August, 2019

• 13 August

  US delays tariffs on phones, laptops and video game consoles

  

  A new round of tariffs on Chinese imports is set to go into effect on Sept. 1. However, the United States Trade Representative said Tuesday that the inclusion of some electronic devices made in China is getting a delay and that other items have been removed from the tariff lists altogether. The USTR will delay, …

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• 13 August

  Facebook paid contractors to transcribe Messenger calls

  

  Facebook last week halted a program in which it was paying third-party contractors to listen to and transcribe audio clips from its users, the company said Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported on the existence of the program and the fact it had been stopped. The contractors had no knowledge of where the audio was being recorded or how it …

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• 13 August

  FAA prohibits recalled MacBook Pros from flights

  

  Some Macbook Pros have been banned from flights by US aviation safety regulators. The move comes less than two months after Apple recalled the older laptops over a risk of battery fire. The Federal Aviation Administration, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg, said it was “aware of the recalled batteries that are used in some Apple MacBook Pro laptops” and …

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• 13 August

  Adobe promises Lightroom performance boost thanks to GPU chip

  

  Adobe’s Lightroom, long dogged by complaints it’s grown sluggish at editing and organizing photos, got a performance boost Tuesday by tapping into the processing power of the graphics chip in Windows and Mac computers. The August release of Lightroom Classic should speed up editing and make the software more responsive in general, said Josh Haftel, principal product manager at Adobe, …

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• 13 August

  Best Buy is offering up to $200 off Lenovo Yoga laptops

  

  Attention, back-to-school shoppers! Best Buy continues to offer discounts on some admittedly older Lenovo Yoga two-in-one laptops, including the Yoga 730 and Yoga C930 — two of the better convertible laptop/tablets on the market. You can save up to $200 on a Yoga 730 and $150 on a Yoga C930. And students can save an extra $100 the Yoga 730 and …

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• 13 August

  Stop drowning in Google Chrome browser tabs

  

  Google’s new tab-grouping feature for the Chrome browser on desktop just might be the answer to your prayers. If you’re one of those people who always has 25 tabs open on one screen, the new tool will organize them so you’re not clicking through tabs like a mad person trying to find that email you opened five minutes ago. While …

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• 13 August

  iOS AR app Wonderscope teaches kids about bullies in space

  

   Wonderscope, an augmented reality storytelling app for Apple devices, added a new interactive experience to its library of immersive, educational stories Tuesday: Clio’s Cosmic Quest brings young readers along for a journey with a cute purple space particle (who’s dealing with a jerk in her nebula) as she learns about stars, supernovas and our solar system.  Wonderscope is one of the first …

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• 13 August

  Google job search service draws antitrust complaint

  

  Google faces another antitrust allegation in the European Union — this time focused on its job search service. A group of 23 job search websites sent a letter to EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager saying the search giant abused its dominant position at their expense, according to Reuters. The company launched the service in 2017, and later amped it up …

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• 13 August

  Google Inbox replacement: Get a lifetime Darwin Mail Pro subscription for $25.50

  

  Google Inbox was, for many, the Marie Kondo of Gmail — an organizational tool unlike any other, and indispensable to the Gmail experience. Alas, Google pulled the plug on Inbox back in April, leaving many to wax poetic about the beloved mail client. Good news: Darwin Mail aims to fill those big Inbox shoes, at least for desktop Gmail (mobile …

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• 13 August

  Meet the AI that could replace your baseball umpire

  

  Arguing with an umpire might be a thing of the past. Take it up with this computer umpire who’s never wrong. The introduction of computer-aided refereeing in professional sports has been a mixed bag to say the least. But the hope of inching ever closer to ensuring the right call is made seems like a result worth working toward. Of …

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