Tech News – Page 74 – by Arlin Schaffel

Google settles $5bn lawsuit for ‘private mode’ tracking

Google has agreed to settle a US lawsuit claiming it invaded the privacy of users by tracking them even when they were browsing in "private mode". The class action, which was filed by law firm Boies Schiller Flexner in 2020, claimed that Google had tracked users' activity even when they set the Google Chrome browser to "Incognito" mode and other browsers to "private mode". It said this had turned Google into an "unaccountable trove of information" on user preferences and "potentially embarrassing things".
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67838384

New York Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI for ‘billions’

The lawsuit claims "millions" of articles published by the New York Times were used without its permission to make ChatGPT smarter, and claims the tool is now competing with the newspaper as a trustworthy information source. It alleges that when asked about current events, ChatGPT will sometimes generate "verbatim excerpts" from New York Times articles, which cannot be accessed without paying for a subscription.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67826601

Electric scooter company Bird files for bankruptcy

In a press release today, Bird confirmed that it had entered into a “financial restructuring process aimed at strengthening its balance sheet,” with the company continuing to operate as normal in pursuit of “long-term, sustainable growth.” It’s also worth noting that Bird’s Canadian and European operations are not part of this bankruptcy filing, and will “continue to operate as normal,” the company said.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/20/bird-bankruptcy/

Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma

Following mounting pressure from regulators in the UK and EU, Adobe and Figma announced on Monday that both companies are mutually terminating their merger agreement, which would have seen Adobe acquire the Figma product design platform for $20 billion. “It’s not the outcome we had hoped for,” said Figma CEO Dylan Field in a statement. “But despite thousands of hours spent with regulators around the world detailing differences between our businesses, our products, and the markets we serve, we no longer see a path toward regulatory approval of the deal.”
https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/18/24005996/adobe-figma-acquisition-abandoned-termination-fee

E3 is officially over forever

E3 is dead for good. “We know it’s difficult to say goodbye to such a beloved event, but it’s the right thing to do given the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners,” Stanley Pierre-Louis, the CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, the nonprofit trade organization that ran E3, told the Post.
https://www.theverge.com/23998271/e3-gaming-convention-canceled-death

Apple Store Employees Start Vision Pro Training

Apple is now scheduling two-day classes to start sometime in January 2024. The pricey headset will reportedly only be available in stores so buyers can be guided through the setup process, which includes getting a custom fit on the device. The first-gen Vision Pro is being targeted at developers and enterprise customers, though anyone can purchase one. Those who spend that $3,499 will be able to tap into the "spatial video capture" that rolled out today via iOS 17.2 for iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, which have cameras powerful enough to record videos in three dimensions.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-store-employees-start-vision-pro-training

Apple responds to the Beeper iMessage saga: ‘We took steps to protect our users’

A few days after the team at Beeper proudly announced a way for users to send blue-bubble iMessages directly from their Android devices without any weird relay servers, and about 24 hours after it became clear Apple had taken steps to shut that down, Apple has shared its take on the issue. The company’s stance here is fairly predictable: it says it’s simply trying to do right by users, and protect the privacy and security of their iMessages. “We took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage,” Apple senior PR manager Nadine Haija said in a statement.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/9/23995150/beeper-imessage-android-apple-statement