Tag Archives: technology

NBC News reports: Twitter, Uber, Google and Apple were among 97 companies to file a friend-of-the-court brief early on Monday with a federal appeals court hearing challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration. “The order effects a sudden shift in the rules governing entry into the United States, and is inflicting substantial harm on U.S. companies,” the amicus …

The Hill reports: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday suspended its probes into whether thee major telecommunications companies violated net neutrality rules. The FCC’s wireless telecom bureau sent letters to AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile informing them that the probes were over. The letters are a sign that the FCC is changing under new Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican who …

Bloomberg reports: Alphabet Inc.’s Google delivered a sharp message to staff traveling overseas who may be impacted by a new executive order on immigration from President Donald Trump: Get back to the U.S. now. Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai slammed Trump’s move in a note to employees Friday, telling them that more than 100 company staff are affected by …

GeekWire reports: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is committing up to $140 million to help Boston biotech company Intarcia Therapeutics develop an HIV prevention device. The funds will help Intarcia adapt its Medici technology program to deliver a steady stream of HIV medication to healthy patients over an extended period of time. The matchstick-sized device is similar to a …

ABC News reports: A Texas couple is suing Apple, claiming that its FaceTime app distracted a driver who rammed into the couple’s car, killing their 5-year-old daughter. Parents James and Bethany Modisette are suing Apple for damages on the basis that the electronics giant failed to install and implement a “safer, alternative design” for FaceTime that would have helped to …

Via Mashable: We’re not exactly sure what this child is asking for when he says, “Alexa, play ‘Digger digger,'” but we’re almost positive it’s not porn. Regardless, Amazon’s personal assistant reached back through her algorithmic server banks, scanned the child’s budding language and, through the miracle of technology, determines that this child really wants to hear some porn. It only …

AFP reports: A giant South Korean-built manned robot that walks like a human but makes the ground shake under its weight has taken its first baby steps. Designed by a veteran of science fiction blockbusters, the four-metre-tall (13-foot), 1.5 ton Method-2 towers over a room on the outskirts of Seoul. The hulking human-like creation bears a striking resemblance to the …

The Associated Press reports: Uber is bringing a small number of self-driving cars to its ride-hailing service in San Francisco — a move likely to excite the city’s tech-savvy population and certain to antagonize California regulators. The Wednesday launch in Uber’s hometown expands a public pilot program the company started in Pittsburgh in September. The testing lets everyday people experience …

CNBC reports: President-elect Donald Trump has an opportunity to establish “American leadership through innovation,” Bill Gates told CNBC on Tuesday. “A lot of his message has been about … where he sees things not as good as he’d like,” the billionaire Microsoft co-founder said on “Squawk Box.” “But in the same way President Kennedy talked about the space mission and …

Via Esquire: Though even diehard fans of the music it inspired are largely unfamiliar with its story, the 808 is revered within the industry. The documentary, which premieres Friday on Apple Music, includes commentary by everyone from Lil Jon, to Pharrell, to the Beastie Boys, to Rick Rubin, to Afrika Bambaataa himself. “You get all of these guys, these big, …

Five million views since yesterday. US Weekly reports: Taking grab-and-go to the next level. Amazon just opened a state-of-the art grocery store called Amazon Go in downtown Seattle that lets customers shop without ever waiting in line or going through a checkout process. In a video introducing the concept Monday, December 5, the e-commerce company refers to it as “just-walk-out …

The Telegraph reports: Confession, they say, is good for the soul and, in some cases perhaps, the sooner the better. Now, for those with a burning need to unburden themselves, one Roman Catholic archdiocese has launched what is thought to be the world’s first interactive GPS-powered “confession finder”. Using similar technology to the dating hook-up app Tinder, it guides the …

Gizmodo reports: Scientists in the UK have developed a USB stick that can quickly and accurately measure the amount of HIV is in a patient’s blood. The medical device was created by scientists at Imperial College London and tech firm DNA Electronics, and all it needs is a simple drop of blood to measure HIV-1 levels. It then creates an …

TechCrunch reports: With Twitter’s future still in question following failed attempts at finding an acquirer and the recently announced layoffs of nine percent of its workforce, the company today announced it’s shutting down its standalone short-form video app, Vine. According a post, nothing is changing immediately — the website and apps will remain online for the time being, and users …

SC Magazine reports: Xiongmai, a Chinese electronics firm, has initiated a product recall, prompted by the large DDoS attack that caused large internet websites such as GitHub, Reddit and Spotify to grind to a halt on the east coast of the US, and mainland Europe this past Friday. The root distributed denial of service attack (DDoS), was believed to be …

From cyber security expert Brian Krebs: A massive and sustained Internet attack that has caused outages and network congestion for a large number of Web sites was launched with the help of hacked “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices, such as CCTV video cameras and digital video recorders, new data suggests. That’s because while many of these devices allow users to …

At this writing many major sites are unreachable in much of the eastern United States. Gizmodo has the story: Twitter, Spotify and Reddit, and a huge swath of other websites were down or screwed up this morning. This was happening as hackers unleashed a large distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the servers of Dyn, a major DNS host. …

Reuters reports: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd scrapped its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on Tuesday less than two months after its launch, dealing a huge blow to its reputation and outlook after failing to resolve safety concerns. Samsung announced the recall of 2.5 million Note 7s in early September following numerous reports of the phones catching fire and on Tuesday …

TIME reports: Google on Tuesday unveiled two new smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, during an event in San Francisco. The Pixel will have a 5-inch screen, while the larger model will include a 5.5-inch display. The Pixel is available for preorder immediately. The lineup starts at $649, or $27 per month. Verizon is the exclusive carrier partner in the …

For weeks the alt-right has claimed that Twitter’s falling stock value is the direct result of their crackdown on hate speech and the banning of homocon Milo Yiannopoulos. Surely the latest news will headline shortly at Breitbart. Via the Daily Beast: Social-media giant Twitter is now actively exploring a sale and has initiated talks with technology companies, according to a …