T-Mobile and Sprint started the day with very good news when FCC chairman Ajit Pai said he would urge the commission to approve their industry-transforming merger. Stocks of both companies soared soon after. But only a few hours later, Bloomberg reported that the US Department of Justice was leaning toward blocking the merger over antitrust […]
The simple answer is, “no.” But why not? Yes, 5G is the latest and greatest with speeds expected to blow your mind. But at this point, the networks are barely existent, present only in a few cities. Even then, they only work well in certain blocks, and even then, you need line of sight, […]
After months of speculation, President Trump signed an executive order giving the federal government the power to block US companies from buying foreign-made telecommunications equipment deemed a national security risk. Under the order, which gives the secretary of commerce power to determine which transactions may be potential risks, no single company is immediately marked as […]
Most of us aren’t aware of how many launches take place each year. Besides flights to and from the International Space Station (ISS), there are satellites being sent into orbit, exploratory craft, and new technologies being tested. And because current technologies allow us to view the process to a greater extent than ever before (with […]
Google Maps is great for helping you find your way — or even helping you find your car — but the app can also help other people find you. Maps has an easily overlooked feature for sharing your real-time whereabouts with someone so they can see exactly where you are, even if you’re moving, […]
We’ve all been there: you park your car on some random street or in a nondescript garage and go about your business. Then, an hour or two later, you find yourself wandering around without the foggiest recollection of where you left your vehicle. Don’t let yourself get lost again. Your smartphone can help you find […]
This week marks the release of Samsung’s $1,400 Galaxy S10 5G, which will briefly be a Verizon exclusive before moving to other carriers. And now that there’s a real, proper 5G phone on its network, Verizon has ramped things up. Coverage remains extremely limited: it varies widely and block by block. But when you […]
Netflix just announced a new season of Black Mirror, but if you prefer your sci-fi dystopias a little more on the camp side, Fox has just the thing: a new show called neXt about an evil Alexa that wants to take over the world. Seriously, although the trailer doesn’t quite explain what the eponymous […]
Home assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant are becoming ubiquitous, and as that happens, more and more users are discovering how much of their data is actually being collected by these handy items. The Washington Post’s Geoffrey A. Fowler was so taken aback by the amount of audio material that Amazon collected that he […]
Children’s data privacy advocates filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday morning, calling for the federal agency to investigate the “Kids Edition” of Amazon’s Echo Dot smart speaker. The 96 page complaint was co-authored by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and co-signed by […]