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MoviePass settles with FTC over fraud and data security failures

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission charged the executives of the long-defunct MoviePass app over allegations that they fraudulently blocked customers from using the service as advertised while failing to protect their data privacy. The FTC also announced that it had reached a settlement with MoviePass and its executives as a result of the investigation…. Read more

Apple’s Live Text is going to read all the text in all your photos with AI

Apple has announced a new feature called Live Text, which will digitize the text in all your photos. This unlocks a slew of handy functions, from turning handwritten notes into emails and messages to searching your camera roll for receipts or recipes you’ve photographed. This is certainly not a new feature for smartphones, and we’ve… Read more

New trailers: Roadrunner, Black Widow, Reminiscence

It hit me this morning that there is no new episode of Mare of Easttown on this evening and I felt a little sad, but wow what a finale. Emmys for Kate Winslet and Julianne Nicholson, please (and be sure to read Sophie Gilbert’s excellent analysis in The Atlantic of the way women and mothers… Read more

India reportedly warns Twitter of ‘unintended consequences’ if it fails to follow new rules

India’s government has told Twitter it could face “unintended consequences” if it fails to comply with the country’s new social media rules, Reuters reported. India’s technology minister wrote in a June 5th letter to Twitter that the company’s responses to previous government letters about the new rules did not confirm whether Twitter was in full… Read more

Apple employees push back against returning to the office in internal letter

Apple employees are pushing back against a new policy that would require them to return to the office three days a week starting in early September. Staff members say they want a flexible approach where those who want to work remote can do so, according to an internal letter obtained by The Verge. “We would… Read more

Quick Look: Lamptron ATX201 RGB Frame

Introduction I would like to thank Lamptron for supplying the sample. Lamptron has been around since the early 2000s and is well known for its slew of fan controllers. In recent years, with the disappearance of external 5.25″ slots, Lamptron has started to expand the line-up to internal components for both fan and RGB control,… Read more

Taiwan Chip Packaging Hub Halts Production After COVID-19 Outbreak

Home News (Image credit: King Yuan Electronics) King Yuan Electronics, a top 10 outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) contractor in the world, announced Friday that it is halting production for two days after several employees were tested positive for COVID-19. A two-day shutdown shouldn’t devastate the market, but amid an ongoing chip shortage — largely stemming… Read more

TikTok updates US privacy policy to collect ‘faceprints and voiceprints’ (but won’t explain what they are)

TikTok has updated its privacy policy in the US to notify users that the app might, in future, collect new types of biometric information including “faceprints and voiceprints.” But when reached by The Verge, TikTok was unable to explain what types of data these terms referred to, or why the app might need to access… Read more

Netflix’s Sweet Tooth makes the end of the world a little cozier

Gus may have antlers like a deer, but he’s a puppy dog at heart. The main character of Netflix’s new series Sweet Tooth, based on the comic by Jeff Lemire, is a young boy struggling to survive in a world ravaged by a pandemic. But while the world around him descends into chaos, Gus, played… Read more

Biden’s proposed budget keeps a block on recreational weed sales in Washington, DC

A rider that has effectively blocked recreational cannabis for years in Washington, DC appears in President Joe Biden’s proposed 2022 budget, which may keep weed on the back burner yet again. Even though residents of DC voted to legalize possession of recreational marijuana in 2014, the measure has been in limbo since then, derailed by… Read more

Taito announces mini arcade cabinet with rotating screen and trackball controller

Taito is the latest Japanese video game publisher to resurrect old hardware in mini form. The company behind Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, and many more arcade classics has just announced the Egret II Mini, which like Sega’s excellent Astro City Mini is a shrunken-down version of a popular arcade cabinet. The original Egret II was… Read more

Dell Hit With Fraud Case Over Alienware Area-51m Upgrade Claims

Home News (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) A California man has filed for a class action lawsuit against PC manufacturer Dell, claiming that the company “intentionally misled and deceived” buyers of its Alienware Area 51-m R1 gaming laptop, which was advertised to be more upgradeable than other gaming notebooks. The plaintiff, Robert Felter, who is based… Read more

Google confirms diversity exec no longer in role after problematic post

One of Google’s top executives in diversity strategy and research has left his post after a 2007 blog post slamming the state of Israel resurfaced on June 1st. In the post, Kamau Bobb used antisemitic language, insinuating Jews have an “insatiable appetite for war and killing.” The post was quickly picked up by the New… Read more

Google Pixel Buds A-Series review: Sounds familiar

(Pocket-lint) – Google has announced a new version of the Pixel Buds, its true wireless headphones that originally launched in 2017 – the first-gen weren’t all that, though, while the second-gen Buds 2 stepped things up a little in 2019. The third model belongs to the A-Series, picking up on the A series that we’ve… Read more

Have autonomous robots started killing in war? The reality is messier than it appears

It’s the sort of thing that can almost pass for background noise these days: over the past week, a number of publications tentatively declared, based on a UN report from the Libyan civil war, that killer robots may have hunted down humans autonomously for the first time. As one headline put it: “The Age of… Read more