Technology

In July, amid increasing scrutiny from the Trump administration, TikTok announced a novel effort to build trust with regulators: a physical office known as the Transparency and Accountability Center. The center would allow visitors to learn about the company’s data storage and content moderation practices, and even to inspect the algorithms that power its core recommendation engine. “We believe all companies should disclose their algorithms, moderation policies, and data flows to regulators,” then-TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer said at the time. “We will not wait for regulation to come.” Regulation came a few hours later. President Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he planned to ban TikTok from operating in the United States, and a few days later he did. The president set a deadline for B...

Amazon has been accused of price gouging on essential items like toilet paper and antibacterial soap in a report by consumer rights group Public Citizen. The report analyzed over a dozen products, including those sold by third-party sellers and items listed as “sold by Amazon.” It found that between the months of May and August, prices on some items more than quadrupled in price, seemingly breaking Amazon’s own Fair Pricing Policy. Responding to the report, Amazon said that there was “no place for price gouging” on its service, including on products it sells directly. “Our systems are designed to offers customers the best available online price and if we see an error, we work quickly to fix it,” a spokesperson said. But the report challenges Amazon’s claims that only third-party listings b...

Ubisoft just debuted another one of its Forward events, where the company previewed more upcoming titles and details on its fall lineup, including a better look at Immortals Fenyx Rising, the return of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game, and the announcement of new games like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake and the massively multiplayer Riders Republic. Here’s everything you need to know: Ubisoft CEO addresses the company’s problems with diversity, inclusion, racism, and sexual misconduct The most significant announcement Ubisoft made today was notably not part of the actual Forward event at all — Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot finally made a statement addressing the reports of racism, sexual misconduct, and a lack of diversity and inclusion that have apparently been a part of Ub...

Many AmazonBasics products that have been reported as fire hazards are still for sale on Amazon, according to an extensive investigation by CNN. Some of the stories about the dangerous products are harrowing. In one, a man went to the hospital after his chair caught fire while he was sleeping, apparently due to a melted USB cord. An AmazonBasics microwave caught fire when an eight-year-old heated up a macaroni and cheese cup. One man saw fire coming from an AmazonBasics surge protector while only a single phone charger was plugged into it — as his baby slept in a room nearby. Reports have apparently been piling up for years Reports have apparently been piling up for years. CNN counted at least 1,500 reviews since 2016 for more than 70 items that described “products exploding, catching on f...

The Trump administration is considering an unconventional pick for the next FCC commissioner, a senior adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) who has played a significant role in the agency’s social media regulation agenda. The choice is still tentative, but if confirmed, the nomination would represent a significant blow to Republicans who favor a light-touch approach to telecom policy. Three sources close to the matter say Nathan Simington, a senior advisor at the NTIA within the commerce department, has emerged as a leading candidate to take over Republican Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s seat at the FCC. Simington is said to have helped draft the administration’s social media executive order, and his nomination would be a victory for Republicans wh...

Just yesterday, Epic said that as soon as Friday, Apple would no longer let people use its single sign-on solution, “Sign In with Apple,” to access their Epic Games account. That would mean that anyone who relied on their Apple credentials to log in to Epic services like Fortnite and the Epic Games Store would lose access when Apple pulled the plug, unless they changed their account first. But the game studio is now saying Apple has given Epic an “indefinite extension” on supporting “Sign In with Apple” for Epic Games accounts. Epic is still recommending that users “prepare your accounts” for a potential removal of “Sign In with Apple,” however, and continues to promote an explainer on its site showing how to change your login credentials. UPDATE: Apple previously stated they would termina...

I find that Google Sheets can be an incredible tool for organizing projects — the endless rows and columns let me track and categorize things to my heart’s content. (You should see my byzantine spreadsheet for my family’s personal finances.) Until recently, though, I’ve run into one major limitation that irked my organizational brain. If I wanted to add hyperlinks to a cell, I could only hyperlink an entire cell instead of hyperlinking individual words inside it. That meant, for example, if I wanted to track interesting links about personal finance in my spreadsheet, I’d have to make individual cells for each one of those hyperlinks, which could quickly fill up way more cells than I’d like. But earlier this summer, while researching a big story, I must have subconsciously noticed something...

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 was released last year, yet Samsung’s promised heart-tracking EKG feature is still not available to help it compete with the Apple Watch in the US. Instead, Samsung has just released a new update to the watch that adds features that debuted in the newly released Galaxy Watch 3 to the less expensive Active 2 — including the long-rumored fall detection feature which could help if you trip and get seriously injured. When the Galaxy Watch 3 released last month with the expensive starting price of $399 compared to the Galaxy Watch Active 2’s $250 price, it added some fitness features that turned out to be hit or miss, as my colleague Dan Siefert pointed out in his review (it’s a recurring problem in Samsung wearables). Now, you’re getting some metrics like “asy...

Google has sometimes gotten in trouble for the phrases that automatically appear when you’re trying to type in a new search. Even if some of them make for amusing celebrity interviews, others have sometimes steered users toward problematic concepts and fake news in addition to harmless things like movie and video game spoilers. The suggestions are based on what other people are searching for, after all. But in the buildup to the 2020 US presidential election, Google is changing its autocomplete policies to theoretically weed out one particular category of suggestion: “Election related predictions” that could be interpreted as favoring a particular candidate or political party. The new policy is extremely short, so I’ll just give you the whole thing right here: Elections related predictions...

Android 11 just launched this week for Pixel devices and phones from OnePlus, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme, and now Google has detailed its counterpart designed for low-powered devices: Android 11 (Go edition). One of the biggest new features is that Android 11 (Go edition) is supposed to work on devices with 2GB of RAM or less — a bump up from Android 10 (Go edition), which was made for devices with less than 1.5GB of RAM. But don’t necessarily expect to upgrade your existing 2GB phone: Android 11 Go is only going to come out with new phones with that much memory, not earlier ones, Google tells The Verge. Also, Google says it’s up to OEMs whether they want to put Android 11 Go on a device instead of Android 10 Go, contradicting what was suggested in a document obtained by XDA Developers back ...

To say 2020 is a wild year is an understatement — aside from the obvious thing that’s defined 2020, in July, some people across the US received an unsolicited parcel from China containing seeds. Motherboard’s editor-in-chief went to great lengths to find out what people did with those seeds, and you should read his report. As you’d expect, the strange packages caught the USDA’s attention, urging people to mail the seeds to the agency or to their state’s plant regulator. Some people listened to the government and others, not so much. Here are some interesting details from Motherboard’s report on how overwhelmed agricultural authorities were and what likely happened to people who kept the seeds: A woman from New Mexico thought a seed company sent them to her, so she decided to plant the seed...

Ubisoft is bringing back one of its most legendary games with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, a modern version of the classic action-adventure game set for release on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on January 21st, 2021. The company says that the new version of The Sands of Time is emphatically Ubisoft’s first full-fledged remake, not a remaster or reboot. Ubisoft Pune & Ubisoft Mumbai rebuilt the original game from the ground up using Ubisoft’s modern AnvilNext Engine, complete with new motion capture animation, new assets, and some adjustments to the gameplay for modern audiences. The Sands of Time Remake still strongly resembles the original, though, with the same storyline and gameplay. Don’t expect a full-scale reimagining like the recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake. T...