Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Richard LawlerDec 27, 2023

Verizon Visible Plus “35FLASH” promo cuts $10 from the price of its monthly mobile plan.

The Visible Plus plan offers access to Ultra Wideband 5G and other perks over its base $25 per month plan (taxes and fees included with both).

It’s usually $45 per month, but with the above promo code, it’s $35 until “Visible provides notice that the discounted rate has been discontinued.” Whatever that turns out to mean — it’s available to both new customers and “qualified” subscribers to the cheaper plan, but only until 6AM ET tomorrow, December 28th.

Visible Unlimited Phone Plans | No Annual Contract

[www.visible.com]

Richard LawlerDec 27, 2023

Brooklyn Nets star Mikal Bridges shows off his traveling PS5 setup.

Presumably, he had this Poga PS5 carrying case / portable monitor with him last night in Detroit as his team handed the Pistons their record-breaking 27th straight loss.

Some may say, “Just get a Steam Deck” (Danny Brown concurs), but that wouldn’t be the best option for Madden, and despite a price starting above $1,000, at least this means he doesn’t have to worry about hotel HDMI shenanigans. Still, I don’t think anything tops the San Antonio Spurs laptop LAN setup for Starcraft during the 1999 NBA Finals.

Richard LawlerDec 27, 2023

Meet Marcelo Lamego, a key figure in the patent battle that’s banned Apple watches.

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman goes into the history of Masimo’s patent infringement case against Apple’s wearables, explaining that Lamego was the CTO at a Masimo spinoff. He rebuffed one inquiry from Apple, but in 2013 he emailed Apple CEO Tim Cook at 1AM about working there and joined a few months later:

Lawyers for Masimo say that Lamego lacked prior knowledge about how to develop the blood-oxygen feature (his previous studies were about neural interfaces rather than health sensors). He learned how to build the technology at Kiani’s companies and delivered it to Apple, they say.
Lamego then resigned from Apple in July 2014, just months after joining. Masimo argues that he left after Apple got what it needed.

Masimo also says Apple hired its former chief medical officer and 20 or so other staffers, while Apple claims he wasn’t a good fit.

What Started the Apple Watch Ban Saga? A Late-Night Email to CEO Tim Cook

[Bloomberg]

Richard LawlerDec 24, 2023

Mint Mobile is notifying customers about a security breach.

Without mentioning this on its social media channels or anywhere on its website that we could find, Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile chose the last Friday before Christmas to tell customers it’s had a data breach. Cord Cutters News and Bleeping Computer point out this Reddit comment from a company account saying affected customers should have an email from “no-reply@account.mintmobile.com.” Leaked information includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, SIM/IMEI numbers, and some service plan details.

Mint Mobile is apparently still in the process of being acquired by the famously insecure T-Mobile that has had two breaches this year and nine since 2018.

Richard LawlerDec 23, 2023

Performance testing Grand Theft Auto’s latest remastered re-release.

Rockstar’s attempt at launching Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — Definitive Edition in 2021 went so poorly that the PC version was removed from sale for a while. Now, the bundle (GTA III, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas) is available on mobile devices and for no extra cost if you have Netflix.

So how does it run? Digital Foundry’s iOS analysis is here, finding that despite an uneven framerate and iffy gamepad support, it “probably offers the best portable experience at the moment.”

GM stops selling the Chevy Blazer EV to deal with ‘software quality issues’

Richard LawlerDec 23, 2023

Elon Musk’s X can’t shake off a lawsuit over millions of dollars in unpaid Twitter bonuses.

In this entry into the list of lawsuits over unpaid Twitter bills, Courthouse News reports Mark Schobinger’s class action lawsuit is over unpaid 2022 annual bonuses. Schobinger, notably, is Twitter’s former senior director of compensation.

He says execs’ promises of a 50 percent payout for those who remained through Q1 of 2023 kept employees around during Elon’s “hardcore” takeover, but now the company argues its oral promise wasn’t enforceable. The judge didn’t buy that, writing that “Twitter’s contrary arguments all fail,” so the case will proceed.

Schobinger v. Twitter (Order re: Motion to Dismiss)

[DocumentCloud]