Stephen Shankland

Apple Maps gooses DuckDuckGo in search privacy partnership

Search engine DuckDuckGo now displays location information from Apple Maps in its search results, a new example of business partners trying to profit from people’s concerns about online privacy. DuckDuckGo now uses Apple Maps both for small maps in location-related search results and for larger, interactive search results that appear in a separate maps tab, …

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Brave browser tries fixing online ads so you can have nontoxic websites

What if online ads weren’t the distracting, privacy-invading, malware-laced, battery-gobbling mess they’ve become? What if they could even fund worthy websites? That’s what startup Brave hopes to accomplish with a major new phase of its browser business. Brave began its existence three years ago by blocking all ads by default. On Tuesday, it’ll start offering anyone using the developer version …

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Qualcomm CEO defends chip licensing business in FTC trial

The Federal Trade Commission thinks your phone is being held back by Qualcomm’s business practices. But Qualcomm Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf says the way his company sells chips to smartphone makers is best for everybody involved. Qualcomm’s “no license, no chips” policy is at the heart of the FTC’s case against Qualcomm, which lawyers are arguing before Judge Lucy Koh …

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Qualcomm’s hardball tactics squeezed Intel chips out of Apple’s 2014 iPad

Apple wanted to build an Intel communication chip into its iPad Mini 2, released in fall 2013, but Qualcomm’s hardball business methods crushed the plan, an Apple executive testified Friday in a US government case targeting Qualcomm’s power in the mobile market. Apple didn’t like relying solely on Qualcomm for modem chips, which connect devices to mobile networks, said Tony …

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iPhone set to match Android security with new Yubico hardware key

Hardware security key maker Yubico has a new product in the works to give iPhones the same authentication technology available today to Android phones and to Windows and Mac personal computers. Previewed at the CES show this week, the YubiKey for Lightning supports Apple’s proprietary iPhone and iPad port on one end and the USB-C port common on Android phones …

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Spigen ‘Forever Sleeve’ case will charge your phone even in your pocket

If Qi wireless charging stands and pads are crimping your style, a partnership between smartphone case maker Spigen and startup Ossia should let you charge your phone as you wander around a room. The two companies showed off a prototype charging case called the Forever Sleeve at the CES tech show this week in Las Vegas. A base station beams …

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HTC Vive headset taps into Firefox Reality, Mozilla’s VR browser

HTC’s Vive virtual reality headset will include Firefox Reality, giving a boost to Mozilla’s web browser for VR devices and to its broader effort to build an immersive virtual realm on web technology that no single company controls. Mozilla released Firefox Reality in 2018 for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Google Daydream and Magic Leap One. Now, HTC Vive owners won’t need to …

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Digital photography begins its next chapter with radical changes

Digital photography has changed a lot over the past two decades, with clunky DSLRs giving way to sleek smartphones. Over the next 10 years, expect a similar evolution as the science behind the art changes. Much of the technology in use today represents the breakthroughs of the first generation of digital cameras. Film was stripped away and digital image sensors …

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Lightroom photo editing gets more competition from Darkroom, Luminar

Two software tools, Bergen’s Darkroom and Skylum’s Luminar, just got a bit better at challenging Adobe’s dominant Lightroom software for editing and cataloging photos. Darkroom, an iOS app, now has a version just for iPads for a better look at the photos you’re editing, more room for catalog operations and support for external keyboards to speed things up. And Luminar, …

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AT&T’s 5G network is live

If you live in one of a dozen US cities, you can tap into AT&T’s 5G network this week. The carrier, locked in a race with Verizon and other network operators to move to the next-gen wireless technology as fast as possible, is turning on its network on Tuesday. But until 5G phones arrive in the first half of 2019, …

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