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Apple hit with patent infringement lawsuit over haptic feedback features Immersion named the Apple iPhone 6, Apple iPhone 6 Plus, Apple iPhone 6s, Apple iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, and Apple Watch Edition in its lawsuit. The company named U.S. patents 8,619,051 “Haptic Feedback System with Stored Effects,” 8,773,356 “Method and Apparatus…

VoIP-Pal sues Apple over iMessage, WiFi calling patent infringement According to VoIP-Pal's filing the system Apple uses to determine whether conversations in the Messages app should use iMessage or standard SMS, and the system for deciding when to use WiFi calling are covered by patents it owns. The company said Apple, AT&T, and Verizon all…

Autonomous cars are upon us. Sure, it'll be a few years before they are pervasive, but we're already on the leading edge of the technology. For some interesting and informative background, I refer you to the February 2016 issue of Car & Driver, p. 58, “Going to the Dogs.” From the intro: So while we're…

Sonos rounded up 30,000 people from  U.S., Canada, U.K.,Germany, The Netherlands, France, Sweden and Australia to participate in a study conducted by United Minds. Dr. Daniel J. Levitin—a neuroscientist and author of This is Your Brain on Music—was an advisor for the study. The study showed that listening to music out loud (as opposed to…

Hackers ready to buy Apple employee logins An Apple employee told Business Insider, “You'd be surprised how many people get on to us, just random Apple employees. You get emails offering you thousands [of euros] to get a password to get access to Apple.” Hackers are reportedly also targeting Apple employees for company information. Exactly…

To make matters worse, the malware is digitally signed with a valid Apple developer certificate. Intego says that certificate was issued to a “Maksim Noskov.” According to Johannes Ullrich, Ph.D., of the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center, the security researcher who first spotted the malware, Apple has since revoked that certificate. Mr. Ullrich posted a…

Foxconn's bid for Sharp won out over INCJ With its bid getting the green light, Foxconn wants to move quickly to wrap up the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal. If all goes well, Foxconn hopes to finish the transaction in the next few days. Foxconn's strong push makes sense because there's still a…

There are many ho-hum and many good portable battery chargers for our iDevices. Most are just little boxes with a battery, LED lights and USB ports. However, the new Lynktec (5,300 or 8,000 mAh) charger has a multitude of thoughtful features, expansion options and usage profiles. It sets a new standard. This product has so…

GOOGL (Alphabet's ticker symbol) ended Tuesday's trading session at $780.91, a gain of $10.14 (+1.32 percent), on heavy volume of 6.3 million shares trading hands. Shares of AAPL ended the day at $94.48, down $1.95 (-2.02 percent), on light volume of 37.2 million shares trading hands. That left Alphabet's market cap at $537 billion, while…

The study was coauthored by several signatories under the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. It's stated purpose was to evaluate claims by law enforcement and governments, both the U.S. and in other countries, that end-to-end encryption in our communication devices is crippling surveillance efforts. The umbrella term used for this argument…

Apple Maps became big news after Fast Company called out the company for abortion-related search results. The publication said it performed searches in locations around San Francisco and was shown an adoption center outside the city instead of clinics providing abortion services. Abortion search or gun search: both show accurate results in Apple Maps The…

The owners of the 2015 12-inch MacBook have a small problem. There is only one USB-C port and no USB-A ports. The assumption has been that 3rd party hubs would solve that problem, and now, post CES, new ones are shipping. The Satechi USB-C Hub with pass through power and two USB-A ports is small,…

Apple CEO Tim Cook Tim Cook made a series of pointed declarations about Apple's intentions during the current worldwide economic slump. We believe in investing during downturns. Is CEO Cook trying to put a good face on a downturn that could slow the company's growth? The fact is that Apple has dealt with this before,…

Promo shot of Assembly Member Cooper, in the middle Source: Mr. Cooper's website Put another way, Assembly Member Cooper wants to make all of us vulnerable to the hacking of criminal organizations, malicious hackers, and foreign governments, and he's trying to do it in the very state that is home to Apple and Google. From…

There is going to be a Congressional Cybersecurity Lab to teach Congress about cyber. https://t.co/eEzQe8IznP — Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) January 19, 2016 The grant description: A grant to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars will support the creation of a new Congressional Cybersecurity Lab that builds congressional capacity on cybersecurity in a nonpartisan manner.…

Apple doesn't make it easy to recover passwords for deceased family members Following the death of her husband, Peggy Bush followed the process through Canada's government to redirect pension payments and other benefits to her name, but then hit a brick wall when she realized his Apple ID password was required to reinstall apps on…

Steve Jobs movie lands two Oscar nominations Mr. Fassbender was nominated for Best Actor for his role as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Ms. Winslet was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Joanna Hoffman. The movie landed two Golden Globe awards earlier this month, too. Ms. Winslet won an award for best supporting…

Assemblyman Matthew Titone with Kimberly Cantoni, Miss Staten Island, Jordan Lane Kowalski, Miss Staten Island’s Outstanding Teen, and Alexandra Mazzucchelli, Miss New York’s Outstanding Teen. Source: Assemblyman Matthew Titone   As noted by The Next Web, the bill itself includes a passage intended to make the case for such a bill: The safety of the…

In a research note to his clients—wouldn't it be interesting to see who pays Trip Chowdry for his financial advice? I mean, this is the guy who said in March of 2014 that Apple had 60 days to release an “iWatch” or die, one of the most unsophisticated, myopic, and arbitrary predictions ever. Then, in…

Sensormate Olfactory Alarm Clock The unit consists of the device, a power supply and, of course, a scent pack. The scents are created by Givaudan, a global leader in the fragrance Industry. The device comes with a Toast capsule, and there are currently six other scents which come in packs of two. The Continental Breakfast…

Oh yeah. I was Cool™. Anyhoo, a friend of mine suggested I wear eye liner*. This was on Halloween, and I knew it to be a splendid idea. She showed me how to apply it and after stepping back and admiring my new look in my bathroom mirror, I deemed it a success. I was…

With the view that Apple's leadership is “a little bit too vanilla,” Mr. Maldonado's proposal states: Shareholders request that the Board of Directors adopt an accelerated recruitment policy requiring Apple Inc. to increase the diversity of senior management and its board of directors, two bodies that presently fails to adequately represent diversity (particularly Hispanic, African-American,…

Mr. Cook's total earnings are up about $1 million over 2014 and comprise a $2 million base salary, $8 million in non-equity incentives, and approximately $281,000 in other compensation. Other top Apple executives — Luca Maestri, Eddy Cue, Dan Riccio, and Bruce Sewell — all received total compensation in 2015 of approximately $25 million each, with…

Chatlight on a MacBook Air The device has two rows of alternating white LEDs and yellow LEDs tuned for an image that's not too warm and not too cold. Those LEDs have a cover made of diffusing plastic, and the bank of lights can be rotated to affect how much light you get. There are…