Facebook said Thursday it’s rebranding itself as Meta to reflect the company’s focus on building the metaverse, a virtual world where people work, play, learn and connect with their friends and family. Meta will be a new corporate brand that will preside over Facebook and its services including photo app Instagram, messaging app WhatsApp and …
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Google Fi, the search giant’s mobile service, is rolling out end-to-end encrypted calls, the company said Thursday. The feature is starting with Android phones using Fi in the coming weeks. End-to-end encryption essentially blocks anyone beside the parties communicating from accessing a conversation. Popular Facebook-owned chat app WhatsApp is among the other services that offer end-to-end encryption for calls and texts. …
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Google said it plans to release a feature-drop for Android 12 that’s designed specifically for large-screen devices such as tablets and foldable phones. The update, dubbed Android 12L, will be available early next year, Google said in a blog post Wednesday. Android 12L will include improvements to the user interface on large screens across “notifications, quick settings, lock screen, overview, …
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Microsoft made Windows 11 available on Oct. 5 on a rolling basis as a free upgrade to most Windows 10 users. If you have Windows 8, you’ll have to get the free upgrade to Windows 10 first, then download Windows 11. Before you decide whether or not to install the new OS, let’s talk about what we like and don’t …
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Amazon’s new Fire TV Omni and 4-Series televisions officially go on sale on Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean Amazon is done adding new features. The online retail giant announced Wednesday that the new televisions will be getting support for Apple’s AirPlay, allowing those with an iPhone, iPad or Mac to easily share what’s on their screens with their big, new …
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Oct 2021 Google has been making TV devices for a long time, but success has been elusive. In 2013, the company’s first Chromecast helped usher in an era of streaming televisions, but did so by relying on your phone, tablet or computer to supply the apps and video. Android TV, which arrived in 2014, added an interface and TV-specific apps, but never …
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YouTube told Congress on Tuesday that it removed more than 120,000 videos that either sexually exploited children or were otherwise sexually explicit featuring minors during the first half of this year. By comparison, YouTube removed 15.9 million videos total during that period for violating any of its community guidelines. YouTube also reported them to the National Center for Missing and Exploited …
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Qualcomm on Tuesday introduced a trio of 5G chips — and a 4G variant — for inexpensive smartphones, as the chip giant aims to get super-fast connectivity into as many user hands as possible. The new Snapdragon 778G Plus, Snapdragon 695 and Snapdragon 480 Plus all feature both ultra-fast 5G millimeter wave connectivity, as well as the slower but more …
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The Sony Xperia Pro-I isn’t the first phone to have a 1-inch camera sensor. But it’s the first to put the 1-inch sensor from the popular Sony RX100 VII camera into a phone. Lucky for us, Sony didn’t stop there and added a mechanical dual aperture, a new 50-millimeter lens, EyeAF support to video and a new app called Video …
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Adobe released an enormously important feature for its Lightroom photo editing software on Tuesday, a masking tool that uses AI to select elements in a scene for much more sophisticated changes to color, tone and exposure. The first version of Lightroom permitted changes only to the entire photo, but in 2008 Adobe added an ability to make local adjustments that affected …
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