We have reached the midway point of the 2019 MLB regular season. As is their time-honored tradition, Major League Baseball’s biggest star players will take a break from the daily grind of the 162-game marathon for a few days to participate in the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby.  This year, the All-Star festivities will …

Amazon continues to play it fast and loose with the definition of “Prime Day,” which is actually two days (July 15 and 16) and is not, in fact, confined to those two days. Rather, there are all sorts of Prime Day deals available right now, and Amazon recently announced another one for Prime subscribers: From now through July 16, when …

Twitter on Tuesday said it’s updated its rules against hateful conduct to ban language that “dehumanizes” people because of their religion. Tweets that go against the new policy will be taken down, the company said. Tweets posted before the new rule will have to be deleted if reported, Twitter said, but the account won’t be suspended because they were sent before …

T-Mobile has unveiled its new Revvl budget smartphones, the Revvlry and Revvlry+, which are set to launch July 19. Touting the phones as having “flagship features without the flagship price,” T-Mobile will be charging $8.34 per month, with zero down, for the Revvlry, and $14 down plus $14 a month for the Revvlry+ on 24-month contracts. The phones, announced Tuesday, …

Facebook is giving videos on its social network more ways to make money, pulling inspiration from other platforms to let you throw cash at your favorite video creators in the form of subscriptions or tokenized “stars” that pay them a penny. It’s also going to start taking a cut of the money that superfans send to creators in paid subscriptions. …

Spotify has launched a lightweight version of its music streaming app so you don’t have to worry about hitting data limits as you stream. The 10 MB Spotify Lite app is designed for older devices and operating systems, and it’s coming to 36 countries. People with free and Premium Spotify accounts can download the app on any Android device that …

Google announced Monday that people could join beta testing for its new version of Messages, the texting app that comes standard with Android phones. In less than a day, the program reached capacity. If you try to join the beta program now, you’ll see this note from Google: “Thanks for your interest in becoming a tester for the Messages app. …

State databases of driver’s licenses have reportedly become a treasure trove for facial recognition searches by the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Millions of Americans’ license photos have been scanned without their knowledge or consent, The Washington Post reported Sunday. The Post based its article on five years of documents provided by Georgetown Law researchers.  In a related report …

The end came quietly, slipped in with a series of back-to-school announcements about better screens and lower prices for the MacBook Air, and, uh, more Touch Bars for the MacBook Pro. No formal announcement was made in the jargon-filled press release letting us know that the entry-level Pro now features “Touch Bar and Touch ID, a True Tone Retina display …

Google has announced that YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Kids apps are now available on Amazon’s Fire TV streamers and TVs worldwide, after 18 months of hostility and user workarounds.  The companies announced the truce back in April, which also includes the ability for Amazon Prime Video apps to connect to Google Chromecast streamers and Android TV from today.  The official …