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When a user who had downloaded music from a rival service tried to sync an iPod to the user’s iTunes library, Apple would display an error message and instruct the user to restore the factory settings, Coughlin said. When the user restored the settings, the music from rival services would disappear, he said. Apple directed the system “not to tell users the problem,” Coughlin said. To plaintiffs in the case, the move showed how Apple had stifled competition for music players and downloads. They are seeking $350 million in damages in the decade-old suit, claiming Apple’s actions forced them to pay more for iPods. The damages could be tripled under antitrust laws.

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble unveiled a "strategic partnership" back in April 2012 which involved the software maker investing $300 million for a stake in a separate digital Nook business. Two years later, Barnes & Noble is now buying back Microsoft’s 17.6 percent stake for $62 million and around 2.7 million Barnes & Noble shares, a clear loss on Microsoft’s original investment. Barnes & Noble revealed the purchased in a document filed with the SEC today, and it’s not immediately clear why Microsoft is selling its stake. A company spokesperson says "as the respective business strategies of each company evolved, we mutually agreed that it made sense to terminate the agreement."

RT @Techmeme: Ron Wyden introduces bill to ban FBI 'backdoors' in tech products (@thedextriarchy)

RT @Techmeme: Ron Wyden introduces bill to ban FBI 'backdoors' in tech products (@thedextriarchy)

RT @Techmeme: Ex-employees say Sony was warned of lax security for years and ignored risk assessment advice

RT @Techmeme: Ex-employees say Sony was warned of lax security for years and ignored risk assessment advice

Judge rules that banks can sue Target for 2013 credit card hack

RT @Techmeme: AT&T still throttles "unlimited data"--even when network not congested (@jbrodkin)

RT @Techmeme: AT&T still throttles "unlimited data"--even when network not congested (@jbrodkin)

7 secrets from the Sony hack: Scripts, salaries, employee romances and more

In a surprising turn on Friday, the lawyers suing Apple in the $350 million case withdrew one of the named plaintiffs after they concluded that she did not purchase an iPod between September 2006 and March 2009, the period in which Apple is accused of preventing music from competing services from playing on its iPods.

Another day, another payment card data breach. In what’s now becoming routine news, this morning retailer Bebe is confirming a security incident that took place over the busy holiday shopping period in November which saw attackers stealing customer’s names, account numbers, expiration dates and verification codes from cards swiped in stores. The breach occurred during the dates of November 8, 2014 and November 26, 2014, and affected those shopping in the retailer’s stores located in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Jobs then says that any competitors that got locked out by changes in security were "collateral damage," adding that Apple did not want the onus of trying to work with third-party companies in order to get their systems to work with the closed security they'd come up with.

The clandestine move – city code prohibits unpermitted ride-sharing – was met with a threat of immediate retaliation from Portland Commissioner Steve Novick. If Uber drivers are going to start operating without the city's approval, "then we will try to catch them and seek penalty," said Novick, who oversees the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

Defectors from the North have said Bureau 121, staffed by some of the most talented computer experts in the insular state, is part of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, an elite spy agency run by the military. They have said it is involved in state-sponsored hacking, used by the Pyongyang government to spy on or sabotage its enemies.

TNR.com might flourish under Snyder. But it won't be what The New Republic was. And that's because the thing The New Republic was has already died. The eulogy that needs to be written isn't for The New Republic. It's for The New Republic and The American Prospect and The Washington Monthly and their peers. It's for the role once played by Washington's small fleet of ambitious policy magazines.

Late yesterday, some of its primary developers “forked” this open source project, creating a new version of the tool they call Io.js. The group was unhappy with the stewardship of Node’s official sponsor, cloud computing company Joyent, so they’ve chosen to fashion a new version on their own.

RT @counternotions: Should you care that Google says 56.1% of ads served on the internet are never seen on screen for even a second?

Zuckerberg is on shaky ground criticizing Apple’s business model

RT @Techmeme: Ralph H. Baer, Inventor of First System for Home Video Games, Is Dead at 92

RT @Techmeme: Ralph H. Baer, Inventor of First System for Home Video Games, Is Dead at 92

RT @pourmecoffee: Exciting stuff. "Researchers convert sunlight to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency"

It also (probably) means that Google’s team doesn’t think Apple is planning a significant overhaul of Apple TV anytime soon, since it (probably) wouldn’t spend the time on an app refresh if it thought the device was going to change radically in the near future.

Dashlane, the subscription-based password management service, is introducing a feature today that ought to become standard in every product like it: the ability to change all your passwords with a single click, including accounts with two-factor authentication enabled. The feature will work with about 75 major websites at launch, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, PayPal, Pinterest, and Twitter.

A federal judge on Monday disqualified the only remaining plaintiff in the case, Marianna Rosen of New Jersey, after Apple’s lawyers successfully argued that she did not even buy any iPods for which she is seeking damages. That argument also gave Apple an opening last week to ask Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the federal judge overseeing the case, to throw out the suit.

The case on Internet shopping concerned Colorado’s novel attempt to collect sales taxes on out-of-state purchases in response to the Supreme Court’s 1992 decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota. That decision said states may not collect taxes from companies without some local physical presence.