Autonomous Theft

Big IP theft news coming out of the Valley this PM.

The New York Times and others are reporting that Anthony Levandowski, a self-driving technology guru, was charged by federal prosecutors on Tuesday with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets from Google.

This could present a new front in the all-out IP war between the major autonomous driving players: Uber, Google’s self-driving outfit, Waymo, potentially others.

The cause of action? Mr. Levandowski is alleged to have downloaded more than 14k files containing “critical information about Googles autonomous-vehicle research before leaving the company in 2016.” And then transferred those files to his personal laptop…which was a no-no.

The files he’s alleged to have stolen contained drawings and schematics pertaining to circuitry and LIDAR laser-sensors used in Google’s self-driving cars.

Here’s what the U.S. attorney, David L. Anderson, had to say in a statement issued by the DOJ: “All of us have the right to change jobs; none of us has the right to fill our pockets on the way out the door. Theft is not innovation.”

If convicted of the charges against him, Levandowski faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of $250,000. Leave those USB sticks at home, kids!

Gaming Apple

Apple has released an emergency patch for the iPhone. The backstory: iOS 12.4 had an update that reintroduced a bug they had previously fixed, and the world’s hackers clued into an iPhone jailbreak for the first time in years. If you want to keep a tight iPhone ship, download 12.4.1 which re-fixes the bug.

Also on the Apple front, what’s happened since the App Store’s big makeover in 2017? TechCrunch reports that was Apple’s attempt to “shift consumer’s attention away from the Top Charts and more toward editorial content.”

But app devs want to make it to the No. 1 position, and according to new research from Sensor Tower, it has become easier for non-game apps to do so.

Probably, they speculate, because the U.S. market has been saturated top apps like Facebook and Messenger and leaving more room at the top.

For games, in 2016 it only took 118K median downloads to top the charts. This year, it’s required more like 174,000 downloads for a game to reach the top on any given day, 85% more than the 94K installs required for non-game apps.

So maybe build a non-saturated Facebook/Instagram-ish like app that lets you play Asteroids or Defender…?