Police

United Airlines flight safely lands after dramatic engine failure caught on camera

A United Airlines flight experienced a dramatic-looking engine failure just after takeoff from Denver International Airport on Saturday afternoon. UA328, originally headed to Honolulu, quickly circled back to the airport and made a safe landing after the pilots calmly made a “mayday” call to air traffic control. There were no injuries among the 231 passengers… Read more

Furosystems Aventa e-bike review: ice breaker

Ease your way into the joys of commuting by electric bike Aventa is a new electric bike with a secret: its battery is removable despite the clean design. London-based Furosystems just launched the Aventa series of pedal-assist e-bikes into the European market. A more powerful US model is planned for later this year, or early… Read more

Android 12 developer preview feature roundup: improved emergency calls, bigger notifications, and more

The Android 12 developer preview is out, and the internet is busy poring over it to find any new features or hints at the OS’s future. So far, there have been a few interesting things discovered, such as an Emergency SOS feature, some redesigns, and other useful, if minor, finds: The ability to prevent specific… Read more

Older Pixel phones are having serious camera issues, according to owners

Some owners of previous-generation Pixel phones are having serious trouble with their cameras. Android Police has noticed a recent increase in one-star Play Store reviews for the camera app used by the Pixel, with frustrated owners saying the camera often crashes upon opening or no longer works at all. A thread in Google’s Pixel support… Read more

Los Angeles police used Amazon Ring footage to investigate police brutality protests

The Los Angeles Police Department requested access to Amazon Ring footage while investigating vandalism during last summer’s anti-racism and police brutality protests, according to newly released emails. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls it the first evidence of police trying to identify protest attendees with home surveillance cameras — although it’s part of a much longer… Read more

What did we learn from the GameStop mess?

On this week’s Decoder, I sat down with CNBC anchor Jon Fortt to talk about GameStop, how the media covered it, what happens next for the market, and what — if anything — we learned from it all. We also talked about his new online course, The Black Experience in America. This transcript has been… Read more

Minneapolis prohibits use of facial recognition software by its police department

The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously on Friday to approve an ordinance banning the use of facial recognition software by its police department and other city agencies, the Star Tribune reported. The ban adds Minneapolis to the list of US cities moving to limit or end the use of such technology by its law enforcement… Read more

Alexa can now greet people from your Ring Doorbell Pro

Amazon is announcing that it’s adding Alexa to its Ring Video Doorbell Pro, giving it the ability to talk to people when they come to your house. The feature is called Alexa Greetings, and requires that you have a Ring Protect subscription, which starts at $3 a month. If you do, Alexa can ask your… Read more

Today I learned you can turn off Reddit’s obnoxious app install pop-up with a simple checkbox

My preferred way to surf Reddit is via the mobile website. It lets me quickly check a few of my favorite subreddits to see which posts are bubbling up. Since I’m not usually logged in, it helps me manage my screen time, too; you can only scroll down so far in comment threads until Reddit… Read more

PSA: if you use Slack on Android, you should update your password

You should change your Slack password if you used the app on Android, according to an email sent out by the company and published by Android Police. Apparently, from December 21st to January 21st, the Android version of the Slack app would store users’ credentials in plain text, which theoretically means any other apps on… Read more

Police in Minneapolis reportedly used a geofence warrant at Floyd protest last year

Police in Minneapolis got a search warrant that ordered Google to provide account data on people who were near a protest that turned violent two days after the killing of George Floyd last year, TechCrunch reported. The search warrant required Google to provide account data for anyone “within the geographical region” of an AutoZone store… Read more

A German man is keeping $60 million in bitcoin from police by never revealing his password

The wonderful thing about bitcoin is many of its apparent benefits, like the ability to be anonymously owned and securely transferred, are also the things that often create situations like this: police in Germany have seized more than €50 million ($60 million) in bitcoin, but they can’t access any of it because, as Reuters reports,… Read more

Baltimore’s spy planes will fly no more

Baltimore, Maryland city officials have unanimously voted to end the city police department’s spy plane surveillance program, according to The Baltimore Sun (via Vice). Sorry, wait, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) had a spy plane program? Yes, and it was called AIR, which stands for Aerial Investigation Research. The program was run by a company… Read more

Google is weighing an anti-tracking feature for Android, following Apple’s lead

Google is considering developing an Android alternative to Apple’s upcoming App Tracking Transparency, a new planned opt-in requirement the iPhone maker will impose on developers that demands they ask for permission to track iOS users across apps and websites. The news, first reported on Thursday by Bloomberg, underscores the increasing pressure on large tech companies,… Read more

Clearview’s facial recognition tech is illegal mass surveillance, Canada privacy commissioners say

Clearview AI’s facial recognition amounts to mass surveillance and the company should delete the faces of Canadians from its database, Canada’s privacy commissioners said Wednesday. Commissioner Daniel Therrien said what Clearview does — scraping photos from social media and other public sites for use by law enforcement — is “illegal” and creates a system that… Read more