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Patience waning in Apple-Samsung patent fight

Presiding judge admonishes both parties for courtroom antics, while Google travels to the bank to buy Frommers. Also: RIM optimism.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
Expertise I have more than 30 years' experience in journalism in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
Steven Musil
3 min read

The Apple-Samsung patent infringement trial is on fire, with the presiding judge applying much of the heat.

Tension appeared to peak this week when U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh began yelling at Apple for trying to book too many witnesses in its last few hours.

"I am not going to be running around trying to get 75 pages of briefings for people who are not going to be testifying," Koh told Apple's lawyer Bill Lee.

"I mean come on. 75 pages! 75 pages! You want me to do an order on 75 pages, (and) unless you're smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren't going to be called when you have less than four hours," Koh said.

"Your honor, I can assure you, I'm not smoking crack," Lee replied matter-of-factly.

Hours after chiding Apple, Koh turned her attention to what she considered a strategical blunder on Samsung's part. After each in a train of Apple witnesses were through with their testimony, Samsung passed on trying to cross-examine, citing a lack of time. When the court was about to go on its afternoon break, Koh warned Samsung lawyers that they better not try to file any paperwork saying they didn't have enough time.

•  Judge tosses trio of Samsung phones from Apple case
•  Samsung keeps prior art parade marching against Apple
•  Samsung designer: We were doing tablets before iPad
•  Apple scores courtroom wins in Motorola FRAND case

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Facebook looks to California law to speed up Instagram payout

The social network is trying is use a state law that would allow it to skip SEC registration and cut straight to the payout for finalizing its Instagram acquisition, according to a new report.
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Building apps for Facebook: A dance with the devil

Facebook has created a booming app economy that's made plenty of developers rich. It's also forcing a lot of them to lose sleep.
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Twitter co-founders preview Medium, a new publishing tool

The collaborative publishing tool takes submitted content and groups it into related collections, allowing multiple people to view and add to it.
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Groupon shares down 22 percent, despite increased sales, profit

The daily-deals provider is watching its shares tank to under $6 as investors grow more concerned about its future.
•  Groupon salespeople disgruntled, ready to jump ship, report says

Google offers bigger bucks in Chrome bug hunt

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Apple TV could double as cable box, report says

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RIM chief: BlackBerry 10 could be licensed to handset rivals

Research In Motion's boss says the forthcoming operating system could be licensed across non-BlackBerry devices, if RIM should choose to do so.
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•  BlackBerry 10 road show: Can it revive RIM?
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New rumor puts Windows RT Surface tablet at $199

Could Microsoft's Windows 8 tablet be gunning for the Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7? Don't bet on it yet.
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Also of note
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