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Google has counter-sued Sonos, a slow reaction to the multi-room speaker company accusing its former partner of stealing its tech. Back in January, Sonos cited five patents it argued Google had infringed, after being given privileged access to technologies in the name of better integrating Google Play Music, the Google Assistant, and more.
Google has been accused of tracking users in Chrome, even when the Incognito privacy mode was enabled, with a new lawsuit seeking $5 billion in damages. Filed in the federal court in San Jose, California this week, the proposed class action suit alleges that Google contravenes the Federal Wiretap Act.
Apple has pushed back after criticisms from the US attorney-general, William Barr, over how it handled locked iPhones in the Pensacola shooter case. Barr revealed today that the FBI had accessed the two iPhones from the shooter - who killed three Americans at the Naval Air Station in December 2019 - and accused Apple of double-standards in how it handled security requests.
A "legal blueprint for mining on the moon" was tipped to be in the works in the White House under the U.S.-sponsored international agreement called the Artemis Accords. A report this week suggests that a draft pact has not yet been "formally shared" with any U.S. allies as of yet. This agreement would be made in association with NASA and ideally agreed upon by by government officials around the world.
This morning the official Disney+ Twitter account suggested that Star Wars fans could celebrate the next big holiday with the biggest brand in the galaxy. "Celebrate the Saga," they said, "Reply with your favorite #StarWars memory and you may see it somewhere special on #MayThe4th." The followed up to this message with a bit of lawyer language.
You often see disclaimers in videos or games that similarities to real-life people are purely coincidental in a work of fiction. There are times, however, when such content is intentionally designed to bear similarities to real-world people or objects. Sometimes those are products of licensing agreements and partnerships. AM General, the maker of one of the most identifiable military vehicles in the world, wanted something along those lines when it sued Activision for putting Humvees in Call of Duty games. A judge, however, ruled that the game developer has a First Amendment right to do so.
COVID-19 in the USA was the reason for President Donald Trump's invoking of the Defense Production Act (DPA). This act was originally put in place by President Truman during the Korean War, and has been changed significantly since then. As laid out in the last major change of provisions in the act, in a CRS (Congressional Research Service) Report for Congress by Daniel H. Else, Specialist in National Defense, on May 14, 2009, "DPA authorities are not permanent."
This week the folks at Corellium released Project Sandcastle, a method with which an iPhone can run Android. It's not especially simple, and it doesn't really run like a full-fledged Android phone would, but it's real. The hack comes courtesy of Chris Wade and his associates, who've released this bit of software amid a legal row with Apple for their creation of software versions of the iPhone "for security and testing."
Apple will pay as much as $500 million to settle angry iPhone owners, who had accused the company of secretly throttling their smartphones in early 2017. The controversy was a side-effect of Apple's attempts to work around problems caused by aging batteries, and which had already seen the Cupertino firm discount battery replacements for existing owners.
The US government has filed an indictment against Huawei and its Chief Financial Officer, alleging intellectual property theft, financial fraud, and racketeering by the Chinese firm and its management. The superseding indictment was revealed on Thursday, February 13, and targets Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. along with two US subsidiaries. CFO Meng Wanzhou - who is currently awaiting confirmation on whether she will be extradited from Canada to the US in order to face charges - is also named in the indictment.
The European Union has voted to approve a common charger standard, despite Apple's protestations that it could hamper innovation, and now aims to fast-track the rule in the name of cutting down on e-waste. The new regulation comes after years of the EU hoping that manufacturers would voluntarily adopt charger standards, only to find those hopes frustrated.
Police forces in London, UK, have confirmed they will be switching on controversial Live Facial Recognition (LFR) systems, aiming to spot known criminals or suspects in crime hotspots around the city. The system will be able to flag individuals on a watch-list, picking known faces out of the crowd.