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Is Google trying to silence conservative media? Google engineer reportedly labeled conservative news websites 'opinion blogs' in 2016; research psychologist Robert Epstein reacts.

A technique used to study earthquakes have been adapted to track elephants in the wild. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2SkBWre

The classic film will be broadcast in super-high definition 8K on a new TV channel in Japan. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2SkYnwj

Sam Gyimah says a row about the EU's Galileo sat-nav system shows any deal will be "EU first". from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2U2kfyo

Whatever happened to the response to the Equifax breach? Congress held hearings and congressional investigators along with the Federal Trade Commission have been looking into it, but so far no enforcement actions have been announced; Bryan Llenas reports.

Marriott says breach exposed data of 500 million guests The world's largest hotel chain Marriott International confirmed that information on up to 500 million of its customers is potentially compromised; Gillian Turner reports.

By Unknown Author from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2SnMdTz

Facebook under fire for reportedly investigating Soros Report: COO Sheryl Sandberg wanted to know if billionaire George Soros was betting against Facebook; Jacqui Heinrich reports.

Fox on games: Marvel gaming crossover It's no secret: Marvel is trying to conquer the universe. No, we're not talking about the all-powerful Thanos of "Infinity War." Marvel's quest is for domination of the entertainment world, and they're getting one step closer with their newest property acquisition.

Video gaming becomes official after-school league at US high schools

Video games to become official after school activity Arizona is implementing eSports league, tourney, championships for its students as an after school activity

Navy tests and refines new attack submarine ‘stealth’ technology The U.S. Navy is arming a new fleet of attack submarines with stealthy “quieting” systems, new weapons, next-gen sonar and additional advanced undersea warfare technologies to enable its future boats to execute massive land-attacks, perform “covert insertions” of forces and conduct reconnaissance missions undetected.

Delta rolls out nation's first biometric terminal Security at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is getting a facelift, as Delta rolls out the first fully biometric terminal in the country.

High tech home bartender gadgets Become the best mixologist on your block with these high tech bartending gadgets including the SUB Home Draft Beer Appliance by Krups, Barsys Automated Cocktail Maker, Vitamix Ascent Series A3300 Mixer and the Fizzics Waytap Draft Beer System.

NASA chief tells Elon Musk to stop drinking and smoking pot Elon Musk will have to lay off the booze and pot if he wants to continue doing work for NASA, the agency’s chief warned this week, while laying into the SpaceX founder for his recent erratic behavior.

Marvel announces 'League of Legends' graphic novels Gaming studio Riot teams with Marvel Entertainment to explore the origin stories of characters from the highly popular game 'League of Legends.'

Sheryl Sandberg asked Facebook staff to find out if George Soros was shorting the company’s stock Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg asked staff to conduct research on whether billionaire George Soros, a high-profile critic of the social network, was shorting the company’s stock.

How America can get its slice of the $1 trillion space economy As the level of interest in space continues to grow, some analysts believe the space economy could be worth $1 trillion – and America stands to capture a significant portion of that.

At the very beginning, there were 13 startups. After three days of incredibly fierce competition, we now have a winner. Startups participating in the Startup Battlefield have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. They all presented in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech leaders serving as judges for a chance to win $50,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup. After hours of deliberations, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges’ notes and narrowed the list down to five finalists: Imago AI , Kalepso , Legacy , Polyteia and Spike . These startups made their way to the finale to demo in front of our final panel of judges, which included: Sophia Bendz (Atomico), Niko Bonatsos (General Catalyst), Luciana Luxiandru (Accel), Ida Tin (Clue), Matt Turck (FirstMark Capital) and Matthew Panzarino (TechCrunch). And now, meet the Startup Battlefield winner of TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2018. Winner: Legacy Legacy is tackling an interesting

Google staffers discussed burying conservative news outlets, but tech giant claims talks didn't amount to anything Google staffers reportedly discussed burying conservative news organizations in the company’s search function with the goal of impacting future elections – but the tech giant says nothing came out of the conversations.

The cash would be used to support any staff striking over Google's work on a search engine for China. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2U6e0ts

Labour demands an ethics probe after health secretary talks about "GP at Hand" app in an interview. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2QqAaYo

Marriott database hack exposes details of 500M guests Marriott International today admitted that it has suffered a security breach on a massive scale, with the personal details of up to 500 million guests having been exposed due to a database breach.

Report: Sandberg asked Facebook employees to research Soros Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg reportedly asked staffers to do research on George Soros' financial interests after he criticized the social media giant; Jacqui Heinrich reports from New York.

AT&T's streaming service will have 3 subscription tiers Next year, the video streaming ecosystem is going to become more crowded as both AT&T and Disney enter the fray.

Amazon to kick off '12 days of deals' this Sunday After logging the single biggest shopping day in its history on Cyber Monday, Amazon is not slowing down on the deal front.

By KEVIN ROOSE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2zyjep7

Microsoft helps police shut down fake tech-support centers in India Microsoft has been working with police in India to shut down fake tech-support centers in the country that are scamming victims in the US and Canada.

Facebook eyed charging companies for user data access, report says Facebook considered charging companies for access to the data of its 2.27 billion monthly active users, according to leaked internal emails.

Starting mid-December, Amazon Echo devices will be able to stream songs from Apple Music. A bit of a surprise, perhaps, given that Apple’s been a competitor in the space since launching the HomePod back in 2017. Amazon’s had its own music service for some time as well, but the company appears to have given up on the dream of being a series competitor in the space — for now, at least. Instead, Echo smart speakers offer native support for a decent cross section of streaming services, including Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. The new skill lets users play specifics songs, genres, playlists and the Beats 1 station through the smart speakers. Adding Apple Music will help the popular smart home products tap into a rapidly growing service. The company cracked 50 million subscribers earlier this year. That’s still well behind the 83 million paid subscribers Spotify announced back in July, but this addition should help give Amazon an added advantage against Google’s Home devices,

N26 announced today that it now has more than 2 million customers — up from 1.5 million in October . The German fintech startup’s CEO Valentin Stalf was interviewed onstage at Disrupt Berlin with Tandem CEO Ricky Knox , where they discussed the growth of what are sometimes called challenger banks or neobanks — new banks that are taking on the incumbents by focusing on digital tools. Stalf said N26 is seeing more than €1.5 billion in transactions each month, with €1 billion in deposits. He also discussed the company’s recent launch in the United Kingdom — he didn’t know the exact number of U.K. users, but estimated that the company has tens of thousands of U.K. accounts, with between 1,500 and 2,000 new signups on a single day three days ago. Meanwhile, Knox said Tandem now has nearly half a million users in the U.K. (“This year, we’re seeing everybody’s growing really quickly.”) He also noted that because Tandem allows users to aggregate different accounts, he’s noticed some of

Marriott says details of up to 500 million guests may have been accessed in a database breach. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2zxgHeX

Google CEO set to appear before Congress Google CEO Sundar Pichai will appear before Congress for the first time; Kurt 'Cyber Guy' Knutsson on what to expect.

Customers can leave electric cars to charge while shopping, under a partnership with Volkswagen. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2Sj3zB6

The regulator says the celebrities did not tell followers they had been paid to promote some investments. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2PaQkAc

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and DJ Khaled have agreed to “pay disgorgement, penalties and interest” for failing to disclose promotional payments from three ICOs including Centra Tech. Mayweather received $100,000 from Centra Tech while Khaled got $50,000 from the failed ICO. The SEC cited Khaled and Mayweather’s social media feeds, noting they touted securities for pay without disclosing their affiliation with the companies. Mayweather, you’ll recall, appeared on Instagram with a whole lot of cash while Khaled called Centra Tech a “Game changer.” “You can call me Floyd Crypto Mayweather from now on,” wrote Mayweather. Sadly, the SEC ruled he is no longer allowed to use the nom de guerre “Crypto” anymore. Without admitting or denying the findings, Mayweather and Khaled agreed to pay disgorgement, penalties and interest. Mayweather agreed to pay $300,000 in disgorgement, a $300,000 penalty, and $14,775 in prejudgment interest. Khaled agreed to pay $50,000 in disgorgement, a $100,000 pena

Founder of UK software giant is charged with fraud seven years after the firm's sale to Hewlett-Packard. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2Q7wcnZ

The coffee chain says watching porn has always been banned, but it will now block access to content. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2rdnLsn

Tarana Burke first used the phrase 12 years ago before it became a global movement last year. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2zGF1ev

Sheryl Sandberg reportedly asked Facebook employees to research George Soros Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg reportedly asked employees to do research on George Soros following a speech he gave criticizing the social media giant.

Grindr’s president says marriage is ‘between man and woman’: report The president of Grindr, the gay dating app, faced backlash after he took to his personal Facebook page last week to declare  "marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman."

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MATTHEW ROSENBERG from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2AC3UHw

A flurry of digital-first insurers are betting they can surpass industry incumbents with a little help from technology and a lot of help from venture capitalists. The latest to land a massive check is Bright Health , a Minneapolis-headquartered provider of affordable individual, family and Medicare Advantage healthcare plans in Alabama,  Arizona ,  Colorado ,  New York City ,  Ohio  and  Tennessee. The company, founded by the former chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Bob Sheehy; Kyle Rolfing, the former CEO of UnitedHealth-acquired Definity Health ; and Tom Valdivia, another former Definity Health executive, has brought in a $200 million Series C. The funding values Bright Health at $950 million, according to PitchBook — more than double the $400 million valuation it garnered with its $160 million Series B in June 2017. Sheehy, Bright Health’s CEO, declined to comment on the valuation. New investors Declaration Partners and Meritech Capital participated in the round, with

By NATHANIEL POPPER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2PciWtb

Thirteen companies took the stage today at Disrupt Berlin, delivering six-minute pitches and demos, then answering free-for-all questions from expert judges. Now that the judges have given us their feedback, we’ve chosen five finalists. These finalists will all take the stage again tomorrow afternoon to present in front of a new set of judges, who will have time to ask more in-depth questions. Then one winner will be chosen to take home the Disrupt Cup — not to mention $50,000, equity-free. Here are the finalists. The competition will be live-streamed on TechCrunch starting at 2:05pm Berlin time on Friday. Imago AI Imago AI is applying AI to help feed the world’s growing population by increasing crop yields and reducing food waste. To accomplish this, it’s using computer vision and machine learning technology to fully automate the laborious task of measuring crop output and quality. Read more about Imago AI here . Kalepso Kalepso says it can do better than other database o

New tech to defeat hidden underground terror threats Defense Specialist Allison Barrie explains how new technology could make stopping threats lurking underground and as well as preventing illegal smuggling across U.S. borders much easier and far safer.

Subterranean terror: Can tech defeat hidden underground threats? Nuclear weapon installations, cross-border smuggling tunnels, subway systems, cave networks ... just a few places that adversaries can pose an underground threat to security.

Lyft has finally given us a glimpse of its forthcoming line of shareable bikes, which the ridesharing company says will be available to rent within its mobile app in select cities “soon.” The news comes as the $15 billion company announces the final close of its acquisition of Motivate , the New York City-based mobility startup that owns a number of bike-rental services, like Citi Bike, Ford GoBike, Divvy, Blue Bikes and Capital Bikeshare. The transaction was reportedly worth some $250 million . Lyft brought in $600 million in fresh funding in June from backers Fidelity Research & Management, AllianceBernstein, Baillie Gifford, KKR, CapitalG, Rakuten and others. Now that its bike deal is complete, Lyft becomes the largest bike service provider in the U.S. That’s a big leap forward for a company that hopes to  have the largest dockless bike fleet in the world — outside of China, of course, where companies like Mobike have deployed millions of bikes . [gallery ids="17526

Vlad the imposter: Twitter suspends fake Putin account that had almost 1 million followers Twitter has suspended a fake English language Vladimir Putin account that had racked up almost 1 million followers.

China is using 'economic espionage' to grab US technology A new report issued by several prominent experts on Chinese and American foreign policy claims that China is using a range of methods to misappropriate U.S. technology.

China is using 'economic espionage' and 'theft' to grab US technology A new report issued by several prominent experts on Chinese and American foreign policy claims that China is using a range of methods to misappropriate U.S. technology.

Legacy is tackling an interesting problem: the reduction of sperm motility as we age. By freezing our sperm, this Swiss-based company promises to keep our boys safe and potent as we get older, a consideration that many find vital as we marry and have kids later. Legacy, which exhibited in Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin 2018, was chosen as the wildcard company to present its services onstage during Startup Battlefield. How does it work? Well, the company delivers a system for grabbing sperm. The material is kept in a specially made container and shipped to a nearby clinic where they then test the sperm and place it in cryogenic storage. You can then make a withdrawal when you’re ready for babies. “Our unique at-home solution allows men to have their sperm analyzed and frozen at a clinic without leaving their home or having to meet with a physician,” said founder Khaled Kteily. “All clients receive a full fertility analysis, including personalized recommendations using our machine l

Fewer smart meters are being fitted despite the government insisting all homes will have one by 2020. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2E4ldFo

Instagram adds object detection, alt text for the visually impaired Instagram is a photo and video sharing social network, which by default puts the emphasis on viewing the content users upload.

Problems with credit checks led some customers to be wrongly refused smartphone contracts. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2E4L5kO

Alexandre Meregan says that music, and audio in general, has always been core to his life. But one day on his five-minute commute to work, trying to listen to a podcast for the first time, he realized that by the time he arrived at work he had only heard an introduction and a commercial jingle. He immediately went to work on Koo! , a short-form podcast app aimed at young people. Koo! lets users record up to one minute of audio, add “sound stickers” like a drum roll or a poop sound, and share the “Koo” in a feed with their friends and followers. Meregan believes that some young people are hesitant to share their thoughts on social media, which is mostly picture or video-based, because of the quantification of their self-worth through Like counters. With Koo! users can simply speak their thoughts without having to share a picture or video. “At Koo! we believe a lot of great content is being held back by teenagers due to insecurities that comes with photo and video,” said Meregan onsta

The team behind Rlay believes that blockchain technology can play a crucial role in helping businesses crowdsource their data-gathering tasks. Founder Michael Hirn said this is a problem he encountered while working with Sunstone Capital to develop a more quantitative approach to venture capital, which meant pulling startup data from a wide variety of online sources. It ended up being an incredibly time-consuming process, and he said, “90 percent of the time was spent cleaning the data and acquiring the data.” CTO Max Goisser argued that this is a broad problem. There are already successful examples of crowdsourced data, most notably Wikipedia, but in his view, they succeeded because “these things were of value for the entire world — everyone’s interested in that.” “But what if you wanted to crowdsource something that is [only] interesting to you as a company?” Goisser said. Then you’d need the right incentive system to convince people to contribute. And that’s where Rlay (pronoun