Month: November 2022

Enlarge / Microsoft's newest ugly sweater is Clippy- and Office-themed. (credit: Microsoft)

I'm not always a fan of corporate whimsy—like when brands' Twitter accounts have "attitude" or when companies put together cringe-worthy April Fools' Day pranks—but I do enjoy Microsoft's now-yearly tradition of releasing ugly sweaters with retro Windows patterns printed on them. Two years ago, the patterns were MS Paint- and Windows logo-themed. Last year's pattern paid homage to Windows 3.1-era Minesweeper. And this year's brings back an old frenemy: Clippy.

Though his days as a ubiquitous Microsoft Office mascot ended when Office 2007 was released, Clippy has found a second life as Windows 11's version of the paperclip emoji. Clippy was not, unfortunately, open-sourced along with the rest of Microsoft's emoji designs over the summer, owing to his status as a copyrighted character.

Clippy is the hero of the new sweaters, but there are other little Office- and Windows-themed touches, too—an old-school Windows logo on the back, the Office ruler on the top, some formatting buttons on the sleeves, and falling stacks of paper throughout.

Enlarge / Using Bungie's own licenses against it worked once for the makers of Aimjunkies, but this time a judge ruled that a bit more finesse (i.e. evidence) was required. (credit: Bungie / Ars Technica)

Months after failing to prove that Destiny 2 cheat makers had infringed their copyright, Bungie has surged ahead in the late game, as a quirky counterclaim accusing Bungie of "hacking" the cheat makers' computers has been dismissed.

AimJunkies, a division of Phoenix Digital, makers of cheating tools for many popular games, including Destiny 2 (since removed but archived), had survived the typically effective claim that their cheat software illegally copied aspects of an original game to function. It was a tactic successfully used by the makers of Grand Theft Auto Online, Overwatch, Rainbow Six, Fortnite, and other properties.

Western District of Washington Judge Thomas Zilly had struck down most of those claims in late April, ruling that Bungie had "not pleaded sufficient facts to plausibly allege that [the cheat maker] copied constituent elements of Bungie's work." Zilly also ruled at the time that Bungie's own license agreement for Destiny 2, which forces arbitration for circumvention and other disputes, meant that its claims could not go forward in federal court before first trying arbitration. Zilly did, however, allow Bungie time to restate its case, and it focused on trademark infringement, reverse engineering, and code copying.

Enlarge / An exhibit from the district court case arguing that Apple's "walled garden" was an attempt to juice profits. (credit: Apple vs. Epic court documents)

It has been over a year now since a US District Court ruled that Apple did not violate antitrust law by forcing iOS developers (like plaintiff and Fortnite-maker Epic Games) to use its App Store and in-app payments systems. But that doesn't mean the case is settled, as both sides demonstrated Monday during oral arguments in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The hearing was full of arcane discussion of legal standards and procedures for reviewing the case and its precedents, as well as input from state and federal governments on how the relevant laws should be interpreted. In the end, though, the core arguments before the appeals court once again centered on issues of walled gardens, user lock-in, and security versus openness in platform design.

Security is the “Apple difference”

In defending Apple's position, counsel Mark Perry argued that the company's restraints on iOS app distribution were put in place from the beginning to protect iPhone users. Based on its experience managing software security and privacy on Macs, Apple decided it "did not want the phone to be like a computer. Computers are buggy, they crash, they have problems. They wanted the phone to be better."

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | Christopher Pike/Bloomberg )

Elon Musk ignored internal warnings from Twitter's trust and safety team when he rolled out his failed paid verification scheme, according to an article co-published by Platformer and The Verge. About a week before the November 9 launch of Musk's revamped Twitter Blue subscription, which gave users who pay $8 per month a blue checkmark even if they weren't previously verified, the trust and safety team circulated "a seven-page list of recommendations intended to help Musk avoid the most obvious and damaging consequences of his plans for Blue," the article said.

"Motivated scammers/bad actors could be willing to pay... to leverage increased amplification to achieve their ends where their upside exceeds the cost," the document said. This warning was "labeled 'P0' to denote a concern in the highest risk category," the Platformer/Verge article said.

Detailing another P0 risk, the trust and safety team warned the paid checkmarks could lead to "impersonation of world leaders, advertisers, brand partners, election officials, and other high-profile individuals... Legacy verification provides a critical signal in enforcing impersonation rules, the loss of which is likely to lead to an increase in impersonation of high-profile accounts on Twitter."

Enlarge / This is our first official look at the Lucid Gravity, a new electric SUV from the luxury automaker. (credit: Lucid)

On Tuesday afternoon, Lucid showed off its next electric vehicle, called the Gravity. We've known for some time that the Saudi-backed EV startup was working on an SUV to go with its high-end sedan, the Air, as the prototype has been seen testing in California. But now it's official.

"Gravity builds upon everything we have achieved thus far, driving further advancements of our in-house technology to create a luxury performance SUV like none other. Just as Lucid Air redefined the sedan category, so too will Gravity impact the world of luxury SUVs, setting new benchmarks across the board," said Peter Rawlinson, Lucid's CEO and CTO.

The Gravity will be configurable with either five, six, or seven seats. (credit: Lucid)

The three-row SUV goes into production in 2024, which is why Lucid isn't giving out any details about the new machine other than to say it will have "supercar performance" and more range than any non-Lucid EV. The company will start taking deposits next year, and while we don't have a price for the new EV, given how expensive the Lucid Air sedan is, it's not unreasonable to expect the launch edition to cost around $200,000.

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By all appearances, there seems to be very little trust left between Elon Musk and Twitter’s remaining employees, particularly Twitter engineers. After Musk publicly fired a Twitter engineer by tweet yesterday, it’s now being reported that more than a dozen employees have been terminated for either posting critically about Musk’s leadership or simply supporting other people who posted critically.

Workers told The Verge that under Musk, Twitter has transformed into an “openly hostile” environment. And Musk—who already told employees that he would be relying on his paranoia to push through this difficult time—has possibly become so paranoid about Twitter engineers messing with Twitter code, he’s taken the drastic step of freezing them out from altering it. This happened during an “emergency meeting” held at 1:45 am on Monday, and Musk has provided no other explanation for the code freeze, The Verge reported.

Meanwhile, Musk has started turning to Twitter as a platform to publicly discuss his concerns and questions about how Twitter functions—rather than discussing privately with Twitter engineers. This appears to be the breaking point that one Twitter employee told The Verge felt so “degrading” to Twitter staff, leading multiple Twitter engineers to correct Musk’s ignorant tweets publicly.