TECHNOLOGY NUCLEUS

Yesterday's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversing a jury decision on Google's use of Oracle's Java API packages "protects creators and consumers from the unlawful abuse of their rights," according to a statement from Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley.However, advocates of fair use in copyright law say yesterday's ruling could cost Google $9 billion in damages as well as put a deep chill on future tech innovation. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights organization, called the reversal "a surprising decision that should terrify software developers." As Oracle yesterday welcomed the opportunity to revive its original 2010 complaint against Google, it also unveiled a new service that's the first based on its "self-driving" Oracle Autonomous Database. The Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud automates database administration and management tasks for enterprise customers, and is bei...

Income tax filing season brings an increase in activity by would-be thieves using phone calls and email to try to get money out of taxpayers. That warning comes from the IRS.Phone scams often involve someone calling a taxpayer, telling them they owe taxes and could be arrested if they don't pay. The thieves try to frighten taxpayers into giving them their credit card numbers and perhaps other personal information. Sometimes the first call is a recorded message that demands the taxpayer return the call. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by phone. And if someone owes money to the government, they'll first get a bill through the mail. The IRS also does not demand payment until after a taxpayer has had time to question and/or appeal a bill. The agency also says it does not ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone. The IRS also does not make its first contact with taxpayers via email. So an unexpected email purportedly from the IRS should immediately b...

The Trump administration accused Russia on Thursday of a concerted operation to hack the U.S. energy grid and other critical infrastructure including aviation, and separately imposed sanctions on a raft of Russian officials for alleged high-tech interference in the 2016 American presidential election.The moves were the strongest to date against Russia by the administration, which critics have complained is being soft on Moscow. U.S. national security officials said the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies had determined that Russian intelligence and others were behind a broad range of cyberattacks beginning a year ago that have infiltrated the energy, nuclear, commercial, water, aviation and manufacturing sectors. The officials said the Russian hackers chose their targets, obtained access to computer systems, conducted "network reconnaissance" of systems that control key elements of the U.S. economy and then attempted to cover their tracks by de...

The inspiration for journalist Joanne Lipman's new book came in part from an unsuspecting businessman on an airplane to Des Moines, Iowa. He and Lipman were sitting next to each other, having a nice conversation, until he asked why she was flying to Iowa. "I said, 'I'm going to speak at a women's leadership conference,'" Lipman recalled on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. "And suddenly, this lovely man, he freezes up, he gets that deer-in-the-headlights look, and he goes, 'Sorry I'm a man!'" "Then he launches into this whole thing about how he had just gone through 'diversity training' at his bank, and how awful it was and they beat him up, and it felt like you were being sent to the principal's office," she added. "He says to me, he took one message away from diversity training: 'It's all your fault.'" More than three years and a lot more air travel later, ...

Boeing was hit Wednesday by the WannaCry computer virus, and after an initial scare within the company that vital airplane-production equipment might be brought down, company executives later offered assurances that the attack had been quashed with minimal damage.Though news of the attack triggered widespread alarm within the company and among airline customers during the day, by evening Boeing was calling for calm. "We've done a final assessment," said Linda Mills, the head of communications for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "The vulnerability was limited to a few machines. We deployed software patches. There was no interruption to the 777 jet program or any of our programs." Earlier in the day, when the cyberattack struck, the reaction was anything but calm. Mike VanderWel, chief engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplane production engineering, sent out an alarming alert about the virus calling for "All hands on deck." "It is metastasizing ra...

Eddy Cue, Apple's head of services -- which include Apple Music, Apple TV and the App Store -- said Apple does not believe all speech should be protected on its platforms, saying "free speech is important but that doesn't mean it's everything."However, Cue defended Apple's decision to retain the National Rifle Association's online television channel, NRATV, on Apple TV despite an online movement earlier this month to boycott Apple products until Apple removed the channel. Cue, speaking at a panel with CNN's Dylan Byers at the SXSW convention in Austin on Monday, said NRATV did not violate any of Apple's standards. Cue said Apple's services team upholds rigorous guidelines and reviews every app or show hoping to be included on Apple's platforms. "From Day 1, we did not want our App Store to be a place where you buy and sell guns," said Cue. "We don't allow apps to buy or sell guns." Cue said Apple draws the line...

A French government minister is planning to sue Google and Apple over alleged "abusive commercial practices" that take advantage of French software developers.France's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Wednesday in a radio interview that French software developers who create applications for either Google Play Store or Apple App Store have seen unilaterally imposed prices and changes to their contracts by the Silicon Valley giants. "I learned that when developers develop their applications, and sell to Google and Apple, their prices are imposed, Google and Apple take all their data, Google and Apple can unilaterally rewrite their contracts," Le Maire said on RTL radio, according to Bloomberg. France's consumer fraud watchdog agency DGCCRF confirmed that they were launching an investigation of Google and Apple, according to Reuters. Le Maire said the fine against the two companies could be millions of euros, according to Bloomberg. "As powerful ...

It has come to light that Apple is running a secret manufacturing facility close to its Cupertino headquarters dedicated to developing and testing its own displays.Bloomberg News reports that the facility is working on MicroLED screens, which will allow devices to be thinner than those with other screen technologies, and will be brighter and more power-efficient than its current OLED displays. "People familiar with the situation" claim that the project was almost abandoned a year ago but is now making significant progress, although it will still be a number of years before consumers see the results themselves. Cornering the Market While the facility is allegedly not large enough for full-scale production, it's well-enough equipped to handle the entirety of the development process and, as a result, potentially secure MicroLED displays as the company's own patented tech. Currently, Apple is supplied by a variety of manufacturers -- rivals Samsung and LG amongst t...

A new battle kicked off today in the war between Apple and Google for device dominance in the education market, as the first-ever tablet running Google's Chrome operating system was unveiled.The announcement about Acer's new Chromebook Tab 10, designed specifically for use in K-12 classrooms, steals some thunder from Apple before the company even had a chance to debut its new iPad for schools in Chicago today. At Apple's education event, taking place at Lane Tech College Prep High School, the company promised to reveal "creative new ideas for teachers and students." Google's Chromebook laptops currently hold 58 percent of the K-12 mobile device market in the U.S., while Apple's iPad remains the overall global leader in tablets. After seeing iPad sales decline for a while, Apple last month reported its third consecutive quarter of revenue growth for those devices, due in part to last year's launch of its lowest-cost iPad yet, a 9.7-inch tablet price...

Apple is doubling down that the iPad will be the future of education. Apple unveiled a new, cheaper iPad model for as low as $299, aimed at students from elementary school to college. The new 9.7-inch iPads will be compatible with Apple Pencil stylus, feature Apple's second-latest processor chip and support for more than 200,000 education apps, Apple revealed Tuesday morning.The iPad is available at $299 for schools and $329 for consumers. Students also will get a $10 discount for the Apple Pencil, costing $89. The school-focused price will be the cheapest for any iPad in the market. Apple unconventionally chose to announce the new iPad outside of its headquarters in Cupertino and its past venues in San Jose and San Francisco, and instead hosted the product event at Lane Tech High School in Chicago. Chicago's public school district partnered with Apple last December to teach nearly 500,000 students how to code using Swift, Apple's in-house coding language. Apple's ...

F BI officials could have tried harder to unlock an iPhone as part of a terrorism investigation before launching an extraordinary court fight with Apple Inc. in an effort to force it to break open the device, the Justice Department's watchdog said Tuesday.The department's inspector general said it found no evidence the FBI was able to access data on the phone belonging to one of the gunmen in a 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, as then-FBI Director James Comey told Congress more than once. But communications failures among FBI officials delayed the search for a solution. The FBI unit tasked with breaking into mobile devices only sought outside help to unlock the phone the day before the Justice Department filed a court brief demanding Apple's help, the inspector general found. The finding could hurt future Justice Department efforts to force technology companies to help the government break into encrypted phones and computers. The intense public debate ...

  The capacity for ‘persuasive technology’ to influence behaviour is only just becoming understood. Illustration: James Melaugh for the Observer I n an unprecedented attack of candour, Sean Parker, the 38-year-old founding president of Facebook, recently admitted that the social network was founded not to unite us, but to distract us. “The thought process was: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’” he said at an event in Philadelphia in November . To achieve this goal, Facebook’s architects exploited a “vulnerability in human psychology”, explained Parker, who resigned from the company in 2005. Whenever someone likes or comments on a post or photograph, he said, “we… give you a little dopamine hit”. Facebook is an empire of empires, then, built upon a molecule. ...