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AT&T is getting some help from Frontier Communications in its attempt to block Google Fiber's progress in Kentucky.

As we reported in February, AT&T sued the local government in Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky to stop a new ordinance designed to give Google Fiber and similar companies access to utility poles. Although Frontier has no operations in Kentucky, it submitted a court filing last week supporting AT&T's lawsuit because Frontier is worried such ordinances will come to other states.

AT&T did not ask Frontier for its help, but Frontier's filing said, "the issues raised by the case may have important implications for Frontier’s business and may impact the development of law in jurisdictions throughout the country where Frontier operates."

It's not an exaggeration to say that functional MRI has revolutionized the field of neuroscience. Neuroscientists use MRI machines to pick up changes in blood flow that occur when different areas of the brain become more or less active. This allows them to noninvasively figure out which areas of the brain get used when performing different tasks, from playing economic games to reading words.

But the approach and its users have had their share of critics, including some who worry about over-hyped claims about our ability to read minds. Others point out that improper analysis of fMRI data can produce misleading results, such as finding areas of brain activity in a dead salmon. While that was the result of poor statistical techniques, a new study in PNAS suggests that the problem runs significantly deeper, with some of the basic algorithms involved in fMRI analysis producing false positive "signals" with an alarming frequency.

The principle behind fMRI is pretty simple: neural activity takes energy, which then has to be replenished. This means increased blood flow to areas that have been recently active. That blood flow can be picked up using a high-resolution MRI machine, allowing researchers to identify structures in the brain that become active when certain tasks are performed.

Yesterday, streaming music service Spotify went public with complaints that Apple had recently rejected an update to the the company's iOS app. The company's lawyers alleged that blocking the update "raises serious concerns under both US and EU competition law" and "[diminishes] the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music." But Spotify offered up only a vague explanation for why the app had been rejected, citing "business model rules."

Today, Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell responded, saying that Spotify's app update violated Apple's App Review guidelines and that the company would gladly approve and distribute the update once the problem had been fixed. The full letter is available in this Buzzfeed report.

"We're disappointed with the public attacks you've made and appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight," writes Sewell to Spotify General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez. "Our guidelines help competition, not hurt it. The fact that we compete has never influenced how Apple treats Spotify or other successful competitors like Google Play Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, Pandora, or the numerous other apps on the App Store that distribute digital music."

In May, we told you of a lawsuit involving a California cop who looked ready to fire his handgun at a man who was filming the Rohnert Park police officer. Last year's standoff happened right outside the resident's house. Claiming civil rights violations, the alleged victim sued (PDF) the officer and police department that is located about an hour north of San Francisco.

The police department and officer, David Rodriguez, have now responded to the lawsuit. They essentially say it was resident Don McComas' fault from the get go and that McComas' own actions outside his house prompted the officer to draw his weapon on the Rohnert Park man.

"And for a third, separate and affirmative defense, these answering defendants allege that the sole proximate cause of the injuries and damages, if any, claimed by plaintiff was the negligence and fault of the plaintiff...," they responded in court documents. (PDF)

According to Re/code, co-founder and chief technology officer of Hyperloop One, Brogan BamBrogan, has stepped down from his position at the company. The startup, which is angling to develop a super-fast enclosed transit system, promoted former Vice President of Engineering Josh Giegel to president of engineering and has given him a seat on the company’s board.

BamBrogan was a former SpaceX employee who temporarily served as Hyperloop One’s CEO until 2015. He joined the company after Shervin Pishevar, the other cofounder, had a conversation with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. While credited with coming up with a detailed white paper describing how a Hyperloop would work, Musk has declined to throw resources at building a Hyperloop himself, citing his many standing obligations.

Hyperloop One (formerly Hyperloop Technologies) is currently competing with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) to see who can bring the 700mph magnetically driven rail system to fruition first. Notably, Hyperloop One is structured as a traditional startup, recently raising $80 million from investors including France’s national railway system, SNCF. HTT, on the other hand, depends largely on volunteer time from engineers who are also veterans of NASA, Boeing, Tesla, and SpaceX.

If you were reading Ars about a decade ago, you may remember our extensive coverage of the baffling architecture behind the PlayStation 3's unique Cell processor. Many developers reportedly encountered difficulties trying to program for it effectively. If you haven't read all that, let Ars' Jon Stokes sum it up for you: "...the PlayStation 3 was all about more: more hype, and more programming headaches."

Today, we can add another posthumous log to that already burning fire of developer ire for the PlayStation 3 and the Cell architecture. Polyphony Digital CEO and Gran Turismo series lead Kazunori Yamauchi told IGN this week that working on the PS3 "was really a nightmare for us."

After addressing the slumping sales for the two PS3 editions of the Gran Turismo series, Yamauchi was quick to blame Sony's hardware for at least part of the series' development problems. "The conditions for GT6 were really against us, mainly because the PlayStation 3 hardware was a very difficult piece of hardware to develop for, and it caused our development team a lot of stress," he said.