Technology

The FCC says it found the carriers “sold access to its customers’ location information to ‘aggregators,’ who then resold access to such information to third-party location-based service providers.” The agency says the carriers effectively “attempted to offload” their responsibility to get customers’ consent to share their location data with “downstream recipients.” Even after being made aware of the issue, the FCC claims, the carriers still failed to limit access to the information.The fines vary across carriers. T-Mobile faces the largest at $80 million. Sprint, which merged with T-Mobile since the investigation began, faces a $12 million fine. AT&T faces the second-largest fine at roughly $57 million, followed by Verizon at around $47 million. T-Mobile’s and Verizon’s fines are ac...

Ever since Apple rolled out iOS 17, there’s been a bit of a buzz — or, should we say, a lack thereof. The default notification tone, "Rebound," has been causing quite a stir among users.It’s soft and subtle, but for many, it’s just too quiet.Fear not, fellow iPhone users. We will show you how to customize your alerts by changing the default notification sound on your iPhone.CLICK TO GET KURT’S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK VIDEO TIPS, TECH REVIEWS AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER Default alerts setting on iPhone (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)How to update your iPhone's softwareFirst things first: If you haven't already updated the software on your iPhone, you'll want to do that first. Here's how to do it.Go to SettingsTap GeneralClick Software Update to check f...

Wacom has thrown a tablet-shaped curveball at digital creatives waiting on Apple’s highly anticipated OLED iPads. The company introduced the Wacom Movink 13 on Wednesday, its own OLED-based offering that targets creatives in need of a highly portable display drawing tablet.Available now for $750 via the Wacom web store, the Movink features a full HD 13.3-inch Samsung OLED display that gives it several advantages over comparably midrange LED-based tablets. The most notable is the lack of a backlight — not only does that prevent light leakage and excess heat, according to Wacom (the latter being a familiar nuisance for display tablet users), but it also allows the tablet to be more compact.Wacom says the Movink is the “thinnest and lightest” pen display tablet it has ever made, weighing 4...

Today, Sonos is officially introducing the redesigned mobile app that I showed you earlier this month. It’ll roll out for both Android and iOS on May 7th, but the company’s desktop apps aren’t coming along for the ride: Sonos will discontinue its controller apps for Windows and macOS in the near future. Taking their place is a new web app that will allow you to control and access your Sonos speakers from anywhere — not just when you’re home on Wi-Fi. But for now, let’s get back to the smartphone app. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up to be more reliable. Sonos’ fundamental goal was making everything feel faster and getting you where you want to be without relying on a tabbed navigation bar. Now, everything is on the homescreen, and you can customize the layout to put your favorite pl...

The charity that serves as a major watchdog on corporate climate commitments faces allegations that it’s caving to industry pressure to relax standards. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) assesses companies’ sustainability pledges and develops standards for how companies can set goals to fight climate change that are backed by science. SBTi’s policies are supposed to prevent greenwashing, which is when companies make misleading statements about their environmental impact. One way SBTi has tried to crack down on greenwashing is by limiting the use of carbon offsets. Offsets are supposed to cancel out some of a company’s carbon footprint, even though that’s often only reflected on paper and not in the real world. SBTi’s tough stance on carbon offsets has provoked the ire of indus...

Ikea is introducing a new range of gaming furniture that subverts the usual dark, edgy “gamer” aesthetic for designs that are more likely to blend in with your existing home decor. Seating is the main focus. There’s an armchair that folds out into a lounging position, a rocking-style chair designed to swing with your body’s movement, and an inflatable donut-style chair with a matching footstool.The Brännboll collection also includes a “gaming station” that folds away into something resembling a wardrobe, complete with a foldable tabletop, integrated PC tower storage, and cable management. There’s also a storage box that doubles as a side table, display shelving, and some textile accessories like a mousepad, rug, and a throw.It’s a little difficult to pin down what qualifies any of this ...

This week, Tesla was scheduled to appear in court to defend its Autopilot system against a claim of wrongful death — but it looks like the company will pay the family of Apple engineer Wei “Walter” Huang instead. Court documents show that Tesla is trying to seal the amount of a potential settlement payment to the Huang family. While it’s not clear how much the company might be offering or what other terms the settlement includes, lawyers for Tesla state that both parties have already agreed to the settlement and want it to be confidential. You can read that document below; The Washington Post and Bloomberg reported the news earlier. Lawyers for the Huang family didn’t immediately respond to our email.The settlement has not yet been approved by a judge. Court documents suggest that there...

Infrastructure in the US has always been a sore subject, but when a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck the New York City region on Friday, many people were rightfully nervous about the structural integrity of the surrounding bridges, tunnels, and buildings.The earthquake’s epicenter was near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, but people in neighboring states, including New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania still felt the short-lasting shake. A 4.8 magnitude earthquake is on the lower end of the Richter scale, and its effects are described as potentially causing windows to break or small objects to fall.But experts say the relatively minor quake is nothing to worry about. “When you look at that, in terms of this scale, it’s a pretty minor event,” Magued Iskander, a professor and chair of the...

Okay, so you want a 13-inch MacBook Air. But you probably want some more RAM, right? Maybe a storage bump since you’re hopefully going to have this computer for a decade? Okay, well, at that price, you might as well get the 15-inch Air. It’s basically the same price. But you probably want some more RAM, right? And maybe a storage bump? The sneaky upgrade path is one of Apple’s most ingenious sales tools — and it applies almost across the board, whether the company is steadily upselling you from a base iPhone to a Pro Max model, a $329 iPad to an iPad Pro, a basic MacBook Air to a super-powered MacBook Pro, or a super expensive keyboard you didn’t even know you wanted. On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about the new M3 MacBook Air, whether its base configuration is enough for mos...

« Il était une fois la greffe du rein », de Pierre Christin et Fawzi, Editions Caurette. On ne l’attendait pas sur ce terrain. Scénariste de bandes dessinées, connu pour des œuvres de science-fiction comme Valérian – conçues avec son ami de jeunesse Jean-Claude Mézières, mort en janvier 2022 ; auteur de multiples albums mêlant social, politique, fantastique… en collaboration avec Enki Bilal, Jacques Tardi ou encore François Boucq, Pierre Christin vient de sortir une BD sur l’histoire de la greffe du rein, réalisée avec le dessinateur Fawzi, décédé fin février. Classique, la première partie du livre retrace, à partir des années 1900, les débuts de cette innovation thérapeutique, qui a révolutionné la prise en charge des malades du rei...