Apple to pay $838 million for infringing CalTech's WiFi patents.

The California Institute of Technology (CalTech) has won a $1.1 billion jury verdict against Apple and Broadcom, according to Reuters and other sources. In a case that first hit federal courts in 2016, CalTech accused Apple of using Broadcom WiFi chips that violate four of its patents in all iPhones, starting around 2012. The jury reportedly ordered Apple alone to pay $838 million, or about $1.40 per device -- which works out to about 598 million gadgets that used the infringing chips. 

Apple told Reuters that it plans to appeal, having previously said that it was merely a "downstream party" because it didn't develop the chips, but merely purchased them from Broadcom. The technology is vital to the 802.11n and 802.11ac WiFi standards, though its inventor said that the patents (related to data transmission tech), weren't originally designed for WiFi. 

Broadcom remains a major Apple supplier, having recently signed a $15 billion agreement to furnish chips for upcoming iPhones and other products. It remains to be seen if CalTech will go after other device manufacturers, but told Reuters that it is "committed to protecting its intellectual property in furtherance of its mission to expand human knowledge."

Source: Reuters

Have you heard? Emoji selection will become more gender-inclusive this year.

The Unicode Consortium has revealed 117 new emoji for 2020, and they will make your emoji arsenal more inclusive than ever. a number of the upcoming additions have the ability to make conversations with friends extra fun, such as the smiling face with a unmarried tear and the hand with pinched palms known as the "Italian hand gesture." This batch also provides new skintone and gender-inclusive alternatives for present emoji, together with the veil, the tuxedo and the feeding child emoji. for the time being, those emoji only portrays a woman, a man and a female, respectively.

The transgender flag and symbol also are coming to gadgets as a part of the new batch. Google and Microsoft sponsored the inspiration to feature the trans flag and symbol last yr, and in it the tech giants wrote: "[We] agree with that including an emoji illustrative to our lifestyles reviews isn't always just about developing era that should be on hand to each person -- it is approximately fostering lifestyle that is including users around global."

other first rate additions are the ninja emoji, the practical looking coronary heart and lung emoji and the bubble tea emoji. it is nonetheless unclear while the new batch is making its way to customers. simply take be aware that they will look special from the samples visible here, depending in your tool and the platform or internet site you are using.

Source: Unicode, Engadget.

Chinese hackers stole undersea warfare data from US Navy contractor

Hackers associated with the Chinese government have broken into a US Navy contractor's systems and stolen data about undersea warfare. According to The Washington Post, these include secret plans to create a new anti-ship missile usable on US submarines by 2020.

The contractor had been working for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, an R&D organization dedicated to submarines and underwater weaponry based in Newport, Rhode Island. The Chinese hackers breached the contractor's systems in January and February and made off with 614GB of data on signals, sensor data, cryptographic info, the Navy's electronic warfare library and material on a project known as Sea Dragon. The latter remains secretive: The only information released by the DoD is that it will integrate an existing weapon system with an existing Navy platform.

The data was highly sensitive despite being located on the contractor's unclassified network; When aggregated, it could be considered classified, sources told The Washington Post. The Navy is reportedly investigating the breach with help from the FBI.

This is the latest in a string of attempts by Chinese hackers to US data. The last big government breaches were in 2015, when cyberattacks from that country targeted the Office of Personnel Management and Woods Hole Institute, an oceanographic research organization that sometimes partners with the US Navy. A report last month indicated that a long series of seemingly-unrelated cybersecurity incidents were actually part of a Chinese hacking campaign stretching back to 2009 that mainly targeted US companies. All in all, this successful raid secured yet more information for China, this time on US underwater warfare, potentially chipping away at an advantage America's military has over the East Asian country.

Source: Engadget

Gmail's major redesign will be available to all in July - You'll have no choice but to use it three months later.

Google made it clear from the outset that it was merely matter of time before the new Gmail design reached everyone, and now we know when that's happening. The internet giant has promised "general availability" of the reworked Gmail in July, with G Suite administrators having options to stagger the transition by either letting users opt-in on their own schedule or making them wait four weeks. Don't think you can cling to the old ways forever, though.

Google notes that it'll automatically transition users to the new Gmail about eight weeks after the general release. You'll still have an opt-out choice for another four weeks, but after that it's lights out -- you'll switch to the new version with no choice to revert to the old client.

We wouldn't call the schedule a shock, as it was always going to be a question of when Google demanded a migration rather than "if." However, the roadmap makes it apparent that Google doesn't want to waste time or split its user base. You'll be using the new Gmail before the year is out -- it's just a question of how quickly you embrace it.

Source: G Suite

Virtual testing ground helps autonomous drones fly faster - It offers all the challenge of real tests, but none of the crashing.

It's not easy to teach drones to fly quickly and safely. You usually have to create an elaborate proving ground with real obstacles, and a single mishap could prove very costly. MIT's solution? Have the drones fly around imaginary objects. The school's engineers have created a virtual testing ground, nicknamed Flight Googles, that has drones flying through a simulated landscape in the safety of an empty room. Motion capture cameras around the space track the orientation of the drone and help the system send realistic, customized virtual images to the drone to convince it that it's flying through an apartment or another obstacle-laden environment.

The drone needs to carry a "powerful" embedded computer, a camera and an inertial measurement sensor on its back (shown above), but it's effective -- the drone can practice as much as necessary without smacking into something real. The results aren't perfect when the drone still ran into trouble six times out of 119 real-world flights, but that beats crashing relatively early.

While safety is clearly important here, the training environment is ultimately focused on speed -- the team took its inspiration from drone racing, where pilots frequently have just a split second to dodge fellow fliers or unexpected hurdles. However, its applications go well beyond that. Researchers imagine this helping drones learn to fly real-world buildings at speed, or even to dodge around moving humans. This could be useful for everything from rescue missions to the battlefield, or even just follow-me sports drones that could stay close to a fast-moving human without fear of a collision.

Source: MIT News

YouTube Music subscriptions shake up Google Play Music and YouTube Red

YouTube execs have finally announced the long-awaited  revamp for YouTube Music that they say will eventually replace Google Play Music. In interviews with Recode, CNET and USA Today, they revealed the new YouTube Music will soft-launch next Tuesday with a $10 subscription packages (you can sign up now for updates right here).

Similar to its previous iteration, the focus here will be on personalization that tries to learn what music you like, but this time it's pushing music videos to the background in favor of audio. The personalization will naturally tie into Google Assistant AI, and pull from a subscriber's YouTube history to serve up suggestions. Google Play Music will remain for now, but the plan is to "close gaps" between services like YouTube Music's lack of a music locker for users to upload their tunes before GPM goes away at some unspecified point in the future -- YouTube exec T. Jay Fowler told USA Today it could as far away as 2019.

Meanwhile, the YouTube Red section will transition into YouTube Premium -- a paywalled, ad-free video experience available only as a $2 add-on for YouTube Music. That means accessing originals YouTube is spending "hundreds of millions" on like Cobra Kai, will mean shelling out $12 per month.

Source: YouTube Music