A federal court has ruled that Uber does not need to provide wheelchair-accessible service in every US market, ABC News has reported. The company's decision to provide such a service only in certain cities was not in violation of federal law and would be overly burdensome, said Chief Judge Richard Seeborg of the federal San Francisco Court. 

Two users of motorized wheelchairs in New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi sued Uber over the lack of accessible services in those cities. Since Uber couldn't accommodate non-foldable wheelchairs, they claimed that it was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that prohibits businesses from discriminating against people based on their disabilities. They further argued that Uber has a "deep-rooted accessibility problem," treating it as an "afterthought." The trial for the case lasted nearly five years. 

Uber said in its defense that it would be too expensive to offer wheelchair service in every city if it needed to contract with providers of wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Judge Seeborg agreed, saying that the plaintiffs gave "scant evidence" that Uber could do so cost-effectively and that wait times would still be "significant" if it did. "The anticipated cost here is too high for the limited service that would result, making the proposed modification unreasonable," he said. 

The judge did reject Uber's argument that it didn't need to provide wheelchair-accessible services everywhere because it has done so in some cities, noting that the ADA looks at each modification for reasonableness.

Uber does accommodate wheelchair users in other cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. New Orleans considered mandating the service, but Uber lobbied against those efforts, according to the court records. "We welcome the outcome and are proud of our efforts to improve accessibility for all users, including through Uber WAV,” said an Uber spokesperson in a statement.

Noting that the decision arrived on the eve of the anniversary of the ADA's passage into law, lead plaintiff Scott Crawford decried the ruling. "Uber made no sincere attempt to provide accessible service, but instead claimed it was too burdensome," he said. "This could have been economically resolved years ago.'

It's rough seas for crytpocurrency exchanges these days and the latest to be buffeted is one of the world's largest, Kraken. It's reportedly under investigation by the US Treasury Department over possible sanctions violations for letting users in Iran and elsewhere trade digital tokens, according to The New York Times. 

Kraken is a private exchange valued at $11 billion co-founded by chief executive Jesse Powell in 2011. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been investigating the company since 2019 and may impose a fine, according to the NYT's sources. It would be the largest crypto company to face enforcement action related to US sanctions imposed in 1979 prohibiting the export of goods or services to Iran.

Sanctions issues at Kraken first came up in November 2019 when an employee sued the company for doing business with prohibited countries. That suit was settled, but the OFAC began investigating the company the same year over accounts in Iran, along with other sanctioned countries including Syria and Cuba.

Powell allegedly posted a spreadsheet to a company Slack channel showing that Kraken had 1,522 accounts in Iran, 149 in Syria and 83 in Cuba as of last month, according to the NYT. The data supposedly came from residence information on "verified accounts." 

Kraken declined to comment to the NYT, but said that it "closely monitors compliance with sanctions laws and, as a general matter, reports to regulators even potential issues." A Treasury spokesperson said the agency was committed to enforcing "sanctions that protect US national security," but also gave no further details. 

OFAC has previously fined other cryptocurrency exchanges over similar sanctions violations. BitGo was hit with a $98,000 fine in 2020 over 183 violations, and BitPay face a $500,000-plus fine last year for 2,102 violations.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are facing more than the usual scrutiny these days. Last year, the world's largest crytpo exchange Binance faced a US money laundering probe for being a major destination of illicit cryptocurrency. Crypto lender Celcius is under investigation by multiple states after it froze transactions, and the Winklevoss twins' crytpo exchange Gemini is facing lawsuits over a $36 million crypto theft. 

Coinbase is facing a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe into whether it allowed users to trade digital tokens that should have been registered as securities, Bloomberg has reported. Coinbase, involved indirectly in another probe by the SEC and state of New York, recently caught the regulator's eye after expanding the number of tokens it offers for trading. 

After taking a conservative approach to listing cryptocurrencies, Coinbase now lets Americans trade more than 150 tokens, according to Bloomberg. If any of those are considered to be securities, it would need to register as an exchange with the SEC. A token is considered to be a security if it involves investors putting up funds for a company in order to profit from the work of its leadership.

Last week, the commission accused a former Coinbase employee of violating insider-trading rules by helping his brother and a friend buy dozens of different types of tokens before they were listed on the platform. Coinbase itself wasn't accused of any wrongdoing, but the SEC said it considered nine of the dozens of digital tokens traded by the men to be securities, including seven listed by the exchange. 

In a response by chief legal officer Paul Grewal, Coinbase said that it "does not list securities on the platform. Period." As evidence of that, it said that the US Department of Justice "reviewed the same facts [as the SEC] and chose not to file securities fraud charges against those involved." 

Coinbase has previously complained that there's no regulatory framework for digital asset securities. As it happened, the company filed a petition for rule making to clarify those rules just before the SEC filed charges. "Instead of crafting tailored rules in an inclusive and transparent way, the SEC is relying on these types of one-off enforcement actions to try to bring all digital assets into its jurisdiction, even those assets that are not securities," Grewal wrote. 

After hiking US Prime prices earlier this year, Amazon is doing the same across Europe. According to emails received by Engadget staffers and a Reuters report, it's raising the cost of Prime in the UK from £79 to £95, in France from €49 to €69.90, in Spain and Italy from €36 to €49.90, and Germany from €69 to €89.90. 

Those increases are the first in several years and quite significant, ranging from 20 percent in the UK to 43 percent in France. Amazon cited "increased inflation and operating costs" along with faster delivery and more streaming content to justify the rises. "We will continue to focus on making Prime even more valuable for members" via faster deliveries, more streaming content and more, the company's UK branch wrote in an email. 

Last quarter, Amazon lost money for the first time since 2015 due to slowing growth and higher costs, following a huge boom during the pandemic. The company also took a hit due to its investment in electric pickup truck maker Rivian. It vowed to increase productivity during its last earnings report, but is facing a federal probe over the required pace of work and other potential warehouse hazards. 

Logitech has launched the Aurora Collection, a line of "gender-exclusive" gaming accessories including a mouse, keyboard and headset. The devices are built around "comfort, approachability and playfulness" based on "feedback from women gamers across the community," the company said. They have all-new designs and some interesting features, but also carry high prices suggestive of a "pink tax" on products designed for women.

The G735 wireless headset is a good example of that. It's Logitech's first G gaming headset with Blue VO!CE microphone tech that helps modulate your voice, while letting you save preferred settings directly on the headset. It also promises comfort for gamers with smaller heads, 2.4Ghz wireless connectivity and up to 56 hours of battery life with the side LEDs turned off. However, it's very expensive for a gaming headset at $230, compared to say Logitech's high-end $200 Pro X headset with similar features. 

Logitech

The wireless and wired $200 G715 and $170 G713 tenkeyless keyboards offer per-key and perimeter RGB lighting and a choice of GX mechanical switches (tactile, linear or clicky), along with a cloud-soft palm rest. The G715 can connect via Bluetooth or a 2.4Ghz dongle, and offers around 25 hours of battery life on a charge. 

Finally, the $100 G705 lightweight (85 gram) wireless mouse is specifically designed for players with small hands. It comes with an 8,200 DPI "gaming-grade" sensor, offers battery life up to 40 hours with the LEDs enabled, and can connect to the G715 keyboard to avoid clutter. 

On top of the devices, Logitech is offering accessories we don't see with many of its other gaming products. Those include pink or neon boom mics with earpads for $20, keyboard top plates ($20) and colored keycaps ($40). It's also offering $30 mousepads and a $40 case for the G735 headset and G705 mouse. 

Logitech said that when it looked at its gaming products, "we realized we could be doing more" in terms of delivering solutions for all gamers. In one way, it has certainly achieved that considering the $500 price tag for the entire collection. If it really wants to expand its offerings for more players, though, it may need to expand its Aurora lineup with more budget-oriented products that match the quality and prices of its standard offerings. 

Intel and MediaTek have formed a strategic partnership to build chips for "a range of smart edge devices" using Intel Foundry Services (IFS), Intel announced. The aim is to help MediaTek build a "more balanced, resilient supply chain," with added capacity in the US and Europe. 

MediaTek is a fabless chipmaker that supplies processors for smartphones made by OnePlus, Samsung and others, with most of its capacity currently handled by fab giant TSMC. However, it looks like Intel will build chips for less glamorous devices used for industrial computing, medical devices, internet-of-things applications and more. Intel currently manufactures chips for MediaTek used in its 5G data card business.

Still, the partnership meets Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's pledge to seek customers for its foundry business. Intel launched IFS in 2021 to take advantage of surging demand for semiconductor manufacturing by offering "leading-edge process and packaging technology," along with committed capacity in the US and Europe. As one of the leading fabless chip makers, MediaTek would be a key client. 

Last year, Intel announced that it would build chips for Qualcomm as part of its foundry launch. It also detailed its "IDM 2.0" strategy to catch rivals TSMC and Samsung by 2025, kicking it off with a $20 billion investment in two Arizona fabrication plants. Later in 2021, the Biden administration spurned plans by Intel to manufacture silicon wafers in China as a way to relieve global chip shortage issues, citing security concerns. 

The US Senate is set to vote on the CHIPS Act designed to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing with tax credits and up to $52 billion in subsidies. However, some industry players are concerned that it could unduly favor Intel, to the detriment of smaller manufacturers like AMD, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. Those companies design their own chips but don't manufacture them, so would see no direct benefit from subsidies. 

In something out of Black Mirror meets Queen's Gambit, a chess robot accidentally broke the finger of its seven-year old opponent during an exhibition in Moscow, The Guardian reported. The child apparently moved his piece too soon and the robot grabbed his finger and squeezed it, causing a fracture before help could arrive. "The robot broke the child’s finger," said Moscow Chess Federation president Sergey Lazarev. "This is of course bad." 

Video shows the robot grabbing the boy's finger and holding it for several seconds a group of people come to free him. It's not clear what went wrong, but Lazarev said the child had "made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried and the robot grabbed him." He implied that the robot's suppliers may need work on the safety aspects, saying the are "going to have to think again." 

The boy was identified as Christopher and went on to play the next day, finishing the tournament. His parents, however, have reportedly contacted the public prosecutor's office. Russian chess official Sergey Smagin downplayed the incident, calling it "a coincidence" and saying the machine was "absolutely safe." 

In any case, the incident can be seen as a modern parable of the dangers of robots, even in something as innocuous as chess. On a larger scale with things like robotic cars, however, the stakes are considerably higher. 

After a delay of nearly three years, season 3 of Hulu's The Orville finally launched last month and proved to be worth the wait. Now, creator Seth MacFarlane has announced some extra recompense for fans — the first three seasons of the series will also stream on Disney+. 

The Orville has been relatively popular with critics, but moved from much wider distribution with Fox to the smaller audiences of Hulu after two seasons. With over 85 million subscribers internationally, though, Disney+ will greatly expand the pool of potential viewers.

"I’m thrilled to bring all three seasons of The Orville to Disney+," said MacFarlane. "Making this show has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my career, and I’m immensely grateful to Disney for providing us the opportunity to expand our Orville community further. I can’t wait for new audiences to experience this series."

The extra eyeballs on The Orville with Disney+ could prove crucial to the series, as it has yet to be greenlit for a fourth season. MacFarlane himself didn't reveal anything in that regard, saying "I don't think we'll know until this season is finished." The last two episodes of season 3 are set to air on July 28th and August 4th, and all three seasons will hit Disney+ on August 10th. 

The US and UK have signed a Data Access Agreement that will allow law enforcement agencies in each country to request user internet data from the other, the Department of Justice (DoJ) and UK Home Office said in a joint press release. The agreement was created in 2019 as the CLOUD Act to allow the nations to fight serious crimes including terrorism, child abuse and cybercrime. 

"The Data Access Agreement will allow information and evidence that is held by service providers within each of our nations and relates to the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of serious crime to be accessed more quickly than ever before," the DoJ wrote. "This will help, for example, our law enforcement agencies gain more effective access to the evidence they need to bring offenders to justice, including terrorists and child abuse offenders, thereby preventing further victimization."

First hatched in 2017, the plan came about because crime fighting agencies in each country were hamstrung by laws that made it difficult to obtain overseas data from ISPs and companies like Google and Facebook. The aim was to create a bilateral agreement to remove some of those roadblocks and still "maintain rigorous privacy protections for citizens," the UK Home Office said at the time. Australia also joined the CLOUD Act late last year. 

Both agencies promise to "maintain the strong oversight and protections that our citizens enjoy," and not compromise or erode human rights. When the law was originally drafted, however, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called it "a dangerous expansion of police snooping on cross-border data."

With the PS5 remake for The Last of Usset to arrive soon, developer Naughty Dog recently showed the benefits you can expect with the new hardware. Now in a 10-minute video, the company has detailed new features including a speed-run mode and smarter AI, while walking through improved graphics, physics, character models, animations and more. 

As we saw last month, the new graphics are indeed much improved, with native 4K at 30 fps or dynamic 4K at 60 fps. The biggest changes are with gameplay, though. First off, the remake uses AI from The Last of Us Part 2, which gives enemies and NPCs more complex tactics, making for better fights. It's not one-sided, either, as your companions' AI has also been updated. 

The remake also includes new gameplay modes. One of those is a permadeath mode for those who want the full "infected" zombie apocalypse experience, along with new unlockable costumes for Joel and Ellie. The other is a speed run mode — details are scant on that, other than that you'll be able to measure your progress with a timer. 

The other improvements revolve around characters, with new models that include far more detail "down to the irises and the pupil depths," noted creative director and writer Shaun Escayg. The team also updated the animations with improved facial expressions, motion-matching tech for more flowing movements and more. It also includes new materials, physics, haptics, 3D audio and more.

The remake does look impressive, but it will sell at a full $70 triple-A price when it arrives on September 2nd. As such, Naughty Dog and Sony appear to be doing more than the usual amount of marketing for a remake, no doubt hoping to show potential buyers it's worth that.