Technology Simplified

Killing 3ve: How The FBI And Tech Industry Took Down A Massive Ad Fraud Scheme 15 by tysone | 3 comments on Hacker News.

Is Google trying to silence conservative media? Google engineer reportedly labeled conservative news websites 'opinion blogs' in 2016; research psychologist Robert Epstein reacts. via https://ift.tt/2DT2BHC

Samsung's bendable OLED tech has been stolen and sold to two Chinese companies 4 by RobLach | 0 comments on Hacker News.

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. via https://ift.tt/2zy2WN3

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. via https://ift.tt/2PaY0mg

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. via https://ift.tt/2RrWAWb

H-1B shift may favor tech companies 6 by tareqak | 0 comments on Hacker News.

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. via https://ift.tt/2Qotfin

Video gaming becomes official after-school league at US high schools via https://ift.tt/2Q5Ufnp

Video games to become official after school activity Arizona is implementing eSports league, tourney, championships for its students as an after school activity via https://ift.tt/2E8HNNt

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. via https://ift.tt/2rmIqdT

The 6-quart, 1,000-watt Instant Pot Smart WiFi is internet connected, but is that something you even need? We tested the new features to find out. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2Q8lii5

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. via https://ift.tt/2FS02s9

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. via https://ift.tt/2zxDRBI

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. via https://ift.tt/2AC97iL

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.' via https://ift.tt/2E7zfGe

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. via https://ift.tt/2zzWRjc

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. via https://ift.tt/2PbGE8O

Black Friday wasn’t just a boon for e-commerce retailers , it helped the mobile app stores break new records, too. According to a new report from Sensor Tower, the combined consumer spending across the U.S. Apple App Store and Google Play on Black Friday 2018 reached $75.9 million – a record for the most ever spent in a single day on both stores. The App Store accounted for most of that figure, however, with U.S. consumers spending a record $52 million on Black Friday. That’s a 31.6 percent increase in spending over last year’s shopping event, when consumers then spent $39.5 million. It’s also notably higher than Christmas 2017, when spending reached $39.8 million – typically a strong day for app purchases and in-app sales, as consumers unwrap new iPhones. The App Store’s $52 million was more than double the $23.9 million spent on Google Play during the same time. Sensor Tower attributes the increased spending to a variety of factors, largely driven by mobile gaming. Game ma...

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. via https://ift.tt/2zHMkTd

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. via https://ift.tt/2SmTgvU

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. via https://ift.tt/2E7CMVj

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. via https://ift.tt/2zHG9hZ

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. via https://ift.tt/2DTbAsg

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. via https://ift.tt/2RmpSFK

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

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. via https://ift.tt/2rgmUXP

Arlo introduces an outdoor security camera with 4K resolution, auto-tracking and a built-in siren. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2U11fQB

AKG's excellent sounding noise-canceling headphone is a worthy contender that just needs to cost a little less. from CNET Reviews - Most Recent Reviews https://ift.tt/2zxilx9

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. via https://ift.tt/2KLwMSv

No one wants to post silly, racy, or vulnerable Stories if they’re worried their boss, parents, and distant acquaintances are watching. So to get people sharing more, and more authentically, Instagram will let you share to fewer people. Today after 17 months of testing, Instagram is globally launching Close Friends on iOS and Android over the next two days. It lets you build a single private list of your best buddies on Instagram through suggestions or search, and then share Stories just to them. They’ll see a green circle around your profile pic in the existing Story tray to let them know this is Close Friends-only content, but no one gets notified if they’re added or removed from your list that only you can view. “As you add more and more people [on any social network], you start not to know them. That’s obviously going to change the things that you’re sharing and it makes it even harder to form every deep connections with your closest friends because you’re basically curating for ...

Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have created a system that can reproduce paintings from a single photo, allowing museums and art lovers to snap their favorite pictures and print new copies complete with paint textures. Called RePaint, the project uses machine learning to recreate the exact colors of each painting and then prints it using a high-end 3D printer that can output thousands of colors using half-toning. The researchers, however, found a better way to capture a fuller spectrum of Degas and Dali. They used a special technique they developed called “color-contoning”, which involves using a 3-D printer and 10 different transparent inks stacked in very thin layers, much like the wafers and chocolate in a Kit-Kat bar. They combined their method with a decades-old technique called “halftoning”, where an image is created by tons of little ink dots, rather than continuous tones. Combining these, the team says, better captured the nuances...

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. via https://ift.tt/2FMDHw4

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." via https://ift.tt/2Q076Y6

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

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

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. via https://ift.tt/2BGVTmK

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. via https://ift.tt/2E5J9bo

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. via https://ift.tt/2P8RmNa

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. via https://ift.tt/2Rl95Tt

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. via https://ift.tt/2zx9vPL

A year ago, YouTube launched its own take on Stories , with the addition of a new short-form video format called Reels. The feature, which was rebranded as “YouTube Stories” at last year’s VidCon , was initially available only to select YouTube creators. But in June, YouTube said it would expand Stories to all creators with over 10,000 subscribers later in the year. Today, it has done just that. Now, YouTube is beginning to roll out Stories to a wider set of creators, giving them access to the new creation tools that include the ability to decorate the videos with text, stickers, filters, and more. The feature is very much inspired by rival social apps like Snapchat and Instagram – except that,  in YouTube’s case, Stories disappear after 7 days, not 24 hours. The idea behind YouTube Stories is to give creators any easy way to engage with their fans in between their more polished and produced videos. Today’s creators are no longer simply turning a camera on and vlogging – they’r...