Technology

Health apps have to tell their users about any data breaches or risk a hefty fine, the Federal Trade Commission clarified in a policy statement last week. The rule that requires that transparency is a decade old, but it hasn’t been enforced before. The new guidance serves as a warning to the many companies elbowing into the health app space: the FTC is taking issues around health data privacy seriously — even if it won’t be able to tackle all the privacy gaps on its own. The FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule covers all organizations that aren’t subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which covers things like doctors and insurance companies. HIPAA requires those groups to disclose any time they have a data breach. The FTC rule covers any other group t...

As part of this week’s launch of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, Apple also introduced StoreKit 2, a set of APIs for in-app purchases and subscriptions. The new Swift-based tools could help developers better track and support the purchases their users make instead of relying on third-party solutions like RevenueCat. The kit introduces new APIs to “determine product entitlements and eligibility for offers, quickly get a user’s history of in-app purchases, find out the latest status of a subscription with one simple check,” and most importantly, offer a way for users to manage subscriptions and request refunds in-app. Apple is also updating the App Store server API and App Store server notifications so developers can know when a user’s subscription expires in real time and possibly offer a...

Starting next month, select users will begin testing crypto wallets on the popular financial services mobile app Robinhood. The new Robinhood crypto wallets will allow users to easily move supported cryptocurrencies to and from other wallets. Those digital coins can then be tracked in one centralized location and traded on Robinhood’s existing commission-free crypto exchange. The initial rollout will support more established coins including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. Security features include multi-factor authentication, and email/phone verification to keep the coins free from threats. Robinhood promises to share the experience of the pioneer “alpha group” users on its blog and Twitter account as it prepares to gradually roll out access to those on the waitlist. According to The Verg...

Microsoft is listening. The Surface Duo 2 ditches its predecessor’s last-gen specs, the Surface Laptop Studio does away with the Surface Book’s gimmicky detachable screen, and the Surface Pro 8 might be the one we’ve been waiting for, with an enhanced keyboard, stylus, high-refresh rate screen and Thunderbolt ports (finally!). But there’s one place where Microsoft is stubbornly carrying on: making you pay substantially more than the quoted sticker price to use these computers as advertised — because none of them include a stylus or keyboard. While Microsoft touted the $1,099-and-up Surface Pro 8 as “a powerful laptop with the flexibility of a tablet,” it’s not a laptop at all when you take it out of the box. It’s a touchscreen tablet, and nothing else, unless you add the keyboard or stylus...

The Food and Drug Administration cleared a third dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people some vulnerable groups — the first booster in the United States’ vaccination efforts. The agency signed off on boosters for people 65 years of age and older, those who are at high risk of severe disease, health care workers, and other people at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 at work. The decision comes a month after the Biden administration announced that booster shots would be available to people in the US starting in September. At the time, scientists and public health experts criticized the administration for pushing boosters before there was clear evidence that they were necessary and before either the FDA or CDC signed off on their use. In early September, federal officials to...

Amazon’s rumored department store experiment could take a similarly high-tech approach to selling clothes as the company took with groceries, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Amazon was previously reported to be considering opening department stores in California and Ohio, a natural expansion of the company’s push into physical retail, and those department stores will reportedly feature its own clothing brands too. Like Amazon’s cashier-less Go stores, The Journal seems to suggest Amazon-branded department stores will focus on customer convenience, using several possible tech solutions. In one idea, customers “scan QR codes of items they want to try on by using a smartphone app,” before sales associates gather and place those items in a dressing room. A high-tech dre...

Theranos’s board member James “Mad Dog” Mattis, a four-star general and the former secretary of defense, served among the company’s impeccably credentialed supporters — but testifying in Elizabeth Holmes’s trial on Wednesday, he resembled nothing so much as a nattily-dressed grandfather. At one point, he seemed befuddled when the defense asked him if he remembered discussion of high-throughput devices. When Mattis first met Theranos’ Holmes in 2011, he told the court, she pricked his finger to give him an idea of the blood draw process. And like a damsel in a fairy tale, he fell under her spell. At the trial of the US v Elizabeth Holmes, he said he was “taken” with the Theranos device. Now “young Elizabeth,” as Mattis addressed her in an email, faces 10 counts of wire fraud and two of cons...

Microsoft held its Fall 2021 event on Wednesday, unveiling a major revamp of its entire Surface lineup optimized for its upcoming Windows 11 operating system update. Its new collection showcases a new variety of products tailored to the unique needs of its users. Here are the biggest announcements from the event: Windows 11  Ahead of its October 5 release date, Microsoft highlighted the features of its Windows 11 operating system and demonstrated how the update will work across its new lineup of devices. While much of the information regarding Windows 11 was made previously available, seeing the system in action offered a firsthand look at its impressive capabilities. Specifically, users will now be able to customize their windows with Snap layouts and better multitasking tools, Chat ...

Facebook is serious about being a long-term player in hardware. On Wednesday, the company promoted Andrew Bosworth, the current head of its hardware division that makes Oculus and other consumer devices, to the role of chief technology officer, replacing outgoing CTO Mike Schroepfer when he becomes a senior fellow next year. In his new role, Bosworth, who goes by Boz, will continue to lead the hardware group, called Facebook Reality Labs, while also assuming responsibility for Facebook’s broader software engineering organization and artificial intelligence efforts. He’ll report directly to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has taken a keen interest in developing AR glasses and the metaverse. Facebook is still a relative newcomer to selling consumer hardware, and it faces steep skepticism from poten...

If you were in a tizzy about what to get the devoted Billie Eilish fan in your family for the holidays, Amazon might have just solved your problem — assuming you’re prepared to drop $230 on them. Announced today, the Billie Eilish Limited Edition Echo Studio is available for pre-order and features the melancholy-voiced singer pasted on the side of Amazon’s highest-end Echo speaker, the Studio. Basically, the album cover art from Eilish’s new album “Happier Than Ever” has been printed onto a new beige-hued fabric and wrapped around the Echo Studio. It creates a slightly eerie-looking product that supposedly someone, somewhere, will want to put in their home. This is Amazon’s first foray into celebrity skins; previous attempts to dress up its bulbous smart speakers have focused on pandas and...

Nokia has a new midrange phone coming to the US and a number of global markets. The new G50 costs $299 and has all the ingredients to be competitive as a midrange phone, with a 6.82-inch HD+ display, big battery, audio jack and 18W fast charger. This G-series phone is similar to the Nokia X20 that was announced back in April 2021, but the G50 has a bigger screen and battery and comes in a version specifically designed for the North American market (AT&T and T-Mobile). Unsurprisingly, it supports the slower 5G Sub 6, which means this phone will work on T-Mobile’s 5G network, but not on Verizon’s mmWave network, and will only get 4G reception on AT&T. Like other 5G phones in the $300 range, the Nokia G50 is powered by the modest Snapdragon 480 chip, so don’t expect the fastest perfor...

Twitter is planning to make some changes that could prevent tweets from disappearing while you are reading them, the company said on its support account Wednesday. Here’s what you might have run into. If you were looking at a tweet on your timeline, and at the same time someone else you follow replied to it, or the original tweeter threaded it, the app would suddenly refresh, while the tweet disappeared from view. That’s obviously not ideal, so Twitter plans to make changes over the next two months to fix the problem. The background: a Tweet would move up the timeline as replies were added to the ongoing convo. Since some convos can evolve quickly, this made it so you didn’t see the same Tweet repeated in the TL. Our changes will keep your TL fresh and keep Tweets from disappearing m...