Old iPhone users to start receiving payouts from $500 million ‘battery-gate’ lawsuit

Hello there, welcome to another round of the Global Tech roundup. This edition features Elon Musk’s unending plan to make Twitter, now X “Musk-ish”, TikTok’s continuous woes in the U.S., Google’s AI plans, and Apple’s latest payment lawsuit.

Apple is set to issue $500 million payouts to old iPhone users to settle a years-old lawsuit that accused the firm of deliberately slowing down customers’ batteries. The so-called ‘battery-gate’ scandal is labelled ‘one of the largest consumer frauds in history’, forcing users to invest in new iPhone models.

Users of X, formerly known as Twitter, will no longer be able to block comments from unwanted followers, according to a post by X owner Elon Musk on Friday, eliminating what’s long been viewed as a critical safety feature.

The ongoing tussle between Meta and Canada’s federal government over big tech’s compensation for news publishers has created a local media vacuum for Yellowknife evacuees. Now, the Canada Government is pleading for Meta to unban its news feed in the country to give more coverage to the rapidly approaching wildfire.

Even as New York City on Wednesday banned TikTok on government-owned devices, citing security concerns, a new Reuters/Ipsos survey that asked questions about national security concerns and China has revealed that close to half of American adults support a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok.

In a continuous surgeon into the many impossibilities made possible by AI, Google is now working on an AI that offers humans life advice.

We will share details of these news items and more in this week’s global roundup. Here is a summary of the bulletin.

• Old iPhone users to receive $65 payouts as part of $500m lawsuit
• Users of X set to lose the block feature
• Meta’s news ban in Canada getting in the way of Yellowknife wildfire coverage
• New York City bans TikTok on Government owned devices
• Google building AI that offers humans life advice

Read also: Google made more than $10 million from ads for fake abortion clinics

Old iPhone users to receive $65 payouts

Apple is set to issue $500 million payouts to old iPhone users to settle a years-old lawsuit that accused the firm of deliberately slowing down customers’ batteries. The so-called ‘battery-gate’ scandal is labelled ‘one of the largest consumer frauds in history’, forcing users to invest in new iPhone models.

Apple agreed to the payout in 2020 – which will work out at around $65 each, according to Mercury News – despite continuing to deny any wrongdoing.

However, payments were stalled due to two iPhone users objecting to the settlement terms. This week they lost their appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – meaning customers will now receive their money.

In December 2017, Apple admitted that iOS software was tweaked to slow the performance of older iPhones whose battery life was deteriorating to prevent handsets from spontaneously shutting down.

Critics accused Apple of surreptitiously forcing users to buy phones sooner than necessary, and the outcry forced Apple to upgrade its software and offer steep discounts on battery replacements. As part of the agreement, Apple had to provide the claims administrator with the details of everybody who had owned or leased one of the models. 

These included: iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, and SE devices running operating systems iOS 10.2.1 or later before December 21, 2017, and iPhone 7 and 7 Plus phones running iOS 11.2 or later before that date.

Users of X set to lose the block feature

X, formerly known as Twitter, will remove a protective feature that lets users block other accounts, owner Elon Musk said on Friday in another controversial move for the company he bought last year.

The block function on X allows users to restrict specific accounts from contacting them, seeing their posts or following them.

“Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk wrote Friday. He was responding to a post from the account of Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, asking, “Is there ever a reason to block vs mute someone?” The group behind that account promotes the electric car company, where Musk is CEO.

He said X would retain the mute function, which screens a user from seeing specified accounts but, unlike blocking, does not alert the other account to the action.

Users have been able to use the block function to make sure that hateful content and harassment don’t show up in their feeds in response to their posts. The mute feature keeps the individual user from seeing the undesired responses but doesn’t eliminate them from others’ feeds.

Twitter users have also long employed the block feature in boycotts and to avoid seeing ads from specific brands or promoters on the platform.

Canadian Government asks Meta to consider news ban

The ongoing tussle between Meta and Canada’s federal government over big tech’s compensation for news publishers has created a local media vacuum for Yellowknife evacuees, who had to flee the Northwest Territories’ capital because of a rapidly approaching wildfire, making it harder to spread life-saving information amid the emergency.

Bill C-18, or the Online News Act, which forces large social media platforms to pay Canadian news publishers for sharing their content, recently became law despite pushback from internet companies. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it would pull news from its subsidiaries if the requirement became mandatory—and on Aug. 1, it did.

As the Northwest Territories battle 236 of the 1,050 fires active in the country, sharing information directly from credible news sources like national publisher CBC, local newspaper The Yellowknifer, and digital broadcaster Cabin Radio on social media is off the table for the 20,000 Yellowknife residents hit with an evacuation order.

Meanwhile, Meta is sticking to its guns. “People in Canada are able to use Facebook and Instagram to connect to their communities and access reputable information, including content from official government agencies, emergency services and non-governmental organisations,” Meta spokesperson David Troya-Alvarez told CBC on Aug. 17.

NYC bans TikTok on Government owned devices

New York City on Wednesday banned TikTok on government-owned devices, citing security concerns, joining a number of U.S. cities and states that have put such restrictions on the short video-sharing app.

TikTok, which is used by over 150 million Americans and owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, has faced growing calls from U.S. lawmakers for a nationwide ban over concerns about possible Chinese government influence.

TikTok “posed a security threat to the city’s technical networks,” the administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.

New York City agencies are required to remove the app within 30 days, and employees will lose access to the app and its website on city-owned devices and networks. New York State had already banned TikTok on state-issued mobile devices.

Amidst the ban, nearly half of American adults support a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey asking questions about national security concerns and China.

Some 47% of respondents to the two-day poll, which concluded on Tuesday, said they at least somewhat supported “banning the social media application, TikTok, from use in the United States,” while 36% opposed a ban and 17% said they didn’t know. Fifty-eight per cent of Republicans favoured a ban, compared to 47% of Democrats, the poll showed.

Google building AI that offers humans life advice

Google is reportedly building an AI that offers life advice: One of Google’s AI units is using generative AI to develop at least 21 different tools for life advice, planning, and tutoring.

Google’s DeepMind has become the “nimble, fast-paced” standard-bearer for the company’s AI efforts, as CNBC previously reported, and is behind the development of the tools, the Times reported.

News of the tool’s development comes after Google’s AI safety experts reportedly presented a slide deck to executives in December that said users taking life advice from AI tools could experience “diminished health and well-being” and a “loss of agency,” per the Times.

Google has reportedly contracted with Scale AI, the $7.3 billion startup focused on training and validating AI software, to test the tools. More than 100 people with Ph. D.s have been working on the project, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke with the Times.