Who Cares If Samsung Copied Apple?  —  The web has been alight these past few weeks with the details of the Apple v. Samsung lawsuit.  It's been a unique opportunity to peer behind the curtain of how these two companies operate, as the trial seeks to answer the question: did Samsung copy Apple?

Groupon Investors Give Up  —  Backers Retreat From Young Internet Firms That Haven't Lived Up to Hopes  —  Some of the early backers of Groupon Inc., including Silicon Valley veteran Marc Andreessen, are heading for the exits, joining investors who have lost faith in companies that had been expected to drive a new Internet boom.

How Eduardo Saverin Sold Facebook Ads in 2004  —  The knock on Facebook is often that it doesn't have its ad strategy figured out.  That might be, but the company courted advertisers pretty much from the get-go.  —  As captured in “The Social Network,” Facebook's then-CFO Eduardo Saverin …

Apple Becomes Most Valuable Publicly-Traded Stock Ever  —  Milestones for Apple's stock are falling rapidly in recent days, with another strong performance today pushing Apple past Microsoft for the title of most valuable publicly-trade stock ever, a distinction Microsoft has held since December 1999.

How Instagram Could Have Cut a Better Deal  —  In hindsight, perhaps Instagram should have cut a different deal with Facebook.  —  In April, Facebook agreed to acquire Instagram, the hot social media photo-sharing site, in a deal valued at the time at about $1 billion.

Apple stores see 300 million visitors in FY 2012, 50,000 Genius Bar visits a day  —  Apple opened its 374 and 375 retail store worldwide this weekend in Canada.  While meeting with Apple, I was able to get a few details about how the retail operation is going overall.

Early Facebook Investor and Board Member Peter Thiel Sells Nearly All Of His Company Shares  —  Billionaire Peter Thiel sold nearly all of his remaining Facebook shares last week according to a financial document filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

StatCounter data shows Windows Phone overtaking Blackberry in US by November 2012  —  More by virtue of Blackberry's plummeting market share than amazing Windows Phone growth, it seems the installed base of Windows Phone is set to overtake that of Blackberry in US by the end of November 2012 (around week 47).

Trading up to the next iPhone?  Gazelle has a deal for you  —  For a limited time, Gazelle is offering to lock in prices for used iPhones until Oct.1, after the next iPhone is rumored to hit stores.  —  For those planning on upgrading to the next iPhone model in September …

Ethernet's future: How fast is fast enough?  —  Your PC may not need a faster network, but overall data usage on the Web is doubling every year.  The big question: Can the venerable Ethernet standard handle a terabit per second?  —  Slow network speeds got you down?

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Teardown  —  Join us as we dissect Samsung's newest tablet and attempt to find anything noteworthy inside.  EditStep 1 — Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Teardown We've got our hands on a brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.  Before we tear it open to reveal its secrets …

Judge: Google didn't comply with blogger disclosure order in Oracle trial  —  Summary: “Google suggests that it has paid so many commenters that it will be impossible to list them all.  Please simply do your best but the impossible is not required,” says Judge William Alsup.  —  Larry Dignan

Microsoft radically overhauls license agreements for Windows 8  —  Summary: For Windows 8, Microsoft has completely rewritten its license agreements, replacing legalese with plain language and for the first time allowing retail customers to legally install cheaper OEM versions.  Here's what's new.

HTC Loses US$40 Million From OnLive Restructuring  —  Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC said on Monday it will have to book a US$40 million loss from its investment in U.S. cloud gaming service OnLive, which is restructuring after nearly going bankrupt.  —  HTC announced the investment loss …

Google: Maybe it's time to ditch software patents completely  —  Google's public policy director says at an Aspen conference that “these patent wars are not helpful to consumers.”  —  ASPEN, Colo. — Google suggested today that it might be time for the U.S. to ditch software patents.

Sqrrl Raises $2 Million For Secure, Scalable Big Data Technology Originally Developed At NSA  —  Sqrrl, a big data startup that came out of development at the National Security Agency (NSA), has raised $2 million in seed funding from Matrix Partners and Atlas Venture.

Synaptics spills more details on ForcePad, a pressure-sensitive trackpad coming to laptops in 2013  —  We spend an awful lot of time in laptop reviews railing against modern trackpads — you know, the ones that mistake left clicks for right ones, or have a really stiff button mechanism.

Exclusive: Returns for brand-name VC funds  —  Beyond the dotcom-era benchmarks.  —  FORTUNE — It's no secret that venture capitalists were hit hard by last decade's dotcom bust, considering that median returns for 1998-2001 vintage funds are all underwater.

iPhone 5 Projections Threaten Analysts' Supplies of Superlatives  —  As the September launch of Apple's next-generation iPhone draws closer, the hyperbole that typically precedes such events is growing ever louder.  We've already heard predictions that this fall will be an iPhone blowout.