Facebook threatens to block news distribution in Australia

Facebook threatened to block Australian publishers and individuals from sharing news stories on its platform in reaction to an Australian measure that could require it to compensate media organizations for its use of their stories. The social network said the Australian move would force it to pay arbitrary and theoretically unlimited sums for information that […]

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TikTok deal faces complications as U.S. and China ratchet up tit-for-tat

SAN FRANCISCO — On most days, companies like ByteDance, Microsoft, Walmart and Oracle are considered kings within their fields. But over the weekend, it became increasingly clear that they can also be something else: a set of pawns. The industry titans have been caught in an escalating tit-for-tat between the United States and China over […]

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CDC has not reduced the death count related to COVID-19

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not “backpedal” on the number of deaths caused by COVID-19, reducing the figure from nearly 154,000 to just over 9,000, as social media posts claimed. The term “Only 6%” trended widely on Twitter over the weekend as supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory promoted tweets that […]

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Zoom rides pandemic to another quarter of explosive growth

Zoom on Monday reported that its revenue for the May-July period more than quadrupled from the same time last year to $663.5 million, boosted by a steadily rising number of users converting from the free to paid version of the company's service.

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Courts hold Amazon liable for faulty products

Nearly 60% of all physical goods sold on Amazon's e-commerce marketplace come from third-party merchants. Amazon has argued in court that this relationship absolves it of any liability related to defective products sold by those vendors. And for many years, courts have largely sided with Amazon. But a handful of cases have halted the company's winning streak.

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Burnout, splinter factions and deleted posts: Unpaid online moderators struggle to manage divided communities

Over the past five months, many moderators of online groups have found their jobs mirroring the outside world: increasingly messier, harder and unpredictable.

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Billboards that follow you? It’s not sci-fi. They’re already here | Commentary

Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world’s largest billboard companies, will in coming days roll out technology across Europe capable of letting advertisers know where people go and what they do after seeing a particular billboard. The company has been quietly using this technology in the United States for the last four years.

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Ready, set, go! Virtual Boston Marathon is about to be run

BOSTON (AP) — Missing: Boston’s raucous crowds and smiles for miles. Still there, sort of: Wellesley College’s iconic “scream tunnel” and the thunderous cheers along the finish line on Boylston Street. The 124th running of the Boston Marathon finally gets underway next month, but virtually — meaning real runners will do the hard work, and […]

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What does Walmart see in TikTok? Millions of young shoppers

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart may be the world’s largest retailer but it has mostly failed in its efforts to break Amazon’s online dominance. Could TikTok, a fast-growing 3-year-old app filled with goofy videos, be the answer? TikTok’s U.S. business appears up for grabs, with the Trump administration trying to force a sale, claiming national-security […]

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What should I be doing to keep my email secure?

Steps you should take to keep your email safe from hacking.

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The lesson we’re learning from TikTok? It is all about our data

While there is no direct evidence that TikTok has done anything malicious with people’s data, sharing information could be fundamentally less safe with a company that might allow the Chinese authorities to intercept it. (Glenn Harvey / The New York Times)

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Elon Musk wants YOU to build a brain-computer interface

Elon Musk isn’t content with electric cars, shooting people into orbit, populating Mars and building underground tunnels to solve traffic problems. He also wants to get inside your brain. His startup, Neuralink, wants to one day implant computer chips inside the human brain. The goal is to develop implants that can treat neural disorders — […]

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Tesla targeted in failed ransomware extortion scheme

BOSTON (AP) — In a tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk solved a mystery involving a 27-year-old Russian, an insider at an unnamed corporation and an alleged million-dollar payment offered to help trigger a ransomware extortion attack on the firm. Prosecutors declined to name the target, but Musk was happy to oblige. According to the billionaire, […]

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A novel building material gets a big Washington state test run

State's first cross-laminated timber office building is now complete.

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Amazon’s Halo, which can monitor tone of voice and assess body fat, provokes skepticism, fear

Tech skeptics question the intrusive nature of the new Halo system, though Amazon provides assurances of privacy.

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Patrol: Tesla Autopilot driver was watching movie, crashed

ZEBULON, N.C. (AP) — A Tesla driver, whose car was on Autopilot mode, was watching a movie on his phone when he crashed into a sheriff’s deputy car, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said. A state trooper and a Nash County deputy on Wednesday were on the side of U.S. Highway 64 and responding […]

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TikTok celebrities criminally charged after LA house parties

LOS ANGELES (AP) — TikTok celebrities Bryce Hall and Blake Gray are facing criminal charges after they hosted recent parties in the Hollywood Hills despite the city’s ban on large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said Friday. The Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed misdemeanor charges Thursday against Hall and Gray. The internet celebrities […]

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Japan’s ‘flying car’ gets off ground, with a person aboard

Lots of people are trying to build flying automobiles, but this is the first known test with a human passenger. It appeared to rise several feet off the ground and hover there for four minutes.

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Some Californians didn’t get evacuation alerts in wildfires

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Debra DeAngelo went to sleep, she thought the flames chewing through Northern California wine country were too far away to be dangerous. Plus, she had signed up for all the alerts that emergency officials pressed on people after years of catastrophic wildfires. A frantic phone call from her friend woke […]

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Amazon has a new fitness tracker and wants to get personal

Amazon started selling a wrist band Thursday that tracks workouts, sleep and body fat. It can also listen to your voice all day and tell you when you sounded happy or sad. The fitness tracker is sure to give the company a wealth of new information about its customers.

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Jakob van Zyl, key Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer, dies

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Jakob van Zyl, an engineer who held crucial positions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was involved in numerous space exploration missions over decades, has died. He was 63. Van Zyl, who retired in 2019 after a 33-year career, suffered a heart attack on Monday and died Wednesday at a hospital […]

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Walmart leaps into TikTok acquisition fray, joining Microsoft’s bid

Analysts say a TikTok deal could give Walmart an inroad to a coveted demographic that it has long struggled to attract: Younger shoppers.

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US rolls out free app for alerts on vehicle recalls

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s road safety agency is offering a smartphone app that will alert drivers if their vehicles are recalled. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was scheduled to roll out the free app for both Android and Apple phones Thursday. Owners key in or scan their 17-digit vehicle identification number, and […]

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Trolls flood social media in Pakistan amid virus lockdown

ISLAMABAD (AP) — It was a music video meant to depict a young bride’s joy: Actress Saba Qamar, in a flowing white wedding gown with a golden hem, was twirled by the singer playing her groom in front of the mosaics of a 17th-century mosque in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore. As soon as the […]

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TikTok CEO resigns amid US pressure to sell video app

HONG KONG (AP) — TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned Thursday amid U.S. pressure for its Chinese owner to sell the popular video app, which the White House says is a security risk. In a letter to employees, Mayer said that his decision to leave comes after the “political environment has sharply changed.” His resignation follows […]

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Salesforce cuts 1,000 jobs after banner quarter, stock surge

The cuts reportedly are taking place in more than a dozen Salesforce locations around the world.

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SpaceX, Tesla veterans focus on self-flying planes for cargo

Reliable Robotics is trying to bring autonomous capability to existing planes, starting with smaller aircraft that ferry cargo. In June, with approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, the startup demonstrated a fully automated remote landing of a Cessna 208 Caravan turboprop owned by FedEx.

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Jeff Bezos wealth tops $200 billion while Elon Musk’s worth exceeds $100 billion

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott and Elon Musk, three of the world's richest people, have achieved staggering new levels of personal wealth.

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Google location-tracking tactics troubled its own engineers

Google’s own engineers were troubled by the way the company secretly tracked the movements of people who didn’t want to be followed until a 2018 Associated Press investigation uncovered the shadowy surveillance, according to unsealed documents in a consumer fraud case. The behind-the-scenes peek stems from a three-month-old lawsuit against Google filed by Arizona’s attorney […]

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To fight Apple’s and Google’s grip, Fortnite creator mounts a crusade

The mission by Tim Sweeney, CEO of video game maker Epic Games, to rein in the power of the big tech companies has reached a fever pitch. He is preparing for a protracted legal battle after Apple and Google banned Fortnite, Epic’s popular video game, from their stores this month for trying to get around its payment systems.

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Computer pioneer Arnold Spielberg, Steven’s dad, dies at 103

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Arnold Spielberg, father of filmmaker Steven Spielberg and an innovating engineer whose work helped make the personal computer possible, has died at 103 years old. Spielberg died of natural causes while surrounded by his family in Los Angeles on Tuesday, according to a statement from his four children. Spielberg and Charles […]

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Sometime soon, your car will park itself in urban garages

DETROIT (AP) — So after the coronavirus threat has passed, you head downtown for a baseball game. You get to the parking garage, and using an app on your phone, you link your SUV to the garage’s computers and sensors, and the SUV finds a spot on the fourth floor and parks itself while you […]

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Facebook: Apple privacy changes will muck up online ads

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook is pushing back on new Apple privacy rules for its mobile devices — and putting app developers in the middle. Apple will soon require apps to ask users for permission to collect data on what devices they are using and to let ads follow them around on the internet. The […]

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Seattle startup Remitly nearly doubles its global reach for immigrants sending money to overseas relatives

Remitly's mobile wallet network has expanded to 300 million customers from 160 million since February after the company provided more money-forwarding options for immigrants living in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

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Thailand vows to step up action vs ‘illegal’ online sites

BANGKOK (AP) — A top official in Thailand said Wednesday that his country will step up action against online content that breaks its laws, two days after forcing Facebook to block a group that was posting material critical of the monarchy. Minister of Digital Economy and Society Buddhipongse Punnakanta told a news conference that his […]

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Secretive Palantir lifts veil before Wall Street stock sale

BOSTON (AP) — Palantir Technologies Inc., a data-mining company with deep ties to U.S. intelligence and military agencies, has shed a good deal of its trademark secrecy about its business in filing for a Wall Street stock offering. Like many other tech companies, it will be going public without ever turning a profit. In filings […]

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With hacks and cameras, Beijing’s electronic dragnet closes on Hong Kong

Hong Kong security forces are using harsher tactics to close a digital dragnet on activists, pro-democracy politicians and media leaders. The moves bear similarities to those long used by the fearsome domestic security forces in mainland China.

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Facebook blocks group that discusses Thai monarchy

BANGKOK (AP) — Facebook has blocked in Thailand a group with more than a million members that engages in open discussion about the Thai monarchy, an institution that is staunchly protected from criticism by strict laws. The Facebook group, “Royalist Marketplace,” was blocked late Monday after the social media giant bowed to pressure from the […]

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Swiss team claims 1st jump, free fall from solar plane

BERLIN (AP) — A Swiss team working to take a solar-powered plane to the edge of space says it has performed the first jump and free fall from an electric aircraft. The SolarStratos team said its experimental plane took off from an airfield in western Switzerland with two people on board early Tuesday and climbed […]

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Kashmir group calls India’s internet ban ‘digital apartheid’

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A prominent rights group in Indian-administered Kashmir issued a report Tuesday calling India’s communications blackout following the scrapping of the disputed region’s semiautonomy last year “collective punishment” and urged the international community to question New Delhi over what it called “digital apartheid.” The Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society in its 213-page […]

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Zoom glitches, briefly grinding US schools to a halt

NEW YORK (AP) — Teachers and parents got a brief glimpse of a new kind of pandemic-era nightmare Monday when Zoom — the video-conferencing service that powers everything from distance learning to business meetings to casual, socially distant get-togethers — abruptly went dead. For roughly two-and-a-half hours Monday morning, many users were unable to load […]

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Partial Zoom Outage Is Fixed After School Disruptions

A widespread outage on the video call service Zoom caused problems for students, teachers and professors around the United States on Monday morning, the first day of classes for many schools and universities that are reopening online because of the coronavirus pandemic. The partial outage, which lasted almost four hours, took place just as working […]

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TikTok to fight Trump over his pending order to ban its app

NEW YORK (AP) — Video app TikTok said it will wage a legal fight against the Trump Administration’s efforts to ban the popular, Chinese-owned service over national-security concerns. TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, insisted Monday that it is not a national-security threat and that the government is acting without evidence or due process. […]

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Zoom Reports Partial Outage as Many Schools Return to Remote Learning

The video call service Zoom reported partial outages Monday morning, causing problems on the first day of classes for many U.S. schools as the tech company rushed to resolve the issue. The company said it had “identified the issue” that was preventing users from starting and joining meetings, and was “working on a fix.” It […]

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is fulfilling another Steve Jobs vision

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, was a tough act to follow. But Tim Cook seems to be doing so well at it that his eventual successor may also have big shoes to fill. Initially seen as a mere caretaker for the iconic franchise that Jobs built before his […]

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With virtual reality, caregivers can become patients

The software created by Embodied Labs allows users to peer into the body and mind of someone confronted with aging issues: cognitive decline such as Alzheimer’s, age-related vision and hearing loss, or neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and dementia.

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Threatened by a smear on Facebook, a Buddhist monk flees Cambodia

BANGKOK — In just four days, the reputation of a Buddhist monk who had spent decades fighting for the human rights of Cambodians was destroyed. First, grainy videos appeared on a fake Facebook page, claiming that he had slept with three sisters and their mother. Then a government-controlled religious council defrocked the monk for having […]

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Instagram deletes account advertising ASU COVID-19 parties

PHOENIX (AP) — Instagram has deleted an account that claimed to throw “COVID parties” at Arizona State University after the school sued Facebook and the owner of the account on Thursday on allegations that the account improperly used the school’s logos and trademarks. “We have removed the account in question for violating our policies,” a […]

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US WeChat users sue Trump over order banning messaging app

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some U.S.-based users of WeChat are suing President Donald Trump in a bid to block an executive order that they say would effectively bar access in the U.S. to the hugely popular Chinese messaging app. The complaint, filed Friday in San Francisco, is being brought by the nonprofit U.S. WeChat Users […]

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AP EXCLUSIVE: US faces back-to-school laptop shortage

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Schools across the United States are facing shortages and long delays, of up to several months, in getting this year’s most crucial back-to-school supplies: the laptops and other equipment needed for online learning, an Associated Press investigation has found. The world’s three biggest computer companies, Lenovo, HP and Dell, have told […]

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