Techmeme: Apple-Backed Rockstar Said to Hold Discussions to Sell Patents (Bloomberg)

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December 23, 2013, 8:50 PM

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Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:

Apple acquired mapping firm BroadMap's talent, location-infused Evernote competitor Catch — Apple has been on a roll this year in terms of acquisitions. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Cupertino firm acquired 15 companies this year, but only ten have been revealed.

More: AllThingsD, Mercury News, Spatially Adjusted, TechCrunch, MacRumors, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Verge, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, Gigaom, SlashGear, The Mac Observer, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, App Advice, ValueWalk, Electronista, TechnoBuffalo, everythingiCafe, iClarified, iMore, CNET, BGR, MobileSyrup.com, iLounge and MacDailyNews

Tweets: @markgurman and @markgurman

Thanks:@apollozac

Bloomberg:

Apple-Backed Rockstar Said to Hold Discussions to Sell Patents — A consortium created by Apple Inc. (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies to acquire $4.5 billion of patents from Nortel Networks Corp. in 2011 is holding discussions to sell a portion of those patents, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

More: CNET, AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, The Mac Observer, iPhone in Canada Blog, iPhone Hacks and iClarified. Tweets: @jeffjohnroberts

BBC:

Royal pardon for codebreaker Alan Turing — Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon. — It overturns his 1952 conviction for homosexuality for which he was punished by being chemically castrated. — The conviction meant he lost …

More: Guardian, Gigaom, The Independent, The Register, Associated Press, BuzzFeed, Telegraph, Mirror.co.uk, Scotsman, men and The Verge

Tweets: @michaelklurfeld, @doirekeenan, @jamesrbuk and @stephenfry

Will Connors / Digits:

With New Outsourcing Deal, BlackBerry Cancels Two Phones — A small item from BlackBerry's earnings-related filing Friday got lost in the news of its hardware partnership with Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group-sales of its new phones have been so bad that BlackBerry was forced to cancel the rollout of two not-yet-released phones.

More: The Verge, BerryReview, CNET, BGR, MobileSyrup.com, CrackBerry.com and SlashGear

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Jack Dorsey Joins Disney's Board Of Directors — The Walt Disney Company just announced that Jack Dorsey (co-founder and CEO Square, as well co-founder and chairman at Twitter, as if you didn't know) has joined its board if directors. — “Jack Dorsey is a talented entrepreneur …

More: Business Wire, VatorNews, AllThingsD, Quartz, Business Insider, CNET, VentureBeat, Digits, The Technology Chronicles, The Verge, Gigaom, Engadget, The Next Web and 5by5 Master Audio Feed. Tweets: @jack. See also Mediagazer

Kwame Opam / The Verge:

HP reportedly may launch cheap, big smartphones by the end of this year — Reporting on HP's desire to return to the smartphone market, sources tell The Information that the company plans to release new six- and seven-inch phablets by the end of the year. The devices will be aimed …

More: The Information, SlashGear and Phandroid

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Samsung shows just how awkward life can be in its latest Galaxy Gear ad — In Samsung's world, the quickest way to a woman's heart is through your Galaxy Gear smart watch. — The tech industry has become well known for its odd, tone-deaf advertisements, and Samsung's latest is no exception.

More: YouTube, Quartz, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, The Independent, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, GeekWire, PC Magazine, The Register, pocketnow.com, Gizmodo, CNET, TechnoBuffalo, BetaNews and Business Insider

Tweets: @dannysullivan and @backlon

New York Times:

In Tech Buying, U.S. Still Stuck in Last Century — WASHINGTON — Four years after President Obama vowed to “dramatically reform the way we do business on contracts,” the spectacular failure of the HealthCare.gov website has renewed calls for changes in how the government hires and manages private technology companies.

More: Gigaom Research, Forbes and Business Insider

Tweets: @steveforbesceo, @chrisfralic, @shearm, @chrishughes, @starkness and @zachcoelius

Graham Morrison / TechRadar:

Interview with Chris DiBona, the Director of Open Source at Google — How open source changed Google - and how Google changed open source — INTERVIEW We chat to Google's head of open source software … Google has just celebrated its 15th birthday, and much of its success is thanks to Linux and open source software.

Tweets: @dalmaer, @maduratnayake and @capotribu

Barb Darrow / Gigaom:

Seagate snaps up hard disk testing expert for $374M — Amid all the hoopla about flash storage, it pays to step back and remember that hard disks are still storing a heckuva lot of our stuff, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Remember flash fanboys, even slow tape storage lives on.

More: MarketWatch, Tech Trader Daily, The Register, Wall Street Journal, insideHPC and Reuters

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

The case against Kim Dotcom, finally revealed — Nearly two years after Kim Dotcom's New Zealand mansion was raided by police, US authorities have made their case as to why the man behind Megaupload shouldn't simply go bankrupt like previous copyright violators before have—he should go to jail, they argue.

More: Gigaom. Tweets: @arstechnica and @jeffjohnroberts

Sara Germano / Wall Street Journal:

Target Discusses Breach With State Attorneys — Retailer Updates Officials on Investigation — Target Corp. Monday moved to allay rising concerns from state attorneys general over its 20-day security breach. — On Monday Target's general counsel Tim Baer held a 30-minute call …

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Security firm denies knowingly including NSA backdoor — but not taking NSA cash — The security outfit RSA, these days a division of EMC, has denied deliberately incorporating a known backdoor into some of its popular encryption libraries through a secret contract with the NSA.

More: Techdirt and CSO Blogs. Tweets: @josephmenn

The RSA Blog:

RSA categorically denies it entered into secret agreement with NSA to weaken its security

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