We have a winner in the latest legal go-round involving Apple and Samsung, who just slugged it out in the Supreme Court. In the seemingly interminable patent battle between the tech behemoths, this round goes to Samsung with the high court saying Samsung’s patent violations against Apple only pertain to smartphone components, and not the whole phone, which is the outcome Apple was ultimately hoping for.
It’s a pretty big win for Samsung, which was already struggling this year after some of its Note 7 phones started bursting into flames and a number of their clothes washers grenaded during the spin cycle, losing their tops and injuring some owners – something that will likely spawning a few more legal claims against it.
Samsung was up against a billion dollars or so in penalties if they lost the case, but industry watchers think that that figure could drop to $400 million or so, depending on how the U.S. Court of Appeals handles the case following the Supreme Court’s decision. Stay tuned.
Another jack bites the dust…
Sticking with Samsung now, and a new report from Sammobile, a site that tracks the company’s every move, says that just like the latest iPhone, the new Galaxy S8 will NOT have a headphone jack. Sammobile says the S8 will have the new-de-factoish standard USC-Type C jack for both power or an audio interconnect, but not both at the same time. Or you could, you know, just use wireless headgear to rock out while charging up the phone.
They also say the reasons for the headphone jack delete are pretty much the same as Apple’s: it allows them to make the phone thinner, it frees up space for more battery capacity, and it’s just old tech. However, it bears noting that Samsung just acquired the Harman brand for $8 billion, so just like Apple and Beats, there’s probably going to be some swank wireless and Type-C headphone options coming sooner than later.
Can’t wait to see the new ads…
Internet services company GoDaddy Inc. just dropped some serious cash to expand their international operations into Europe with the purchase of HEG, or Host Europe Group, for 605 million Euros or about $641 million. They also get to a bonus package of over a billion dollars in debt HEG has wrung up, but that didn’t seem to rattle GoDaddy’s CEO, who basically said HEG was a perfect fit for the U.S. company known more for their racy ads than anything else.
Believe it or not, GoDaddy has been around for almost 20 years now and is doing pretty well. The HEG buyout should give it a solid toehold in Europe, where its commercials will likely be seen as tame and even kinda boring.
