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Apple ordered to pay patent troll more than $500 million in iMessage case

Apple ordered to pay patent troll more than $500 million in iMessage case

Posted by | Apr 11, 2018 | , |

The eight-year battle between Apple and VirnetX takes another turn. Apple has been ordered by a federal court in Texas today to pay $502.6 million to a patent troll called VirnetX, the latest turn in an eight-year-old legal battle over FaceTime and iMessage patents, according to Bloomberg. Apple and VirnetX have been fighting in court since 2010, when the patent-holding company said the iPhone maker infringed on four of its patents related to internet-based communications. The legal battle has been protracted, and it involves multiple lawsuits and a dizzying number of appeals. Last we heard of the fight was...

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‘I paid $90,000 to free my family from IS’

‘I paid $90,000 to free my family from IS’

Posted by | Apr 9, 2018 | , |

Khalid Taalo Khudhur al-Ali fled with his wife and children as Islamic State militants attacked their town in Iraq in 2014, but 19 other members of his family were captured. Over the last four years he has paid $90,000 for the release of 10 of them. But now, after the defeat of IS, he fears that any survivors may be beyond his reach. On 26 September last year, a red pick-up truck pulled into Sharya in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Inside sat 16-year-old Shaima. As the vehicle drew into the small, dusty village, friends and family crowded...

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The town that breeds resistance to Malaria drugs

The town that breeds resistance to Malaria drugs

Posted by | Apr 9, 2018 | , |

As new waves of the disease threaten the globe, worried scientists want to conduct a mass inoculation in a Cambodian region where new vaccines always seem to stop being effective. Pailin is a small settlement nestling in tropical rainforest near Cambodia’s border with Thailand. It is an unassuming town that lies at the centre of one of the country’s main logging areas. Pailin harbours secrets, however. It was in this town, in the late 1970s, that the Khmer Rouge set up one of its main strongholds and ruled Cambodia with a ferocity that caused at least two million deaths....

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N Korea-US talks: Pyongyang ‘ready to discuss’ nuclear programme

N Korea-US talks: Pyongyang ‘ready to discuss’ nuclear programme

Posted by | Apr 9, 2018 | , |

North Korea has promised the US it is ready to discuss the future of its nuclear arsenal when the two nations’ leaders meet, US officials say. Preparations for the summit have included secret, direct talks with North Korea, unnamed Trump administration sources said. US and North Korean intelligence officials are said to have spoken many times, and met in a third country. The unprecedented summit is slated to happen in May. It will be the first time a sitting US president has met the leader of North Korea. North Korea has already told South Korea it was prepared to...

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American Airlines Just Announced Some Really Bad News For Passengers (It Was Buried Inside the Good News)

American Airlines Just Announced Some Really Bad News For Passengers (It Was Buried Inside the Good News)

Posted by | Apr 9, 2018 | , |

Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek. American Airlines just announced it’s buying some new planes. Surely, then, passengers will be delighted that they’ll soon enjoy the giddiness of that new plane smell. Well, yes. And, oh, no. Let’s start with the good parts. American Airlines is replacing its older, more rickety Boeing 767 planes with 787 Dreamliners. This means, at least, that it’s not replacing them with something narrow-bodied and even more narrow-minded than your average CFO. But there were some other parts to this announcement...

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