Technology category, Page 31

Walgreens and a Google affiliate are testing drone deliveries that can put drugstore products on customer doorsteps minutes after being ordered. Snacks like Goldfish Crackers or gummy bears as well as aspirin for sick kids will be delivered starting next month in Christiansburg, Virginia, by a 10-pound drone flying as...

A growing number of countries are following China’s lead in deploying artificial intelligence to track citizens, according to a research group’s report published Tuesday. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says at least 75 countries are actively using AI tools such as facial recognition for surveillance. The index of countries...

The iPhone 11 Pro isn’t available yet but it’s already making some people uncomfortable. Apple’s latest flagship mobile device has a cluster of three cameras on the back side. While these represent the cutting edge of pocket camera gear, they also form a miniature constellation of trouble. Trypophobia is the...

Paul Hildreth peered at a display of dozens of images from security cameras surveying his Atlanta school district and settled on one showing a woman in a bright yellow shirt walking a hallway. A mouse click instructed the artificial intelligence-equipped system to find other images of the woman, and it...

With more and more states legalizing medical and recreational marijuana, sooner or later some bright scientist had to invent a marijuana breathalyzer. Now it appears researchers at the University of Pittsburgh may have just walked to the head of the class. A Pitt spokesman said a team from the university’s...

NEW YORK — Major phone companies have pledged to do more to fight robocalls plaguing Americans, the country’s state attorneys general say. It’s the latest step from government and industry to combat the growing problem. Americans get nearly 5 billion automated calls from scammers, telemarketers, debt collectors and others every...

HAYWARD, Calif. — A 400-pound security robot that was knocked over by a vandal last month in Northern California may help bring its attacker to justice. The Hayward Police Department on Tuesday released images of the suspect that the Knightscope K5 robot captured before it was damaged. The 5-foot-tall robot,...

DENVER — Colorado tightened its air quality regulations on Friday, requiring that at least 5% of the vehicles sold in the state by 2023 emit zero pollution. The state Air Quality Control Commission, which passed the rule on an 8-1 vote, said the requirement applies to auto manufacturers, not buyers....

The 21st-century concert experience largely means having one’s focus on the stage compromised by the glow from someone’s cellphone, or having a view obscured by people taking photos or making video recordings of their favorite song. That won’t be the case at Stage AE on Tuesday night, however, when Jack...

SEATTLE — While walking beneath a canopy of trees on the winding Burke Gilman trail, artificial intelligence researcher Anat Caspi pointed to the evenness of the terrain along the University of Washington campus periphery. “A lot of times we don’t want the shortest path,” Caspi said over the din of...

SAN FRANCISCO — Google parent Alphabet beat analyst expectations for the second quarter Thursday, sending its shares up sharply as it bounced back from a rough first quarter. The company comforted investors with advertising revenue growth that edged out last quarter and assurances that video streaming site YouTube and the...

The Department of Justice has opened a sweeping antitrust investigation of big technology companies and whether their online platforms have hurt competition, suppressed innovation or otherwise harmed consumers. It comes as a growing number of lawmakers have called for stricter regulation or even breaking up of the big tech companies,...

NEW YORK — Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday increased encryption of data on phones and computers and encrypted messaging apps are putting American security at risk. Barr’s comments at a cybersecurity conference mark a continuing effort by the Justice Department to push tech companies to provide law enforcement with...

The woodsy community of Wolcott, Conn., doesn’t see a lot of crime. But when the police chief heard about an opportunity to distribute doorbell cameras to some homes, he didn’t hesitate. The police who keep watch over the town of 16,000 raffled off free cameras in a partnership with the...

You may have thought it was cute to allow a now-viral application to morph photos of you today into life-like images of you a generation from now. But did you read the fine print? According to Forbes Magazine, more than 100 million users of FaceApp have — maybe unknowingly —...

If you’ve ever wondered what you’ll look like when you’re older, you’re in luck. There’s an app for that. FaceApp, which first hit the tech scene about two years ago, has resurfaced this week and gone viral again after a new feature was added that allows you to age yourself...

Apple and Google are rolling out dozens of new emojis that of course include cute critters, but also expand the number of images of human diversity. The announcement coincides with Wednesday’s World Emoji Day. Apple Inc. is releasing new variants of its holding hands emoji that allow people to pick...

There’s going to be a new genome-parsing, poker-playing supercomputer in town. The National Science Foundation awarded a $10 million grant to fund the construction of a new supercomputer at the Monroeville-based Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, a joint research facility run by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, according to...

BOSTON — Facebook says it will make advertisements for jobs, loans and credit card offers searchable for all U.S. users under a legal settlement designed to eliminate discrimination on its platform. The plan disclosed in an internal report Sunday voluntarily expands on a commitment the social medial giant made in...

SAN FRANCISCO — Presidents and other world leaders and political figures who use Twitter to threaten or abuse others could find their tweets slapped with warning labels. The new policy, announced by the company on Thursday, comes amid complaints from activists and others that President Donald Trump has gotten a...

Who says passive-aggression doesn’t earn any friends? It might not, but it reportedly earned artist Davian Chester a job with search engine-giant Google this past week. Chester, 26, called out Google for what he described as the company’s failure to highlight an important milestone for his ancestors, according to VladTV....

The Federal Trade Commission has stepped up its fight against robocalls. The commission worked with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies on “Operation Call it Quits” this week, charging three companies and one individual that are allegedly responsible for a combined 1 billion spam calls. “We’re all fed up...

Did your Verizon service go out Monday? Well, you’re not the only one. A widespread outage affecting Verizon customers as well as thousands of websites serviced by Cloudfare in the Northeast hit at about 7 a.m. The problem that caused it all can be traced to a small commercial internet...