Month: August 2018

U.S. Whitehouse probes Google after President Trump accuses it of bias in search results

CompuScoop Staff August 29, 2018 4

“U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Google’s search engine of promoting negative news articles and hiding ‘fair media’ coverage of him, vowing to address the situation without providing evidence or giving details of action he might take,” Ginger Gibson and Susan Heavey report for Reuters. “Trump’s attack against the Alphabet Inc unit follows a string of grievances against technology companies, including social media Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc, which he has accused of silencing conservative voices.. He frequently berates news outlets for what he perceives as unfair coverage.”

“Trump said in several tweets on Tuesday that Google search results for ‘Trump News’ were ‘rigged’ against him because they showed only coverage from outlets like CNN and not conservative publications, suggesting the practice was illegal,” Gibson and Heavey report. “‘I think Google is really taking advantage of our people,’ Trump said on Tuesday in the Oval Office. ‘Google, and Twitter and Facebook, they are really treading on very, very troubled territory, and they have to be careful. It’s not fair to large portions of the population.'”

“Some Republican U.S. lawmakers have also raised concerns about social media companies removing content from some conservatives, and have called Twitter’s chief executive to testify before a House of Representatives panel on Sept. 5,” Gibson and Heavey report. “Earlier this month, Alphabet’s YouTube joined Apple Inc and Facebook in removing some content from Infowars, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.”

Apple Celebrating Seven Years with Tim Cook as CEO

CompuScoop Staff August 29, 2018 0

“It’s been seven years since Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs passed on the reins to Tim Cook,” Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla writes for Canadian Reviewer. “It was a bittersweet passing of the torch as Jobs was in advanced stages of cancer and then-COO Cook, who had already served as pinch hitter for Jobs in years past, was reluctant to replace his friend and mentor.”

“Since then, Cook has represented Apple and steered the company to its greatest heights culminating in the recent trillion dollar valuation, a first for a technology company,” Sevilla writes. “In Cook, Apple has a pragmatic leader and supply chain veteran who has enabled consistent profits while slowly expanding Apple into new product categories. Stand out products released during Cook’s tenure include the AirPods (which are everywhere now) and the Apple Watch, which has become the standard in smartwatches.”

“Apple may have lost a bit of its shine as a cutting edge innovator with various products looking like repeats of previous versions for two or three product cycles. There are also some products that may seem to have been neglected in favour of the hotter items like the iPhone and iPad line,” Sevilla writes. “Apple under Cook is making corrections by releasing pro-focused iMacs and MacBook Pros as well as a rumoured refresh of the Mac mini, MacBook and Mac Pro lines.”

Read more in the full article here.

Well, this stinks: San Jose Family Billed $13,470.00 for Internet on an iPhone

CompuScoop Staff August 28, 2018 1

“When you travel overseas you want to make sure you won’t run up exorbitant fees on your smartphone. A San Jose family thought they were protected from roaming and internet charges,” Michael Finney and Renee Koury report for KGO. “‘It’s like whoaaaa what’s going on?’ Vivian Chung of San Jose said, still reeling from the shock.”

“She and her children had just returned from an annual family reunion in Vietnam,” Finney and Koury report. “‘We know we cannot use the phone and it’s always on airplane mode,’ Chung said. ‘How could this happen?’ It did happen. T-Mobile charged Chung $13,470 for internet access on her son Nicholas’ iPhone. The charges all were incurred in a very short period while their flight was coming in over Vietnam. Chung estimates they racked up the charge in just one-half hour.”

Read more in the full article here.

Rumor: Apple to Ax 3D Touch in new iPhones

Dan Uff August 28, 2018 1

We're getting various reports that because 3D Touch isn't going over that well (and is sometimes a pain in the ass anyway) that Apple is going to be axing the under used feature when it introduces new iPhones in September.

3D Touch was introduced with the iPhone 6 as a way for users to quickly get to certain app features via the icon.

Do YOU use 3D Touch? Comment below.