Technology category, Page 25
Amazon heads to the mall with prototype clothing store
NEW YORK — First, Amazon competed with malls. Now, it’s moving inside one. The online retailing giant said Thursday that it plans to open a clothing store in a Southern California mall later this year. It’s the latest foray into brick-and-mortar for Amazon, which already sells more than 10% of...
Is the allure of cryptocurrency fading?
Bitcoin dropped to a three-month low recently and its movement has closely mirrored financial markets in its decline. Bitcoin bulls often describe it as an asset that is uncorrelated to traditional financial markets, CNBC reported, however experts have noticed growing parallels in the price movements of bitcoin and stocks. It...
Netflix raising U.S. prices with competition growing
NEW YORK — Netflix is raising prices for its video streaming customers in the U.S. and Canada, less than a year and a half since its last price increase, as competition from other streaming services increases. The Los Gatos, Calif., company said Friday that prices are going up by $1...
Your BlackBerry dies today: End of an era for iconic handset
BlackBerry devices running the original operating system and services will no longer be supported after Jan. 4, marking the end of an era for the storied device that catapulted work into the mobile era. Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry Ltd., the company formerly known as Research In Motion whose signature handset in...
Facebook: Fake scientist used to spread anti-U.S. propaganda
A disinformation network with ties to China used hundreds of fake social media accounts — including one belonging to a fictitious Swiss biologist — to spread an unfounded claim that the U.S. pressured scientists to blame China for the coronavirus, Facebook said Wednesday. The company based in Menlo Park, Calif.,...
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepping down as CEO
NEW YORK — Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has stepped down as CEO of the social media platform. He has been succeeded by Twitter’s current chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal. Dorsey will remain on the board until his term expires in 2022. Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 and has been CTO...
Rittenhouse trial highlights rise of livestreamed video
When Andrew Mercado found himself in the middle of a protest following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last year, he was just figuring out how to livestream on Facebook. A few months later, though, thousands watched as he streamed footage from the Wisconsin streets where Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people....
Happy Halloween: Gaming platform Roblox is back online
The popular gaming site Roblox went back online Sunday after being down for most of the weekend. The online platform crashed Friday. In a statement, the company tweeted Sunday evening that “Roblox is back online everywhere! Thank you for your continued patience as we get back to normal.” The company...
In the middle of a crisis, Facebook Inc. renames itself MetaVideo
OAKLAND, Calif. — Like many companies in trouble before it, Facebook is changing its name and logo. Facebook Inc. is now called Meta Platforms Inc., or Meta for short, to reflect what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday is its commitment to developing the new surround-yourself technology known as the “...
People or profit? Facebook papers show deep conflict within company
Facebook the company is losing control of Facebook the product — not to mention the last shreds of its carefully crafted, decade-old image as a benevolent company just wanting to connect the world. Thousands of pages of internal documents provided to Congress by a former employee depict an internally conflicted...
Trump announces launch of his own social media site
NEW YORK — Nine months after being expelled from social media for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, former President Donald Trump said Wednesday he’s launching a new media company with its own social media platform. Trump says his goal in launching the Trump Media & Technology...
Bitcoin tops $66,000, hits high on mainstreaming excitement
NEW YORK — Bitcoin jumped to a record Wednesday, topping $66,000 for the first time, as it rides a wave of excitement about getting further accepted by the financial establishment. Bitcoin was trading at $66,901.30, up 7.6%, as of 10:52 a.m. It’s roared back after sinking below $30,000 during the...
Toyota to build $1.29B U.S. battery plant employing 1,750
DETROIT — Toyota plans to build a new $1.29 billion factory in the U.S. to manufacture batteries for gas-electric hybrid and fully electric vehicles. The plant location wasn’t announced, but the company said it eventually will employ 1,750 people and start making batteries in 2025, gradually expanding through 2031. The...
Instagram fretted about retaining, engaging teenagers, report says
The photo-sharing app Instagram spent time focusing on how to retain and engage teenagers, The New York Times reported, citing internal documents. Facebook Inc.-owned Instagram was privately worried about potentially losing teenage users to other social-media platforms, calling it an “existential threat,” according to a marketing presentation for 2018, the...
Outage highlights how vital Facebook has become worldwide
NEW YORK — The six-hour outage at Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp was a headache for many casual users but far more serious for the millions of people worldwide who rely on the social media sites to run their businesses or communicate with relatives, fellow parents, teachers or neighbors. When all...
Ex-Facebook manager criticizes company, urges more oversightVideo
WASHINGTON — While accusing the giant social network of pursuing profits over safety, a former Facebook data scientist told Congress Tuesday she believes stricter government oversight could alleviate the dangers the company poses, from harming children to inciting political violence to fueling misinformation. Frances Haugen, testifying to the Senate Commerce...
Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram suffer worldwide outage
The massive global outage that plunged Facebook, its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms and many people who rely heavily on these services — including Facebook’s own workforce — into chaos Monday is gradually dissipating. Facebook said late Monday that it’s been working to restore access to its services and is “happy...
Ex-Facebook manager alleges social network fed Capitol riotVideo
Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in last year’s elections in a moneymaking move that a company whistleblower alleges contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol. The whistleblower, former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen,...
Fighting wave of misinfo, YouTube bans false vaccine claims
YouTube announced a wide crackdown of vaccine misinformation Wednesday that booted popular anti-vaccine influencers from its site and deleted false claims that have been made about a range of immunizations. The video-sharing platform said it will no longer allow users to baselessly speculate that approved vaccines, like the ones given...
Google joins with arts and cultural groups to create online hub in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s evolution from a storied steel town to a city known as much for its arts, history and culture as its industry, is taking a significant step Tuesday. Some 15 local arts and cultural institutions are partnering with Google to create an online presence on Google’s Arts & Culture platform....
Carnegie Mellon University robotics team earns 4th place in search-and-rescue competition
Carnegie Mellon University’s team of students, faculty, staff and robots placed fourth in a major competition testing how well their robots could navigate an underground course simulating a search-and-rescue mission. Called Team Explorer, the university’s team traveled this week to the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) challenge in Louisville,...
Team of Carnegie Mellon students, robots to compete in search-and-rescue missionVideo
Carnegie Mellon University is sending a team of about a dozen robots to a competition testing their navigation of an unknown underground course, meant to simulate search-and-rescue scenarios. The university’s 20-person team of faculty, students and staff — along with their league of robots — will compete in a Defense...
Apple fixes security hole reportedly used to hack an iPhone
BOSTON — Apple released a critical software patch to fix a security vulnerability that researchers said could allow hackers to directly infect iPhones and other Apple devices without any user action. Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said the security issue was exploited to plant spyware on a...
Latrobe dad, daughter develop song texting app for iPhone usersVideo
If you’re tired of texting words, photos and GIFs, a Latrobe father and daughter are hoping you’ll try a new app they developed that sends song clips. Lyritext launched Sept. 1 in the Apple App Store, offering brief clips from a catalog of more than 100,000 songs in numerous genres,...
Facebook bans firm behind Pfizer, AstraZeneca smear campaign
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Facebook said Tuesday that it has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a mysterious advertising agency operating out of Russia that sought to pay social media influencers to smear covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca. A network of 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts was...
