Tennessee will be the 37th state to join a massive anti-trust lawsuit against tech giant Google.
Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced Wednesday that Tennessee will band together with the other states in the lawsuit in an attempt to combat what they see as anti-competitive trade practices.
Read the full story
State attorneys general of 36 states and the District of Columbia filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on Wednesday alleging the company engaged in anticompetitive practices in its Play Store for Android.
The complaint argues Google holds and unlawfully maintains a monopoly in the market of “Android app distribution,” using anticompetitive tactics such as blocking competitors from accessing the Play Store, discouraging the creation of competing app stores, and acquiring smaller app developers. The complaint also alleges Google charges app developers up to a 30% commission when customers purchase their products through the Google Play Store.
“Google has taken steps to close the ecosystem from competition and insert itself as the middleman between app developers and consumers,” the plaintiffs argue.
Read the full story
The topic was high tech: the code behind smartphones.
But on Wednesday the Supreme Court looked to more low tech examples, from the typewriter keyboard to restaurant menus, try to resolve an $8 billion-plus copyright dispute between tech giants Google and Oracle.
The case, which the justices heard by phone because of the coronavirus pandemic, has to do with Google’s creation of the Android operating system now used on the vast majority of smartphones worldwide. In developing Android, Google used some of Oracle’s computer code.
Read the full story
Throughout Tuesday’s broadcast of The Gill Report – live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville – conservative political commentator and Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill was beside himself as he described the unconscionable phenomenon of selfies and the public’s fascination with taking out their phone in the midst of horrific public tragedies. He continued: I gotta tell you, I’m not a big fan of selfies. Maybe it’s the kind of duck-lipped-pouty pose that so many posts are kind of the hand held high I guess trying to hide the double, triple, or quadruple chin. I tend to like the more posed photos that are then posted on Facebook or Instagram. Rather than the sort of selfies that have seemed to become in the grip of a nation. And then you add the fact that people seem willing to video or photograph anything that happens as it happens. I’ve been amazed at some of these incidences on airplanes including plane crashes where people immediately grab their phone turn on the video because they want to record for posterity, maybe the end of their “sterity” the death that comes with a plane crash. Maybe it’s the thought that “oh it will…
Read the full story
The global smartphone market is expected to see steady if unspectacular growth in the next few years, as consumers turn increasingly to large-screen handsets known as “phablets,” a market tracker said Wednesday. A report by the research firm IDC said phablets — with displays larger than 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) — will account for some 40 percent of the 1.5 billion smartphones sold in 2017, and that the phablet share will rise to more than half by 2019. …
Read the full story
Google on Wednesday introduced new Pixel ear buds that the company says are capable of real-time translation of conversations in different languages. A demonstration given as Google unveiled a host of new products infused with its digital “Assistant” smarts got people playfully referring to Pixel Buds as an internet-Age version of alien “Babel Fish” depicted in…
Read the full story