Fanboys gone wild: On the front lines of the Apple-Samsung War

I love me my Apple products, but I'm also happy that Samsung is such a money-maker for the South Korean economy (though I wish the ROK economy weren't so dependent on it). Rather than having no dog in the Apple-Samsung fight, I guess I have two dogs.

But there are those who take one side or another, and they can get, well, religious about it. Like a bunch of folks who have apparently decided that Judge Lucy Koh, who presided over Apple's lawsuit against Samsung, has to be taken down.

From The Guardian:

The Wikipedia page for Judge Lucy Koh - who has overseen a number of court battles between Apple and Samsung - has been locked until Sunday after an "edit war" by people seeking to cast doubt on her independence as a judge, apparently because of her rulings in those trials.

Koh oversaw the major Apple-Samsung patents and design case in the summer, in which Apple was awarded $1.05bn by a jury for patent infringement by Samsung. The case has now moved to post-verdict hearings.

But a bizarrely partisan reading of the Apple win has led some contributors to alter Koh's page - which should be an impartial reference about her work and life - to create nonexistent "controversies" about her decision-making.

Koh's page is required to conform to the "Biographies of Living People" standard, requiring among other points a "neutral point of view" and "verifiability".

But as first pointed out by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, the page related to Koh was altered on Friday 21 December at 20.07 (UTC) to add a paragraph under the headline "Questions of Impartiality in Apple vs. Samsung"

And you thought blogging wars could be brutally stupid.

Also on the tech war front, amidst all the talk of Apple building what has tentatively been labeled AppleTV*, it looks like Samsung has beaten Apple to the punch with its SmarTV.

From Business Insider (which tends to take an anti-Apple bent):

CES 2013 starts in a few weeks, and the conference's big theme is already emerging. Everyone will be talking about Smart TVs, or web-connected sets with streaming video and apps built in.

Samsung recently teased its new take on the future of television, showing photos of its "Smart Hub" interface on the big screen. LG announced a set that runs on Google TV
Expect that to be the centerpiece of Samsung and LG's CES presentations. And expect to see similar offerings from other TV makers like Panasonic and Sony with interfaces either powered by their own software or Google TV.

Again, it's obvious what's going on here. Rumors about Apple's plans for television just won't die, especially when CEO Tim Cook drops big hints like he recently did in an interview with Brian Williams. Some think it'll be an actual television set with a radical new interface that can replace the clunky one on your TiVo or the box your cable provider gives you. Some think it'll be a new box that can turn any TV into an Apple TV. Maybe it's both.

What we know for sure is Apple is working hard to make the living room its next big thing and that has the competition nervous enough to start cranking Smart TV concepts before Apple can launch its own.

But it's a dangerous path that can lead to half-baked products that are rushed out just because Big Boy Apple might have plans for a TV later next year.

I don't think this is particularly earth-shattering, but the article struck me because while checking out Best Buy, Costco, Target, and Sam's Club lately, I was thinking much same thing about Samsung's Smart TV lately.

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