U.S. Prosecutors to Investigate Uber’s Alleged Theft of Waymo’s Self-Driving Trade Secrets

A U.S. judge presiding over Waymo’s trade-secrets theft lawsuit against Uber has asked federal prosecutors to investigate the claims in the case, it emerged on Thursday (via Bloomberg).

U.S. district judge William Alsup also partially granted Waymo’s bid for an injunction against Uber’s self-driving efforts, and rejected Uber’s arguments that the trade secret allegations should proceed in private.

Google’s self-driving Waymo car division originally filed the lawsuit against Uber in February, accusing the company of stealing its self-driving intellectual property.

Specifically, former Google employee Anthony Levandowski is accused of stealing 14,000 confidential files that included data on Waymo’s laser-based radar (LiDAR) system, which the company called “one of the most powerful parts” of its self-driving technology.

In referring the case to the U.S. Department of Justice, Judge Alsup said that in the absence of “smoking gun” proof of wrongdoing by Uber, he was not taking a position on whether or not charges are warranted, but noted there was “ample evidence” that Levandowski had breached his duty of loyalty to Waymo.

Uber declined to comment on the referral to prosecutors, while Levandowski has already recused himself from LiDAR-related work while the case is ongoing, but the news is yet another setback for the ride-hailing service as it attempts to revive its tarnished image following multiple controversies over recent months.

The Department of Justice is already investigating the company over its use of “secret” software that allowed its drivers to operate in areas where Uber was banned or restricted. The so-called “greyball” software is said to have allowed the company to identify undercover officials and block them from booking rides, in order to prevent them from proving that Uber was operating illegally.

Last month it emerged that Apple CEO Tim Cook threatened to pull Uber’s app from the App Store in early 2015 after discovering that it was secretly “fingerprinting” iPhones that used the app. Uber said it used the identification method to prevent fraud, despite knowing the tactic is a clear violation of Apple’s app privacy guidelines.

Tags: Uber, Waymo
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Apple Awards Corning First Advanced Manufacturing Fund Investment

Apple today announced that Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, will be the first major benefactor of its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, which was announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this month.

Corning is a long-time Apple Supplier, and its Gorilla Glass products have been used in the iPhone and the iPad for several years. Corning Incorporated will receive $200 million from Apple’s new fund, which aims to foster innovation among American manufacturers and lead to more U.S. jobs. The investment will support Corning’s research and development, capital equipment needs and state-of-the-art glass processing, according to Apple’s press release.

“Corning is a great example of a supplier that has continued to innovate and they are one of Apple’s long-standing suppliers,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “This partnership started 10 years ago with the very first iPhone, and today every customer that buys an iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world touches glass that was developed in America. We’re extremely proud of our collaboration over the years and we are investing further with Corning who has such a rich legacy of innovative manufacturing practices.”

Apple said Corning’s 65-year-old Harrodsburg facility in Kentucky has been integral to the 10-year collaboration between the two companies and will be the focus of its investment.

“Corning’s longstanding relationship with Apple has not only led to significant glass innovations that have enabled new capabilities for consumers, it has also helped create nearly 1,000 American jobs and allowed us to continue growing and expanding in the US,” said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning’s chairman, chief executive officer and president. “This investment will ensure our plant in Harrodsburg remains a global center of excellence for glass technology.”

Since the founding of Gorilla Glass in 2007, the partnership has created and sustained nearly 1,000 U.S. jobs across Corning’s R&D, manufacturing and commercial functions, according to Apple, including over 400 in Harrodsburg. Corning is said to have procured enough renewable energy to cover all of its Apple manufacturing in the U.S.

Tags: Corning, Gorilla Glass, Advanced Manufacturing Fund
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Lighthouse home security camera intelligently recognises family members and pets

Smart home security cameras are nothing new, they’re able to detect motion inside or outside your home and send you a notification. The new Lighthouse security wants to take that further by intelligently recognising different people and even pets, using 3D-sensing technology.

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The project has been backed by Android co-founder Andy Rubin, so it really does mean business. You can set up commands to send to the camera, such as asking it to let you know when the kids get home from school. The camera will then recognise the kids when they walk through the door – it uses facial recognition to store images of each family member – and send you an image as proof.

To set up these kind of commands is simple too, as the Lighthouse camera can understand natural language. It means you can literally say “tell me when the kids are home from school”, and it will understand.

The Lighthouse camera can even identify pets, so you can ask the companion app to let you know if the dog went outside while you were away, and you’ll get all dog-related activity, specifically near the door, for the day.

And if the camera detects movement from an unidentified person, it will let you know through the app and gives you quick-access options to sound a siren, call the police or to talk through the camera to politely tell the intruder to go away.

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As with some other home security cameras, you can also talk through the Lighthouse camera using the app. It will even recognise hand gestures, so your kids could wave to it to get your attention, you’ll get a notification on the app and then you can speak to them to ask them how their day was. Of course, this is only really useful if you’re away from the home, and not just sitting in the other room.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse says all camera footage and data stored on the camera is encrypted, and footage is automatically deleted after 30 days.

You can now pre-order the Lighthouse security camera in the US for $399 with a year of Lighthouse Intelligence software, but you can increase this to four years for $499 or five years for $599. Once your subscription has run out, you can pay $10/month to keep it running.

Harley-Davidson to keep making electric motorbikes after LiveWire

World renowned motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson is still to deliver a consumer edition of its LiveWire electric bike – which we first rode two years ago – yet it is confident enough in the concept that it will develop further all-electric vehicles down the line.

Harley-Davidson has revealed that it will release 100 new motorcycles in the next 10 years and an entire range of electric bikes will be included.

Speaking to Drive, Bill Davidson, vice president of the Harley-Davidson Museum also said that plans for a full release for the LiveWire are progressing nicely: “We’re excited about our future. We actually showed a prototype of the electric LiveWire and that project is alive and well,” he explained.

“We don’t know yet when we’re going to introduce it but it is progressing well and we will eventually introduce it.”

The VP is the great grandson of company founder William A Davidson.

The Harley-Davidson LiveWire is, in almost every sense, every bit the growling bike the company is synonymous with. Apart from the sound.

To counteract the fact that electric vehicles make little noise when running – a no-no for most motorbikers let alone Harley-Davidson fans – the company has added a housing that creates a resonance when in operation. That, we discovered in our ride test in 2015, makes the bike sound like a jet engine. Lovely.

Price and exact release date for the LiveWire are still to be determined.

Could a Nintendo Switch Mini be in the works?

The Nintendo Switch has received universal acclaim since its release in March, and even sold more consoles in its first month than it did Wii Us in a year. But even with its success, and the fact it combines portable and home gaming into one machine, Citigroup analysts reckon Nintendo will release a smaller version of the console in 2019.

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The analysts say that the biggest reason for developing a smaller handheld version of the Switch would be to accommodate to smaller children, who might currently struggle with the size and weight of the regular Switch console.

Writing in an official report, the Citigroup analysts said: “Although the Nintendo Switch can be used as a handheld device, we think smaller children could struggle to use it comfortably in that format due to its size and weight”.

“Accordingly, we think Nintendo will launch a lighter, dedicated handheld version of the Switch, possibly to be called the Switch Mini”.

Nintendo already offers several handheld consoles, including the 2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL and recently released 2DS XL, so you may be wondering why the Japanese gaming giant would need another. It’s possible that the DS series of handheld consoles may eventually come to an end.

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If the only way of Nintendo releasing a new model is to launch a bigger version of an existing console, then ideas are clearly coming to a standstill. A handheld version of the Switch may reignite sales and offer Nintendo a new avenue to go down.

Citigroup analysts haven’t said how much they think a Switch Mini would sell for, but they think if such a console did exist, it would sell 6.7 million units in its first 12 months through March 2019. They also predict the regular Switch would have sold 25.7 million units by the same time.

StoreDot demos EV battery that reaches a full charge in 5 minutes

StoreDot, an Israeli startup known for making fast-charging batteries, announced its model for EVs in 2015. The company claims that its EV battery can reach a full charge within only five minutes and can keep the car running for 300 miles. Now, to prove that its technology works, StoreDot has demonstrated its product’s charging capability on stage at the CUBE Tech Fair in Berlin. The presenters didn’t exactly have the chance to show the battery get to 100 percent, since they had to pack up before the process was done. But you can still see how fast it inhales electricity in this Periscope video taken by Gruendermetropole.

While charging an EV doesn’t take a whole night these days — Tesla’s Supercharger only needs around two hours to fully charge one of the brand’s cars — a rapid-charging battery could convince new customers to make the switch. You don’t have to be worried about running out of power while in the middle of time-sensitive tasks anymore. Not when you can be in and out of a charging station in the blink of an eye.

StoreDot’s FlashBattery technology uses layers of nanomaterials and proprietary organic compounds, which it says have never been used on batteries before. The company also claims FlashBattery is safer than lithium-ion, since it’s not flammable and has a higher combustion temp. We might be able to see the first EVs using the technology within three years — we’ll just have to wait and see whether it can help the industry grow.

StoreDot CEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf said in a statement:

“Fast Charging is the critical missing link needed to make electric vehicles ubiquitous. The currently available battery technology dictates long charging times which makes the EV form of transportation inadequate for the public at large. We’re exploring options with a few strategic partners in the auto space to help us boost the production process in Asia and reach mass production as soon as possible.”

Source: StoreDot, Gruendermetropole (Periscope)

How to Create a Safer Community with Wireless Broadband Technology

Setting up wireless broadband in your area is not the first thing that comes to mind when talking about safety. After all, simply having this network to provide internet access won’t necessarily prevent burglars from breaking into your home or business.

However, having wireless broadband in a community can improve the capabilities of different institutions to provide safety. Here’s how.

Understanding Threats to Safety

First, let’s outline the many threats to safety in one’s community: crime, accidents, and natural disasters. While these are all intrinsically different, they’re the same in one thing—they can cause the loss of life or property. And that’s what we’re trying to prevent with the aid of technologies and tools like wireless broadband.

Crime

While a wireless broadband network won’t prevent crime, this network is needed to ensure deterrents work properly—and an example of such deterrents are security cameras. These cameras need to be hooked up to a wireless broadband network to transmit live video footage of the area they’re covering back to the home base. That way, security forces can easily keep tabs on what’s happening out there, without needing to physically patrol the area.

Wireless broadband can also help track or recover stolen vehicles, especially when it comes to cargo. Many trucks and container vans nowadays come equipped with GPS trackers, which, as the name suggests, record the path of specific vehicles. While these trackers can work without an internet connection, tracing a location is faster when a network is available. With these implements, police would have an easier time finding a missing vehicle and may even catch the perpetrators in the act.

Accidents

When an accident occurs, emergency response units need a way to communicate more efficiently with both the patient and their home base. That’s where wireless broadband technology comes in. By staying connected to a network, first responders eliminate the need to look for a stable cellular signal, especially in some rural areas.

Paramedics can also easily enlist the assistance of physicians when online using wireless broadband. This enables them to provide better care for the survivors of an accident, even before they arrive at the hospital.

Natural Disasters

Unlike crime or accidents, which can only affect a small number of individuals or only a specific area, natural disasters are harder to deal with. These occurrences, which include hurricanes or earthquakes, can cause widespread damage.

That’s where wireless broadband solutions come in. These kinds of networks are easy to set up even in the aftermath of a disaster. As such, emergency services tend to deploy this solution in calamity-stricken areas, allowing both relief workers and survivors to communicate better with one another and with the outside world. With these solutions in place, it will be easier for local governments, aid agencies, and other organizations to coordinate rescue and relief efforts. This enables survivors of a calamity to get the kind of help they actually need, easier and faster.

As these situations show, setting up wireless broadband doesn’t automatically create safety in one’s community. However, this technology makes existing solutions work faster and more efficiently, helping to minimize the loss of life and property.

YouTuber sentenced for playing Pokémon Go in a church

Why it matters to you

Just like people keep telling you, there’s a time and a place for playing smartphone games.

Playing Pokémon Go inside a church in Russia got local YouTube star Ruslan Sokolovsky into a whole lot of trouble.

Sokolovsky was arrested last September after he posted a video online of him playing Pokémon Go in an Orthodox church in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg about 900 miles east of Moscow.

The 22-year-old blogger was accused of “offending religious sensibilities” by playing the monster-catching game on a religious site, and using some rather colorful language while comparing Jesus to a character from the hit mobile game. However, at the end of his trial this week he escaped the maximum punishment of five years in jail and was instead handed a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence.

The judge told Sokolovsky he had had insulted the feelings of believers by “attributing to Jesus Christ the qualities of a reanimated zombie,” the Washington Post reported.

Before his arrest, the Russian authorities had already warned its Go-playing citizens that trying to catch ’em all inside places of religious worship could land them in serious bother.

In the YouTube video at the center of the case, the Pokémon Go player, on his way into the church, describes the ban as “complete nonsense,” adding, “Who could get offended if you’re just walking around with your smartphone in a church?” He soon found out.

A later search of Sokolovsky’s home turned up “evidence of incitement to hatred and attacks on the liberty of faith,” according to an AFP report at the time.

Following Thursday’s verdict, the blogger told the BBC he’d already made an apology to those he’d offended and said his video was “too cynical for Russian society.”

As for the game at the center of the controversy, Sokolovksy said he won’t be playing it anymore because “it’s already out of fashion.”

‘Coding Jam’ uses musical blocks to teach kids programming concepts

Last year, Osmo expanded its iPad-based children’s learning system with a program that teaches kids to code by linking tangible tiles with on-screen commands. Now the company’s expanded its platform with Coding Jam, an add-on that assigns musical tones to a new set of blocks, allowing young learners to tap out tunes in a sequence just like a series of code elements.

Like the main Osmo system, Coding Jam uses a mirror peripheral over the user’s docked iPad so its camera can track kids interacting with the music tiles. These correlate with particular tones, and snapping modifiers (like “loop” or “play twice”) on them introduces concepts analogous to coding instructions.

Kids can layer these elements to create musical sequences, as well as watch the jams other Osmo users make through the app. The Coding Jam expansion kit costs $60 and requires the full Osmo base set to build off of.

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Osmo

D-Link would like you to forget about its lax security

Back in January, the US Federal Trade Commission accused D-Link of putting customers in harm’s way with its extremely negligent approach to security. According to the FTC, the company left hundreds of thousands of customers vulnerable to attack by failing to secure their routers and cameras against critical vulnerabilities. At the time, the company denied the allegations, claiming no one had been affected by an actual breach, but that didn’t change the fact that D-Link left crucial security information out in the open for months. Now the company is trying to have the case thrown out of court on the grounds that the US government has no jurisdiction over the company.

A federal judge in San Francisco agreed with that argument today and dismissed the Taiwan-based D-Link Corporation from the case, but the company isn’t quite off the hook yet. In a carefully worded press release written by small government, anti-regulation nonprofit Cause of Action Institute, the case is still proceeding against D-Link Systems, Inc. — the company’s California-based US subsidiary. It’s a minor legal matter, but D-Link and Cause of Action are using the opportunity to drum up some good PR and reiterate that the FTC has yet to show that anyone was actually harmed when the company left a painfully obvious backdoor in its router firmware and exposed devices to potential malware attacks.

The Cause of Action Institute, which is defending D-Link in court, also claimed the FTC’s allegations are “vague and unsubstantiated” even though the company sold IP cameras with hard-coded login credentials that anyone could use to view streams and couldn’t be changed by the user. In fact, D-Link’s security flaws are something of a running joke among hackers and security researchers. While the parent company is dodging a bullet here, the US-based subsidiary will still have to contest the complaint in court.

Source: PR Newswire