Technology

Oracle has expressed an interest in acquiring TikTok, according to the Financial Times, giving Microsoft a potential competitor in its bid to control the Chinese social video app in the US. Larry Ellison’s enterprise software giant has reportedly held preliminary talks with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance already, working with venture capital firms including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, and is “seriously considering” acquiring its business in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. President Trump issued an executive order on Friday ordering ByteDance to sell its US business within 90 days. The FT notes that Oracle’s billionaire co-founder Ellison is one of the few US tech executives who has been openly supportive of Trump, though it’s not clear whether Oracle would be the W...

How many times will NBC create a TV show featuring an airplane that mysteriously disappears in an attempt to copy the success of Lost? If the trailer for the upcoming Peacock original series Departure is anything to go by, the answer is “at least three times in less than a decade.” Departure, a six-episode miniseries set to be released on September 17th, tells the story of passenger plane Flight 716, which “shockingly” vanishes midflight, causing a team of investigators to try to unravel the conspiracy before another plane disappears. It may also sound a little familiar if you’ve been watching network television for the last decade and a half. In 2004, Lost debuted on ABC, telling the story of Oceanic Airline Flight 815, which vanishes into thin air during a routine flight and crashes on a...

Look, I’m sure that the new Microsoft Edge is a fantastic web browser. I’m looking forward to trying it someday. But Microsoft, I have a piece of advice for you: if so very many Windows users are googling “Can’t uninstall Microsoft Edge” that you feel the need to utterly own that search result by making it the title of your FAQ… maybe just don’t force it on Windows users to begin with? Here’s a screenshot of the new support page, for posterity: To be clear, I’m not saying Microsoft shouldn’t have updated users to the new version of Edge, particularly after today’s announcement that Internet Explorer and legacy Edge will be fully phased out exactly one year from now. Continued security updates are important! But instead of telling users what effectively boils down to “you can’t uninst...

Google is trying to secretly test a 6GHz network in 17 different states, according to a batch of FCC filings spotted by Business Insider. But exactly what Google is trying to test is unclear. Here’s a few things we do know. Google wants to experiment with 6GHz spectrum to “produce technical information relevant to the utility of these frequencies for providing reliable broadband connections.” The company also says it expects the experiments to take place over 24 months, and has asked permission to do the tests in 26 cities and towns across 17 states — including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. There’s a lot of possibilities for what Google could want to be testin...

Apple has responded to Epic Games’ latest salvo in the ongoing dispute between the two companies. Epic had said that Apple is threatening to revoke its access to iOS and Mac developer tools by removing it from the Apple Developer Program unless it cuts a rule-violating payment processing option that it snuck into Fortnite. “We very much want to keep the company as part of the Apple Developer Program and their apps on the Store,” Apple says in a statement to The Verge. “The problem Epic has created for itself is one that can easily be remedied if they submit an update of their app that reverts it to comply with the guidelines they agreed to and which apply to all developers.” Here’s the full statement: The App Store is designed to be a safe and trusted place for users and a great business o...

Apple is yet again making changes to the window of time customers have to buy its AppleCare+ extended warranty for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other products. According to Bloomberg, the company has stretched the eligibility for AppleCare+ to an entire year after the purchase of whatever device you’re covering. Retail staff and customer support staff were informed of the change on Monday, though Apple’s website still doesn’t reflect any update. Mac buyers used to have a year-long window to make a decision about buying Apple’s extended warranty, but when the company added accidental damage coverage to the plans, that timeframe tightened to 60 days. Apple has gone back and forth on how long iPhone customers have, alternating between a year and the current 60 days more than once. So if you did...

The Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday night online. The coronavirus pandemic forced the Democrats to can their initial plans of an in-person event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to formally nominate former Vice President Joe Biden as the party’s nominee for president. But they’re still planning to throw an event featuring prominent speakers, politicians, and musical guests for four nights this week. When is it? The convention will run from 9PM to 11PM ET from Monday through Thursday, and you can watch all of the speakers on a variety of different platforms. How do I watch it? The official live stream of the event will be available on the DNC’s website, but you’ll be able to catch it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch as well. It will also be made available on Apple TV, Roku,...

Chrome for Android will begin adding “fast page” labels to the context menus of pages it considers high-quality, Google announced Monday. The company says the labels will be based on signals from its Core Web Vitals metrics, which keep track of user experience, including page load time, responsiveness, and how stable content is while it loads. Right now, there’s only one way to tell: if you long-press a link before visiting a page, you’ll get that “fast page” label if it meets Google’s standards. But ultimately, a “fast page” might get ranked higher in Google search as well. Google tells The Verge that those same Core Web Vitals metrics are among the criteria that will be considered in search rankings when the labels launch. In the blog post announcing the labels, Google says that “optimiz...

See that little “closed lock” icon in your web browser, right next to the URL? That means you’re browsing via HTTPS, encrypting your traffic so third parties can’t spy on most of the information you’re sending. But secure-looking HTTPS websites can still house insecure HTTP forms for you to fill in your passwords and other personal data — and Google is planning to do something about that in Chrome 86, coming this October (via 9to5Google). Primarily, you’ll get a couple of big, bold warnings, according to Google’s official blog post. The first will look something like this: And if you try to submit your information anyway, you’ll get a second “are you sure?”-style warning: Google’s also disabling autofill on these so-called “mixed forms,” so the fact that your password managers and auto-com...

Only 2.5 percent of colleges are planning a fully in-person semester this upcoming year. Rather than spend a year staring at Zoom, some students are considering taking the semester off. Startups see this as an opportunity to recruit these students into virtual fall internships, Bloomberg reports. Some firms are organizing virtual career fairs, offering grants to teams of entrepreneurs, and compiling lists of potential employers. Others are extending the terms of their summer cohorts. Postmates told Bloomberg that it may keep some interns on if they take time off school. Startups are hoping to compete for top students. The virtual nature of the internships could allow the firms access to a nationwide talent pool. And companies hope that potential employees they hook this fall might stay on ...

Apple TV Plus subscribers can now get a subscription to both CBS All Access and Showtime for $9.99 per month, making it the first video bundle available for subscribers to Apple’s premium streaming service (via 9to5Mac). The deal could be a nice savings for people who already subscribe to all three services. Apple TV Plus costs $4.99 per month, though anyone who buys a new Apple device gets a free year of the service. And if you buy the other subscriptions on their own, CBS All Access starts at $5.99 per month and offers an ad-free version for $9.99 per month — and that ad-free version is what you get with this bundle. Showtime costs $10.99 per month. This new bundle means you might be able to get Apple TV Plus, CBS All Access, and Showtime for $14.98 per month — and if you have a free sub...

If you want to purchase a phone with an under-display front camera right now, you’re out of luck. While several companies have tested the feature, none have yet to ship one to consumers. But that should change soon, as ZTE aims to become the first company to mass-produce and ship a phone with an under-display camera next month. The Axon 20 5G will launch in China on September 1st. ZTE notes in its press release that “all the major industry players” are working on under-display cameras, but it plans to be the first one to get a smartphone with this feature out the door. The Axon 20 5G is said to be the “world’s first mass-produced 5G smartphone,” according to ZTE. Image: ZTE Several companies have been teasing smartphones with under-display cameras over the last year. Oppo and Xiaomi both s...