Lawsuit

Even while the row between Apple and Epic Games remains unresolved, the other big app store will soon get its time under the legal spotlight. It's really no surprise that Google would eventually be the target of an antitrust lawsuit but the bigger question is if it will be able to stick. As many as 36 states in the US have finally filed a complaint alleging that Google used its position to impose a 30% tax from developers on Google Play Store.

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Sometimes it seems like every time we turn around, someone is suing Apple. The latest lawsuit against Apple comes from a medical device manufacturer called Masimo. Masimo is a large manufacturer of medical-grade pulse oximeters used in the hospital and other medical settings. A pulse oximeter is a device that shows how much oxygen is in the blood of the user, which has value for numerous medical reasons.

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Google has never been one to be associated with privacy in a positive light but it has admittedly been making strides in improving that image. Perhaps it is in part due to the scrutiny and legal sanctions the company has been slapped with over the years and also in part due to the popularity Apple enjoys over its championing of privacy practices. This, however, might be something new for Google as unredacted documents in an Arizona lawsuit show the extent the old Google went through to make it harder for users to keep their location private.

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With a surname like "Bowser", many would probably presume you'd grow up to be a fan of Nintendo's products and franchises. For hacker Gary Bowser, however, that love may have manifested in an ironic way. Accused of being the mastermind behind the Team Xecuter hacking group, Bowser and a colleague were arrested and charged last year with 11 felony counts over the sale of Nintendo hacking tools. Nintendo has now added trafficking and copyright violation charges in an attempt to finally put a stop to what it has labeled as an international pirate ring.

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There are two primary iOS apps that Android users want on Google's platform. iTunes, which eventually became Apple Music, did eventually land on Android but iMessage and its convenient messaging systems remain a distant dream. There may have been a time when bringing iMessage to Android was a possibility but, as revealed in a document used by Epic Games in its Fortnite-related lawsuit against Apple, the iPhone maker's execs shot that idea done in fear of losing people to Android.

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The past few years have seen various government agencies file complaints or lawsuits against giant tech companies but, back in 2017, that wasn't a common thing. That's what made the US FTC's decision to file an antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm back then a landmark case that would also rattle the mobile market in its wake. The FTC initially scored a victory in 2019 but lost on appeal last year. Instead of the planned request for review, however, this year's FTC has decided not to pursue the case further, practically letting Qualcomm get away with the anticompetitive practices it was accused of.

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Apple has had several high-profile issues with its popular MacBook line of notebook computers in recent years. One of the biggest issues was with the so-called "butterfly" keyboard design. Those keyboards regularly failed during use due to the ability of dirt and debris to get under the keys rendering them useless. Apple was slow and, in some cases, refused to repair the keyboards leaving owners with expensive laptops that were unusable.

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Google has long been accused of violating users' privacy due to the way it harvests and uses information through its myriad Web services and products. Lately, Google has been singing a different tune, strengthening its privacy features and waging war against abuses made by browser cookies, specifically the third-party tracking kind. Ironically, that is now being used as evidence against the company, alleging that its upcoming "Chrome Privacy Sandbox" is hiding an advertising monopoly behind a pretext of protecting users' privacy.

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Google has been waging war against the abusive practice of tracking users across the Web even as it tries to protect and grow its advertising business that has become synonymous with that. It has introduced new features in Chrome that disable harmful cookies, for example, but not everyone is convinced of its seemingly good intentions. One group has, in fact, filed a lawsuit alleging that Google's Incognito mode isn't what it seems to be, a lawsuit that Google just failed to get thrown out of court.

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Apple is suing a former MacBook designer, alleging that he sold unreleased product details to a journalist in return for favorable coverage as he left the Cupertino firm for a startup. Simon Lancaster had been Advanced Materials and Prototyping lead at Apple until he resigned in November 2019, but a new lawsuit accuses him of copying trade secrets from other projects so that he could supply them to an "outside media correspondent" currently unnamed.

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Epic Games reached a settlement in a class action suit dealing with loot boxes in both Fortnite and Rocket League. More specifically, we're talking about Fortnite: Save the World and Rocket League as played by players in the United States, and the settlement has to do with "random item loot box" purchases. The settlement includes millions of dollars in USD cash, but the basic payment to most users "who bought a random item loot box" will be V-Bucks - virtual currency.

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The transition to the Biden administration may have sparked some hope in Huawei but, if recent news is any indication, it might still be fighting a losing battle. Biden's pick to lead the Commerce Department already indicated her stance on keeping the status quo. Huawei is now picking up another fight in a different arena, this time challenging once more the constitutionality of the FCC's recent decision to label Huawei as a threat to the national security of the US.

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