Omar Ramos-Lopez, an angry ex-employee of the Texas Auto Center in Austin took out his revenge on his former employer by remotely shutting down 100 cars, using the company’s computer system.
After hacking into the vehicle immobilization system, Lopez either deactivated the starters of the cars, or activated the horns, leaving them honking all night.
80 of those affected complained to the company about missing school, work, or of having to get their car towed, or repaired.
The system, run by Pay Technologies (PayTeck) is only supposed to be used if a car owner fails to pay their loan or lease obligations.
Lopez was arrested and charged with breach of computer security.
Result for: company
Earlier this month, Apple sued rival smartphone maker HTC over violations of patents related to the iPhone, accusing HTC of infringing on up to 20 patents relating to the popular smartphone’s hardware and user interface.
Taking its time in doing so, HTC has responded today, vowing to fight the charges.
“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done,” said HTC CEO Peter Chou, via a press release. “We will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”
If Apple succeeds in the case, they will get an injunction on HTC, barring the company from importing and selling any of their infringing devices in the U.S. The company is also seeking monetary damages.
Result for: company
Google has told MobileCrunch today that the Android Market has reached a new milestone, 30,000 applications.
The company last reported figures in December of last year, claiming 16,000 apps.
Although they would not include numbers on paid versus free, stat site AndroLib says the ratio is about 39 percent to 61 percent, with free in the clear lead.
In comparison, the Apple app store has about 150,000 apps currently available, with both markets growing very quickly.
