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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

IBM Posts $3M Bond To Put Papermaster On Hold

What does it cost to hold an employee’s future on ice? IBM reportedly has paid $3 million in exchange for a preliminary injunction stopping Mark Papermaster from joining Apple.

Last week, Federal District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas determined Papermaster, a 25-year veteran of New York-based IBM cannot join Apple as the Cupertino, Calif. firm’s senior vice president of hardware engineering.

Along with granting the preliminary injunction, the New York judge required IBM to post a $3 million security bond to ensure any losses by Papermaster while the court challenge is underway. Before the injunction, Apple had announced Papermaster’s hiring and set a salary.

Federal Court Rule 65(c) states such security bond must be set by the judge in order to “pay the costs and damages sustained by any part found to have wrongfully enjoined or restrained.”

At issue is the validity of a noncompete clause Papermaster signed in 2006. IBM considers Apple a rival. If Papermaster’s move to Apple is permitted, he would lead Apple’s hardware development, including the iPod and iPhone.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

3 comments

    Damn. What’s IBM afraid of? Their ever-fading relevance?

    Ummm…. In exactly which markets do Apple and IBM compete? I don’t think any IT shop considers Apple’s 1U device a serious contender for replacement of IBM Blades, and I can’t see an IBM Blue Genie Touch device anywhere in the near-term market pipeline. Is there a VM Nano coming soon? Websphere Shuffle anyone?

    Free Papermaster from the the Armonk Puppetmasters!

    Is it just me or is IBM going through a LOT of trouble over this?
    What in the hell are they so scared of anyway?

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