WarnerMedia has reportedly beat out Apple, NBCUniversal and other media companies to secure streaming content from J.J. Abrams. The deal is worth around $500 million, a report says. Abrams runs media company Bad Robot with his wife, Katie McGrath. Bad Robot is responsible for shows and movies including Westworld, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, …

Amazon appears to have closed down its Spark social networking platform. The closure comes less than two years after Amazon launched Spark as its social media play in July 2017. Spark was focused on users posting images, stories and ideas about products and purchases, and was originally launched only for Amazon Prime members. Other users could then react with “smiles” and …

Apple has reportedly registered seven new MacBooks in the Eurasian Economic Commission database. The models were filed Thursday, and are listed as the A2141, A2147, A2158, A2159, A2179, A2182 and A2251, MacRumors said. The filings are a legal requirement to sell encrypted devices in Russia and other countries, MacRumors said, and they’ve previously foretold the announcement of new iPhones, iPads, iPad Pros, Apple Watches, Macs and AirPods. …

Samsung is reportedly denying rumors that the Galaxy Fold will be released in July, leaving the Korean tech giant’s foldable phone launch date still up in the air. Samsung had initially planned to launch the Galaxy Fold in April, but review units suffered from problems including bubbling under the screen and displays breaking. The company then postponed the release of …

In a world filled with manipulated photos, deepfakes and even totally fake human faces, Adobe says it’s working on an artificial intelligence tool to spot fake images. Citing “the ethical implications” of Photoshop, Adobe partnered with researchers from the University of California at Berkeley to work on the issue. Photoshop’s Face Aware Liquify feature is being used to change people’s …

Huawei is moving to trademark the name of its operating system, “Hongmeng,” in Peru. The Chinese tech giant is also objecting to its US ban through an ex parte letter to the Federal Communications Commission. Google last month locked Huawei out of its Android updates, though the US Commerce Department granted it a three-month general license to update existing devices.  …

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón says the city is using artificial intelligence to remove racial bias from the process of deciding whom to charge with crimes. A new AI tool scans police reports and automatically redacts any race information. It’s part of an effort to remove implicit bias caused by social conditioning and learned associations, Gascón’s office said in a press …

Instagram looks to be back online after an outage hit the social media platform for more than an hour on Thursday afternoon. Previously, checking it on the Instagram mobile app brought up a “couldn’t refresh feed” message, while attempting to use the desktop website came up with a Facebook logo and a “Sorry, something went wrong” message.  “Earlier today, a …

Kickstarter has told its users to avoid using dubious and exaggerated claims when marketing their projects to potential backers. This includes “puffery” like world’s best, smallest, fastest, first, ultimate, unrivaled and revolutionary. The global crowdfunding platform has helped projects like a smart cheesemaker, a Dungeons & Dragons animated series and ketchup slices get off the ground, but now Kickstarter is …

Huawei wants more than $1 billion in patent licensing fees from Verizon, according to a report. The fees are for the use of over 230 networking-gear patents, Reuters said Wednesday, citing a source. Verizon is reportedly using equipment through other companies that relies on Huawei patents covering core networking gear, internet of things technology and wireline infrastructure. Verizon and Huawei representatives …