Samsung must pay Apple $539 million for infringing five patents with Android phones it sold in 2010 and 2011, a jury decided Thursday in a legal fight that dates back seven years. The unanimous decision, in the US District Court in San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley, is just about halfway between what …
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Over the past few months, the combination of Google and PayPal have become a go-to service whenever you’re paying for something. Buying something in a store? You can use PayPal via Google Pay. Owe your friends money? You can use Venmo (which is owned by PayPal). Paying for Google services? That’s PayPal territory, too. As far as Google’s concerned, it’s …
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The expensive, geek-friendly Nvidia Shield TV streamer can pretty much do it all, but until now its menu system hasn’t been as customizable as those of competitors Apple TV and Roku. That changes with the latest software update, which brings the new version of Google’s Android TV operating system, 8.0 aka Oreo, and with it a revamped home page. Gone …
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During Google’s annual developer conference, the company previewed Google Duplex. The new technology has caused quite a stir since it was unveiled, making some feel creepy while others debate privacy implications. Now playing: Watch this: Google Duplex worries me 5:33 While everyone waits to learn more about Google Duplex and see it in action, let’s take a look at what’s …
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The DJI Spark is a terrific little drone, notable for packing lots of advanced features into a compact frame. Among those features: gesture-controlled operation, which would seem to obviate the need for a remote. But I strongly recommend getting one, in part because it makes the Spark easier to control and in part because it extends the range. Normally it’s …
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A while back I offered advice on choosing the best music service for your family, with an eye toward convenience, versatility and especially price. One important consideration I completely forgot was explicit lyrics. Given that pretty much every modern song contains bad language (that’s right, I said it — now get off my lawn!), parents might want the option of …
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Google backtracked from a Chrome feature that blocked autoplaying audio on some websites, but the feature will be back in October. The autoplay blocking, intended to make the web a more pleasant place and to rein in push websites, also had the unintended side effect of crippling lots of web-based games in Chrome. So Chrome temporarily disabled autoplay audio blocking …
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Some business owners are allegedly getting calls from “Google” — calls that threaten to mess with their Google Search ranking unless they cough up some dough. They’re not Google, of course, but scammers trying to make a quick buck. The real Google isn’t having any of it. In a blog post, the search giant says it’s taking action against these …
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Pandora is taking on Spotify‘s popular Discover Weekly personalized playlists with its own individualized mixes it calls Soundtracks, which center on themes like high-energy music or tunes to help you focus. Pandora, a streaming-music provider best known for its free digital radio, is widening these personalized playlists Wednesday to all subscribers of its Premium service, which is a $10-a-month membership that competes with …
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Yelp has filed an antitrust complaint against Google in the EU, crying out that the search giant has abused its dominance to favor its own services over competitors’. The complaint follows a 2017 EU ruling that Google misused its dominance in shopping search results. That ruling resulted in a 2.4 billion euro fine ($2.9 billion, £2 billion or AU$3.7 billion). Google is currently appealing …
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