Over the past couple of weeks, practically all we’ve heard is how the tech industry is under pressure from lawmakers and regulators. The Department of Justice is opening an antitrust investigation into tech giants, reportedly including Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. Then there’s the Federal Trade Commission investigation into Facebook. The scrutiny is just ramping …
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After more than a year of regulatory battles, T-Mobile’s $26.5 billion takeover of Sprint is this close to happening. Justice Department antitrust head Makan Delrahim said Friday that the DOJ will approve the deal because T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom signed an agreement to sell off several Sprint assets to Dish Network, creating a new nationwide wireless carrier. Under the agreement, …
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President Donald Trump has tweeted a response to a law passed in France two weeks ago that will require American tech giants to pay higher taxes. Trump hinted that French wine could be subject to a new tariff thanks to what he called French President Emmanuel Macron’s “foolishness.” France passed the law a day after the Trump administration announced plans …
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There’s a lot Apple’s done to improve the Siri voice assistant since its launch in 2011. The company’s made it capable of doing more things, like calling an Uber or looking up a dictionary term. Apple’s also making its voice sound more human. Still, it needs to check to make sure Siri’s getting things right. A team of contractors around …
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Happy Friday, cheeps! A few quick housekeeping notes: First, my summer vacation starts next Tuesday, so Cheapskate duties will be in the hands of my super-savvy CNET colleagues. When I return, be ready for big news regarding the next Cheapskate Mystery Box! It’s happening, and soon. Second, you’ve probably noticed this sentence in recent posts: “Note that CNET may get …
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YouTube’s ties to videos with children just got even more awkward. In the first week of 2019, videos featuring children under the age of 13 brought in three times as many views as any other content, according to a new study by Pew Research Center released Thursday. The details come a week after YouTube parent company Google reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with …
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It’s mid-summer, and that can mean only one thing: School is coming. (Sorry, kids.) And with a new school year often comes the need for a new laptop. For college students in particular, it can be tough to pick the right model. How much should you (or, more likely, your parents) plan to spend? How much horsepower do you really …
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Australia’s antitrust watchdog wants to create a branch dedicated to investigating the impact on competition by Facebook and Google. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report follows an 18-month probe and comes just after the US Federal Trade Commission slapped Facebook with a $5 billion fine over privacy issues. Australia’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, told reporters that the fine revealed how …
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Google’s Pixel 3A drove the search giant’s overall phone sales, CEO Sundar Pichai told investors on Thursday. The budget phone, which debuted in May, was responsible for unit sales of Pixel products doubling in the second quarter, Pichai said in a call after the earnings release. Pichai also credited an expanded distribution network for the success of Pixel 3A, which …
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YouTube has been on a crusade to remove harmful content from its platform. Fewer videos, however, haven’t resulted in lower revenue. That’s according to Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, who spoke on a conference call with analysts following the company’s release of its second-quarter earnings results. YouTube, the video arm of Google, which itself is owned by Alphabet, is …
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