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With painted faces, artists fight facial recognition tech

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer LONDON (AP) — As night falls in London, Georgina Rowlands and Anna Hart start applying makeup. Instead of lipstick and eyeliner, they’re covering their faces with geometric shapes. Rowlands has long narrow blue triangles and thin white rectangles criss-crossing her face. Hart has a collection of red, orange and […]

Facebook drops Trump ads after Pelosi cites census confusion

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press Facebook on Thursday began taking down ads for the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump that direct people to a survey labeled a “census,” hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said people would confuse it with the once-a-decade head count. Facebook said in a statement that it […]

Twitter preps ephemeral tweets, starts testing in Brazil

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter is starting to test tweets that disappear after 24 hours, although initially only in Brazil. The company says the ephemeral tweets, which it calls “fleets” because of their fleeting nature, are designed to allay the concerns of new users who might be turned off […]

Ex-Google self-driving car project picks up new investors

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google’s former autonomous vehicle project is becoming a more autonomous business by bringing it in its first investors besides its corporate parent. Waymo has secured $2.25 billion from a group of investors led by Silver Lake and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board to help the company continue to develop its […]

Mobile Operators - The Industry Roundup

Rakuten to introduce half mobile phone fees compared with rivals TOKYO (Kyodo) — Rakuten Inc.’s mobile phone unit is set to charge less than half the fees its rivals do for high data usage, in an effort to boost subscribers when it launches services next month. No more illegal phones: Indonesia to impose IMEI control […]

AT&T launches new online TV service as video customers fall

By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T is launching a new internet-delivered TV service Monday as it struggles with a shrinking DirecTV satellite business. The new service, AT&T TV, will have most of the same channels offered on DirecTV, but it’ll come over the internet rather than a satellite dish. AT&T […]

Bill to help small telecoms excise Huawei goes to Trump

By TALI ARBEL AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate has passed a bill to provide $1 billion for small telecom providers to replace equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE, sending the measure to President Donald Trump. The U.S. government considers the Chinese companies a security risk and has pushed its allies […]

Facebook bans ads with false claims about new virus

By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook said Wednesday that it is banning ads that make false claims about products tied to the new coronavirus. The social network said it is removing ads that feature a product and imply a limited supply, seeking create a “sense of urgency” in their mention […]

Microsoft says virus hurting supply chain more than expected

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer The virus outbreak in China is hurting Microsoft more than expected, as the company said it won’t meet targets that had already factored in the uncertainty. In particular, Microsoft said revenue from Windows licenses and its Surface devices “are more negatively impacted than previously anticipated.” The company said demand […]

NTSB: Tesla Autopilot, distracted driver caused fatal crash

By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Tesla‘s partially automated driving system steered an electric SUV into a concrete barrier on a Silicon Valley freeway because it was operating under conditions it couldn’t handle and because the driver likely was distracted by playing a game on his smartphone, the National Transportation Safety Board […]