Category: Latest News

“There’s a lot of crazies out here in Arizona,” said Uber driver Randy Clarke in a very interesting online chat with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “I just wish you guys had some sort of way for us to put our rules of our vehicle on the app so the passengers know what to expect beforehand.” “For example, in January this guy came into my car trying to get into the front seat. I don’t like to allow people in the front seat when I’m driving alone at 11 o’clock at night. He gets…

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US officials are not letting up on their campaign to isolate Huawei, as they are now threatening Brazil with “consequences” if the country chooses Huawei. The US has been engaging in a campaign to isolate and contain Huawei, a firm believed to represent a security threat. While all Chinese firms are required to cooperate with the government, Huawei is seen as having unusually strong ties to Beijing and Chinese intelligence. As a result, US officials believe the company could serve as a means for Beijing to spy on governments and…

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Windows users excited about the upcoming Windows 10X will have to wait until the sprint of 2021 for a single-screen rollout, with dual-screen support debuting a year later. Windows 10X is the latest update to Windows that ditches legacy code, focuses on a simpler interface, modular design and is built to support multi-screen devices. As the pandemic has taken its toll, however, Microsoft diverted resources to more pressing issues, delaying the Windows 10X release. According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft’s plans are beginning to take shape. “I’m hearing Microsoft’s latest plan calls for…

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The UK and Australia have announced a joint investigation into Clearview AI—to cheers of privacy advocates the world over. Clearview quickly made a name for itself as a facial recognition firm that had scraped billions of images from millions of websites. Ignoring platform policies and user agreements, Clearview even scraped images from the top social media companies, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Things only got worse from there, as the company was found to be monitoring police searches to discourage them from talking to journalists. Despite repeatedly insisting it only sold its software…

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Comcast has become the first ISP to join Mozilla’s initiative and “provide Firefox users with private and secure encrypted Domain Name System (DNS) services through Mozilla’s Trusted Recursive Resolver (TRR) Program.” Mozilla has been one of the companies on the forefront of protecting user privacy. One of the areas they have been focusing on is encrypting DNS traffic, which helps protect browsing activity from collection, interception or manipulation. For this to work, however, it requires partner companies to agree to standard rules about how data is collected, protected and used.…

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“Today is going to be a truly historic day for the Mac,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook at their at the Worldwide Developers Conference. “Today we are going to tell you about some really big changes, how we are going to take the Mac to a whole new level. From the very beginning, the Mac redefined the entire computer industry. The Mac has always been about innovation and boldly pushing things forward, embracing big changes to stay at the forefront of personal computing.” Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, announced today…

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Norway has decided to halt its coronavirus contact tracing app efforts amid privacy concerns. Contact tracing has been touted as one of the key weapons in the war on COVID-19. Countries around the world have opted to use different types of tracing apps, with many basing their efforts on the privacy-focused API developed by Apple and Google. Norway, on the other hand, is not one of those countries, choosing to develop its own app that did not win any marks for privacy. With new cases plateaued for the last month, however, it…

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Germany has taken a significant step toward widespread adoption of electric vehicles, by requiring fueling stations to offer electric vehicle charging. The move is part of a group of steps Germany is taking to help cut carbon emissions, including taxing owners of gas-guzzling SUVs and providing a subsidy to electric car buyers. As Reuters points out, Germany will spend some 2.5 billion euros on charging infrastructure, as well as battery production. This should go a long way toward alleviating concerns drivers have about how easily they’ll be able to charge…

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Google has announced the release of Android Studio 4.0, its IDE for creating Android applications. The new version of Android Studio includes a number of significant improvements over previous versions. “Some highlights of Android Studio 4.0 include a new Motion Editor to help bring your apps to life, a Build Analyzer to investigate causes for slower build times, and Java 8 language APIs you can use regardless of your app’s minimum API level,” writes Adarsh Fernando, Product Manager. “Based on your feedback, we’ve also overhauled the CPU Profiler user interface to provide…

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Facebook announced it is acquiring Giphy, with plans to integrate it into the Instagram platform. Giphy is a popular service that lets users share short, looped videos, reminiscent of animated GIFs. The service is widely used in text messaging, social media and more. Facebook already uses the Giphy API across its many services, including Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp. The social media giant sees the purchase as a way to increase integration and improve the user experience even more. “A lot of people in our community already know and love…

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