An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: The “cord cutting” phenomenon the cable and broadcast sector long denied or downplayed simply shows no sign of slowing down. According to the latest data by Leichtman Research, the top U.S. pay TV companies lost another 785,000 subscribers last quarter as younger Americans continue to shift to streaming video, over the air …
San Francisco allows police to use robots to remotely kill suspects
Enlarge / A Talon robot, one of the models in the SFPD robot lineup. (credit: QinetiQ) The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted to allow the San Francisco Police Department to use lethal robots against suspects, ushering the sci-fi dystopia trope into reality. As the AP reports, the robots would be remote-controlled—not autonomous—and would use explosives to kill or …
Play app with 100K downloads booted for forwarding texts to developer server
Enlarge (credit: Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Google has removed two apps, one with more than 100,000 downloads, after receiving a report they were part of an illegal scheme that surreptitiously forwarded text messages that were used to create fraudulent accounts on third-party websites. The first app, named Symoo, billed itself as an easy-to-use SMS messenger. Once installed, it …
UK Internet Watchdog Increasingly Led by Ex-Big Tech Executives
UK’s Ofcom hired former Google executive Gill Whitehead to head up a team regulating search engines and social media firms, the latest in a string of Silicon Valley appointments as the watchdog prepares to impose sweeping new online safety laws. From a report: Whitehead, formerly Google’s senior director of client solutions and analytics, will work alongside Ofcom Chief Technology Officer …
iOS 16.1.2 has arrived, and it’s focused on the crash detection feature
Enlarge / An iPhone and Apple Watch showing the crash detection feature. (credit: Apple) Apple released a minor software update for iPhones today. Unlike many of its other iOS updates, the new iOS 16.1.2 was not released in tandem with updates to Apple’s other operating systems like macOS or watchOS. iOS 16.1.2 primarily does two things, per Apple’s release notes: …
Eufy’s “No clouds” cameras upload facial thumbnails to AWS
Enlarge / Anker’s cameras store their footage on a local base. Thumbnail images of faces, however, were uploaded to cloud servers. (credit: Eufy) Eufy, a smart home brand of tech accessory firm Anker, had become popular among some privacy-minded security camera buyers. Its doorbell camera and other devices proudly proclaimed having “No Clouds or Costs,” and that “no one has …
Telegram Shares Users Data in Copyright Violation Lawsuit
Telegram has disclosed names of administrators, their phone numbers and IP addresses of channels accused of copyright infringement in compliance with a court order in India in a remarkable illustration of the data the instant messaging platform stores on its users and can be made to disclose by authorities. From a report: The app operator was forced by a Delhi …
Mark Zuckerberg Still ‘Long-Term Optimistic’ on Metaverse, Says Skepticism Doesn’t Bother Him Too Much
Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he was still optimistic about the metaverse on a longer, “five-to-ten-year horizon” at the New York Times Dealbook Summit in New York City on Wednesday. From a report: “The way we communicate gets richer and more immersive,” Zuckerberg said via a virtual interview, doubling down on his company’s bet on a virtual …
Autonomous Trucking Software Upstart Embark Has Quietly Gone From $5B+ To Basically Worthless
Out of all the beaten-down public companies in the autonomous driving space, Embark Technology stands out as a conspicuously terrible stock market performer. From a report: The San Francisco-headquartered company, which develops autonomous driving technology for the trucking industry, has presided over a roughly 98% share price decline since going public a year ago. In the process, it’s wiped out …
Judge approves $50 million settlement over broken MacBook butterfly keyboards
Enlarge / The very first of the butterfly-switch keyboard designs, as introduced in the 12-inch MacBook from 2015. If you bought a MacBook with one of Apple’s low-profile butterfly-switch keyboards, if you ever had the keyboard repaired, and if you live in California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, or Washington state, good news! A judge has approved a …