Collin Donnell writes about many people failing to acknowledge iA for dropping its patent application.

Matt wrote about the controversy on BakingPixel. Long story short, iA tried to patent their idea that was using a linguistic-tagger API that has been available for years, and they threatened other develops that were developing something similar. Many people did not like that and protested vocally. In the end, iA caved under the pressure and dropped the patent application.

Donnell points out how iA does not receive any acknowledgement for backing off:

If a company does something you don’t like, you speak out, and they correct it, that means what you did worked. It means you got what you wanted. Isn’t the right thing to acknowledge them for it? If you don’t, why would anyone listen to you the next time?

Macro Arment writes in response to Donnell’s article:

Filing a patent application was an action that they undid, but thinking they deserved one in the first place and threatening other developers (prematurely, at that) are offensive to me in ways that are harder to just cancel and sweep under the rug.

I was silent about their update because it didn’t change anything for me.

That is the point that Donnell misses. It is not just about what iA did. Hence, a reversal of their action does not warrant acknowledgement. It is a matter of principle and how the company believed that they are entitled to threaten other developers even before they were awarded the patent.

The company simply tweeted about their decision and left it as that.

We will drop our patents pending. Thank you @dhh for clearing our minds.

— iA Inc. (@iA) December 27, 2013

I have yet to come across an apology from iA regarding the whole incident. This is a sign that they caved in under pressure from the backlash but they do not believe they are at fault. The least the company could do is to post a blog entry regarding the incident to share their perspective on the issue.

Until then, I won’t be surprised if most people stayed silent on the issue.

HTC has published a webpage to show the Android 4.4 upgrade status of its HTC One phones.

They even have a large diagram depicting the complicated process of an Android update as an excuse for not having the latest Android version on their flagship devices. This means that the other Android makers are blindingly efficient to be able to roll out KitKat on their devices then!

Quartz wrote about how 2013 was a lost year for tech.

John Gruber has commented about the article:

What a sad pile of piss-on-everything cynicism.

Om Malik gave an equally scathing response:

So, next time when someone says, “2013 was an embarrassment for the entire tech industry and the engine that powers it: Silicon Valley,” remind them to actually do research before making that statement.

Obviously, the hyperbolic headline was meant to catch the attention of readers and draw traffic. But it also reminded me of how often I have been hearing similar lines from people around me. Especially those who claim to have a keen interest in technology.

Consumers want to be wowed. Consumers want the “next big thing”. When the iPhone 5s, the new iPads and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 came out, people yawned and said these were just the same devices with minor improvements. There were not striking changes.

The iPhone 5s only got a better camera and a fingerprint sensor. It also came with iOS 7 but other iPhones got that too. The iPad Air was just slimmer and lighter. The new iPad mini got a Retina display and a better processor. The Galaxy Note 3 had upgraded internals and some slight changes. All these are no big deals.

To a consumer who is more likely to compare produces based on the specs, these changes do not matter much. Oh, that’s just a few milligrams lighter or millimetres thinner compared to the older model. When it comes to more technical aspects such as comparing the cameras, processors or even screen resolutions, they go with the bigger number, the better.

You want to impress this crowd? Go crazy with the numbers. Just ask Nokia with its 41 megapixel cameras on the Lumia 1020. I heard a lot of praises from people who have no idea what megapixels mean. Bigger is better. When I ask them about sensor size and whether the images will be grainy, they stare at me blankly.

Quartz’s article works to reinforce the layperson’s perception that 2013 was a bad year in technology. That is lazy journalism. As Gruber and Malik pointed out in their articles, there were many reasons to celebrate technology in 2013.

Quartz was in a position to educate its readers about the achievements in the past year. But it chose not to conduct an in-depth research and merely echo the voices of the average consumers.

WSJ.com reports that Samsung Electronics’ market value drops by almost $9 billion.

I keep getting told that Samsung does not have to worry about profits because it is a conglomerate with businesses in many different industries. And that Samsung can afford to get away with low profit margins.

The reality is far from that. With its mobile devices accounting for more than half of its operating profits, Samsung needs to seriously consider how it can grow its profit in the market.

Perhaps Samsung should look at the $14 billion it spent on advertising last year.

After the Snowden leaks regarding the scope of NSA’s spying efforts, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone to hear the recent claims that the NSA is able to install spyware on the iPhone via its DROPOUTJEEP program. Reports claim that the NSA currently needs physical access to the device in order to be able to install the spyware, but a version that can be remotely deployed in currently in the works.

Apple Denies Working with NSA on iPhone Backdoor

Apple has never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any of our products, including iPhone. Additionally, we have been unaware of this alleged NSA program targeting our products. We care deeply about our customers’ privacy and security. Our team is continuously working to make our products even more secure, and we make it easy for customers to keep their software up to date with the latest advancements. Whenever we hear about attempts to undermine Apple’s industry-leading security, we thoroughly investigate and take appropriate steps to protect our customers. We will continue to use our resources to stay ahead of malicious hackers and defend our customers from security attacks, regardless of who’s behind them.

It’s pretty telling that Apple has had to resort to indirectly labeling the NSA as “malicious hackers”, though it’s not the only one calling the spying agency names as Microsoft has also begun to claim that the constant spying is basically an “advanced persistent threat”, something that shouldn’t be used lightly.

Microsoft Was Right To Worry That Government Snooping Constituted An ‘Advanced Persistent Threat’

The term “advanced persistent threat,” by the way, isn’t a casual colloquialism that Redmond invented. According to the Wall Street Journal, the phrase “carries special weight in cybersecurity circles and is often used to describe hacker teams backed by the Chinese government.” That comparison is striking.

Let’s not forget Mark Zuckerberg’s comments regarding this issue too.

Zuckerberg: US government ‘blew it’ on NSA surveillance

He said after the news broke in the Guardian and the Washington Post about Prism, the government surveillance programme that targets major internet companies: “The government response was, ‘Oh don’t worry, we’re not spying on any Americans.’ Oh, wonderful: that’s really helpful to companies trying to serve people around the world, and that’s really going to inspire confidence in American internet companies.”

The disappointing thing about all of this is that despite being a democracy, we’re having to rely on large technology companies who have massive clout and money to hire expensive lawyers in order to fight this. Something definitely isn’t right here.

Business Insider reports on the correlation between the size of the world’s internet population and Google revenues.

We all known Google depends on its search ads to generate revenue. Now Asymco has a chart to show you how Google’s ad revenue is related to the number of people using the internet.

No wonder Google wants to bring internet to areas with limited or no internet access. Don’t get me wrong. I applaud Google for its efforts to increase internet penetration. But we should keep in mind that it is not without benefit to Google.