Tech

Twitter will start labeling the accounts of media outlets affiliated with the governments of countries on the U.N. National Security Council, it announced Thursday. The new labels wont apply to all media outlets that receive government funding — only “outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution,” according to Twitters blog post announcing the change. The labels will go on the accounts for China Daily, Russia Today, Sputnik and other media outlets, a Twitter spokesperson said. But not Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, two media outlets funded by the U.S. government, or NPR and the BBC. The blog post described NPR and the BBC as “state-financed media organizations with editorial independence.” The post implied the policy might expand to include more countries. “For transparency and practicality, we are starting with a limited an..

Huawei might be facing the heat, but so far Europe is playing it cool with Chinese video-sharing app TikTok. Brussels once again finds itself caught up in a stand-off between the United States and China over technology — but there are no immediate signs the EU will follow Washingtons lead. Thats mostly because in Europe, the app hasnt become the same hot-button issue as it is in the U.S, where politicians have written jeremiads about their fears over the company. Meanwhile, European regulators havent yet decided among themselves who will take the lead in investigating the company. “I dont think we need a TikTok ban if they comply with European law. But the EU has to be more active in enforcing European standards,” German MEP Moritz Körner from the liberal-centrist Renew Europe group told POLITICO. In recent days, U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated threats to ban the popular video-sharing app over fears its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance shares user data with the Ch..

EnlargeTillie Kottman Intel is investigating the purported leak of more than 20 gigabytes of its proprietary data and source code that a security researcher said came from a data breach earlier this year. The data—which at the time this post went live was publicly available on BitTorrent feeds—contains data Intel makes available to partners and customers under NDA, a company spokeswoman said. Speaking on background, she said Intel officials dont believe the data came from a network breach. She also said the company is still trying to determine how current the material is and that, so far, there is no signs the data includes any customer or personal information. “We are investigating this situation,” company officials said in a statement. “The information appears to come from the Intel Resource and Design Center, which hosts information for use by our customers, partners and other external parties who have registered for access. We believe an individual with access downloaded and shar..

The Cadillac Lyriq is the first battery EV to use General Motors' new 3rd-generation EV platform. Cadillac Interior space should be pretty good, with a completely flat floor above the battery pack. Cadillac The interior is dominated by a 33-inch display. Cadillac I think it's a handsome-looking BEV. Cadillac Unfortunately, we have to wait until MY2023 for the Lyriq to go on sale. Cadillac The EV's "black crystal" grille greets you as you approach the car. Cadillac This image makes the grille's illumination a little more obvious. Cadillac On Thursday night, Cadillac unveiled a new SUV, the Lyriq. It's the brand's first battery electric vehicle, and the first vehicle to use General Motors' new BEV3 platform and Ultium battery technology, which is set to spawn 22 new BEVs across the company's range of brands between now and 2023. Cadillac isn't spilling all the beans about the Lyriq just yet, but it did share some info with ..

Enlarge / Passengers load their luggage into their Uber cars Sydney Airport on August 05, 2020.James D. Morgan/Getty Images The coronavirus pandemic hammered Uber's finances in the second quarter of 2020, the company announced on Thursday. Gross bookings for Uber's core ride-hailing business plunged by 75 percent compared with a year earlier—from $12.2 billion to $3 billion. That was offset somewhat by rapid growth in Uber's delivery business. Delivery bookings more than doubled from $3.4 billion to $7 billion. The company lost $1.8 billion in the second quarter on a GAAP basis. Ignoring one-time charges, Uber has been losing around $1 billion per quarter for the last couple of years. Prospects for 2020 profits are slipping away Prior to the pandemic, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was bullish about the company's financial future. After reporting a $1.1 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2019, Khosrowshahi said in February that he expected Uber to start generatin..

The United States on Wednesday announced it wants to remove more Chinese smartphone applications from U.S. app stores and stop Chinese cloud providers from serving U.S. companies. The announcement is part of a renewed effort to drive out Chinese technology from its market and products. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented plans showing the U.S. wants to expand the campaign it has led against telecom giant Huawei and social media app TikTok, aimed at pushing back on Chinas involvement in the global technology industry. “We want to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from U.S. app stores,” Pompeo told reporters, adding “apps like TikTok, WeChat and others are significant threats to the personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for [the Chinese Communist Party] content censorship.” He said the U.S. wants to prevent smartphone maker Huawei from pre-installing popular U.S. apps too. Further, the U.S. government wants to stop U.S. citizens data and companies intel..

EnlargeGetty Images | Rafe Swan The Trump administration and broadband industry are resuming their fight against California's net neutrality law, with the US Department of Justice and ISP lobby groups filing new complaints against the state yesterday. The case is nearly two years old but was put on hold because California in October 2018 agreed to suspend enforcement of its law until after litigation over the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of US net neutrality rules and the FCC's attempt to preempt state net neutrality laws. That lawsuit was decided in October 2019 when the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the FCC repeal of its own rules but overturned the FCC's attempt to impose a blanket, nationwide preemption of any state net neutrality law. "At bottom, the Commission lacked the legal authority to categorically abolish all 50 States' statutorily conferred authority to regulate intrastate communications," judges in..

Sony's latest high-end pair of noise-cancelling headphones: the Sony WH-1000XM4. Sony They come in silver or black. Sony They look very similar to their predecessor. Sony See what we mean? This is their predecessor, 2018's WH-1000XM3. Jeff Dunn Sony says it has improved the noise-cancelling strength this time around and added a few new smart features. Sony This new "Custom" button controls the headphone's noise cancelling and ambient sound modes and can be used to activate Google Assistant and Alexa, though you'll have to toy around in Sony's companion app to get that set up. Sony They still fold up for more compact storage. Sony A look at their included carrying case. Sony Sony on Thursday announced its latest flagship pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones: the WH-1000XM4. The new over-ear cans are the follow-up to Sony's WH-1000XM3, which have been widely regarded as being among the best premium pairs of noise-cancelling hea..

What can you do with a $200-ish mini-PC with plenty of power, tons of ports, and very few limitations? Jim Salter Odyssey (left) is significantly larger than the ARM based Odroid XU4 (right). It's also significantly more powerful and expandable. Jim Salter The clear lid on Odyssey's re_computer case lifts off for easy access, using a spudger or fine blade inserted into the seam to pry it loose from its magnetic contacts. Jim Salter Today we're going to take a look at Seeed Studio's Odyssey X86J4105—a maker/builder-tailored, Celeron-powered mini-PC. The little device seems like what you'd get if a Chromebox and a Raspberry Pi made sweet, sweet love—it's a Celeron-powered all-in-one system-on-chip (SoC) board, sold without a case, with Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO headers and an Arduino coprocessor for more hardware-based maker projects. I have a confession to make: I've never really loved the Raspberry Pi. Heresy, I know! But despite how serio..

Facebook and Twitter have sanctioned U.S. President Donald Trump for spreading misinformation on COVID-19 on Wednesday, including blocking his campaign from tweeting until it removed an offending post. Both social media giants acted in response to a video clip posted to both Trumps Facebook and campaign Twitter accounts where he claims children were “virtually immune” to COVID-19. Trump has been using the phrase recently as part of a drive to reopen schools. But both Facebook and Twitter considered the claim a breach of their guidelines on coronavirus misinformation. “This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation,” a Facebook spokesperson said. The clip “is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again,” a Twitter spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. The Twitter clip was in..