Education on technology

A US judge in California on Monday declared a mistrial in Masimo's smartwatch trade secret lawsuit against Apple  after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the potential billion-dollar case. A Masimo spokesperson said in a statement that the company was "disappointed that the jury was unable to reach a verdict" but intends to retry the case. The jury in federal court in Santa Ana had been asked to determine whether Cupertino, California-based Apple misused confidential information from Masimo related to the use of light to measure biomarkers including heart rates and blood oxygen levels. The jury began deliberating on April 26 after a trial lasting about three weeks before US District Judge James Selna. Apple said in a statement that it "deeply respects intellectual property and innovation and does not take or use confidential information from other companies," and will ask the court to dismiss the remaining claims in the case. Irvine, California...

Meta Platforms emerged as the first mega-cap technology company to tap the US investment-grade bond market as turmoil in the financial sector has toppled five banks since March. The social-media behemoth, which reported earnings last week, is looking to raise $7 billion (nearly Rs. 57,250 crore) in a five-part deal, according to a person familiar with the matter. The longest portion of the offering, a 40-year security, may yield 215 basis points over Treasuries, the person said. Eleven companies have already come forward with bond offerings Monday as companies look to issue debt before the Federal Open Market Committee meeting and subsequent rate decision Wednesday.  Meta raised $10 billion (nearly Rs. 81,790 crore) in its first ever corporate bond issue last year. The Facebook parent plans to use the fresh funds to help finance capital expenditures, repurchase outstanding shares of its common stock, and for acquisitions or investments, the person added.  ...

When Horizon Forbidden West , Guerrilla Games' sweeping post-post-apocalyptic epic sci-fi action RPG, came out in February last year, its highs and lows embodied the double-edged sword of video gaming. Its next-gen graphical fidelity, dynamic combat sandbox, and ambitious open world design were all dimmed by the lack of an emotional core. Not for a lack of trying, Forbidden West failed to ground its chaotic action with considered writing. Despite upgraded facial capture technology, fully animated cutscenes, and a crew of new support characters who all talked a lot, the game often felt bogged down by artificial clunk. While its lush flora, azure waters, and pristine mountains came to life in breathtaking visual detail, its people, more often than not, refused to do so. Even the series' torchbearer, the redheaded huntress Aloy, remained elusive. Fourteen months on, Horizon's plucky protagonist returns to add another page to her saga with Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shore...

Jack Dorsey, after resigning as Twitter CEO in 2021, shifted his focus toward building Block, a Web3-friendly financial services company. In a fresh update from Dorsey's Block, the Bitcoin mining chip that this newly founded company has been working on, has entered the prototype stage. The former Twitter chief is hinged at decentralising Bitcoin mining and taking it out of the hands of a few established platers. This chip being designed by Block will make Bitcoin mining easily accessible for more individual miners, as well as up and coming crypto mining firms. Dorsey's prototype design showcases a new five-nanometre (5nm) Bitcoin mining chip. When this project started, Dorsey's focus was to develop custom silicon that is essential to facilitate Bitcoin mining and he is marching ahead towards launching this chip soon. “We plan to make our Bitcoin mining technology open source where we can. We intend to make it possible for third parties to use our hardware and software s...

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released on April 28 across PC and current-gen consoles, with the former version getting bombarded with negative reviews on Steam on launch day. The reviews on Steam focus on the game's poor performance on PC, causing choppy framerates even during less-populated interior segments ( Gadgets 360 can confirm performance issues on PC). While the day-one patch made things like cutscenes smoother, as per several players, Jedi Survivor was still unable to maintain a consistent 60 fps, even on the lowest settings. Developer Respawn Entertainment has now issued an apology, confirming that its team will continue monitoring performance “across all platforms” and release patches in time. For the record, the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X versions aren't devoid of performance issues either — just nowhere on par with the PC version. “We are aware that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor isn't performing to our standards for a percentage of our PC players, in particular t...

Bitcoin touched its highest price point of over $30,000 (roughly Rs. 24.5 lakh) for the first time in around eight months in April. Stepping into May, the most expensive cryptocurrency did, however, record losses. The trading value of Bitcoin on Monday, May 1, stood at $28,560 (roughly Rs. 23.3 lakh) after incurring a loss of 2.38 percent. Over the weekend, Bitcoin value dropped by $850 (roughly Rs. 69,510) on both national exchanges such as CoinSwitch, Kuber, and WazirX, and international exchanges like Coinbase and CoinMarketCap among others. Bitcoin's value tumble showed a ripple effect on the pricings of other altcoins. Ether , for instance, slid by 2.70 percent on the price ladder on Monday. ETH, at the time of writing, was trading at $1,847 (roughly Rs. 1.5 lakh) as per Gadgets 360's crypto price tracker . Over the weekend, ETH rate dropped by $58 (roughly Rs. 4,745). Among other cryptocurrencies to have seen losses, Cardano , Polygon , Solana , Polkadot , and Litecoin...