Google has announced that Google Reader will be retired on July 1st due to what has been a steady drop in usage. Likewise, several other Google services will also be shutting down.

Twitter and Facebook are both alight with users who are expressing their displeasure over the announcement, and the search is on for an adequate replacement that lives up to its Google counterpart. This is not a popular move and I hope Google changes their mind!

Google Reader isn’t the only service that will be shutdown. In addition, CalDav API, Apps Script, Google Cloud Connect, Google Voice App for Blackberry, Google Building Maker, Snapseed Desktop for both Windows and Mac, and Search API for Shopping are all getting the axe as well. According to Google, this is its second round of spring cleaning.

After this takes place, the combined results of spring cleaning rounds one and two will be a total of 70 services and features being shutdown. Are you a Reader user? What service do you plan to transition to? Let me know in the comments!

Samsung has lost its High Court battle against Apple in the United Kingdom after a judge deemed that the patents the Korean company was using in its case should have never been granted.

Apple has now fended off 24 patent-infringement claims from Samsung, and Samsung’s bid to secure a 2.4% royalty on every 3G-equipped device the Cupertino company sells is looking increasingly unlikely.

Judge Christopher Floyd ruled that Apple’s products do not infringe Samsung’s patents that cover the ability to send and receive information over a 3G data network. Furthermore, Floyd found the uses existed in prior art, meaning Samsung’s patents are invalid.

What the world need is the UK Judges to sit on every patent lawsuit and use its common sense approach to bringing these nonsense cases from both sides to swift conclusions. All that is happening is that the lawyers are dreaming of their next luxury holiday whilst innovation potentially gets stifled.

There are two differentiators with iPhones and android devices. Price. The iPhone 5 costs a lot of money and yet android is significantly less and therefore more people will buy one based on price.

But what if the iPhone 6 went free. Apple could adopt the Google or Amazon model and make money from the software sales. Would this kill off android?

I doubt will we ever know, since I cannot see Apple moving along this business model. Not unless water freezes in hell first.