“In times like these, when everyone seems plagued by insecurities, normal behavior is to huddle together for a little warmth, a heartfelt human hug,” Chris Matyszczyk writes for CNET. “So just a few words from Apple CEO Tim Cook — speaking last week at the D10 Conference — surely sent shivers into the skins of those who might be left alone.”

“For, when asked to comment on Apple’s relationship with Facebook, he called Facebook ‘a great company,’” Matyszczyk writes. “Then he added: ‘We have great respect for them. I think we can do more with them. Just stay tuned on this one.’”

Matyszczyk writes, “Can you feel those Apple arms reaching out to embrace its troubled, um, friend, Mark Zuckerberg? What could these clearly calculated words have possibly meant? Some believed they indicated a simple update such as Facebook being bound up snugly with iOS 6. But it took Business Insider’s Owen Thomas to utter the words that had surely entered at least a couple of minds: what if Apple bought Facebook? …Is it excessively fanciful to think that a few elevated people at Google listened to Cook’s perhaps mischievous words and suddenly felt a little chill?”

Read more in the full article here.