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Apple is being sued for its App Store logo by a  Chinese clothing brand called Kon  that has a similar logo, reports  Phone Radar . Kon,  according to China’s Wikipedia equivalent Baidu Baike , is a clothing brand founded in 2009 based on the Sex Pistols’  Anarchy In The UK . The triangle is supposed to be skeleton bones that symbolize power over death.  Apple  changed its App Store logo back in August from a paintbrush, pencil, and a ruler, to three sticks with rounded ends that overlap each other to form a triangle. Kon’s logo looks similar, but the ends are sharp rectangles.  The Chinese clothing brand says it owns the trademark to its logo and Apple’s new App Store logo used on iPhones and macOS is a violation of Chinese copyright law. Kon is demanding Apple publicly apologize and pay damages. The Beijing People’s Court has accepted the case, according to  Phone Radar .  However, since Chinese courts don’t upload every c...

Growing business needs for digital transformation, cloud services, big-data crunching, and IT security will keep demand for tech professionals high in the coming year. In fact, the number of computer and information technology jobs is growing faster than the average for any other occupation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The across-the-board need for IT skills is making it difficult for many companies to find enough staff with up-to-date capabilities, another study found. Recent surveys by Robert Half Technology, an IT professional staffing firm, found a majority of businesses believe they're lacking in a number of key technology skills. Among the IT skills most in demand are data science and analysis, hacking and security, content creation and content marketing, programming and design, and social media marketing, according to the surveys. Developers, Security Pros in High Demand The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook predict...

Apple has made its second notable investment this week, the latest into the facial recognition technology company, Finisar. The $390 million investment announced Wednesday comes from Apple's $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, created to finance the work of domestic manufacturers and create jobs in the U.S. Apple announced the creation of the fund in May and plowed $200 million into Corning Inc., the maker of the Gorilla Glass that is used in Apple's touchscreens. The Finisar investment will help the company boost production of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, which Apple uses for Face ID, Animoji and Portrait mode selfies with the iPhone X TrueDepth camera and the proximity-sensing capabilities of AirPods. Finisar will open a manufacturing plant in Sherman, Texas, about an hour north of Dallas, creating more than 500 jobs. Finisar runs a plant in Allen, just outside of Dallas. On Monday, Apple revealed that it had acquired Shazam. That company makes the...

Three new mobile app from Google let users create  on-the-fly photo and video effects with the help of advanced hardware and computer vision algorithms. Google describes its Storyboard, Selfissimo!, and Scrubbies apps as the first in a series of "appsperiments" to help guide future imaging innovations. Available for Android devices only, Storyboard (pictured, left) automatically transforms mobile videos into stylized comic layouts. Meanwhile, Selfissimo! (pictured, middle) lets both Android and iOS users capture multiple black-and-white selfies whenever they strike poses during photo sessions. The iOS-based Scrubbies (pictured, far right) allows users to create and save video loops by "scratching" video playbacks much in the same way a DJ scratches a vinyl record. All three Google apps are just the latest indicators of how advanced technologies are making it easier for ordinary users to manipulate photo and video content in a variety of ways. While Google says...

Apple has a very expensive last minute  Christmas present for you. The just released iMac Pro is the company's "most powerful Mac ever" -- and the most expensive, starting at [$4,999]. Having been unveiled in June at Apple's developer conference, the iMac Pro is squarely aimed at Apple-using creative professionals who until now have had to make do with the aging and comparatively cheap [$2,999] Mac Pro or the even cheaper consumer version of the [$1,799] 5K iMac. John Ternus, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering said: "[The] iMac Pro combines the incredible design of the iMac with the most powerful workstation architecture we've ever built. [The] iMac is the most popular desktop for our pro users due to its amazing display and elegant design, so we completely re-engineered it to deliver performance far beyond what anyone thought possible in an all-in-one." The iMac Pro is essentially the 27in 5K iMac with the processor, graphics chi...

HIGHLIGHTS The iPhone 8 was the top trending mobile phone in India It was also the top trending consumer tech product across the globe Nokia showed up twice on both India and global lists Google has released its Year in Search 2017 report, showing the top search queries across categories throughout the year across the globe as well as in India. The most important categories for Gadgets 360 are of course the top trending mobile phone and consumer tech of the year, which are available for India and the globe, respectively. In both places, the iPhone 8 was the top trending product of 2017. The lists are based on search terms that had a high spike in traffic in 2017 as compared to 2016. Let's get started with Google's Year in Search, Top Trending Mobile Phones in India 2017 list. As we mentioned, the iPhone 8 topped that list, with Xiaomi's top-selling Redmi Note 4 next up. The 'Jio mobile' was third, probably referring to the Jio Phone feature phone launch...

HIGHLIGHTS The Nintendo Switch has sold well in its debut year It's not available in India officially yet Nintendo should launch the Switch's online service in 2018 The Nintendo Switch continues to sell well for Nintendo. Today the company announced it sold 10 million units globally in nine months. In comparison, the Nintendo Wii U sold just about 13 million units since its 2012 debut until its discontinuation earlier this year. "As you can see in people’s living rooms, on a plane or riding the subway, fans all over the world can enjoy playing Nintendo Switch wherever they go," said Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime in a prepared statement. "The response from fans has been great, and we’re doing our very best to satisfy demand during the holiday shopping season." In July, it was announced that the Nintendo Switch has shipped 4.7 million units in total. Buoyed by a slew of exclusives such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the...

Chipmaker Intel on Tuesday launched new processors branded Pentium Silver and Celeron, which are based on an architecture codenamed 'Gemini Lake' and are engineered for affordable PCs. The company has launched six new models for desktops and laptops. First up are the Pentium Silver J5005 and N5000 for desktops and laptops respectively. Both are quad-core CPUs and feature integrated Intel UHD 605 graphics. The Pentium Silver J5005 runs at up to 2.8GHz and has a 10W TDP, while the Pentium Silver N5000 runs at 2.7GHz with a 6W TDP. The new Celeron lineup includes the 2.5GHz quad-core J4105 and 2.7GHz dual-core J4005 for desktops, plus the 2.4GHz quad-core N4100 and 2.6GHz dual-core N4000 for laptops. These feature Intel UHD 600 Graphics. All desktop parts have 10W TDPs while all laptop ones are rated at 6W. All the new 'Gemini Lake' products feature integrated Gigabit Wi-Fi 802.11ac, which Intel says is a first for any PC platform. Intel also claims that it is potentiall...

Worried that a robot will one day take your job? Don't fear says a senior politician who is urging people to "embrace an android". If machines can take over routine tasks, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson believes, it will liberate people to focus on areas generating more wealth. If properly regulated, he says the growth of automation could create as many jobs as it will eliminate. "I suppose what I am really saying is - robots can set us free." A report earlier this year suggested 30% of British jobs could be threatened by automation by 2030, compared with 38% in the US and 21% in Japan, with manufacturing and retail at the greatest risk. Corbyn: Let workers control robots Will a robot take your job? But Mr Watson, who is also Labour's culture spokesman, said he was much more optimistic that technological change could be a force for economic and social good. Speaking at the launch of a new report into the future of work in the 21st Century...

Computers can be fooled into thinking a picture of a taxi is a dog just by changing one pixel, suggests research. The limitations emerged from Japanese work on ways to fool widely used AI-based image recognition systems. Many other scientists are now creating "adversarial" example images to expose the fragility of certain types of recognition software. There is no quick and easy way to fix image recognition systems to stop them being fooled in this way, warn experts. Bomber or bulldog? In their research, Su Jiawei and colleagues at Kyushu University made tiny changes to lots of pictures that were then analysed by widely used AI-based image recognition systems. All the systems they tested were based around a type of AI known as deep neural networks. Typically these systems learn by being trained with lots of different examples to give them a sense of how objects, like dogs and taxis, differ. The researchers found that changing one pixel in about 74% of the tes...

Hidden software that can record every letter typed on a computer keyboard has been discovered pre-installed on hundreds of HP laptop models. Security researcher  Michael Myng  found the keylogging code in software drivers preinstalled on HP laptops to make the keyboard work. HP said more than 460 models of laptop were affected by the "potential security vulnerability". It has issued a software patch for its customers to remove the keylogger. The issue affects laptops in the EliteBook, ProBook, Pavilion and Envy ranges, among others. HP has issued a  full list  of affected devices, dating back to 2012. In a statement, the company said: "HP uses Synaptics' touchpads in some of its mobile PCs and has worked with Synaptics to provide fixes to their error for impacted HP systems, available via the security bulletin on  HP.com ." 'Loss of confidentiality' Mr Myng discovered the keylogger while inspecting Synaptics Touchpad software, to figure ...

Scan your eyes over Apple's just-published list of the year's most popular iPhone apps, and there's  one notable omission : Shazam. In fact, it's been a while since the song-identifying software squeezed its way into the iOS App Store's top 10. So, why has Apple confirmed it is "combining" its business with that of the smaller London company? It has not revealed the price it is paying, but the sum is rumoured to be as much as $400m (£300m), which would make it one of Apple's most expensive takeovers to date. The US technology giant also hasn't disclosed its motivations beyond saying that it has "exciting plans in store". But there are several reasons the deal may have appealed. Music discovery Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption Apple is competing with Spotify among others to offer streaming music subscriptions Apple's smart assistant, Siri, already taps into Shazam, allowing users to verbally ask: "Wha...