Mini-LED technology offers TV sets a promising combination of better contrast, an image improvement over standard LCD TVs, and a more affordable price than OLED TVs. TCL debuted the tech last year in its 8-Series, and, this year, in its 6-Series, with a 55-inch TV for $650. Mini-LED is not the same as MicroLED; the latter uses millions of LEDs, one per pixel, for large high-end solutions such as Sony’s Crystal LED and Samsung’s The Wall. In fact, although MicroLEDs use LEDs, it’s actually an entirely different technology. Continue reading Mini-LED Tech Offers Impressive Contrast Ratio, Affordability

When Angela Bolger’s laptop caught fire due to a replacement battery she bought on Amazon, she suffered third-degree burns and filed a lawsuit against the popular e-commerce site. Amazon responded by providing a refund for the battery. Until recently, Amazon has successfully fought off such liability suits. The stakes are high since almost 60 percent of all physical goods on its site now come from third-party sellers. The courts have traditionally sided with Amazon, but recent cases from a few states are changing that trend. Continue reading Some States Say Amazon Is Liable for Third-Party Products

The White House is planning a $1+ billion, five-year investment to fund 12 new research facilities on artificial intelligence, 5G, quantum information sciences and other emerging technologies. Federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will collaborate with private partners including major tech companies such as International Business Machines, Microsoft and others. The Trump administration proposes to spend 30 percent more on these technologies in the 2021 nondefense budget. Continue reading White House to Invest $1+ Billion in AI, Quantum Computing

Amazon built its largest office building in the world in Hyderabad, a city of 10 million in southern India also known as Asia’s Silicon Valley. Amazon spokesperson Minari Shah said, “Hyderabad is a known software tech talent center, and the government has been an enabler for us to have a campus this size.” Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft also have bases in that city. In the United States, Amazon said it will hire 3,500 white-collar employees, including 2,000 in New York, continuing with plans it made prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Continue reading Amazon Builds Mammoth Facility in India, Plans U.S. Growth

At the Electronic & Electrical Engineering department of University College London (UCL), Dr. Lidia Galdino and her research team worked with Xtera and KDDI Research to achieve an Internet transmission rate of 178 terabits per second (178,000,000 megabits per second). This speed represents double the capacity of any other system operating today and would enable a user to download the entire Netflix library in less than one second. UCL and its partners achieved this by transmitting data through a much wider range of wavelengths than typically used in optical fiber. Continue reading UCL Researchers Claim Internet Transmission Speed Record

According to global civic movement Avaaz, over the past year Facebook enabled 3.8 billion views of misinformation related to health, almost four times the views of sites such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This has occurred despite Facebook’s partnership with these organizations to expose users to reliable information. In another effort to squelch misinformation, Facebook removed 790 QAnon groups and restricted another 1,950 groups, 440 pages and 10,000+ Instagram accounts. Continue reading Facebook Struggles to Contain Health Misinformation, QAnon

Data center and colocation provider Equinix is inviting companies to test-drive the NVIDIA DGX A100 system at its International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Los Angeles (the company currently has more than 200 IBX centers in 52 markets). This site is currently the only place in the world where companies can take advantage of the DGX A100 to test drive their AI equipment. According to the Equinix testbed landing page, “The test drive solution brings together industry-leading AI hardware from NVIDIA and NetApp alongside best-in-class software technology from Core Scientific, all directly connected on Platform Equinix.” Continue reading Equinix Invites Companies to Test-Drive AI System at LA IBX

App Annie reported that, in the first half of 2020, users spent 1.6 trillion hours on mobile devices, a big leap from the same period in 2019. App Annie market insights director Amir Ghodrati stated that, even if millions of people are out of work, it’s crucial for brands and companies to advertise on mobile devices, to acquire new users and enable them to set up new app habits. According to App Annie, psychologists say it takes an average of 66 days to form a habit. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, those habits are solidifying. Continue reading Advertising Opportunities Emerge for Mobile During Pandemic

In an ongoing dispute over Apple’s 30 percent commissions in its App Store, Epic Games, maker of “Fortnite,” threw down the gauntlet by openly encouraging players to pay the company directly, rather than through Apple and Google’s app stores. But within hours of the announcement, Apple removed “Fortnite” from its App Store, noting Epic’s “express intent of violating App Store guidelines.” Google also pulled the game from its Play Store. Epic Games responded by suing the two tech giants in federal court, claiming antitrust violations. Continue reading App Store Battle: Epic Sues Apple, Google for Pulling ‘Fortnite’

Google limits how Android apps track users, and it appears that TikTok violated this policy by collecting unique identifiers — called MAC addresses — from millions of mobile devices. In fact, TikTok seemed to have concealed this action via an added layer of encryption. TikTok, which has publicly declared it doesn’t share data with the Chinese government, ended the collection of MAC addresses in November. An AppCensus 2018 analysis found that about 1 percent of Android apps collect MAC addresses. Continue reading TikTok Used Privacy Loophole to Track Android Users’ Data

FireEye data scientist Philip Tully showed off a convincing deepfake of Tom Hanks he built with less than $100 and open-source code. Until recently, most deepfakes have been low quality and pretty easy to spot. FireEye demonstrated that now, even those with little AI expertise can use published AI code and a bit of fine-tuning to create much more convincing results. But many experts believe deepfake text is a bigger threat, as the GPT-3 autoregressive language model can produce text that is difficult to distinguish from that written by humans. Continue reading Quality of Deepfakes and Textfakes Increase Potential Impact

Google recently unveiled three new Pixel phones — the $349 Pixel 4a, available for preorder and shipping on August 20; the 5G-enabled Pixel 5, shipping in the fall; and the Pixel 4a with 5G, priced at $499 and also shipping in the fall. According to Google, issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the Pixel 4a from debuting significantly earlier. The Pixel 4a, $50 less than last year’s Pixel 3a and the iPhone SE, stands apart from several competitors with its camera and “clean version” of Android. Continue reading Google Presents Three Phones: Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G, Pixel 5

Digital Citizens Alliance and NAGRA released a joint report revealing that illegal piracy subscription services — Internet Protocol Television (PS IPTV) — are now a $1+ billion industry. “Money for Nothing” describes an ecosystem of retailers and wholesalers enabled by legal businesses and consumed by at least nine million U.S. households. The report also looks into its infrastructure, supply chain, and ad-supported business models. Piracy injures consumers via malware among other risks. Continue reading Pirate IPTV Subscription Services Now a $1+ Billion Industry

Facebook’s Instagram debuted Reels, its short-video feature designed to compete with Chinese app TikTok. Instagram previously aped Snapchat’s disappearing photos with its own Instagram Stories, which has since become hugely popular. TikTok chief executive Kevin Mayer called out Reels as a “copycat product,” but Instagram director of product Robby Stein said that Instagram plans to distinguish Reels from the competition by “adapting to users.” The launch takes place amid tumult over TikTok’s future in the U.S. Continue reading Instagram Reels, Rival to TikTok, Launches in 50+ Countries

T-Mobile announced it has launched what it claims is the world’s first nationwide standalone 5G network. Up until now, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have all offered a version of 5G that is really 5G radios deployed on top of 4G LTE gear. T-Mobile’s new 5G network is completely “next-generation” and will enable new features as well as faster data speeds. T-Mobile stated that its 5G network is 30 percent larger than before, available in 2,000 more towns and cities in the U.S. Its network currently covers 1.3 million square miles. Continue reading T-Mobile Introduces First Nationwide End-to-End 5G Network