News

As Trump digs in, will it be US versus China in tech?

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s bans on two popular Chinese social media apps — TikTok and WeChat — are the latest moves in an escalating U.S.-China rift, and point to a future where technology and innovation are increasingly walled behind political barriers. In China, the Communist Party has long limited what foreign tech […]

Trump bans dealings with Chinese owners of TikTok, WeChat

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump has ordered a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat, although it remains unclear if he has the legal authority to actually ban the apps from the U.S. The twin executive orders issued Thursday — one for each app […]

Facebook, citing virus misinformation, deletes Trump post

Facebook has deleted a post by President Donald Trump for violating its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The post in question featured a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are “virtually immune” to the virus. Facebook said Wednesday that the “video includes false claims that a group of […]

Google unveils budget Pixel phone as pandemic curbs spending

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Google has started selling a long-delayed budget smartphone boasting the same high-quality camera and several other features available in fancier Pixel models that cost hundreds of dollars more. The Pixel 4a unveiled Monday will be available Aug. 20 after months of delay caused by supply problems triggered by the pandemic. […]

Google, ADT partnering on home security products

Google is pairing its Nest smart home technology with ADT and buying a stake in the home security company. Google’s Nest hardware will be integrated at ADT, which does system installations and monitoring. ADT plans to begin offering Google devices to its customers starting this year. Shares of the company, based in Boca Raton, Florida, […]

Microsoft confirms talks seeking to buy US arm of TikTok

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft confirmed Sunday it is in talks with Chinese company ByteDance to acquire the U.S. arm of its popular video app TikTok and has discussed with President Donald Trump his concerns about security and censorship surrounding such an acquisition. In a statement, Microsoft said Microsoft and ByteDance have provided notice of […]

Florida teen arrested as mastermind of Twitter hack

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida teen was identified Friday as the mastermind of a scheme earlier this month that commandeered Twitter accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls and scammed people around the globe out of more than $100,000 in Bitcoin. Two other men were also charged in the case. Graham Ivan Clark, 17, […]

Trump says he'll act to ban TikTok in US as soon as Saturday

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said he will take action as soon as Saturday to ban TikTok, a popular Chinese-owned video app that has been a source of national security and censorship concerns. Trump’s comments came after published reports that the administration is planning to order China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok. There were […]

Pandemic hits Comcast 2Q; new Peacock service has 10M users

NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic took a toll on Comcast in the second quarter as movie theaters closed, theme parks shut down and advertisers cut back. The company reported Thursday that its NBCUniversal TV, film and theme park divisions, as well as its Sky unit in Europe, all suffered steep drops in revenue […]

New Google data cable to connect Europe to the US

A new Google data cable running along the Atlantic sea bed is to be launched connecting New York to the seaside town of Bude England and the city of Bilbao in northern Spain, which is set to be completed in 2022. Named the ‘Grace Hopper’ cable after the computer scientist and US Navy rear admiral. […]