Technology

I. After writing about the potential breakup of Facebook for years, it’s somewhat surreal for me to see the prospect actually arrive. But it’s here: the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to sue Facebook for illegally maintaining a monopoly in social networking, arguing it has used acquisitions and harsh restrictions on third-party developers to prevent competitors from ever gaining a foothold. If successful, the FTC’s case — which was joined by 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam — could force the company to divest itself of Instagram and WhatsApp, radically reshaping the digital economy. The move comes less than six weeks after the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing Google of also maintaining an illegal monopoly on search. “For nearly a decade, Facebook h...

For years, critics have argued that Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram was a missed opportunity to rein in the company. But now, they’ll have the chance to actually undo it. On Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission joined with 48 state attorneys general to call for a court-ordered divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp — essentially, forcing Facebook to undo both acquisitions and spin them back into independent companies. Regulators are still a long way from making that happen, but for the first time, it’s a possibility that Facebook can’t ignore. And for Instagram users, it raises a question that’s both alarming and tantalizing: what would Instagram look like without Facebook? In the years since the 2012 acquisition, Instagram has benefited hugely from its relationship with Fa...

Google is launching new vaccine information panels in its search results to counter misinformation and educate people about what’s available in their location, the company announced today. The panels are rolling out starting in the United Kingdom, where the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine is approved and is being administered, and will be introduced in more countries as local health authorities begin authorizing vaccines. The panels include information on each individual vaccine, and aim to address vaccine misinformation, and give guidance about how, when, and where people can receive the shots. Google has used similar information panels to share information about COVID-19 generally, as well as the locations of testing centers. The information panels will provide information about approved vaccine...

Samsung’s next flagship smartphone lineup, the Galaxy S21 series, will launch globally on January 14th, Android Authority is reporting. The date was revealed by Samsung’s largest mobile experience store in India, and SamMobile subsequently confirmed the date with a company official at Samsung’s local offices. Although Android Authority reports this as the global launch date, Samsung HQ has yet to confirm it. Although a January launch is earlier than the February Unpacked events we’ve become accustomed to in recent years, this isn’t the first time this date has been rumored. Earlier this week, Android Police reported a January 14th launch based on its own sources. The phones will reportedly go on sale on January 29th in India, according to employees at Samsung’s Opera House outlet in Bengal...

MOFT is a company that’s made iPhone accessories in the past, and it’s now releasing a competitor to Apple’s $50 MagSafe wallet. MOFT’s version, which goes on sale today, costs only $30 and holds three cards like Apple’s, but it also has a built-in kickstand. The stand lets users keep their phone upright in portrait, landscape, or what the company is calling “float mode”, which you can see in the image below. It’s made of vegan leather, as opposed to Apple’s “European leather”, which makes it an option for people who don’t want to use animal-based products. Using magnets instead of adhesive makes the float mode possible.Photo: MOFT This new accessory seems to be a tweaked version of MOFT’s existing X Phone stand, except now it’s using the iPhone 12’s MagSafe system to attach to the phone i...

On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence hosted his last meeting of the National Space Council in Florida, using the opportunity to announce a list of NASA astronauts who will be considered for future missions to the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program. This cadre of astronauts — dubbed the Artemis Team — includes 18 astronauts, some with past flight experience and some who have yet to fly to space. The list includes some notable names, such as Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, the two women who made history by performing the first all-women spacewalk. Two of the astronauts, Victor Glover and Kate Rubins, are currently living on board the International Space Station. Five of the 18 made an appearance at the National Space Council meeting today at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida: Me...

Over the last couple years, Samsung has showed off (and sold to a very rich few) its futuristic, modular TV dubbed The Wall that uses MicroLED technology. MicroLED shares many of OLED’s best traits — without most of the associated drawbacks — and is widely viewed as the next big upgrade leap for the displays in our lives. Now, Samsung is taking MicroLED and putting it into a more traditional TV form factor. Today the company announced the 110-inch MicroLED TV, which goes up for presale today in Korea and will launch globally in the first quarter of 2021. As for the first question that probably comes to mind, no, Samsung isn’t yet revealing a price for this enormous TV using the latest picture technology. But you can expect it’ll cost far more than any of the company’s other 4K (or ev...

The economic fallout from COVID-19 has temporarily muted some of the noise coming from maritime traffic. That’s given scientists a rare opportunity to study what happens to marine life when humans quiet down. Humans today pollute oceans with whirring ship propellers and booming air guns searching for oil and gas deposits. Seeing whales and other creatures’ behavior now that the pandemic has quieted things down is like a peek into what marine life was like before humans drastically turned up the volume over the past 200 years. “Once in a lifetime opportunity to study whale communication in natural quiet” “It’s like this horrible pandemic confined us humans into really small spaces but gave the whales back a lot of room to grow, both physically and acoustically,” Christine Gabriele, a wildli...

During a test flight on Wednesday, SpaceX flew a prototype of its next generation Starship rocket to its highest height yet in the skies above Texas — but failed to stick the landing, with the vehicle exploding when it hit the ground. Propelled by three main engines, the vehicle launched to an altitude of nearly 8 miles, or 12.5 kilometers, before crash landing into the Earth. The nearly seven-minute test flight took off at around 5:45PM ET from SpaceX’s facility at Boca Chica, Texas. The prototype climbed to its target altitude, but during the flight, two of its three main engines seemingly shut down while it ascended. Eventually all three engines cut off, and SpaceX attempted to perform a “bell flop” maneuver, with the vehicle falling horizontally on the way down to Earth. Just before re...

Sony will be buying anime streaming service Crunchyroll from AT&T for $1.175 billion, Sony and AT&T announced Wednesday. Specifically, Crunchyroll will become part of Sony’s Funimation, which already licenses many popular shows such as Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist, and One Piece. Now that Sony owns both Crunchyroll and Funimation, the company has tremendous power over anime in the US at a time when many other media companies are trying to figure out their anime content. Netflix has also invested heavily in both licensing and producing its own anime content. “We are excited to embark on this new journey” “We are excited to embark on this new journey,” said Joanne Waage, general manager of Crunchyroll, in a statement. “Crunchyroll has built a world-class brand with a passiona...

Apple has been complicit in its suppliers’ violations of Chinese labor laws, according to a report from The Information. Suppliers have periodically filled their factories with temporary workers or “dispatch labor,” violating a Chinese labor law requiring no more than 10 percent of a factory’s workers be temporary employees. Much like in the US, temporary employees in China receive lower pay and fewer benefits, and they’ve become increasingly common as interest in factory jobs has shrunk according to The Information’s sources. The law limiting the use of dispatch labor came into effect in 2014, and that year Apple conducted a survey of its suppliers in China to determine how many already complied. The company found that among 362 factories, “nearly half were over the quota for temporary wo...