Microsoft Edge Gets Free 24-Hour Video Calls, Screenshot Tool, and Shopping Features

Microsoft today announced a slew of new features coming to its Chromium Edge browser. From a report: There are PDF improvements, a built-in screenshot tool, support for more themes, and new shopping features in time for the holiday season. But the most notable addition is the one powered by Skype because for better or for worse, 2020 is the year of…

Cisco Ordered To Cough Up $2 Billion Plus Royalties After Ripping Off Biz’s Cybersecurity Patents

Cisco has been hit with a massive $1.9 billion patent-infringement bill for copying cybersecurity tech from Centripetal Networks and pushing the company out of lucrative government contracts. The Register reports: The network switch maker infringed four patents, a Virginia court decided on Monday, but since the infringement was “willful and egregious,” the judge multiplied the $756 million owed by 2.5 to…

A Literal Child and His Mom Sue Nintendo Over ‘Joy-Con Drift’

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: A boy and his mother today filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo for not doing enough to fix a hardware problem common among Nintendo Switch controllers. It is one of several legal efforts related to the issue of “Joy-Con drift” — a phenomenon where the Switch Joy-Con controllers make in-game characters “drift”…

The Subtle Effects of Blood Circulation Can Be Used To Detect Deepfakes

An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: This work, done by two researchers at Binghamton University (Umur Aybars Ciftci and Lijun Yin) and one at Intel (Ilke Demir), was published in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Learning this past July. In an article titled, “FakeCatcher: Detection of Synthetic Portrait Videos using Biological Signals,” the authors describe software…

Controversial Data Firm Palantir Fetches Market Value of Nearly $22 Billion In Its Debut On the NYSE

US tech firm Palantir, known for supplying controversial data-sifting software to government agencies, has fetched a market value of nearly $22 billion in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The BBC reports: The firm, which launched in 2003 with backing from right-wing libertarian tech investor Peter Thiel and America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), builds programs that integrate massive data…

Firefox 81 Released, Can Now Be Your Default Browser in iOS

Engadget reports:
One big benefit of iOS 14 is that you can set non-Apple-made apps as your default, including for email and web browsing. Hot on the heels of you being able to set Chrome and Gmail as your clients of choice, Firefox is enabling you to make its browser the default on iPhones and iPads. Naturally, you’ll need to have both…

How to Prepare for Job Interviews

Download this guide in PDF format This guide is designed to help you effectively prepare for your first conversation with a recruiter, hiring manager, or non-technical team member. You can use this guide whether you’re new to interviewing, haven’t interviewed in a long time, or just want to refresh your interviewing skills. We’ll discuss some […]
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Senators Introduce Bipartisan ‘Unplug Internet Kill Switch Act of 2020,’ Preventing a President From Denying Access To the Internet

Yesterday, U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced the bipartisan ”Unplug the Internet Kill Switch Act of 2020” (S. 4646), which would help protect Americans’ First and Fourth Amendment rights by preventing a president from using emergency powers to unilaterally take control over or deny access to the internet and other telecommunications capabilities. Slashdot reader…

Wildlife In ‘Catastrophic Decline’ Due To Human Destruction, Scientists Warn

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Wildlife populations have fallen by more than two-thirds in less than 50 years, according to a major report (PDF) by the conservation group WWF. The report says this “catastrophic decline” shows no sign of slowing. And it warns that nature is being destroyed by humans at a rate never seen before. The…

Apple Commits To Freedom of Speech After Criticism of China Censorship

Apple has for the first time published a human rights policy that commits to respecting “freedom of information and expression,” following years of criticism that it bows to demands from Beijing and carries out censorship in mainland China, Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong. From a report: Apple’s board of directors approved the policy and quietly published it ahead of a deadline…