August, 2020

• 20 August

  T

  

  AT&T and T-Mobile are fighting back against a Federal Communications Commission program that could see America’s mobile providers drive test their own networks to double check coverage range. The carriers’ submissions, spotted earlier Thursday by Ars Technica, came in response to the FCC’s request for comment on its suggestions in July of how to verify …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  TikTok removed more than 380,000 US videos this year for hate speech

  

  TikTok, known for short videos of people lip-syncing and dancing to their favorite songs, is grappling with a problem familiar to other social networks: hate speech. On Thursday, TikTok said it removed more than 380,000 videos in the US this year for violating its rules against hate speech. The company also banned more than 1,300 accounts for hateful content or …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  Enter for your chance to win Samsung’s all

  

  Wow, wow, wow. Samsung’s hot new Galaxy Note 20 has barely rolled off the production line, and CNET is already giving one away. And not just the Note 20, but also the “kidney bean” earbuds otherwise known as the Galaxy Buds Live. One lucky winner gets the phone and the Buds; two more lucky winners get just the Buds. The …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  Four brothers targeted Amazon in alleged $19 million fraud scheme

  

  Four brothers from New York state were arrested and charged by federal authorities Wednesday in an alleged scheme to overcharge Amazon for wholesale orders and pocket $19 million in the process. From 2017 to 2019, the brothers allegedly ran a wholesale business that exploited Amazon’s vendor systems to send the e-commerce giant significantly more stuff than it agreed to buy …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  Gmail outage is over after hours

  

  Gmail appears to be working again Thursday after people worldwide reported disruptions to a number of Google services over about seven hours.  A widespread outage of the popular Google services began shortly after 9 p.m. PT Wednesday. People reported issues in the US, Europe and parts of Asia including India, Japan, Singapore and Australia, according to outage monitoring site DownDetector. …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  IBM doubles its quantum computer performance

  

  IBM has doubled the performance of its quantum computers compared with last year’s model, a key step in delivering on the promise of the revolutionary machines. But it’s only an early step, and rivals are breathing down Big Blue’s neck. The fundamental data processing element in a quantum computer is called a qubit, and having more of them is better. …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  News publishers join Epic Games in asking Apple for lower App Store fees

  

  For the second week in a row, Apple is being asked to cut down its App Store fees. After Fortnite publisher Epic Games sued Apple last week in a confrontation over the 30% tax Apple charges to developers on its App Store, trade organization Digital Content Next, which represents publishers including the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNET …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  Trump administration fights to let president block his critics on Twitter

  

  The White House has asked the Supreme Court to review a decision by a lower court not to allow President Donald Trump to block people on Twitter. The petition, filed with the Supreme Court on Thursday, came after a federal court ruled in July 2019 that the president cannot block people who criticize him on a public forum. But the …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  Apple appears to post Sept. 10 stream details for 5G iPhone event on YouTube

  

  Apple’s signature secrecy may have slipped a little Thursday, when a Twitter user posted a photo of what appeared to be a scheduled livestream for the iPhone maker’s YouTube account set for Sept. 10. “It was on my YouTube subscription page, it is now removed,” the person tweeted. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple’s YouTube page …

  Read More »
• 20 August

  Grab this 24

  

  If you’re starting to feel a little claustrophobic preparing spreadsheets and answering Zoom calls on a tiny laptop screen, today is your lucky day. Office Depot has a great deal on an Acer 24-inch widescreen LCD monitor for only $90 (marked down from $120). We haven’t seen monitors of this size and in this price range in stock for the …

  Read More »