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Judge dismisses superconductivity physicist’s lawsuit against university

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A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by superconductivity physicist Ranga Dias against his employer, the University of Rochester in New York. In February, a university investigation found that he had committed scientific misconduct by, among other things, fabricating data to claim the discovery of superconductors — materials with zero electrical resistance — at room temperature. Dias filed the lawsuit against the university for allegedly violating his academic freedom and conducting a biased investigation into his work.

On 19 April, Monroe County Supreme Court justice Joseph Waldorf denied Dias’s petitions and dismissed the lawsuit as premature. The matter “is not ripe for judicial review”, Waldorf wrote (see Supplementary information), because, although Rochester commissioned an independent review that found Dias had committed misconduct, it has not yet finished taking administrative action. The university provost has recommended that Dias be fired, but a final decision is still forthcoming.

A spokesperson for the university said Rochester was “pleased” with the justice’s ruling, and reiterated that its investigation was “carried out in a fair manner” and reached a conclusion that it thinks is correct.

Dias did not respond to requests for comment. His lawyer, Morgan Levy, referred Nature’s news team to documents filed with the lawsuit in which Dias responded to the university’s investigation.

Nature’s news team reported on Rochester’s investigation previously: three scientists external to the university conducted a 10-month probe into 16 allegations against Dias and determined that the physicist had committed plagiarism, and data fabrication and falsification related to four scientific papers, including two published in Nature1,2. (Nature’s news team is editorially independent of its journals team.) Normally, the details of the investigation would probably have remained confidential. But in response to Dias’s lawsuit, the university submitted the entire report as a court exhibit, making it public.

Other documents and e-mails from Dias made public owing to the lawsuit reveal more details about the physicist’s attempts to halt the investigation and to cast doubt on former graduate students from his laboratory who had shared concerns with investigators about data in one of the blockbuster Nature papers2, and who later requested its retraction. Nature’s news team spoke about the lawsuit to four of Dias’s former students, who requested anonymity because they were concerned about the negative impact on their careers. They disagree with Dias’s characterization of events in the e-mails submitted to the court. One student described Dias’s attitude as “it’s not me that’s wrong, it’s everyone around me”.

Toxic environment

In March 2023, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds US academic research — including much of Dias’s — ordered Rochester to investigate allegations that Dias committed scientific misconduct when he claimed to have discovered room-temperature superconductivity in a material made of carbon, sulfur and hydrogen at room temperature1. This order followed three internal ‘inquiries’ into Dias’s work by the university, which did not evidence of misconduct. Prompted by the NSF, Stephen Dewhurst, the then-interim vice-president for research at Rochester, organized a committee of three external experts to undertake the investigation.

Dias initially appeared pleased with the investigators. After his first interview with them, he sent Dewhurst an e-mail on 16 June 2023, writing that he welcomed the university’s “comprehensive neutral unbiased independent investigation into all the allegations”. Later, his opinion of the investigation would change.

When the investigators interviewed Dias’s graduate students the next month, serious issues came to light, according to court documents: the students said that Dias dismissed their concerns about the veracity of certain data and that he had created a culture of fear in the lab. Speaking to Nature‘s news team, one student says that Dias apparently retaliated against them for reporting concerns to another faculty member at Rochester. The news team reviewed a memo written by the student immediately after the incident. The student recorded Dias as saying that “an adviser is like your parents — you can’t remove them, you’re stuck with them”.

In a 3 August 2023 e-mail to Dias, Wendi Heinzelman, dean of Rochester’s engineering school, told the physicist that his students would be moved to new advisers. Dias objected and expressed concern that the decision would affect the ongoing investigation. “Reassignment of my students has inadvertently conveyed a perception of wrongdoing on my part,” he responded. In that e-mail, Dias blamed the decision on two students he said were biased against him, alleging that one created a toxic environment in the lab and that the other was “a distraction to other students”.

Nature’s news team showed the e-mail to other former graduate students, who said that the toxic environment was caused by Dias. The students he accused of being biased against him “were not the issue in the group, and they tried their hardest to make it work”, says one of the former students.

In September 2023, five of Dias’s former students decided to ask for a retraction of a Nature paper that claimed that the team had observed room-temperature superconductivity in a lutetium-based material at relatively low pressures2. Dias found out and sent them each a cease-and-desist letter, as previously reported by Nature’s news team. At the same time, the physicist sent his first formal concerns about the investigation committee to the NSF, court documents show.

He alleged bias, conflicts of interest and a lack of expertise on the part of the investigators. Rochester administrators reviewed the claims and, in a letter to the NSF, concluded that the investigation was fair.

Legal trouble

Dias sued the university in December last year, alleging that his academic freedom was violated when he was stripped of his students. He filed another lawsuit in February, first attempting to stop the investigation, then to prevent it from becoming public. A judge denied both requests.

The case was eventually moved to a new justice, Waldorf, who heard arguments from lawyers representing Dias and Rochester in early April. In his decision to dismiss Dias’s lawsuit, Waldorf cited a previous ruling that “absent extraordinary circumstances, courts are constrained not to interject themselves into ongoing administrative proceedings”. These proceedings will determine whether Dias, who does not yet have tenure, will be fired. The final decision rests with Rochester’s board of trustees.

Nature’s news team spoke with scholars about Waldorf’s ruling, which was based on a cut-and-dry precedent. “The decision is unassailable,” says Matthew Finkin, a labour law and academic-freedom scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Scott Gelber, a historian of education at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, summed up his thoughts: “Academic freedom doesn’t protect academic misconduct.”

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Tesla settles lawsuit over fatal Model X crash

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Back in 2019, the family of Apple engineer Wei Lun Huang (aka Walter Huang) sued Tesla a year after he was killed when his Model X crashed while Autopilot was engaged. The automaker has settled the lawsuit — on the very day jury selection was supposed to take place. Tesla’s lawyers asked the court to seal the settlement agreement so the payout amount wouldn’t be made public.

Tesla confirmed shortly after the accident that Autopilot was on at the time of the crash, but it also insisted Huang had time to react and had an unobstructed view of the divider. In a statement to the press, the company insisted the driver was at fault, and the only way for the accident to have occurred was if Huang “was not paying attention to the road.”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation found Huang running a mobile game but couldn’t confirm if he was holding the phone during impact.

— Mat Smith

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They lived their life like two candles in the wind.

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Both the Wii U and 3DS’ online servers have been switched off. This means the end of online multiplayer gaming for both consoles, turning Mario Kart 7 for 3DS and the original Splatoon for the Wii U into single-player or couch co-op experiences — AKA the best Mario Kart experience. The first Super Mario Maker is also effectively dead.

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Mild salsa for Mishima.

The Chipotle Challenger Series featuring Tekken 8 will kick off on PS5 Tournaments with a qualifier round from April 15 to 26, open to anyone who wants to test their fighting-game skills — or just score some free snacks. All qualifier participants will receive a code for free chips and guacamole from Chipotle. If you’re actually good (at Tekken, not eating Chipotle), there’s a $5,000 prize and a trip for two to Evo 2024 in Las Vegas, plus free Chipotle for a year. Adobo chicken for Asuka, Barbacoa for Bryan Fury, Carnitas for King. I could go on.

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Again, it’s trialing features in the UK first.

Spotify is dipping its toe into the world of AI prompts. It announced AI Playlist, a new beta feature for creating playlists with a few words to get into the music vibe you want, such as “an indie folk playlist to give my brain a big warm hug.” Ugh.

The beta is available to Premium subscribers on Android and iOS devices in the United Kingdom and Australia. You can access it through the + button at the top right of your library. Click AI Playlist and let your imagination run wild.

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Swap the Fairbuds’ batteries in 30 seconds.

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The big problem with the boom in true wireless earbuds is they’re pretty much never repairable. Once the batteries wear out, they’re done. Fairphone, however, has built a pair of buds with not only replaceable batteries but easily replaceable ones. The Fairbuds are made of 70 percent recycled and fair materials, while 100 percent of the rare earth elements and tin are recycled. They are €149, and it’s likely we’ll see them in the US at some point, just like its phones.

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Google to Delete Chrome Incognito Browsing Data to Settle Lawsuit

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Google has agreed to delete data that was collected from customers who used the Chrome browser’s Incognito mode, settling a class action lawsuit that started in 2020, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Chrome Feature 22
The lawsuit claimed that Google misled users about the data collected while in Incognito or private browsing mode, tracking their website usage without their knowledge. Google was keeping data that included websites viewed, but the Incognito tab did not make this clear.

Browsing in Incognito mode said that browsing was “private” and that people won’t see browsing activity, and while it was stated that websites could still collect data, the warning said nothing about Google’s data collection. Google updated the wording of Incognito mode in January 2024 to clarify that Google collects the same data in Incognito mode and standard browsing mode.

Google plans to destroy “billions of data points” that were improperly collected, in addition to updating the wording in Incognito mode and disabling third-party cookies by default when using the feature (Google plans to get rid of cookies entirely later this year). The settlement does not include damages for Chrome users, but individuals do have the option to file their own lawsuits.

A Google spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that Google does not have an issue with deleting “old technical data” that was not associated with individuals or used for personalization. The agreement still needs final approval from the judge overseeing the case.

Google is wrapping up several smaller lawsuits as it faces off with the U.S. Department of Justice over its search and ad businesses. Google has been accused of making preferential deals that have harmed the search industry and of having too much control over advertising tools. The search battle has been ongoing since last September, while the ad lawsuit will proceed in September 2024.

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Google forced to delete data by Chrome Incognito mode lawsuit

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A lawsuit revealed that Google allowed users of Chrome’s Incognito mode to think the app wasn’t tracking them.
Image: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Google is reportedly being required to delete the data it gathered while millions of users of its Chrome web bowser were in Incognito mode as part of settling a lawsuit.

Moving forward, the company will continue to track Chrome users in Incognito mode while making it clearer that is what is happening.

Chrome Incognito mode lawsuit is an expensive back eye for Google

Chrome collecting user data isn’t an accident — it’s the whole purpose of the application for Windows, macOS, iPhone, etc. That’s because Google is an advertising company. It creates software purely to gather personal information about users so it can sell targeted ads.

Google’s practice of gathering user data while they were online in Incognito mode resulted in the company paying $5 billion to resolve a class-action lawsuit. Users mistakenly thought Incognito mode in the browser prevented Google from tracking them — a misconception the company was apparently aware of and didn’t try to remedy.

Further details of their settlement were revealed on Monday, including that “Google has agreed to destroy billions of data points that the lawsuit alleges it improperly collected,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The advertising giant is also required to modify the description of Chrome Incognito mode to make it clear that Google still tracks people who use the web browser, a change that’s already begun.

The class action settlement also reportedly requires the company for the next five years to allow users to configure Incognito mode so that it always blocks third-party cookies.

Note that the settlement does not require Google to cease tracking users while they are in Chrome Incognito mode. The company will continue to do so — it need only make it clear to users that’s what is happening.

Tips for more private browsing

Chrome is very popular, even with Mac users who can use Safari instead. (Privacy is just one of the reasons Apple fans should use Safari instead of Chrome.) But if there are certain websites you want to go to that you’d prefer didn’t get added to the profile Google has filled with your private information, switch to Safari Private Browsing. Apple doesn’t use Safari to track users.

Even better, use DuckDuckGo when you want to go off the grid. This privacy-focused search engine and browser won’t save your searches or try to track you in any way. Its whole reason for existing is to protect your privacy on the internet.



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Judge Tosses Out Cryptocurrency Apple Antitrust Lawsuit Filed by Venmo Customers

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A lawsuit targeting Apple’s refusal to allow apps to support cryptocurrency transactions was today tossed out by a San Francisco judge, reports Reuters. The lawsuit, which was filed by Venmo and Cash App customers, claimed that Apple drove up the fees charged by Venmo and Cash App by not letting payment apps facilitate cryptocurrency transactions.

iOS App Store General Feature Black
The plaintiffs alleged that Apple curbed competition in the mobile peer-to-peer payment market with its App Store guidelines. No option for cryptocurrency has supposedly caused Venmo and Cash App to raise prices for transactions and services due to “no competitive check.” A payment app that is based on decentralized cryptocurrency technology would let iPhone users “send payments to each other without any intermediary at all.”

According to the lawsuit, Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, and other payment providers agreed to an ‌App Store‌ guideline that does not allow for cryptocurrency transactions, which constitutes an “unlawful agreement.” Apple asked for the case to be thrown out because the plaintiffs were not able to demonstrate illegal app rules or business agreements, and the judge agreed.

Apple’s ‌App Store‌ rules allow cryptocurrency wallets that store virtual currency, and apps can facilitate cryptocurrency transactions on an approved exchange in countries where the app has licensing and permission to operate a crypto exchange.

The judge overseeing the case called it “speculative” and said it “suffers from several fatal problems.” The plaintiffs have been given 21 days to submit an amended complaint, but the judge does not believe the case can be saved.

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The big Apple lawsuit explained: why Apple’s getting sued and what it means for the iPhone

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It’s a move that’s sent shockwaves through the entire tech industry: the US government, through the Department of Justice (DOJ), is suing Apple for what it sees as unfairly and illegally building a monopoly around the iPhone.

You can read the full filing here, but we’re going to break down the key points for you here – why Apple is being sued, what it might mean for the iPhone and the tech industry in the future, and what the arguments are on both sides.

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Justice Department files antitrust lawsuit against Apple

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The Department of Justice and more than a dozen states have filed a lawsuit against Apple in the US federal court, accusing the company of violating antitrust laws. It says Apple’s hardware and software products are largely inaccessible to competitors, making it difficult for rivals to compete and for customers to switch to other companies’ products.

The lawsuit comes after the European Commission fined Apple €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) for stopping music-streaming developers from “informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available” outside the App Store. And all this while US lawmakers chase another tech company, TikTok, with a lot of enthusiasm.

The DOJ suggests Apple used its control over iOS to block innovative apps and cloud streaming services from the public. (Look at cloud gaming services, like Google’s now-gone Stadia and Microsoft’s xCloud). The suit also suggests Apple has obstructed rival payment platforms, made it harder for Android messages to appear on iPhones and restricted how competing smartphones integrated with iOS devices.

You could compare Apple’s antitrust suit to Microsoft’s antitrust suit brought against Windows in the late ’90s — even Attorney General Merrick Garland noted those in the suit. But Microsoft truly dominated PC software back then, with over 90 percent of all PCs running some flavor of Windows.

The DOJ says Apple claims 70 percent of all smartphones, which is already less. Step outside the US, which is a bit academic here, and Apple has the same market share as Samsung, with many other phone makers jostling for a percentage point or two. It’s not quite the same grip as Microsoft had on PCs.

— Mat Smith

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They’re for serious business people and professionals.

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Two devices conspicuously missing from Microsoft’s Surface and AI event last fall are finally here — and they’re what we expected and a bit surprising. Today, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, sporting the same designs as the previous models but now with the AI smarts of Intel’s new Core Ultra CPU. Alas, both have the foreboding words “for business” attached to their names, so you’ll only be able to buy them from Microsoft’s website or commercial resellers. But why? We don’t really know.

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It’s in partnership with Alphabet’s Wing.

DoorDash just announced the launch of a new drone delivery pilot program in Christiansburg, Virginia, with an approximate population of 22,000. The company says orders should arrive in 30 minutes or less, making high-flying drones about as fast as a standard pizza delivery. However, it’s limited to only “eligible items.” And, alas, only items from fast-food chain Wendy’s.

Wendy’s? Wendy’s.

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The social media stalwart wants to raise around $631 million in its IPO.

Nearly two decades after its debut, Reddit is now a publicly traded company. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange as RDDT on Thursday, with mascot Snoo on hand to ring the opening bell. One interesting aspect of Reddit going public is it offered shares at the IPO pricing to long-term users of good standing over the last few weeks. It’s not all good news for Reddit, though. It recently signed a deal with Google, reportedly worth $60 million a year, to train the latter’s AI models on user-generated content. The Federal Trade Commission is looking into that arrangement.

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Apple Facing Imminent U.S. Antitrust Lawsuit

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The United States Justice Department is preparing to sue Apple for violating antitrust law as soon as Thursday, reports Bloomberg. The lawsuit will be the culmination of an investigation that initially started in 2019 as an antitrust review of major technology companies. U.S. regulators have already sued Google, Meta, and Amazon.

iphone 15 sizes
Over the last several years, Apple officials have met with the DoJ multiple times, and the investigation has covered everything from iMessage to ad practices. Some of what the DoJ has looked into:

  • How the Apple Watch works better with iPhone than other smart watches do.
  • How Apple locks competitors out of iMessage.
  • How Apple blocks financial firms from offering tap-to-pay services similar to Apple Pay.
  • Whether Apple favors its own apps and services over those provided by third-party developers.
  • How Apple has blocked cloud gaming apps from the App Store.
  • How Apple restricts the ‌‌iPhone‌‌’s location services from devices that compete with AirTag.
  • How App Tracking Transparency impacted the collection of advertising data.
  • In-app purchase fees collected by Apple.

Apple competitors like Tile, Beeper, Basecamp, Meta, and Spotify have had discussions with antitrust investigators to voice their complaints about Apple’s practices, as have big banks. According to Bloomberg, the DoJ plans to argue that Apple has used illegal practices to maintain a dominant market position, blocking competitors from hardware and software features on the ‌iPhone‌.

Back in 2020, a United States House Judiciary Subcommittee investigation concluded that Apple, Meta, Google, and Amazon have the “kinds of monopolies” last seen in “the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons.” The subcommittee recommended new antitrust law, but the DoJ opted to target Google before going after Apple because Apple was embroiled in an antitrust lawsuit with Epic Games.

Apple in iOS 17.4 had to make sweeping changes to the way the ‌App Store‌ operates in the European Union to comply with the Digital Markets Act, and it was also recently fined $2 billion in Europe for anti-competitive behavior against rival music services.

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Lawsuit claiming AirTag is a stalker tool gets judge’s go-ahead

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Car thieves can hide an AirTag somewhere on your car and track it for theft later.
Car thieves can hide an AirTag somewhere on your car and track it for theft later.
Photo: York Regional Police

A U.S. federal judge gave a go-ahead to a class action lawsuit accusing Apple’s AirTag of being “the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers.”

Apple argues that it designed the product to discourage stalkers.

Apple AirTag is preferred by stalkers, alleges lawsuit

Location trackers like Apple’s AirTag are small gadgets that use wireless tech to make them findable. Attach one to your keys or luggage, and it’ll help you locate them if they go missing. But criminals have found uses for the devices too, by secretly stashing a Tile or AirTag in an unsuspecting person’s pocket or bag.

A class action lawsuit filed in the District Court for the Northern District of California (PDF via Ars Technica) alleges:

“Immediately after the AirTag’s release, and consistently since, reports have proliferated of people finding AirTags placed in their purses, in or on their cars, and even sewn into the lining of their clothes, by stalkers in order to track their whereabouts. The consequences have been as severe as possible: multiple murders have occurred in which the murderer used an AirTag to track the victim.”

US District Judge Vince Chhabria removed many of the plaintiffs from the lawsuit, according to Bloomberg, but ruled on Friday that the suit can proceed.

The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial, and want punitive damages from Apple.

Apple says ‘privacy is built in’

Apple says AirTag follows California law. It also built privacy protections into the device.

As the iPhone maker explains: “If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, the network will notice it’s traveling with you and send your iPhone an alert. If you still havenʼt found it after awhile, the AirTag will start playing a sound letting you know it’s there.”

Apple is also working with Google on a system that will alert Android users if an AirTag is following them.



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Apple Agrees to Pay $490M to Settle Lawsuit Alleging That Tim Cook Defrauded Shareholders

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Apple has agreed to pay $490 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that Apple CEO Tim Cook defrauded shareholders by concealing falling demand for iPhones in China, according to Reuters, which cited a court filing today. The proposed settlement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in California.

Tim Cook iPhone 11 Pro
On a November 1, 2018 earnings call with analysts, Cook said Apple was facing pressure in emerging markets where local currencies were weakening, such as Turkey, India, Brazil, and Russia, but he did not include China in the list:

The emerging markets that we’re seeing pressure in are markets like Turkey, India, Brazil, Russia. These are markets where currencies have weakened over the recent period. In some cases, that resulted in us raising prices and those markets are not growing the way we would like to see.

Cook went on to say the following about China on the call:

In relation to China specifically, I would not put China in that category. Our business in China was very strong last quarter. We grew 16%, which we’re very happy with. iPhone in particular was very strong, very strong double-digit growth there. Our other products category was also stronger, in fact, a bit stronger than even the overall company number.

A few months later, in January 2019, Cook shared a letter to investors indicating that Apple’s revenue for the fourth quarter of 2018 would be around $84 billion, lower than its original guidance of between $89 billion and $93 billion in the quarter. Apple ended up reporting revenue of $84.3 billion in the quarter on January 29, 2019.

Apple’s share price dropped around 25% between November 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019.

In his letter, Cook said the Greater China region’s slowing economy was largely to blame for Apple’s revenue shortfall in the quarter:

While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China. In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad.

The letter added that lower-than-anticipated iPhone revenue, primarily in Greater China, accounted for the entire revenue shortfall:

Lower than anticipated iPhone revenue, primarily in Greater China, accounts for all of our revenue shortfall to our guidance and for much more than our entire year-over-year revenue decline.

Investors alleged that Cook knew that iPhone demand was falling in China at the time of the November 2018 earnings call, but failed to disclose it. Apple has denied these allegations and has not admitted to any wrongdoing. Apple only agreed to the proposed settlement to avoid additional costs and time involved with litigation, the filing says.

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