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The cops wanted to hand over the notice related to an investigation after Twitter had labeled tweets of the ruling party BJP leaders with a “manipulated media” tag. Days later, The government of India sent a letter to significant social media intermediaries — platforms with more than 5 million users — regarding the compliance of new rules that came into effect on May 26. These rules demand faster takedown of “problematic” content, assigning special grievance and compliance officers, and having a voluntary user verification program through a government-issued ID....

After getting booted from in India, the company might now face a ban in the US. In an interview with Fox News, the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said that the US government is certainly looking at banning Chinese apps including TikTok: Pompeo added that the US will get the decision on having Chinese apps on citizen’s cellphones right. Last week, he praised India’s decision to ban 59 China-based apps....

The skinny is that thousands of drivers across the US are being monitored by AI systems that actively watch drivers and their surroundings for “events” that trigger negative feedback for the driver. It actually looks as though they’re distracting drivers and causing them to make erratic, dangerous decisions. Background: AI is really, really stupid. I cannot express how wrong the general public is about what “they can do with AI these days....

Permafrost is permanently frozen soil. The generally cold temperatures in the Arctic keep soils there frozen year-on-year. Plants grow in the uppermost soil layers during the short summers and then decay into the soil, which freezes when the winter snow arrives. Over thousands of years, carbon has built up in these frozen soils, and they’re now estimated to contain twice the carbon currently in the atmosphere. Some of this carbon is more than 50,000 years old, which means the plants that decomposed to produce that soil grew over 50,000 years ago....

Like every company with a voice assistant, Apple was called out for saving recordings and allowing workers to listen to them. It did this for the same purpose everyone did — namely, to improve the quality of the assistant’s responses. But it nonetheless creeped people out, especially since, according to The Guardian‘s report, the recordings included, “countless instances of recordings featuring private discussions between doctors and patients, business deals, seemingly criminal dealings, sexual encounters and so on....

This update will ship the new macOS Catalina. You will be able to sync your iPhone directly through the finder app as supposed to the iTunes app used earlier. The new podcast app will have an index based on the spoken content of the podcast, so you can search for them even if you don’t know the name of the show or the episode. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Apple is discontinuing the dreaded app....

With new iPadOS, you can type with one hand with a floating keyboard, and take screenshots with a swipe of the Apple pencil. Plus, there are new video editing tools in the Photos app that makes your life easy. Specifications 10.2-inch retina display A10 Fusion chip TouchID 8-megapixel camera Up to 10 hours of battery life Keyboard cover through the smart connector iPadOS You can order the new iPad today for $329; shipping starts from September 30....

Apple is expected to announce its long-awaited AirTags — a fancy item-tracking system — as well as new iPads. There’s a chance we’ll see new, third-gen AirPods as well. AirTags are expected to be a Tile-like item tracking system, but on steroids. It is believed the tags will use the Ultra-Wideband radio introduced with the iPhone 11, which will allow your phone to pinpoint exactly where a lost item is, rather than just providing an approximate location....

Apple mobile processors have been the fastest on the market for years, sometimes a generation ahead of their Android counterparts in terms of raw performance. But on desktop, Apple has relied on Intel processors since 2006. That changes starting this year as Macs transition to Apple silicon. Apple’s new chips will build on 10 generations of mobile processors, which have improved 100x in performance since the original iPhone, according to the company....

Snoring has been played for laughs for years. Heck, Fred Flintstone’s snoring was so extreme that it not only kept his wife, neighbors, and pets awake, it literally caused an underground explosion. But while his nearest and dearest laughed off Fred’s nocturnal emissions, it isn’t nearly so funny when it happens in real life every night while you’re trying to sleep. And beyond the impact on others, the health risks of snoring to the actual snorer are fairly well established as well, including increased potential for decidedly unfunny effects like stroke, heart disease, arrhythmias, and more....

But this might change very soon. In a blog post published this week, Google announced that it’s bringing Matter to Nest and Android. So, what is Matter? Basically, it’s an open standard that wants to make every bit of smart home tech work with whatever voice assistant you want. A terrible name? Definitely. But a brilliant idea? You betcha. Anyway, the news goes deeper than just this. The update means that Google Home will soon be able to control any Matter-enabled devices....

The details were revealed after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) opened a case against Muhammad Fahd, who has been accused of running a fraudulent operation to disable AT&T’s proprietary software that safeguards phones from being unlocked. The ultimate objective, the DoJ’s indictment reveals, was to sell the illegal software to the public, so that they could switch to a different network of their choice and deprive AT&T of the payments owed as per the contract terms....

The new Battletoads game was revealed, rather unexpectedly, at the 2018 Microsoft E3 show. Fans have been calling for an HD remake for years — GameInformer added it to a list of series that deserve a revival in 2010. The series got a boost in popularity when the original 1991 NES game was re-released as part of the Rare Replay collection (which, as Microsoft so helpfully touts in its release announcement, is available on Xbox Game Pass)....

All the time spent in the house these past few months probably didn’t do your summer beach body any favors. Between stress eating and lack of exercise, it was probably incredibly easy for that “quarantine 15” to creep up and settle in around your midsection. In fact, almost half of women and nearly a quarter of men said they’d gained weight due to “COVID restrictions.” Of course, blaming a virus or kicking yourself for letting it happen does you no good now....

Heads up: The real lead here is that Ford’s new BlueCruise kit, a driverless car system, will launch on certain Mustang and F-150 models. Can we all take a moment to recognize how awesome the idea of an autonomous Mustang in the future is? But: Elon being Elon, there was no way the news was ever going to be about anything other than him. — Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) April 14, 2021 Ford CEO Jim Farley apparently couldn’t resist trolling Tesla a bit when he tweeted that his company tested BlueCruise “in the real world, so our customers don’t have to....

As it turns out, they can do that too. Cryptocurrency fans have shared video footage of a Tesla car’s onboard computer system operating as a Bitcoin full node. — bcoin (@Bcoin) January 16, 2020 [Read: Accidental Tesla ‘butt dial’ upgrade highlights confusing future of car maintenance] This is possible thanks to the Bcoin project, which shared the video. Bcoin is an alternative implementation of the Bitcoin protocol that any machine — like Tesla’s onboard computer — can run via its internet browser to join in the consensus process....

Bitfinex, Tether and several other related companies said that a request made by the NYAG with regards to a $900 million inter-company loan should be dismissed, states a letter sent to the New York Supreme Court yesterday. It comes after the NYAG’s office said last week that Bitfinex should be getting ready to provide necessary documentation once its court-granted reprieve ends. Lawyers representing Bitfinex say the NYAG failed to cite any authority supporting its request....

But, today, I had a horrendous shock. I got up nice and early to go for a run (that #FitBoy lifestyle,) and, to my horror, my AirPods Pro were nowhere to be found. After spending a good 20 minutes searching the usual places, I accepted I must’ve left them somewhere weird and went for my jog anyway. During my huffing and puffing and grunting and groaning, I wracked my brain trying to work out where the hell they could be....

While that means you can’t purchase your own 4-legged robot to keep as a pet (this thing is not designed to interact with humans in the wild), it also means the era of robot co-workers has truly begun. Unlike traditional automation systems and most industrial robotics, Spot isn’t an autonomous machine. It’s as dumb as a toaster, albeit a toaster that can easily climb over a mountain of human bones to track you down and ‘assimilate’ you into the grand AI scheme – if a developer were so inclined to create the necessary routines....

I was a skeptic at first when the idea was mentioned to me. But when I started to look at SMS marketing, I realized that with the right frequency and messaging, it can be a highly effective method of communication. SMS open rates are far higher than other types of messaging, and they reach people on a more personal level. And companies are learning how to take advantage of it....