ReportWire

Tag: Software

  • How to Set Up Your New Android Phone

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    If you’re switching from an iPhone, you may want to install Google’s Android Switch app or the Google Drive app. With the Switch app, you can follow the onscreen prompts, but if you opt for the Google Drive app, here’s what to do:

    • Open the Google Drive app on your iPhone.
    • Go to Settings and Backup.
    • Choose everything you want to save and move across to your new phone.

    You should also go to your iPhone Settings, head to Messages, toggle off iMessage, and go to Settings, FaceTime to toggle it off so you don’t miss calls and texts on your new phone.

    Folks with any two-factor authentication (2FA) apps, like Google Authenticator, should check the apps’ instructions for transferring accounts (do not wipe your old phone until you have done this!) If you use any messaging apps, like WhatsApp, back up your chats on your old phone by going to Settings, Chats, and Chat backup.

    Setting Up Your New Android Phone

    Put your SIM card in your new phone (skip this step if you’re using an eSIM) and hold down the power button to turn it on. (You can also insert your SIM card after you’ve set up your device.) You’ll be greeted with a series of setup chores, starting with selecting your language and region preferences.

    Depending on your new Android phone, you may be able to copy data from your old device directly. While you can do this via Wi-Fi, connecting the two phones with a cable is the fastest, easiest, and usually the most comprehensive way to copy your old data (especially photos and videos), so we recommend doing that if you’re given the option.

    If you are switching from an iPhone to an Android phone, for example, you can transfer contacts, photos, videos, and calendar events via Wi-Fi, but you must use a cable if you want to transfer messages (SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp), apps (assuming they are available in the Play Store), music (non-DRM only), and notes. There is a handy Android website with more details about how to switch.

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  • Online age checks proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom

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    Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they’re a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them.

    But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously.

    “I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions,” said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they’re ready to see it.”

    More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don’t have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age.

    Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app.

    And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media.

    “Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

    To critics, though, age check laws raise “significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet,” Huddleston said. “Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults.”

    The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws — as seen in Louisiana and Texas — that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users’ ages or face fines. Then there are laws — enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota — that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors.

    What’s considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog.

    “In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that’s historically a very dangerous place for us to end up,” said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    What’s behind the gates is determined by a “hundred different decision-makers,” Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous.

    While many companies are complying, verifying users’ ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi’s approach “would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky.”

    That’s because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children.

    “We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms,” the company said in a blog post.

    Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram’s parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users’ ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree.

    “Billed as ‘simple’ by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps,” Google said in a blog post.

    Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories.

    Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn’t do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform.

    Face scans that promise to estimate a person’s age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18?

    “Sometimes it’s less accurate for women or it’s less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age,” Huddleston said.

    While IDs are a common way of verifying someone’s age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don’t delete the uploaded files, for instance?

    Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn’t supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.

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  • Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom

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    Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13. To proponents, they’re a tool to keep children away from adult websites and other material that might be harmful to them.

    But opponents see a worrisome trend toward a less secure, less private and less free internet, where people can be denied access not just to pornography but news, health information and the ability to speak openly and anonymously.

    “I think that many of these laws come from a place of good intentions,” said Jennifer Huddleston, a senior technology policy fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “Certainly we all want to protect young people from harmful content before they’re ready to see it.”

    More than 20 states have passed some kind of age verification law, though many face legal challenges. While no such law exists on the federal level in the United States, the Supreme Court recently allowed a Mississippi age check law for social media to stand. In June, the court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online, ruling that adults don’t have a First Amendment right to access obscene speech without first proving their age.

    Elsewhere, the United Kingdom now requires users visiting websites that allow pornography to verify their age. Beyond adult sites, platforms like Reddit, X, Telegram and Bluesky have also committed to age checks. France and several other European Union countries also are testing a government sponsored verification app.

    And Australia has banned children under 16 from accessing social media.

    “Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in November. The platforms have a year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

    To critics, though, age check laws raise “significant privacy and speech concerns, not only for young people themselves, but also for all users of the internet,” Huddleston said. “Because the only way to make sure that we are age verifying anyone under the age of 18 is to also age verify everyone over the age 18. And that could have significant impacts on the speech and privacy rights of adults.”

    The state laws are a hodgepodge of requirements, but they generally fall into two camps. On one side are laws — as seen in Louisiana and Texas — that require websites comprised of more than 33% of adult content to verify users’ ages or face fines. Then there are laws — enacted in Wyoming or South Dakota — that seek to regulate sites that have any material that is considered obscene or otherwise harmful to minors.

    What’s considered harmful to minors can be subjective, and this is where experts believe such laws run afoul of the First Amendment. It means people may be required to verify their ages to access anything, from Netflix to a neighborhood blog.

    “In places like Australia and the U.K., there is already a split happening between the internet that people who are willing to identify themselves or go through age verification can see and the rest of the internet. And that’s historically a very dangerous place for us to end up,” said Jason Kelley, activism director at the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

    What’s behind the gates is determined by a “hundred different decision-makers,” Kelley said, from politicians to tech platforms to judges to individuals who have sued because they believe that a piece of content is dangerous.

    While many companies are complying, verifying users’ ages can prove a burden, especially for smaller platforms. On Friday, Bluesky said it will no longer be available in Mississippi because of its age verification requirements. While the social platform already does age verification in the U.K., it said Mississippi’s approach “would fundamentally change how users access Bluesky.”

    That’s because it requires every user to undergo an age check, not just those who want to access adult content. It would also require Bluesky to identify and track users that are children.

    “We think this law creates challenges that go beyond its child safety goals, and creates significant barriers that limit free speech and disproportionately harm smaller platforms,” the company said in a blog post.

    Some websites and social media companies, such as Instagram’s parent company Meta, have argued that age verification should be done by app store owners, such as Apple and Google, and not individual platforms. This would mean that app stores need to verify their users’ ages before they allow them to download apps. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Google disagree.

    “Billed as ‘simple’ by its backers, including Meta, this proposal fails to cover desktop computers or other devices that are commonly shared within families. It also could be ineffective against pre-installed apps,” Google said in a blog post.

    Nonetheless, a growing number of tech companies are implementing verification systems to comply with regulations or ward off criticism that they are not protecting children. This includes Google, which recently started testing a new age-verification system for YouTube that relies on AI to differentiate between adults and minors based on their watch histories.

    Instagram is testing a similar AI system to determine if kids are lying about their ages. Roblox, which was sued by the Louisiana attorney general on claims it doesn’t do enough to protect children from predators, requires users who want to access certain games rated for those over 17 to submit a photo ID and undergo a face scan for verification. Roblox has also recently begun requiring age verification for teens who want to chat more freely on platform.

    Face scans that promise to estimate a person’s age may address some of the concerns around IDs, but they can be unreliable. Can AI accurately tell, for instance, if someone is 17.5 or just turned 18?

    “Sometimes it’s less accurate for women or it’s less accurate for certain racial or ethnic groups or for certain physical characteristics that then may mean that those people have to go through additional privacy invasive screenings to prove that they are of a certain age,” Huddleston said.

    While IDs are a common way of verifying someone’s age, the method raises security concerns: What happens if companies don’t delete the uploaded files, for instance?

    Case in point: the recent data breaches at Tea, an app for women to anonymously warn each other about the men they date, speak to some of these concerns. The app requires women who sign up to upload an ID or undergo a scan to prove that they are women. Tea wasn’t supposed to keep the files but it did, and stored them in a way that allowed hackers to not only access the images, but also their private messages.

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  • Microsoft Authenticator is ending password autofill soon. How to set up a passkey before Aug. 1

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    NEW YORK (AP) — If you’re a Microsoft Authenticator user, like me, you’ve probably received at least one notice that the app’s password management features are no longer usable and that your stored passwords will be inaccessible starting Aug. 1 unless you have the Edge browser.

    Why? Because Microsoft is moving its signature sign-in app to a digital authentication method touted by security experts as an easier and more secure way to log in: passkeys.

    “Last year (2024), we observed a staggering 7,000 password attacks per second (more than double the rate from 2023),” Microsoft wrote in a blog post. “Although passwords have been around for centuries, we hope their reign over our online world is ending.”

    Authenticator has been a staple in providing multi-factor authentication, one-time passwords and biometric logins for services and some websites. Although the app will continue to provide authentication for passkey-compatible services, it is pushing its password management and autofill functions out to the company’s Edge browser instead.

    Note that not all websites and applications have adopted passkeys yet, so many places still rely on passwords.

    If you haven’t yet moved to a different password manager system or set up your passkeys, we’re here to help.

    How to generate a passkey in Authenticator

    Passkeys do away with complex 14 character passwords because you never need to see them. Instead you are using existing biometrics like your face or fingerprints, digital patterns or PINs to access your accounts.

    Passkeys are made up of two parts of a code that only makes sense when they’re combined, kind of like a digital key and padlock. You keep half of the encrypted code, typically stored either in the cloud with a compatible verification app — including Authenticator — or on a physical security dongle. The other half is stored on the participating apps, services or accounts you want to access.

    The bad news? You do have to set up individual passkeys for each service or application that accepts them. Keeping track of where you can use them versus traditional passwords can be challenging.

    If you’ve opened Authenticator in the last few months, you likely were prompted to set up a passkey through a guided experience.

    If you didn’t receive such a prompt, you can set up a new passkey by opening the authenticator app on your device. Find and tap on your account, then select “set up a passkey” option. Follow the app’s instructions.

    Accessing old passwords in Edge

    The good news is that all of your old passwords are synced to your Microsoft account. But to access them after Aug. 1, you will need to first install the Edge browser on your device of choice (and log into it).

    For iOS users, navigate to Settings General Autofill & Passwords and turn on Edge.

    Android users click their way to Settings General management Passwords and autofill Autofill service and select Edge.

    Laptop and desktop users will need to open Edge and navigate to Settings Profiles Passwords. There you should find an autofill toggle and another option to save new passwords to your account.

    Downloading your passwords to use in a password manager

    Firstly, check out our advice on selecting and using password managers. There are many services — paid and free — out there and options to consider.

    Now to export your Authenticator passwords, open the app on your device then navigate to Settings Export Passwords. This will spit out an exported file containing your data.

    Most of the password managers out there — including those built into other browsers, or Apple and Android’s own key ring apps — will have an import option, which should accept this file. If you’re having difficulty with the import, it’s best to consult their customer service lines for help.

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  • USALCO Acquires Fontus Blue to Expand Digital Water Treatment Solutions

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    USALCO has acquired Fontus Blue, enhancing its capabilities in drinking and wastewater treatment by integrating Fontus Blue’s AI-driven Decision Blue® platform, which optimizes water treatment processes.


    BALTIMORE, June 10, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    USALCO, a leader in clean water solutions, is pleased to announce its acquisition of Fontus Blue, an innovative digital solutions provider for water utilities. This strategic acquisition marks a significant milestone for USALCO as it expands its capabilities to deliver cutting-edge, comprehensive solutions for drinking and wastewater treatment facilities.

    Fontus Blue, founded in 2011 by Chris Miller, PhD, PE, has built a strong reputation for partnering with water utilities to optimize water treatment processes. Their proprietary algorithms and state-of-the-art Software as a Service (SaaS) platform Decision Blue® empower operators to simplify complex treatment decisions, optimize processes, and manage costs effectively. Decision Blue leverages advanced AI and computational models to provide real-time insights, enabling water treatment plants to forecast and enhance water quality with remarkable precision.

    “This acquisition represents a transformative step forward in USALCO’s mission to deliver innovative and efficient water treatment solutions,” said Ken Gayer, CEO of USALCO. “Fontus Blue’s expertise in digital water solutions perfectly complements our product portfolio, allowing us to offer unmatched value to our customers. Together, we are uniquely positioned to tackle the evolving challenges of the water industry and ensure safe, high-quality drinking water for communities nationwide.”

    Chris Miller, CEO of Fontus Blue, shared his enthusiasm for the partnership. “Joining forces with USALCO is a tremendous opportunity to amplify the impact of our technology and bring Decision Blue to more customers. We are proud to integrate our expertise in digital innovation with USALCO’s long-standing leadership in water treatment chemistry. The Fontus Blue technology is also a wonderful complement to USALCO’s digital services offerings, which are now operating and being installed in multiple water treatment facilities.”

    Integrating Fontus Blue’s digital capabilities into USALCO’s portfolio underscores its commitment to enhancing its service offerings for water treatment facilities. USALCO will now provide a seamless combination of leading chemical solutions and digital decision-support services, empowering water utilities with the tools to achieve unparalleled efficiency and performance.

    “This partnership is a game-changer for the industry,” said Terry Waldo, Chief Commercial Officer of USALCO. “By combining USALCO’s chemical expertise with Fontus Blue’s groundbreaking Decision Blue platform, we are setting a new standard for water treatment solutions. Together, we are poised to redefine how water treatment plants operate, delivering safer, more sustainable, and cost-effective processes for our customers.”

    About USALCO

    USALCO is a premier provider of water treatment solutions for municipal and commercial customers across the United States. It offers bespoke formulated chemistries, innovative digital technologies, and an industry-leading product portfolio to address diverse water treatment challenges. Headquartered in Baltimore, MD, USALCO has 33 manufacturing and distribution facilities nationwide.

    Visit https://www.usalco.com for more information.

    About Fontus Blue

    Fontus Blue partners with water utilities to implement innovative digital water solutions, leveraging the deep technical expertise of their team. Fontus Blue has earned a strong reputation for collaborating with water utilities to optimize their treatment processes by deploying Decision Blue® and Virtual Jar® for many use cases, including turbidity removal and filter operations, TOC removal, disinfection management, and DBP management. Their services simplify treatment decisions, optimize processes, and manage costs.

    Contact Information

    Trevor Hildebrandt
    Vice President Marketing
    thildebrandt@usalco.com

    Source: USALCO

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  • Everything You Can Do From the Chrome Address Bar (Besides Run Searches)

    Everything You Can Do From the Chrome Address Bar (Besides Run Searches)

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    It tends to really be used only by developers, but the address bar and search box up at the top of the Google Chrome interface has an official name: the omnibox. It reflects the multipurpose capabilities of this little text field, as it’s able to do much more than look up web addresses and run searches on Google.

    When you know about everything the omnibox can do, you can save time jumping between different apps and sites, and get things done more quickly. What’s more, Google is constantly adding new features to the omnibox. Most recently, as you might expect, the company added an integration with Gemini AI.

    Here are a few of our favorites—just remove the quotes around the text examples below to get the code you need to type into the omnibox.

    Chat With Gemini

    We’ve just mentioned the most recent upgrade to the Chrome omnibox, so we may as well start here: Type out “@gemini” in the address bar, then a space, then your prompt for the chatbot. Hit Enter, and the query will be run in Google Gemini. Chrome will use whatever flavor of Gemini is included with your Google account (so Gemini Advanced, if you’re a paying user).

    Carry Out Conversions

    Any kind of conversion you need, the all-powerful omnibox can take care of for you: Turn kilometers into miles, or dollars into euros, or days into months. All you have to do is type out the desired conversion in a way that makes sense. Chrome is pretty good at working out what you’re trying to do, so for example, you can type “£34 in us dollars” and it will know you’re looking for a conversion. You should immediately see the result appear underneath—you don’t need to hit Enter.

    Run Basic Calculations

    On a related note, you can run simple calculations from the Chrome omnibox as well, no need to press Enter. Anything like “24*8” or “352+91” will instantly show a result underneath—as will “24*8-352+91″—and you can use brackets if you need part of the sum worked out first. If you do press Enter afterwards, the full Chrome calculator opens up.

    Check the Weather

    Want to know the weather, anywhere? Chrome will tell you.Courtesy of David Nield

    Chrome can report on live weather conditions from the omnibox. Just type “weather” (no need to press Enter) to see a mini description of the current conditions in wherever you are. Note that this only gives the most accurate result if Chrome has access to your current location. Add a town, city, or postal code on the end to see conditions in that place, and hit Enter after your query for a more detailed forecast.

    Search Your Bookmarks

    You can search through your Chrome bookmarks right from the omnibox, without having to open up the browser’s integrated Bookmark Manager. You do need to type out the name of one of your bookmark folders first, so Chrome knows what you’re trying to do, and you can then write any word or phrase to see instant results for pages saved in that bookmarks folder.

    Make Notes in Chrome

    If you need to quickly get some thoughts down in Chrome and you don’t want to launch a separate program, the code “data:text/html, ” followed by Enter will give you a blank tab you can type into. It’s not the most advanced of text editors—there’s no formatting and no auto-save—but it works well as a quick solution for jotting down notes.

    Get Quick Definitions

    If you’re unsure what a particular word means, Chrome can tell you, and you don’t need to leave the page you’re currently on to find out the definition. Type “define”, then a space, then the word you want the meaning for, and a basic definition pops up underneath. To get back to the URL of the page you were viewing, press Esc to remove the definition.

    Screenshot of typing define cornucopia into the Chrome address bar

    The Chrome omnibox can define any word for you.Courtesy of David Nield

    Create New Documents

    You can quickly create new documents, spreadsheets, or presentations in Google’s online office suite by typing “docs.new”, “sheets.new”, or “slides.new” into the omnibox. When you press Enter, the new file is created in the Google Drive for the current Google account. To create a new file in a new window (leaving the current one alone), use Shift+Enter after your command.

    There’s a whole suite of things .new shortcuts can launch, and Google continues to add new capabilities.

    Start New Emails

    There’s a similar trick for creating new emails in the default email client on your computer: Type “mailto:” and hit Enter to open a blank email. You can also prepopulate the To: field with the destination address by typing it after the colon, if you know it. To set the default email client on Windows, choose Apps > Default Apps from Settings; over on macOS, pick Mail > Settings > General from Apple Mail.

    Run Instant Google Searches

    On many Google searches, you get the answer above the list of links on the results page. These “instant” searches work in Chrome too. Ask about facts (like the height of the Eiffel Tower or the mass of Jupiter), celebrity ages, the days until a certain date, current stock prices for a company, the size of countries, the authors of books, and so on.

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    David Nield

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  • $460 Million U.S. Army Contract for Multi-Mode Aviation Radio Set Awarded

    $460 Million U.S. Army Contract for Multi-Mode Aviation Radio Set Awarded

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    A $460 million U.S. Army contract for a multi-mode aviation radio set was awarded.

    The U.S. Army has awarded BAE Systems a five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with a ceiling value of $460 million for the AN/ARC-231/A Multi-mode Aviation Radio Set (MARS). This award consists of hardware components, repair services, engineering and logistic support, and development for rotary-wing aircraft.

    The MARS system is designed to perform in the most demanding environments to provide warfighters with secure mission-critical information when they need it most.

    In today’s complex and contested battlefields, operators rely on fast and accurate communications to inform key decisions in the field. MARS’ programmability reduces the time to field evolving communication needs, special mission modifications, and performance enhancements. The software communications architecture and software-defined radio design enable fielding new capabilities as software-only upgrades.

    “We provide communication solutions with scalable software deployment in support of tactical missions where speed and relevance of information matter most,” said Amber Dolan, director of Adaptive Communications and Sensing at BAE Systems. “This airborne radio design enables the U.S. Army to upgrade their rotary-wing fleet with the latest secure waveform that can be tailored for each mission for years to come.”

    The AN/ARC-231A MARS system is comprised of the RT-1987 radio with associated ancillaries, including amplifiers and mounting bases. It is the newest generation of multi-band, multi-mission, airborne communications system with Type 1 Crypto Modernization. It’s focused on configurability and allows for flexible integration and mission deployment options that ensure interoperability for joint force operations. Available through foreign military sales, it provides internationally compliant air traffic control communications and full range of mandatory U.S. and NATO capabilities.

    The radios will be developed and produced at BAE Systems’ facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with engineering support in Largo, Florida.

    With more than 100,000 radios deployed globally, BAE Systems’ battle-proven communications products offer nearly double the reliability of legacy products. The company’s compact radio sets also offer multi-band, secure anti-jam voice, data imagery transmission, and network-capable communications.

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  • Federal judge orders Google to open its Android app store to competition

    Federal judge orders Google to open its Android app store to competition

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    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Monday ordered Google to tear down the digital walls shielding its Android app store from competition as punishment for maintaining an illegal monopoly that helped expand the company’s internet empire.

    The injunction issued by U.S. District Judge James Donato will require Google to make several changes that the Mountain View, California, company had been resisting. Those include a provision that will require its Play Store for Android apps to distribute rival third-party app stores so consumers can download them to their phones, if they so desire.

    The judge’s order will also make the millions of Android apps in the Play Store library accessible to rivals, allowing them to offer up a competitive selection.

    Donato is giving Google until November to make the revisions dictated in his order. The company had insisted it would take 12 to 16 months to design the safeguards needed to reduce the chances of potentially malicious software making its way into rival Android app stores and infecting millions of Samsung phones and other mobile devices running on its free Android software.

    The court-mandated overhaul is meant to prevent Google from walling off competition in the Android app market as part of an effort to protect a commission system that has been a boon for one of the world’s most prosperous companies and helped elevate the market value of its corporate parent Alphabet Inc. to $2 trillion.

    Google said in a blog post that it will ask the court to pause the pending changes, and will appeal the court’s decision.

    Donato also ruled that, for a period of three years ending Nov. 1, 2027, Google won’t be able to share revenue from its Play Store with anyone who distributes Android apps or is considering launching an Android app distribution platform or store. It also won’t be allowed to pay developers, or share revenue, so that they will launch an app in the Google Play Store first or exclusively, and can’t make deals with manufacturers to preinstall the Google Play store on any specific location on an Android device. It also won’t be able to require apps to use its billing system or tell customers that they can download apps elsewhere and potentially for cheaper.

    The Play Store has been earning billions of dollars annually for years, primarily through 15% to 30% commissions that Google has been imposing on digital transactions completed within Android apps. It’s a similar fee structure to the one that Apple deploys in its iPhone app store — a structure that prompted video game maker Epic Games to file antitrust lawsuits four years ago in an effort to foster competition that could help drive down prices for both app makers and consumers.

    A federal judge mostly sided with Apple in a September 2021 decision that was upheld by an appeals court. Still, a jury favored Epic Games after the completion of a four-week trial completed last year and delivered a verdict that tarred the Play Store as an illegal monopoly.

    That prompted another round of hearings this year to help Donato determine what steps should be taken to restore fair competition. Google argued that Epic Games was seeking some extreme changes, saddling the company with costs that could run as high as $600 billion. Epic contended Google could level the playing field for as little as $1 million. It’s unclear how much the changes ordered by Donato will cost Google.

    Although Epic lost its antitrust case against Apple, Donato’s ruling could still have ripple effects on the iPhone app store as another federal judge weighs whether Apple is making it easy enough to promote different ways that consumers can pay for digital transactions. Apple was ordered to allow in-app links to alternative payment systems as part of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decision in that case, but Epic contends the provision is being undermined with the creation of another commission system that stifles consumer choice.

    The forthcoming Play Store shakeup could be just the first unwelcome shock that antitrust law delivers to Google. In the biggest antitrust case brought by the U.S. Justice Department in a quarter century, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in August declared Google’s dominant search engine to be an illegal monopoly, too, and is now getting ready to start hearings on how to punish Google for that bad behavior. Google is appealing Mehta’s ruling in the search engine case in hopes of warding off a penalty that could hurt its business even more than the changes being ordered in the Play Store.

    “Provided the ruling survives the appeals process, Google will almost certainly take a revenue hit,” said Emarketer analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf. “No doubt some of the largest app developers like Epic Games will start encroaching on Google Play Store’s market share, meaning Google will lose out on its usual cut of subscription and in-app purchases.”

    The analyst added that, while the Google Play Store will likely continue to benefit from brand recognition since it was the default Android app store for so long, “some consumers may defect if they can get better deals on their favorite apps elsewhere.” And app developers will likely take advantage of the opportunity to let consumers know about direct downloads.

    “So Google may see fewer Play Store revenues even among the Android users that stick to the default,” Mitchell-Wolf said.

    Alphabet’s shares fell $4.08, or 2.4%, to close Monday at $162.98.

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  • OpenAI’s ChatGPT Breaks Out of Its Box—and Onto a Canvas

    OpenAI’s ChatGPT Breaks Out of Its Box—and Onto a Canvas

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    Although both writing and coding modes give the choice of requesting in-line edits, the bifurcated user interface for canvas is designed with one additional set of shortcuts for those focused on AI-assisted writing and another for coders. In the demo, Levine showed off how the writer’s shortcut could be used to condense the number of words in a canvas or attempt to perform a “final polish” on the draft. He also used one of the more lighthearted shortcuts to add a bunch of random emoji. On the coder’s side, ChatGPT can add logs, comments, and attempt to troubleshoot problems in a canvas.

    ChatGPT saves different versions of the canvas as you’re iterating, so you can return to old versions if you end up preferring that output. Writers who may be worried about what they upload being used by OpenAI to train its model should go into their user settings and make sure that “model training” is toggled off.

    By allowing ChatGPT to make edits as well as suggestions, OpenAI is blurring the line between authorship and word curation. As someone who works with professional editors daily, I’m skeptical the canvas beta will match their incisive notes and careful guidance. But for people who don’t have easy access to human writing partners, I can see how getting synthetic notes on a composition about structure and content would be beneficial.

    It’s worth noting that three people listed as “supporting leadership” on the canvas project are no longer with the company. Former post-training colead and cofounder John Schulman left in August and now works at Anthropic, a rival AI company. Additionally, former chief technology officer Mira Murati and research vice president Barret Zoph both stepped down from their positions a week before this launch. At a press event in the OpenAI office after the departures, current chief product officer Kevin Weil reaffirmed the company’s commitment to continue releasing software.

    “I think 2025 is gonna be the year that agentic systems finally hit the mainstream,” he says. The idea of an AI “agent” that can not only work through software tasks alongside you, but is also nimble enough to be sent off into the digital wilderness to do things on your behalf, is simultaneously generative AI’s recent past and projected future.

    Last year, WIRED covered ChatGPT’s plug-ins people could use for tasks, like booking flights with Expedia or making a reservation with OpenTable—arguably a step toward more “agentic” AI tools. However, plug-ins were later wound down, with more limited custom GPT chatbots launched in their place.

    Keeping that in mind, the beta release of canvas does appear to be another attempt at augmenting AI models with more decisionmaking abilities, which can lead to surprises. During one of WIRED’s demos, Levine highlighted a portion of the canvas and requested an edit, and ChatGPT subsequently made an in-line change near the bottom, outside his highlight. “The really interesting thing is oftentimes, if you highlight a section, it will make an edit in that part,” he says. “But ChatGPT has the option to decide where to edit.”

    The closest alternative to OpenAI’s canvas tool available right now is probably Google’s Gemini integration that lets you use generative AI inside of Docs or Anthropic’s Artifacts tool. Chatbots definitely aren’t dead, but AI companies are now acknowledging the format’s constraints and looking for ways to diversify their software to uncover novel, sticky user interfaces. Google recently received praise in tech circles for its entertaining AI podcasts—even CEO Sam Altman lauded the tool.

    With billions of investment dollars still flowing through Silicon Valley to AI companies, consumers can expect to see more of these structural experiments that build on existing tools, like AI podcast hosts and AI document editors, to be released with a regular cadence over the next year. The chatbot race is far from over, and future iterations on the technology are likely to stray far away from that drab chatbox, and toward a more multifaceted approach.

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    Reece Rogers

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  • Attention, Spoiled Software Engineers: Take a Lesson from Google’s Programming Language

    Attention, Spoiled Software Engineers: Take a Lesson from Google’s Programming Language

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    Many of today’s programmers—excuse me, software engineers—consider themselves “creatives.” Artists of a sort. They are given to ostentatious personal websites with cleverly hidden Easter eggs and parallax scrolling; they confer upon themselves multihyphenate job titles (“ex-Amazon-engineer-investor-author”) and crowd their laptops with identity-signaling vinyl stickers. Some regard themselves as literary sophisticates. Consider the references smashed into certain product names: Apache Kafka, ScyllaDB, Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

    Much of that, I admit, applies to me. The difference is I’m a tad short on talents to hyphenate, and my toy projects—with names like “Nabokov” (I know, I know)—are better off staying on my laptop. I entered this world pretty much the moment software engineering overtook banking as the most reviled profession. There’s a lot of hatred, and self-hatred, to contend with.

    Perhaps this is why I see the ethos behind the programming language Go as both a rebuke and a potential corrective to my generation of strivers. Its creators hail from an era when programmers had smaller egos and fewer commercial ambitions, and it is, for my money, the premier general-purpose language of the new millennium—not the best at any one thing, but nearly the best at nearly everything. A model for our flashy times.

    If I were to categorize programming languages like art movements, there would be mid-century utilitarianism (Fortran, COBOL), high-theory formalism (Haskell, Agda), Americorporate pragmatism (C#, Java), grassroots communitarianism (Python, Ruby), and esoteric hedonism (Befunge, Brainfuck). And I’d say Go, often described as “C for the 21st century,” represents neoclassicism: not so much a revolution as a throwback.

    Back in 2007, three programmers at Google came together around the shared sense that standard languages like C++ and Java had become hard to use and poorly adapted to the current, more cloud-oriented computing environment. One was Ken Thompson, formerly of Bell Labs and a recipient of the Turing Award for his work on Unix, the mitochondrial Eve of operating systems. (These days, OS people don’t mess with programming languages—doing both is akin to an Olympic high jumper also qualifying for the marathon.) Joining him was Rob Pike, another Bell Labs alum who, along with Thompson, created the Unicode encoding standard UTF-8. You can thank them for your emoji.

    Watching these doyens of programming create Go was like seeing Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci reunite for The Irishman. Even its flippantly SEO-unfriendly name could be forgiven. I mean, the sheer chutzpah of it. A move only the reigning search engine king would dare.

    The language quickly gained traction. The prestige of Google must’ve helped, but I assume there was an unmet hunger for novelty. By 2009, the year of Go’s debut, the youngest of mainstream languages were mostly still from 1995—a true annus mirabilis, when Ruby, PHP, Java, and JavaScript all came out.

    It wasn’t that advancements in programming language design had stalled. Language designers are a magnificently brainy bunch, many with a reformist zeal for dislodging the status quo. But what they end up building can sometimes resemble a starchitect’s high-design marvel that turns out to have drainage problems. Most new languages never overcome basic performance issues.

    But from the get-go, Go was (sorry) ready to go. I once wrote a small search engine in Python for sifting through my notes and documents, but it was unusably sluggish. Rewritten in Go, my pitiful serpent grew wings and took off, running 30 times faster. As some astute readers might have guessed, this program was my “Nabokov.”

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    Sheon Han

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  • Alaska Airlines grounds flights at Seattle briefly due to tech outage

    Alaska Airlines grounds flights at Seattle briefly due to tech outage

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    SEATTLE — Alaska Airlines said it grounded its flights in Seattle briefly on Sunday night due to “significant disruptions” from an unspecified technology problem that was resolved by about 10 p.m. local time.

    In comments from its account on X to customers complaining of delays and problems with the airline’s app and website, the carrier apologized for the delays. It later reported that the problem had been resolved. The exact reason for the disruptions was unclear.

    “If you are traveling today, please check your flight status before leaving for the airport. If your schedule allows, please change or cancel your flight,” the airline said in a statement on its home page. “We apologize for the inconvenience and are working quickly to resolve the issue.”

    It has been a rough few weeks for people traveling through Seattle, a busy hub for Alaska Airlines and other major carriers.

    Last week, the operator of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the main hub for Alaska Airlines, said hackers were demanding $6 million in bitcoin for documents they stole during a cyberattack in August and then posted on the dark web. The Port of Seattle, which owns and runs the airport, said it had decided not to pay.

    The airport has been recovering from the attack, which began Aug. 24, a busy time days before the Labor Day holiday weekend.

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  • 4 Useful Slack Features You May not Be Using Yet

    4 Useful Slack Features You May not Be Using Yet

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    Slack has been keeping offices and organizations humming along since all the way back in 2013. And while it might not quite have fully replaced email, it’s certainly made an impact for business teams working together.

    The software has gained a lot of new features across the decade-plus that it’s been around, and in the hectic day-to-day hustle of working life, you’d be forgiven if you haven’t kept track of them all. With that in mind, I thought it would help to highlight four of the most useful features Slack has gained recently.

    From Canvases to Lists, you should be able to take advantage of at least one of these tips, and improve your Slack experience. With the time you save, perhaps you could turn your attention back to achieving inbox zero.

    Create a Canvas

    You can create all kinds of documents with Slack Canvases.

    Open up Slack on the web or desktop, click the More link on the left, then choose Canvas: You can then create a new document inside Slack, combining text, images, links to other areas of Slack, file attachments, and more. It’s like having Google Docs or Notion built into Slack, and you can use Canvases in all kinds of ways.

    At the most basic level, you can just jot down some notes that you need to refer to. If you’re off on vacation and you need to leave instructions about how everything is going to work in your absence, that can be saved inside a Canvas document rather than left in a channel or a conversation thread.

    With the ability to add rich media and other elements though, you can easily upgrade your Canvas to create a team newsletter, a product brief, or a technical document. Sharing, tagging, and collaboration tools are built right into the Slack Canvas feature, which means you’re able to easily grant edit access to other people on your team so you can work on them together.

    There’s a Canvas button in the top-right corner of Slack channels and Slack conversations too, giving you even more ways to use the feature. You can use these Canvases to record important notes from a chat, for example, or to create a checklist document that everyone in a particular channel can refer to.

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    David Nield

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  • Where Is CarPlay 2?

    Where Is CarPlay 2?

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    For lots of smartphone owners, Apple is the conduit to the internet. Since 2022, Apple has made it clear that it wants to be the same for lots of drivers, too. That’s when the company announced “next-generation” CarPlay 2, which is set to extend CarPlay’s convenient phone-mirroring technology beyond a vehicle’s central infotainment screen to additional dash screens, including gauge clusters and dashboards.

    That is, if carmakers allow it to. On Monday, another Apple event came and went without word of when, exactly, this new CarPlay might show up, despite the fact that Apple says on its website that the first vehicle models with the feature will make their debut in 2024—a year with only three months left in it.

    Since Apple unveiled its vision for the next generation of the service two years ago, many automakers have made it clear that they’re uncomfortable handing over design control of their screens to Apple Inc. Weeks after Mercedes-Benz’s logo was included in Apple’s initial CarPlay 2 presentation in 2022, the car company appeared to balk. “To give up the whole cockpit head unit—in our case, a passenger screen and everything—to somebody else?” Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius told The Verge back in 2022. “The answer is no.”

    Two automakers, Porsche and Aston Martin, have committed to partnering with Apple for next-generation CarPlay. A spokesperson for Porsche, Calvin Kim, said that the automaker had no updates on when the new CarPlay would arrive. A spokesperson for Aston Martin declined to comment and referred WIRED to Apple for CarPlay news. An Apple spokesperson did not immediately respond to WIRED’s questions about when the next CarPlay would make its debut.

    Still, Apple appears to have heard at least some of automakers’ concerns. At Apple’s WWDC conference over the summer, the tech giant posted two new CarPlay videos making it clear that automakers would have some control over the architecture and design of the interfaces that show up in their cars, using what Apple is calling a “punch-through UI.” This will allow an automaker to, say, display its specific driver assistance visualization or backup camera even when CarPlay is “in control” of its car’s visuals.

    From a technical perspective, the new CarPlay communicates more closely with vehicles’ software than the previous version. While the first version simply provided a video screen to a car, the CarPlay will need to interact with a vehicle’s software to provide car-specific information including tire pressure and climate on its own user interface.

    At least one automaker has said it definitely won’t play along with Apple CarPlay, or even its competitor, Android Auto. General Motors announced last year that its vehicles would rely on its own GM-built operating system.

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    Aarian Marshall

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  • Google faces new antitrust trial after ruling declaring search engine a monopoly

    Google faces new antitrust trial after ruling declaring search engine a monopoly

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    ALEXANDRIA, Va. — One month after a judge declared Google’s search engine an illegal monopoly, the tech giant faces another antitrust lawsuit that threatens to break up the company, this time over its advertising technology.

    The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintains a monopoly over the technology that matches online publishers to advertisers. Dominance over the software on both the buy side and the sell side of the transaction enables Google to keep as much as 36 cents on the dollar when it brokers sales between publishers and advertisers, the government contends in court papers.

    Google says the government’s case is based on an internet of yesteryear, when desktop computers ruled and internet users carefully typed precise World Wide Web addresses into URL fields. Advertisers now are more likely to turn to social media companies like TikTok or streaming TV services like Peacock to reach audiences.

    In recent years, Google Networks, the division of the Mountain View, California-based tech giant that includes such services as AdSense and Google Ad Manager that are at the heart of the case, actually have seen declining revenue, from $31.7 billion in 2021 to $31.3 billion in 2023, according to the company’s annual reports.

    The trial over the alleged ad tech monopoly begins Monday in Alexandria, Virginia. It initially was going to be a jury trial, but Google maneuvered to force a bench trial, writing a check to the federal government for more than $2 million to moot the only claim brought by the government that required a jury.

    The case will now be decided by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton and is best known for high-profile terrorism trials including Sept. 11 defendant Zacarias Moussaoui. Brinkema, though, also has experience with highly technical civil trials, working in a courthouse that sees an outsize number of patent infringement cases.

    The Virginia case comes on the heels of a major defeat for Google over its search engine. which generates the majority of the company’s $307 billion in annual revenue. A judge in the District of Columbia declared the search engine a monopoly, maintained in part by tens of billions of dollars Google pays each year to companies like Apple to lock in Google as the default search engine presented to consumers when they buy iPhones and other gadgets.

    In that case, the judge has not yet imposed any remedies. The government hasn’t offered its proposed sanctions, though there could be close scrutiny over whether Google should be allowed to continue to make exclusivity deals that ensure its search engine is consumers’ default option.

    Peter Cohan, a professor of management practice at Babson College, said the Virginia case could potentially be more harmful to Google because the obvious remedy would be requiring it to sell off parts of its ad tech business that generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.

    “Divestitures are definitely a possible remedy for this second case,” Cohan said “It could be potentially more significant than initially meets the eye.”

    In the Virginia trial, the government’s witnesses are expected to include executives from newspaper publishers including The New York Times Co. and Gannett, and online news sites that the government contends have faced particular harm from Google’s practices.

    “Google extracted extraordinary fees at the expense of the website publishers who make the open internet vibrant and valuable,” government lawyers wrote in court papers. “As publishers generate less money from selling their advertising inventory, publishers are pushed to put more ads on their websites, to put more content behind costly paywalls, or to cease business altogether.”

    Google disputes that it charges excessive fees compared to its competitors. The company also asserts the integration of its technology on the buy side, sell side and in the middle assures ads and web pages load quickly and enhance security. And it says customers have options to work with outside ad exchanges.

    Google says the government’s case is improperly focused on display ads and banner ads that load on web pages accessed through a desktop computer and fails to take into account consumers’ migration to mobile apps and the boom in ads placed on social media sites over the last 15 years.

    The government’s case “focuses on a limited type of advertising viewed on a narrow subset of websites when user attention migrated elsewhere years ago,” Google’s lawyers write in a pretrial filing. “The last year users spent more time accessing websites on the ‘open web,’ rather than on social media, videos, or apps, was 2012.”

    The trial, which is expected to last several weeks, is taking place in a courthouse that rigidly adheres to traditional practices, including a resistance to technology in the courtroom. Cellphones are banned from the courthouse, to the chagrin of a tech press corps accustomed at the District of Columbia trial to tweeting out live updates as they happen.

    Even the lawyers, and there are many on both sides, are limited in their technology. At a pretrial hearing Wednesday, Google’s lawyers made a plea to be allowed more than the two computers each side is permitted to have in the courtroom during trial. Brinkema rejected it.

    “This is an old-fashioned courtroom,” she said.

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  • Brazil blocks Musk’s X after company refuses to name local representative amid feud with judge

    Brazil blocks Musk’s X after company refuses to name local representative amid feud with judge

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    SAO PAULO — Brazil started blocking Elon Musk’s social media platform X early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country.

    The move escalates a monthslong feud between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the suspension on Friday.

    To block X, Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Anatel, told internet service providers to suspend users’ access to the social media platform. As of Saturday after midnight local time, major operators had begun doing so.

    De Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn’t had a representative in the country since earlier this month.

    “Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote in his decision on Friday.

    The justice said the platform will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using VPNs to access it.

    In a later ruling, he backtracked on his initial decision to establish a 5-day deadline for internet service providers themselves — and not just the telecommunications regulator — to block access to X, as well as his directive for app stores to remove virtual private networks, or VPNs.

    Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk purchased the former Twitter in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.

    “This is a sad day for X users around the world, especially those in Brazil, who are being denied access to our platform. I wish it did not have to come to this – it breaks my heart,” X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said Friday night, adding that Brazil is failing to uphold its constitution’s pledge to forbid censorship.

    X had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page late Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”

    “When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote.

    X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users.

    Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. X’s lawyers in April sent a document to the Supreme Court in April, saying that since 2019 it had suspended or blocked 226 users.

    In his decision Friday, de Moraes’ cited Musk’s statements as evidence that X’s conduct “clearly intends to continue to encourage posts with extremism, hate speech and anti-democratic discourse, and to try to withdraw them from jurisdictional control.”

    In April, de Moraes included Musk as a target in an ongoing investigation over the dissemination of fake news and opened a separate investigation into the executive for alleged obstruction.

    Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has repeatedly claimed the justice’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right. He has often insulted de Moraes on his platform, characterizing him as a dictator and tyrant.

    De Moraes’ defenders have said his actions aimed at X have been lawful, supported by most of the court’s full bench and have served to protect democracy at a time it is imperiled. He wrote Friday that his ruling is based on Brazilian law requiring internet services companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified when there are relevant court decisions and take requisite action — specifying the takedown of illicit content posted by users, and an anticipated churn of misinformation during October municipal elections.

    The looming shutdown is not unprecedented in Brazil.

    Lone Brazilian judges shut down Meta’s WhatsApp, the nation’s most widely used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 due to the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and stayed online.

    X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the “Twitter revolution,” but it has since been restored.

    A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines cited by de Moraes.

    “This is an unusual measure, but its main objective is to ensure that the court order to suspend the platform’s operation is, in fact, effective,” Filipe Medon, a specialist in digital law and professor at the law school of Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro, told The Associated Press.

    Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her handle MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on X where she intends to go, posting a screenshot of rival social network BlueSky.

    On Thursday evening, Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service provider, said on X that de Moraes this week froze its finances, preventing it from doing any transactions in the country where it has more than 250,000 customers.

    “This order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X. It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil. We intend to address the matter legally,” Starlink said in its statement. The law firm representing Starlink told the AP that the company appealed, but wouldn’t make further comment.

    Musk replied to people sharing the reports of the freeze, adding insults directed at de Moraes. “This guy @Alexandre is an outright criminal of the worst kind, masquerading as a judge,” he wrote.

    Musk later posted on X that SpaceX, which runs Starlink, will provide free internet service in Brazil “until the matter is resolved” since “we cannot receive payment, but don’t want to cut anyone off.”

    In his decision, de Moraes said he ordered the freezing of Starlink’s assets, as X didn’t have enough money in its accounts to cover mounting fines, and reasoning that the two companies are part of the same economic group.

    While ordering X’s suspension followed warnings and fines and so was appropriate, taking action against Starlink seems “highly questionable,” said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s Technology and Society Center.

    “Yes, of course, they have the same owner, Elon Musk, but it is discretionary to consider Starlink as part of the same economic group as Twitter (X). They have no connection, they have no integration,” Belli said.

    ___

    Ortutay reported from San Francisco and Biller from Rio. AP writer Mauricio Savarese contributed from Sao Paulo.

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  • How Cryptocurrency Wallet Apps Are Developed | Trendy Gadget

    How Cryptocurrency Wallet Apps Are Developed | Trendy Gadget

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    In the rapidly evolving world of digital finance, cryptocurrency wallet apps play a crucial role in managing and securing digital assets. These apps are essential for anyone involved in cryptocurrency transactions, whether seasoned traders or newcomers. This article delves into cryptocurrency wallet development, providing insights into the key components, development process, and emerging trends.

    Crypto Wallet Types

    Cryptocurrency wallet apps are digital applications designed to store, manage, and secure cryptocurrencies. Unlike traditional wallets, these apps manage digital currencies using cryptographic keys. There are several types of wallets, including:

    • Hardware wallets are physical devices offering secure offline storage for cryptocurrencies. These are ideal for long-term storage and protection against online threats.

    • Software wallets, including desktop and mobile apps, provide convenient access for daily transactions and easy management. They are suitable for users needing frequent access to their digital assets.

    • Paper wallets, which involve printing the wallet’s public and private keys. While they offer strong security if stored correctly, they are less practical for frequent use.

    Critical Components of Cryptocurrency Wallet Apps

    To effectively develop a crypto wallet application, understanding its key components is crucial:

    User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). A well-designed UI/UX ensures the app is intuitive and user-friendly. Features should be easily navigable, enhancing the overall user experience.

    Backend Infrastructure. The backend of a cryptocurrency wallet app encompasses server-side technologies and database management essential for handling transaction records and user data. Integral to this infrastructure is blockchain development. Here’s a detailed look at how specific blockchain platforms contribute to wallet app functionality:

    • Ethereum. Known for its smart contract capabilities, Ethereum allows wallet apps to interact with decentralized applications (dApps) and execute complex transactions through smart contracts. The Ethereum network uses the Web3.js library or Ethers.js to interact with the blockchain. Wallets must integrate with Ethereum nodes via APIs such as Infura or Alchemy to facilitate token transfers, balance checks, and contract interactions.

    • Bitcoin. As the first and most widely recognized cryptocurrency, Bitcoin requires integration with its core protocol for handling transactions and managing addresses. Wallet apps typically use Bitcoin Core or lightweight alternatives like Electrum for interaction. Bitcoin’s RPC API (Remote Procedure Call) is also crucial for accessing blockchain data, submitting transactions, and querying balances.

    • Binance Smart Chain (BSC). BSC offers compatibility with Ethereum’s smart contracts and provides a high-performance environment for dApps. Wallets that support BSC integrate with the BSC RPC or Binance Chain API to manage BEP-20 tokens and facilitate fast transactions with low fees. BSC’s Web3 API allows for interactions similar to Ethereum but optimized for its network’s specific features.

    • Solana. Solana is known for its high throughput and low transaction costs. Wallet apps interacting with Solana utilize the Solana Web3.js SDK for managing token transfers and accessing blockchain data. Solana’s architecture requires integration with its JSON RPC API for efficient transaction processing and querying of account balances.

    Security Features. Encryption methods are essential for protecting user data and transactions. Implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) and biometric security (such as fingerprint or facial recognition) adds layers of protection to safeguard private keys.

    The Development Process

    Developing a cryptocurrency wallet app is a multi-faceted process involving several stages. Each stage is crucial to ensuring the app is functional, secure, and user-friendly. Here’s a detailed look at each phase:

    1. Planning and Requirements Gathering

    • Defining app features. Begin by outlining the core features of the wallet app, which might include:

      • Multi-currency support. Ability to manage various cryptocurrencies.

      • Transaction capabilities. Send, receive, and exchange cryptocurrencies.

      • Integration with blockchain platforms. Support for platforms like Ethereum, Bitcoin, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana.

      • Security features. Encryption, 2FA, biometric authentication.

      • User account management. Registration, login, and password recovery.

    • Understanding user needs. Conduct market research and gather user feedback to identify the needs and preferences of your target audience. This might involve:

    • Regulatory requirements. Ensure compliance with relevant regulations such as:

      • Anti-money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. Implementing procedures to verify user identities and monitor transactions.

      • Data protection regulations. Compliance with standards like GDPR for handling user data.

    2. Design and Prototyping

    3. Development

    1. Frontend Development.

      • Mobile and desktop platforms. Choose the technology stack based on target platforms. Common choices include:

        • React Native for cross-platform mobile app development.

        • Flutter is used to build natively compiled mobile, web, and desktop applications from a single codebase.

        • Swift and Kotlin for native iOS and Android development, respectively.

      • User interface (UI). Implement the design elements and ensure the app is responsive and accessible.

    2. Backend Development.

      • Server-side languages. Use languages like Node.js, Python, or Ruby on Rails to build the server-side infrastructure.

      • Blockchain integration. Connect with blockchain networks to facilitate transactions and manage digital assets. This involves:

        • APIs and SDKs. Implementing platform-specific APIs (e.g., Ethereum Web3.js, Bitcoin Core RPC, BSC RPC) to interact with blockchain networks.

        • Smart contracts. For platforms like Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, integrating with smart contracts for functionalities such as token transfers and decentralized finance (DeFi) services.

      • Database management. Manage user data, transaction history, and other relevant information securely. Use databases like PostgreSQL, MongoDB, or MySQL.

    3. Security measures.

      • Encryption. Implement encryption protocols such as AES-256 for data storage and TLS/SSL for data transmission.

      • Private key management. Securely store and manage private keys using techniques like Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) wallets or secure enclave hardware solutions.

      • Authentication and authorization. Integrate two-factor authentication (2FA) and biometric authentication to enhance security.

    4. Testing

    • Unit testing. Test individual components and functions to ensure they work correctly. Tools like Jest or Mocha can be used for frontend testing, and JUnit can be used for backend services.

    • Integration testing. Verify that different parts of the app work together seamlessly. This includes testing interactions between the app, blockchain APIs, and backend services.

    • Security testing. Conduct thorough security assessments to identify vulnerabilities and ensure data protection. Tools like OWASP ZAP or Burp Suite can help with penetration testing and vulnerability scanning.

    • User acceptance testing (UAT). Perform testing with real users to validate the app’s functionality, usability, and overall experience.

    5. Deployment

    • Deployment to app stores. Publish the app to platforms like Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This involves:

      • Compliance checks. Ensuring the app meets store guidelines and requirements.

      • Submission process. Following the app store submission procedures, including app review and approval.

    • Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD). Set up CI/CD pipelines to automate the build, test, and deployment processes. Tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, or CircleCI can facilitate this.

    • Ongoing maintenance and updates. Monitor app performance, address user feedback, and release updates to fix bugs, add features, and enhance security.

    Security Considerations

    Ensuring robust security in cryptocurrency wallet applications involves several key practices. AES-256 encryption secures user data at rest and during transmission via TLS. Private key management is also critical; developers often use Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) Wallets and secure enclaves or hardware security modules (HSMs) to protect private keys. Two-factor authentication (2FA) and biometric authentication add layers of security for user access. Regular security audits and penetration testing help identify and fix vulnerabilities. Compliance with AML/KYC regulations and data protection laws like GDPR ensures legal adherence and protects user information.

    Innovations and Trends in Wallet App Development

    Recent developments in cryptocurrency wallet apps include integrating smart contracts for automated transactions and DeFi functionalities. Cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter are used to create seamless experiences across devices. Apps are incorporating advanced analytics and customizable features to enhance user experience. Multi-signature wallets and integration with hardware wallets improve security. User interfaces are becoming more intuitive with one-click transactions and accessibility features.

    Conclusion

    Developing a cryptocurrency wallet app involves a complex process that includes designing user-friendly interfaces, implementing secure backend infrastructure, and ensuring compliance with regulations. But, companies that are not ready to assemble a full-fledged team for development can use a white label crypto wallet solution to get a fully fledged application in a shorter time frame.

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  • After millions lose access to internet subsidy, FCC moves to fill connectivity gaps

    After millions lose access to internet subsidy, FCC moves to fill connectivity gaps

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Biden administration is moving to blunt the loss of an expired broadband subsidy program that helped more than 23 million families afford internet access by using money from an existing program that helps libraries and schools provide WiFi hotspots to students and patrons.

    Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, told The Associated Press last week that the agency had voted in July to “modernize” a federal program known as E-Rate to fill at least some of the gaps left by the Affordable Connectivity Program, which gave families with limited income a monthly subsidy to pay for high-speed internet.

    “A lot of those households are at risk of disconnection,” Rosenworcel said after a visit to a Los Angeles elementary school. “We should be clear that it’s not always an on-off switch. It’s about sustainability.”

    The Affordable Connectivity Program, part of a broader effort pushed by the administration to bring affordable internet to every home and business in the country, was not renewed by Congress and ran out of funding earlier this year.

    Image

    Mothers of students at Union Avenue Elementary School, which has a 93% Latino student population, told Rosenworcel that their need for the internet has never been greater. They said the cost of rent and food makes it hard to prioritize maintaining a continuous connection.

    After listening to the mothers describe using WiFi in a McDonald’s parking lot so they can take part in remote doctor’s appointments, pay bills, and provide their kids with an internet connection for their online homework, an emotional Rosenworcel called their stories “chilling.”

    “That family and that child are going to have a harder time thriving in the modern world without that connection at home,” she said.

    The E-Rate program, established in the 1990s, has provided more than $7 billion in discounts for eligible schools and libraries since 2022 to afford broadband products and services. According to a data analysis by the AP, it offered benefits to more than 12,500 libraries, nearly half of them in rural areas, and 106,000 schools.

    For the most recent round of funding, the E-Rate program was expanded to include WiFi on school buses. Starting next year, Rosenworcel said, the list of eligible products will expand to WiFi hotspots.

    The Affordable Connectivity Program was helping one in six families in the U.S. afford internet access. Rosenworcel said the decision to include WiFi hotspots in E-Rate was partly a response to the failure to extend the subsidies.

    “Every child needs internet access at home to really thrive,” Rosenworcel said.

    Alex Houff, who manages digital equity programs for the Baltimore County Public Library in Maryland, said the library began a WiFi hotspot lending program right before the COVID-19 lockdown began in 2020 with around 50 devices. She said the program has grown to include 1,000 devices, which still falls short of meeting demand. There are more than 160 people waiting to use a hotspot, Houff said.

    “Most of the time we were hearing from branches that their communities were borrowing these hotspots because it was their only source of connectivity,” Houff said.

    Affordability, Houff said, is the biggest barrier to connection. She said the library system would apply for E-Rate funding to double the number of hotspots it offers to patrons.

    The expansion of the program has not pleased everyone. The two Republicans sitting on the commission argued that E-Rate was meant to bolster and support internet access within the classroom, not at home or other places where students “might want to learn.”

    “The last I checked, schools, which have classrooms, and libraries, are physical locations with addresses; not philosophical, conceptual ideas of instruction or education,” Republican commissioner Nathan Simington said in a statement after the vote.

    Rosenworcel, who took over as chair of the FCC after President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election, said the Republican members’ characterization of where the program ought to be applied was too restrictive.

    After the FCC voted to expand WiFi hotspots to school buses, a group of Republican senators endorsed a lawsuit challenging the agency’s decision. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who led the group of senators, said in a news release that the commission’s new rule was an overreach that would “harm children by enabling their unsupervised access to the internet.”

    Disagreements between political parties aren’t the only threat to E-Rate. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals — the same one where Sen. Cruz filed an amicus brief about WiFi on school buses — ruled at the end of July that the funding mechanism that supports E-Rate and other FCC-administered internet access programs, known as the Universal Service Fund, is unlawful.

    “There is a big cloud of uncertainty over the future of the Universal Service Fund right now because of this Fifth Circuit decision,” John Windhausen, the executive director of the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition. “It’s a horrible decision, and it’s totally out of line with past Supreme Court precedent and totally out of line with other appeals courts that have ruled in just the opposite way.”

    Further litigation is expected. The case could be taken up by the Supreme Court, Windhausen said.

    Chairwoman Rosenworcel said she’s confident in the integrity of the Universal Service Fund, saying the Fifth Circuit’s decision is “misguided and wrong.”

    “It’s done a lot of good for the United States to make sure, no matter who you are or where you live, you get access to modern communications,” Rosenworcel said.

    Rosenworcel said the FCC could mobilize quickly if Congress would simply renew the Affordable Connectivity Program, which might be the easiest way to address the need.

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  • The Best Apps for Distraction-Free Writing

    The Best Apps for Distraction-Free Writing

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    iA Writer has dark mode and shortcut integration for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Plus it’s just plain pretty. Given the high price though, you have to be pretty dedicated to the idea of a distraction-free working environment to spring for iA Writer.

    Ulysses

    The basic layout and feature set of Ulysses isn’t terribly different from iA Writer. There’s a sidebar for navigating and organizing your files, and a large main pane for composing. But it’s definitely more feature-rich, including tools for goal tracking and proofreading. Thanks to its simple but thoughtful organization system, you could probably even use Ulysses as a note-taking app in a pinch.

    Like iA Writer it has a typewriter mode with line highlighting and text scrolling. But you have to turn on the various parts of it individually the first time. One of its bigger draws is its styles that allow you to export documents using templates customized for scripts, novels, blog posts, and more.

    The knock against Ulysses is that it’s available only as a $40 annual subscription. And it’s strictly for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. If you’re a Windows user, you’re out of luck.

    FocusWriter

    This is perhaps the most bare-bones of the bunch, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. FocusWriter has all the basics you’d expect from a text editor, including spell check and the ability to have multiple documents open simultaneously. It also has tools for serious writers, like stat tracking and goal setting.

    Unlike most of the other apps here, FocusWriter uses rich text (RTF) for formatting instead of Markdown. It probably has the most customizable interface of the bunch, though. You can meticulously choose the interface colors, fonts, and background.

    One of the biggest draws will be that it’s free and open source, though right now it’s available for Windows and Linux only. While you can probably get it running on macOS if you know your way around a command line, it will take some legwork, and there’s no mobile client or file syncing.

    OmmWriter

    The idea of distraction-free writing is, inherently, kind of gimmicky. But OmmWriter is probably the most gimmicky of the bunch. It doesn’t just strip away the extraneous nonsense; it aims to immerse you in an environment conducive to a flow state. That includes gentle soundscapes to help you focus and even various typing sound effects to enhance the vibes.

    If you want more audible feedback while typing, but don’t want to invest in a nice mechanical keyboard, this might do the job. Though, the very slight lag between your fingers hitting the keys and the sound coming out of the speakers bugged me.

    Otherwise, the UI is pretty bare, with a resizable text box in the center and a few buttons to the right for changing settings. It’s the cheapest of the commercial options here at $9.93 for macOS or Windows. But you can also give it a whirl in your browser by playing with a stripped down version for free.

    Scrivener

    Scrivener has a dedicated following among long-form writers, and for good reason. While the app does have an excellent distraction-free mode, complete with typewriter-style scrolling, it also sports advanced organizing tools that you’re sure to appreciate if you’re working on a book or a screenplay. It’s made specifically with longer writing projects in mind.

    Its project outlines make it simple to collect research or rearrange ideas until you find what clicks. When it comes time to actually write, the full screen composition mode gets rid of everything but the text box. It’s the most minimal of editors.

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    Terrence O’Brien

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  • British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch reported missing after superyacht sinks off Sicily

    British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch reported missing after superyacht sinks off Sicily

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    Mike Lynch, former chief executive officer at Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Autonomy unit, speaking at a conference on Thursday, April 25, 2013. 

    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    LONDON — British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after the sinking of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.

    The sources, who preferred not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation, said that Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife, was confirmed as having been rescued.

    The superyacht, called the Bayesian, capsized at around 5 a.m. local time while anchored off the coast of Porticello, a small fishing village located in the province of Palermo in Italy, according to various media reports.

    Bayesian, a 56-meter-long sailboat, which later sank off the Sicilian capital Palermo, is seen in Santa Flavia, Italy August 18, 2024 in this picture obtained from social media.

    Baia Santa Nicolicchia | Fabio La Bianca | Via Reuters

    The vessel was reportedly struck by an unexpectedly violent storm.

    At least one man has died and six others were reported missing, while 15 people were rescued including a 1-year-old baby, NBC News reported, citing local officials.

    The yacht “suddenly sank” most likely “due to the terrible weather conditions,” the City Council of Bagheria said, according to NBC.

    A carabinieri vehicle parked near the harbor where search continues for missing passengers after a yacht capsized on August 19, 2024 off the coast of Palermo, Italy.

    Vincenzo Pepe | Getty Images

    Who is Mike Lynch?

    Lynch, 59, is the founder of enterprise software firm Autonomy. He became the target of a protracted legal battle with Hewlett Packard after the U.S. tech giant accused him of inflating Autonomy’s value in an $11 billion sale.

    HP took an $8.8 billion write-down on the value of Autonomy within a year of buying it.

    Lynch was extradited from Britain to the U.S. last year to stand trial over the HP allegations. In June, he was acquitted of fraud charges following the trial, which lasted for three months.

    Lynch was born in Ilford, a large town in East London, in 1965 and grew up near Chelmsford in the English county of Essex. He attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences, focusing on areas including electronics, mathematics and biology.

    After completing his undergraduate studies, Lynch completed a Ph.D. in signals processing and communications.

    Toward the end of the 1980s, Lynch founded a firm called Lynett Systems Ltd. which produced designs and audio products for the music industry.

    A view of the MarineTraffic app (a website that tracks vessels using their publicly-available onboard transponders) on a mobile phone showing the last known location of the yacht Bayesian. 

    Yui Mok | PA Images | Getty Images

    A few years later, in the early 1990s, he founded a fingerprint recognition business called Cambridge Neurodynamics, which counted the South Yorkshire Police among its customers.

    But his big break came in 1996 with Autonomy, which he co-founded with David Tabizel and Richard Gaunt as a spinoff from Cambridge Neurodynamics. The company scaled into one of Britain’s biggest tech firms.

    Lynch held a lot of influence in the U.K. technology sphere at the height of his success, having once been dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates by the media.

    He co-founded Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm focused on backing European tech startups, in 2012.

    In his role as a venture capitalist, Lynch was closely involved in helping British cybersecurity firm Darktrace and legal software startup Luminance get off the ground, backing both firms with sizable sums.

    Lynch was previously on the board of U.K. broadcaster BBC. He also once served as an advisor to the British government on the Council for Science and Technology.

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  • San Francisco goes after websites that make AI deepfake nudes of women and girls

    San Francisco goes after websites that make AI deepfake nudes of women and girls

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    Nearly a year after AI-generated nude images of high school girls upended a community in southern Spain, a juvenile court this summer sentenced 15 of their classmates to a year of probation.

    But the artificial intelligence tool used to create the harmful deepfakes is still easily accessible on the internet, promising to “undress any photo” uploaded to the website within seconds.

    Now a new effort to shut down the app and others like it is being pursued in California, where San Francisco this week filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that experts say could set a precedent but will also face many hurdles.

    “The proliferation of these images has exploited a shocking number of women and girls across the globe,” said David Chiu, the elected city attorney of San Francisco who brought the case against a group of widely visited websites based in Estonia, Serbia, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

    “These images are used to bully, humiliate and threaten women and girls,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And the impact on the victims has been devastating on their reputation, mental health, loss of autonomy, and in some instances, causing some to become suicidal.”

    The lawsuit brought on behalf of the people of California alleges that the services broke numerous state laws against fraudulent business practices, nonconsensual pornography and the sexual abuse of children. But it can be hard to determine who runs the apps, which are unavailable in phone app stores but still easily found on the internet.

    Contacted late last year by the AP, one service claimed by email that its “CEO is based and moves throughout the USA” but declined to provide any evidence or answer other questions. The AP is not naming the specific apps being sued in order to not promote them.

    “There are a number of sites where we don’t know at this moment exactly who these operators are and where they’re operating from, but we have investigative tools and subpoena authority to dig into that,” Chiu said. “And we will certainly utilize our powers in the course of this litigation.”

    Many of the tools are being used to create realistic fakes that “nudify” photos of clothed adult women, including celebrities, without their consent. But they’ve also popped up in schools around the world, from Australia to Beverly Hills in California, typically with boys creating the images of female classmates that then circulate widely through social media.

    In one of the first widely publicized cases last September in Almendralejo, Spain, a physician whose daughter was among a group of girls victimized last year and helped bring it to the public’s attention said she’s satisfied by the severity of the sentence their classmates are facing after a court decision earlier this summer.

    But it is “not only the responsibility of society, of education, of parents and schools, but also the responsibility of the digital giants that profit from all this garbage,” Dr. Miriam al Adib Mendiri said in an interview Friday.

    She applauded San Francisco’s action but said more efforts are needed, including from bigger companies like California-based Meta Platforms and its subsidiary WhatsApp, which was used to circulate the images in Spain.

    While schools and law enforcement agencies have sought to punish those who make and share the deepfakes, authorities have struggled with what to do about the tools themselves.

    In January, the executive branch of the European Union explained in a letter to a Spanish member of the European Parliament that the app used in Almendralejo “does not appear” to fall under the bloc’s sweeping new rules for bolstering online safety because it’s not a big enough platform.

    Organizations that have been tracking the growth of AI-generated child sexual abuse material will be closely following the San Francisco case.

    The lawsuit “has the potential to set legal precedent in this area,” said Emily Slifer, the director of policy at Thorn, an organization that works to combat the sexual exploitation of children.

    A researcher at Stanford University said that because so many of the defendants are based outside the U.S., it will be harder to bring them to justice.

    Chiu “has an uphill battle with this case, but may be able to get some of the sites taken offline if the defendants running them ignore the lawsuit,” said Stanford’s Riana Pfefferkorn.

    She said that could happen if the city wins by default in their absence and obtains orders affecting domain-name registrars, web hosts and payment processors “that would effectively shutter those sites even if their owners never appear in the litigation.”

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