Tech Digest daily roundup: Apple Watch guilty of infringing Masimo patent
Apple infringed on one of medical technology company Masimo’s pulse oximeter patents when it launched Apple Watch models that use light sensors to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood, an International Trade Commission (ITC) judge ruled on Tuesday. Masimo, which designs pulse oximetry devices, has been embroiled in an ongoing battle with Apple over several health capabilities found in some Apple Watch models, and Masimo has been pushing to have the models banned in the United States. Mac Rumors
Twitter’s treatment of employees facing redundancy is “unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable”, a legal letter seen by BBC News says. Sent on behalf of 43 employees, the letter, written by solicitors Winckworth Sherwood, accuses Twitter of failing to meet its legal obligations. In particular, it is claimed, the company failed to meaningfully consult over the job losses. BBC News has approached Twitter for comment. The letter says the employees represent roughly a quarter of those in the UK affected by cuts Twitter announced in November. BBC
A 22-year-old college student has developed an app which he claims can detect whether text is written by ChatGPT, the explosive chatbot raising fears of plagiarism in academia. Edward Tian, a senior at Princeton University, developed GPTZero over a summer break. It had 30,000 hits within a week of its launch. Tian said the motivation was to address the use of artificial intelligence to evade anti-plagiarism software to cheat in exams with quick and credible academic writing. The Guardian
I spent New Years building GPTZero — an app that can quickly and efficiently detect whether an essay is ChatGPT or human written
— Edward Tian (@edward_the6) January 3, 2023
Three early investors of UK battery start-up Britishvolt (IPO-BRI.L) have submitted an offer worth 30 million pounds ($36.38 million) to the board, matching the bid made by the Indonesia-linked investment fund DeaLab Group, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday citing two people familiar with the matter. The rival offer is for a 92.5% share of the company, fractionally lower than the 95% that DeaLab offered, the report said citing a letter sent to the board on Tuesday evening. Britishvolt’s board has been trying to muster shareholder support for the DeaLab offer by writing to investors ahead of a vote this Friday. Reuters
If you’re a fan of high-quality audio, you’re going to love the new Sony Walkman NW-A306. Coming from their Premium range of portable audio players – like the Sony Walkman NW-WM1ZM2 and NW-WM1AM2 – the NW-A306 represents a new low price point in the range – and it manages to do so without lots of compromise on the spec sheet. The range is designed to offer a compromise-free experience when it comes to listening to music, offering audio playback at CD-quality. On the NW-A306, this is achieved with a helping hand from Artificial Intelligence. The Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) is used to accurately upscale compressed digital music files, allowing for a higher quality listening experience. T3.com
Twitter has updated the way its iPhone app works, making the algorithmic timeline the default whether you want it or not. The change, which inexplicably hasn’t yet gone live for those using Android devices, means that every time the Twitter app is opened people will see the timeline as Twitter wants them to see it. The previous sparkly logo that allowed users to switch between the algorithmic timeline and one showing tweets from the people they follow is now gone as part of the change, too. Instead, a new two-tabbed system has been employed – “For you” (the default, algorithmic timeline) and “Following” (tweets from accounts that are followed) – have replaced it. Pocket Lint
