And only a small piece of that $148B was from sales of smartphones. They do a hell of a lot of business elsewhere, be it TVs, Blu-Ray players, RAM/Flash chips, display panels, etc.

You shouldn't be comparing the total revenue but that related specifically to the products involved.

You did read the part about 2/3 of the deaths being in India and China, right? They've got very few of the emissions controls that we have in Europe, North America, and other parts of Asia (like Japan and South Korea).

It's not data mining the phone. All of that info (except the geolocation) is input by the user.

Given that you have to enter all of the information that was listed (except the location) yourself, you know exactly what information it's collecting.

You do realize that the cases you're referring to started before Google took over Motorola, right?

I believe the same, but because of the letter of the rule, it leads to stupid situations. I have to turn off my noise-cancelling headphones, which actually make it easier for me to hear and understand them, because they're electronic. Meanwhile, the guy sitting next to me can have earplugs in making it impossible for him to hear anything.

How about a half hour on each end of a 2 hour leg were I can't read because brought a Kindle instead of 3 paper books.

When you board, they tell you that when they close the door, you have to turn off your electronic devices and they won't leave the gate until you do. Ostensibly, that's to prevent interference with the radio while they talk to the tower. After you land, while still taxiing, they announce that you can turn on your cell phones, but have to leave everything else turned off. Wait, I thought they said the cell phones were causing interference?

The rule is not just idiotic, it's inconsistently applied.

In Google Maps for Android, Latitude is off by default. You have to explicitly turn it on.

Once or twice, I'd be willing to go with the former. But this is at least the 4th time that they've done this, 2nd just with "iPhone." The others I know about are "iOS" and "iPad." They even butted up against the same company (Cisco) twice. First for iPhone, then for iOS.

It's pure arrogance on their part, just like all the patent BS. They only care about their own, questionable IP and routinely ignore that of others.

This just in! Nature moves closer to a flu immune to the "universal" vaccine.

the Cocktail Party!

Google makes most of its money from selling ad space. Yes, they use their vast data mining in their ad business, but they don't sell the data.

The grocery store does sell data about you and, yes, you get a discount on some items. You want Google to give you a discount? How do you discount free?

I think it's not that they don't have human rights issues, more that they don't consider them issues and just ignore them.

These aren't submarine patents, like what Rambus did.

This is Apple pulling double standards. Lots of companies have licensed Samsung's standards-essential patents, but Apple refused to. Just because it's FRAND, doesn't mean that Apple can ignore the need to license them. There is some question of patent exhaustion (I think that's the right term), but the courts seem to be inconsistent in dealing with it (see CSIRO vs Buffalo Technology).

Apple has a long history of ignoring other people's/companies' IP, but crying foul over their IP, which is largely questionable.

.. says it's "unbelievably great?"

You, know what? He's right. I don't believe it.