Schmidt says Google’s chilly relationship with Apple has started to thaw

It’s no secret that Apple and Google aren’t exactly the best of friends, but Google chairman Eric Schmidt suggested this week that the two companies now dislike one another a little less. In an interview with Reuters, Schmidt said that relations between Apple and Google have been improving and that the companies are conducting “constant business discussions on a long list of issues” and holding “lots and lots” of meetings. Although Schmidt’s claim of improving relations could just be empty happy talk, the Google chairman hasn’t been shy in the past about needling Apple in interviews, such as late last year when he implied that Apple didn’t have the guts to directly sue Google for alleged patent infringement and instead only sued Android OEMs.