Technology category, Page 30
Apple brings PC-like trackpad to iPad tablets
Apple’s new iPad brings PC-like trackpad capabilities for the first time, as the company seeks to make its tablet even more like a laptop computer. Apple says the trackpad will offer more precision than fingers in selecting text and switching between apps. Older iPads will also be able to get...
U.S. revises passenger safety rules for autonomous vehicles
DETROIT — The U.S. government is coming out with new regulations aimed at changing automotive passenger safety standards that could be barriers to autonomous vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s seeking comment on proposed updated standards to account for vehicles that don’t have manual controls such as...
Potential Amazon site in Churchill faces uncertain future
One of the largest underdeveloped parcels of land in Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs has caught the eye of retail giant Amazon for the purposes of a high-tech distribution facility, though the future of that project is uncertain, according to Churchill and Allegheny County officials. A recent change to zoning of the...
AGs for crackdown on chemical used to sterilize medical devices
Half of all medical devices used in the United States — from bandages to implantable computers — are sterilized with a toxic gas that has come under critical scrutiny over concerns about air pollution that could cause cancer. Now Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined a coalition of 11...
Twitter preps ephemeral tweets, starts testing in Brazil
Twitter is starting to test tweets that disappear after 24 hours, although initially only in Brazil. The company says the ephemeral tweets, which it calls “fleets” because of their fleeting nature, are designed to allay the concerns of new users who might be turned off by the public and permanent...
Teens love the video app TikTok. Do they love it too much?
From the perspective of teens, TikTok is a major new outlet for self-expression, one proudly home to the silly, the loud and the weird. To others, the Chinese-owned online video service is an unnerving black box that could be sharing information with the Chinese government, facilitating espionage or just promoting...
FCC proposes fines for phone companies that shared user data
NEW YORK — The Federal Communications Commission has proposed roughly $200 million in fines combined for the four major U.S. phone companies for improperly disclosing customers’ real-time location. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said during a news conference Friday that the fines amounted to $91 million for T-Mobile, $57 million for...
Order online or drive to the store? The climate savvy pick ‘clicks and bricks’
NEW YORK — Consumers could be forgiven for assuming that shopping online has a lower carbon footprint than buying in-store. For many, the online option saves them a trip in the car, and it stands to reason that logistics companies would be good at generating efficient delivery routes. There’s some...
Pittsburgh man recognized for inspiring youths at teen tech centerVideo
Aaron McKinnon remembers helping his father and uncles work on cars as a child. One day McKinnon accidentally knocked over a box of nuts and bolts on the hood of the vehicle, scattering them throughout the engine. “I got yelled at, so that killed my creativity right there,” said McKinnon,...
Facebook reverses on paid influencers after Bloomberg memes
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has decided to let political campaigns pay online influencers to spread their messages, a practice that had sidestepped many of the social network’s rules governing political ads. Friday’s policy reversal highlights difficulties tech companies and regulators have in keeping up with the changing nature of paid...
Zuckerberg accepts that Facebook may have to pay more tax
LONDON — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to throw his support behind international reforms that would require Silicon Valley tech giants to pay more tax in Europe. The billionaire social network founder is due to meet members of the European Union’s executive Commission in Brussels and speak at the Munich...
U.S. brings new charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has added new criminal charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei and two of its U.S. subsidiaries, accusing the company in a plot to steal trade secrets from competitors in America, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. The case comes as the Trump administration is raising national security...
Unique Illinois privacy law leads to $550M Facebook deal
CHICAGO — Adam Pezen, Carlo Licata and Nimesh Patel are among millions of people who have been tagged in Facebook photos at some point in the past decade, sometimes at the suggestion of an automated tagging feature powered by facial recognition technology. It was their Illinois addresses, though, that put...
Defective software could have doomed Boeing’s crew capsule
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Defective software could have doomed Boeing’s crew capsule during its first test flight, a botched trip that was cut short and never made it to the International Space Station, NASA and company officials said Friday. The Starliner capsule launched without astronauts in December, but its automatic...
YouTube, Venmo: Artificial intelligence firm must stop scraping faces from sitesVideo
Payment service Venmo joined YouTube and Twitter on Wednesday in demanding that a facial recognition company stop harvesting user images to identify the people in them, which the startup does as part of its work with police. Venmo said Wednesday it is sending a cease-and-desist letter to New York-based Clearview...
YouTube: No ‘deepfakes’ or ‘birther’ videos in 2020 election
YouTube is making clear there will be no “birtherism” on its platform during this year’s U.S. presidential election — a belated response to a type of conspiracy theory more prevalent in the 2012 race. The Google-owned video service is also reiterating that it won’t allow election-related “deepfake” videos and anything...
Dating apps face U.S. inquiry over underage use, sex offenders
SAN FRANCISCO — A House subcommittee is investigating popular dating services such as Tinder and Bumble for allegedly allowing minors and sex offenders to use their services. Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group and the Match Group, which owns such popular services as Tinder, Match.com and OkCupid, are the current targets...
The big lesson from the Bezos hack: Anyone can be a target
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — You may not think you’re in the same league as Jeff Bezos when it comes to being a hacking target. Probably not, but you — and just about anyone else, potentially including senior U.S. government figures — could still be vulnerable to an attack similar to...
Samsung’s version of Apple’s AirDrop launching next monthVideo
Samsung Galaxy owners may soon be able to directly transfer files between devices. Apple users have long been able to send photos and other files among Macs and iOS devices using the company’s AirDrop service. The function does not use email or texting, but sends files to any Apple device...
U.K. lays out tough child data privacy rules
LONDON — Social media sites, games and other online services won’t be allowed to “nudge” British kids into revealing personal details or lowering their privacy settings, under tough new rules drawn up by the country’s privacy regulator. The set of standards aimed at protecting children’s online privacy were released Wednesday...
Study ranks Pittsburgh 5th best city for STEM professionals
The Pittsburgh metro area has been identified as one of the best markets in the country for people who work in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. The personal finance website WalletHub on Wednesday released results of a new study that has Pittsburgh ranked fifth overall, ahead of such...
Google CEO calls for regulation of artificial intelligence
LONDON — Google’s chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also “negative consequences.” Sundar Pichai’s comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used. “There is no question...
Excela Latrobe introduces improved surgical robotVideo
Students from Greater Latrobe and Ligonier Valley school districts joined other local residents Friday in trying out the controls of an improved surgical robot introduced during an open house at Excela Latrobe Hospital. Seventeen Excela surgeons use the robot and one like it at Excela Westmoreland Hospital to perform precision...
Microsoft: ‘carbon-negative’ by 2030, even for supply chain
Microsoft is pledging to become 100% “carbon-negative” by 2030 by removing more carbon from the environment than it emits. CEO Satya Nadella said Thursday that the commitment will happen “not just across our direct emissions, but across our supply chain, too.” It’s a major step up from Microsoft’s previous green...
Remember DVDs? Two studios have a plan to preserve the near-dead format
LOS ANGELES — The market for DVD and Blu-ray discs has been on life support for years, as streaming has become the technology of choice for home video customers. In the past decade, the U.S. market for physical discs has gone from a more than $10-billion business in the United...
