Apple & Qualcomm Settle; Apple Looking at Tile-Type Locator; Ubisoft Donates Cash & Data for Notre Dame; Netflix Grows Again

There’s an old legal expression about settling a case on the courthouse steps, but yesterday, Apple and Qualcomm settled suddenly after the jury was seated and Apple had delivered its opening argument in the dispute. 9to5mac.com says they also agreed to a 6 year deal for chops with a possible 2 year extension, and Apple and its suppliers have paid the some $7 billion they had withheld in royalty payments…and likely more. Apple had complained that Qualcomm was ‘double-dipping,’ charging them $16.1 billion for chips from 2010 to 2016, while also hitting them for $7.23 billion in licensing fees. While we don’t really know what caused the quick settlement after trial had started, a good guess offered by a number of analysts is that after Apple ‘lost confidence’ in Intel’s ability to furnish 5G modems in time for the 2020 iPhones, Apple decided to go ahead and make nice with Qualcomm to ensure that their phones were ready for 5G next year.

In a bit less nerdy Apple news (well, maybe not!), Apple is apparently working on something like the Tile…that you could attach too items to track the location. In addition, engadget.com reports that they are planning to merge Find My Friends with Find My iPhone. A feature may be that you could geofence items, and it they got too far away, it would alert you to the location…this might be handy for any number of things, from AirPods to your wallet or keys! The merged ‘Find’ app apparently would have a feature called Find Network, which will let you track your devices even if not connected to WiFi or a mobile network.

At last check, French billionaires and businesses had given some $600 million towards the rebuilding of Notre Dame. Now, comes video game maker Ubisoft, which based a lot of Assassin’s Creed Unity in that structure. According to businessinsider.com, Ubisoft will not only donate 500,000 Euros to the effort, but will offer their detailed data about the cathedral amassed over 2 years for use in the game.

Even with the specter of Disney’s upcoming streaming service at a lower rate, Netflix continued to grow in 1st quarter of 2019. Techcrunch.com says they tacked on 9.6 million subscribers and raked in revenue of $4.5 billion. The growth is 16% year over year, and was significantly more than analysts had predicted. Netflix now claims 148.9 million paid streaming customers. It will be interesting to see if the price hikes in the US slow growth or cause cancellations next quarter.