A Former Apple Engineer Was Sentenced to 6 Months in Prison for Stealing Trade Secrets in This Week's Tech Roundup

This week, the tech industry saw a former engineer at Apple receive a six-month prison sentence for stealing trade secrets pertaining to the company’s self-driving car technology. Elsewhere at Apple, Vision Pro owners are finding out that the only way to reset the password to the device is by going to an Apple store in person.

On the app side, Tinder has a new warning system to curb inappropriate messages. Finally, on the product end, Brian Eno released a light-changing turntable, the Turntable II.

Below, Hypebeast has rounded up the top tech stories of the week so you can stay up to date on trends in the industry.

An Apple Engineer Was Sentenced to 6 Months in Prison for Stealing Company’s Self-Driving Car Tech

Cfoto/Future Publishing/Getty Images

An ex-Apple engineer who stole the company’s trade secrets has been sentenced to six months in prison. Xiaolang Zhang was charged by the FBI back in 2018. He had taken parental leave while working at Apple on its self-driving car technology but when the leave was up, he informed the company that he wouldn’t be returning.

Instead, Zhang began working at a Chinese self-driving car startup. Apple began its own investigation into his departure and discovered he had stolen multiple files, including the blueprint for a circuit for a self-driving car.

Apple Vision Pro Users Who Forget Their Password Have To Reset It In-Store

Apple

Owners of the new Apple Vision Pro headset should take extra precautions not to forget their password. Those who do forget it will unfortunately have to head to the Apple store in person to reset the password to the $3,500 USD device.

Users had been posting on Apple’s support forum asking what to do when they forgot their password, Bloomberg reported first. Company representatives responded that the only way to reset it is by attaching a Developer Strap to the headset, which connects the device to a computer via USB-C. As it turns out, only developers registered with Apple can buy the $300 USD Developer Strap, meaning that the vast majority of users will have to reset it in person, at least until Apple invents a better fix.

Brian Eno’s Turntable II Is Inspired by His Experiments With Light

Paul Stolper Gallery

Musician and artist Brian Eno has returned with a second rendition of his artistic turntable. The Turntable II is inspired by his long-standing experiments with light. The record player is constructed out of acrylic LED lights and will automatically phase in and out of “colorscapes,” whether or not it’s actively playing a vinyl.

“When it doesn’t have to do anything in particular, like play a record, it is a sculpture. So I like the idea of this continuity,” Eno describes. The Turntable II is a collector’s item, so only 150 units have been made, priced at $25,000 USD (£20,000 GBP) each. The Turntable II is currently on display at London’s Paul Stolper Gallery.

Tinder Began Warning Users When They’re Being Inappropriate

Tinder

Tinder has a new feature designed to encourage respectful, positive interactions on the app. The dating platform has built a warning system that will essentially tell users to knock it off when they send an inappropriate message.

Tinder says it’s specifically looking for signs of harassment, impersonation and even “advertising.” When a user sends a potentially inappropriate message, they’ll receive a warning that could say, “Are You Sure?”

Verification for those interactions will be done by both algorithms and humans. Those who receive multiple warnings are at risk of being banned from Tinder permanently.