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Tech News Today for January 17, 2017

Tech News for Tuesday January 17, 2017

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat in the hotseat of a courtroom battle between Facebook’s VR product Oculus and ZeniMax Media, a videogame publisher that sued Oculus months after Facebook announced its acquisition of the company. ZeniMax accused Oculus of the theft of specific and critical components that resulted in the finalized Oculus Rift headset technology. Zuckerberg said Facebook is confident that Oculus products were not based in any way on ZeniMax’s technology. Read more at nytimes.com.

According to a note to developers spotted by The Guardian, prices for apps in the Apple store are going up in the UK, India, and Turkey. In the UK, the inflated prices come as a result of the Brexit vote and a 19% fall in the British pound. An Apple spokesperson said price tiers on the App Store are set internationally based on currency exchange rates as well as other factors, and they fluctuate over time. The price hikes will affect apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Read more at theguardian.com.

Google and LG are gearing up for a big wearable announcement event on February 9, according to VentureBeat sources. Android Wear 2.0, a big platform update, has been expected in the first part of 2017 and this event is expected to be its coming out party. LG and Google worked together to create two smartwatches to be unveiled at the event: the LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style. Read more at venturebeat.com.

We'll finally have our self-flying cars by the end of this year, at least according to attention seekers at AirBus. At a tech conference in Munich, an executive at the European aircraft maker says they will test a single-seat flying taxi prototype in Oregon by the end of 2017. Uber is also working on self-flying cars as a way to avoid grid-lock as city populations grow. Read more at wired.co.uk.

Twitter’s Vine has been waiting to die… on the vine since last October when it was announced to be going away. That day has come as today is the final day for the 6-second video service. Users can snag all of their Vines from the site for posterity. The Vine app will turn into Vine Camera, allowing users to continue shooting 6-second masterpieces for upload to any service they choose, including Twitter. Read more at popularmechanics.com.

Tech News Today with Megan Morrone and Jason Howell streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. You can subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.

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