Techlife News #169

Apple didn’t attend last week’s gadget show but its presence was felt. Many companies have designed “smart” home products that integrate with Apple’s HomeKit, an emerging technology for controlling lights and appliances through a mobile app. There are other efforts to unify smart-home devices, but many of them rely on individual partnerships. That approach is slower than simply having everyone use a common set of tools - in this case, HomeKit. SO WHAT IS HOMEKIT? Think of HomeKit as a way to unify smart-home products from different manufacturers. Currently, if Acme Co. makes a light switch, you need to download Acme’s app to control it remotely. Buy a garage door opener from Widget Inc., and you need to use Widget’s app. With HomeKit, companies can integrate their apps into a single software…

“American Idol” producers have talked about a cross-promotion with “Empire,” Fox’s hot new series about a music industry family, perhaps getting some of the contestants on the scripted show, producers said Saturday. “The music connection would be silly to ignore,” said Trish Kinane, executive producer of “American Idol.” The two shows air back-to-back on Wednesday nights. “Empire” has been a success out of the box, already earning an order for a second season, while age has cost “American Idol” its long-time status of television’s biggest show. Folks at “Empire” signaled an interest in the idea later Saturday. “It would be stupid not to,” said actor Terrence Howard, who plays the show’s lead character, Lucious Lyon. “American Idol” producers, host Ryan Seacrest and judges Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr. talked about steps being…

A revised settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit alleging Apple and Google conspired with other Silicon Valley companies to block more than 60,000 high-tech employees from getting better job offers. The terms of the new agreement weren’t disclosed in a letter filed Tuesday (13) with an appeals court in San Francisco. Donald Falk, a lawyer who filed the letter on behalf of Google Inc., declined to comment Wednesday. The new settlement comes five months after U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh rejected an earlier deal that would have required Apple Inc., Google, Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. to pay $324.5 million to resolve a lawsuit alleging the companies secretly agreed not to recruit each other’s workers. Koh concluded the evidence in the case warranted a payment of at least $380 million. The…

Google will stop selling its Internet-connected eyewear to consumers until the company can develop a more polished and affordable version that’s less likely to be viewed as a freakish device. The sales moratorium on the nearly 2-year-old “Explorer” edition of Google Glass goes into effect Jan. 19. The decision announced Thursday coincides with Glass’ spin-off from the secretive Google X lab where it was invented. Glass will now operate in a division steered by veteran marketing executive Ivy Ross, whose past experience includes stints at fashion-conscious companies such as Gap Inc. and Calvin Klein. Ross will report to Tony Fadell, who played an instrumental role in the design of Apple’s iPod and now runs the smart-appliance maker Nest Labs that Google Inc. bought for $3.2 billion last year. Google will still sell a…

CES 2015 SERVES UP PLENTY OF EXCITING DEVICES If you're the kind of person who, when you hear the word 'drone', immediately pictures some arcane military operation taking place in a war-torn part of the Middle East, you're already behind the times. That's because the recent International Consumer Electronics Show, or CES 2015, had a host of new drones on display, demonstrating just what is possible with the technology today. It turns out that the possibilities for drones are rich, and should certainly give loyal users of iOS devices something to get excited about. Indeed, there are drones on the market right now for iGadget users, such as the ParrotAR.Drone 2.0, which is capable of capturingHD photos and videos and can be easilypiloted via your iDevice, whether you make it take off,…

The publisher of an authorized best-seller about North Korean defector and human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk, who has retracted substantial parts of his story, said Sunday that it is anxious for an “accurate understanding” of the facts. Penguin Books publicity director Louise Braverman said in a statement that the publisher was consulting with Blaine Harden, whose “Escape from Camp 14” came out in 2012. Viking, a Penguin imprint, “has been apprised that there were some inaccuracies in the story Shin Dong-hyuk, the subject of the book, told the author,” the statement reads. “We are working with the author on an accurate understanding of the facts.” Harden’s book spent several weeks on The New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists, and, according to Braverman, has been published in 27 languages. More than 200,000…