Charter Communications was once on the hook for over $7 billion in a case involving a former cable technician who murdered an elderly customer in her home. But Charter is now on the verge of settling the lawsuit for less than $262 million, an amount that will apparently be fully covered by the company’s insurers.
A Dallas County Court jury last year decided that Charter should pay the victim’s family and estate $7 billion in punitive damages and $337.5 million in compensatory damages. A judge lowered the total amount to over $1.1 billion.
Charter said it planned to appeal the $1.1 billion judgment, and the sides held settlement talks. The family apparently opted to take a smaller amount instead of risking an appeal that would drag out the case longer and potentially result in lower damages or an overturned verdict.
Ford has recalled 462,000 vehicles worldwide (382,000 in the U.S.) because of a video output failure that prevents the rearview camera image from displaying on the dashboard. According to a report from Ford, there have been 17 crashes “minor accidents allegedly resulting from blue screen
symptoms,” but is not aware of…
Enlarge/ World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (credit: Getty | Fabrice Cof)
The World Health Organization on Monday renewed its declaration that the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)—the agency’s highest level of alert—but acknowledged that the 3-year-old crisis may be nearing an “inflection point,” after which the virus could be downgraded to a less dire but permanent fixture in the gamut of human pathogens.
On Friday, the agency convened its emergency committee for the 14th time to assess the global status of the pandemic coronavirus. The week marked the three-year anniversary of the agency’s initial COVID-19 PHEIC declaration.
“As we enter the fourth year of the pandemic, we are certainly in a much better position now than we were a year ago, when the omicron wave was at its peak, and more than 70,000 deaths were being reported to WHO each week,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in opening remarks to Friday’s committee meeting.
As Congress prepares to vote on a nationwide TikTok ban next month, it looks like that ban may already be doomed to fail. The biggest hurdle likely won’t be mustering enough votes, but drafting a ban that doesn’t conflict with measures passed in the 1980s to protect the flow of ideas from hostile foreign nations during the Cold War.
These decades-old measures, known as the Berman amendments, were previously invoked by TikTok creators suing to block Donald Trump’s attempted TikTok ban in 2020. Now, a spokesperson for Representative Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Ars that these measures are believed to be the biggest obstacle for lawmakers keen on blocking the app from operating in the United States.
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that lawmakers’ dilemma in enacting a ban would be finding a way to block TikTok without “shutting down global exchanges of content—or inviting retaliation against US platforms and media.” Some lawmakers think that’s achievable by creating a narrow carve-out for TikTok in new legislation, but others, like McCaul, think a more permanent solution to protect national security interests long-term would require crafting more durable and thoughtful legislation that would allow for bans of TikTok and all apps beholden to hostile foreign countries.
After a decade of frantic growth, China’s smartphone market is hitting a speed bump as COVID-19 roils the world’s second-largest economy. From a report: The country’s smartphone shipments dropped 14% year-over-year in 2022, reaching a ten-year low, according to research firm Counterpoint. It was also the first time that China’s handset sales had slid below 300 million units in ten years, according to Canalys. Even in December, which has historically seen seasonal jumps in sales, China recorded a 5% quarter-to-quarter decline in smartphone shipments. The three-year-long stringent “zero-COVID” policy that disrupted businesses and dampened consumer confidence, coupled with global macroeconomic headwinds, spelled an end to China’s years of double-digit growth. Troubles mounted when the abrupt relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in early December resulted in a surge in cases, further adding pressure to the waning economy. Last year, China’s GDP grew 3%, its lowest in decades other than 2020.
Too bad no one has seen Avatar: The Way of Water. If they had, maybe it would already be the highest-grossing movie of all time. As it stands though, the little movie that could just became merely the fourth highest-grossing movie of all-time, topping the highest-grossing film in one of the world’s most popular…
As layoffs continue to plague the tech sector, even the titans of the industry aren’t safe. Amidst ongoing layoffs at Google, we’ve learned the company has let go of its mental health executive, according to Insider.
Nintendo used its Nintendo Direct presentation to announce a new Super Mario Bros. Movie in September of 2021. With a star-studded cast, the first trailer dropped in October of 2022, and upon hearing Chris Pratt’s voice for Mario, fans were not particularly happy. While Pratt’s Mario voice has drawn ire, the majority of the voice actor choices
Why does it feel like every week, we’re coming to you with a plea to ignore the latest TikTok cleaning hack because it’s dangerous, faulty, or useless? Well, probably because we are, and this week is no different: There’s a hack going around advising people to tackle their tile grout with toilet bowl cleaner and…
Due to its price, size, and capabilities, I can still remember the graphing calculator I used in high school, even though I haven’t needed to graph a parabola in ages. The Internet Archive just made it easier to relive those days by launching a series of online calculator emulations that you can click.
In addition to supporting keyboard input, the calculators let you click the on-screen buttons for input, which makes for an even more realistic experience if you’re using the emulation on a touchscreen. Some of the calculators even have power buttons and sound effects.
Previous rumors have suggested that AMD could boost its GPU portfolio by adding a stack of 3D V-Cache, a performance enhancing technique established with its Ryzen CPUs. Now, an engineer with access to micrographic infrared imaging equipment has discovered that the existing Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU appears to be 3D V-Cache ready. Specifically,
The Khronos Group with LunarG has now published the Vulkan SDK 1.3.239 release that is the first version of the software development kit with the Vulkan Video extensions now present…
The world of technology is constantly evolving, and the field of Linux is no exception. With the rapid advancement of automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, Linux professionals are facing new challenges and opportunities in their careers. Learn more about the future of Linux jobs here.
The European Union is weighing a proposal to make technology companies that use the most bandwidth, like Netflix and Alphabet, to help pay for the next generation of internet infrastructure, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg. From the report: The suggestions are part of a “fair-share” vision from the EU’s executive arm that could require large tech businesses, which provide streaming videos and other data-heavy services, to help pay for the traffic they generate.
The draft document, which is part of a consultation with the industry, suggested firms might contribute to a fund to offset the cost of building 5G mobile networks and fiber infrastructure, as well as the creation of a mandatory system of direct payments from tech giants to telecom operators. The commission also asked companies whether there should be a threshold that would qualify a company to be a “large traffic generator,” the document showed. That could be similar to the European governing body’s rules designating some tech companies “gatekeepers” and “very large online platforms” in its recent competition and online content rules.
If rumor holds, Samsung is about to unveil its latest and greatest devices: The Galaxy S23, the next iteration of its flagship smartphone line, and the Galaxy Book3, an upgrade to the company’s laptop offering. If you want to know everything that’s new as soon as its announced, you’ll want to watch Unpacked 2023 as…
Nothing’s Carl Pei has confirmed the upcoming Phone 2 will launch in the US later this year. The CEO and co-founder described the 2023 flagship as “more premium” than the Nothing Phone 1, which Engadget saw as “an impressive debut” in our review.
Pei dropped several tidbits in an interview with Inverse. First, he says the Ear 1 earbuds’ US launch was a barometer for US demand. “We’re really excited about the US market because it’s a big country,” said Pei. “If you look at our earbuds sales, about one-third comes from the US. And by not launching our phone in the US, we’re leaving potentially a third of the volume on the table.” Pei describes the Phone 2’s US launch as Nothing’s top priority this year.
Pei suggests declining smartphone sales indicate the US market is ripe for innovation. “From a business point of view, [Apple and Samsung] shouldn’t go very niche and try something completely different because they might alienate current users. That’s where smaller companies like us can come in and try and do something different. It’s not that we’re smarter or that they can’t, but it just doesn’t make sense for them to do it.” However, although stagnation may play a part, the biggest reasons for the nosedive have likely been supply-chain problems, inflation and an unpredictable economy.
Carl Pei in 2019.
Steve Jennings via Getty Images
Pei says red tape was the main reason Nothing didn’t launch the Phone 1 in the US. American carriers demand Android manufacturers comply with various adaptations and preinstalled apps, which takes significant resources. But the company’s rapid growth and proven ability to move volume has given it leverage. “When you make a smartphone for the US, you need to work with the carriers on certification and adapting some of their features into your OS,” he said. “We didn’t have the resources for that before, and now we do,” Pei adds that Nothing has grown from 200 employees in 2021 to 400 today.
Although Pei doesn’t spill many secrets about the Phone 2, he hints at a higher-end design than its predecessor. “We’re developing a smartphone that’s more premium than the Nothing Phone 1, and software will be a big focus area for us.” However, he stresses that the Phone 1 was also a flagship handset. “Mobile chipsets have really improved over the last seven to nine years. That’s why I want to avoid calling the Phone 2 a flagship because that would mean that the Phone 1 was not a flagship. Within our own portfolio of smartphones, the Phone 1 was very much a flagship in terms of the amount of care we put into the product. That’s why I used the word ‘premium’ [to describe the Phone 2] instead, which signifies that it’s a more premium step up, but it’s still a flagship just like the Phone 1.”
Sony may have just teased its next Uncharted game in a new commercial about a supposed end to the PlayStation 5 console shortage. In between vignettes for announced games like Spider-Man 2 is a brief clip of a woman carrying a torch through a cave, and fans think it might be pointing to a new Uncharted game starring…
Variscite launched this month the VAR-SOM-MX93 which implements i.MX 93 System-on-Chip from NXP. The SoM can be configured with up to 2GB LPDDR4/4X, up to 64GB eMMC 5.1. Variscite has also launched a compatible evaluation kit providing access to 2x GbE LAN ports, multiple display ports and other flexible peripherals. As mentioned earlier, the VAR-SOM-MX93 […]
Jordan Peele appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast recently to talk about his career, Nope theories, and even give some insight on how he feels about his short-lived association to an Akira live-action movie. Rumors about Peele’s association with Akira came after his hit directorial debut, Get Out, but nothing…
