US District Judge Lucy Koh granted preliminary approval on Wednesday for a settlement between Apple, Google, Adobe, and Intel and their former employees. The payout is said to be worth around $415 million, and would effectively end the long-running anti-poaching lawsuit.
Images of what appear to be the specifications of a 13-inch MacBook Air refresh have surfaced on the forums of Chinese website Feng.com.
The seemingly genuine screenshots suggest a minor hardware bump based on Intel's latest Broadwell processors with more powerful Intel HD 6000 graphics, and a slightly bigger battery as well.
Although the source did not provide info related to the 11-inch MacBook Air model, Apple is likely to upgrade that machine with new Intel chips alongside the 13 incher.
In addition, a questionable report has suggested that a twelve-inch Air with a Retina screen is up for an announcement at Apple's “Spring Forward” media event next Monday, thought to focus mostly (but not exclusively?) on the Apple Watch.
Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe have reached an agreement that would settle their long-standing antitrust class action lawsuit with Silicon Valley employees, reports Reuters. The suit, filed in 2011, accused the 4 tech giants of conspiring to avoid poaching each other's employees in an effort to keep a lid on salaries.
Monday, chip giant Intel took the wraps off a range of “Broadwell-U” processors poised to find their way into a MacBook near you. The fifth-generation Intel Core processor family utilities Intel’s 14-nanometer manufacturing process to deliver more speed and lower power consumption.
The new chips could possibly pave the way to a rumored MacBook Air model with a Retina display measuring twelve inches diagonally (the current Air models come in 11.6 and 13.3-inch varieties).
Hot on the heels of the Apple Watch, Intel unveiled a new luxury wearable at a media event on Monday, aimed at women with a snakeskin band and AT&T connectivity - no phone pairing necessary. Priced at $495, the smart bracelet, thing, allows users to receive, dismiss, and reply to text messages, email, and Facebook and Google notifications, completely independent of a smartphone.
In 2011, tech employees levied a class action anti-poaching lawsuit against Apple, Google, and other companies. The suit covered more than 60,000 workers, who claimed the firms conspired to keep their salaries lower by entering in a non-poach agreement with one another.
It was reported in April that Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe had reached a settlement for $324 million, but apparently Judge Lucy Koh (yes, that Judge Koh) didn't like that number. Judge Koh officially rejected the proposed offer today, saying that it needed to be higher...
It's hardly a secret that Apple is looking to phase out non-Retina models from its MacBook Pro lineup.
Furthermore, the expected switch to all-Retina notebooks should over time affect Apple's ultra-portable MacBook Air model, too.
I mean, even Apple's Taiwan-based suppliers have been adamant that a long-expected version of the MacBook Air with Apple's Retina display is due in the second half of 2014.
Unfortunately, it's now almost certain that a Retina MacBook Air won't see the light of day this year because the crucial components - Intel's next-generation, extremely low-power Broadwell chips - reportedly won't be available in volume until mid-2015...
Apple just refreshed its MacBook Air lineup a few months ago with faster Haswell dual-core processors, so it is safe to assume that the notebook series will not be updated for at least another several months. But when the Cupertino-based company does eventually release the next generation of MacBook Airs, it is more than possible that the new models could be completely silent…
Reuters is reporting this afternoon that Apple, Google, Adobe, and Intel have reached a settlement in their long-running antitrust lawsuit filed by employees who claim the companies agreed to not hire employees from one another.
The settlement comes just a month before the trial was slated to begin in the US District Court of northern California. The lawsuit covered more than 60,000 workers, and damages from the trial were expected to exceed $9 billion...
Although the patent battle with Samsung is far from over in northern California, Apple's legal team has to start preparing for another high profile trial coming up next month. The iPad-maker, along with Google and others, is being sued over no-hire agreements in Silicon Valley.
This week, those companies in a joint court filing asked that witnesses in the upcoming suit not be allowed to offer evidence that Steve Jobs was "a bully." Emails regarding the case are fine, but excerpts from the Isaacson bio and other sources should be barred from admission...
Apple has chosen to pass on the opportunity to pour fresh money into Intellectual Ventures, a patent buying and assertion company founded and led by its chief executive officer Nathan Myhrvold. Following in Apple's footsteps, chip giant Intel has distanced itself too from the controversial patent holding firm and declined further investment
Intellectual Ventures was one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents in 2011. The patent assertion entity, however, has managed to persuade the Japanese consumer electronics maker Sony and the Windows maker Microsoft to invest in its latest acquisition fund, a move that will create a fresh war chest for Intellectual Ventures to buy new patents...
TechCrunch is reporting that Intel has acquired smartwatch maker Basis for between $100 and $150 million. The buyout follows a scoop from February that the startup was shopping itself around to a number of high-profile tech firms including Google, Microsoft and yes, Apple.
For those unfamiliar with the brand, Basis makes a smartwatch-like device called the Basis Health Fitness Tracker, which it calls the “world’s most advanced health tracker.” The wearable is capable of capturing heart rate patterns, tracking multiple sleep stages and much more...