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Andrew “Amazon” Cuomo appears to have fully embraced the anger phase of his process of grieving the loss of Amazon’s would-be HQ2 headquarters in Queens. Speaking with WAMC’s Alan Chartock on The Roundtable on Friday, the New York governor called the incident “the greatest tragedy that I have seen since I have been in government,”…
In just the last week, we’ve seen two incredibly impressive bendy phones in the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X. But they won’t be the last, as evidenced by TCL’s own bendy phone concepts shown off at MWC. However, TLC was careful to say that these devices are just prototypes for now, as…
Based on my best estimates, I started using Google Chrome in late 2009, not long after the beta version for OS X came out. It was awesome, fast as hell, and full of neat little tricks that felt new at the time. (Remember when searching from the address bar was a revelation?) I loved Chrome…
In case you thought Samsung’s $2,000 Galaxy Fold was a singular shot at making a flexible phone, check this out. At MWC 2019, the Huawei Mate X shows how serious the bendy screen movement really is. Featuring what Huawei calls a falcon wing hinge and a flexible exterior screen, the Mate X’s design is almost…
When Huawei released that MateBook X Pro last year, it took me by surprise. Despite coming from a company known more for making smartphones than computers, even after testing a number of other laptops, I kept coming back to the MateBook X Pro as my favorite ultraportable of the year. That’s why I was happy…
After having to pull its entire fleet of electric scooters from multiple cities in Switzerland amid reports of unexpected braking, Lime is facing a similar problem in New Zealand. Auckland officials announced Friday that the city has temporarily suspended Lime’s license following reports of rider injuries. Lime reported 155 incidents of irregular braking with its…
An Atlas Air Boeing 767 cargo plane crashed in a bay near Anahuac, Texas on Saturday afternoon with three people on board, according to multiple media reports and the Federal Aviation Administration. The flight, which was contracted to fly cargo for Amazon Air (formerly Prime Air), went down while flying to Houston from Miami. The…
YouTube has removed ads from videos that promoted anti-vaccination rhetoric and violated its ad policies, BuzzFeed News reported Friday. The site reported that at least seven advertisers were unaware that their brands were being attached to this kind of content and despite the fact that YouTube’s ad policies aren’t new. “We have strict policies that…
As YouTube scrambles to tackle a network of child exploitation in the comments section of its platform, some creators have voiced concern about what will happen if their videos are demonetized amid advertiser pull-outs and crackdowns on content. The Verge reported Friday that a tweet from the Team YouTube account sent creators further spiraling after…
Privacy and security remain a centerpiece of House Democrats’ agenda this year. To further efforts to pass comprehensive federal law shielding consumers from malfeasance from corporations like Facebook, hearings continue to be scheduled with experts over the need for government-imposed regulation. Next week, the House subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce will hold a hearing…
Sometimes, Facebook isn’t the one you should blame for privacy violations involving Facebook. For example, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal found 11 popular apps that routinely transmit potentially sensitive personal data like body weight and menstrual cycles to Facebook—sometimes in violation of the social network’s own guidelines. At issue is an analytics tool…
Ahead of Sunday’s rumored announcement of the HoloLens 2 headset at Mobile World Congress on Sunday, a group of concerned employees at Microsoft have begun circulated a letter demanding the august tech firm sever an augmented reality contract it won with the Army last year. The letter—which spread across internal discussion boards and company email…
Prompted by last year’s Marriott International data breach, which saw more than 25 million unencrypted passport numbers leaked among other sensitive info, the state of California may soon require companies to notify customers when passport information and biometric data are accessed by anyone without authorization. This week, California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Assemblymember…
Have a plan to track and predict the behavior of ex-cons using artificial intelligence? The U.S. Department of Justice is all ears. Last week, the Justice Department announced it was awarding up to $3 million for artificial intelligence projects that promote “the successful reentry of offenders under community supervision.” The solicitation for R&D proposals characterizes…
Around six months ago, I really started dreading the sense that I would have to buy a new phone soon. The iPhone 7 I’ve had in my pocket and hand for the last three years was beginning to have problems charging, and I could no longer use my Lightning connector headphones. It was really pissing…
Yes, 5G is coming, but it’s definitely not here yet. Brazilian carrier Claro seems to by trying to get around that pesky fact with a sneaky “4.5G” marketing campaign that could result in fines for misleading advertising. There’s nothing blatantly devious about Claro labeling its faster-than-4G-but-not-5G speeds “4.5G.” What’s ridiculous is the logo its using…
Facebook’s Onavo VPN app has been dying a slow death since it was exposed as a clandestine data collection monster last year. The app was pulled from the iOS app store for violating Apple’s rules and now Facebook has voluntarily decided to remove it from Google Play. At the very least, the move seems to signal that the…
You’re probably spending more than you think on monthly subscription services—music streaming, cloud storage, video libraries, software packages… the list goes on and on. Add them all up and you might be talking about a substantial chunk of money going out on a regular basis. Here’s how to start cutting back. 1) Switch to free…
Yesterday morning, news went viral that PepsiCo was spending $2.5 billion on a plan to restructure the company that involved laying off an untold number of its workers. It was probably the phrase “relentlessly automating,” which Business Insider threw in the headline, that did the trick. Pepsi’s new CEO, Ramon Laguarta had said in an…
Amid reports that a pervasive network of pedophiles is operating in the comments of YouTube videos of children, several major companies have paused their ad campaigns. AT&T and toy maker Hasbro have now become the latest advertisers to follow suit, CNBC reported Thursday. A spokesperson for AT&T told CNBC in a statement that it is…