Apple fails to end lawsuit that claimed it purposely broke FaceTime on iOS 6

Why it matters to you

Were you forced to upgrade to iOS7 because of a bug? A lawsuit alleges that Apple actually broke FaceTime on iOS 6 to save money.

According to a lawsuit filed in California back in February, Apple intentionally broke its FaceTime video chat app on devices running iOS 6 and earlier in order to avoid high monthly data charges from Akamai, a server company that Apple contracted to serve multimedia content.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that iPhone 4 and 4S users can pursue a nationwide class action claiming Apple “broke” FaceTime intentionally — in order to save money from routing calls through servers own by Akamai, Reuters reports.

According to AppleInsider, Apple used two methods of handling FaceTime sessions when the feature launched in 2010. One, a peer-to-peer technology, transmitted audio and video data over a direct connection between two iPhones, while the second, a “relay” method, routed traffic through Akamai’s servers.

Calls initially accounted for 5 to 10 percent of Akamai’s traffic, but usage soon spiked — Apple racked up a $50 million bill between 2013 and 2016, or around $8.3 million per month. Making matters worse, the iPhone maker was forced to ditch FaceTime’s peer-to-peer technology as the result of a lawsuit filed by VirnetX. In November 2012, a jury found Apple guilty of infringing on the company’s networking patents, and fined Apple $368 million.

Court documents that emerged during the VirnetX trial paint a damning picture. Apple executives expressed concern over the increased server usage, even going so far as to circulate an internal email with the subject line “Ways to Reduce Relay Usage” among Apple’s FaceTime engineers. The company came up with a peer-to-peer workaround for iOS 7, but one that wasn’t backward compatible with devices running iOS 6.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple devised a plan to “break” FaceTime on iOS 6 and earlier versions by causing the app’s certificate — the digital signature that verifies the app’s integrity and allows it to launch — to expire in April 2014. It blamed the incompatibility on a bug.

The suit cites two pieces of evidence: An email exchange between Apple engineers Patrick Gates and Gokul Thirumalai, and an Apple support page mentioning FaceTime’s ostensible incompatibility with iOS 6.

“Hey, guys. I’m looking at the Akamai contract for next year. I understand we did something in April around iOS 6 to reduce relay utilization,” an Apple engineering manager said. Another engineer replied, “It was a big user of relay bandwidth. We broke iOS 6, and the only way to get FaceTime working again is to upgrade to iOS 7.”

Apple’s FaceTime support page in 2014, since updated, refers to the FaceTime issue as a “bug.”

“If you started to have issues making or receiving FaceTime calls after April 2014, your device or your friend’s device may have encountered a bug resulting from a device certificate that expired on that date. Updating both devices to the latest software will resolve this issue.”

Users with iOS 6 devices were left with no choice but to upgrade to iOS 7. And iOS 7, the lawsuit alleges, caused older devices like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S to become sluggish, crash, and run apps at “slower than optimal speeds.”

The suit is seeking undisclosed damages under California’s unfair competition law.

Update: Apple failed at its attempt to end the lawsuit claiming the company intentionally broke its FaceTime video chat app.

Google just made scheduling work meetings a little easier

There’s a little bit of good news for people juggling both Google G Suite tools and Microsoft Exchange for their schedule management at work. Google has released an update that will allow G Suite users to access coworkers’ real-time free/busy information through both Google Calendar’s Find a Time feature and Microsoft Outlook’s Scheduling Assistant interchangeably.

G Suite admins can enable the new Calendar Interop management feature through the Settings for Calendar option in the admin console. Admins will also be able to easily pinpoint issues with the setup via a troubleshooting tool, which will also provide suggestions for resolving those issues, and can track interoperability successes and failures for each user through logs Google has made available.

The new feature is available on Android, iOS and web versions of Google Calendar as well as desktop, mobile and web clients for Outlook 2010+, for admins who choose to enable it. Google says the full rollout should be completed within three days.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Google (1), (2)

Android apps can find nearby devices even when they’re offline

If you’ve ever wished that your smartphone’s apps would automatically do your bidding the moment you neared a device, you’re in luck. After previewing it at I/O in May, Google has made the second generation of its Nearby Connections toolkit available to Android developers. The updated framework uses Bluetooth and WiFi to find nearby devices, connect to them and perform tasks without requiring an internet connection. Your hotel room could auto-adjust the temperature the moment you walk in, Google suggests, while your phone could merge contacts whenever you’re close to your spouse.

The kit supports both mesh networks, where devices form an independent network on the spot, as well as a centralized connection where one device rules the roost. That’s particularly helpful in classrooms or meetings, where you’d want one device to take priority — say, a Jackbox-style party game where a host hands out trivia questions.

It’ll take a while for the new Nearby Connections to wend its way into the apps you use, but there are already companies who’ve had a head start. The Weather Channel is installing mesh networks in areas with poor internet access to help send weather warnings, Hotstar is offering offline media sharing and GameInsight will help you find and play people offline. And of course, Google has its own — an upcoming Android TV remote app will use Nearby Connections to get you started and turn on second-screen experiences while you’re watching shows. If more developers like the idea, this could quietly become one of Android’s more important assets, especially as smart homes take off.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Android Developers Blog

Bloomberg: Spotify is planning another big podcast push

Spotify started its new year getting into the podcast game when it announced it was bringing on its first original content in a trio of music-related shows. Then in March, it partnered with WNYC to bring its podcasts to the platform. While Apple still dominates the space, Spotify is steaming ahead with more podcast-focused advertising and original content: Sources told Bloomberg that a new batch of shows will launch in a few months.

Podcasts will get their own dedicated tab in the platform’s “browse” section, too, at some point. The company’s investment remains experimental, but it will begin a new campaign to lure in more listeners to its limited podcast offerings. In exchange for promoting certain shows within the Spotify app and on bus ads, the hosts of “Reply All,” “Pod Save America” and “The Bill Simmons Podcast” will promote the streaming service during episodes.

The reasons are mostly financial: Podcast ad revenue is expected to increase 85 percent this year to $220 million. As Bloomberg points out, 15 percent of Americans listen to podcasts weekly, while a quarter listen to at least one a month. Podcasts, as longer-form media than songs, might keep users around for longer sessions (ergo, more ad money) than a three-minute song. Plus, the streaming titan could get non-music content for a lower price, given that royalties to record labels made up an astonishing 75 percent of Spotify’s costs last year.

Source: Bloomberg

What’s on TV: ‘Voltron,’ ‘Sharknado 5’ and ‘Wet Hot American Summer’

This week is a big one for Netflix, although bigger releases like The Defenders are still waiting for later in August. This week we’ll see season three of Voltron: Legendary Defender, as well as season two of Wet Hot American Summer. Syfy is back with its fifth Sharknado movie and DirecTV has the series finale of Kingdom. For gamers, The Long Dark is officially launching while TBS airs Road to the International Dota 2 Championships, and The Circle is available on Blu-ray. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Alien: Covenant (VOD)
• The Circle
• The Fog
• Slither
• They Live
• Going in Style
• The Machinist
• Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (PS4, Xbox One)
• White Day: A Labyrinth Named Schoo (PS4)
• Dino Frontier (PSVR)
• The Long Dark (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
• CastleStorm VR (PSVR)
• Tacoma (PC, Xbox One)
• Slime Rancher (Xbox One, PC)
• Slime-san (Switch)
• Aven Colony (PS4)
• Drawfighters (PS4)
• Frisky Business (PS4)
• Patapon Remasters (PS4)
• Oh… Sir! The Insult Simulator (Xbox One)

Monday

• American Ninja Warrior, NBC, 8PM
• So You Think You Can Dance, Fox, 8PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
• Preacher, AMC, 9PM
• Will, TNT, 9PM
• Stitchers, Freeform, 9PM
• Superhuman (season finale), Fox, 9PM
• CBSN: On assignment (series premiere), CBS, 10PM
• Carspotting (series premiere), Discovery, 10PM
• American Dad, TBS, 10PM
• Midnight, Texas, NBC, 10PM
• To Tell the Truth, ABC, 10PM
• American Greed, CNBC, 10PM
• Siesta Key (series premiere), MTV, 10PM
• Midnight, Texas, NBC, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Tuesday

• Maz Jobrani: Immigrant, Netflix, 3AM
• Surviving Escobar: Alias JJ (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Casual (season finale), Hulu, 3AM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
• America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
• The Fosters, Freeform, 8PM
• The Challenge MTV, 9PM
• Animal Kingdom, TNT, 9PM
• The Bold Type, Freeform, 9PM
• Face Off, Syfy, 9PM
• Fantomworks, Velocity, 9PM
• Somewhere Between, ABC, 10PM
• Shooter, USA, 10PM
• American Ripper, History, 10PM
• Fear Factor, MTV, 10PM
• Adam Ruins Everything, TruTV, 10PM
• The Profit, CNBC, 10PM
• Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
• World of Dance, NBC, 10PM
• Wrecked, TBS, 10:30PM
• The Jim Jefferies Show, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Wednesday

• Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
• Kingdom (series finale), DirecTV Audience, 8PM
• Lucha Underground, El Rey, 8PM
• Suits, USA, 9PM
• Salvation, CBS, 9PM
• Hood Adjacent with James Davis, Comedy Central, 9PM
• The Carmichael Show, NBC, 9PM
• Catfish, MTV, 9PM
• Queen Sugar (summer finale), OWN, 10PM
• Sinner (series premiere), USA, 10PM
• I’m Sorry, TruTV, 10PM
• Snowfall FX, 10PM
• The Auto Firm with Alex Vega, Velocity, 10PM
• Blood Drive, Syfy, 10PM
• Younger, TV Land, 10PM
• Cleverman (season finale), Sundance, 10PM
• Broadchurch, BBC America, 10PM
• Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Thursday

• NFL Hall of Fame Game: Cowboys vs. Cardinals, NBC, 8PM
• Penn & Teller: Fool Us, CW, 8PM
• Boy Band, ABC, 8PM
• Beat Shazam, Fox, 8PM
• Battle of the Network Stars, ABC, 9PM
• Whose Line is it Anyway, CW, 9PM
• Big Brother, CBS, 9PM
• The Wall, NBC, 9PM
• The Tunnel (season finale), PBS, 9PM
• Date Night Live, Lifetime, 10PM
• Akil the Fugitive Hunter, A&E, 10PM
• Zoo, CBS, 10PM
• The Mist, Spike TV, 10PM
• The Night Shift, NBC, 10PM
• The Gong Show, ABC, 10PM
• Queen of the South, USA, 10PM
• The Guest Book, TBS, 10PM
• What Would Diplo Do? (series premiere), Viceland, 10PM
• Nuts + Bolts (series premiere), Viceland, 10:30PM
• The Chris Gethard Show (series premiere), TruTV, 11PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Friday

• Voltron: Legendary Defender (S3), Netflix, 3AM
• Wet Hot American Summer (S2), Netflix, 3AM
• Lost in Oz (S1), Amazon Prime, 3AM
• Comrade Detective (S1), Amazon Prime, 3AM
• Icarus, Netflix, 3AM
• We Day, CBS, 8PM
• Killjoys, Syfy, 8PM
• Masters of Illusion, CW, 8PM
• Dark Matter, Syfy, 9PM
• Road to the International Dota 2 Championships, TBS, 10PM
• All Access: Mayweather vs. McGregor, Showtime 10PM
• Wynonna Earp, Syfy, 10PM
• Room 104, HBO, 11:30PM

Saturday

• Doubt, CBS, 8PM
• Turn, AMC, 9PM
• Risk, Showtime 9PM
• Orphan Black, BBC America, 10PM
• George Lopez: The Wall, Live from Washington DC, HBO, 10PM

Sunday

• Sharknado 5: Global Swarming, Syfy, 8PM
• Twin Peaks, Showtime, 8PM
• Teen Wolf, MTV, 8PM
• American Grit (season finale), Fox, 8PM
• Top Gear America, BBC America, 8PM
• Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
• Celebrity Family Feud, ABC, 8PM
• Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, 8PM
• Ray Donovan (season premiere), Starz, 9PM
• Game of Thrones, HBO, 9PM
• Candy Crush, CBS, 9PM
• Power, Starz, 9PM
• Claws, TNT, 9PM
• American Grit, Fox, 9PM
• The Nineties, CNN, 9PM
• Steve Harvey’s Funderdome, ABC, 9PM
• Ballers, HBO, 10PM
• $100,000 Pyramid, ABC, 10PM
• The Strain, FX, 10PM
• I’m Dying Up Here, Showtime, 10PM
• Unsung, TV One, 10PM
• Insecure, HBO, 10:30PM
• Talking with Chris Hardwick, AMC, 11PM
• Legends of Chamberlain Heights, Comedy Central, 11:30PM
• Rick & Morty, Cartoon Network, 11:30PM

Apple Now Allows Developers to Test Apps With Up To 10,000 Users

Apple today updated its developer news site to let developers know that TestFlight tester limits have been expanded. Starting today, developers can invite up to 10,000 users to beta test their iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and iMessage apps before the apps are released on the App Store.

Developers often use TestFlight to send out pre-release copies of apps to testers and members of the media to suss out bugs and usability issues ahead of the release of an app. TestFlight is simple to use, requiring just an email address to send out beta testing invites, which has made it popular with developers.

Now you can gain even more valuable feedback by inviting up to 10,000 users to beta test your apps before you release them on the App Store. TestFlight makes it simple to invite testers using just their email address and lets testers quickly provide feedback within the TestFlight app.

Prior to today, app developers were only allowed to invite up to 2,000 individuals to beta test apps using the TestFlight beta testing platform, a limit that was put in place in 2015. This is the first time the limit has been increased since then.

Tags: TestFlight, Apple Developer Program
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Apple Discounts Beats EP, urBeats, and Beats Pill+ Products

Apple this week launched a new limited time discount on its Beats EP headphones, Beats Pill+ speaker, and urBeats earphones, which are all on sale for approximately $20 to $30 off.

The Beats EP On-Ear Headphones are available for $99, down from the original price of $129.95. All colors are available at the discounted price, including red, white, black, and blue. The Beats EP are Apples most affordable on-ear headphones, coming in at a lower cost than the Solo3 models.

The Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker is available for $199, down from $229.95. All colors are discounted, including white, black, and red.

Both the Beats Pill+ and the Beats EP On-Ear Headphones were discounted by a similar amount in late 2016 and early 2017, but Apple has not recently offered a sale on the urBeats. With the promotion, the earphones are priced at $79 instead of $99.95. All colors available from the Apple Store are included in the sale: silver, gold, space gray, rose gold, black, and ultra violet.

Apple’s prices are a decent deal, but similar and occasionally bigger discounts can often be found from retailers like Amazon and Best Buy during routine sales.

According to the promotion details, Apple’s sale will last from today until August 26, 2017 at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
Tags: Beats, Beats Pill+
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‘Titanfall 2’ arrives on EA’s PC and Xbox One subscription services

Titanfall 2, the criminally underrated man-vs.-mech multiplayer game that reliably releases new free content nearly every month, is now available for subscribers of EA’s subscription services. Users on both EA Access on Xbox One and Origin Access on PC can play the game at no cost — which is perfect timing, since the game’s latest DLC introduced a new players-vs-computer horde mode that has likely reeled in a bunch of lapsed fans. Seriously, it’s a game where wallrunning players try to dodge enemies in gun-toting mechs — go play it already if you’ve already ponied up for EA’s unlimited gaming services.

Titanfall 2 enters the Vault, EA’s repository of games made freely available to Access subscribers. As Polygon notes, this is the first game in the slew of titles EA announced were headed to the Vault in coming months, so expect Battlefield 1 and trial versions of the publisher’s 2018 sports titles to hit before September ends.

Source: Polygon

Light up your darkest night rides with the Torch M1 bike helmet

Why it matters to you

If you’ve always fancied a bright headlight on your bike helmet instead of on your handlebars, then the Torch M1 may be of interest.

The Torch M1 claims to be the world’s brightest bike helmet thanks to its dual 500-lumen LED headlight that will brighten your path and ensure you’re always seen.

The light, which is adjustable and can be detached and mounted in a snap, offers a 30-degree beam for optimal visibility. Torch Apparel explains: “Many helmet mounted headlights provide narrow beam coverage, limiting the rider’s visibility … Our unique striated light casts an even beam 30 degrees across the path in front of you. Unlike a regular headlamp or single beam bike lights, Torch M1 spreads a diffused light over a wide area to avoid tunnel vision.”

The designers chose 500 lumen as the ideal level, believing that anything brighter carries the risk of dazzling other road users. But it also includes a selection of light modes that let you knock it down to medium and low brightness, with a fourth mode causing the light to gently pulsate.

You can leave it charging while going for a daytime ride.

A full charge gives you 1.5 hours of use with 500 lumen running the whole time, or 8 hours in pulse mode. It takes about 3 hours to fully charge the light, and its removability means you can leave it charging while going for a daytime ride.

Providing extra confidence when you’re out on the road is an embedded rear safety light that shines bright red to ensure you’re always seen.

The stylish weatherproof helmet, currently an Indiegogo project from Los Angeles-based Torch Apparel, comprises a polycarbonate shell protecting the interior EPS foam, and has been OK’d by the appropriate safety bodies in both the U.S. and Europe. It comes with an an adjustable visor and ventilated design to keep your head cool when you’re riding along.

The Torch M1, which comes in two sizes, is making steady progress toward its $30,000 funding goal. You can pre-order the helmet, light, and charger for $99 — that’s half the expected retail price. Other early bird offers can also be viewed on its Indiegogo page.

So long as Torch Apparel hits its target and delivers on its promise, shipping is slated to begin in February 2018.

For more ideas on useful bike accessories, take a moment to check out these awesome suggestions from Digital Trends.

FlyPi 3D-printed microscope and ‘behavioral arena’ costs just $116 to build

Why it matters to you

This 3D-printed microscope and ‘neurogenetics lab,’ and similar devices, will help make lab-grade technology available to everyone.

3D printing can create fantastic objects we’ve never seen before. It can also help create existing objects at a much, much lower cost — thereby democratizing them for an entirely new audience. This second ambition is what drives FlyPi, an ultra-low cost 3D-printed microscope and “behavioral arena” that allows biomedical researchers to closely observe species such as fruit flies, worms, and zebrafish — and all for a build cost of just 100 euros ($116).

Given that comparable lab equipment can cost thousands of dollars, this device is impressively affordable. Its creators describe it as a complete “neurogenetics lab.”

“It consists of a 3D-printed frame fitted with off-the-shelf electronics, including a camera with powerful zoom objective, and a range of illumination options, as well as circuits for temperature control,” Dr. Tom Baden, a neuroscientist at the U.K.’s University of Sussex, told Digital Trends. “Coupled with colored sheets of plastic as used in theater lighting, the system also allows for some simple forms of fluorescence microscopy.”

Baden — who created FlyPi with André Maia Chagas from the University of Tubingen in Germany — said that the Raspberry Pi-powered creation is linked to advances in protein engineering and genetics that have taken place in the past couple decades. These have allowed for the expression of a wide array of molecular actuators and sensors in specific nerve cells of model species such as fruit flies.

“They may, for example, respond to light, or to heat, in such as way as to change the activity level of the nerve cell they inhabit,” Baden said. “In this way, researchers can study the function and connectivity of these cells in the live, behaving animal simply by shining a light at it or raising its ambient temperature. At this point, all you need is a fairly good camera to film your animals, plus some options to accurately control light and heat. This is what FlyPi was primarily designed for.”

In addition, the 3D-printed microscope can be used as a low-cost fluorescence microscope for tasks like spotting parasites in tissue samples or identifying types of white blood cells.

Although the project is still in its early stages, if you’re interested in receiving updates about development (and maybe even eventually getting one for purchase) you can do so at this website. You can also check out a research paper on the project here.