It’s almost that time of year. Following festive holiday dinners and gift exchanges, many switch focus to the new year and their 2022 goals. Although exercising, organizing that clutter room or even reading more may be on the list of resolutions, what about boosting your personal privacy and better protecting your data while searching the …

AT&T, Verizon, Intrado and CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies) have agreed to settle over the Federal Communications Commission’s investigations into the network outages that led to failed 911 calls in 2020. The four companies will implement compliance plans that adhere to the FCC’s 911 rules, as well as pay a total of $6 million in settlement payments, according to a Friday announcement …

Google unveiled its latest features for Pixel phones on Monday, including an option to quickly access Snapchat from your lock screen and to use your Pixel 6 as a digital car key.  With the software update, Pixel owners can open the messaging app directly from the lock screen with a new feature called Quick Tap to Snap. The feature is available …

WhatsApp is adding more options to control your disappearing messages, the popular app announced Monday. You can now turn on disappearing messages by default for all new chats, and you can choose how long you have until the messages fade.  Brett Pearce/CNET When you enable the feature, every one-on-one chat that you or someone else starts will be set to …

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas. Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but the 2021 holiday shopping season is far from over. (Check out the best holiday deals that are still available here.) In fact, we are only a few weeks away from Christmas, one of the …

The UK Competition and Markets Authority is expected to block Meta’s $315 million acquisition of Giphy in the near future, the Financial Times reported Monday. Meta, previously known as Facebook, moved to buy the online GIF platform in May 2020.  However, the UK regulator expressed concern with the deal and provisionally ruled in August that Meta should be forced to sell Giphy. The …

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas. The two-day Target Cyber Monday deals bonanza is an opportunity to snap up some of the best sales, especially if you sat out the Black Friday offers. Target is offering plenty of new price drops now, with the event well underway.  You’ll find deals on TVs, phones, …

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas. Black Friday has come and gone with some of Target’s sales phasing out, but don’t fret. Cyber Monday savings have been rolling in at various retailers, and the biggest savings are in full swing at Target. The store is hosting a two-day Cyber Monday sale, starting …

This story is part of Gift Guide, our year-round collection of the best gift ideas. Black Friday proper might be just around the corner, but Target is ahead of the curve. The retailer has been rolling out early deals all month long, and this week its biggest sale yet went live. The main event will run until this Saturday, Nov. …

Google’s Messages app could properly show emoji reactions from iPhone users soon, according to a report from 9to5Google. An update was reportedly spotted in the newest beta for Messages, version 10.7, that features a fix for emoji reactions from Apple’s iMessage service to Google’s Messages app. The change would affect a lot of people. Messages, which is Google’s texting app for …