Google Drive appeared to experience a widespread service disruption on Tuesday, with people reporting outages and other issues across the US. The issue has now been resolved, but not before people took to social media to vent frustration about  Google Drive going down amid remote work and learning.  “We’re investigating reports of an issue with …

Ahead of today’s Apple event, there’s a small surprise for anyone hitting the heart button on a tweet with the hashtag #AppleEvent. Twitter has added a quick animation to the heart button, in a similar style to Apple’s invitations for the launch event. You can check it out below, but don’t blink or you’ll miss it.  The animation was spotted …

CBS All Access is getting a new name and look early next year: ViacomCBS said Tuesday it will rebrand its existing streaming service as Paramount Plus, unveiling the name change after previously announcing its plans for a 2021 revamp of CBS All Access. The rebranded Paramount Plus service will include live news and sports content, as well as on-demand programming from MTV, BET, Comedy Central, …

Verizon on Monday said it has agreed to acquire prepaid mobile carrier Tracfone in a deal worth up to nearly $7 billion in cash and stock. Tracfone, part of America Movil, is one of the largest resellers of mobile service in the US, with approximately 21 million subscribers and over 90,000 retail locations, according to Verizon. Tracfone, similar to many …

President Donald Trump on Thursday said there will be no postponement of the deadline for popular video app TikTok to find a new owner or face a ban in the US.  “There’ll be no extension of the TikTok deadline,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One on Thursday. “It’ll either be closed up or they’ll sell it.” A deal …

Google on Tuesday said it’s rolling out a new Verified Calls feature in its Phone app for Android devices in an effort to separate calls you actually want to answer from spam and robocalls. Verified Calls will show the business’ name, a business logo, reason for calling and a verification symbol, Google said. “We’ve been piloting Verified Calls for a …

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday said it could cost an estimated $1.8 billion to remove and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment that’s in US telecommunications networks receiving federal funds. In June, the FCC officially classified Huawei and ZTE as national security threats, though since 2019, the agency has barred carriers from using its $8.3 billion a year Universal Service Fund to …

A Chinese official on Thursday reportedly emphasized the country’s authority to approve or block the sale of some technologies abroad, appearing to confirm that the government plans to play a critical role in any deal to sell off TikTok’s US operations.  On Aug. 28, China updated the country’s export-control rules to cover sensitive technology, possibly including algorithms that power TikTok’s recommendations …

This story is part of Elections 2020, CNET’s coverage of the voting in November and its aftermath. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday outlined several steps the social media site is taking to encourage voting and to fight misinformation ahead of the US elections in November. In addition to efforts already in place, Zuckerberg said Facebook will expand its policies …

Facebook is notifying people about an update to its terms of service that will let the social network remove or restrict content that may have regulatory or legal impacts on the company. The move is related to Facebook’s threat to remove news from its platform in Australia, but the change will apply globally.  “Effective October 1, 2020, section 3.2 of …