Apple has started compensating iPhone users who claimed that the company deliberately slowed down certain of their devices, the BBC reports.

In 2017, a number of iPhone users in the United States started to observe a decrease in their device’s performance following the installation of the most recent software updates, iOS 10.2.1 and 11.2.0.

In that same year, Apple confirmed the suspicions of many iPhone owners by revealing it does deliberately slow down some models of the iPhone as they age.

The company said it does slow down some models as they age, but only because the phones’ battery performance diminishes over time, as reported by the BBC in 2017.

Because of the processes involved in the charging and discharging cycle, lithium batteries, used by iPhones, deteriorate with time.

Those who have filed complaints — around three million people — will be entitled to a portion of a $500 million (£394 million) settlement, which amounts to approximately $92 per claim.

According to the BBC, Apple previously called the lawsuit “baseless” and said, “We have never – and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.”

Apple also emphasised their commitment to extending the lifespan of its customers’ devices instead of pushing them to purchase new phones.

However, the lawsuit alleged that the company had been intentionally slowing down phone performance without informing customers.

Apple reached a settlement in 2020, asserting that it had no involvement in any wrongdoing but was mindful of the expenses associated with ongoing legal proceedings.

According to LAdBible, some of the complainants have posted on social media that they’ve received a payment of $92.17.

This is coming as UK owners await developments in a similar case against Apple that was given the go-ahead in November last year, Sky News reports.

The UK case was initiated by consumer advocate Justin Gutmann.

Gutmann asserts that the tech giant misled around 25 million customers by secretly slowing down their devices.

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TECHDIGEST – A watchdog is to investigate Twitter after a hacker claimed to have private details linked to more than 400 million accounts.

According to The BBC, the hacker, “Ryushi”, is demanding $200,000 (£166,000) to hand over the data – reported to include that of some celebrities – and delete it.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission says it “will examine Twitter’s compliance with data-protection law in relation to that security issue.”

Twitter has not commented on the claim. The data is said to include phone numbers and emails, including those belonging to celebrities and politicians, but the purported size of the haul is not confirmed. Only a small “sample” has so far been made public.

The Guardian reported that data of US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was included in the sample of data published by the hacker. The data of broadcaster Piers Morgan, who recently had his Twitter account hacked, is also reported to be included.

READ ALSO: Telcos seek NCC approval to disconnect banks over N80 billion debt

Twitter has so far not responded to press inquiries about the claimed breach. Chief executive Elon Musk did not reply to a tweeted request for comment from leading cyber-security reporter Brian Krebs — though the breach, as Mr Krebs notes, probably occurred before the Tesla boss took over.

Cyber-crime intelligence company Hudson Rock says it was the first to raise the alarm about the data sale. While acknowledging the amount of data taken had not been verified, the firm’s chief technology officer, Alon Gal, told the BBC a number of clues appeared to support the hacker’s claim.

The data did not appear to have been copied from an earlier breach in which details were published from 5.4 million Twitter accounts, Mr Gal said.

Only 60 emails out of the sample of 1,000 provided by the hacker in the earlier incident appeared, “so we are confident that this breach is different and significantly bigger,” he said.

Also, Mr Gal noted: “The hacker aims to sell the database through an escrow service that is offered on a cyber-crime forum. Typically, this is only done for real offerings.”

An escrow service is a third party that agrees to release funds only when certain conditions (such as handing over data) are met.

‘Ryushi’ has said that it exploited a problem with a system that lets computer programmes connect with Twitter to compile the data.

Twitter fixed the weakness in the system in 2022. But the flaw is also believed to have been used in the earlier breach affecting more than five million accounts. The DPC announced it was investigating that earlier breach on December 23.

As Twitter’s European headquarters are based in Dublin, the commission is the lead authority supervising its compliance with EU data-protection rules. In a statement sent to the BBC about the latest incident, the DPC noted its continuing investigation into the earlier Twitter breach but added: “Reports have claimed that some additional datasets have now been offered for sale on the dark web.

“The DPC has engaged with Twitter in this inquiry and will examine Twitter’s compliance with data-protection law in relation to that security issue.” The hacker is aware of how damaging the loss of data can be for platforms.

In the online post offering to sell the data, it warns Twitter that its best chance of avoiding a large data-protection fine is to buy back the data exclusively.

In November, Meta was hit with a 265m-euro ($276m) fine by the DPC after data scraped from more than 533 million Facebook users was leaked online.

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TECH DIGEST- The BBC has stated that it plans to invest in new technology and studio space as part of its aim to combine its current UK and worldwide news channels into one.

The money will be invested in popular radio programs, a technique that news outlets are increasingly adopting.

According to the BBC, BBC News will be broadcast worldwide and include new flagship programs centered on prominent journalists and programs commissioned for other platforms.

READ ALSO: Snapchat upgrades to web after over 10 years as mobile-only service

According to the broadcaster, a new live and breaking news team will offer globally accessible coverage of breaking international news and, when appropriate, a domestic-only stream for UK-specific news events.

During UK daylight hours, the channel will be transmitted from London, followed by Singapore and Washington, D.C.

It’s anticipated that the channel, which will be called BBC News, would debut in April 2023.

“Our goal is to build the best live and breaking video news service in the world,” said Naja Nielsen, director of BBC News digital, “on our web pages, our apps, on BBC iPlayer, and on our new TV news channel. He also said, “As the world’s most trusted source of news, with a huge depth and breadth of expertise, the BBC is uniquely placed to offer audiences the best analysis and explanation as these stories are unfolding. So we are investing in new capability to cover breaking news stories, and our news channel and digital teams will work hand in hand to bring the best journalism to audiences both at home and abroad.”

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TECH DIGEST – In as perfect a response as one could give to social media click baiters alluding to ritualistic and illicit sources behind the “spraying” display at his mother’s burial ceremony, Obinna Iyiegbu, popularly known as Obi Cubana while speaking to BBC Pidgin, emphatically stated; ” native doctor no fit give you money, becos im children, na dem dey fetch water for stream” (Translated: Native doctor cannot make you rich, because they are his children that fetch water from the stream).

Obi Cubana is from Oba, Anambra State and is an Igbo man and on the weekend when friends and associates came to do him honour at his mother’s burial, he came face to face with a most distasteful stereotypical diatribe typically reserved for “Igbo’s” (money ritualist) – a most disgusting tag not founded in any reality.

This mindless allusion that casts a whole race of people in such light is tiresome and defies reason, especially when it is the Igbo race.

I stand to be corrected, when I say, the Igbo’s are the most hard-working, industrious, ingenious people on the African continent and in the top echelon on the face of the earth.

The Igbo man dares, where others are reticent. He stoops to conquer, eyes on the prize, suffering and taking indignities in his stride where others are prideful.

He is pragmatic and uniquely wired to be ingenious where others are stymied or weighted by inaction and resigned to their fate.

It is of this stock that Obi Cubana is from and the overwhelming majority of their success stories are won through a tenacious will to succeed and lawfully at that.

Yes, the show of opulence in the spraying of money might put some “moralistic” noses out of joint, but such displays have been made a national sport by Nigerian elite “misleaders” who have institutionalized and elevated the display of conspicuous consumption to an art form.

At least, those who graced the Oba event have not been tagged amongst the lot, who loot our collective commonwealth and hide humongous amounts in pits, inside pillow, under cooking pot, animal gullets or in “Panama papers” shrouded foreign accounts.

And yes, even though I am not in sync with the “heavy” display of money in Oba, my personal disposition does not deify me as a “god” to become judgmental. If anything, I understand the manifest power of “single stories” once taken hold.

Obi Cubana, who in recent days, had to offer a public clarification that he was not Cubana Chief Priest, has amazingly up to his mother’s burial kept a low and unflashy profile considering he is an entertainment big-shot.

The show-biz industry all over the world is one where it’s players are forever in an unending quest for their own peculiar holy grail, which entails going to any length to get “noticed” and “talked about”.

It is in this context that the spectacle of “Oba” should be situated. Obi Cubana and majority of his guests are of the show-biz world!

For those who got on very high horses taking subjective measurements of the amount of money rain in Oba, for surely their grouse must be in the measurement, as money rain is a national sport that takes place on a daily basis in ceremonies across Nigeria, then they should know that their commentary has only succeeded in making the event a “dream” show-biz success – “getting noticed and talked about”.

As for the odious stereotypical vituperations thrown at Obi Cubana and his “men”, it is a given that they, just like the mudslingers and indeed every other Nigerian, if found wanting in acquiring dubious wealth will face justice according to law.

Under no circumstances otherwise, should anyone be venomously castigated for their way of life just because it differs from another’s.

Obi Cubana’s story of fighting the odds to become successful as told on BBC Pidgin is a very Nigerian story and very uniquely a storied theme among Igbo’s and many such testimonies abound.

His single story is a mirror to countless others and I can testify in witness to a few myself as indeed I am sure many can.

That there are evil people who are participants in ritualistic killings for money rituals is not in question. That such ritualistic acts is prevalent across the country and not typical to any particular place is empirically not in doubt. However, not every young man who “makes it” is a ritualist. Until proven otherwise, young people in Nigeria who succeed in the face of dire odds deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Talking to BBC Pidgin, Obi Cubana said; “Work, pray, be good. Dem no dey cut soap for anybody for this world” (translated: Work, pray and be good. There is no easy route to success)

Nigeria’s super cop, Abba Kyari, Obi’s friend and a man who I am sure, has to be very particular in his associations, had this to say of Obi Cubana; “Obinna Iyiegbu popularly known as Obi Cubana is one of the most hardworking entrepreneurs and humble personalities that I have known for many years. He is a brother and good friend” Full stop

Victor Ikhatalor, ambassador of Nigerian Industry and Business. He can be reached via email: kingjvic7@gmail.com

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TECH DIGEST – Google has been hit with a €500m (£427m) fine by France’s competition authority for failing to negotiate “in good faith” with news organisations over the use of their content.

The authority accused Google of not taking an order to do so seriously.

Google told the BBC the decision “ignores our efforts to reach an agreement”.

The fine is the latest skirmish in a global copyright battle between tech firms and news organisations.

Last year, the French competition authority ordered that Google must negotiate deals with news organisations to show extracts of articles in search results, news and other services.

Google was fined because, in the authority’s view, it failed to do this.

In 2019, France became the first EU country to transpose a new Digital Copyright Directive into law.

The law governed so-called “neighbouring rights” which are designed to compensate publishers and news agencies for the use of their material.

As a result, Google decided it would not show content from EU publishers in France, on services like search and news, unless publishers agreed to let them do so free of charge.

News organisations felt this was an abuse of Google’s market power, and two organisations representing press publishers and Agence France-Presse (AFP) complained to the competition authority.

Google told the BBC: “We are very disappointed with this decision – we have acted in good faith throughout the entire process.”

It said that it is, to date, the only company to have announced agreements on so-called neighbouring rights.

It added it was about to finalise an agreement with AFP that includes a global licensing agreement and payments for press publications.

The new ruling means that within the next two months Google must come up with proposals explaining how it will recompense companies for the use of their news.

Should this fail to happen the company could face additional fines of €900,000 per day.

“When the authority decrees an obligation for a company, it must comply scrupulously,” said the competition authority’s Isabelle de Silva in a statement.

“Here, this was unfortunately not the case,” she wrote.

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