Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Wednesday sent letters to both Uber and Lyft seeking information about their driver review policies, following a Washington Post report about how Uber prioritizes liability concerns over safety. Sen. Blumenthal assails how Uber and Lyft deal with driver misconduct following Washington Post report Source: Washington Post Tech
Read MoreThe original proponent of the California Privacy Protection Act wants to make the law stronger. New California privacy initiative proposed for 2020 ballot – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreAn iPhone 4-esque metal frame could be in again next year, an analyst note reportedly says. iPhone 2020 could go back to the metal frame – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreOne of the more interesting ideas being experimented with in VR is 1:1 mapping of virtual and real-world objects, so that virtual representations can have physically interaction in a normal way. Tinker Pilot is a VR spaceship simulator project by [LLUÍS and JAVI] that takes this idea and runs with it, aiming for the ability
Read MoreMary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News: Divvy, which buys and rents homes while setting aside ~25% of monthly payments toward the renter’s future down payment for the house, raises $43M Series B — Another day, another real estate tech startup raises money. — Well, not really. But that’s what it feels like. Divvy, which buys
Read MoreFacebook revealed at today’s Oculus Connect event that it’s launching its own social VR platform, a very MMO-like virtual world called Horizon. Horizon is an “interconnected world” where VR avatars can meet, hang out, play games, and build their own environments. In the announcement video, it shows legless avatars flying planes, creating art, and playing
Read MoreImage: Apple Apple has published a new support document that says the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max will present customers with a warning if the devices are unable to verify a genuine display after a screen repair job. “If you need to replace your iPhone display, it’s important for certified technicians who
Read MoreIt may not be the most practical mid-size sedan, but it’s got style and that’s apparently enough. Maserati just built its 100,000th Ghibli, and here's why that's a big deal – Roadshow Source: CNet
Read MoreTaylor Hill/FilmMagic for YouTube YouTube won’t ban politicians from using its platform even if their content violates the company’s guidelines, CEO Susan Wojcicki said in a public interview on Wednesday, as reported by Politico. Wojcicki spoke about how the platform approaches political figures during an interview session at The Atlantic Festival, suggesting that whatever they
Read MoreNew devices were introduced on Wednesday to get the digital assistant in your earbuds, in your eyeglasses and in your bathroom. Amazon Wants Alexa to Move (With You) Far Beyond the Living Room Source: NY Times Tech
Read MoreIt’s obvious that Amazon is trying to make its Alexa personal assistant as ubiquitous as possible. At today’s marathon product introduction, the company debuted a wide variety of its Echo-branded Alexa-powered products, both for the home and for the outdoors. But that presents the problem: with all these new and upgraded Echo devices, which should
Read MoreJoe Fitzgerald Rodriguez / The San Francisco Examiner: San Francisco grants permits to Lime, JUMP, Scoot, and Spin to deploy up to 2,500 electric scooters each, starting from October 15 — Rev your (electric) engines, San Francisco: E-scooters are going to spread across The City. — Four e-scooter companies just won a coveted permit to
Read MoreIn a recent issue of the Recomendo newsletter, Mark Frauenfelder suggested a three-tool kit for cleaning earwax out of the mesh screen of your AirPods. My AirPods were in dire need of a deep clean, and the cleaning method we once recommended on Lifehacker is just gross, so I ran out and bought the wax-loosening
Read MoreA team of researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Intel took thousands of conversations from the scummiest communities on Reddit and Gab and used them to develop and train AI to combat hate speech. Finally, r/The_Donald and other online cesspools are doing something useful. The system was developed after the researchers created a novel dataset
Read MoreSpaceX is building and testing Starship prototypes as Elon Musk looks ahead to Earth orbit, the moon and then, perhaps someday, Mars. Elon Musk shows off the shiny SpaceX Starship – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreWall Street Journal: SoftBank-backed real estate tech startup Compass loses its COO, after departures of CFO, CTO, CMO, HR head, general counsel, and head of product over 18 months — Startup fueled by $1.5 billion from Japanese tech fund faces scrutiny following wave of executive departures SoftBank-backed real estate tech startup Compass loses its COO,
Read MoreThe city decides to keep Uber on probation. Uber gets two-month operating license in London. It wanted five years – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe Amazon Connect Kit will make Alexa your digital sous chef in the kitchen. Amazon Smart Oven: New Alexa device is air-fryer, microwave, convection oven in one – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe comedy of errors surrounding the game continues. Fallout Power Armor helmet recalled due to mold – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreA pair of tycoon-owned companies are jockeying for the travel dollars of the super rich. Blue Origin says a new era of space tourism will probably launch in 2020 – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreAmazon took a whole damn Echo speaker and put it into a ring and called it the Echo Loop. It’s part of a program Amazon is calling “Day1,” which is code for “here are a bunch of products that are not really ready for mass sales, but we want to put them out there anyway.”
Read MoreSmartphones and other modern computing devices are wonderful things, but for those with disabilities interacting with them isn’t always easy. In trying to improve accessibility, [Dougie Mann] created TypeCase, a combination gestural input device and chording keyboard that exists in a kind of symbiotic relationship with a user’s smartphone. With TypeCase, a user can control
Read MoreIf you don’t need to buy groceries or home essentials in bulk, you may have assumed that shopping at a warehouse club like Costco or Sam’s Club is simply not for you. If you’re shopping for a small household or have limited storage space, the cost of a yearly membership may not be worth it.
Read MoreAndrew Gebhart / CNET: Amazon launches the “Certified for Humans” program for simple-to-use devices that are able to be set up and controlled within the Alexa app — Amazon wants your smart home to be simpler. Building off of the “frustration-free setup” announced last year, the company announced the … Amazon launches the "Certified for
Read MoreThe Verge: Amazon Echo Buds first impressions: comfortable, sound good, and are great at noise reduction, but their case is significantly larger than AirPods’ — These are going to be big, literally and metaphorically — Amazon is taking Alexa’s show on the road with it’s new Echo Buds … Amazon Echo Buds first impressions: comfortable,
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