Matt Gemmell on the AllThis hubbub.

Jacqui Cheng:

Those who have had a phone lost or stolen are familiar with the horrors that follow: the thief (or the person he sold your phone to) starts to send texts as you to your family and friends, leaving you scrambling to de-activate the device as soon as possible. For modern iPhone owners, though, such a phenomenon should be in the distant past thanks to the advent of remote wipe capabilities, right?

Oh, this is not good.

Networkworld:

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Microsoft and Nokia have toyed with the idea of making a bid for RIM, whose stock has plummeted (from about $59 to start the year to about $14 in mid-December) and whose management team has been under fire from investors. The Journal reports that the status of any talks between Microsoft, Nokia and RIM are unclear. Other scuttlebutt is that RIM executives have hit up Samsung and HTC about possible licensing deals.

I may buy RIM with the spare change in my car.

Marco Arment made a great chart detailing the features of each device. It’s hilarious.

Eric Slivka for Mac Rumors:

That appears to have changed this week with the addition of a “Complete My Season Pass” feature now available in the iTunes Store. When logged in and viewing an iTunes Store page listing for a single season of a TV show, the Season Pass purchase price will be reduced by the amount of previous single-episode purchases…

Great new feature.

This is not how you launch a startup.

Brian Heater for Engadget:

Thirty-five years ago, Ronald G. Wayne helped co-found the Apple Computer Company with two men 20 years his junior, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak — names that have since become synonymous with the personal computer revolution of the early 80s. For Wayne, however, it was a gig that lasted all of a dozen days, abruptly ending when he marched down to the Santa Clara County Registry Office to have himself stricken from the contract he’d authored. His is a name that pops up every few years or so, shrouded in mystery, the “forgotten” or “unknown” founder of one of the world’s most successful companies – and perhaps more infamously, the man who once owned 10 percent of its stock, only to walk away from it all a mere $2,300 richer.

Ron Wayne now lives a very modest life in a small town in Nevada. Given the glamour and wealth that Apple’s other two cofounders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, have experienced, you’d think that Wayne would be bitter about his decision, but he isn’t. He recognizes that both Woz and Jobs were headed in a very different trajectory than he was.

M.H. Williams for IndustryGamers:

Famitsu (translated via Andriasang) is reporting that Sony’s new system sold 321,407 units in two days. Those numbers come from Enterbrain, covering December 17 and 18.

The PS Vita – Sony’s new portable gaming system – just came out in Japan (it’ll be out in North America in the new year). That’s just a few more than Nintendo sold for its 3DS during its opening weekend. The big test will be how the Vita holds up over the long term. Nintendo saw sales of the 3DS drop off pretty sharply after a strong opening.

Businessweek:

Apple issued the notice of infringement to Samsung in Australia over the cases, and will file a statement of claim, Apple’s lawyer Stephen Burley said at a hearing in Sydney today. Samsung’s lawyer Katrina Howard said at the same hearing the company was served with the notice that the cases infringe at least 10 patents.

If you’re going to copy the device, why not copy the case too.

Florian Mueller:

So what Apple has won is a formal import ban scheduled to commence on April 19, 2012, but relating only to HTC Android phones implementing one of two claims of a “data tapping patent”: a patent on an invention that marks up phone numbers and other types of formatted data in an unstructured document, such as an email, in order to enable users to bring up other programs (such as a dialer app) that process such data.

Florian is the best at explaining the ramifications of patent wins and loses.

I’ll take it.

[Via Jim Coudal]

The online version and the real version.

The Angry Drunk asks for a little consistency from writers on the Web.

You The Designer:

We’ve made 10 free Christmas graphics/icons that would be perfect for decorating your website or blog. Feel free to download them.

I downloaded them. Great, high-quality stuff.

Apparently RIM organized a party in Sydney, Australia where BlackBerry users could share songs with their friends. Judging from the turnout, I guess they were too embarrassed to show up.

The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.“AT&T will continue to be aggressive in leading the mobile Internet revolution,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “Over the past four years we have invested more in our networks than any other U.S. company. As a result, today we deliver best-in-class mobile broadband speeds – connecting smartphones, tablets and emerging devices at a record pace – and we are well under way with our nationwide 4G LTE deployment.”To reflect the break-up considerations due Deutsche Telekom, AT&T will recognize a pretax accounting charge of $4 billion in the 4th quarter of 2011. Additionally, AT&T will enter a mutually beneficial roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom.

Ben Brooks:

Then Topolsky and crew launched their next big thing: The Verge. It’s what they envisioned tech reporting to be when they left Engadget, but unfortunately for them it sucks.

Ben just goes off on The Verge — not about the design of the Website, not about advertisements, but about the writing.

Frederic Lardinois for SiliconFilter:

From December 21st thru December 27th, Skype (and, by extension, Microsoft), will offer free access to third-party WiFi hotspots through its Skype WiFi program in over 50 airports all across the U.S.

You sign in using your Skype ID. Obviously if your local airport offers free Wi-Fi already, you don’t need this – but well-traveled airports like Boston’s Logan Airport, SFO, Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway, and dozens of others are on the list. Visit the Skype blog for an interactive map.

Chris Davies for SlashGear:

Google will begin promoting what could be the first official Nexus tablet within the next six months, according to chairman Eric Schmidt, the latest stage in the “brutal competition” between it and Apple. “In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality” Schmidt told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sea, while also confirming that Google plans to leverage its voice recognition technology to better challenge Apple’s Siri.

We’ll see if Google has any better luck wading into the fray; so far, Android tablets haven’t had very much impact in the market compared to the iPad.

Hat tip: Engadget.

Katie Marsal for AppleInsider:

Research in Motion’s struggles in the smartphone market have driven its stock price so low that the company is worth less than the estimated value of just Apple’s App Store.

Clearly RIM’s co-CEOs were right. The iPhone will have no effect on the BlackBerry at all.

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Some very smart and talented people.

WSJ:

Apple is also working on its own television that relies on wireless streaming technology to access shows, movies and other content, according to people briefed on the project.In the recent meetings with media companies, the Apple executives, including Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, have outlined new ways Apple’s technology could recognize users across phones, tablets and TVs, people familiar with the talks said.

This is going to be big. Even though its competition has warning of Apple’s plans, I don’t think they understand the scope of Apple’s plans.

Some of the comments are pretty brutal, but you can definitely see some common threads as you read through.