Andreas Udo de Haes for Computerworld:

Apple’s iPhone 4S does not infringe on four of Samsung Electronics’ key 3G patents, a court in The Hague, Netherlands, has ruled.Apple need not pay Samsung royalties on the patents because the patents are already covered by Samsung’s licensing deal with Qualcomm, the maker of the 3G baseband chips used in the latest iPhone. This means Samsung’s patent rights in the case are exhausted, the court judges ruled.

Samsung isn’t having a lot of luck blocking Apple in its various patent cases. Maybe it should just give up.

Former Britannica.com editor Charlie Madigan:

This was inevitable. As a senior editor at Britannica.com, where I went to work after decades as a newspaper editor, I had high hopes for the idea of giving away knowledge.Talking about the public’s right, and need, to know with some of those folks was like talking to frogs about poetry.

Does this signal the beginning of the end of these kinds of books?

Mainichi Daily News:

The iPhone captured the largest share of mobile phones shipments in Japan for the first time in the October-December quarter, accounting for 26.6 percent, due to the popularity of the iPhone 4S smartphone model, research firm IDC Japan said Thursday.

Thanks to Daring Fireball.

I don’t know what would happen if you drink it, but I’d give it a go.

Charlie Sorrel for Cult of Mac:

However, while you can get a RAW-shooting stills camera for under $500, a RAW-capable video camera is professional only, running to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Until now. Joe Rubinstein will sell you a Digital Bolex for just $2,500. In the movie world, that’s like finding a Nikon D4 in your cereal box.

This is an ambitious project, and they’ve already reached their first Kickstarter goal of $100,000. Looks like it’s officially sanctioned by Bolex, if I’m reading the Kickstarter info right, because Rubinstein mentions that their “current agreement with Bolex states that we may only ship cameras within the United States.”

David Kravets for Ars Technica:

Righthaven, a copyright-troll law firm that failed in its attempt to make money for newspapers by suing readers for sharing stories online, was dealt a death blow on Tuesday by a federal judge who ordered the Las Vegas company to forfeit “all of” its intellectual property and other “intangible property” to settle its debts.

Righthaven tried to make its bones by suing blogs and Web sites that reposted or aggregated content from newspapers without permission. It failed, miserably.

Rick Fillion talks about getting his NeXTcube working.

Greg Smith for the New York Times:

TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

And this is just the opening paragraph. It goes on for two pages. If you weren’t mad at investment banks before for ruining the economy, you’ll sure as hell be pissed off by the time you’re done.

Matt Alexander:

Producing a weblog – whether you choose to contribute substantive content of your own or not – is not a matter of competition, but of self-expression.

I agree with Matt. I encourage all new writers to have a voice of their own, not just follow the crowd. I follow people, not companies.

Like most things, the old give way to the new. A good list of podcasts that are taking over.

Bobby Solomon tests Nike’s newest lifestyle product, which the company describes like this:

Nike+ FuelBand tracks your activity through a sport-tested accelerometer, then translates every move into NikeFuel. Nike+ FuelBand tracks running, walking, dancing, basketball – and dozens of everyday activities.

MacUpdate started its spring Mac software bundle today. The bundle features 11 Mac apps worth $378 for $49.99. Apps in the bundle include VMware Fusion 4, Drive Genius 3, PDFpen 5.

I’ve linked to articles defending Instapaper, so it’s only fair to get the other side of the story. Zach Weigand posted his thoughts, and later updated the post, about why he switched to Readability.

Parth Dhebar:

Turns out, after a round of layoffs which took place earlier this year, Apple’s recent acquisition, Anobit, has started to recruit workers. Anobit dismissed dozens of employees in sales, marketing, and sales and administration right after the acquisition and closing its enterprise server activity. Now, Anobit is focused on the development of storage-efficiency chips for Apple’s products.

Fred Wilson:

Yahoo! thinks they can bully Internet newcomers with their bogus patents. And that’s a line they should not have crossed. Because other companies have bogus patents too. And they’ve opened themselves up to be sued back. Frankly I’d like to see it happen just to show them how stupid they are.

Telling it like it is.

Rian van der Merwe:

My loyalty comes from the fact that I’m unable to separate Instapaper from its creator, Marco Arment.

And it works really well.

Lucas Mearian:

In November 2010, researchers gave Apple iPads to 115 University of Chicago internal medicine residents. The residents were able to access electronic patient records, the hospital’s paging system to order tests, and medical publications for reference information.

AppleInsider:

“Proview clearly made that arrangement so they wouldn’t have to give the money to their creditors in” mainland China, [Apple spokesperson Carolyn] Wu said. “Because they still owe a lot of people a lot of money, they are now unfairly trying to get more from Apple for a trademark we already paid for.”

Apple bought it fairly. Proview needs to go away.

New York Times:

After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered sets of reference books that were once sold door to door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, the company is expected to announce on Wednesday.In a nod to the realities of the digital age — and, in particular, the competition from the hugely popular Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools, company executives said.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica was probably the first “adult” books I ever read as a kid. They opened the world up to a fat little kid in Nova Scotia.

Wired Science:

Are you too far south or in too bright of a city to catch the spectacular auroras that have been streaking across the sky lately?Not to worry. The Canadian Space Agency’s AuroraMAX Camera — located in the City of Yellowknife, near the Arctic Circle — can fulfill all your Northern-Light-viewing needs every night from now until late May.The AuroraMAX camera, run in collaboration with the University of Calgary and Astronomy North, will turn on automatically when darkness falls (around 7:30 MDT tonight) and provides spectacular, full-sky views of the Northern Lights. Peak aurora activity is expected in the hours just before and after midnight (Mountain Time).

Canadians are such nice people.

Kyle Baxter:

I have no doubt that Apple is working on a small iPad, but that’s a separate question of whether they will actually release it. Let’s think through it.

That’s always important to remember. Apple experiments with a lot of different products, but that doesn’t mean they’ll ever get released. Having said that, Kyle has some interesting points.

You thought I was joking, right. No, it’s true. The most backward tablet in the world just got worse. The only thing they forgot was a stylus — maybe they can get some from Samsung.

What the hell are these guys thinking?

Sara Forden and Jeff Bliss for Bloomberg:

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission subpoenaed Apple Inc. (AAPL) as part of its antitrust probe of Google Inc. (GOOG), seeking information on how the computer maker uses the search engine on the iPhone and iPad, two people familiar with the matter said.

The FTC wants to find out if Google is abusing its position as dominant Internet search tool to boost its revenue in the mobile phone market, according to an expert consulted for the article.

As we look around the web, we see so many examples of designers who have brilliantly used color in web design projects to make the page or various page elements really pop. Even in some cases when we see designers opting for more minimal designs, using bold splashes of color can really take the look to fantastic new heights in very simple ways.

And I thought I was being bold with The Loop’s purple.

CNN:

The United States, the European Union and Japan filed a trade case Tuesday over China’s export restrictions on minerals that are crucial for the production of many high-tech devices, according to EU and U.S. officials. The case aims to pressure China to lift export limits on certain minerals known as rare earths, a senior Obama administration official said.

China mines a huge percentage of rare earths used in high-tech manufacturing, and has gradually reduced the amount of material it will export. The United States claims China is hoarding the minerals; China defends its decision, and says its doing it out of environmental concerns and in-line with World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines.

Steve Peterson for Gamesindustry.biz:

Some predicted that established publishers with big budgets, experienced developers, and huge brand names would quickly dominate the mobile markets.But a new analysis by mobile analytics firm Flurry completely demolishes that prediction, showing that established publishers only control about one third of the games being played on mobile platforms.

Big console and PC game publishers have certainly tried to muscle their way in, but iOS and Android have given rise to new publishers that dominate the platform.

Ben Brooks brings up some good points about this “via” and “hat tip” debate.

Om Malik:

It is my belief that in modern times, no success goes unpunished. Infographics, too, were “punished” for their success.

Agreed.