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Four U.S. senators are pressuring the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to “closely monitor the negotiations” between Uber and food delivery giant Grubhub Seamless to merge their parasitic services into one market-dominating giant. In a letter to the two agencies dated Wednesday, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, Patrick Leahy, Richard Blumenthal, and Cory…
BB-8, the spherical orange and white robot that makes whirring noises as cute as kitten purrs doesn’t exactly seem cut out for use in a police force or military. It’s a great toy, but not designed for detonating bombs, sniffing drugs, or whatever else those agencies use robots for. But Sphero, an educational STEM toy…
AT&T’s use of 5G E to disguise what is really just 4G LTE has been bullshit since the beginning, and after other carriers complained and a lengthy review process by the National Advertising Review Board, AT&T will finally a stop using its misleading branding. Well, sort of. In a press release issued today, following a…
HBO Max, the super-packed streaming product that launches next week, is doing a pretty good job at positioning itself as a streaming service for nerds—including by ensuring that it’s available across multiple gaming consoles on launch day. The company announced today a series of new distribution agreements—specifically with Altice, Cox, Microsoft, the National Cable Television…
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, the sponsor of a recent amendment to stop the FBI from capturing Americans’ search and web browsing histories without a warrant, is now asking the nation’s top spy (acting) to disclose whether his office has accurately reported on such activities, which the law seemingly requires. After the Edward Snowden leaks of…
It seems like social media companies are finally realizing that no one likes rando trolls blowing up their mentions. Or being ratioed. Or having unwelcome porn bots reply to something you tweeted five years ago. Taking a cue from Instagram’s latest tag and mention controls, Twitter has just started testing its own reply controls. The…
Well, well, well. Following a report this week that Apple—whose streaming service Apple TV+ isn’t exactly doing big-time numbers right now—is looking to buy up non-Apple series and movies to beef up its catalog, Deadline reported Tuesday that Apple has entered an agreement with Sony Pictures to license Greyhound, the WWII naval ship drama written…
When we talk about Google, regard for personal privacy is generally the last thing on any of our minds. So when Google announced on its company blog yesterday that the latest Chrome update—Chrome 83—would be jam-packed with new goodies meant to beef up the browser’s privacy and security chops, I was, in a word, skeptical…
Plenty of companies have experimented with vlogging—including cameras like the Nikon Z50, Canon G7X Mark II, and others—but based on what we’ve learned from leaks and teases, Sony might finally put everything together on its upcoming ZV-1. Scheduled to make its official debut May 26, the ZV-1 looks like it will be based on Sony’s…
By the end of March, things were looking good for the group video chat app Houseparty as quarantined young people, perhaps put off by Zoom’s relentless security failures, were looking for a less corporate-seeming platform to keep in touch with friends and family. Vogue gushed that it was “the quarantine app you need to download…
Last summer, an anonymous contractor revealed that Apple had contractors listening to private conversations, unknowingly recorded by their devices, as part of a “grading” system to improve Siri. Now, the whistleblower has gone public in a letter sent to European data protection regulators, decrying the lack of action taken against Apple for violating people’s privacy.…
Unless you’re completely irresponsible and utterly lacking in empathy, wearing a face mask is going to be a routine part of life well into 2021. In a questionable attempt to make masks more comfortable, a YouTuber has shared his custom creation that can automatically open to let fresh air in when no one’s around—at the…
Meeting up with friends and family is difficult (if not impossible) right now, which is why we’re all experimenting with different ways to keep in touch. Not every form of communication has to be a live video chat, though—there are tons of options that allow you to leave audio and video messages for friends and…
Singapore’s Supreme Court sentenced a man to death via Zoom video chat on Friday, according to a report from the Strait Times. It’s believed to be the second time that a death sentence has been handed down this year over the video service, which has seen a dramatic increase in use since the global coronavirus…
Republicans and Democrats engrossed in a fight over the future of privacy in America say the public support of a specific influential Democrat is likely critical to secure a vote next week on an amendment that would prohibit FBI agents from demanding Americans’ web browsing data without a warrant. With the distraction of a fatal…
Norma McCorvey, the woman known as ‘Jane Roe’ in the milestone Roe v. Wade case, makes a stunning confession in a new FX documentary about her life: She was paid by the evangelical Christian right to disingenuously further their anti-abortion agenda. McCorvey became a pivotal fixture of the abortion rights movement after becoming a plaintiff as…
When lockdowns in the U.S. were just starting and it was clear everyone would be stuck at home for the long haul, the Federal Communications Commission pushed carriers to sign its Keep Americans Connected Pledge—a promise that no one would get their internet or telephone service cut off due to an inability to pay. Now,…
As resolutions and file sizes continue to grow, it’s important for storage —especially removable storage—to keep up, and with the SD Association’s new SD 8.0 spec, memory cards have just gotten a massive bump to their top-end speed. In a press release issued on Tuesday, the association announced that transfer speeds for SD Express cards…
If you’re lucky enough to have some outdoor space where you live, setting up shop in the garden or backyard can make working from home more bearable. You can top up your daily dose of vitamin D, get closer to the natural (or urban) world around you, escape from the rest of the family, and…
Apple finally seems to be caving to the Netflix model and reportedly plans to license older content to help build out its meager lineup of mostly okay originals. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Apple is working on padding out its remarkably thin content lineup of originals with older TV series…
