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North Face is Really Sorry for Spamming Wikipedia

Andrew Orr ·

North Face as issued an apology over its manipulating campaign to spam Wikipedia pages and game Google search results.

We believe deeply in @Wikipedia’s mission and apologize for engaging in activity inconsistent with those principles. Effective immediately, we have ended the campaign and moving forward, we’ll commit to ensuring that our teams and vendors are better trained on the site policies.

If the idiots didn’t openly brag about it, they probably could’ve gotten away with it, at least for a while longer.

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An Inside Look at the Qualcomm Monopoly Ruling

Andrew Orr ·

Timothy Lee did a nice deep dive into the 233-page Qualcomm monopoly ruling from Judge Lucy Koh. I’ve heard hot takes of the settlement between Apple and Qualcomm that suggested maybe Apple knew it was going to lose and gave up. But Judge Koh ordered Qualcomm to renegotiate with its customers.

The legal document outlines a nearly 20-year history of overcharging smartphone makers for cellular chips. Qualcomm structured its contracts with smartphone makers in ways that made it almost impossible for other chipmakers to challenge Qualcomm’s dominance. Customers who didn’t go along with Qualcomm’s one-sided terms were threatened with an abrupt and crippling loss of access to modem chips.

In her ruling, Koh ordered Qualcomm to stop threatening customers with chip cutoffs. Qualcomm must now re-negotiate all of its agreements with customers and license its patents to competitors on reasonable terms.

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Angry Face Emoji Protestors at Facebook Annual Meeting

Charlotte Henry ·

Protestors armed with an angry face emoji attended Facebook’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday. They were airing concerns about the scandals currently engulfing the firm. As Reuters noted, attempts to get reform in the company can easily be outvoted by Mark Zuckerberg and those close to him. However, the meeting will give a good indication as to whether investors share the protestors’ angry face sentiment.

The measures had little chance of succeeding, as a dual class share structure gives Zuckerberg and other insiders control of about 58% of the votes. Many investors have shrugged off the scandals swirling around the company, as it has beaten Wall Street’s estimates for revenue growth and continues to add users globally. Zuckerberg declined to answer a shareholder question on why he would not agree to create an independent board chair, instead restating his view that regulators should set the rules for companies around privacy and content.

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Cardiogram Will Judge Most Exciting Parts of WWDC Keynote

Charlotte Henry ·

What gets your heart racing at WWDC? Cardiogram is going to find out. The Apple Watch heart rate sensor app is going to monitor the heart rates of those who want to play along during the WWDC keynote, and reveal what the most exciting moment was, reported AppleInsider.

Cardiogram will be allowing its users to start recording their heart rate on the Apple Watch continuously before the WWDC keynote begins, one which uses the Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor. The data is shared minute-by-minute with the company, which is then compiled with data provided by other users. During the event, a dedicated live heart rate chart will update to show what the current heart rate of participants taking part in the monitoring scheme is, and what the group rate was in previous minutes. In theory, the heart rate will be highest shortly after major new announcements.