Musk talked to Apple, but said acquisition of Tesla 'unlikely'

Tesla's CEO kills rumors that Apple is looking to snap up the electric carmaker.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

(Credit: CBS)

After speculation spread across the Web this week about Apple possibly courting Elon Musk to acquire Tesla, the electric car company CEO dispelled the myth on Wednesday.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Musk confirmed that he did meet with Apple and "had conversations" but that he "can't comment on whether those revolved around any kind of acquisition."

On Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Musk met with Apple's chief of mergers and acquisitions and possibly CEO Tim Cook last spring. The newspaper floated the idea of a high-level merger between the two companies.

Bloomberg asked Musk on Wednesday whether Tesla was for sale and he responded that it's "unlikely" because the company is trying to stay focused on creating a "compelling mass market electric car." He said that if another company came to him with like-minded ideas, he might "entertain those discussions," but that he doesn't "currently see any scenario that would improve that probability."

After it was reported on Sunday that Musk met with Apple, some speculated that the meeting was about integrating Apple's iOS software technologies into Tesla's all-electric automobiles -- much like what the iPhone-maker has done with Audi, General Motors, Ford, Hyundai, and others.

Musk told Bloomberg that he could see some sort of Android or iOS app integration for Tesla cars, but that was secondary to the company's focus.

"That's somewhat peripheral to the fundamental goal of Tesla, which is to accelerate the electric car revolution, to make it happen," he said.

Tesla reported stellar fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday with revenue at $610.9 million, up from $294.4 million a year ago. And, the company is on track to deliver 35,000 Model S vehicles in 2014, which is up 55 percent from 2013.

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Samsung skewers Apple's iPad Air pencil ad

Remember the iPad Air ad featuring the pencil? That's just the starting point for another new Samsung ad that laughs at Apple.

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET)

This isn't going to stop, is it?

Samsung is going to relentlessly tweak Apple's slightly tired-looking cheek until everyone in the playground is laughing.

In another new ad that chuckles at Apple's allegedly retrograde nature, Samsung -- or rather its California-based creative types -- decides to take the well-known iPad Air ad featuring a pencil and suck the air out of it.

Should you have somehow forgotten this Apple ad, it's the one in which an iPad Air is said -- by Walter White of "Breaking Bad" -- to be thinner than a pencil (video below).

So now Samsung wants to suggest this argument is thinner than the iPad Air.

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Apple iTunes Festival slated for SXSW

The company will host a five-night event at the show, featuring performances by Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Keith Urban, and many others.

Apple will be heading to the SXSW next month, marking the first time the company will create an iTunes Festival event in the US.

Starting on March 11 and running through March 15, Apple will host five live iTunes Festival events at SXSW. The company plans to have several popular artists perform, including Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Keith Urban, and others. Apple says that it will make announcements on new additions to the festival in the coming weeks.

Apple has been holding iTunes Festivals in London for some time. So far, over 400 artists have performed at the festivals and Apple has attracted over 430,000 people to the events. The performances are then made available for purchase in the iTunes Store.

According to Apple, all five SXSW iTunes Festival nights, set to happen at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, will be streamed for free through its iTunes Store. Those who want to view the concerts can watch on their iOS device or Apple TV.

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HTC One successor 'M8' purportedly leaked in press image

Amidst the range of rumours surrounding the unannounced HTC One's successor, also known as HTC One+, HTC One 2, HTC M8 or HTC One 2014, it is being reported that an alleged press image of the device has been leaked online.

One of the most reliable tipsters, @evleaks, has posted what is being claimed to be a press image of the upcoming HTC smartphone, seen covered by a protective case. The tipster posted the image on Twitter, stating "HTC M8, protected."

In the image (above), one can see the purported HTC M8 handset flaunting a front-facing camera (rumoured to be a 2.1-megapixel offering) supported by a flash. The dual speaker grills in front, which are considered to be part of the firm's design aesthetic now, is also seen sported by the handset.

The interface visible in the image is also said to be the new HTC Sense 6.0 UI, which is said to come integrated with Android KitKat 4.4 OS.

The HTC One's successor is rumoured to feature a 5-inch screen with a QHD (1440 x 2560 pixel) resolution display. Previous reports also point to the HTC One's successor using the same UltraPixel technology, which was previously seen in HTC One.

However, the camera on the HTC M8 is said to feature twin UltraPixel cameras this time. The twin sensors are said to bump up some of the camera's autofocus, image quality, and depth of field capabilities. However, the sensor size and resolution is as of yet not known.

Previous leaks by @evleaks indicate the smartphone may feature a 5-inch 1080p HD display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and Sense 6.0 UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat.

The firm has announced that its much-anticipated HTC M8 smartphone will arrive on 25 March during a number of event in London and New York instead of being introduced at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2014 event going to be held in Barcelona.

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Google Working on Internet That’s Over 1,000 Times Faster Than Yours

Image: moodboard/Getty

Most of the country is still waiting for the sort of super-fast gigabit internet connections available in places like Kansas City, Kansas and Chattanooga, Tennessee. But Google is already exploring the next thing: 10 gigabit per second connections, connections that are over 1,000 times faster than theaverage connection in the U.S. today.

That’s the word from Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette, who discussed Google’s 10 gigabit experiment this week at a conference in San Francisco, as first reported by USA Today. “After one gig, it will be 10 gigs,” Pichette said at the conference. “So we are already working on 10 gigs.”

The news shows that Google will continue to push for change in the world of commercial internet services, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Don’t expect Google to roll out a service any time soon. “At Google, we’re always looking to make our product better, and keep pushing the boundaries of innovation,” a spokesperson told us. “That is part of our DNA — but we don’t have plans to deliver 10 Gig speeds in the near future.” Even still, the Pichette shows that Google will continue to push for change in the world of commercial internet services, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Yesterday, cable broadband providers Comcast agreed to purchase its biggest rival, Time-Warner Cable, a move that could threaten the progress of internet services here in the U.S. Hopefully Google can keep entrenched players like Comcast in check, not only by encouraging them to increase speeds, but by pushing them to treat all traffic equally and not discriminate against certain content in an effort to boost the bottom line.

Google rolled out its Kansas City gigabit in 2012, and since then, it has announced additional services in Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah. Although this Google Fiber program has spurred some activity from traditional internet service providers like AT&T and Century Link, competitors have mostly been slow to follow Google toward super-fast connections. Instead of competing, the broadband industry has started proposing legislative roadblocks to prevent new competitors from entering their turf.

Last year, Time Warner Cable CFO Irene Esteves said that customers don’t even want faster internet speeds. Meanwhile, Verizon has halted development of its new fiber optic internet service and is focusing on wireless services instead of fixed line services. Google Fiber’s expansion pushed Century Link to announce gigabit fiber services in cities like Omaha, Nebraska and Las Vegas last year, but it’s not yet clear how many neighborhoods will ever be reached by these services.

For many cities, creating community broadband services is a more attractive option than waiting for the major players to get their act together. The public electrical utility in Chattanooga, Tennessee built the nation’s first gigabit internet service in 2009, and since then, a few other municipal fiber services have sprung up.

But in some states, there are legal roadblocks to creating such new networks. And as more communities think about picking up the slack for corporations, the more road blocks we can expect. Legislation proposed by cable company lobbyists in Kansas, for example, would not only make it nearly impossible for cities to offer their own broadband services, but would likely prohibit public-private partnerships like Google Fiber as well, according to Ars Technica.

In some states, there are legal roadblocks to creating such new networks.

Discussion of the bill has been postponed while its authors discuss how to make it perhaps a little less broad. Meanwhile, in Utah, legislation has been proposed that would prohibit cities from offering internet services outside their own borders, the Salt Lake City Tribune reports.

There’s clearly a downside to Google muscling its way into the internet service business. The company already has access to an unfathomable amount of user data through its search, email and maps services. But the upside is that the company has the money to fight draconian laws that would protect incumbent providers that are — in the words of Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffet — “almost comically profitable.”

The real question is how Google will treat non-partners, such as smaller players and municipal networks. Google Fiber remains more of a lab for Google to test the potential of ultra-highspeed internet, and not a core business, even though Google chairman Eric Schmidt has hinted otherwise. That means it’s in Google’s best interest to fight legislation that would restrict municipal broadband networks. For now anyway.

This story has been updated to include comment from Google.

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