Technical Doctorz

Leaks of a potential Nokia-branded phone with five cameras on the rear have been appearing for months , but a new video suggests that the device could be officially unveiled soon. Evan Blass first posted a photo of the rumored Nokia 9 PureView on Twitter earlier today, and now mysmartprice has published what looks like a promotional video for the unannounced device. The Nokia 9 PureView looks very similar to the existing Nokia 8 Sirocco , except for the rear. The video shows off a wild penta-lens setup capable of five simultaneous shots and claims of improved efficiency in low-light situations and the ability to re-focus images after they’re taken. HMD also appears to be including a 5.99-inch “PureDisplay” with support for HDR10 and an in-display fingerprint reader. Mysmartprice reports that the Nokia 9 PureView will also be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. HMD acquired the PureView brand from Microsoft earlier this year, and partn

Samsung promised a Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker back in August , a premium device that could potentially compete against Apple’s HomePod and the Amazon Echo Plus. While that speaker still isn’t available and doesn’t have a set release date, the company is reportedly also planning a second Bixby speaker that comes in black and according to Sam Mobile , citing an anonymous source , may be a more affordable option that can compete with the likes of cheaper smart speakers. The second Bixby speaker reportedly has the model number SM-V310, while the Galaxy Home is model number SM-V510, suggesting that there could always be more Bixby smart speakers down the line. There aren’t any known specs for the lower-end speaker yet, but it’s presumed to have fewer of the features Samsung announced for the main Galaxy Home, such as six built-in speakers, a subwoofer, and eight microphones. Being a budget option could also help set apart a Bixby smart speaker in an already crowded market wh

We’re heading into the last days of 2018, and by extension, the last days of our look back at 1998 — where the dot-com bubble was steadily inflating, cyberspace was transforming everything from crime to horoscopes, and the end of the internet (or maybe civilization itself) was just a year away with Y2K. And that means one thing in the media world: time for some retrospectives! I’ll be deviating slightly from the normal format by accepting a few pieces from both earlier in December and later in January, so I can offer a spread of analysis looking back at the year. IGN : 1998 in video games It’s generally acknowledged that 1998 was a fantastic year for video games. In October, GameSpot published a list of the year’s best and most influential titles, ranging from StarCraft to Half-Life to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time . But what were the top picks at the time? Well, a lot of the things you’d expect, based on IGN’s rankings. On PlayStation , Metal Gear Solid is liste

The Essential Phone , from Android co-founder Andy Rubin, had so much potential — but its journey may be coming to an end. Today, the company has announced (via 9to5Google ) that it’s discontinuing the device. It’s sold out, says Essential, and the company isn’t making any more. But as part of that announcement, the company is also confirming something that fans had long hoped to be true: Essential is officially working on a second “mobile product,” presumably this rumored tiny phone that uses AI to answer emails and text messages for you . An Essential spokeswoman wouldn’t straight-up confirm to me that its “next mobile product” is a phone, but that’s what “mobile product” generally means. Here’s the statement: We are sold out of Essential Phone on essential.com and won’t be adding any new inventory. We are now hard at work on our next mobile product and will continue to sell accessories and provide speedy software updates and customer support to our existing community. For a

Netflix is no longer allowing new customers on iOS to pay for the streaming service directly through an in-app subscription. It’s the latest example of a company with a high-profile, essential mobile app ditching Apple’s payment system to retain more profits for itself and stop handing the iPhone and iPad maker a cut of every subscription activated within the Netflix app. VentureBeat first reported the change, which Netflix confirmed with a short “we no longer support iTunes as a method of payment for new members” statement. Now, customers will have to begin a subscription through a web browser such as Safari. People who already have an in-app Netflix subscription will be able to continue paying that way — for now — but returning customers who have missed a billing period will be unable to reactivate in-app subscriptions; they’ll have to subscribe from the web. An in-app subscription is far more convenient from a user’s perspective, as it uses the Apple billing info you’ve already g

Dell returned to the public market on Friday, ending a long saga that began when CEO and founder Michael Dell took the declining company private in 2013 through a $25 billion buyout with Silver Lake. The next five years saw Dell make gains in cloud computing and the enterprise, and the company’s gaming PC division is also a strong performer. Dell opened at $46 on Friday under the NYSE symbol DELL and quickly started trading up. Earlier this year, Dell announced it would become a public company again through a complex arrangement that involved buying back tracking shares for VMware, the software business that Dells own an 80 percent chunk of. Those shares “were born as part of Dell’s complicated deal to buy EMC a few years ago” according to Business Insider . Activist investor Carl Icahn wasn’t happy with Dell’s initial $21.7 billion proposal and at first sued to block the move, only to later drop his protest when Dell sweetened the deal for VMware shareholders. Taking over an exist

Chinese schools are now tracking the exact location of their students using chip-equipped “smart uniforms” in order to encourage better attendance rates, according to a report from state-run newspaper The Global Times (via The Telegraph ). The implementation is just about as unsettling as “using smart technology to track students’ whereabouts” sounds. Each uniform has two chips in the shoulders which are used to track when and where the students enter or exit the school, with an added dose of facial recognition software at the entrances to make sure that the right student is wearing the right outfit (so you can’t just have your friend, say, wear an extra shirt while you go off and play hooky). Try to leave during school hours? An alarm will go off. The uniforms are washable, too, despite the smart tech — according to the Guizhou Guanyu Technology Company, which developed the smart uniforms, each outfit can endure up to 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit) and 500 washes. Th

New Year’s is almost upon us, and that means that the annual cycle of folks making resolutions to get in shape in almost upon us. And T-Mobile wants to help , with some deals on the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch that might help you actually keep those goals. The deals go live on January 2nd, and aren’t too shabby: for the Apple Watch, if you buy either Apple’s latest Series 4 model or last year’s Series 3, T-Mobile will give you a $200 discount on the second one. And fans of Samsung’s platform have an even better deal: buy one Samsung Galaxy Watch , and T-Mobile will give you the second one for free. As always, there’s a catch for both deals: you’ll need to sign up for a T-Mobile plan for both your full price and discounted LTE watch, and one of those has to be a new line. It’s not quite as onerous as the phone deals that need you to sign up for a full new line of cell phone service, but it’s something to keep in mind. from The Verge - Teches http://bit.ly/2QVrLgz

If one word described the focus around the tech industry this year, it’s privacy. From user data mishandling to the private lives of major tech executives having impact on company cultures, this year we’ve become more aware than ever of when to take control of your own privacy – and when it’s time to speak out. Beyond that, 2018 has also been a quieter year for innovation than the last – from gadgets to gaming to smartphones, most products we saw this year have been building on the grounds 2017 broke without many major new hardware releases. So how did some of the biggest tech companies and industries fare this year on The Verge ’s annual report cards? In this last week of 2018, we’ll take a look at the past 12 months in technology, and what we can hope to look forward to in 2019. from The Verge - Teches http://bit.ly/2TeiXiE

Popular to-do list software Any.do now has a smart grocery list feature within its mobile app that you can share with friends and family to make shopping more efficient. Algorithms naturally sort food items by category such as “fruits & vegetables” and “dairy & cheese,” to keep you from having to visit the same aisle twice. They will also suggest grocery items based on previous things you’ve purchased. So if you always get a loaf of bread with some olive oil, Any.do will remind you the next time you go shopping. While the feature initially rolled out on iOS three months ago and was spotted on Any.do’s blog post , it's coming to Android today and fully expanding to all iOS devices. Any.do estimates that while only 30 percent of iOS users could access the feature before, the figure will be 100 percent as of today. You’re able to add an unlimited number of smart grocery lists, and Any.do already works with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant, so you can add items using voice

The White House is considering an executive order that would ban American wireless carriers from buying equipment from Chinese companies, according to a new report from Reuters . Such an order would primarily impact Huawei and ZTE — both Chinese companies, and two of the largest manufacturers of telecom equipment — and have a significant impact on the ongoing rollout of 5G network infrastructure . The planned executive order would direct the Commerce Department to block purchases of Chinese telecom equipment on national security grounds, an action that would not require approval from Congress. Because the order would focus on purchases made by American carriers, it would primarily impact cell towers rather than phones purchased by individuals. Reuters claims the order has been under consideration for as long as eight months, citing anonymous sources. Huawei and ZTE already face significant difficulties in the US market. Both companies were barred from US government use as part of a

Our top choices for your devices So you’ve unwrapped all your gifts and powered up all your new devices — now what are you going to do with them? Well, you’re going to find some great new apps and games to load onto those phones, computers and gaming consoles — and we’re going to help you! We here at The Verge have rounded up our favorite and most-used apps, games, and utilities. Look for our app picks for iPhones , Android phones , PCs, and Mac; our favorite games for PCs , iOS and Android, and our top choices for the PS4 , Xbox One , and the Nintendo Switch . from The Verge - Teches http://bit.ly/2Tc0oLI

Snapchat first made users fall in love by creating lenses that could turn them into dogs. Now, the company is going full circle, and adding lenses specifically for dogs. Official lenses created specifically for dogs’ faces have arrived on Snapchat, meaning that people can take photos or videos of their pet and turn their faces into something goofy. Although the additional lenses for dogs are adorable, it’s not Snapchat’s first foray into the pet market. The company first launched special lenses for cats last month. There are currently only a handful of filters available for pooches, which can be seen in the promotional video above. More lenses are currently in development, meaning there will be new ways to annoy your pet for social clout in the near future. Dog specific lenses are available on Snapchat right now. from The Verge - Teches http://bit.ly/2SlaeuX

Chinese phone maker Xiaomi introduced a new phone — the Mi Play — today, and with it, a new notch. The device features a circular camera notch that’s not a hole-punch design, like we’ve seen on Samsung and Huawei devices , but instead is center-aligned and obvious. It’s a “water droplet” notch that’s very much a notch, even if it’s round. On back, the phone features dual, rear-facing cameras that are vertically-aligned, like Apple’s iPhone X line. The color choices all look lovely with trendy gradient options in purple or red. Specs-wise, the Mi Play includes: 5.84-inch, 1080 x 2280 display MediaTek P35 processor 4GB of RAM with 64GB of storage 3,000mAh battery with a Micro USB charging port Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor 12-megapixel and 2-megapixel rear-facing cameras Earlier this year, Xiaomi introduced its notch-less phone, the flagship Mi Mix 3 , but that device starts at $475 and relies on a mechanical pop-up camera. The Mi Play, while definitely featuring a notch a

HQ Words , the new Wheel of Fortune -style game from HQ, launched out of beta last night with a debut round hosted by the company’s CEO Rus Yusupov, reports TechCrunch . Unlike the company’s first game, which has players answer 10 multiple-choice questions to win a share of the prize money, HQ Words tasks them with guessing popular phrases one letter at a time. The launch of HQ Words comes at a crucial time for the company, which in recent months has been faced with declining player numbers and the premature death of its CEO Colin Kroll . After peaking as the App Store’s second most downloaded app back in February 2018, HQ Trivia dropped to 253rd most popular in November , and in December the company suspended its service in the UK . Words was originally due to launch in October. Like HQ Trivia , Words is played live alongside tens of thousands of other players. At the moment, it’s scheduled to take place each evening at 9:30PM ET / 6:30PM PT from the (now renamed on iOS) HQ

Just in time for the holidays, Samsung has begun releasing its Android Pie update for the Galaxy S9. SamMobile was first to notice the German release, while other users on Twitter and Reddit have seen the update become available in the Netherlands and Slovakia as well. Along with the upgrades made by Google, Android Pie on the S9 also brings Samsung’s One UI , a new user experience which is intended to make apps easier to use on larger phones, amongst other improvements. Although this latest update has come to Samsung’s devices a lot more quickly than previous versions of Android did, the South Korean firm is still lagging behind the likes of Nokia, OnePlus, and even HTC with its update schedule. Google has previously attempted to speed up the adoption of new Android versions with Project Treble , but despite the program’s introduction in early 2017 only 21.5 percent of Android devices were running Android Oreo or later as of late October this year. Samsung is getting faster a

A long-running lawsuit between the state of New York and Sprint has come to a close. According to New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood (via Engadget ), the wireless carrier will pay the state $330 million to settle claims that it failed to collect more than $100 million in taxes from customers for nearly a decade. The state sued the telecommunications company in 2012 , alleging that the company deliberately failed to collect $100 million in sales taxes on flat-rate access charges for wireless plans over the course of seven years, and that it filed false records and statements to the state in order to reduce the prices of its products. At the time, Sprint denied the allegations , saying that it was “without merit,” and vowed to fight back in court. The settlement is the largest in “largest-ever recovery by a single state in an action brought under a state false claims act,” and brings the long-running lawsuit to an end, according to the AG’s office. The office says that “a

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook had begun working on a feature that would encourage users of opposing political beliefs to interact in a more positive way. But the project — known as “Common Ground” — was reportedly halted after Facebook’s global head of policy raised concerns that it could lead to accusations that the site was biased against conservatives. Sources told the WSJ that the Common Ground project would have brought together several different projects “meant to minimize toxic content and encourage more civil discussion,” which included changes to how the News Feed was ranked, and to de-emphasize “hateful” comments. Kaplan — along with other executives — worried that conservative users would be disproportionately impacted by the changes, and noted that the term “‘common ground’ was patronizing.” The project was reportedly shelved over concerns that it would impact user engagement, although Facebook told the WSJ that it was continuing to study polarization

UK police have arrested two individuals in connection with flight disruptions at London Gatwick Airport. The pair, a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman were arrested late on Friday, according to the Sussex Police . Air traffic at Gatwick, England’s second largest airport, was disrupted when a drone was spotted flying in the area on Wednesday , prompting the airport to suspend flights through Friday. Flights were diverted to other airports, and authorities ended up bringing in the British Army, which media reports say set up an Israeli-built drone defense system called a “Drone Dome,” designed to intercept the device’s radio signals. Flights resumed at the airport on Friday. Sussex Police did not identify the individuals, other than to say that they were being held on “suspicion of disrupting services of civil aviation aerodrome to endanger or likely to endanger safety of operations or persons,” and that the investigation was ongoing. According to The Guardian , authorities are

Microsoft is reportedly planning to release new webcams in 2019 for Windows 10 and Xbox One. Thurrott reports that two new webcams are on the way, with one designed to bring Windows Hello facial recognition to any Windows 10 PC. The other will reportedly work with the Xbox One and bring back the Kinect feature that let users automatically sign in by moving in front of the camera. This should work with multiple accounts and family members. Microsoft’s Surface chief, Panos Panay, hinted earlier this year in an interview with The Verge that the company is looking at releasing Surface-branded webcams. “Look at the camera on Surface Hub 2, note it’s a USB-C-based camera, and the idea that we can bring a high fidelity camera to an experience, you can probably guess that’s going to happen,” hinted Panay in October. Microsoft is now planning to release its Surface Hub 2S in 2019 , with upgradeable processor cartridges. If the company releases the USB-C Surface Hub 2 camera separately, thi

Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that a group of “Democratic tech experts” used Russian-style disinformation tactics during Alabama’s 2017 special election in an attempt to splinter support for Republican candidate Roy Moore. Now, The Washington Post reports that Facebook has suspended accounts used by five people involved in the project. The Times report lays out what occurred in Alabama last year: the project’s participants started a Facebook page where they posed as conservative Alabama voters. They encouraged followers to cast write-in votes, and bought retweets on Twitter to amplify their message. According to a report seen by the Times , the project’s authors say that they “orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet.” The Times notes that the project was “likely too small to have a significant effect on the race,” which ultimately saw Democratic candidate Do

If you’ve spent dozens of hours fine-tuning a home automation setup so that everything just works , you’d be pretty angry if a single firmware update screwed it up. But Logitech is now pledging to make it right for customers wronged by its latest firmware update to the Harmony Hub — by offering yet another update that’ll restore local network control. While Logitech originally defended its move to make the Harmony Hub unresponsive to third-party home automation software — arguing that the private APIs were never meant to be used for anything except setting up the Harmony Hub for the first time, and that keeping them around meant maintaining a security hole — Logitech has now relented , saying it’s “working to provide a solution for those who still want access despite the inherent security risks involved.” That solution is basically an about-face: Logitech will undo the change it made in the first place by restoring access to XMPP local controls with a new update, so that third-part

Facebook is building a cryptocurrency designed to make it easier to transfer money on WhatsApp, according to Bloomberg . The currency will reportedly be focused on India and allowing Indian workers abroad to send money back home, something that other Bitcoin startups have already been working to solve given the difficult and expensive process for international transfers. Facebook has been looking to develop its own cryptocurrency at least as far back as May, when Cheddar first broke the news. Around that time, Facebook Messenger leader David Marcus was reassigned to lead a new blockchain division , focused on exploring “how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.” Bloomberg ’s report offers the first concrete details on the goals that Facebook is trying to achieve and how it might work. Facebook is reportedly looking to develop what’s known as a “ stablecoin ,” which will have a value based on US currency to minimize the volatility seen by more high-tec

Amazon’s Alexa is now getting a Wolfram Alpha integration that will allow it to answer way more math and science questions. The feature is already available for some people, but you shouldn’t expect to see it right away. Alexa typically sources its knowledge from sites like Wikipedia, Yelp, Accuweather, and Stats.com , but before this latest integration, it didn’t really have an answer for tough geography, history, or engineering inquiries. Now with Wolfram Alpha’s help, Alexa can field questions like how high do swans fly, how many sheets of paper will fit in a binder, and how fast is the wind blowing right now. Wolfram Alpha is a resource that schools sometimes use as a trusted source of information. It should be noted that Apple’s rival smart assistant Siri, for all its other shortcomings , has had a Wolfram Alpha integration since the iPhone 4S’s launch in 2011, while the Google Assistant still doesn’t offer Wolfram, preferring to rely on its own search engine. Google’s lack of

Spotify and music publishing company Wixen have mutually agreed to dismiss the $1.6 billion lawsuit Wixen filed back in 2017. The lawsuit Wixen brought against the streaming service argued that Spotify was using songs from artists it represented — like Tom Petty and Rage Against the Machine — illegally as Spotify had not sent physical letters to songwriters to obtain “a direct or compulsory mechanical license” for use on the platform. In addition to the complaint that Spotify was engaging in copyright infringement by neglecting to send these paper notifications, Wixen also claimed that Spotify was failing to pay out songwriter royalties about 21 percent of the time. As compensation, it asked for $150,000 in statutory damages per song , which is how the company arrived at the $1.6 billion price tag. Wixen and Spotify announced the dissolution of the lawsuit in a statement. Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. and Spotify USA Inc. have agreed to a final dismissal of the lawsuit filed by Wi

This morning, many Slack users with ties to Iran discovered their accounts had been abruptly deactivated. The bans affected users living as far as Finland, Canada and the United States, many with few remaining ties to Iran in either citizenship or physical presence. “In order to comply with export control and economic sanctions laws…Slack prohibits unauthorized use of its products and services in certain sanctioned countries,” the notice from Slack read. “We’ve identified your team/account as originating from one of these countries and are closing the account effective immediately.” Users received no warning, and had no time to create archives or otherwise back up data. It was an abrupt reminder of the broad reach of US tech sanctions, and a sign of how haphazard companies are when enforcing them. So @SlackHQ decided to send me this email. No way to appeal this decision. No way to prove that I'm not living in Iran and not working with Iranians on slack. Nope. Just hello we&#

Some users of Logitech’s Harmony Hub and remote system have encountered a fairly big issue with the latest firmware update: it blocks local API access, which has in turn led to sudden problems — and broken automation systems — for many users and home theater integrators. Ars Technica reported on the situation yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that Logitech has any solution for disappointed users. As the company explained in a forum thread , the 4.15.206 firmware update for the Harmony Hub system was in order to patch a security vulnerability, which also had the effect of blocking these other integrations. “These private local control APIs were never supported Harmony features. While it is unfortunate that customers using these unsupported features are affected by this fix, the overall security of our products and all of our customers is our priority.” In a statement to Ars Technica , Logitech further explained the issue, noting that “The XMPP interface was used as part of th

Continuing its holiday present tradition, this year Google Fi is offering a free physical photo album to every one of its subscribers. You can get the gift by playing a short Google Chrome-themed game , after which you’ll be prompted to sign into your Fi account and claim your free store credit. The voucher can either be used to get you a 20-page softcover photo album filled with your Google Photos snaps for free, or else you can get a discount of $9.99 off the hardcover version. In light of Google Fi’s recent expansion , the company might have a few more holiday presents to send out this year to subscribers. At the end of November, Google started supporting iPhones and a wider variety of Android devices, while strategically stripping the word “Project” from the name of the MVNO. Surprisingly, considering the expanded user base, Google’s 2018 gift is actually just as generous as previous years. Sure, it’s nothing compared to the free Lego kits that the company sent out in 2015, but

The number of photos and videos you can store in a private Google Photos Live Album has increased from 10,000 to 20,000, reports Android Police , bringing the limit for private albums into line with the capacity for shared albums. The change was officially announced via an update made to a Google support page . 10,000 photos and video seems like a lot, but the functionality of Live Albums meant that you could reach that limit surprisingly quickly — especially since Google Photos gives users automatic uploads and unlimited storage. Live Albums use Google’s object recognition technology to automatically identify specific people or pets and group them together into an album. Since you’re not manually curating the media, albums can quickly fill up with every photo you’ve ever taken of your friends, kids, or pets no matter the quality, and for as long as you’ve been photographing them. Curation might still be warranted, but at least now you won’t be forced to do so quite as frequently be

Apple has changed its guidelines for gifting in-app purchases, as spotted by MacRumors . Previously, you could gift paid apps to other people, but not paid in-app content. The new language is found in Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines . Before, it read: “Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of in-app purchase content, features, or consumable items to others.” Now, it says: “Apps may enable gifting of items that are eligible for in-app purchase to others. Such gifts may only be refunded to the original purchaser and may not be exchanged.” Freemium games aren’t going anywhere (and microtransactions are extremely profitable) , so it makes sense that Apple would continue to react to how people are spending their money on and within mobile games, especially with the rise of free-to-play games like Fortnite and PUBG . Last year, Apple required iOS games with loot boxes disclose odds of certain items appearing. We don’t know how Apple plans to implement this change. R

Google’s AI-powered camera tool can now recognize over a billion items, the company wrote in a new blog post . Google Lens launched last year in a preliminary version on Photos and Assistant with only around 250,000 items within its repertoire. The expansion comes over a year after the Google Lens’ optical character recognition engine has been trained on reading more product labels. By recognizing text, Google Lens thus can put names to the faces of more goods. It has also been fed more data from photos taken by smartphones, so Google says the feature is overall more reliable than before. The 1 billion items figure comes from products available through Google Shopping, so it likely doesn’t include more obscure, unshoppable objects, such as a gaming console from the 1990s or the first edition of a rare book. But it covers a huge range of things that could appease someone who’s simply just looking up an item they’re curious about. Beyond shopping items, Google Lens can now also reco

Challenges on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram dominate the way people participate in online trends, and now Snapchat is trying to get in on the action with Lens Challenges. Lens Challenges are exactly what they sound like: themed challenges that incorporate a special Snapchat Lens, which can then be featured for the app’s community. The first challenge, which launches today, is tied into the holiday season. Snapchat users can select a specific Lens that will allow them to sing a version of “Jingle Bells” performed by Gwen Stefani. Snapchat may be the latest company to jump on offering official challenges for users to participate in, but it’s in no way the first. TikTok, an app owned by Chinese company Bytedance, has perfected using challenges and promoting trends as a way to keep users engaged. TikTok even highlighted some of the app’s biggest challenges in its year end round up , shouting out individual creators who amassed some of the highest views. YouTube is another platform tha

Home Alone is an iconic holiday movie. Google Home devices are popular holiday gifts. And so, it kind of makes sense that Google would bring the two together for its latest ad, “Home Alone Again” (which, seriously guys? “Google Home Alone” was right there ). The ad has Macaulay Culkin reprise the role of Kevin — but this time, with a more modern, Google Assistant-powered setup. It’s a cute ad, featuring Culkin relying on Google to help with some of the famous bits from the movie, down to a custom “Operation Kevin” routine that automates things like locking the door, moving around a cardboard cutout on a Roomba, and turning on the lights to protect against a Joe Pesci-like thief. There’s also the bizarre appearance of a clearly altered Pixel device, which features an edge-to-edge display and no notch. Google's Home Alone ad is great. https://t.co/HM53pk4DkJ But WTF is going on with the Pixel? Everything else shown is a real product. Yet the Pixel has a completely edge-to-ed

The office of the Washington, DC, attorney general announced today that it is filing a lawsuit against Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The scandal erupted this year after it was revealed that Facebook had leaked the data of tens of millions of users by sharing the information with an academic, which was in turn obtained by the data firm. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was hauled before Congress to testify after the revelation, and Cambridge Analytica has since folded, the lawsuit is the first major government action taken in the United States against Facebook. The lawsuit alleges that lax privacy standards allowed an incident like the data leak to happen. “Facebook failed to protect the privacy of its users and deceived them about who had access to their data and how it was used,” attorney general Karl Racine said in a statement. “Facebook put users at risk of manipulation by allowing companies like Cambridge Analytica and other third-party applications to collec

Razer has officially unveiled pricing for its keyboard and mouse set for the Xbox One. Dubbed the Razer Turret , it’s the first wireless keyboard and mouse for Microsoft’s consoles, and it includes Razer’s Chroma lighting support. The Turret works over a 2.4GHz wireless connection via a dongle, and Razer claims the battery life will be up to 40 hours. Razer is pricing the Turret at $249.99, a premium price considering the Xbox One now supports any keyboard or mouse. Razer’s keyboard includes mechanical switches, and there’s also an Xbox button to navigate to the home interface on the Xbox One dashboard. Razer has also included a palm rest that’s adjustable. The mouse for the Xbox One is based on the company’s wireless Razer Mamba. Razer is planning to release the Turret in Q1 2019, and preorders are beginning today in the Microsoft Store for $249.99 . Microsoft lists the Razer Turret for delivery in March. Microsoft and Razer have partnered closed on Xbox One keyboard and mouse s

Apple released a tiny update to iOS this week designed to avoid a sales ban in China. iOS version 12.1.2 contains software changes exclusive to China that are designed to circumvent Apple’s patent dispute with Qualcomm, which won an initial sales ban over claims that Apple violated a pair of its patents. The update changes the animation for when an app is forced to close, according to MacRumors , seemingly avoiding a Qualcomm patent around app management. Previously a closed app would slide off the top of the screen, but it now shrinks and disappears into the middle of the screen. Last month, Qualcomm won a court injunction that banned Apple from selling iPhone models including the 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X. iOS 12.1.2 The patents related to how software resizes pictures and manages applications . This fix appears to change application management, but it’s currently unclear what, if anything, has changed about the process of resizing pictures. Apple has previously

Alongside Dolby Atmos support , “zero sign-on” was announced as one of Apple TV’s big new features for 2018, and the cable provider Charter Spectrum was set to be the first to offer it. However, in September tvOS 12 came and went without any sign of either Charter Spectrum’s app, or the feature that was set to launch with it. Now, AppleInsider notes that Apple’s site has been updated to remove a sentence that said that the app would be coming “ later this year. ” Instead, the Apple TV 4K page now says that the app is “coming soon.” Previous rumors had suggested that it had been expected to launch in early December, but now it looks like we’ll have to wait until next year for the debut of the new feature. Zero sign-on was announced by Apple during its WWDC 2018 keynote as a means to simplify the process of logging into cable TV apps. Rather than having to remember a username and password, the new system — when it launches at least — will be able to detect when you’re connected to

Poor dogs. All they want to do is enjoy the New Year’s Eve celebrations, yet humans have this annoying habit of continually firing loud rockets into the sky. At least they might have a bit of respite soon thanks to a new prototype kennel designed by Ford , which combines noise-canceling technology, sound-dampening cork, and an automatic door to give our canine friends a quiet retreat from the festivities. The kennel, which is the first of a series of initiatives that Ford is calling “Interventions,” is really a sly promotion for the company’s noise-canceling technology that’s built into its latest Edge SUVs. In the car, microphones are used to pick up engine and transmission noises, and speakers then play the opposite frequencies to cancel them out. Dogs can hear a much wider range of sound frequencies that humans can, and they can do so from four times farther away. That makes the unnatural noise from fireworks especially loud to them, and much more stressful as a result. This m

What to make of the New York Times ’ latest story about Facebook’s broad data-sharing agreements ? The story, which draws on internal documents describing the company’s partnerships, reports on previously undisclosed aspects of business partnerships with companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Spotify, and Netflix. In some cases, companies had access to data years after it was supposed to have been cut off. Here’s how the story is framed by reporters Gabriel J.X. Dance, Michael LaForgia, and Nicholas Confessore: The documents, as well as interviews with about 50 former employees of Facebook and its corporate partners, reveal that Facebook allowed certain companies access to data despite those protections. They also raise questions about whether Facebook ran afoul of a 2011 consent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that barred the social network from sharing user data without explicit permission. In all, the deals described in the documents benefited more than 150 c