Apple revives blood oxygen feature in latest Watch models after patent row pause
Software updates will add the capability to an array of Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 Apple Watch models, according to the iPhone maker.
'This update was enabled by a recent US Customs ruling,' Apple said in a blog post.
Apple temporarily halted US sales of its latest smartwatch models last January as part of a patent feud with health company Masimo.
Masimo, based in southern California, filed a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) which decided to halt imports of the Apple Watch models over a patented technology for detecting blood-oxygen levels.
Apple manufactures the vast majority of its products overseas, giving the ITC jurisdiction over the patent feud.
According to reports, Apple removed the technology from the smartwatches in question at the time and resumed selling them.
Masimo argued that it invented the technology and that Apple poached key employees to win access to the know-how.
But Apple contended that the ITC finding was in error and appealed the decision in US federal court.
Apple strongly promotes its smartwatch's fitness and health features, which include detection of heartbeat irregularities, falls, sleep apnea, and harmful noise levels. — AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
5 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Legal spotlight falls on Roblox as US state sues over child safety and online predators
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 16 — The US state of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit accusing Roblox of facilitating the exploitation of children, prompting the online game platform to reject the claim as 'untrue' yesterday. A lawsuit filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill contends that Silicon Valley-based Roblox facilitates distribution of child sexual abuse material and the exploitation of minors. 'Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritises user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety,' Murrill maintained in a release. The lawsuit charges Roblox with 'knowingly and intentionally' failing to implement basic safety controls to protect children. Nearly 82 million people use Roblox daily, with more than half of them being younger than 18 years of age, according to the suit. 'Any assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue,' the company said yesterday in a posted response to the filing. 'No system is perfect and bad actors adapt to evade detection,' the company added, stressing that it works 'continuously' to promote a safe online environment on the platform. The Roblox online gaming and creation platform was founded in 2004 and allows users to play, create and share virtual experiences. Roblox is one of the most popular online platforms for children, 'offering a vibrant world of interactive games, imaginative play, and creative self-expression,' according to the nonprofit Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). A FOSI guide available at its website 'walks parents through the basics of Roblox, the ways children commonly engage with it, and how to use built-in features like content filters, chat settings, and screen time controls' for safety. Roblox announced major safety upgrades late last year, introducing remote parental controls and restricting communication features for users under 13. US-based FOSI endorsed the changes at the time, its chief saying Roblox was taking 'significant steps toward building a safer digital environment.' — AFP
The Star
7 hours ago
- The Star
'You liar': Elon Musk and Sam Altman's AI battle erupts on social media
The feud between the two dates back to 2018, when Musk left the OpenAI board. — AFP The long-running rivalry between tech titans Sam Altman and Elon Musk reignited this week with a public clash over Apple's App Store rankings and alleged manipulation of the X algorithm. On Monday night, Musk threatened to sue Apple, accusing the company of "unequivocal antitrust violations" for allegedly giving preferential treatment to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which currently holds the top spot on the US App Store. "Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1," Musk wrote. He added that his company, xAI, "will take immediate legal action." Altman, CEO of OpenAI – which he co-founded with Musk in 2015 – quickly fired back. "This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn't like," Altman wrote, referencing a 2023 Platformer report detailing how Musk allegedly ordered changes to X's algorithm to boost his own visibility. The feud between the two dates back to 2018, when Musk left the OpenAI board. Since then, he has become one of Altman's most vocal critics, recently refiling a lawsuit in August over OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft. The exchange on Monday soon turned personal. "You got (3 million) views on your (expletive) post, you liar, far more than I've received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!" he wrote. Altman countered with a challenge: "Will you sign an affidavit that you have never directed changes to the X algorithm in a way that has hurt your competitors or helped your own companies?" He added that he would apologise if Musk could truthfully confirm it. The spat followed a CNBC interview last week in which Altman appeared to brush off Musk's criticisms. "I don't think about him that much," he said. Musk, meanwhile, claimed his Grok chatbot outperforms GPT-5, calling the latest OpenAI model "already worse" than his own. – San Francisco Chronicle/Tribune News Service
Malay Mail
11 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Boost-phase defence and four layers of interceptors: Pentagon's blueprint for Trump's US$175b Golden Dome
WASHINGTON, Aug 16 — US President Donald Trump has picked a design for his Golden Dome missile defence system and named a leader of the ambitious US$175 billion (RM738.4 billion) defence programme. Here are some key details about the project: How will it work? The big new aim is for Golden Dome to leverage a network of hundreds of satellites circling the globe with sophisticated sensors and interceptors to knock out incoming enemy missiles after they lift off from countries like China, Iran, North Korea or Russia. In April, the Pentagon asked defence contractors how they would design and build a network to knock out intercontinental ballistic missiles during the 'boost phase' just after lift-off — the slow and predictable climb of an enemy missile through the Earth's atmosphere. Existing defences target enemy missiles only midway through their travels through space. The idea and new capability is that once the missile has been detected, Golden Dome will either shoot it down before it enters space with an interceptor or a laser, or shortly into its path of travel in space. Another new idea in the plan is to add additional defences on US soil. A blueprint of the plan presented by the Pentagon to industry in August and first reported by Reuters, revealed that in addition to the space-based intercept layer, the system will have another three land-based layers. An existing missile defence system named the Ground-Based Midcourse Defence system that uses land-based interceptors stationed in California and Alaska will be enhanced to create the second layer, according to the Pentagon presentation. The concept unveiled in August also included a third layer consisting of five land-based launch sites intended to intercept inbound missiles while they are still in space. Three of those five would be located in the continental United States, while the remaining two would be in Hawaii and Alaska. The fourth intercept layer would be for 'Limited Area Defence', meant to protect population centres. The concept includes new radars, a brand new 'common' launcher that will launch current and future interceptors and may include the existing Patriot missile defence system. These would work in concert to defeat all threat types, such as hypersonic weapons and cruise missiles, the Pentagon said. 'I promised the American people that I would build a cutting-edge missile defence shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack,' Trump said when he made the announcement in May. Is Golden Dome like Israel's Iron Dome? 'We helped Israel with theirs, and [it] was very successful, and now we have technology that's even far advanced from that,' Trump said, referring to Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system. The short-range Iron Dome air defence system was built to intercept the kinds of rockets fired by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza. Developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems with US backing, it became operational in 2011. Each truck-towed unit fires radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats like rockets, mortars and drones in mid-air. The system determines whether a rocket is on course to hit a populated area; if not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly. Iron Dome was originally billed as providing city-sized coverage against rockets with ranges of between 4 and 70 km, but experts say this has since been expanded. How is it similar to then-president Ronald Reagan's Star Wars initiative? 'We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland,' Trump said in May. The idea of strapping rocket launchers, or lasers, to satellites so they can shoot down enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles is not new. It was part of the Star Wars initiative devised during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. But it represents a huge and expensive technological leap from current capabilities. Reagan's 'Strategic Defence Initiative,' as it was called, was announced in 1983 as groundbreaking research into a national defence system that could make nuclear weapons obsolete. The heart of the SDI programme was a plan to develop a space-based missile defence programme that could protect the US from a large-scale nuclear attack. The proposal involved many layers of technology that would enable the United States to identify and destroy automatically a large number of incoming ballistic missiles as they were launched, as they flew, and as they approached their targets. SDI failed because it was too expensive, too ambitious from a technology perspective, could not be easily tested and appeared to violate an existing anti-ballistic missile treaty. Who will build Golden Dome? One-time Trump ally Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX had emerged as a frontrunner alongside software firm Palantir and drone maker Anduril to build key components of the system. But the effort may have faltered when the Trump administration side-lined the concept of Golden Dome as a paid-for service not owned by the government. Many of the early systems are expected to come from existing production lines. Attendees at the White House press conference with Trump named L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp as potential contractors for the massive project. L3 has invested US$150 million in building its new facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it makes the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor Satellites that are part of a Pentagon effort to better detect and track hypersonic weapons with space-based sensors and could be adapted for Golden Dome. But Golden Dome's funding remains uncertain. Republican lawmakers have proposed a US$25-billion initial investment for it as part of a broader US$150-billion defence package, but this funding is tied to a contentious reconciliation bill that faces significant hurdles in Congress. — Reuters
