May, 2018

• 22 May

  Would you wear this muzzle around the office for private calling?

  

  Back in January of 2017 I discovered a product at CES called HushMe that I described as “the weirdest, yet most useful wireless headphone ever created.” It was a voice muffling contraption that that kept people around you from hearing your phone conversations. HushMe seemed pretty unique but it now has competition. Bloxvox, a new …

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• 22 May

  Samsung promises four generations of new chip technology

  

  Moore’s Law, the drumbeat that for decades has marked progress in the chip industry, has been faltering of late. But Samsung has a few more generations of processor improvements planned, it detailed Tuesday at its Samsung Foundry Forum. A key part of chip progress is shrinking the components called transistors — extraordinarily tiny electronic switches that process data so we …

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• 22 May

  Google Photos now lets you show love with ‘hearts’ and ‘favorites’

  

  Google Photos is adding two simple features that make it more like Facebook or Apple’s Photos. The online photo storage library is introducing a Favorites and Heart feature to help sort the photos you love the most. When browsing through your own pictures you’ll see a star icon that you can use to mark a photo as a favorite. Tapping …

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• 22 May

  Red Lucid 8K 3D camera uses Hydrogen One phone as viewfinder

  

  On Saturday, high-end cinema camera maker Red held an event to show off its unreleased Hydrogen One phone. Red was eager to let people experience the phone’s 4-View holographic screen, which displays 3D content without the need for glasses. Booths from companies partnering with Red on the phone dotted the perimeter of the event. One of those companies was Lucid, …

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• 22 May

  Facebook expands its protection of potential revenge porn photos

  

  Facebook is going further in its fight against revenge porn, expanding a pilot program that lets users upload intimate pictures before they’ve hit the internet in a bid to stop them from ever being shared. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Facebook’s Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis said the company was updating its pilot program targeting the non-consensual sharing …

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• 22 May

  The questions Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg didn’t answer for EU Parliament

  

  Mark Zuckerberg was saved by the bell at the European Parliament on Tuesday. The Facebook CEO sat through about an hour of questions from members of the group, and then spent only about 25 minutes answering them. The format for Zuckerberg’s testimony in Brussels was a stark contrast from his appearance on Capitol Hill in April. Instead of answering each …

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• 22 May

  Optus misled customers over the NBN, cops $1.5 million fine

  

  Optus has been hit with an AU$1.5 million fine for misleading customers about the switch to the NBN, including threatening customers with disconnection if they didn’t make the switch. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC), Optus misled customers into transitioning from legacy HFC networks to the NBN. This included telling them they had to choose Optus as …

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• 22 May

  ZTE reportedly expects at least $3 billion in losses due to US ban

  

  ZTE expects to lose at least 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion) in the wake of a US technology ban that has factories halting operations as clients cancel deals with the embattled Chinese phone maker, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. ZTE, the fourth-largest smartphone maker in the US, has been dealing with a US Commerce Department denial order that prevents American businesses from selling …

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• 22 May

  Xiaomi Mi 8 coming on May 31, follow up to great budget Mi 6

  

  The Xiaomi Mi 8 has been officially revealed. It has a 6.21-inch AMOLED screen and dual 12-megapixel rear cameras. Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi delivers excellent budget phones that have thus far not been easily available in the US. Given the rumor that they’ll be venturing onto our shores as early as this year, hopefully the eighth-anniversary Mi 8 the company …

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• 22 May

  Getting bored with your Apple Watch face? (The 3:59, Ep. 406)

  

  On this podcast, we talk about: Apple Watch needing a watch face store, stat.  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg facing the EU for the Cambridge Analytica scandal Intel and Microsoft disclosing a new flaw in computers and mobile devices.  Now playing: Watch this: Are you getting bored with your Apple Watch face? (The… 4:26 The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis …

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