The "smartphone war" has roared back into the headlines. In late November, a jury raised the total amount of damages that Samsung owes Apple to more than $900 million for infringing Apple's patents on the iPhone. And a month earlier, the Rockstar consortium filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google and some manufacturers of Android smartphones. As one commentator remarked, Rockstar's lawsuit, which is the first direct attack on the entire Android ecosystem, represents the " thermonuclear war " that Steve Jobs promised to bring to Google.