Geek News

Microsoft is bringing 19 new original Xbox games to the Xbox One this month, including six classic Star Wars titles. The additions bring the total number of original Xbox backwards compatibility games to 32, after Microsoft launched 13 titles last year . All of the games will work via either a disc version of the title or a digital copy from the Microsoft Store. This is the full list of games that will be available later this month: Original Xbox games releasing on April 17: Blinx: The Time Sweeper Breakdown Conker: Live & Reloaded The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Hunter: The Reckoning Jade Empire Panzer Dragoon Orta SSX 3 Original Xbox games releasing on April 26: Destroy All Humans! Full Spectrum Warrior Mercenaries: Playground of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2IF2H4P"

Suspicions that Facebook (and associated apps like Instagram) are secretly recording audio through phone microphones in order to better target ads have refused to die, despite official denials dating all the way back to 2016 . In today’s Senate hearing, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the urban legend yet again, issuing an absolute denial. “Yes or no, does Facebook use audio obtained from mobile devices to enrich personal information about users?” asked Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI). “No,” Zuckerberg responded adamantly. He went on to elaborate that Facebook does have access to audio when people record videos on their devices for Facebook, but otherwise it doesn’t access your microphone. “Hopefully that will dispel a lot of what I’ve been... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2ql3XDv"

Health But there's got to be a better way. CHS is a condition where heavy marijuana users are frequently wracked with bouts of intense abdominal pain, along with severe nausea and vomiting. And the vast majority… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2JzNwet"

As part of his hours-long Senate testimony today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to assure lawmakers that he didn’t fire Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey for his political views. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked Zuckerberg about 2016 reports that the company had removed conservative political news from its trending stories box , and followed up with questions about its moderators’ political views. When Zuckerberg said he didn’t ask employees for their political views, Cruz followed up with “Why was Palmer Luckey fired?” Cruz is responding to a thorny political mini-scandal from 2016, when The Daily Beast reported that Palmer Luckey was secretly funding a pro-Trump political activism group called Nimble America, which was dedicated to the idea... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2IJOZ0m"

Google’s original Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, the beginning of the company’s broader push to unify and streamline its in-house hardware efforts, have been removed from the Play Store, as noted today by AndroidPolice . Google confirmed to The Verge that the devices are no longer available for purchase from the company directly. You can, however, still purchase the original Pixel and Pixel XL devices in a variety of colors and storage sizes from places like Amazon and Best Buy . It makes sense Google would eventually remove the original Pixel phones, as last year’s Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have replaced them . But as devices that originally rivaled Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy line in price, it was always refreshing to know you... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GMpLOr"

A new bill from Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) would place significant new constraints on data collection by Facebook and other online services. Dubbed the CONSENT Act (short for Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge-provider Network Transgressions), the bill requires explicit opt-in consent from users to use, share, or sell any personal information, as well as clear notification any time data is collected, shared, or used. The bill would also add new security and breach reporting requirements. Crucially, the CONSENT Act relies on the Federal Trade Commission to enforce any violations of those new rules. If the bill passes, the result would be a significant expansion of the commission’s power and role in... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2qiaK0Q"

In Zuckerberg’s testimony before a joint session between the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees today, the Facebook CEO was forced to confront whether his company was now effectively a monopoly. Concerns about Facebook’s monopoly status have surfaced over the last year, with growing calls to break up the company. “Who’s your biggest competitor?” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Zuckerberg. The CEO struggled to answer the question, naming Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft as “overlap[ing]” with Facebook in different ways. “If I buy a Ford, and it doesn’t work well, and I don’t like it, I can buy a Chevy. If I’m upset with Facebook, what’s the equivalent product I can go sign up for?” Graham asked. When Zuckerberg attempted to... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2HgIFQW"

Vehicle license plates haven’t changed much in concept since the car itself was invented more than a century ago, but digital license plates have been talked about more in recent years. Now, drivers in Dubai are set to test them out. Dubai will start testing digital “ smart plates” on some vehicles next month, according to the BBC . The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority’s argument for the trial is that these devices will allow for quicker emergency response if the driver is in a crash or if the car is stolen. Services such as registration renewal, tolls, and parking fines can also be instantly deducted from the vehicle’s owner. But because GPS is fitted to the license plates, there’s concern about privacy. The license numbers can be... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2HdJ4DM"

Nexus Media News Scant snowfall is fueling drought, floods, wildfires and mudslides. The Sierra Nevada snowpack is exceptionally meager this year, putting California’s water supply at risk and portending more floods, wildfires and mudslides over the… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2qkHdn7"

Twitter today pledged to support a proposed Senate bill that would require technology platforms that sell advertising space to disclose the source of and amount of money paid for political ads. Called the Honest Ads Act , the bipartisan bill was first introduced back in October by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). The regulation of online political advertisements is one of the lasting, material effects of Russian interference in the 2016 US election , in which thousands of fake Kremlin-linked accounts were used to plant propaganda, sow distrust, and stir up heated debates on divisive political issues among the American populace primarily through social media. Twitter is following in the... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2qlYRWQ"

Animals England's ichthyosaurs have changed the course of paleontology again. In 2016, Paul de la Salle was walking along the beach in the British town of Lilstock when he came across a rock that looked suspiciously bone-like. Specifically, a… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2JB6yRx"

Technology Get ready for the wildest couple hours C-Span has to offer. Mark Zuckerberg is in Washington to testify in front of House and Senate committees. Let's watch, shall we? via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2EB8UfJ"

https://live.theverge.com/mark-zuckerberg-congress-testimony-live-blog/ Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2EANAqC"

The on-again, off-again courtship between telecoms Sprint and T-Mobile is officially back on, with The Wall Street Journal reporting today that the companies have resumed talks of a merger for what is the third time in four years. The companies weren’t able “to find mutually agreeable terms” last fall, when talks ended without an agreement in November. Discussions are at a preliminary phase, the WSJ reports, and so they may still fall apart yet again. Different this time around, however, is the big antitrust case playing out between the US Justice Department and AT&T , which is trying to push through its acquisition of Time Warner in order to create one of the world’s most powerful telecommunications and entertainment empires. The trial e... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2v3e3gT"

Technology Are you one of the unlucky 87 million? A simple check to see if your Facebook data ended up in the wrong hands. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2qmXua7"

Facebook has started to help users figure out whether or not they’ve been affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and detailed in the company’s notification is the fact that Facebook users may have also had their private messages leaked to Cambridge Analytica. As pointed out by researcher Jonathan Albright , the vulnerability dates back to the first version of Facebook’s Graph API, which allowed apps to request massive amounts of users’ friends info with a single prompt. Once permission was granted, apps — like Cambridge Analytica — could continue to pull data for years until either the app was deleted or when Facebook finally killed the 1.0 version of the Graph API for a more limited 2.0 version in 2015. Included in the data that... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2JyXrB1"

Although 311,127 Australians were affected by the Cambridge Analytica data breach, only 53 of the country’s citizens took the Facebook quiz responsible for improperly obtaining and using personal information, as reported by The Guardian . Similarly, 63,724 people in New Zealand were affected, but only 10 New Zealanders downloaded the quiz. It’s reasonable to assume many of the people in Australia and New Zealand were impacted via a friend in their own country, but that’s likely far from accounting for everyone. These numbers also demonstrate the ripple effects from users’ friends abroad who granted permissions to the personality quiz app, called “thisisyourdigitallife.” As many as 87 million Facebook users may have had their information... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2JCp0tk"

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Technology It takes a lot more than concrete to get a sidewalk built. For communities all over America, sidewalks present an increasingly contentious debate over issues of infrastructure spending, safety, and the rights of the individual. via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2v1GKuS"

Last week, T-Mobile Austria customers got some terrible security news as a string of unplanned customer service tweets revealed that the company was storing passwords in plain text, which is a major violation of basic cybersecurity practices. Today, the company finally came clean and pledged to immediately implement password-hashing, a crucial protection in the event of a breach. “Online-passwords will be salted and hashed in the future, as is considered state of the art in security,” a spokesperson told The Verge . “Other channels, including shops and call centers, will introduce additional security criteria. These steps will be implemented as quickly as possible.” Hashing is a basic security practice throughout the industry, allowing... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2GShVmk"

Radical Heights is Now Available on Steam Early Access!* Welcome to RADICAL HEIGHTS, a free X-TREME Early Access BATTLE ROYALE shooter. Partake in high-stakes gunplay as you loot for weapons, gadgets, cosmetics, and CASH! Survive to the end or risk it all in this irreverent action game show where everyone wants to be rich and famous! via Steam RSS News Feed "https://ift.tt/2qklprP"

Technology It's not going to be a fun trip to see the cherry blossoms Mark Zuckerberg will talk user data, Russian meddling, and possible regulations… via Popular Science "https://ift.tt/2Hpb70B"

In the wake of the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook has come under increasing scrutiny for the ways its platform can be misused. That scrutiny intensified greatly last month amid reports that a London-based data mining firm named Cambridge Analytica had improperly obtained user data from as many as 87 million people — and that Facebook had failed to confirm that the company deleted the data as promised. The Federal Trade Commission is now investigating, and Congress is holding hearings. Meanwhile, Facebook faces at least three related crises: the data privacy scandal; the collapse of trust in the News Feed caused by revelations that Russian agents had flooded it with divisive content; and the broader reckoning over social media... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "https://ift.tt/2JAyYLt"