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After a New York Times report highlighted how Facebook provided 60 or so device manufacturers access to user data , today the NYT and Washington Post report that four Chinese manufacturers are on the list. Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and TCL all had integrations that Facebook exec Francisco Varela told the NYT : "were controlled from the get-go — and Facebook approved everything that was built." Huawei, in particular, has been raised for scrutiny by several lawmakers, who worry that the Chinese government could demand access to data on its servers. Earlier this year, the FBI, CIA and NSA warned against use of the company's products or services , citing a potential capacity for "undetected espionage." Facebook has not listed all of the companies included in these agreements -- Apple is not included -- which it said it has been "winding down...

A Sun Pillar over Norway Have you ever seen a sun pillar ? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting , falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice sometimes forms flat, six-sided shaped crystals as it falls from high-level clouds . Air resistance causes these crystals to lie nearly flat much of the time as they flutter to the ground. Sunlight reflects off crystals that are properly aligned , creating the sun- sun-pillar effect. In the featured picture taken last week, a sun-pillar reflects light from a Sun setting over Fensf jorden , Norway . June 06, 2018 via NASA https://ift.tt/2Hnj1WZ Manage this Applet Unsubscribe from these notificatio...

Mere hours after Intel raised eyebrows with the promise of a 5GHz 28-core processor , AMD has done four cores better with its own tease of a 32-core chip. The second generation of AMD's Threadripper processors will have a truly extreme variant that straps four 8-core Ryzen APUs together to form a unified, humongous 32-core part. This "heavy metal" Threadripper can handle 64 processing threads at a time, doubling the core count and capabilities of the original Threadripper, though it can still fit in the same motherboard socket. The only other details that AMD disclosed here at Computex were that the second-gen Threadripper is built using a 12nm process and will be made available in the third quarter of this year. Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2HmqLIP ...

AMD is once again pushing its processor technology to new heights. During its Computex keynote today, the company revealed that its second-generation Threadripper CPU will feature up to 32 cores and 64 threads. We've known the chip would arrive later this year, but AMD now says it'll launch in the third quarter. The news also comes on the heels of Intel's announcement of an impending 28-core, 5GHz chip . The new Threadripper will run on AMD's 12nm Zen+ architecture, just like the company's newest Ryzen desktop CPUs . It'll sport all of the features from those products as well, like higher clock speeds, more efficient performance and improved boost. Only a few years ago, we were blown away by AMD and Intel's foray into double-digit core counts, so it's surprising to see how quickly we've leaped beyond 30 cores. Click here to cat...

iOS 12 will apparently have a lot more more to offer other than what was announced on stage at Apple's annual developers conference. One of those unannounced features could be a game changer for those hard of hearing: Cupertino's upcoming mobile platform will make AirPods compatible with Apple's Live Listen assistive hearing app . TechCrunch first reported the feature, and an Apple spokesperson confirmed it to Engadget. At the moment, Live Listen is only compatible with third -party devices like hearing aids or implants, but iOS 12 will make it a lot more accessible. Even those who can hear enough and can't justify purchasing a hearing aid will be able to take advantage of what it can do. Apple created Live Listen as part of its Made for iPhone hearing aid program, and users can switch it on in settings under Accessibility on their iPhone. They...

Sense8 fans asked for it, and this week the series finale comes to Netflix along with a season season of UK detective show Marcella . Tonight we also have the season premiere of AMC's droid series Humans , while Freeform hosts a new Marvel show later this week with Cloak & Dagger . In 4K, we have A Wrinkle in Time , The Incredibles and Game of Thrones season one, while gamers can dig into Moto GP and Vampyr as sports fans tune into the NHL and NBA finals. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed). Blu-ray & Games & Streaming Death Wish Gringo The Hurricane Heist (4K) Game of Thrones (S1) (4K) The Incredibles (4K) Escape Plan (4K) A Wrinkle in Time (4K) Aragami: Shadow Edition (PS4, Xbox One) Awkward! (Xbox One, PS4) ...

Instagram is considering doing away with video length constraints, according to The Wall Street Journal , which tonight published a report about "a new feature" that would let users post long-form clips of up to an hour. That would open new creative flexibility for users and bring Instagram closer in line with YouTube and its own parent company, Facebook. The plan is described as tentative, so Instagram could ultimately decide against radically extending the maximum running time of videos on its platform. The new feature "will focus on vertical video" according to the Journal . Instagram Stories are already designed around that tall, vertical video format, and the report doesn't clarify whether longer videos would be allowed only in that... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2xLwmZl ...

Consider a group of drones that have to constantly exchange information on their position in order to avoid colliding with one another. Or a smart car that needs up-to-the-millisecond sensor data to avoid crashing into objects, other cars or people . While current networks are designed to send a lot of i nformation quickly, they do not manage how fresh that information is. Researchers at MIT are digging into this issue and have created an algorithm that can help optimize how fresh the data is on a simple wireless network. "If you are exchanging congestion information, you would want that information to be as fresh as possible," said MIT's Eytan Modiano in a statement. "If it's dated, you might make the wrong decision. That's why the age of information is important." In essence, the researchers found a way to calculate an ...

How much do you love Hot Wheels ? So much that you spend your days wishing you could ride that loop-the-loop yourself? Probably not, but Mattel has your back regardless. It just trotted out a Hot Wheels Zoom In car with a slot designed to accommodate one of GoPro's Hero5 and Session action cameras -- yes, you too can document your plastic track racing with a camera that costs exponentially more than the $1.09 vehicle underneath. If you've ever wanted to combine the thrill of first-person stunts with the fear of trusting an expensive gadget to the whims of physics, your dream machine is here. Not that we should rain too much on your parade. If you already have a Session and loads of track space, this is a trivial way to experiment with your action cam when you're not busy kayaking or mountain biking. It just makes less sense the other way around. And consid...

One of Apple's most thoughtful accessibility features on iOS is Live Listen . The feature gives someone using a hearing aid a way to stream audio picked up by an iPhone's microphone to the device in their ear — so long as the hearing aid is compatible with the Made for iPhone specification . Now, slated to arrive with iOS 12 come Septembe r, Live Listen will work with Apple's own AirPods, so users who are hard of hearing can stream microphone audio from an iPhone directly to the wireless earbuds. TechCrunch first reported on the new feature earlier today . The AirPods inclusion for Live Listen is great for those who have suffered some form of mild hearing loss or typically just have trouble hearing, but do not use a professional-grade... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2JhK4ok ...