Stephen Shankland

You’ll get a new Firefox each month in 2020 as Mozilla speeds up releases

Mozilla will turn the Firefox crank faster in 2020, releasing a new version of its web browser every four weeks instead of every six. If you’re using the browser, the change should deliver new features to you faster since there will be less waiting between when developers build them and when they arrive. “In recent …

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iPhone 11 won’t charge your AirPods, and that’s OK

Apple’s spotty reputation for wireless charging didn’t get any shinier when the iPhone 11 family arrived on Tuesday without reverse charging, the ability to charge other devices by setting them atop your phone. Luckily for Apple, that omission probably doesn’t matter much. Wireless charging is a useful mobile technology, but one that Apple hasn’t made a splash in. iPhones didn’t …

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Apple’s iPhone 11 A13 processor boosts phone chip performance 20%

Apple’s A13 Bionic processor will boost iPhone 11 performance by at least 20 percent over last year’s smartphones, Apple said Tuesday. That includes the speed of the main processor brains and its special-purpose engines for graphics and AI. “It is our most performant chip we have ever built for iPhone,” said Sri Santhanam, vice president of silicon engineering, at Apple’s annual …

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Apple’s iPhone 11 camera packs wide

It’s time for Apple’s iPhone 11 camera to go wide. The new smartphone has an ultrawide wider-angle camera that joins the regular camera, Apple said Tuesday. And the higher-end iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max keep the telephoto lens of last year’s iPhone XS models but widen the lens’ aperture for better low-light performance, giving new photographic flexibility to serious photographers who want …

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Ad industry offers an answer to online privacy problems

There are a lot of efforts trying to rein in advertising tech that tracks you online, and the newest option is coming from the ad industry itself. The IAB Tech Lab, a partner to the Interactive Advertising Bureau that has long represented online ad companies, proposed a new digital token on Wednesday designed to offer a better balance between advertisers’ …

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Wi

Wi-Fi 6 is just now arriving in phones, laptops and network equipment. But engineers are already turning their attention to what’ll come next: Wi-Fi 7. With speeds as high as 30 gigabits per second, the next generation of Wi-Fi promises better streaming video, longer range and fewer problems with traffic congestion. The change will come in a series of steps, …

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Speed

USB4 is done, the group developing the next version of the immensely successful USB connector technology said Tuesday. USB4 doubles speeds compared to today’s fastest USB 3.2 by incorporating Intel’s speedy Thunderbolt technology that you already see on high-end laptops and peripherals. The USB Implementers Forum announced the completion of the technical specification Tuesday, a move that frees hardware and software …

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Firefox 69 ratchets up tracking protection, switching it on by default

Mozilla has switched on Firefox’s tracking protection feature for everyone on Windows and Android, dialing up its effort to protect privacy from website publishers and advertisers that would like to keep tabs on your online behavior. Mozilla enabled tracking protection for new Firefox users in June, but now it’s on for everyone, the nonprofit said Tuesday. Tracking protection is all …

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Mozilla CEO resigns, opening the door for more changes for Firefox

Mozilla Chief Executive Chris Beard will resign at the end of 2019 after more than five years of leading the nonprofit behind Firefox. His tenure includes the expansion of the organization’s focus beyond the web browser and a new priority on preserving our privacy against pervasive online tracking. He took over Mozilla in 2014 at a tumultuous time when co-founder …

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Wi

We get it. 5G is a big deal. But honestly, you likely use Wi-Fi networks as much or more with your phone and PC, so tune out the 5G noise for a moment and appreciate what’s coming with Wi-Fi 6. “While 5G is getting much of the limelight, Wi-Fi 6 will have a bigger impact in our connected lives — …

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