Technology Simplified

Caste discrimination in some of Silicon Valley's richest tech companies 86 by ALee | 46 comments on Hacker News.

2020's fastest-rising tech jobs? Programming language PHP leads the way 32 by mg | 24 comments on Hacker News.

Twitter reinstates New York Post's account after attempt to censor Hunter Biden story Opinion editor and columnist for the New York Post Sohrab Ahmari joins 'Fox & Friends' with insight. via https://ift.tt/2HRuDqS

Have an Echo? 5 security settings to check now Amazon’s Echo devices are a runaway success. There’s the Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Auto, Echo Studio, Echo Show, Echo Glow, Echo Flex, Echo Buds, Echo Frames, Echo Loop, and more. via https://ift.tt/3ecVWbj

Lee: Big Tech being dishonest about 'tilting the scales to the left' Senate Judiciary Committee member sounds off about Twitter and Facebook's censorship, liberal bias on 'Fox News @Night' via https://ift.tt/2THfUS6

How Big Tech bias could shift 15 million votes in 2020 election Psychologist Robert Epstein tells 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' how social media giants are interfering in the US election via https://ift.tt/2TH2t4Q

Apple has packed an interesting new accessibility feature into the latest beta of iOS: a system that detects the presence of and distance to people in the view of the iPhone’s camera, so blind users can social distance effectively, among many other things. The feature emerged from Apple’s ARKit, for which the company developed “people occlusion,” which detects people’s shapes and lets virtual items pass in front of and behind them. The accessibility team realized that this, combined with the accurate distance measurements provided by the lidar units on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max , could be an extremely useful tool for anyone with a visual impairment. Of course during the pandemic one immediately thinks of the idea of keeping six feet away from other people. But knowing where others are and how far away is a basic visual task that we use all the time to plan where we walk, which line we get in at the store, whether to cross the street, and so on. The new feature, which will be p...

Apple has packed an interesting new accessibility feature into the latest beta of iOS: a system that detects the presence of and distance to people in the view of the iPhone’s camera, so blind users can social distance effectively, among many other things. The feature emerged from Apple’s ARKit, for which the company developed “people occlusion,” which detects people’s shapes and lets virtual items pass in front of and behind them. The accessibility team realized that this, combined with the accurate distance measurements provided by the lidar units on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max , could be an extremely useful tool for anyone with a visual impairment. Of course during the pandemic one immediately thinks of the idea of keeping six feet away from other people. But knowing where others are and how far away is a basic visual task that we use all the time to plan where we walk, which line we get in at the store, whether to cross the street, and so on. The new feature, which will be p...

“5G is a once-in-a-decade kind of opportunity,” Tim Cook told the media during the Q&A portion of Apple’s Q3 earnings call. “And we could not be more excited to hit the market exactly when we did.” The truth of the matter is its timing was a mixed bag. Apple was, by some accounts, late to 5G. By the time the company finally announced that it was adding the technology across its lineup of iPhone 12 variants, much of its competition had already beat the company to the punch. Of course, that’s not a huge surprise. Apple’s strategy is rarely a rush to be first. 5G networks are only really starting to come into their own now. Even today, there are still wide swaths of users who will have to default to an LTE connection the majority of the time they use their handsets. The arrival of 5G on the iPhone was really as much about future-proofing this year’s models as anything. Consumers are holding onto phones longer, and in the three or four years before it’s time for another upgrade, the...

Smarking (YC W15) Is Hiring an Implementation and Tech Partnership Manager 1 by sangwen | 0 comments on Hacker News.

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The new Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (2020) was announced alongside a host of other Echo speakers at the company’s hardware event in September, with the latest new Echo Dot coming with a smart LED timepiece.  Jump to Price and availability Design Setup Smart assistant Audio performance Should I buy it? Like its predecessor, the Echo Dot with Clock can double as a bedside alarm, albeit one that comes with all the smarts of Alexa on board alongside the ability to control your smart home devices (via a separate Zigbee-supporting speaker).  It has undergone a rather radical design overhaul over the previous Echo Dot with Clock , sporting a space age-esque spherical design that's available in both gray and white color schemes. All the features of the previous Echo Dot with Clock remain, including a 3.5mm AUX-in port, and the blue Alexa light ring – although this is now located at the bottom of the smart speaker rather than the top.  (Image credit: TechRadar) ...

Big Tech acts like sovereign nations, shutting down speech if it doesn't approve: Goodwin New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin provides insight into Big Tech censorship with Trace Gallagher on ‘America’s Newsroom.’ via https://ift.tt/3mx409K

Mark Morgan slams Twitter for suspending his account over tweet on border wall Acting Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan tells ‘America’s Newsroom’ Twitter is ‘un-American’ for censoring him. via https://ift.tt/31UWBcy

China was the first major global smartphone markets to rebound from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stringent lockdown measures were able to help the country recover from the virus relatively quickly during the first wave, as sales started to return well ahead of other areas. In Q3, however, things have taken begun to decline again. New numbers from Canalys point to an 8% drop between quarters — and a 15% drop, year-over-year. The firm chalks much of the slow down to longtime market leader Huawei’s on-going issues with the U.S. government. The problems had a kind of cascading effect that served to impact the number two companies, Vivo and Oppo. Image Credits: Canalys “Huawei was forced to restrict its smartphone shipments following the August 17 US sanctions which caused a void in channels in Q3 that its peers were not equipped to fill. Huawei is facing its most serious challenge since taking the lead in 2016,” analyst Mo Jia said in a release. “If the position of the...

Customs and Border Protection head censored by Twitter over wall post CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan speaks out on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' via https://ift.tt/2HPVLXE

PUBG Mobile, the sleeper hit mobile game, will terminate all service and access for users in India on October 30, two months after New Delhi banned the game in the world’s second largest internet market over cybersecurity concerns. India on September 2 banned PUBG Mobile Nordic Map: Livik and PUBG Mobile Lite, along with more than 100 apps with links to China. The ban came after India banned TikTok and dozens of other popular Chinese apps in late June. These apps were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order,” the country’s IT Ministry said on both the instances. India bans PUBG Mobile, and over 100 other Chinese apps But unlike other affected apps that became unavailable within days — if not hours — PUBG Mobile apps remained accessible in the country for users who already had them installed on their phones, tablets and PCs. In fact, according to one popular mobile insight firm, PUBG Mobile had retained more th...

The 1980s-era Abrams tank lives on with new weapons It may have the same basic external configuration, weight and 120mm cannon, but today’s Abrams tank is, simply put, far more lethal than ever before due to the addition of sensors, ammunition, armor, EW (Electronic Warfare) and new weapons. via https://ift.tt/34CABFg

The Problem with (All) the Tech Hearings 2 by tosh | 0 comments on Hacker News.

Army improves Abrams tank gun system with upgraded fire control The Army has been upgrading and augmenting the attack system for its Abrams tank to ensure a clearer view for gunners looking to find, engage and destroy targets.  via https://ift.tt/3e8cK38

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Juganu , the venture-backed Israeli company that makes lighting systems capable of emitting light at specified wavelengths, is now selling a product that it claims can disinfect surfaces and deactivate pathogens in an attempt to provide buildings with new safety technologies that can prevent the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The company claims that its J.Protect product was clinically validated through a study conducted by Dr. Meital Gal-Tanamy at the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Medicine (although Dr. Gal-Tanamy’s research typically focuses on the Hepatitis C virus, which has a different transmission vector than airborne viruses like Sars-Cov-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19). Juganu said that the new product has been registered with the US Environmental Protection Agency in 46 states and is currently working with Comcast, Qualcomm, and NCR Corp. to bring its lighting disinfectant and deactivation technology to markets around the country. The lighting ...

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ByteDance on Thursday unveiled its first consumer hardware product, a smart light lamp with a display, that it says is part of its education technology portfolio as the Chinese internet giant continues to expand to categories beyond social video. The Dali smart lamp features a display, camera and built-in digital assistant. The Dali smart lamp (in Chinese), which starts at $119, is aimed at school-going children who can use the device to finish their homework, ByteDance said (in Chinese) at a press conference. The camera will enable parents to tutor their kids and check in remotely via a mobile app. The smart lamp could prove successful in China where, like many other markets, a large number of parents struggle to find a balance between their work and personal lives, and engage better with their kids. Zhou Kang, founder of Czur , a Chinese startup making connected devices, including smart lamps that rival those of ByteDance, told TechCrunch that it’s still an experimentation pha...

Social media has huge influence on American public, elections, yet we can’t trust people running it: Concha Senate Republicans accuse Tech Giants of stifling conservative speech; The Hill media reporter Joe Concha reacts on ‘America’s Newsroom.’ via https://ift.tt/37QK91i

Level is one of the newer players in the smart lock space, but with a design pedigree that includes a lot of former Apple employees, the company’s already attracting a lot of praise for its industrial design. I tested out both of its current offerings, the Level Bolt and the Level Touch, and found that they’re well-designed, user-friendly smart locks that are a cut above the competition when it comes to aesthetics and feature set. The basics Level’s debut product, the $229 Level Bolt , works with existing deadbolts and just replaces the insides with a connected locking mechanism that you can control from your smartphone via the Level app. The newer $329 Level Touch is a full deadbolt replacement, include the faceplates, but unlike most other smart locks on the market it looks like a standard deadbolt from the outside – albeit a very nicely designed one. The Level Touch is available in four different finishes, including satin nickel, satin chrome, and polished brass and matte black ...