Internet freedom declined for a ninth consecutive year as governments around the world used social media to monitor citizens and manipulate elections, according to a new study that warned of creeping “digital authoritarianism.” Thirty-three of the 65 countries surveyed were found to have experienced worsening internet freedom since June 2018, compared with 16 that were …

LinkedIn wants to help you tout your skills. On Tuesday, the resume-sharing site said it’s introducing LinkedIn Skills Assessments, a tool that validates members’ proficiency for potential employers. Enlarge Image Congratulations. You have mad skills. LinkedIn LinkedIn Skills Assessments requires members to take tests in skills that are associated with their profiles. Skills could include proficiency with a program, such …

Can’t get enough of images that purportedly show Google’s Pixel 4 XL phone? You’re in luck. We’ve already seen a cache of such shots, as well as a video, and now there’s more. Vietnam-based phone shop D Store Mobile has leaked 20 or so pictures of a white “test model” of the Pixel 4 XL, according to a report. The …

Imagine the awestruck faces of your technorati friends when you whip out your new titanium Apple Card and — gasp — it matches your even newer Apple Watch! (You tilt your wrist subtly to bathe your buddies in the glow.) That’s right, the next iteration of the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch 5, expected next month, could come in titanium …

Apple wants to stay committed to assembling the Mac Pro in the US. That’s according to CEO Tim Cook, who said the tariff exclusions he was seeking from the US government had to do with the intent to make the company’s high-end Mac in America.  “We’ve been making the Mac Pro in the US and we want to continue doing …

Nintendo’s Tertris 99 battle royale game for its Switch console may soon have a mobile doppelgänger: Tetris Royale. Gaming firm N3twork, in partnership with The Tetris Company, is developing its own multiplayer, last-person-standing version of the classic (and classically addicting) fit-the-falling-blocks-together game. A beta version for iPhones, iPads and Android phones will arrive this year, says a release from the …

President Donald Trump agreed Saturday to lift some restrictions against US companies selling high-tech gear to Chinese telecom giant Huawei, says a report. “We’re talking about equipment where there’s not a great national-emergency problem with it,” Trump said after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to The Wall Street Journal. In May, Trump signed an executive order essentially banning …

Apple is facing further scrutiny over whether it’s using its hold on the App Store to hurt competitors’ products. A Saturday report in The New York Times says that in the past year, Apple has targeted 11 of the 17 most downloaded third-party apps designed to help phone users limit screen time or oversee their children’s phone use. Apple either …

Apple publicly dismissed Qualcomm’s technology during a two-year legal battle even though it had privately praised the chipmaker’s products, according to a Washington Post story that cited sealed court documents.  Executives at the iPhone maker called Qualcomm’s engineering “the best” in one memo, while another memo said the chipmaker had a “unique patent share,” according to the report. The sealed documents …

When it comes to the next era of phones, it seems like it’ll be fold times. Samsung unveiled a foldable device this week (called, ahem, the Galaxy Fold). Now rival Huawei looks set to unveil its own bendable buddy. A photo posted to Twitter on Friday appears to show workers at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona installing a billboard …