Stephen Shankland

5G could make self

Self-driving cars can already see and think for themselves. But a newer technology that will run on soon-to-launch 5G networks promises to give them another advanced skill: the ability to talk with one another. C-V2X, a communications technology using the same 5G networks coming to our phones, will allow vehicles to communicate wirelessly with each …

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Google Chrome proposes ‘privacy sandbox’ to reform advertising evils

Google’s Chrome team on Thursday proposed a “privacy sandbox” that’s designed to give us the best of both worlds: ads that publishers can target toward our interests but that don’t infringe our privacy. It’s a major development in an area where Chrome, the dominant browser, has lagged competitors. Browsers already include security sandboxes, restrictions designed to confine malware and limit …

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Intel fights back with power

Intel is stealing a page from the mobile industry’s playbook, developing a new processor code-named Lakefield that breaks new ground when it comes to squeezing significant performance into a tiny package. Lakefield uses a new Intel technology called Foveros that lets the company stack different chip parts onto different layers. That lets Intel build a chip that’s getting closer to …

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Processor progress is alive and well, the maker of Apple’s iPhone chips says

Enough with the doom and gloom about Moore’s Law. Computing progress charted by the famous 1965 observation, along with other chip improvements, will keep our digital devices humming ever faster, said Philip Wong, head of research at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. “Without any doubt, Moore’s Law is well and alive. It’s not dead, it’s not slowing down, it’s not even …

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Microsoft wants you to beta

Microsoft released the first beta version of its overhauled Edge web browser Tuesday — and it wants you to help squash its bugs to smooth the way for the mainstream release in coming months. Microsoft’s new Edge is built on top of Chromium, Google’s open-source browser foundation for Chrome. The new Edge beta is available for Windows 7, Windows 10 …

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iPhone users now can use hardware security keys with the YubiKey 5Ci

iPhone owners now have a way to plug hardware security keys straight into their phones. They can use the new YubiKey 5Ci, which went on sale Tuesday and will work with newer laptops and Android phones, too. Yubico’s double-whammy $70 YubiKey 5Ci security key has a Lightning connector on one end and USB-C on the other. It’s the first Lightning-based …

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Meet Tesla’s self

Designing your own chips is hard. But Tesla, one of the most aggressive developers of autonomous vehicle technology, thinks it’s worth it. The company shared details Tuesday about how it fine-tuned the design of its AI chips so two of them are smart enough to power its cars’ upcoming “full self-driving” abilities. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and his colleagues revealed …

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Apple: break Safari’s anti

Website publishers and companies that show ads on them can track you from one site to another, creating a profile on your interests intended to show ads more targeted toward your likely interests. But that can significantly impair your privacy, and browsers are starting to crack down. Apple on Wednesday published a policy governing how its Safari browser will block …

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Adobe promises Lightroom performance boost thanks to GPU chip

Adobe’s Lightroom, long dogged by complaints it’s grown sluggish at editing and organizing photos, got a performance boost Tuesday by tapping into the processing power of the graphics chip in Windows and Mac computers. The August release of Lightroom Classic should speed up editing and make the software more responsive in general, said Josh Haftel, principal product manager at Adobe, …

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Firefox’s new logo

Mozilla has released a new test version of its web browser that introduces the new Firefox logo and drops “Quantum” from its name. Mozilla long ago moved the Firefox icon to a more stylized look, but the newest version is another step away from the original drawing of a fox wrapped around the globe. Even though the fox’s face is …

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