from the the-loophole-lives... dept It’s been many, many years since we were regularly covering what we referred to as the ITC loophole in patent enforcement. The issue was that patent holders could get two totally separate at bats to try to force a company that was actually innovating to pay up over dubious patents. They could go to court, of course, by filing a patent lawsuit. But they could also go to the International Trade Commission, claiming infringement, and if the ITC agreed, it co ...read more

Aerones, a robotics startup that scrubs and inspects wind turbines so humans don’t have to, secured $38.9 million in fresh funding this month from dozens of undisclosed investors, TechCrunch has learned. Wind turbines produce clean energy, but their towers tend to leak oil, which can corrode blades, increase wind resistance and pollute the ground below. Aerones’ remote-operated robots clean towers and blades by blasting them with a liquid detergent, while funnels beneath the blades c ...read more

Rumor mill: Apple ended the iPad mini's years-long hiatus in 2021 with the variant's first-ever redesign. Now, a credible analyst suggests the iPad mini's return wasn't a one-off, but it's unclear what a new model could add as Apple transitions its tablets to laptop processors. Apple analyst and trusted leaker Ming-Chi Kuo said this week that the company is readying a new iPad mini to ship in late 2023 or sometime in the first half of 2024. It will be a refresh of last year's model with a new ...read more

Data breaches can be extremely harmful to organizations of all shapes and sizes — but it’s how these companies react to the incident that can deal their final blow. While we’ve seen some excellent examples of how companies should respond to data breaches over the past year — kudos to Red Cross and Amnesty for their transparency — 2022 has been a year-long lesson in how not to respond to a data breach. Here is a look back at this year’s badly handled data breaches. Nvidia Chipmaker ...read more

Rumor mill: Rumors over the last year have painted a tumultuous picture of the development of Intel's 14th-generation Meteor Lake processors. The latest information takes things a step further regarding Intel's struggles to transition from its current CPU architecture suggesting the company has canceled Meteor Lake's desktop variants. The upcoming series might be struggling to match, much less exceed, Raptor Lake's clock rates. November rumors stated Intel wasn't planning to release any Meteo ...read more

This year in tech, too much happened and very little of it made sense. It was like we were being controlled by a random number generator that would dictate the whims of the tech industry, leading to multiple “biggest news stories of the year” happening over the course of a month, all completely disconnected from one another. I can’t stop thinking about a very good tweet I saw last month, which encapsulated the absurdity of the year — it was something along the lines of, “Meta la ...read more

TechSpot Downloads Security Dashlane saves all your passwords, fills forms fast, and keeps your data accessible and safe. December 8, 2022 Freeware Windows/macOS/Android/iOS Store locally your passwords safely and auto-type them into your everyday websites and applications. December 26, 2022 Freeware Windows/macOS/Linux Whether the answer is one or hundreds, Password Safe allows you to safely and easily create a secured and encr ...read more

Inside Absci’s labs. (Absci Photo) Sujal Patel has been here before. He weathered the 2009 recession as CEO of Isilon Systems, coming out the other end to sell his company the next year for $2.25 billion. He’s now CEO of Nautilus Biotechnology, and he’s not taking any big chances in the current economic downturn. Nautilus CEO Sujal Patel. (Nautilus Photo) “As a development stage company, we’re doing everything we can to strike the right balance between accelerating the deve ...read more

from the maybe-just-stop-violating-the-ToS dept Colleen Huber M.D. thinks she can cure cancer by altering patients’ sugar intake. She also believes baking soda is better than chemotherapy when it comes to fighting this disease. Rational people think she’s endangering people’s lives and have said as much. Repeatedly. In response, Colleen Huber has filed lawsuits. Repeatedly. She feels she speaks from a position of expertise. But her expertise has only been lauded by others operating in ...read more

The year is coming to an end, and with it, I continue an annual tradition of writing x words about x piece. This year, that means trying to cram the year 2022 into 2,022 words. As you might imagine, that’s a lot. I usually write 5,000-6,000 words and then have to ruthlessly edit it down to try to hit my word cap. Part of the challenge, though, is to re-live all the highs and lows of the year without getting overwhelmed. The trick is to keep your fingers moving no matter what. And recent ...read more