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The Morning After: Monday, April 24th 2017

Too much, too early?

Domino's Pizza Japan

Welcome to a fresh new week at Engadget. Over the weekend, you may have missed Uber's latest sketchy tale, a rallying call for truth and science, and a love letter to the Galaxy S8 from a once-Samsung hater.


Uber's app could identify iPhones even after they'd been wiped.
Apple threatened to drop Uber's app over iPhone tagging (updated)

New York Times sources claim that Apple CEO Tim Cook held a face-to-face meeting in early 2015 to call out Uber's Travis Kalanick (and threaten to remove his app from the App Store) after learning that Uber was not only violating iOS app privacy guidelines, but also trying to cover it up. The ridesharing outfit had been "fingerprinting" iPhones with permanent identities so that it could prevent drivers from cheating by creating fake accounts and accepting rides from these bogus customers. It was a clear privacy violation -- and it was made worse by Uber's bid to hide the tracking from App Store reviewers.


Many more around the world joined them in rallying for the cause.
Thousands descended on DC to march for truth and science

A balmy Friday evening gave way to a miserable Saturday, with low, gray clouds that blotted out the sun and soaked Washington DC with rain. That wasn't enough to stop thousands of people — from all over the country — from gathering on the grounds in front of the Washington Monument to march for science. It's no wonder, either. The people who showed up were career researchers, teachers, students and families, all alarmed by the federal government's lack of appreciation for the importance of science. And they were joined in spirit by still thousands more around the world, showing their support for facts and inquiry at satellite marches in over 600 cities. We joined them in DC.


That million-dollar price tag likely doomed it from the start.First gene therapy drug proves a flop in the market

When UniQure launched the first commercial gene therapy drug, Glybera, it promised a minor revolution in medicine. By using custom viruses to deliver genes, it could reportedly cure a rare disease (lipoprotein lipase deficiency) with just one round of treatment. However, it just didn't live up to the early hype. UniQure has announced that it's withdrawing the drug from Europe when its approval ends on October 25th. The company doesn't beat around the bush with an explanation: the drug's use has been "extremely limited" since going on the market in 2012, and it doesn't expect an uptick in the years ahead.


With the Galaxy S8, Samsung grabs the smartphone design crownThere's no phone that compares with Samsung's latest

Nathan Ingraham has never liked Samsung's smartphones. The cheap plastic design and overwrought software found in early Galaxy devices turned him off, to the point that he thought he'd never take their phones seriously. Then, the Samsung paychecks Galaxy S8 appeared and he fell in love.

But wait, there's more...