Technology category, Page 35
Ground-breaking electric Chevrolet Volt runs out of juice
DETROIT — As their company was swirling around the financial drain in the early 2000s, General Motors executives came up with an idea to counter its gas-guzzling image and point the way to transportation of the future: an electric car with a gas-engine backup that could travel anywhere. At Detroit’s...
Trump challenges U.S. companies to speed up work on 5G networks
President Donald Trump challenged U.S. telecommunications companies on Thursday to boost their efforts to build advanced networks and said leadership should come from competition, not by blocking competitors. “American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind,” Trump tweeted. “There is no reason that we should be lagging...
Samsung’s foldable phone will cost nearly $2,000
SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung has unveiled a highly anticipated smartphone with a foldable screen that breaks new ground in a market that has been stuck in an innovative funk. The phone announced Wednesday in San Francisco will be called the Galaxy Fold and will sell for $1,980 when it is...
Google forgot to notify customers it put microphones in Nest security systems
The worst kind of microphone is a hidden microphone. Customers were caught off guard in early February when Google announced its home security system, Nest Secure, would be able to act as an AI-powered Google Assistant after a recent update. “With the flip of a switch in the Nest app,...
France’s fencing federation officially recognizes lightsaber dueling as sport
BEAUMONT-SUR-OISE, France — Master Yoda, dust off his French, he must. It’s now easier than ever in France to act out “Star Wars” fantasies, because its fencing federation has borrowed from a galaxy far, far away and officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport, granting the iconic weapon from...
Amazon lets amateurs publish custom Alexa apps to reach broad audiences
Amazon is enlisting customers to create voice-controlled games, broadcast lectures and sermons, and turn blogs into audio presentations available to anyone, through its growing universe of Alexa-enabled speaker-and-microphone devices. The move, rolled out this week, represents a potentially significant advancement for voice-first computing and content creation — akin to the...
U.S., Facebook negotiating record multibillion-dollar fine as a result of privacy lapses
The Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are negotiating over a multibillion-dollar fine that would settle the agency’s investigation into the social media giant’s privacy practices, according to two people familiar with the probe. The fine would be the largest the agency has ever imposed on a technology company, but the...
40 countries agree new cars must have automatic braking; U.S. skips deal
GENEVA — Forty countries led by Japan and the European Union — but not the U.S. or China — have agreed to require new cars and light commercial vehicles to be equipped with automated braking systems starting as soon as next year, a U.N. agency said Tuesday. The regulation will...
Reports: Russian authorities make deal with Google
MOSCOW — Russian news reports say that Google has agreed with national authorities to delete links to websites banned in Russia. The daily Vedomosti reported Thursday that Google has reached an agreement with the Russian state media oversight agency, Roskomnadzor, to regularly receive updated lists of banned sites and delete...
Apple releases update to prevent FaceTime eavesdropping
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple has released an iPhone update to fix a software flaw that allowed people to eavesdrop on others while using FaceTime. The bug enabled interlopers to turn an iPhone into a live microphone while using Group FaceTime. Callers were able to activate another person’s microphone remotely even...
Spotify takes a big jump into the podcasting game
NEW YORK — Spotify is making a bigger bet on podcasts as it looks to bring a Netflix-like model of original programs to the audio world. The music-streaming pioneer gobbled up two podcasting companies, Gimlet and Anchor, on Wednesday. Although streaming is becoming an increasingly popular way to listen to...
Relatives of woman killed in Uber crash file $10M claim
TEMPE, Ariz. — Two relatives of a woman killed when she was struck by an autonomous Uber vehicle have filed a $10 million claim against the Phoenix suburb where the incident occurred in March. The Arizona Republic reports the previously undisclosed claim filed last fall against Tempe seeks $5 million...
Iowa town relies on one-page Hotsheet to deliver local news
LE MARS, Iowa — It’s a common sight in most every public setting anymore. Look around and you’ll see people with their heads bent over their smartphones, fingers swiping at the screens and thumbs punching out messages. It shouldn’t be a revelation to anyone that information nowadays is just a...
A deluge of drones fly over Super Bowl stadium, despite ban
ATLANTA — The sky above the stadium that will host Sunday’s Super Bowl is being “inundated” with an alarming number of drones, raising the specter of injuries to tourists or others — or a possible collision with aircraft, the FBI said Friday. That’s despite an ongoing restriction that bans the...
Apple busts Facebook for distributing data-sucking app
NEW YORK — Apple says Facebook can no longer distribute an app that paid users, including teenagers, to extensively track their phone and web use. The tech blog TechCrunch reports that Facebook paid about $20 a month. While Facebook says this was done with permission, the company has a history...
Where’s my robot lawn mower? Roomba-maker now has an answer
BEDFORD, Mass. — Robot vacuums have now been around long enough that you might watch one bump around a living room and think, why isn’t there a robot that could mow my lawn? Turns out, it’s not for lack of trying. For more than a decade, iRobot, the company behind...
Rhode Island named lead plaintiff in suit over Google Plus lapse
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island has been named the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Google’s parent company. State Treasurer Seth Magaziner said Tuesday a federal court in California approved his motion to make Rhode Island’s public employee retirement system the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Alphabet...
Apple to fix FaceTime bug that allows eavesdropping
Apple has disabled a group-chat function in FaceTime after users said a software bug could let callers activate another person’s microphone remotely. With the bug, a FaceTime user calling another iPhone, iPad or Mac computer could hear audio — even if the receiver did not accept the call. The bug...
YouTube changing its algorithms to stop recommending conspiracy videos
SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube said Friday it is retooling its recommendation algorithm that suggests new videos to users in order to prevent promoting conspiracies and false information, reflecting a growing willingness to quell misinformation on the world’s largest video platform after several public missteps. In a blog post that YouTube...
Amazon testing delivery by self-driving robots
NEW YORK — Amazon is bringing delivery robots to the streets of a Seattle suburb. The online shopping giant says it started to test self-driving robots that can bring Amazon packages to shoppers’ doorsteps Wednesday in Snohomish County, Washington. The robots are light blue, are about the size of a...
Boeing’s flying car has taken off
A Boeing flying car designed to whisk passengers over congested city streets and dodge skyscrapers completed its first test flight on Tuesday, offering a peek into the future of urban transportation the aerospace giant and others are seeking to reshape. A prototype of its autonomous passenger air vehicle completed a...
Pa. native is recording world languages in a mission to save them
When Daniel Bogre Udell turned 13, the small world he knew in the Poconos expanded into a much larger one in the kitchen of a local restaurant. It was the first time Bogre Udell, now 27, heard people speaking to one another in Spanish. That job as a busboy in...
Rocking beds and pillows that nudge when you snore: Tech wants into your bed
I’ve tried a mattress with water cooling and another that sways like a boat. I’ve worn brainwave-measuring helmets and rested on pillows that nudge you when you snore. In the hunt for better sleep, I’ve even snuggled up with a robot. For the gadget industry, sleep is the new exercise...
Facebook shuts hundreds of Russia-linked pages, accounts
LONDON — Facebook says it has removed hundreds of Russia-linked pages, groups and accounts that it says were part of two big disinformation operations, in its latest effort to fight fake news. The social media company said Thursday it took action after finding two networks “that engaged in coordinated inauthentic...
YouTube to ban ‘harmful or dangerous’ prank, challenge videos
YouTube is bringing down the hammer on “harmful or dangerous content” in the wake of viral challenges that place content creators in potentially serious danger. The company recently announced the content crack-down, and singled out videos that present an apparent risk of death, videos that cause children to experience emotional...
