Tag Archives: technology

CNBC reports: Amazon’s cloud-computing service on Wednesday was hit with an outage that took down some websites and services. A notice on Amazon Web Services’ status page said it was experiencing problems with Kinesis, its service that processes large streams of data, causing “increased error rates” for a number of websites. The outage also impacted its ability to post updates …

Mediaite reports: This genius “through the looking glass” creation comes from the minds behind South Park, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone, who have created a YouTube series based on a fictional reporter to warn Americans of the perils of deep fakes. Oh, and their Fred Sassy is a deep fake of President Donald Trump. It’s a brilliantly hilarious, or hilariously …

Axios reports: Many of the world’s biggest tech and telecom companies, like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and AT&T, are licensing the Associated Press’ election results to power their voice, video and search products, executives tell Axios. How it works: Because tech firms need to answer millions of unique voice commands and search queries in real time, the results will be coded …

The Verge reports: “I’d be more worried about the camera on your phone than I would be about a drone,” Amazon devices SVP Dave Limp told me in an interview a few hours after yesterday’s big Echo event. The drone in question is the Ring Always Home Cam, an autonomous indoor drone that can use a map of your home …

The New York Times reports: Two dozen award-winning computer scientists, in a rebuke of President Trump’s immigration policies, said on Friday that they were endorsing Joseph R. Biden Jr. in November’s presidential election. The scientists, including John Hennessy, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, are all winners of the Turing Award, which is often called the Nobel Prize …

The Hill reports: Eligible voters will be able to register to vote and request mail-in ballots through the Uber app, as well as receive information on and discounted rides to and from polling places, the company announced Tuesday. Uber is partnering with TurboVote to help “riders, eaters, drivers and delivery people” register to vote or request a vote-by-mail ballot through …

The Verge reports: Uber announced Tuesday that “100 percent” of rides will take place in electric vehicles by 2030 in the US, Canada, and Europe, and by 2040 for the rest of the world. But rather than pay drivers directly to trade their gas-burning vehicles for electric ones, the company will impose an extra fee on trips completed in an …

The Verge reports: Amazon’s top reviewers in the UK appear to have engaged in fraud, leaving thousands of five-star ratings in exchange for money or free products. The company took down 20,000 product reviews following an investigation by the Financial Times. Scams like these typically start on social networks and messaging apps such as Telegram, where companies can meet potential …

The Verge reports: Some of them are embarrassing, some are potential privacy violations, but they’re among the examples in Apple’s new Over Sharing ad, which re-emphasizes the company’s focus — or at least its image — of being a protector of online privacy. The ad’s tagline, shown at the end, reads “Some things shouldn’t be shared. iPhone helps keep it …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department plans to bring an antitrust case against Google as soon as this month, after Attorney General William P. Barr overruled career lawyers who said they needed more time to build a strong case against one of the world’s wealthiest, most formidable technology companies, according to five people briefed on internal department conversations. …

The Verge reports: Reports indicate a slew of popular websites and online services are experiencing outages today, seemingly linked to an issue with Cloudflare. DownDetector, a platform that tracks connectivity complaints, shows that some of the services impacted include the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The platform suggests there was a knock-on effect with many popular video games, such as …

The Verge reports: If you’ve been tested for COVID-19 then you’ve probably experienced the unpleasantness of a nasal swab. Someone takes a long-handled cotton swab and sticks it up your nose — way up your nose — until it reaches the back of the mucus-cave that is your nasal cavity. Upon arrival they give the swab a good twirl to …

CNBC reports: Apple hit a market cap of $2 trillion Wednesday, doubling in valuation in just over two years to become the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach the milestone. Based on a share count of more than 4.275 billion, Apple broke the barrier just before 11 a.m. ET, when its price rose to $467.77. Apple first reached a …

The BBC reports: Fortnite-maker Epic Games is taking legal action against Google after being banned from the Google Play app store, hours after doing the same with Apple. Apple and Google both removed the hit game from their app stores after Epic Games bypassed their payment systems, to avoid giving them a cut of sales. Both platforms take a standard …

CNBC reports: Apple rode the company’s strong earnings report to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, surpassing the state oil giant Saudi Aramco at Friday’s market close. Apple shares closed up 10.47% Friday, giving it a market valuation of $1.84 trillion. Saudi Aramco, which had been the most valuable publicly listed company since its market debut last year, …

Reuters reports: The iPhone maker made the surprise announcement in its quarterly report, saying it will split its stock four-to-one when trading opens on Aug. 31, Apple’s first share split since 2014. Stock splits have become rare on Wall Street in recent years, with just three S&P 500 members announcing splits in 2020, compared to an average of 10 a …

USA Today reports: Segway, which boldly claimed its two-wheeled personal transporter would revolutionize the way people get around, is ending production of its namesake vehicle. The Segway PT, popular with tourists and police officers but perhaps better known for its high-profile crashes, will be retired on July 15, the company said in a statement. The transportation revolution that inventor Dean …

Deadline reports: Wireless provider T-Mobile continued to battle phone outages Monday, which began in the mid-afternoon in several major U.S. markets and continued into the evening. The hardest-hit areas have been on the East Coast, including major cities like New York, Atlanta and Miami, as well as LA and Chicago, according to the tech-issue tracker DownDetector. Calls and some text …

Via press release from the FBI: The FBI advises the public to be cautious when downloading apps on smartphones and tablets, as some could be concealing malicious intent. Cyber actors target banking information using banking trojans, which are malicious programs that disguise themselves as other apps, such as games or tools. When the user launches a legitimate banking app, it …

TechCrunch reports: SpaceX had just conducted yet another static fire test of the Raptor engine in its Starship SN4 prototype launch vehicle on Friday when the test vehicle exploded on the test stand in Boca Chica, Texas. This was the fourth static fire test of this engine on this prototype, so it’s unclear what went wrong vs. other static fire …