Articles by John P. Mello Jr

Tech giants like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple would be broken up under a proposal U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren aired online Friday "Today's big tech companies have too much power -- too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy," the Democratic presidential hopeful wrote on Medium....

August on Tuesday introduced a new smart doorbell to its product lineup. The August View, priced at US$230, is a wireless doorbell that can stream sharp 1440p HD video. It supports two-way audio, so you can talk to guests via an Internet connection The View can be paired with August and Connected by August smart locks. That means you not only can s...

Facebook has undermined privacy on its network by exposing mobile phone numbers provided to secure user accounts through two-factor authentication. That's because anyone can use the numbers to look up a user's account. One doesn't even have to be a Facebook member to do so Moreover, there's no way to opt out of the setting, although it can be limit...

Predicting the power output of wind farms has been challenging, but it's becoming less so with the use of machine learning Google and British artificial intelligence company DeepMind have been using ML algorithms to improve predictions of the wind power output at Google's wind farms in the Midwest, according to a post coauthored by DeepMind Program...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday defended the company's US$479 million contract with the U.S. military -- a commitment that some Microsoft employees strongly opposed While pledging to engage with employees and consider Microsoft's role as a corporate citizen, Nadella said the company would not withhold technology from institutions in democraci...

The FIDO Alliance hammered another nail into the passwords coffin on Monday with the announcement that devices running Android 7.0 or higher will be compatible with FIDO2, the latest version of its authentication solution Certification of Android 7.0+ means devices running those versions of Google's mobile operating system will support FIDO2 out o...

Google unveiled its game plan for fighting disinformation on its properties at a security conference in Munich, Germany, over the weekend The 30-page document details Google's current efforts to combat bad dope on its search, news, YouTube and advertising platforms....

Digital transformation has become a prime focus for retailers these days. In order to grow, brick-and-mortar stores realize they must use their digital touchpoints to enhance their customers' in-store experiences Online retailers recognize they need to separate themselves from the pack through faster and more informative shopping experiences. And o...

Amazon has scooped up mesh WiFi network maker Eero, the home network company known for making an easy-to-set-up product that can blanket a home with high-quality WiFi. Amazon announced the deal Monday night but did not disclose any financial details....

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at boosting artificial intelligence research and development in the United States The order sets up the American AI Initiative, which instructs federal agencies to move projects involving artificial intelligence to the top of their priority lists....

The next upgrade of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 12.2, will come with an annoying surprise for virtual and augmented reality developers It will block Web access to the accelerometer and gyroscope in Apple mobile devices by default, Digiday reported Monday....

Google on Monday announced two new Android applications designed to make life easier for deaf and hard-of-hearing people One of the apps, Live Transcribe, turns live speech into real-time captions by using a phone's microphone; the other, Sound Amplifier, improves a phone's sound output....

Apple on Tuesday blocked a Facebook app that paid users for total access to all network data passing through their mobile phones The controversy over use of the Facebook Research app first was reported by TechCrunch, which revealed that Facebook was paying users US$20 a month for root network access to their phones....

Apple on Monday suspended its Group FaceTime application following reports that a bug in the software allowed callers to eavesdrop on the people they were calling The flaw let a person making a FaceTime call listen through the phone of the person called before the call was accepted or rejected....

A "Netflix for Games" type of service may be in Apple's future. Apple has been developing a subscription service that will function for games much like Netflix does for movies and TV series, according to a Cheddarreport It's still unclear what the subscription fee would be or what kinds of games would be offered on the service, noted Cheddar, whic...

The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday filed a court action against Oracle for underpaying non-white male employees by as much as US$400 million "Oracle suppressed starting salaries for its female and non-White employees, assigned them to lower level positions and depressed their wages over the years they worked for Oracle," states an amendment to...

Google must remove search results about medical regulators' conditional suspension of a Dutch physician in the first "right to be forgotten" case of its kind in the European Union After Google and Dutch data privacy watchdog Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens rebuffed the doctor's initial attempts to get disciplinary actions purged from online search resu...

Facebook on Monday began rolling out a new feature that's bound to charm the political activists among its users Called "Community Actions," it lets Facebook members create an action page where they can describe what they'd like done, and set up a button that like-minded members can click to show their support, TechCrunch reported Sunday....

Authorities can't force people to unlock their biometrically secured phones or other devices, a federal judge in California ruled Thursday "The Government may not compel or otherwise utilize fingers, thumbs, facial recognition, optical/iris, or any other biometric feature to unlock electronic devices," Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore wrote in a...

Samsung is expected to unveil its new lineup of flagship smartphones on Feb. 20 at a Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco, and the rumor mill has been operating on overtime It's believed three new Galaxy S10 models will be announced at the event, as well as a folding phone. Banners promoting Unpacked are using the phrase "Unfolding the Future" as...