A federal judge has set a date for the first pre-trial hearing between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The two go to court on January 3rd to spar over the fate of Microsoft’s $69 billion bid to buy Call of Duty publisher Activision Bl…
Twitter sued for not paying San Francisco office rent
California Property Trust, the owner of the building that houses Twitter headquarters, is suing Elon Musk’s social media company for failing to pay $136,250 in rent. According to Bloomberg (via The Verge), the firm notified Twitter on December 16th that it would default on its lease for the 30th floor of the Hartford Building, located at 650 California Street in San Francisco, if it didn’t pay its outstanding rent within five days. In a complaint filed this week with the San Francisco County Superior Court, California Property Trust said Twitter failed to comply with the order.
According to a December 13th New York Times report, Twitter had in recent weeks stopped paying rent on all of its global offices to save on costs. The company also faces a lawsuit for failing to pay $197,725 for charter flights Musk took during his first week at Twitter. Over that same time period, Musk has reportedly brought over “more than half a dozen” lawyers from SpaceX to bolster Twitter’s legal team.
Tech that can help you stick to your New Year’s resolutions
Regardless of how 2022 went for you, 2023 is another chance for all of us to make the new year better than the one that came before it. We set New Year’s resolutions with the best of intentions, but it’s no wonder that so many people fail after just a …
Samsung 找來前 Mercedes-Benz 設計師執掌行動設計團隊
Samsung 找來前 Mercedes-Benz 設計師李一煥執掌行動設計團隊，後者曾擔任過 Mercedes-Benz 中國區的首席設計官。
美勞動機構指控 Tesla 違法限制員工談論報酬及工作條件
美國國家勞動關係委員會指控 Tesla 違法限制員工談論報酬及工作條件。
Samsung taps a former Mercedes-Benz designer to lead its mobile design team
Samsung’s mobile division has a new design chief. On Friday, the company announced the appointment of Hubert H. Lee to head up its Mobile eXperience (MX) Design Team, the unit responsible for designing some of Samsung’s most visible products, including its flagship Galaxy S series phones. Lee joins the electronics giant after a stint as the chief design officer of Mercedes-Benz China, a position that saw him lead the automaker’s design teams in China and the US. “His unique and visionary perspective will help shape the look and feel of Galaxy, building on the distinct design ethos that users know and love,” Samsung said.
It will probably be at least a year before we see Lee start to leave his mark on Samsung’s products. Prelease leaks of the company’s next Galaxy S series phones suggest they’ll look a lot like their Galaxy S22 predecessors. What’s more, with the way smartphone development timelines work, Samsung has likely already settled on a design for its 2024 flagship. Even then, don’t expect dramatic changes; from a design standpoint, phone companies have played it safe for more than a decade. Still, Lee could push for small but meaningful tweaks to Samsung’s design formula — much like Evans Hankey did at Apple after Jony Ive’s departure.
Today is the last day to use Dark Sky on iOS before it shuts down
The time has come to say goodbye to Dark Sky. Nearly two years after Apple purchased the much-loved weather app, and more than a year after announcing its impending shutdown, Dark Sky is about to stop functioning. Since September, an in-app notificatio…
Big Tech critic Tim Wu is leaving the White House
After advising President Biden on technology and competition policy for nearly two years, net neutrality advocate Tim Wu is leaving the White House. The Biden administration announced the departure this week, noting Wu’s final day at the National Econo…
Meta buys smart lensmaker Luxexcel to further AR ambitions
Facebook parent company Meta has acquired Luxexcel, a Dutch startup specializing in smart eyewear. News of the purchase was first reported by De Tijd and later confirmed by TechCrunch. “We’re excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies,” a Meta spokesperson told the outlet. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Founded in 2009, Luxexcel began life as a prescription lens manufacturer. More recently, the company has made a name for itself in the augmented reality space. At the start of 2021, for instance, it partnered with WaveOptics, the display manufacturer Snap paid $500 million later that same year to buy. As TechCrunch points out, there are also rumors Luxexcel previously worked with Meta on the company’s Project Aria AR glasses.
The acquisition comes as Meta faces regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission over its purchase of Supernatural developer Within. The agency sued Meta in July to block the deal. The social media giant also faces criticism over just how much it’s spending to further its metaverse ambitions. In October, a month before the company laid off 11,000 employees, Meta told investors Reality Labs, its virtual and augmented reality unit, lost more than $9 billion in 2022. It went on to predict the division’s operating losses were likely to “grow significantly year-over-year” in 2023.
Grubhub ordered to pay $3.5 million to settle Washington DC deceptive practices lawsuit
Grubhub has been ordered to pay $3.5 million to settle the lawsuit filed against the company by the District of Columbia over “deceptive trade practices.” Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine has announced that his office has reached an agreement with the food delivery service “for charging customers hidden fees and using deceptive marketing techniques.” If you’ll recall, his office sued the company earlier this year, accusing it of charging hidden fees and misrepresenting Grubhub+ subscription’s offer of “unlimited free delivery,” since customers still have to pay a service fee.
The DC Attorney General’s office also accused the company of listing 1,000 restaurants in the area without their permission by using numbers that route to Grubhub workers or creating websites without the eateries’ consent. A previous TechCrunch report said the company had already ended those practices. Racine also said at the time that Grubhub ran a promotion called “Supper for Support” at the beginning of the pandemic and then “stuck restaurants with the bill” that cut into their profit margins.
Grubhub called the lawsuit frivolous at the time of its filing and said that the company was “disappointed [the AG’s office has] moved forward with [it] because [the service’s] practices have always complied with DC law, and in any event, many of the practices at issue have been discontinued.”
Under the terms of the settlement, Grubhub will pay affected customers in the DC area a total of $2.7 million. Their cut will be credited to their accounts, and it will be sent to them as a check if it remains unused within 90 days. In addition, the company has to pay $800,000 in civil penalties to the District of Columbia and has to clearly mark additional fees people have to pay with their order going forward.
My office reached a $3.5 million settlement with Grubhub for charging customers hidden fees and using deceptive marketing techniques.
As a result, $2.7 million will be returned to the consumers who were impacted, and it will have to shape up and disclose every fee separately.
— AG Karl A. Racine (@AGKarlRacine) December 30, 2022