Calling all aspiring old crones and stoic Willem Dafoe lookalikes: Now is your chance to become keeper of the lighthouse. ‘What lighthouse?,’ you might ask. Why, any of the 10 lighthouses that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is granting to the public and other entities in 2023.
Google has just been hit with a $32.5 million penalty for infringing on a patent held by Sonos. According to Law360, a California federal jury ordered the fine after determining that Google infringed on a patent Sonos holds relating to grouping speakers so they can play audio at the same time, something the company has been doing for years.
US District Judge William Alsup had already determined that early version of products like the Chromecast Audio and Google Home infringed on Sonos’ patent; the question was whether more recent, revamped products were also infringing on the patent. The jury found in favor of Sonos, but decided a second patent — one that relates to controlling devices via a smartphone or other device — wasn’t violated. They said that Sonos hadn’t convincingly shown that the Google Home app infringed on that particular patent.
Still, it feels like a big win for Sonos, who originally filed suit against Google all the way back in January of 2020. Specifically, Sonos claimed that Google gained knowledge of the patent through prior collaboration between the two companies, back they collaborated to allow for integration between Sonos’s speakers and Google Play Music.
Since then, Google counter-sued Sonos, claiming that Sonos had in fact infringed its own patents around smart speakers. As with any good legal battle, Sonos then expanded its own lawsuit a few months later. More recently, Google sued Sonos in 2022, saying that its new voice assistant infringed on seven patents relating to the Google Assistant.
Whether today’s decision will slow the legal battle between the two companies remains to be seen, though we’d expect the bickering to continue full-throttle in the months to come. There are plenty of suits out there between the companies that aren’t yet resolved, and we’d expect Google to appeal this decision as well. We’ve reached out to both Sonos and Google and will update this story with anything we hear.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-fined-325-million-for-infringing-on-sonos-patent-210411398.html?src=rss
The Montana incident was just the latest in an ugly rash of confrontations involving aggressive customers upset with the store’s embrace of Pride Month.
The eufy Security S100 Wired Wall Light Cam has a giant name and a gigantic presence — it’s made to light up a big area and capture just a little bit of video.
The annual Indianapolis 500 begins this weekend, and even if you don’t have cable, there are ways to tune in and catch all the intense race moments live.
Twitter’s former public relations firm filed a lawsuit against the company on Friday, accusing it of unpaid bills since Elon Musk took over the company in October of last year. The PR firm and Twitter severed ties on November 16, three weeks after Musk acquired the company, but the firm says Twitter still owes…
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket cost the space agency $6 billion more than its original budget and is six years behind schedule, a shocking report recently revealed. The massive rocket is designed to return humans to the Moon, but could end up jeopardizing the space agency’s lunar program as funds run low.
Last night was the premiere of Critical Role’s first episode of Candela Obscura–their latest Actual Play (AP) campaign. “The Cold Embrace” was led by Matt Mercer, Critical Role’s reliable (and exceptional) Game Master. The actors include Ashley Johnson as Auggie James, Anjali Bhimani as Charlotte Eaves, Laura Bailey…
A series of consecutive snowstorms dropped a lot of snow all over California’s mountains this winter. And now all of that snow is finally melting and filling up the state’s rivers. It’s making them larger, faster, colder, and extremely dangerous to swim in.
One of the most notable omissions from this week’s PlayStation Showcase was anything from Naughty Dog. Many (including yours truly) expected the studio to reveal more details about its Last of Us multiplayer game, but we’ll need to wait a little longer to learn more about that title.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Naughty Dog said “we’re incredibly proud of the job our studio has done thus far, but as development has continued, we’ve realized what is best for the game is to give it more time.” As such, it now seems unlikely that we’ll hear much about the game during Summer Game Fest (where Naughty Dog offered a first peek at concept art from the project last year) on June 8th or on June 14th, which is the 10th anniversary of The Last Of Us arriving on PS3.
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) May 26, 2023
In a blog post in January, studio co-president and The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann said the studio would “begin to offer you some details on our ambitious The Last of Us multiplayer game” sometime this year. That suggests the studio wasn’t planning to release the title in 2023. In any case, it’s probably a good thing that Naughty Dog is taking its time to get things right. The studio won’t want to be in a position where it’s releasing a game that definitely could have used more time in the oven, as was the case with the buggy debut of The Last of Us Part 1 on PC.
On a positive note, Naughty Dog says it has other games (plural) in development, “including a brand new single-player experience.” It’s been known for a while that the studio had at least one other game in the works, but it’s not clear whether this single-player title will continue the main story of The Last of Us. Naughty Dog said it looks forward to “sharing more soon.”
“I know the fans really want Last of Us Part 3. I hear about it all of the time and all I can say is that we’re already into our next project, so the decision has already been made,” Druckmann toldKinda Funny in March. “I can’t say what it is, but that’s the process we went through, that there was a lot of consideration of different things, and we picked the thing we were most excited for.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/naughty-dog-says-its-last-of-us-multiplayer-game-needs-more-time-in-the-oven-200315565.html?src=rss
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
