Apple Gains Footing in Court Feud With Former iPhone Chip Architect

A former Apple executive who worked on the chips that power iPhones and iPads has had a request to toss a breach-of-contract lawsuit brought by the company rejected by the court in a tentative ruling.


Last August, Apple sued its former A-series chip lead, Gerard Williams III, for breach of employment contract. Williams was the lead designer of Apple's custom ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ chips from the A7 to A12X, before he departed the company in March 2019 to start his own chip company, Nuvia Inc, with two other former Apple chip executives.

Apple accuses him of breaching the contract because it barred him from planning or engaging in any business activities that are "competitive or directly related to Apple's business or products." Williams argues that a provision in the contract conflicts with a California law that allows workers to develop new businesses while they're employed elsewhere.

However, Bloomberg today reports that Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Mark Pierce said the law doesn't permit an employee "to plan and prepare to create a competitive enterprise prior to termination if the employee does so on their employer's time and with the employer's resources."

The judge also dismissed a claim by Williams that Apple invaded his privacy by reviewing text messages he wrote to coworkers that were critical of the company. In one of the messages, Williams is said to have claimed that Apple would have "no choice but to purchase" his new company.

Williams sought to have those texts excluded as evidence in the suit. Pierce disagreed. "There are no allegations in the complaint establishing that the text messages were obtained as the result of eavesdropping upon or recording a confidential communication," he wrote.

The judge sided with Williams in dismissing Apple's bid for punitive damages, saying the company has failed to show how Williams intentionally tried to harm Apple by being disloyal.

Bloomberg notes that the tentative ruling on regarding the California law doesn't address the merits of Apple’s claims, but it will allow the company to proceed with pretrial information-sharing if the judge decides to make it final.

Claude Stern, Williams' lawyer, said he would contest the judge's findings at a hearing in San Jose on Tuesday. He argues that Williams can't be sued for simply coming up with a new business idea while working at Apple, as opposed to taking inventions he worked on that belong to his previous employer.

Tag: lawsuit

This article, "Apple Gains Footing in Court Feud With Former iPhone Chip Architect" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/2NEVE0U

Instagram Removes IGTV Button From Home Screen Following Lack of User Engagement

Instagram is dropping the IGTV button from the top-right corner of the app's home screen because not enough people are interacting with it.


First launched in June 2018, IGTV is Instagram's long-form video streaming service that's designed to compete with youtube. IGTV focuses on full-screen vertical video, with the ability to interact with other users while watching videos.

The Facebook-owned company told TechCrunch that it was removing the button because not enough users were tapping it, and that people were discovering IGTV content in other ways.

"As we've continued to work on making it easier for people to create and discover IGTV content, we've learned that most people are finding IGTV content through previews in Feed, the IGTV channel in Explore, creators' profiles and the standalone app. Very few are clicking into the IGTV icon in the top right corner of the home screen in the Instagram app" a Facebook company spokesperson tells TechCrunch. "We always aim to keep Instagram as simple as possible, so we're removing this icon based on these learnings and feedback from our community."

The IGTV icon previously appeared alongside the DM icon
IGTV hasn't completely gone away in Instagram. Users wanting to access IGTV content within the app can still do so by tapping the IGTV tab inside Instagram Explore (the same screen as the search function). People can also post IGTV videos right from the main Instagram feed post video uploader.

According to TechCrunch, no more than 7 million of Instagram's 1 billion-plus users have downloaded the standalone IGTV app in the 18 months since it launched, so it makes sense that Instagram is folding the service deeper into its app. But with the massive success of rival platforms like TikTok, it's hard to predict where IGTV turns next in order to increase adoption rates.

Tag: Instagram

This article, "Instagram Removes IGTV Button From Home Screen Following Lack of User Engagement" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/2TF4UpC

Apple and Tim Cook Commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, an annual federal holiday commemorating the American civil rights movement leader.


Apple today honored the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a full-page tribute on its website. A photo of Dr. King is accompanied by an iconic quote of his: "Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

On Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a follow-up tweet.

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” Let us all be so audacious, and work to make MLK’s dream a reality for us all.

— ‌Tim Cook‌ (@tim_cook) January 20, 2020

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Tim Cook, Martin Luther King Jr

This article, "Apple and Tim Cook Commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/2uk1T3f

Latest Fortnite Update for iOS Brings 120fps Mode to 2018 iPad Pro

Epic Games' latest update to the iOS version of popular battle royale title Fortnite that enables iPad Pro owners to run the game at 120 frames per second.


‌iPad Pro‌ owners wanting to make the most of the Pro Motion display's high refresh rate for a smoother performance can find the 120fps mode in the Fortnite settings screen.

Enabling the mode does come at the expense of visual quality and automatically drops the resolution and fixes the visual settings at "medium," which falls in line with the game's other limits of "high" at 60fps and "epic" at 30fps.

Despite that limitation, an ‌iPad Pro‌ running Fortnite can now beat the performance of current-generation consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One, which are restricted to 60fps.

Also in latest v11.40.1 update, thumbstick buttons are now supported on iOS 13 and above.

Fortnite on iOS has become a popular mobile alternative to the PC and console game, offering users the chance to play the well-known "Battle Royale" mode while on the go.

Fortnite initially launched as a beta on iOS in March 2018 and then expanded wide in April the same year. The smartphone apps are focused entirely on Fortnite's PvP Battle Royale mode, but the console and desktop versions of the game also include a PvE mode called Save the World.

Fortnite is a free-to-play game available to download on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tags: Epic Games, Fortnite

This article, "Latest Fortnite Update for iOS Brings 120fps Mode to 2018 iPad Pro" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/2RB64Qb

Jennifer Aniston Wins SAG Award for Outstanding Performance in Apple TV+ Series 'The Morning Show'

It has been a big week for Apple TV+ news, with release dates announced for several upcoming series, a multi-year agreement with actress and producer Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and now a major award win.

At the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles tonight, actress Jennifer Aniston won an SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her leading role as morning news anchor Alex Levy in the Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show."


This is the first SAG Award that Aniston has won on an individual basis. Her last SAG Award came in 1996 for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series alongside her "Friends" cast members. She beat out Helena Bonham Carter ("The Crown"), Olivia Colman ("The Crown"), Jodie Comer ("Killing Eve") and Elisabeth Moss ("The Handmaid's Tale").

"The Morning Show" actors Steve Carell and Billy Crudup were also nominated for SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series, but the category was won by Peter Dinklage ("Game of Thrones").


Last month, Aniston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in "The Morning Show," but she did not win.

This is the second major award win for Apple TV+. Last week, actor Billy Crudup won a 2020 Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Cory Ellison in "The Morning Show."

"The Morning Show" was widely panned by critics upon the launch of Apple TV+, but they were only provided with the first three episodes to watch. The series has a strong audience score of 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and as more episodes came out in the series, some critics began to view the show more favorably too.

Tags: Apple TV Shows, Apple TV Plus

This article, "Jennifer Aniston Wins SAG Award for Outstanding Performance in Apple TV+ Series 'The Morning Show'" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/2sE9dGA