The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear Google’s appeal in the long-running copyright dispute between the search company and Oracle.
The big picture: The two tech giants have been feuding for nearly a decade over whether Google illegally used parts of Oracle’s Java code for its Android software, with Oracle seeking billions of dollars in damages.
Twitter announced updates to its new political ad ban on Friday, clarifying how it will define political ads and what exceptions exist for certain advertisers.
Why it matters: The new details include bans on specific advertising micro-targeting, which is something that industry leaders and regulators have been calling for in light of research and reporting showing how micro-targeting can be abused to spur misinformation.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says the first AVs could be deployed on the ride-hailing network within three to five years, but other companies will bear the cost of owning and maintaining those self-driving cars.
Why it matters: Driverless technology is a key to profitability for Uber, which has warned investors to expect losses of almost $3 billion this year. But if all it does is replace the cost of a human driver with the overhead from managing its own fleet of self-driving cars, it won't be any closer to achieving a profit.
A leading AV developer this week said self-driving cars just quietly had their "Kitty Hawk moment."
The big picture: It was a surprising assertion as the hype around self-driving cars has calmed, and most companies are recalibrating their plans for AVs. But in his optimistic blog post, Voyage CEO Oliver Cameron wrote Waymo's recent expansion of "rider-only" taxi service for early adopters near Phoenix, Ariz. puts us in a "post-driverless world."
In a significant move toward diversifying the world of video games, two major-studio titles due out next year will place queer protagonists at the center of the action.
Why it matters: Gaming has historically been a tough world for LGBTQ players, with plenty of harassment and few visibly queer characters.
Amid growing health concerns over e-cigarettes, Apple will remove all 181 vaping-related apps from its mobile App Store this morning, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The move comes after at least 42 people have died from vaping-related lung illness, per the CDC. Most of those people had been using cartridges containing THC, though some exclusively used nicotine cartridges.
Apple released on Thursday an app for iPhone and Apple Watch users to participate in three longitudinal health data studies.
The big picture: Apple is just one of several Silicon Valley companies investing in health tech and transforming the future use of health data. Clinical trials via phone could increase participation rates, compared to traditional in-person studies.
Amazon Web Services told the government it intends to fight the Defense Department's decision last month to award a gigantic cloud computing contract to Microsoft, a spokesperson said Thursday.
Why it matters: The politics surrounding the decision made it almost certain Amazon would challenge it, opening up the latest front in the long-running fight over the massive JEDI contract, worth up to $10 billion.
Imagine Watergate — or even the Clinton impeachment — in a country this divided.
The big picture: Americans no longer agree on just about anything, down to the level of who can be trusted to arbitrate truth from fiction or how to differentiate common sense from nonsense, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
The multi-state antitrust probe into Google will expand beyond the advertising business to search and Android, CNBC reports.
Why it matters: Google is already facing investigations into potentially monopolistic behavior on many fronts, and the expansion of the states' probe will further widen the scrutiny.
The Apple Card is facing accusations of sexism based on anecdotal evidence from David and Jamie Heinemeier Hansson, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and countless other individuals on Twitter.
Where it stands: They allege that that wives were given lower credit limits than their husbands, even when they had the same income and even when the wife had a higher credit score.
As tech companies expand their power and impact on society, even outfits whose work lies mostly behind the technical scenes are finding themselves in an unfamiliar spotlight.
Background: Microsoft's GitHub unit, a key asset for software developers but hardly a household name, was in the news for all manner of things — from protests over its work with U.S. immigration authorities, to new product releases, to an effort to ensure that humanity's greatest code achievements can outlast humanity.
New York City police until recently illegally kept a database of fingerprints from juveniles who'd been taken into custody, AP reports.
What we know: The Legal Aid Society says the repository contained tens of thousands of youths' fingerprints. Bulletins have also been issued to the Department's 36,000 officers notifying them of the procedural change.
