012
  An eye-opening comparison of Android's income statement with Apple's Source: Asymco.com FORTUNE -- As part of an extended look at what he calls Google's (GOOG) "Android economics," Asymco's Horace Dediu on Monday published what may be the first independent estimate of the company's Android income statement. As the chart at right shows, Android generates revenue for Google through three kinds of ad sales (Google's Search, AdSense and AdMob). After costs and revenue sharing are taken out, there is some profit left over for Google: roughly $2.75 per Android device per year, according to Dediu. Is that a lot? To put his numbers in perspective, Dediu on Tuesday posted a chart comparing Apple's (AAPL) iPhone income for the first three months of 2011 with Google's estimated Android income for the full year. Because the Android chart is dwarfed to near invisibility by Apple's, Dediu posted the scaled up version copied below. To understand what's going on, you'll probably have to see the Asmyco charts at their proper scale. Click here. As Dediu writes: "As various members of the Android ecosystem are rewarded from the 40% revenue share of Android, it would be important to consider the scales involved in these illustrations when considering the influence Google exerts. It could be argued that Google's spreading of wealth from search creates strong incentives for participation in its ecosystem. "However, there is little wealth created. 40% of a little is a lot less." The 4 X scale charts below. If you look closely, you can see the Android chart we showed above at the center of the image below, near the bottom. Source: Asymco.com Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Steve Jobs on camera: 'The publishers are actually going to withhold their books from Amazon' May 15, 2012
  Telegraphing an alleged price-fixing conspiracy 2 years before the DOJ caught up to it Jobs talking price-fixing at the iPad launch. Source: AllThingsD FORTUNE -- Paid Content's Laura Hazard Owen, combing through documents newly unredacted in the states' (as opposed to the U.S. Department of Justice's) antitrust complaint against Apple (AAPL) and five book publishers, uncovered a gem: a blunt Steve Jobs e-mail that basically hands the attorneys general their price-fixing case. In a note to a publishing executive nervous about sticking it to Amazon (AMZN), Jobs wrote: As I see it, [Conspiring Publisher] has the following choices: 1. Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99. 2. Keep going with Amazon at $9.99. You will make a bit more money in the short term, but in the medium term Amazon will tell you they will be paying you 70% of $9.99. They have shareholders too. 3. Hold back your books from Amazon. Without a way for customers to buy your ebooks, they will steal them. This will be the start of piracy and once started, there will be no stopping it. Trust me, I've seen this happen with my own eyes. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any other alternatives. Do you? Good stuff. But as several readers have pointed out, Jobs telegraphed all this in a brief on-camera exchange with the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg at the launch of the original iPad in January 2010, more than two years before the government's antitrust lawyers caught up to the alleged conspiracy. It's in the AllThingsD video here. You can skip Kara Swisher's irritating preamble and go straight to the Steve Jobs part, which starts at the 1:40 mark. Mossberg asks Jobs why customers would pay $14.99 for an iBook when they could get the same title from Amazon for $9.99. "The prices will be the same," Jobs assures him. "The publishers are actually going to withhold their books from Amazon." Which they did. Amazon was forced to abandon the $9.99 model and for two years -- until the DOJ filed its suit -- e-book prices were the same on the iPad, the Nook and the Kindle. Amazon has now gone back to offering New York Times bestsellers for $9.99. As we've suggested before (see here, here and here), it seems wrong that the government would give a pass to Amazon -- an e-book monopolist selling titles below cost -- and instead sue five publishers gasping for air in a shrinking market. Adding insult to injury, Amazon has since started signing up authors for its own imprints, threatening to cut publishers off at the source. For a view of how the whole business looks from Publisher's Row, see Brad Stone's excellent "Amazon's Hit Man,"  in Bloomberg Businessweek. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Another Apple analyst backs away from iTV's inevitability May 14, 2012
  Pouring cold water on one of Silicon Valley's hottest rumors FORTUNE -- Although there is no shortage of iTV speculation -- thanks to rumor sites like Taipei-based DigiTimes -- and plenty of Apple (AAPL) analysts ready to calculate to the penny how much an Apple-branded TV set would add to the company's bottom line, some experts have started to back away from what was once seen as an inevitablity. In December, Richard Gardner, formerly of Citigroup, warned that "Apple has not even defined specs yet." In February, Barclays' Ben Reitzes suggested that Apple was focused more on lining up TV content partnerships than on the production of a TV set. Now Pacific Crest's Andy Hargreaves has poured what may be the coldest water yet on the idea. In a note to clients issued Monday, he makes two points: (I quote) Investment in Apple television makes little sense without a unique TV content offering. An Apple television could drive substantial profitability if it helped Apple capture service provider profits. However, we do not expect U.S. broadcast or cable networks to provide Apple content if it risks cannibalizing existing revenue, which makes a unique Apple service and an Apple television unlikely. An Apple television would be a terrible use of retail space relative to iPhone, iPad or the Apple TV set-top box. A 46" Apple television would likely generate less than 1/200th the gross profit per cubic foot as an iPhone at retail, and less than 1/50th the gross profit per cubic foot of an iPad. We believe this is critical given the limited inventory space at many Apple and partner stores. As it happens, I agree with Hargreaves (see here), although he goes on to say that Apple is more likely to be building an iPad mini. That one I'll believe when I see it. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Anatomy of an iTV rumor May 14, 2012
  The latest "confirmation" that Apple is building a TV set turns out to be another soufflé Via Techmeme FORTUNE -- It is perhaps a measure of how badly broken today's commercial TV viewing experience is -- the cookie-cutter sitcoms, the ridiculous reality shows, the ever-shifting channel line-ups, the relentless, merciless commercial breaks -- that the tech press is so desperate to believe even the slimmest rumor that Apple (AAPL) is getting ready to solve all that by building its own television set. Take, for example, last week's report that Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou announced at a press conference in Shanghai that his Foxconn subsidiary was "making preparations for iTV." By Friday the report had spawned dozens of headlines. A sample: Gizmodo: Apple television set confirmed by Foxconn boss The Mac Observer: Hon Hai exec says Apple television coming Forbes: Foxconn gears up for Apple's iTV MacNewsWorld: iTV: Not if but what What none of these reporters mentioned (or apparently bothered to consider) is that Gou -- whose factories assemble 40% of the world's electronic devices -- is one of the industry's most secretive executives. He is privy to the future product plans of the most valuable electronics brands -- not just Apple, but also Sony (SNE), Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and the rest. He is trusted by his business partners because he never leaks their secrets. Terry Gou. Photo via M.I.C. Gadget Given how jealously Apple guards its own secrets, and how relentlessly it pursues those who spill them, what are the chances that Gou would say anything -- ever -- about an unannounced Apple product, real or imagined? I'd say, nil. So what was the source for this latest iTV story? It was single item in China Daily -- an English-language newspaper based in Beijing. The dateline is Shanghai. The byline is Gao Changxin. The headline reads: "Foxconn plans renewed shift into distribution." After 15 paragraphs about Gou's remarks at the groundbreaking for Hon Hai's new Shanghai headquarters and his company's plans to expand distribution in mainland China, the China Daily story tosses in -- almost as an afterthought -- this sentence: "Gou said Foxconn is making preparations for iTV, Apple Inc's rumored upcoming high-definition television, although development or manufacturing has yet to begin." Talk about burying the lead! If Gou really said this, it would be -- for all the reasons stated above -- very big news. So how is it that none of the other reporters covering the event heard it? Not Reuters' John Ruwitch. Not Bloomberg's Tim Culpin. Not the AP's Elaine Kurtenbach. It is possible that the China Daily reporter misheard or misunderstood Gou's remarks? Or that his report was mistranslated? Or that a desk editor or rewrite person mangled it? We've asked Gao Changxin to review his notes and tell us exactly what Gou said. He has yet to respond to our several requests. See Update 2 below. For now, the Terry Gou iTV story remains what one of my editors at Time Magazine used to call "a soufflé." Kick it a few times and it collapses. Meanwhile the tech press has moved on to the latest "confirmation" that Apple is getting into the TV-set business: A rumor that the company is about to buy Loewe, a German distributor of slim HDTVs and integrated, Apple-friendly audio equipment. A Loewe spokesperson told a German blog Sunday that there was "absolutely nothing to" the rumor, but that didn't stop the tech press from piling onto the story, or Loewe's stock from jumping 30% Monday morning on the Frankfurt exchange. For our take on the whole iTV phenomenon, see Tell me again: Why do we think Apple will build a TV set? Update: A Foxconn spokesperson contacted The Next Web with the following statement: In remarks at a media briefing during the groundbreaking of Foxconn's new China headquarters in Shanghai on May 10, Terry Gou, Foxconn's Chief Executive Officer, made it very clear that he would neither confirm nor speculate about Foxconn's involvement in the production of any product for any customer because Foxconn's policy is not to comment on any customers or their products. At no time did he confirm that Foxconn was in development or manufacturing stages for any product for any of its customers.  He did say that  Foxconn is always prepared to meet the manufacturing needs of customers should they determine that they wish to work with Foxconn in the production of any of their products.   Any reports that Foxconn confirmed that it is preparing to produce a specific product for any customer are not accurate. That nails it. UPDATE 2: Gao sent us an audio recording of Gou's remarks with a pointer to the passage in question. I had someone who speaks Chinese listen to it. Here's his report: "Gou didn't specifically mention making TV for Apple  but they are going to go into building TV business and how they will able to become one of the top players. He gave a example how cell phone changed from the big one to now the tiny handsets. The same thing will be happening to TV right now." Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Video: Is this what Apple's new maps will look like? May 12, 2012
  After 5 years with Google's maps, Apple is reportedly set to unveil its own Lower Manhattan via C3 Technologies. Click to see video. FORTUNE -- Big news in iOS mapping this week. Mark Gurman, 9to5Mac's teen blogging phenom, reported Friday that Apple (AAPL) is prepared to replace the iPhone and iPad's Map app -- built on Google's (GOOG) back-end mapping data -- with something entirely its own. Its unveiling, according to AllThingsD's John Paczkowski, will be one of the highlights of the WWDC keynote on June 11. "Here's the thing," Daring Fireball's John Gruber weighed in. "Apple's homegrown mapping data has to be great. Mapping is an essential phone feature. It's one of those handful of features that almost everyone with an iPhone uses, and often relies upon." So what will the new maps look like? The assumption is that Apple will be using the talent and technology it acquired when it snapped up three mapping companies in the space of three years: Placebase in 2009, Poly9 in 2010, and C3 Technologies in 2011. That last acquisition -- a spinoff of Swedish jet- and automobile-maker SAAB -- is particularly intriguing, given what its military-derived technology can do. There are several demonstrations of C3's 3D-flythroughs on YouTube. We've linked to one in the image above (click it to view the video), and copied several more below the fold. Of course, just because Apple can do something, doesn't mean it will. The company is famously conservative in such matters, rolling out new features only when it feels they are ready for prime time (Siri, perhaps, being the conspicuous exception). As Gruber points out, this is a high-risk switch for Apple: "Regressions will not be acceptable. The purported whiz-bang 3D view stuff might be great, but users are going to have pitchforks and torches in hand if practical stuff like driving and walking directions are less accurate than they were with Google's data." Those whiz-bang 3D demos: Hoover Dam: Oslo: London: Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Samsung: Dog ate my e-mail May 11, 2012
  Apple accuses Samsung of taking a slash-and-burn approach to evidence preservation Image: trancessive.com FORTUNE -- Samsung's failure to produce evidence in a timely manner is emerging as a pivotal issue in the California federal court where Apple (AAPL) has sued the Korean smartphone manufacturer for allegedly infringing Apple's iPhone patents. Last week, FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller reported that the judge in the case had ordered harsh "preclusive sanctions" against Samsung for what Mueller described as "a particularly inexcusable violation" of a court order to deliver source code. As Mueller noted, "This is not the first time that Samsung is found guilty of non-compliance with a discovery order." Now NetworkWorld's Yoni Heisler has taken a deeper look at Samsung's record of non-compliance. As he reported Friday: "I pored over Apple's motion along with Samsung's subsequent motion in opposition and suffice it to say, Samsung likes to play fast and loose with its legal obligations. Specifically, Samsung has a policy whereby custodian emails are automatically deleted every two weeks, even in instances where the company is required by law to preserve any and all emails that might reasonably be pertinent to a foreseeable or ongoing lawsuit." In its motion, Apple accused Samsung of destroying "vast quantities of relevant evidence in blatant disregard of its duty to preserve all such evidence," something it charges Samsung did in a similar case before the International Trade Commission. It also cited other instances of wholesale document destruction: In a lawsuit involving Samsung and Mosaid Tecnologies it was discovered that Samsung had an ongoing policy of automatically deleting emails from custodian computers every two weeks, even when they were required to keep e-mail evidence relevant to an ongoing legal dispute. While being investigated by Korea's Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), Samsung allegedly obstructed justice by purposefully destroying a large amount of data during the course of a price fixing investigation. According to a recent KFTC press release, the commission found that high level Samsung executives instructed company security personnel to physically block KFTC officials from entering the facility while "Samsung employees from the department subject to the investigation destroyed relevant data and replaced the computers of those employees who were subject to investigation." Apple has asked the judge to instruct the jury: 1. Samsung had a duty to preserve relevant evidence, failed to do so, and acted in bad faith in failing to meet its legal duty. 2. The jury may infer that documents Samsung failed to produce would have been advantageous to Apple's position. 3. If the jury finds Samsung liable for infringement, they may presume that the infringement was "intentional, willful, without regard to Apple's rights." The case is scheduled to go to trial on July 30. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Videos: The new iPad goes on sale in 30 more countries May 11, 2012
  Apple's roll-out reaches deeper into Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East The queue in Taiwan. Source: CTS TV FORTUNE -- The fastest roll-out yet of an iOS device picked up pace this week as Apple (AAPL) prepared to launch the new iPad in 23 countries Friday and seven more on Saturday. The longest lines are likely to be in Brazil, where Apple and Foxconn have set up local assembly plants to avoid that country's steep import taxes. Saturday will take the new iPad into the oil-rich Middle East. The full list of countries getting the new iPad this week, via MacRumors: Friday: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Morocco, Peru, Taiwan, Tunisia and Vietnam Saturday: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Conspicuously absent: Mainland China, where the device has been approved for sale but control of the iPad trademark is still being litigated. The first video comes from Taiwan, where balloons seem to have outnumbered customers: Vietnam (single sale): Chile: Press unveiling in Argentina: More as they come in. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• The Paris Hilton of mobile phones makes a comeback May 10, 2012
  The notion that the Apple has a "carrier subsidy problem" just won't die FORTUNE -- In the summer of 2009 a Danish mobile phone analyst named John Strand issued a 105-page report entitled  "The moment of truth: a portrait of the iPhone," that listed the "10 largest myths" about Apple's (AAPL) smartphone: 1) The iPhone drives data traffic into mobile operators networks 2) The iPhone helps operators attract new customers 3) The iPhone is good business for mobile operators 4) The iPhone is dominating the mobile services market 5) App store is a huge success that has revolutionised the services market 6) There is money to be made by developing applications for the iPhone 7) It is iPhone customers that are generating the majority of online mobile surfing traffic 8) The iPhone has a large market share 9) The iPhone was the first mobile phone with a touchscreen 10) The iPhone is a technologically advanced mobile phone Many of Strand's ideas seem so laughably wrong today that it's hard to believe that they were ever taken seriously. But they were happily picked up by headline writers on both sides of the Atlantic, in part because Strand was always willing to dress up his heresies with eye-catching quotes. In his favorite, repeated at every opportunity, he called the iPhone "the Paris Hilton of mobile phones," as if it were a sexy but empty-headed flash-in-the-pan. Fast forward to 2012, and Strand's Myth No. 3 -- the (mistaken) idea that carrying the iPhone is good business for mobile operators -- has been making a comeback. It started in early April, when Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG, downgraded Apple from buy to neutral and told Bloomberg TV "operators are trying to fight back against the impact that Apple is having on their business" -- a reference to the higher subsidies companies like AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S) pay Apple for the privilege of carrying the iPhone. Soon the iPhone's subsidy was being blamed for everything from a CEO's multimillion dollar pay cut to the drop in Apple's share price that preceded the company's Q2 2012 blow-out earnings. Now that Apple's share price has retreated to pre-earnings levels, the idea is back in the headlines. "Okay, This Carrier Subsidy Problem May Be A Real Concern For Apple's Stock" wrote Business Insider's Henry Blodget Tuesday, picking up on a theme explored in the Wall Street Journal the day before. I don't get it. If the iPhone is so bad for the phone companies, why are they falling over themselves trying to get Apple to let them carry it? We put the question to Horace Dediu, who spent several years doing market analysis for Nokia (NOK) before launching his Asymco blog and conference business. "An iPhone subsidy costs about $400," Dediu replied. "An iPhone customer will spend about $2,400 for service over the life of that phone. Every dollar of subsidy is worth six dollars of revenue. In addition, iPhone customers are more loyal, spend more and tend to stick with the carrier. What's the question again?" John Strand, by the way, is still around, trash-talking the iPhone at every opportunity. Here he is (below the fold) at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona a few years ago using the Paris Hilton line again and making his oft-repeated claim that in all the years he's been covering the mobile business, he's never made a mistake: Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• For every $1 Google spends lobbying, Apple spends 10¢ May 10, 2012
  Is that really why Apple has become, per Politico, a "punching bag" for lawmakers?  Click to enlarge. Source: Politico FORTUNE -- I might feel differently about Apple's D.C. Lobbying Effort Has Yet to Ripen, the 1,450-word piece posted on Politico Wednesday, if I hadn't just listened to Take the Money and Run for Office, This America Life's brilliant hour-long expose of how Washington, D.C., influence peddling really works. By the end of the radio piece (available as a podcast), it's clear to listeners that companies like Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- which together spent $8.4 million lobbying in just the first three months of 2012 -- don't chase lawmakers down the halls of power trying to buy their influence. It's the other way around. The senators and congressmen chase after the lobbyists. Sent to Washington to make laws (or prevent them from being made) our elected officials have been reduced to full-time money-grubbers, alternatively begging and strong-arming political action committees (PACs) to meet fundraising quotas that get steeper every year. So I take with a grain of salt Politico's contention that Apple's (AAPL) "hostility" to the process "may have brought extra attention." For example, the piece describes as a "stinging preliminary finding" the ruling two weeks ago by a judge at the International Trade Commission that Apple may have violated one of four Motorola (MOT) patents related to Wi-Fi in the iPad and iPhone. Anyone following the iPhone patent wars knows that there are dozens of issues like that one before the ITC, and that Apple has won more than its share. And while I have no doubt that both parties eye with lust Apple's $110 billion war chest of cash and marketable securities, the fact that it's not being spent on them is not the reason the company has become, in Politico's terms, "a punching bag for lawmakers who understand the power of using a marquee name to reinforce their arguments about American companies dodging taxes, hiring overseas and mistreating foreign workers." Case in point: The shot Sen. Tom Coburn took at Apple on NBC's Morning Joe last week, declaring himself "livid" about the New York Times' report about the lengths to which Apple (like every other major American high-tech firm) goes to avoid paying taxes. Coburn talks big about "closing loopholes," but he's all in favor of the so-called "repatriation holiday" that would allow Apple to bring home billions of dollars of overseas profits without paying the current 35% federal tax on foreign earnings. (See "Livid" about tax loopholes.) If he thinks some of those iPhone profits are going to end up in his reelection fund, he's sadly mistaken. As one source familiar with Apple's D.C. operations told Politico, "They don't have a massive table of consultants and law firms. It is more low key, but it is also respectful." The piece details several instances in which Apple quietly dropped apps or changed developer policies after they drew Washington's attention. And as GigaOm's Erica Ogg points out, Steve Jobs was plenty savvy about how to wield influence in the nation's capital: "He just went straight to the top. Sending the president [an iPad 2]  before it was available to the public is a pretty decent way of making friends." Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• How Apple gets to $2,000 May 9, 2012
  Andy Zaky has a plan Click to enlarge. Source: Andy Zaky FORTUNE -- Most Apple (AAPL) analysts will offer estimates that look a few quarters or even a year in advance. Andy Zaky is not like most analysts. For one thing, his estimates over the past four years have been considerably more accurate than your average Wall Street analyst (see, for example, here). For another, he's not afraid to stick his neck out -- way out -- both in his published pieces (including more than a dozen for Fortune.com) and in his closely followed posts on Bullish Cross, his subscription-only blog. Now he has put together an Apple forecast that looks not a few quarters, but a few years into the future. The chart above shows Apple's past and future quarterly trailing earnings per share (TTM) according to Zaky, with most recent quarter ($41.04) at the center in dark blue. (For an explanation of TTM, see here.) At Tuesday's close, Apple was trading at just under 14 times its current TTM (14 x 41.04 = $574.56). If Apple is still trading at 14 times earnings in fiscal Q4 2015, it will, according to Zaky, have topped $2,000 (14 x $145.96 = $2043.44). "I'm fairly confident about these numbers," Zaky writes. "Here's what I think will guide that: Q1 2013 = 55 million iPhones shipped Q1 2014 = 80 million iPhones shipped Q1 2015 = 110 million iPhones shipped "2014 is the golden age of Apple and the peak growth year," Zaky concludes. "After 2015, growth will stall and Apple will become a mature company -- at least for this era." To enter another golden age, Zaky says, Apple has to do something spectacular. He's lobbying for nanomedicine and a cure for the type of cancer that killed Steve Jobs. Curing cancer seems to me like a stretch, even for Apple. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• The N.Y. Times' tax-avoidance story didn't stick to Apple May 8, 2012
  Compared with GE, says YouGov, Apple's public image is made of Teflon Click to enlarge. FORTUNE -- When the New York Times claimed incorrectly last year that General Electric (GE) paid zero federal taxes in 2010 on worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, the company's reputation took a steep and prolonged hit, as measured by YouGov's BrandIndex Reputation score. Not so Apple (AAPL). When the same paper ran a front-page story last week detailing -- again incorrectly, according to Forbes -- the lengths to which Apple has gone to avoid paying taxes, the company's consumer reputation barely budged. In fact, based on responses to the question "Would you be proud or embarrassed to work for this brand?" Apple's reputation score actually went up modestly a few days after the Times story broke, according to a YouGov report issued Tuesday. The market research firm concluded that Apple's public reputation is "virtually Teflon" -- at least in terms of tax avoidance. Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• Apple: Samsung owes us 'billions' in damages May 8, 2012
  Claiming every trial delay is costing them money, Cupertino turns up the rhetorical heat FORTUNE -- In a motion filed in California federal court Monday, Apple (AAPL) accused Samsung of not only stealing its intellectual property, but using courtroom delaying tactics to steal more of the iPhone's market share. FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller has the money quote: "While the parties have been readying the case for trial Samsung has vaulted into first place in worldwide sales of smartphones, with massive sales of its copycat products (link provided). Samsung's infringement of Apple's intellectual property has already resulted in damages that reach billions of dollars. [...] It is critical to Apple to start trial on July 30, to put an end to Samsung's continuing infringement." Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt
• How is AMZN worth 13 AAPLs? May 8, 2012
  There seems to be a growing disconnect in Wall Street's valuations Click to enlarge. Source: Jeffrey Forsberg FORTUNE -- I know that comparisons, as Shakespeare's Dogberry put it, are supposed to be odorous, but this one is beginning to stink. How can Apple (AAPL), with $110 billion in the bank, annual sales of $140 billion and earnings that nearly double every year, be valued so much lower than Amazon (AMZN), which has $6 billion in the bank, sales of $50 billion and earnings that fell 35% last quarter? This is a question that reader Jeff Forsberg has been asking for nearly a year. On Friday he sent the chart above, an updated version of the coiled spring visual metaphor he introduced last June, when Amazon's price-to-earnings ratio was 81 and Apple's was 16. A year later, it's only grown worse. As of Friday, Amazon was selling for 184 times earnings and Apple for 13.8, a 13-to-1 gap that grew even wider in Monday's trading. "This is getting hard to understand," Forsberg writes. "It's almost as if Wall Street is pricing Amazon on the basis of Apple's earnings performance. There's more upside with Apple's median price target than Amazon's, and yet Apple's P/E's is compressed to a level that strains credibility.  By comparison, there's hardly any coil left in Amazon's spring.  What gives?" What indeed? Filed under: Apple 2.0
  Philip Elmer-DeWitt

• Is it illegal to record and post noisy neighbors having sex? May 18, 2012
  A Reddit user who shared a friend's solution for noisy neighbors having sex attracted almost 2,000 comments. To teach the loud lovers a lesson, the friend recorded the cries of passion, uploaded the recording to the Internet, then wrote a note telling them exactly what happened.
• DEA proposes tracking all cars on Utah highway - is your street next? May 19, 2012
  Law enforcement officials have been systematically tracking license plates for a long time — at the border, for instance. But a DEA project in Utah may be overstepping the bounds of good governance, tracking and sharing licenses on a national level.
• Video: Tools of the spy trade: Robot fish, dragonfly cameras and more May 17, 2012
  They may not have Q in their corners, but real spies do have gadgets that would fit right into a James Bond movie. Msnbc.com's Rosa Golijan tours an exhibition of spy tools. (msnbc.com)
• Report: Steve Jobs 'worked closely' on new iPhone design May 18, 2012
  We've heard that late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs may have been working until the day before his death, but now a report tell us just what he was focused on: A new iPhone design.
• Video: Is the Internet killing spy gadgets? May 17, 2012
  The Internet is quickly rendering a lot of old tools obsolete, but is it killing off spy gadgets as well? Msnbc.com's Rosa Golijan asks former CIA tech director Bob Wallace about the state of the espionage business. (msnbc.com)
• Verizon: You can keep your unlimited data plan, but no subsidized phones May 17, 2012
  Wednesday brought reports that Verizon would be ending its policy of allowing grandfathering in of contracts when purchasing a new phone. The company clarified today that you can keep your contract - but you can't get that $200 iPhone.
• Sponsored By: May 17, 2012
• Missing 'Persian Gulf' label on Google Maps angers Iran May 17, 2012
  Typically companies anger the public by taking a controversial action, but in Google's case, not doing something is causing backlash. The search engine giant's decision to not label a body of water between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula on Google Maps has many Iranians outraged.
• Former 'revenge porn' czar under FBI investigation: report May 17, 2012
  "Revenge porn" is how the content of Hunter Moore's website, Is Anyone Up, is most always described. Defunct since April, Is Anyone Up invited bitter ex-lovers to submit nude photos and videos of their former partners, along with that former partner's Facebook profile or other social media identity.
• Two highly evolved Sony cameras vie for your $600 May 17, 2012
  There are dozens of great cameras competing for attention in the $500-$1000 range. Sony's latest interchangeable-lens cameras, the compact NEX-F3 and SLR-style A37, even compete against each other. Which would be best for you?
• iPhone app reads the minds of cats, dogs ... and stuffed unicorns May 17, 2012
  Pets can be frustrating. Sometimes they just stare and stare at you — as if you're supposed to magically know exactly what they're thinking. Well, an amusing (and free) iPhone app helps defuse those awkward moments by suggesting what might be on your beloved pet's mind.
• We may not trust Facebook, but we don't quit it either, shows poll May 16, 2012
  We've long known more than a few Facebook users don't trust the social network to keep their personal information private. A new poll shows that many who don't trust Facebook stay anyway.
• Next iPhone will have 4-inch screen: report May 16, 2012
  Apple plans to use a larger screen on the next-generation iPhone and has begun to place orders for the new displays from suppliers in South Korea and Japan, people familiar with the situation said on Wednesday. The new iPhone screens will measure 4 inches from corner to corner, one source said.
• Google Search basically reads your mind now May 16, 2012
  Sometimes the queries you enter into Google have multiple meanings. Wouldn't it be nice if Google could simply guess what you really want results for? It now can.
• New MacBook rumors: Retina displays, USB 3.0 and more May 16, 2012
  Next month will supposedly bring a new line of MacBooks to eager laptop buyers around the world, but it won't be the modest spec bumps of the last few years. This year's crop is rumored to be carry major improvements in just about every aspect.
• 'The Story of Send' tells epic tale of an email's digital journey May 15, 2012
  Google has put together an interactive animation that shows how an email gets from your outbox to someone else's inbox — every wire and server accounted for. It's a nice reminder of how intricate (and carefully monitored) the Internet's infrastructure is.
• Algorithm turns tweets into poetry May 15, 2012
  It's said that — given enough time — an army of monkeys with typewriters could recreate the works of Shakespeare. Well, it turns out that millions of humans with keyboards and Twitter accounts can do the same thing. Kinda.
• Sponsored By: May 15, 2012
• Despite dangers, U.S. teens still text and drive May 14, 2012
  Virtually all teenagers agree that texting while driving is dangerous but 43 percent said they had done so in the past three months, according to a new nationwide survey released on Monday.
• Wikipedia ads mean you've got malware May 15, 2012
  If you see an advertisement on Wikipedia, there's a good chance you have malware on your computer.

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