February, 2020

• 19 February

  Photoshop on iPad is still by turns fun, fantastic and infuriating

  

  Photoshop on iPad will probably be great when it grows up, but at least it’s moved on from toddlerhood. Adobe obviously spent a long time laying the groundwork for this generation of its mobile apps, but after its official launch it still had that inevitable minimum viable product feel (a personal pet peeve). With its first …

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• 19 February

  Mozilla’s standalone Firefox VPN is now available in beta

  

  Mozilla has a new virtual private network service and if you have a Chromebook, a Windows 10 computer or an Android device in the US, you can start using a beta version now. Called Firefox Private Network, the new service is designed to function as a full-device VPN and give better protection when surfing the web or when using public Wi-Fi networks.  The company …

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• 19 February

  Shopping for an Apple product? Save big on refurbs

  

  Every now and again I find myself in an Apple Store. When I see customers buying things like MacBooks ($600 at Amazon) and iPads ($170 at Amazon), I want to grab them by the shoulders and cry, “Wait! You can get these for less!” How? By venturing online, where Apple’s Refurbished Store carries a rotating selection of products that are …

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• 19 February

  Larry Tesler, Apple employee who created cut

  

  Computer scientist and user interface guru Larry Tesler, a key figure at Apple during its early years, died Monday at the age of 74, according to Apple Insider. Tesler pioneered the concept of “cut-copy-paste” during his time at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. In the following two decades at Apple, he would be deeply involved in …

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• 19 February

  Germany wants to make social media firms report illegal content to police

  

  Germany’s cabinet approved a proposed law on Wednesday that will require social media companies to proactively report illegal content to the police or face fines of up to 50 million euros ($54 million). Content including hate speech, racial incitement, terrorism-related posts and child abuse imagery must already be deleted within 24 hours, according to existing German law. Under the proposed …

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• 19 February

  Verizon is reportedly shelving further plans to sell Pixel phones

  

  Verizon has put an “indefinite hold” on plans to sell Google’s Pixel phones, Android Police reported late Wednesday citing an unidentified source described as familiar with the company’s plans. No specific reason was cited, but poor sales could have motivated the change. Verizon on Thursday morning pushed back against the report, with a spokeswoman saying the mobile carrier will continue to …

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• 19 February

  Europe bids for global digital leadership as pressure mounts from US and China

  

  The EU on Wednesday unveiled a landmark digital strategy that it hopes will establish Europe as a global tech leader over the next decade and beyond. In the strategy, Europe outlined plans for boosting its “fair and competitive” economy, developing technology that’s beneficial to European citizens and underpinning an open, democratic society. Central to the plan is establishing a single …

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• 19 February

  How to watch the Nevada Democratic debate live tonight without cable

  

  This story is part of Elections 2020, CNET’s coverage of the voting in November and its aftermath. Get ready for a different dynamic in the desert now that Michael Bloomberg has qualified for his first presidential debate. The former mayor of New York entered the race late, but made up for lost time by spending millions of his own money on …

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• 19 February

  Facebook owes $9B in taxes related to Ireland deal, IRS says

  

  Facebook is being sued by the Internal Revenue Service, which says the social networking giant owes the US government more than $9 billion in unpaid taxes related to its decision to shift profits to its Irish subsidiary, Reuters reported Tuesday. The lawsuit, which went to trial on Tuesday in a San Francisco court, alleges that Facebook understated the value of …

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• 19 February

  Judge dismisses Huawei suit challenging US government’s equipment ban

  

  A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed Huawei’s lawsuit challenging the US government over a ban on its telecommunications equipment. Judge Amos Mazzant of the US District Court in East Texas ruled that the Congress had the power to restrict federal agencies from buying gear from the embattled Chinese company, the Wall Street Journal reported. In his 57-page ruling, the judge …

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