Adobe, Apple, Google, and Intel have settled a court case that claimed they’d conspired to suppress employee pay by agreeing not to actively recruit or ‘poach’ each other’s employees. The claims covered a period from 2005 until 2009.

Although the terms of the settlement are confidential at the moment, they’re due to become public when court papers are filed in May.

Photography pioneer Eastman Kodak Company has arranged a deal that’ll see a consortium of companies paying around $525 million to buy and license over a thousand of its patents, including its digital imaging patent portfolio.

The consortium, which has been organised by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation, is believed to contain Adobe Systems, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Fujifilm, Google, HTC, Huawei, Microsoft, Research in Motion, Samsung and Shutterfly.

Mark Bridge writes:

So, that’s it. Today’s the day Adobe Flash Player - the preferred video player for many web sites - leaves the Google Play store.

Last November Adobe Systems announced a restructure that would see the business stop developing its Flash multimedia player for mobile browsers. Instead, it would increase its investment in HTML5 and would work to help developers enable video playback within apps.

It’s now confirmed that the forthcoming ‘Jelly Bean’ version 4.1 update of the Android OS will not have a certified Flash player.

Mark Bridge writes:

Happy New Year and welcome to the travelling circus better known as the Carnival of the Mobilists. If you’re looking for the best mobile-related blog posts from the past couple of weeks, you’ve come to the right place. (If you’re wondering about the name of Beyonce’s baby, you need to try somewhere else).

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

Iain, James and Mark begin this week's podcast with Apple's recent iOS 8 revelation and its plan to acquire Beats Electronics.

They then move on to discuss Samsung's Tizen-powered smartphone, a new flagship device from LG and the latest Microsoft Surface tablet - as well as a network takeover in Ireland, BlackBerry’s M2M moves and UK price changes for Vodafone.

This week's podcast begins with news about the creation of Dixons Carphone plc. We then move on to talk about patent-related legal action, customised Braille phones and the health concerns of children using smartphones.

There's also time to discuss tablet shipments, potential protests and foreign network sales.

This podcast contains the audience question-and-answer session from 'Cloud Computing and Mobile'; a Mobile Monday London event held on 12th May 2014.

The discussion was chaired by Camille Mendler, Principal Analyst at Informa, with a panel that comprised Rob Easton of Google, Dr Janko Mrsic-Flogel from Private Planet, Caroline Van Den Bergh of Golden Gekko and Jonathan Raper from TransportAPI.com.

Cloud Computing and Mobile was the title of the Mobile Monday London event on 12th May 2014.

The session was chaired by Camille Mendler, Principal Analyst at Informa, who was joined by a panel that comprised Rob Easton of Google, Dr Janko Mrsic-Flogel from Private Planet, Caroline Van Den Bergh of Golden Gekko and Jonathan Raper from TransportAPI.com.

This week's podcast begins with a new keenly-priced flagship smartphone from Huawei. We then move on to talk about a UK price promise from Vodafone, mobile payments, feature phone upgrades, WiFi hotspots and the benefits of a Carphone/Dixons merger.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge condense all the biggest mobile industry news headlines from the past 7 days into a free 30-minute podcast.