Tag Archives: technology

Engadget reports: If what you need today is a dog robot twerking to “Uptown Funk,” well then you’re in luck. Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini robot is featured in a new video intended to show off its mobility, and it certainly does that as the robot dog steps, gyrates and dances in time with music. The SpotMini goes on sale sometime in …

CNBC reports: Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen has died from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Vulcan Inc. said Monday on behalf of his family. Allen passed away Monday afternoon in Seattle at 65 years old, Vulcan said. His sister, Jody, said he was “a remarkable individual on every level.” Allen ranked among the world’s wealthiest individuals. As of Monday afternoon, he ranked …

Axios reports: Sale of the one millionth electric vehicle in the U.S. is likely to occur this month, according to an estimate by the group Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) that’s based on data compiled by Inside EVs. It’s a symbolic threshold that signals growing adoption of the technology, even though it remains a small part of the overall U.S. …

Reuters reports: Facebook Inc said on Friday attackers stole names and contact details of 29 million users in the mass security breach disclosed by the social media network late last month. The breach, Facebook’s worst ever, has exacerbated concerns among users, lawmakers and investors that the company is not doing enough to safeguard data, particularly in the wake of the …

Axios reports: Google announced Monday it won’t bid on the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud contract because of concerns the work wouldn’t align with its artificial intelligence ethical principles, which hold that its software shouldn’t be used to cause harm to people or violate human rights. Google has lately faced a series of conflicts between those ethical principles and major business …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network and then opted not to disclose the issue this past spring, in part because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage, according to people briefed on the incident and documents reviewed by The …

Business Insider reports: The amount of information about individual users stored online and on their phones is enormous, Cook said in an interview with Vice News Tonight on Tuesday. The tech industry hasn’t done a good job of respecting and protecting that data, he said. “I’m not a pro-regulation kind of person, I believe in the free market deeply,” Cook …

The New York Times reports: Facebook on Friday said an attack on its computer network led to the exposure of information from nearly 50 million of its users. The company discovered the breach earlier this week, finding that attackers had exploited a feature in Facebook’s code that allowed them to take over user accounts. Facebook fixed the vulnerability and notified …

Metro News reports: The world’s first flying car will be available to pre-order next month. A Chinese company called Terrafugia is preparing to unleash a vehicle called the Transition which can turn from an automobile into an aircraft in just a minute. The most striking aspect of the Transition is its folding wings, which extend to allow flight and can …

Wired reports: Twitter on Tuesday announced a new policy addressing “dehumanizing speech,” which will take effect later this year, and for the first time the public will be able to formally provide the company with feedback on the proposed rule. The policy will prohibit “content that dehumanizes others based on their membership in an identifiable group, even when the material …

The Associated Press reports: The co-founders of Instagram are resigning their positions with the social media company without explanation. Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said in a statement late Monday that he and Mike Krieger, Instagram’s chief technical officer, plan to leave the company in the next few weeks and take time off “to explore our curiosity and creativity again.” “Mike …

The Verge reports: Apple has announced its next generation of iPhones, and one of them is by far the biggest iPhone yet. The two new models are called the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. They look almost identical to their predecessor, but there are two immediate differences: for one, they’re both available in gold, unlike last year; and more …

Next Gov reports: Some international travelers can leave their boarding passes and passports in their pockets when flying out of Dulles International Airport thanks to a new facial recognition boarding technology that went into operation Thursday. The new veriScan system developed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority—with guidance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection—scans the faces of travelers approaching the …

Pew Research reports: Significant shares of Facebook users have taken steps in the past year to reframe their relationship with the social media platform. 42% of Facebook users have taken a break from the site in the past year. Just over half of Facebook users ages 18 and older (54%) say they have adjusted their privacy settings in the past …

Reuters reports: Mercedes showed on Tuesday how it is “aggressively” gunning for top spot in upscale battery cars market currently dominated by Tesla, as it unveiled the EQC, its first fully electric car, at an event in Stockholm. The event marks the start of the German onslaught against the American upstart and showcased a SUV with a 450 kilometer range, …

Politico reports: The United States and Russia were among a small number of countries that blocked the U.N. from moving toward talks on whether to ban so-called killer robots. During a week of meetings in Geneva, which ended in the early hours of Saturday, a group at the United Nations’ Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) discussed whether to take negotiations …

The Hill reports: Google is rolling out a feature that allows users to hear positive news stories on command, a feature developed in conjunction with a journalism group focusing on combating negative news fatigue. The feature, announced this week in a blog post, will exist on Google Assistant devices and will play a randomly selected positive news story focusing on …

The Associated Press reports: At a time when big-box retailers are trying to offer the same conveniences as their online competitors, the biggest U.S. grocery chain is testing the use of driverless cars to deliver groceries in a Phoenix suburb. Kroger’s pilot program launched Thursday morning with a robotic vehicle parked outside one of its own Fry’s supermarkets in Scottsdale. …

The Verge reports: In the study, published in the open access journal PLOS One, 89 volunteers were recruited to complete a pair of tasks with the help of Nao, a small humanoid robot. The participants were told that the tasks (which involved answering a series of either / or questions, like “Do you prefer pasta or pizza?”; and organizing a …

The New York Times reports: In 1997, Apple was on the ropes. The Silicon Valley pioneer was being decimated by Microsoft and its many partners in the personal-computer market. It had just cut a third of its work force, and it was about 90 days from going broke, Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, later said. On Thursday, Apple became worth …