A long simmering patent dispute is stopping Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 sales later this week. 9to5mac.com reports the action is coming due to an ITC ruling over the dispute between Apple and Masimo, a medical tech company about the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor tech. The International
Trade Commission announced its ruling in October, upholding a judge’s decision from January. This sent the case to the Biden administration for a 60-day Presidential Review Period. During this process, President Biden could veto the ruling, although this has not yet occurred. The Presidential Review Period expires on December 25, and Apple is making this announcement today to “preemptively” take steps to comply with the ITC’s decision. Existing Apple Watches, including the Series 9 and Ultra 2 models, and older models with blood oxygen sensors which have already been sold will not be affected.
The European Union has started a formal Digital Services Act investigation into X, with regulators saying the platform may have broken the EU’s rules. The major issue is quote “the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel.” According to theverge.com, the commission said it will look at X’s attempts to counter the spread of illegal content on its platform and will examine X’s efforts to stop “information manipulation” via its Community Notes system and other policies. It’s also looking into matters beyond content moderation, including “deceptive design” relating to “the so-called Blue checks,” advertising transparency, and data access for researchers.
The UK’s National Health Service is launching a drone delivery program across 30 medical facilities in the north of the country. Thenextweb.com says the aim is to cut costs, while improving service to hundreds of thousands of patients. The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been experimenting with autonomous drone deliveries for a while now, in partnership with UK-based Apian. While the healthcare trust’s drone trials have been pretty small-scale to date, it just teamed up with San Francisco-based Zipline — the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery company. Zipline’s fixed-wing drones can travel up to130 miles and parachute packages onto hospital landing zones.
Tesla’s model 3 is about to lose the $7500 federal subsidy the first of the year. Arstechnica.com reports that this is due to the new battery rules that came with the IRS clean vehicle tax credit starting in 2024. The Model 3 Performance may retain elgiblity. An additional wrinkle that comes to into effect involves materials from so-called ‘foreign entities of concern.’ One of those is China. Tesla isn’t the only maker to get a cut in subsidy….Ford thinks the Mustang Mach-E will lose its $3750 tax credit the first of the year, too.
As we near the end of the year, there are always a myriad of lists that come out. Here’s one that is interesting I think. Apple has revealed the most popular App Store apps and games of 2023. Macrumors.com has details on the top free and top paid apps. We’ll just cover the top free apps here. Topping the list is Chinese shopping app Temu. In 2nd place is CapCut Video Editor. #3 is Max, the streaming app for HBO. 4th place is Threads, the barely 6 month old Meta answer to what Twitter used to be before Elon Musk changed it to X and mucked it all up. TikTok is holding down 5th place, and as we reported, it has become the first non-game to top $10 billion in revenue. Instagram is #6…probably getting some growth from people who had to sign up for it like I did in order to sign up for Threads. Google is the 7th place app, and Alphabet—or Google-owned YouTube is close behind at 8th. In 9th place is WhatsApp Messenger…also owned by Meta. 10th place is Gmail. It’s worth noting that 3 of the top ten apps are owned by Meta, and 3 are owned by Google parent Alphabet…so 60% of the top ten apps are owned by two companies…and two apps…Temu and TikTok…come from China.
It’s being called an Epic win…typical of reporters who love such plays on words…but a jury found in favor of Epic games vs Google over their claimed illegal monopoly battle about Google’s App Store. According to theverge.com, the jury found that Google turned its Google Play app store and Google Play Billing service into an illegal monopoly. This case was much different from the one Epic lost vs Apple. Here, the issue turned on secret revenue sharing deals between Google, smartphone makers, and big game developers, ones that Google execs internally believed were designed to keep rival app stores down. The damages and remedies are yet to be decided, and you can bet on Google appealing, but for now, Epic as the boss of the level has beaten mighty Google.
Earlier in the year, Ford announced it was dramatically increasing production of the then hot selling F-150 Lightening electric pickup. Now, the Blue Oval company is halving production as sales have slowed. Arstechnica.com says production will drop from 3200 trucks a week to 1600. Ford has said they weren’t making money on the truck, and goosed the base price considerably earlier…from $39,974 before tax credits up about $10 grand to $49,995. Guess what, Ford? You are out of the ‘sweet spot’ for regular joe buyers at that price point. Battery packs are expensive, but with so many less components…like big engines and transmissions, and the like…it seems like they could actually have been making some money at the lower figure…maybe just not what they wanted to make.
Not an historically union friendly employer, but Microsoft has agreed to union contract language about the use of artificial intelligence. The deal gives workers a voice when challenging how the tech is employed. Engadget.com reports that this is the first time ever Microsoft has done collective bargaining. The Communications Workers of America contract language pretty well echoes Microsoft’s previously announced AI principles, including that AI systems will “treat all people fairly” and “empower everyone.” To that end, it will give employees covered under the contract an avenue of recourse should they feel that Microsoft isn’t holding up its end of the bargain. Principles are fine, but now, it is memorialized in a written contract, which should offer employees more security when it comes to future AI tech.
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