Category: Featured

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Comcast sues Vermont to avoid building new cable lines

Comcast has sued the state of Vermont to try to avoid a requirement to build 550 miles of new cable lines. Comcast’s lawsuit against the Vermont Public Utility Commission (VPUC) was filed Monday in US District Court in Vermont and challenges several provisions in the cable company’s new 11-year permit to offer services in the state. One of the conditions in the permit says that “Comcast shall...

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Facebook blocks ads from pages serving fake news

Facebook added an additional defense today against the spread of fake news and viral hoaxes. If a Facebook page is found to be repeatedly sharing false stories, the company will ban the page from advertising on Facebook. The company uses third-party fact-checking organizations to flag stories that are false. Under Facebook’s rules, advertisers are already not allowed to run ads that link to false...

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Android may show remaining battery on wireless headphones

Google is going to make it a bit easier to check the battery level on Bluetooth devices connected to your phone. As spotted by XDA Developers, the Android Open Source Project has added support for “[retrieving] battery level information of [a] remote device.” When this makes its way to a full Android release, it should allow an Android phone to display the battery level...

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Snapchat and Apple could help revive QR codes

Quick Response (QR) codes were all the craze in the marketing scene some odd years ago. It was hard not to come across a visual ad or marketing collateral that didn’t had those pixelated squares. They were all over the streets, storefronts, and magazines. Marketers were so crazy about the potential of QR codes that they simply plastered them on everything. Despite having been...

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Microsoft, Twitter, and others back EU hate speech rules

Facebook, Twitter, Google’s YouTube and Microsoft on Tuesday agreed to an EU code of conduct to tackle online hate speech within 24 hours in Europe. EU governments have been trying in recent months to get social platforms to crack down on rising online racism following the refugee crisis and terror attacks, with some even threatening action against the companies. As part of the pledge...

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Over 32TB of Windows 10 source code leak online

A massive trove of Microsoft’s internal Windows operating system builds and chunks of its core source code have leaked online. The data – some 32TB of official and non-public installation images and software blueprints that compress down to 8TB – were uploaded to betaarchive.com, the latest load of files provided just earlier this week. It is believed the confidential data in this dump was...

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Netflix download limit turns out to be a thing

Netflix added download support for a large chunk of its library late last year, which is great. It was long overdue, but still a much appreciated addition. However, Netflix’s downloading functionality comes with a nasty catch that many people have just recently started running into: some content can only be downloaded a certain number of times. The worst part is Netflix doesn’t tell you about...

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Google Drive offers whole PC backup

Google is turning Drive into a much more robust backup tool. Soon, instead of files having to live inside of the Drive folder, Google will be able to monitor and backup files inside of any folder you point it to. That can include your desktop, your entire documents folder, or other more specific locations. The backup feature will come out later this month, on...

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Google Chrome will automatically block annoying ads in 2018

Google’s Chrome browser will soon come with preinstalled technology that will block the most annoying ads currently marring the web experience, the company confirmed on Thursday. Publishers will be able to understand how they will be affected through a tool Google is dubbing “The Ad Experience Report.” It will basically score a publisher’s site and inform them which of their ads are “annoying experiences.”...

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Microsoft makes Apple look stale

Remember when buying a Mac meant that you got cutting-edge technology? Nowadays you’re overpaying for old, stale ideas wrapped in “thin and light” aluminum shells. PCs have undoubtedly gone through a stale patch. Partly this has been down to PC sales in general going from soft to soggy over the past few years, partly it’s been down to OEMs scrabbling to make ends meet...