JOHN HENNESSY, THE chair of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., was recently asked whether Google providing a search engine in China that censored results would provide a net benefit for Chinese users. “I don’t know the answer to that. I think it’s — I think it’s a legitimate question,” he responded. “Anybody who does business in China compromises some of their core values. Every single company, because the laws in China are quite a bit different than they are in our own country.”

Hennessy’s remarks were in relation to Project Dragonfly, a once-secret project within Google to build a version of its search engine that meets the demands of the ruling Chinese Communist Party — namely, that Google proactively censor “sensitive” speech and comply with China’s data provenance and surveillance laws.

Eight apps with a total of more than 2 billion downloads in the Google Play store have been exploiting user permissions as part of an ad fraud scheme that could have stolen millions of dollars, according to research from Kochava, an app analytics and attribution company that detected the scheme and shared its findings with BuzzFeed News.

Seven of the apps Kochava found engaging in this behavior are owned by Cheetah Mobile, a Chinese company listed on the New York Stock Exchange that last year was accused of fraudulent business practices by a short-seller investment firm — a charge that Cheetah vigorously denied. The other app is owned by Kika Tech, a Chinese company now headquartered in Silicon Valley that received a significant investment from Cheetah in 2016. The companies claim more than 700 million active users per month for their mobile apps.

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met secretly on multiple occasions with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London over several years, including one meeting in 2016 just months before Wikileaks published Clinton associate emails hacked by Russian operatives, the Guardian reported Tuesday.

The report does not detail what the nature of their meetings was, but it appears clear that the meetings would be of interest to Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation, whoch on Monday accused Manafort of lying to the investigators “on a variety of subject matters” in violation of his plea deal. In one Ecuadorian intelligence document listing Manafort as a guest of the embassy, “Russians” were also mentioned, according to the Guardian.

Demand for iPhone XR may well be weaker than Apple and analysts expected. I don’t know. But I will say this: you can’t judge this from poor-mouthing from Apple’s Asian suppliers. Every year, right around now, reports appear that Apple suppliers are claiming Apple has cut orders because demand for the latest iPhones is weaker than Apple projected. Every year. Some years, like with the iPhone 6S models, that probably was true. Most years, it’s nonsense — like last year, with the iPhone X. Apple cuts orders from suppliers for all sorts of reasons, and they don’t explain the reasons to the suppliers. Note that I’m not saying Goldman based this note on supplier reports. I just wanted to get the above off my chest. But it is the case that the WSJ story that prompted the Goldman note was based on bad forecasts from Apple suppliers.

A few days ago, Apple released a new ad for the iPad Pro that gives five reasons it can be ‘your next computer.’ While I thought the ad was well done, I did come away from it frustrated. While I’ve been a big proponent of the iPad for a long time (I’ve bought 500+ iPads over the past eight years), I think the video shows serious flaws with Apple’s mindset at the moment. And I’ve been thinking, is the iPad Pro worth the money?

Popular computer accessories maker Logitech may be looking to purchase Plantronics, a company that specializes in Bluetooth earpieces and headsets.

According to a report from Reuters, this would be Logitech’s largest acquisition by far to date. This would also help diversify its business and move into new markets.

Apparently, the biggest motivator is to cut down manufacturing costs due to tariffs on imports between China and the United States.

It would come as Logitech and Plantronics seek to keep down manufacturing costs following the introduction of tariffs on imports from China into the United States.