Tag Archives: technology

Yelp Names Businesses Caught Buying Fake Reviews

Engadget reports: Since 2012, Yelp has caught nearly 5,000 businesses engaging in shady tactics, like paying customers for favorable ratings or hiring people to write phony reviews. Now, the company has a new tool to help people — and maybe the feds — track businesses that have tried to manipulate their standing on the review platform. Yelp is releasing a …

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Google Maps Sued Over Fatality At Collapsed Bridge

The New York Daily News reports: Google is being sued by the family of a North Carolina man who drowned after he drove off a collapsed bridge while following outdated directions from the Maps app. Philip Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s birthday party on Sept. 30, 2022 when his car plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory — about …

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Apple Issues Update To Block Israeli Outfit’s Spyware

The Associated Press reports: Apple released a significant security update for iPhones and iPads Thursday to patch newly discovered security vulnerabilities in the devices’ system software. The issue was discovered by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who said the software flaw was being “actively exploited” to deliver commercial spyware called Pegasus developed and sold by the Israeli …

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Coming iPhones To Feature Universal USB-C Charger

Bloomberg News reports: Apple is set to shift its iPhone charging port from Lightning to USB-C after pushing back on such a change for years. If Apple Inc. had its way, the iPhone would continue to use the current Lightning connector for the next few years — until the point when the company is ready to begin phasing out ports …

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Whole Foods To Roll Out Pay-By-Palm Nationwide

ABC News reports: Amazon is bringing its pay-by-palm technology to Whole Foods stores. The company announced Thursday that its Amazon One palm recognition system will soon be in more than 500 Whole Foods stores by the end of the year. Amazon rolled out the technology in 2020, and it is currently available in more than 200 Whole Foods stores nationwide. …

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Tech Giants Agree To Meet Voluntary AI Safeguards

The Associated Press reports: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology have agreed to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by President Joe Biden’s administration. The White House said Friday that it has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before they …

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Company Ships “Free” Ad-Supported 55-Inch TVs

The Verge reports: The free TV company Telly has started shipping its ad-supported TVs to its first wave of customers. Telly first opened its waitlist in May and plans on shipping 500,000 free TVs to customers by the end of 2023 — and “millions more” in 2024. Unlike most TVs, beneath Telly’s 55-inch 4K display is a smaller screen separated …

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Robots Hold Press Conference, Promise Not To Rise Up

Reuters reports: Robots presented at an AI forum said on Friday they expected to increase in number and help solve global problems, and would not steal humans’ jobs or rebel against us. The nine humanoid robots gathered at the ‘AI for Good’ conference in Geneva, where organisers are seeking to make the case for artificial intelligence and the robots it …

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Grammy Awards Rules AI-Created Music Ineligible

The Associated Press reports: The Recording Academy announced a series of changes to the Grammy Awards to better reflect an evolving music industry. Of those newly instituted guidelines, protocols involving technological advancements in machine learning sparked headlines: “Only human creators” could win the music industry’s highest honor in a decision aimed at the use of artificial intelligence in popular music. …

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Apple Is First Company With $3 Trillion Market Cap

The Associated Press reports: Apple became the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a $3 trillion market value, marking another milestone for a technology juggernaut that has reshaped society with a line-up of products that churn out eye-popping profits. Apple shares closed up 2.3% at $193.97 Friday, bringing its market value to $3.04 trillion. Apple is …

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Survey: 73% Of Americans No Longer Have A Landline

The Washington Post reports: About 73 percent of American adults lived in a household without a landline at the end of last year — a figure that has tripled since 2010. The latest survey shows that landlines are far more common among homeowners (34 percent have them) than among renters (15 percent), while Hispanic Americans (20 percent) are less likely …

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TODAY: Scheduled JMG Outage During Server Move

As I’ve noted for the last week in the comments of some JMG posts, at some point today we’ll go offline while our hosting service physically moves our standalone server to a new facility near downtown Los Angeles. The downtime will allegedly last no longer than four hours and could be much shorter. But unfortunately, we won’t get a heads …

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Apple Unveils “Vision Pro” Virtual Reality Headset

Reuters reports: Apple Inc unveiled an augmented-reality headset called the Apple Vision Pro at its annual software developer conference on Monday, its first big move into a new product category since the introduction of the Apple Watch nine years ago. The headset launch will see Apple test a market crowded with devices that have yet to gain traction with consumers …

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More Automakers Eliminate AM Radios In New Cars

The Washington Post reports: Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated. Some station owners and advertisers …

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Cashless Retailers Increasingly Turn To “Reverse ATMs”

Axios reports: As stores and restaurants attempt to go cashless, they’re installing “reverse ATMs” that dispense stored-value cards in exchange for greenbacks. More businesses are eschewing cash — a trend accelerated by the pandemic — but states and cities are passing laws banning them from doing so, in deference to people who don’t have bank accounts or credit cards. Reverse …

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Retailers Worldwide To Transition To “2D Barcodes”

Axios reports: In a worldwide push called “Sunrise 2027,” the retail industry is transitioning from the standard 12-digit barcode — that square of vertical lines that’s printed on a package and makes it go “beep” at the checkout scanner — to a two-dimensional web-enabled version. The effort is being orchestrated by GS1 US, the nonprofit standards organization that oversees the …

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Robotics Firm Debuts Humanoid Warehouse Worker

Axios reports: The first commercially available human-shaped robots designed for warehouse work were unveiled last week by a company called Agility Robotics, for delivery in 2025. Digit, which is built to work alongside humans, can lift and move plastic bins in a warehouse or distribution center. Fully self-charging, Digit — who is a slim 5’9″ and 140 pounds — will …

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FBI: Don’t Use Free Public Stations To Charge Devices

CNBC reports: The FBI has warned consumers against using free public charging stations, saying crooks have managed to hijack public chargers that can infect devices with malware, or software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or computer. The Federal Communications Commission has also warned about “juice jacking,” as the malware loading scheme is known, since 2021. Consumer …

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Tesla Workers Shared Videos From Customers’ Cars

Reuters reports: Tesla Inc assures its millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.” The cameras it builds into vehicles to assist driving, it notes on its website, are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy.” But between 2019 and 2022, groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an …

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Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Files For Bankruptcy

The BBC reports: British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s rocket company Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy in the US after failing to secure new investment. The satellite launch company halted operations weeks ago but it hopes to find a buyer for the business. The company, based in California, announced last week that it would cut 85% of its 750-strong workforce. …

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