A few days ago, there were reports that four Silicon Valley companies, including Apple and Google, have agreed to a new settlement aimed at resolving an antitrust class action lawsuit alleging they conspired to avoid poaching each anothers’ employees. Although there was no word on the settlement amount at that time, it is now being reported that the companies, which also include Adobe and Intel, have agreed to pay a total of $415 million to settle the dispute.

The proposed settlement, which is $90.5 million more than a previous deal that was rejected by a US judge, was revealed in a motion filed by the firms yesterday in US District Court in San Jose, California. Read more »

Xbox One already became the top-selling gaming console in the US for the month of November 2014, outselling Sony’s PlayStation 4 which was consistently topping the sales charts in the country since January last year, and now Microsoft has revealed that the device did it again for the month of December.

“Xbox One ended 2014 with an unprecedented holiday season, becoming the best-selling console in the U.S. in November and December,” the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a blog post, adding that weekly average sales during these two months topped Xbox 360 by 50% at the same point in its life-cycle. Read more »

Just over a month after the city of Portland, Oregon issued Uber a cease-and-desist order, the company has been slapped with a similar order in South Carolina. The Public Service Commission of South Carolina has ordered the company to stop operating until it gets a certificate of public convenience and necessity, which is required by law for any motor vehicle carrier, including taxi cab services.

“Consumers benefit from, and deserve choices in, the marketplace. However, those choices must be consistent with state law intended to protect the public,” said the Commission in a legal filing which names Rasier LLC, a wholly-owned Uber subsidiary that operates the company’s UberX service. Read more »

Google has announced that it will be shutting down the Google Glass Explorer Program. Under this program, users could purchase the Glass from Google’s website and provide feedback on the product. The last day to purchase Google Glass under the Explorer Program is January 19.

But even though the Explorer Program is ending, Google Glass itself isn’t going anywhere. Google said in its Google+ post that the team working on the Glass program is graduating from the experimental Google[x] labs division to having their proper division at Google. Read more »

The Microsoft Band got treated to its first major update. The new firmware brings a new feature to the wearable called Guided Workouts.

As the name kindly suggests, Guided Workouts will deliver exercise feedback straight from the Microsoft Band. Read more »

The Motorola Nexus 6 has so far been quite hard to purchase, especially if you were after an unlocked unit. Stock in the Play Store comes and goes extremely fast, for example. Now though, you can order the 32GB white version of the Nexus 6, and save some money in the process.

Expansys is running a “deal of the day” type thing on this unit, and as a consequence you can nab one for only $604.99. That’s $45 less than the normal selling price of this high-end monster. Read more »

Google’s updated a lot of Android apps recently, but now it’s apparently the turn of its Web-based Play Store. This is in the process of receiving a slight redesign. The rollout seems to be gradual, but more and more people are reporting seeing the new Play Store on the Web.

The main new thing unfortunately isn’t 100% adherence to Material Design. That’s still not available, but in the meantime the “Similar” apps list has been moved. Read more »

As part of its Google for Education project, the tech giant has released a mobile version of its Classroom app, bringing homework writing to the smartphone. The app lets you organize you school duties, offering schedules, assignments and to-do lists.

Students can upload papers straight from the app, making homework submission a breeze. Unlike actually doing homework. Read more »

The Google Now Launcher just got updated with Material Design for devices running KitKat and Jelly Bean. This will enable users to enjoy a taste of the new Android 5.0 Lollipop looks on their devices while waiting for manufacturers to push out the latest Android update for their phone.

In addition to the new fresh coat of paint, there are new animations and quicker access to settings and Google Now accounts. There’s a noticeable improvement in the responsiveness, too. Read more »

Ads sell you a phone and that’s it, right? But if ads can go on after you bought the phone, someone stands to make a lot of money – India-based phone maker Micromax found a way to do just that. Multiple users complained that they were seeing ads in their notification areas.

Worse still, they found new apps on their device that they didn’t install themselves. Read more »

Intel is expected to report quarterly numbers unseen since 2003. If you have shares in the company you can anticipate earnings of $0.66 per piece on a projected revenue of $14.7 billion, according to market analysts at FactSet.

With around 60% of the company’s revenue coming from PC sales, favorable events in the software world have meant a successful year with another one to come. Read more »

LG is claiming you don’t have to go to the gym to get in shape in a headline for its sweepstakes competition launched yesterday. More realistically, the company is offering a chance to win a G Watch R and £25 of Google Play vouchers.

The competition is aimed at promoting the smartwatch’s health and fitness capabilities. Read more »

The Nokia N1 Android 5.0 Lollipop tablet is out in China and already some 20 thousand people have it on tap so now it’s time for the early impressions.

There’s a slew of unboxing photos accompanied by impressions, some benchmarks, a couple of camera samples and even a disassembly of the tablet. You can find those right after the break. Read more »

Like many places around the world, UberX is illegal in most Australian states, as the law clearly says that ridesharing services must be provided in a licensed taxi or hire car, by a driver holding a taxi driver’s license, and that’s the reason why the country’s transport officials have been conducting sting operations to fine UberX drivers. However, according to an ABC report, the company is outsmarting transport inspectors by blocking their smartphones from accessing the service.

The report cites emails obtained under Queensland’s Right To Information (RTI) laws, revealing the problems being faced by undercover investigators tasked with penalizing the service’s drivers. “Due to blocking by Uber, only two covert rides were undertaken [today],” said an official from the Department of Transport and Main Roads in an email to colleagues last year, adding that “time was spent purchasing new credit cards, activating Gmail accounts, and setting up two more phones.” Read more »

Fujifilm unveiled a small update to its X-A1 compact system camera. The Fujifilm X-A2 builds on the tilting screen of its predecessor by letting it flip 175° for easier selfies. The screen itself is a 3″ 920k-dot LCD.

Alongside the new camera, Fuji unveiled two new lenses for the system – the XC16-50mm II and the XC50-230mm II. Read more »