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Judge Vaporizes Big Chunk of Apple's Billion-Dollar Win in Samsung Case March 04, 2013 U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh on Friday struck more than $450 million from the damages a jury awarded to Apple in last summer's blockbuster verdict against Samsung. The jury found that Samsung had willfully copied a number of Apple's design and software patents for the iPhone and ruled that it should pay more than $1 billion in damages.

China on Cyberattacks: US Is Pot Calling the Kettle Black March 04, 2013 After taking it on the chin for its alleged attacks on U.S. media outlets -- and for its army reportedly backing hackers engaged in cyberespionage around the world -- China returned fire. The government claimed its defense and military ministries' websites are being bombarded with 144,000 hacking attacks a month from the U.S.

IBM: Giving Open a Smarter Strategic Advantage March 04, 2013 IBM just announced SmartCloud Orchestrator -- a massive open source initiative designed to help companies better balance public and private cloud resources and even switch vendors. This is in sharp contrast to the lock-in strategy that IBM used to found the technology segment -- largely because IBM learned the hard way that lock-in, while tactically sound, is strategically stupid.

Advocating for Linux on the Front Lines and in the Kernel March 04, 2013 Well March has arrived here in the Linux blogosphere and with it, widespread hopes for the rebirth and renewal of spring. Linux Girl wishes she could say things have been calm and tranquil over the past few days, but of course they haven't -- this is the Linux community we're talking about, after all. There have been many trials and tribulations for Linux fans recently.

Marissa Mayer Takes Flak for Gathering Her Troops March 02, 2013 It has been about a week since a bombshell internal memo from CEO Marissa Mayer was leaked to the world: Yahoo employees will no longer be allowed to telecommute, effective this June. The goal of the new policy is to foster creativity and better productivity, Mayer said. If she hoped for a 24-hour news cycle on the subject, she's been disappointed.

EC Poised to Unleash Its Wrath on Microsoft March 01, 2013 It will be déjà vu all over again for Microsoft, which apparently is about to be slapped with a stiff fine for violating the European Union's antitrust rules. The European Commission reportedly will impose a penalty by the end of March for Microsoft's violation of a 2009 pledge to allow European users of its Windows operating system to choose among competing browsers.

China Returns US Cyberattack Volley March 01, 2013 What, China was just going to say nothing? On the heels of a report that China's military has for years been engaging in cyberespionage against the U.S., China's Ministry of Defense claimed that a pair of its military websites were attacked more than 100,000 times per month in 2012.

Judge Nixes Samsung's Request to Ban Apple Devices in Japan March 01, 2013 Apple won a victory over Samsung in a Japanese district court Thursday that will allow it to continue to sell iPads and iPhones in that country. Samsung tried to block the sale of the Apple devices in Japan because it said they stepped on some data transfer patents that the company owned.

The Dollars Are in the Details - and the Details Should Be in CRM March 01, 2013 The devil is in the details, the saying goes. When it comes to B2B selling, the dollars are also in the details. That's something I learned many years ago while writing about the reseller channel. Back in 2000, the Internet caused significant disruptions of traditional reseller relationships, because many large technology vendors expected online sales to eliminate the need for resellers.

Mason Marches, Groupon Regroups March 01, 2013 A day after posting disappointing quarterly earnings, Groupon ousted its founder and CEO Andrew Mason. The company's stock jumped 4 percent in after-hours trading as the news became public. "I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding -- I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention," Mason said in a letter to employees.

Cook Cheers Investors While Saying Very Little February 28, 2013 CEO Tim Cook presided over Apple's annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, where he fielded questions about a lawsuit filed by activist investor David Einhorn. In his complaint, Einhorn demanded that Apple unbundle scheduled votes that he claimed would require shareholders to consider separate matters in one ballot. Cook called the lawsuit "silly," but the judge ruled in favor of Einhorn.

GM Switches Partners for OnStar's Next Big Dance February 28, 2013 Several years ago, General Motors introduced a groundbreaking service called "OnStar," a wireless technology designed to keep drivers safer on the road. Since the 1990s, GM has used the Verizon Wireless network to link cars with OnStar. However, it announced this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it's switching to AT&T Mobility. This is pretty big news.

Benioff's Social Proof February 28, 2013 Salesforce came to New York this week for its annual winter meeting with customers. The company had two goals: test new ideas, and gather customer input. The event was held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for a relatively small group -- less than 1,000 -- rather than at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, which can accommodate the maintenance facilities for a squadron of F18s.

Apple's Obsession With Simplicity Can Really Complicate Things February 28, 2013 Apple makes powerful products that do complicated things very simply and easily, and are mostly intuitive. You don't need an owner's manual to figure out how to use most Apple products. Apple aggressively whittles down its products so they become the essence of the most important things they do.

Copyright Alert System: Six Strikes and You're Annoyed February 27, 2013 The Center for Copyright Information is ready to start implementing the Copyright Alert System, it said Monday. Under the system, content partners, such as music and movie producers, will alert participating ISPs of alleged P2P copyright infringement by their customers. The ISPs will then forward those copyright alerts to the supposed offenders.

Yahoo Chief Mayer's Telecommute Ban Stokes Work-Life Debate February 26, 2013 Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer needs all employees close as she tries to fix the ailing company's problems. That means beginning in June, Yahoo employees who have been able to work from home will be asked to head back into the office, according to a company human resources memo. Some of Yahoo's most important "communication and collaboration" come from impromptu meetings, discussions between employees and meeting new people around the office, the memo said.

Planting Seeds of Injustice February 26, 2013 At the oral argument in Bowman v. Monsanto, Chief Justice Roberts cut off Bowman's attorney seconds into his delivery, questioning his thesis, which undermined the purposes of patent law. "Why in the world would anybody spend any money to try to improve the seed if as soon as they sold the first one anybody could grow more and have as many of those seeds as they want?"

Week of Weird: Sony Jumps the Gun, Google Luxury-Prices Its Yugo February 25, 2013 This really has been an entire month of the strange. We had Boeing's Dreamliner sidelined for batteries that catch fire. We had Tesla locking horns with the NYT. We had Sony announce its new game system nearly nine months before it would be available -- but not actually show it. Biggest of all, despite Chromebooks failing to sell in the $250 range, we had Google offer a refresh priced at $1,500.

Inside the Hunt for Chinese Hackers February 23, 2013 A recent report by Mandiant, a U.S. information security firm, has added an important new chapter to the discussion about cybersecurity -- and put China on the defensive. In chronicling the massive, years-long espionage campaign conducted by the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398, the report implicates the Chinese government and military.

Sony's PS4 Launch: Too Little Too Soon? February 22, 2013 Sony unveiled its PlayStation 4 video game system this week -- sort of. It didn't display the console itself or reveal its physical dimensions and form factor. It also left unanswered a raft of questions about its capabilities. How compatible -- or incompatible -- will the PS4 be with Sony's current-generation PlayStation 3 system, for example, which was launched in November of 2006?