The Federal Communications Commission’s second 5G spectrum auction has ended, raising $2 billion in gross bids. 5G, already launched in the US by Verizon and AT&T, is the next-generation network being used by smartphones to provide faster speeds and more capacity. Through its second auction, the FCC sold off a batch of millimeter-wave (mmWave) high-bandwidth spectrum …

Walmart has named former Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM exec Suresh Kumar as its chief technology officer, a newly created position.  Kumar will use his experience in e-commerce, cloud and machine learning for the role, Walmart said in a blog post Tuesday. First spotted by CNBC, Kumar will report directly to CEO Doug McMillon, who said Kumar “has a unique …

Google on Tuesday launched five new Lens filters for subjects ranging from food to foreign languages. The new Google Lens features will provide better and faster overlays of information over real-world objects, the company said.  Google gave CNET’s Scott Stein an early look at what Lens filters can do just ahead of its I/O developer conference earlier this month. The …

Twitch has temporarily blocked live streams from new creators after content that “grossly violates” its terms of service was streamed over the weekend. Trolls used the game streaming platform to stream footage of Game of Thrones, porn and the Christchurch terror attack along with hate speech in the comments, according to Vice. Twitch said a number of accounts targeted the …

The OnePlus 7 Pro smartphone is getting a couple of improvements to its camera system, according to a report. HDR and Nightscape mode will both be improved in an update, TechRadar said, citing a OnePlus staffer. Other changes will also make “photos look substantially better,” TechRadar quoted the source as saying. The OnePlus 7 Pro, which CNET reviewers have called the …

The US ban on Huawei could be used as a way to negotiate a better trade deal. President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that he could use an offer to reverse the blacklisting of Huawei as leverage in the escalating trade tensions between the two nations, according to CNN. “Huawei is something that’s very dangerous,” Trump reportedly said. “[But] it’s …

Apple iPhone rumors show the 2020 versions will have “significant changes,” according to a report. As well as the addition of 5G, the smartphone could also have 3D sensing via rear cameras, full-screen Touch ID and OLED screens from LG, MacRumors said Friday, citing a Barclays analyst who’d purportedly just met with Apple suppliers in Asia. MacRumors also said the 2020 …

 Amazon has filed to patent a method for Alexa to start recording before anyone uses the wake word. The patent filing, first spotted by BuzzFeed News, would capture and process incoming audio, detect long pauses, and send the data to a remote server while Alexa waits for the wake word. “When the system detects a wake word within a particular utterance, the …

China’s largest chipmaker plans to delist from the New York Stock Exchange. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) cited limited trading volumes in the US in comparison to the rest of the world as the reason for delisting, according to the South China Morning post on Friday. SMIC also said “the significant administrative burden and costs of maintaining the listing” on …

Huawei is still “far from ready” to launch its own operating system, but it may have a name at least, according to reports. The phone maker received the trademark “Hongmeng” for the system from the Chinese National Intellectual Property Administration, after working on it under the internal code name “Project Z,” The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Separately, sources told …