A notable design element of Apple's iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max phones is what most people call "the notch."

It's a cutout on the top of the phone's screen so that Apple can pack in the advanced cameras necessary for the FaceID facial recognition security without adding bezels around the phone's edges.

But in much of Apple's recent marketing, the notch blends into the screen because Apple displays a black background in many of the promotional images and on the front page of its website.

Now, someone is saying that those images are misleading — and she's suing over it.

In a complaint filed Friday in the Northern District of California, Courtney Davis' lawyers accused Apple of designing its advertising to obscure the notch, leading Davis to believe that the iPhone XS Max she preordered wouldn't actually come with a notch.

"Images that disguise the missing pixels on the Products' screens are prominent on Defendant's website, as well as in the advertisements of retailers who sell the products," the complaint said. "These images were relied on by Plaintiff DAVIS, who believed that the iPhone XS and XS Max would not have a notch at the top of the phone."

There are other matters cited in the complaint, including a claim Apple shouldn't count pixels on the corners of the device in its advertising, because they are rounded off.

The lawsuit is seeking class-action status, as well as damages from Apple. It may be years before there's any substantial developments one way or the other, given how long class-action lawsuits usually take to progress. Indeed, there's no guarantee that this will ever come to court at all.

But Friday's complaint is the first time that the marketing images related to the latest premium iPhones — starting at $1000 — are being closely scrutinized in a legal sense. When the marketing images were leaked in August, many tech commentators said the black background effectively hid the notch from being readily apparent.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The entire complaint is embedded below:

"Pokémon Go" is 2 1/2 years old, but it's still going strong — the game raked in $73 million in October alone, according to estimates, and just this week launched a long-awaited competitive-battling mode.

Now it appears that Niantic, the game's developer and a Google spinoff, is leveling up with a new $200 million funding round valuing the company at $3.9 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The round is reportedly led by Silicon Valley investment firm IVP, with participation from Samsung and eSports investor aXiomatic Gaming. The Inquirer previously reported that Samsung's share of the round was $40 million.

The hefty funding round shows that investors are optimistic about Niantic. A year ago, the company was valued at $2.7 billion, making this a significant up round. Previous investors in Niantic include Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Google, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.

There are some obvious reasons for this excitement: Even as "Pokémon Go" continues to outperform, Niantic is slated to release "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," a seemingly surefire hit, next year. The Wall Street Journal reported that Niantic is also in talks to develop more games based on licensed intellectual property.

However, beyond its bright future as a game studio, this investment would seem to have everything to do with Niantic emerging as a maker of software for programs. Earlier this year, Niantic previewed the Real World Platform, software that it intends to license out to developers to make their own GPS-based augmented-reality games.

Niantic's "Pokémon Go" got players to walk around in search of virtual monsters. Now it plans to license the tech to other developers. AP Photo/Nati Harnik

For Niantic, the Real World Platform appears to be the long-term play. Gaming is a hit-driven business; "Pokémon Go" revenues could evaporate tomorrow if another huge title came along. But history has shown that there's a durable business to be built in licensing out the foundational software to help others make games.

If you want an example, look no further than Epic Games, the creator of the international phenomenon that is "Fortnite." Beyond its video-game business, Epic has long offered the Unreal Engine, a wildly successful video-game engine that it licenses to other developers for free, taking a cut of their revenues in exchange.

While Epic doesn't break out how much revenue the Unreal Engine brings in, its sheer popularity in the gaming industry — smash hit "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is an Unreal Engine game, as is this year's "Dragon Ball FighterZ" — likely means that it's doing just fine. Earlier this year, Epic raised funding valuing it at $15 billion.

Niantic's big bet is that the Real World Platform will become a similarly foundational cornerstone in AR, which is the technology for overlaying digital imagery over the real world. Companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook all see AR as a major new phase in computing, and there's clearly at least the opportunity for Niantic to play a major role in the gaming industry yet to come.

Samsung announced that it's partnered with Niantic to build the Real World Platform, which could bring better augmented reality to its phones and other devices. Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

This, too, is where Samsung comes in. In November, Samsung announced that it is collaborating with Niantic to further develop the Real World Platform, with this investment representing a deepening of that partnership. This alliance makes some sense, as Samsung has touted AR-related features as a selling point for its latest Galaxy S9 smartphones. With Niantic on its side, Samsung hopes to outdo rivals like Apple at AR technology.

Altogether, a picture begins to emerge about why Niantic seems to be in such demand. It has solid-gold gaming hits today that are delivering real revenue, a pipeline of successful games yet to come, and, perhaps most importantly, an actionable plan for generating a business that goes beyond appealing to fickle consumers. Oh, and Niantic hasn't even yet launched in China, which is the biggest smartphone gaming market in the world.

Of course, this all hinges on the expected bull market for AR technology to actually materialize. As we've seen with virtual reality, a sister technology to AR, consumer uptake of these platforms can be extremely slow. If Niantic's bet is correct, it stands to benefit — but, at least, if it's wrong, it still has "Pokémon" and "Harry Potter."

The instructions themselves are incredibly polished and well made, with many of them featuring adorable computer animations. It feels like Dbrand went the extra mile for customers.

Amazon's highly publicized hunt for the site of its new headquarters, known as HQ2, was a brilliant strategy.

The contest resulted in cities warring for Amazon's favor with offers of billions of dollars in tax breaks and other generous promises.

It has also given Amazon something that's potentially far more valuable than any subsidies it may have gleaned: a trove of data.

"Amazon has a godlike view of what's happening in digital commerce, and now cities have helped give it an inside look at what's happening in terms of land use and development across the US," said Stacy Mitchell, a director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a think tank based in Washington, DC. "Amazon will put that data to prodigious use in the coming years to expand its empire."

Amazon received proposals from 238 cities vying to be chosen as the home of its second headquarters.

The company then selected 20 finalists, and sent those cities a 29-page request for additional data.

New York City's 235-page response to that second reqeust was obtained and published by The New York Times on Friday. It contained detailed information — some of it not publicly available — on the city's work force, education systems, optimal sites for development, and current and future land use and development projects.

While the information in many of those proposals is sealed from the public or otherwise heavily redacted, it's safe to assume that most contain similar details.

Amazon could use this data to aid in future expansion as it selects sites for new stores, warehouses, data centers, fulfillment centers, and other brick-and-mortar needs.

Read more: Amazon is breaking a central promise of HQ2 by reportedly placing it in 2 different cities

In some cases, the bids could help Amazon get a leg up over its competitors, because the data they contain might not be publicly available.

"This is an incredibly valuable trove of data that 238 cities spent time compiling and submitting to Amazon," Mitchell said. "At the end of the day, it may well be that the data is the most valuable thing that Amazon has gotten out of this."

Tesla employees at the company's solar panel factory in Buffalo will hold a union organizing drive, the United Steelworkers (USW) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said on Thursday in a press release.

The unionization effort will involve production and maintenance employees, according to the USW and IBEW, which said Tesla employees contacted them about organizing.

The USW said in June 2017 that it was attempting to organize the Buffalo factory.

"Tesla greatly values its employees and the direct relationship it has with them at our Buffalo facility. We offer wages and benefits that exceed those of other comparable manufacturing jobs in the region, and we recently increased our base pay even further," a Tesla representative said in a statement to Business Insider.

"Ultimately, it's up to our employees to decide if they want to be unionized. While we will never please everyone outside of Tesla, we have an unwavering commitment to providing a great workplace for our employees."

Read more: 70-hour weeks and 'WTF' emails: 42 employees reveal the frenzy of working at Tesla under the 'cult' of Elon Musk

"I wanted to work at Tesla because I wanted a job in green energy, a job that can change the world," Rob Walsh, a Tesla employee and member of the factory's organizing committee, said in the press release. "But I also want a fair wage for my work."

USW had represented workers at the Buffalo factory when it was operated by Republic Steel. Tesla took over the factory, which it operates with Panasonic, in 2016, when it bought the solar panel installation company SolarCity, which had been using the factory before the acquisition. Production at the factory has faced delays, though Tesla says it plans to ramp up production in the first half of 2019.

Some employees at Tesla's auto plant in Fremont, California, have also attempted to unionize in the midst of reports from Reveal that Tesla has misreported workplace injuries, avoided using safety markings for aesthetic reasons, and failed to give injured employees proper medical treatment.

Tesla has denied that it has misreported workplace injuries and failed to use safety markings for aesthetic reasons. The company did not respond to requests for comment on the allegation that it failed to give injured employees proper medical treatment.

The National Labor Relations Board is investigating claims that Tesla has violated federal labor laws by interfering with union-organizing activities, retaliating against employees who supported a union, and using an overly broad confidentiality policy.

Tesla has denied those allegations.

You can read Tesla's full statement below:

Tesla greatly values its employees and the direct relationship it has with them at our Buffalo facility. We offer wages and benefits that exceed those of other comparable manufacturing jobs in the region, and we recently increased our base pay even further. In addition, unlike other manufacturers, every single employee is an owner of Tesla, as everyone receives stock upon hire and for good performance, which results in significantly more compensation beyond our already high wages.

Other factories are shutting down in the US and we still have a long way to go to make Gigafactory 2 financially sustainable. Nevertheless, we continue to do everything we can to keep exceeding our commitments to jobs and business in Buffalo.

Today's demonstration consisted almost entirely of groups outside of Tesla, not Tesla employees. And ultimately, it's up to our employees to decide if they want to be unionized. While we will never please everyone outside of Tesla, we have an unwavering commitment to providing a great workplace for our employees. That's what matters.

Facebook has killed off its Building 8 skunkworks lab following a significant reshuffle of its experimental-projects and hardware units.

The super-secretive organization was inspired by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and billed itself as a unit dedicated to building "new, category-defining consumer hardware products." In its buzzy heyday, it worked on far-out projects like brain-scanning tech and skin sensors. It was a moonshot factory, in other words, in the same vein as Google's X.

But things have now changed. Some of its most experimental projects have been shunted over to a new division, Facebook Reality Labs, and its hardware segment has been rebranded as Portal following the launch of Facebook's home video-chat device.

The Building 8 brand, meanwhile, has quietly been killed off completely, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Building 8 in 2016. He billed it as a bold bet on hardware for Facebook, which has never managed to parlay its success in the software space into physical consumer goods like Apple and Google. It was led by Regina Dugan, a former DARPA director and Google exec, who left Facebook in January after less than two years at the company.

"I'm excited to announce that we've started a new group at Facebook called Building 8 focused on building new hardware products to advance our mission of connecting the world," Zuckerberg wrote in a post when it launched.

"We'll be investing hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of dollars into this effort over the next few years. I'm excited to see breakthroughs on our 10 year roadmap in augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, connectivity and other important areas."

In October, those ambitions finally came to fruition with the launch of Portal, a touch-screen video-chat device that lets users them call their friends and consume media using Facebook's software.

With the launch, Building 8's executives and hardware-focused teams transferred to a newly formed Portal team — and Building 8 was shuttered, a previously unreported development.

Rafa Camargo, who was made the head of Building 8 when Dugan left, was appointed VP of Portal when it officially launched. Head of product Itai Vonshak, director of marketing Nick Fell, and head of device software Viresh Rustagi also all made the shift.

Some employees still advertise themselves on LinkedIn as working for Building 8, and there are still some open job advertisements for positions at Building 8 — but this is because they haven't been updated yet, a spokesperson said.

Other signs of the unit's newness abound. Building 8's official Careers page on Facebook's website has been killed — but Portal's jobs page uses all its old photos.

The Facebook Careers page for Building 8 has vanished — but Portal's page uses the same photos. Business Insider

Any other unannounced hardware projects being developed by Facebook now live under the Portal organization — excluding virtual or augmented reality efforts that would be part of Oculus, the company's AR/VR unit.

With Building 8's dissolution, its more experimental efforts have been spun out into another new group: Facebook Reality Labs.

Facebook Reality Labs was formed in May, prior to the launch of Portal, though at the time it was viewed as a rebranded Oculus Labs (Facebook's earlier AR/VR research efforts). It now holds tentpole Building 8 projects like the brain-computer interface team, which attempts to build computers that can meld with human minds. It's being led by Michael Abrash, a game-industry veteran and legendary programmer.

The haptics team, which is working on tech to help people "hear" through their skin, has also been transferred, according to its members' LinkedIn profiles, and healthcare projects that were once part of Building 8 have also been moved out.

Some of Facebook's other experimental research, like its work on biologically inspired "soft robotics," is also part of Facebook Reality Labs.

Facebook says it is still working on many of the same projects, albeit with a different structure. In an email, Facebook spokesperson Lisa Auslen said: "Building 8 was the early name of the team building consumer hardware at Facebook. Building 8 is part of Facebook's AR/VR organization. Now that we're shipping, it's the Portal team. And Rafa Camargo is still leading the team; that has not changed."

"We also unified research looking at longer terms projects under one team, which became Facebook Reality Labs, which is also part of our AR/VR organization. This includes research projects like the Brain Computer Interface." She said that the restructuring did not entail any layoffs.

Zuckerberg's vision may still be in place — but the reshuffle means it's playing out in a very different way.

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As cities and states battled to win Amazon's second headquarters, they provided the e-commerce giant with an overwhelming amount of data.

On Friday, it became clear just how much information Amazon wanted. On Monday, New York City posted its 253-page HQ2 proposal online. The city quickly took down the extensive proposal, but The New York Times downloaded the document before its removal and published it in full on Friday.

Read more: New York finally revealed the HQ2 rendering that helped it win Amazon over to Long Island City

"After Amazon announced its shortlist in January, it gave cities a 29-page request for information that required far more precision and was more about practicalities than flash," The Times reported.

Amazon's questions, as seen in the proposal, are truly far-reaching. And, New York City willingly provided the information.

"Specify the cost of a basket of goods in your community," one section said. "The basket is from Whole Foods: gallon of 2% milk, loaf of whole wheat bread, and an avocado. Also, the cost of Starbucks tall coffee, movie ticket, monthly gym membership (individual) at a YMCA (if U.S.), dry cleaning of a shirt, and a gallon of gas."

New York City dutifully answered the questions — an avocado costs $1.25 whether purchased in Midtown West or in Long Island City, Queens, though you can get a slightly better deal on movie tickets at AMC in Manhattan than UA Kaufman in Queens ($16.29 versus $16.40).

The depth of the data requested by Amazon is especially interesting because the company likely collected similarly extensive information on all of its 20 HQ2 finalists. This trove of data could be valuable for the company moving forward.

"Amazon has a godlike view of what's happening in digital commerce, and now cities have helped give it an inside look at what's happening in terms of land use and development across the US," Stacy Mitchell, a director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a think tank based in Washington, DC, told Business Insider's Hayley Peterson in November.

"Amazon will put that data to prodigious use in the coming years to expand its empire," she said.

The world is witnessing a massive boom in skyscraper construction, led by nations like China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. This year alone, China built more skyscrapers than at any other time in history.

Amid growing competition for the tallest and most innovative towers, one high-rise in South Korea managed to surpass all others.

Read more: Stunning photos of the 10 best skyscrapers in the world

Earlier this week, the Lotte World Tower in Seoul received the Emporis Skyscraper Award, the world's most renowned prize for high-rise architecture.

The tower's sleek design pales in comparison to its record-shattering features, which include the world's highest glass-bottomed observation deck and the world's fastest elevator.

Take a look at how it was built — and what it looks like now.

Tesla has lowered the price of its Model S sedan and Model X SUV in China after the country temporarily lowered some tariffs on cars imported from the US, a Tesla representative confirmed to Business Insider.

For Chinese customers, the Model S starts at around $107,000, while the Model X starts at around $115,000, according to Tesla's Chinese website. For US customers, the Model S starts at $78,000 and the Model X starts at $84,000.

The Chinese government will temporarily remove 25% tariffs on 144 US vehicle and auto parts and 5% tariffs on 67 auto-related items between January 1 and March 31, Reuters reports. China has also reportedly decided to lower tariffs on some cars and auto parts from 40% to 15%.

Have a Tesla news tip? Contact this reporter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The "League of Legends" developer Riot Games has acknowledged Chief Operating Officer Scott Gelb's role in upholding a culture of toxic masculinity that has made the company the target of a gender-discrimination lawsuit.

Reports of Riot's "bro culture" first surfaced in late August, detailing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and gender discrimination in the workplace. Gelb specifically has been accused of repeatedly farting on employees, humping them, and hitting their testicles as a part of what was described as a running workplace gag.

Following the allegations that it fostered a work environment unwelcoming to women, Riot apologized and pledged to conduct an internal review and make necessary changes to its culture.

Now, more than three months into its 16-month "cultural transformation timeline," Riot has informed employees that Gelb will be suspended without pay for his behavior and undergo training before returning to the company in two months, Kotaku reported on Thursday.

Riot, whose extremely popular "League of Legends" is the most watched esport, has 2,500 employees, 80% of whom are men, according to Kotaku. Riot is a subsidiary of Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate and world's largest video-game publisher.

In an internal email first obtained by Kotaku and later published in full by Variety, Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent said the decision to suspend but ultimately retain Gelb was made following a joint investigation by a board-of-directors committee and the law firm Seyfarth Shaw.

Riot said in a statement: "After carefully reviewing and considering the findings, the Special Committee of Riot's Board of Directors determined that a two-month, unpaid leave of absence, along with training, was the appropriate action given the allegations that were substantiated. We can also confirm that many of the rumors circulating about Scott within the company, the media, and other channels were actually not true."

The email and statement don't specify what Riot found to be false or the behavior Gelb was suspended for, though it was generally described as inappropriate, unprofessional, and unacceptable.

Read more: The company behind one of the biggest video games in the world was just slammed with a lawsuit alleging its 'bro-culture' created a sexist workplace where women were rated on their 'hotness,' told that 'no doesn't necessarily mean no,' and shown unsolicited photos of male genitalia

Laurent asked Riot employees to join him in uplifting Gelb as a leader upon his return, commending his fellow executive's choice to seek "redemption" rather than leave the company. He said Gelb would "help make Riot a more diverse and inclusive organization."

"Scott could have avoided owning his past and his consequences," Laurent said in the email. "He could have left Riot. Scott chose ownership and redemption. I will root for him, will support him through this journey, and will leverage him as a great leader when he returns next year. I hope you will join me."

Kotaku said it spoke to several current Riot employees who were frustrated with the company's decision to retain Gelb. One person likened the two-month suspension as "a tiny slap on the wrist" and described the decision to keep Gelb as disrespectful to employees affected by his behavior.

In its August apology, Riot said it was willing to remove employees and make large-scale changes as part of its internal investigation.

"No one and nothing is sacred," the company's blog post said. "We are prepared to make big changes and have begun taking action against specific cases, including removal of Rioters, though we aren't likely to get into those details publicly on a case-by-case basis for legal and privacy reasons."

Laurent said in the email that Riot remained committed to protecting employees during the investigation but that Gelb's case was an exception because of his high-visibility role within the company.

The company is also facing a legal challenge from a class-action gender-discrimination lawsuit filed in November by two female Riot employees, one former and one current, alleging that the company's "bro culture" negatively affected their careers.

Other Riot employees have been accused of sending unsolicited pictures of their genitals and maintaining a list of the "hottest" employees. The lawsuit also alleges that male Riot employees used the word "dick" 500 times in the workplace over a month.

Robinhood launches no-fee checking/savings with Mastercard & the most ATMs

In the world of entrepreneurship, there are endless things to do. Tasks, to do lists, new initiatives, new projects, and P1s. Leaders spend a lot of time planning, especially in the context of “we have to grow more, do more, and get bigger.”

Lately, I’ve been suggesting to a few of the CEOs who I work with to make a “2019 Won’t Do List.” While this is a high-level list of things not to do, it can be on multiple dimensions.

I like to start with things that often are optional, but consume a lot of time and energy. Examples would be “an acquisition” or “a financing” or “an IPO.” Let’s take “acquisition” as an example. Assume you are a fast growing company with plenty of financial resources. Maybe you’ve made some acquisitions in the past. But, you haven’t thought about it specifically, so it’s a reactive or opportunistic move. It’s very freeing to decide “this year we aren’t making any acquisitions and we aren’t going to be distracted by the motion around an acquisition.”  The nice thing about being a CEO, especially of a company in a strong position, is that you can change your mind. But by declaring what you won’t do up front for some time, it makes the decision one where you have to actively change your mind about what you won’t do.

Then, I like to roll into metrics that create a floor on how the business will operate. For example, “We won’t have a month of negative EBITDA.” Or, “well never have negative cash flow of more than $500,000.” Or, we won’t hire anyone new, other than replacing attrition, until after we have revenue of $X / person.” These are different than what your goals are, where the goals look like “We are going to grow 10% month over month” or “We will adhere to the rule of 40 for a healthy SaaS company.”

Then, I like to end by pushing the CEO to define personal Won’t Dos. These can be behavioral or functional. Most people are comfortable with the functional ones, but struggle to identify the behavioral ones. I like the struggle around this – it almost always generates fascinating conversations that are highly personal.

An example of something from my Won’t Do list is “take on another book project.” I have several that I’m working on and I’m happy about them, but once I’m finished with them, I’m not going to do any more non-fiction for a while. I have a desire to write some near-term science fiction and see if I’m any good at it. Since I want to finish the projects I have and know that I have poor impulse control around says “sure – I’ll work on that book project,” by putting this on my Won’t Do list for 2019, I say no to everything.

A personal example on my Won’t Do list is “buy another big thing other than art” (e.g., house, car). I’ve got enough. Amy and I talked about this around my birthday (she was looking into getting me a new car) and I didn’t want one. I suggested that we buy a half dozen Subarus and park them in front of my friend Dave’s house (Dave hates Subarus) and call them an “art installation” instead. As I thought through this, I realized I don’t want something new like this for a while. In contrast, I exempted art because when I thought about it, I wanted to buy some additional art this year (especially sculpture.)

What’s on your Won’t Do list for 2019?

Also published on Medium.