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Apple Beats an Apple Watch Lawsuit

Apple Beats an Apple Watch Lawsuit

In recent months, Apple has grappled with a series of lawsuits concerning the fate of its popular Apple Watch line. But this week, the company had a victory. As reported by Reuters, a federal judge ruled in Apple’s favor and dismissed an antitrust lawsuit that claimed that Apple had illegally monopolized the United States market on heart rate apps for the Apple Watch.

AliveCor, a medical device and AI company, filed the lawsuit in 2021. It claimed that Apple had abused its market power by injuring competition and engaging in “predatory” and “exclusionary” conduct related to the Apple Watch’s electrocardiogram (ECG) technology. The judge’s reasoning is currently not available due to confidentiality concerns, but the decision should be released at some point.

This is a separate lawsuit from the one filed by the medical tech company Masimo. As we previously reported, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) barred Apple from selling the Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 due to a patent infringement claim concerning the technology in the watch’s blood oxygen sensor. Apple appealed and was granted a temporary stay, but in January 2024, the US Court of Appeals declined to extend the stay further.

For the past few months, the company has been grappling with last-minute workarounds to avoid breaking the law. Since the ban only applies to Apple directly, you can still buy the watches with the blood oxygen sensor intact from other retailers for as long as supplies are available; otherwise, Apple has disabled the sensor and started shipping modified watches earlier this year.

In a statement to 9to5Mac, AliveCor noted that it plans to appeal the ruling. The company also notes that it still has another, entirely separate, ongoing suit regarding the ECG sensor that will be reviewed in upcoming months. In 2015, the company showed Apple its ECG sensor with the intention of future collaboration; then in 2018, Apple launched its own ECG sensor. The ITC ruled that Apple infringed on AliveCor’s technology. That case never resulted in a ban.

This week’s decision was a setback for smaller companies hoping to take on the tech giant. The good news for Apple Watch owners, though, is that their devices won’t lose any functionality, as they did as a result of the Masimo dispute.(And even then, if the blood oxygen sensor doesn’t matter to you, then the more affordable Watch SE never had that capability in the first place.) We will continue to update our Best Apple Watches guide with the best guidance we have at the time.

A Sudanese Paramilitary Group Accused of Ethnic Cleansing Is Still Tweeting Through It

A Sudanese Paramilitary Group Accused of Ethnic Cleansing Is Still Tweeting Through It

“It’s difficult to say what the general audience is for the RSF,” says Tessa Knight, a researcher at the DFRLab and author of the report. “But the fact that they have translated a lot of work into English does indicate that they’re likely aware of the fact that people who are looking at their content on Twitter don’t speak Arabic, meaning they’re potentially targeting an international audience.”

Last year, both YouTube and Meta removed the pages belonging to the RSF and Hemedti on their platforms. YouTube did so after Suliman contacted them. A new Facebook page for the RSF appears to have been started in December, but after WIRED reached out to Meta to ask about the page, Meta removed it. Meta spokesperson Corey Chambliss confirmed to WIRED that “the RSF and its leaders have been removed from our platforms for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy.”

But X, says Suliman, never responded to him. Since taking over the platform in November 2022, Elon Musk has gutted many of the teams responsible for moderation, the work that keeps hate speech, violence, and nudity off the platform, leaving very few people for outside researchers and civil society groups to reach out to.

According to X’s policies, the platform prohibits “terrorist organizations, violent extremist groups, perpetrators of violent attacks, or individuals who affiliate with and promote their illicit activities.” A former Twitter employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told WIRED that even before Musk’s takeover, an organization like the RSF would have fallen into a gray area for the platform, because the US does not consider the RSF to be a terrorist organization, a large factor in which groups most social platforms, including X, consider dangerous.

“Twitter allowed some violent organizations on the platform,” the former employee said. “For instance, the Taliban had a Twitter account even before they came to power in 2021.”

“Individual content would be grounds for removal, and if there’s enough content removed, the account can be taken down,” says the former employee. “But it’s treated generally like any other account until that point.”

X did not respond to a request for comment.

At the beginning of the conflict, Knight says, it seemed most of the RSF’s social media presence was geared toward trying to control the international narrative to ”to make it impossible to ascertain what was actually going on.”

This isn’t the group’s first attempts at scrubbing their image. In 2019, RSF contracted a Canadian public relations firm to polish Hemedti’s image, in addition to helping the new military government firm up new oil contracts and lobby for a meeting with then president Donald Trump.

“A lot of people, a lot of activists have tried to contact Twitter to have the RSF account removed, in a similar manner to contacting YouTube and contacting Meta,” says Knight. “And they’re still online, so nothing has really come of that.”

The 10 Best Mesh Wi-Fi Routers of 2024

The 10 Best Mesh Wi-Fi Routers of 2024

The mobile app has a wealth of options, and the web interface is even more in-depth. It’s easy to split bands or set up a guest network. I also found that the app recognized most devices correctly (sometimes, it’s difficult to identify devices from the attributed hardware names in router apps). And there’s support for AiMesh, which means you can easily add other Asus routers to expand your Wi-Fi system. The dedicated backhaul channel, the way the router speaks to its nodes and vice versa, is extremely fast, ensuring you get the full speed of your internet connection even from that node you placed near the backyard.

On the downside, my XT8 node initially refused to update its firmware, which took a couple of attempts to fix. I also had an issue with my Sonos speakers disappearing, but resolved it with a factory reset. Overall, using the XT8 has been a smooth experience. It’s easy enough for just about anyone to operate, but the depth of options will satisfy power users.


Best Budget Mesh Router

This affordable Wi-Fi 6 package folds in parental controls and antivirus protection while delivering decent coverage and performance, making it ideal for an average family home. I tested the AX1800 3-pack, and it was very easy to set ’em all up. The three routers are quite small and sport a cylinder design that blends in well. This is a dual-band system (2.4-GHz and 5-GHz). There are two gigabit Ethernet ports on each router.

Coverage and speeds are OK, falling well short of the Asus XT8 but beating the Eero 6 (below). The app is straightforward, and it’s easy to set up a guest network. TP-Link’s HomeCare is free, and it enables antivirus protection powered by Trend Micro and robust parental controls. It’s a breeze to set up profiles with time limits and scheduled bedtimes, there are basic filters by age, and you can review activity on both the app and website.

The Quality of Service feature lets you prioritize activities like gaming or streaming or set priority devices. Importantly, you can split the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands to show as two separate Wi-Fi networks. This is handy, as some smart home devices only operate on the former band. Similarly, there’s a mixed mode for WPA2 and WPA3 security. Only a few devices work with the newer WPA3 standard, and some routers force you to choose one or the other, which can lead to issues. This mode ensures all your gadgets are on a compatible standard.

The web interface is basic and doesn’t add much, so I preferred using the easy-to-use app. However, it’s a little slow to update, and settings are still limited. It didn’t recognize many devices and listed obscure hardware manufacturer names, making it tough to figure out which devices to add to my kid’s profiles.

It wasn’t the speediest performer, but this system is fast and dependable enough for the average home. If you have a connection that’s 500 Mbps or better, it might be worth upgrading to the Deco X60 AX3000.


Best for Smart Homes

Amazon’s Eero 6 mesh system is one of the easiest to set up, offers fairly wide coverage, and delivers stable connectivity. It’s an elegant system, available as three identical routers or (a bit cheaper) as a main router and two small nodes. The Eeros blend in on a table or shelf, though the compact design leaves no room for any ports. (There are just two gigabit ports on the routers and none on the nodes.)

Although the basic Eero 6 was one of the slower systems I tested, particularly at longer distances, the speeds from the nodes were close to what I got from the main router. There were no drops, and it proved adept at sharing limited bandwidth. The mobile app is straightforward, giving you an overview of connected devices with the option to pause the internet and set up a guest network. I was also able to create profiles, group devices, set schedules, and fix bedtimes. Unfortunately, content filtering, other parental controls, advanced security, ad blocking, and activity insights require an Eero Plus subscription at $10 per month or $100 per year.

11 Best Smart Bulbs (2024): Lamp Bulbs, Ambient, Color, Etc

11 Best Smart Bulbs (2024): Lamp Bulbs, Ambient, Color, Etc

Remember the allure of the Clapper? No more getting out of bed to hit the light switch! It seemed cutting edge at the time (you can still buy it), but technology has come a long way since then. Now you can control the lights, set timers and schedules, and change colors with your smartphone or your voice if you have a voice assistant—no clapping required.

Smart bulbs are a great place to start when creating a smart home. Most options are relatively cheap, they’re easy to install, and they’re something you use everyday already. Plus, there are no cameras or door locks for someone to hack into, and no wiring to mess with. Do you want to try voice controls? Consider getting a smart speaker or smart display, but you can always use the smart bulb’s app. Of the dozens we’ve tested over the years, these are the best smart bulbs.

Updated February 2024: We’ve added new testing notes on bulbs from Nanoleaf, Philips Wiz, and Philips Hue.

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The US Has Big Plans for Wind Energy—but an Obscure 1920s Law Is Getting in the Way

The US Has Big Plans for Wind Energy—but an Obscure 1920s Law Is Getting in the Way

The reason for the Jones Act’s longevity, says Colin Grabow, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is that while it tends to benefit only a few people and businesses, the act goes unnoticed because there are many payers sharing the increased costs.

The Jones Act is one in a string of protectionist laws—dating back to the Tariff Act of 1789—designed to bolster US marine industries. The Jones Act’s existence was meant to ensure a ready supply of ships and mariners in case of war. Its authors reasoned that protection from foreign competition would foster that.

“Your average American has no idea that the Jones Act even exists,” Grabow says. “It’s not life-changing for very many people,” he adds. But “all Americans are hurt by the Jones Act.” In this case, that’s by slowing down the United States’ ability to hit its own wind power targets.

Grabow says those most vocal about the law—the people who build, operate, or serve on compliant ships—usually want to keep it in place.

Of course, there’s more going on with the country’s slow rollout of offshore wind power than just a century-old shipping law. It took a slew of factors to sink New Jersey’s planned Ocean Wind installations, says Abraham Silverman, an expert on renewable energy at Columbia University in New York.

Ultimately, says Silverman, rising interest rates, inflation, and other macroeconomic factors caught New Jersey’s projects at their most vulnerable stage, inflating the construction costs after Ørsted had already locked in its financing.

Despite the setbacks, the potential for offshore wind power generation in the United States is massive. The NREL estimates that fixed-bottom offshore wind farms in the country could theoretically generate some 1,500 gigawatts of power—more than the United States is capable of generating today.

There’s a lot the United States can do to make its expansion into offshore wind more efficient. And that’s where the focus needs to be right now, says Matthew Shields, an engineer at NREL specializing in the economics and technology of wind energy.

“Whether we build 15 or 20 or 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, that probably doesn’t move the needle that much from a climate perspective,” says Shields. But if building those first few turbines sets the country up to then build 100 or 200 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2050, he says, then that makes a difference. “If we have ironed out all these issues and we feel good about our sustainable development moving forward, to me, I think that’s a real win.”

But today, some of the offshore wind industry’s issues stem, inescapably, from the Jones Act. Those inefficiencies mean lost dollars and, perhaps more importantly in the rush toward carbon neutrality, lost time.

Apple Quadrupled Its Autonomous Driving Testing Miles Last Year

Apple Quadrupled Its Autonomous Driving Testing Miles Last Year

Apple’s secretive vehicle project doesn’t have much to show for its six years of work, at least publicly. But records submitted by the company to a California agency show that Apple went on an autonomous testing jag last year, almost quadrupling the number of miles it tested on public roads compared to 2022 and jumping 2021’s total by a factor of more than 30.

The data covers December 2022 to November 2023. The majority of the testing miles were in the second half of the reporting period, with miles tested peaking in August at 83,900.

Apple has a permit to test autonomous vehicle tech on California’s public roads only if the company has a safety driver behind the wheel—a first step that allows autonomous vehicle companies to collect more data on streets and determine how their software handles itself in traffic.

A handful of other companies, including Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox, have the state’s permission to test without safety drivers. California allows just two companies—Waymo and autonomous delivery firm Nuro—to deploy commercial self-driving technology in California.

Apple’s testing totals are well below those of more advanced autonomous vehicle developers’, though the state’s reporting guidelines make them difficult to compare directly. Waymo drove 3.7 million testing miles in California with a safety driver behind the wheel and 1.2 million testing miles with no one behind the wheel. The company drove more than 1.6 million additional miles with passengers in the car, according to separate government documents. (Waymo is also operating a driverless service in Phoenix and is testing in Austin, Texas; its operations in those cities aren’t covered in this data.)

Even Cruise, General Motors’ troubled autonomous vehicle division, which had its permit to deploy in California suspended in October and halted nationwide testing soon after, drove almost 2.65 million testing miles in the state in 2023—almost 2.2 million more than Apple.