Month: July 2016

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood at a news conference last year. (credit: Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Google has ended its legal conflict with a Mississippi state official who opened a wide-ranging investigation into the search giant's business practices.

A dismissal agreement (PDF) filed yesterday in court states that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and Google will "endeavor to collaborate in addressing the harmful consequences of unlawful and/or dangerous online content." The document also states that Hood's office withdrew the original subpoena on April 22 and acknowledges that Google "remains subject to the laws of the State of Mississippi and to the jurisdiction and authority of the Attorney General."

The agreement comes after the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled against Google, finding that the search company's challenge to Hood's investigation was premature. However, the appeals court opinion also criticized Hood's demands for evidence as being overly broad, noting that Google tried hard to comply.

If you've installed the iOS 10 public beta since it came out last week, you’ll know that compatible iPads come loaded with the “Swift Playgrounds” app that Apple announced at WWDC.

The app is Apple’s first crack at anything that even resembles an iOS-native development environment—iPad hardware is now fast enough (and Swift is now stable and mature enough) to make such a tool palatable. But while Swift Playgrounds uses and executes actual Swift code, it’s not going to let you make actual apps. Its aim is educational, specifically for younger kids who are familiar with and comfortable around technology but who have never been exposed to coding before.

I played with the app for a few hours, working my way through the first few tutorials in the public beta—I’m a little older than the intended age group, but I still managed to learn a few things. I also spoke with the team at Apple to learn more about their goals and intentions when they designed the app and to learn how it will continue to develop throughout the public beta process up to the release of the iOS 10 Golden Master.

(credit: Robert Scoble)

In a case closely watched by much of the tech industry, an appellate court has ruled in favor of Microsoft, finding that the company does not have to turn over the contents of an Outlook.com user’s inbox to American investigators because that user’s data is held abroad, in Ireland.

In a 43-page decision handed down on Thursday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling, finding that the Stored Communications Act, which allows domestically held data to be handed over to the government, does not apply outside the United States.

In December 2013, authorities obtained an SCA warrant, which was signed by a judge, as part of a drug investigation and served it upon Microsoft. When the company refused to comply, a lower court held the company in contempt. Microsoft challenged that, too, and the 2nd Circuit has vacated the contempt of court order, writing:

(credit: AT&T)

AT&T has begun using drones to inspect its cell towers and wants to eventually use the little flying machines to deliver more mobile data at large events.

Aerial inspections can be performed "more quickly and safely—and [drones can] even access parts of a tower that a human simply could not," AT&T's announcement yesterday said. Drones capture data from network sites and feed the data to AT&T systems, helping the carrier make changes to its network "in real time," AT&T said.

AT&T—which is also working with Intel to test LTE-connected drones—has grander plans for its drone program. If all goes well, AT&T drones could "temporarily provid[e] enhanced LTE wireless coverage at the packed venue so you, along with thousands of others in attendance, can simultaneously send photos and videos to share the moment," the company said.

In the company's Firmware 7.1 update, Tesla introduced a new maximum speed for Autopilot, which will now not exceed the speed limit by more than 5mph on residential roads or roads without a central divide. Might we see a reduction in the hands-free time in the next update? (credit: Ron Amadeo)

On Tuesday, we took a look at the growing media storm surrounding Tesla's increasingly controversial Autopilot feature, which has been linked to a series of recent crashes. And as we pointed out, very little separates Tesla's system from those offered by other car makers, save for a few small points.

For one, Tesla eschews the industry standard of restricting hands-free operation to 30 seconds or less (apart from traffic jam assists). Second, the name—Autopilot—has very different connotations to the general public than to the small fraction of the population who pilot aircraft and understand the limitations of an actual aviation autopilot. Third, calling Autopilot a "beta," as my colleague Lee Hutchinson remarked, is about as accurate as Google calling Gmail a beta in 2012.

It seems that Lee's take is a common one. Earlier this week, Germany's Federal Office for Motor Vehicles (KBA) told Welt am Sonntag that it would not have allowed Autopilot-enabled Teslas onto its roads were the system truly in beta and therefore not adequately tested. And it appears that Elon Musk is now trying to walk back from the beta designation. In response to KBA's comments, Musk tweeted that, far from the commonly accepted understanding of the word, "beta" actually means something different to Tesla: