US presidential alerts sent out as nationwide emergency text messages could be vulnerable to hacks, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. The university has already alerted US government officials to the security problem. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are geographically targeted messages that alert mobile users in the US about missing children (via Amber …

The Apple Card‘s arrival is inching closer. Apple’s been fairly quiet about the credit card since it was announced in March, but a new report says the company is expanding its beta testing ahead of the planned summer release.  According to Bloomberg, Apple has expanded beta testing of the Card to now include its own retail employees. The company has …

Amazon Music launched Thursday on its first pay TV service. Joining Comcast’s Xfinity X1 high-end pay TV service as well as its Xfinity Flex bundle of streaming apps, Amazon Music can now stream tunes through Comcast customers’ TVs. Subscribers to Amazon Music, the e-commerce giant’s competitor to Spotify, will have access to its full music library on Comcast as the partnership rolls out to set-top boxes over …

When Star Wars Battlefront II came out in 2017, people weren’t happy about the loot boxes, or grab bags of surprise items that players buy with in-game currency and that critics say foster compulsive habits like gambling. Now EA, the game’s publisher, has reportedly told a committee of the UK’s Parliament that loot boxes are just plain fun. Testifying before Parliament’s …

Facebook changed the way we communicate. Now the social media giant wants to change how its roughly 2.4 billion users think about using a cryptocurrency to make everyday purchases. Earlier this week, the social network and its partners unveiled a global digital coin called Libra, confirming details of a project that had been leaking out in dribs and drabs for months. …

Attention, witches and wizards: The much-anticipated Harry Potter: Wizard Unite mobile game launched today for Android and iOS. CNET confirmed the AR game is available in the US and UK. (Here’s how you get started playing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite on your iPhone or Android phone.) The Harry Potter game was originally supposed to debut Friday. The news arrived Tuesday in a tweet — the …

The US government continues to try and stop the scourge of robocalls affecting millions of phone users. In May, the Senate passed an anti-robocall bill and now the House has its own bipartisan bill to combat the phone menace. Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Greg Walden, a …

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold missed its release date in April due to screen problems with review units. Since then, the company hasn’t given a new release date for the foldable phone. Now one Samsung executive reportedly says the device is ready to go. Kim Seong-cheol, vice president for Samsung Display, said during a speech Tuesday that the Galaxy Fold is “ready …

Google wants to become the go-to hub for people searching for restaurants or other local businesses. The search giant on Thursday announced new features to revamp business profiles on Google Maps and search. Those are the pages that give you a restaurant’s rating, a snapshot at popular dishes and general information like store hours or the restaurant’s phone number. Now, …

Google is abandoning its tablet-making efforts, confirming that no sequel to the Pixel Slate is coming. The tech giant will instead focus on making laptops, it said Thursday. The company announced the Google Pixel Slate in October 2018 and launched it that November, starting at $599. But though it had a nice display and support for a mouse and trackpad, …

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 is just around the corner, with a debut set for August 7, but a number of questions remain about Samsung’s forthcoming phablet. One of the biggest ones: Will it drop physical buttons entirely?  It’s a rumor that changes by the day, with some reports saying it will drop physical buttons and others saying it will still …

If the Office of the United States Trade Representative moves forward with more tariffs against China, it’d hurt Apple‘s competitiveness and the amount of money it contributes to the US economy, the company argued this week. It urged the US not to move forward with new fees that would affect the iPhone and its other devices. In a letter to US Trade …

Current, an online banking company, has accused Facebook of borrowing its logo for the social network’s newly unveiled cryptocurrency play. The Calibra logo bears a resemblance to Current’s logo, the company tweeted Thursday, as reported earlier by CNBC. Facebook earlier this week unveiled a global digital coin called Libra, to be managed by a governing body called the Libra Association. Calibra is the name …

T-Mobile CEO John Legere is stumping for his company’s merger with Sprint again, arguing that the combined entity would be the only carrier to bring 5G nationwide, because rivals AT&T and Verizon are “locked in a meaningless race just to claim they’re first.” In a blog post Thursday, Legere said the new T-Mobile would “fix the broken, arrogant wireless industry.”  …

Apple is recalling some older-generation 15-inch MacBook Pros over batteries that could catch fire, the company announced Thursday.  The voluntary recall, which is for 15-inch Pros sold between September 2015 and February 2017, appears to be limited to the older generation of the MacBook Pro, not the recent models that have USB-C or a Touch Bar.  Apple says that other …