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Twitter labels video retweeted by Trump as ‘manipulated media’

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The original video showed Biden saying: “Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here. It’s gotta be a positive campaign.” However, Scavino cut off the end of the video so it just said, “Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump.”

The video marks the first time Twitter has used the “manipulated media” tag, according to the Washington Post. The social media company first showed the policy in November 2019, created after consulting with users and experts from institutions like Witness, the Reuters Institute and New York Universities. It’s designed to help Twitter crack down on misleading information leading up to the 2020 election. During the 2016 campaign, it was widely blamed for allowing fake news to circulate on the platform.

The label first started to appear to users on Sunday night, but it has only showed up on timelines and not searches. (The label did not show up for me at 2:30AM ET when I searched for Scavino’s tweet.) However, Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough told the WaPo that it’s working on a fix for that.

Scavino claimed on Twitter that the video was “not manipulated,” though it was certainly “deceptively edited” which also violates Twitter’s rule. Twitter has been reluctant in the past to take action against Trump’s tweets, even though they sometimes violate its standards, for reasons of “newsworthiness” and “public interest.”

Facebook, by contrast, did not flag the tweet as deceptive, drawing a rebuke from the Biden campaign. “Facebook’s malfeasance when it comes to trafficking in blatantly false information is a national crisis in this respect,” said Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz in a statement to the NY Times. “It is also an unconscionable act of putting profit above not just our country, but every country.”



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Apple Watch might detect your blood oxygen levels

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The company is also said to be working on an improved ECG function that could properly deliver results in between 100 and 120 beats per minute.

There’s no guarantee the new features will appear with the next generation of Apple Watch hardware, let alone through a software update. Apple hasn’t been shy about wanting the Watch to serve as a vital health tool, however, and this could be more important than usual — low blood oxygen levels can increase the risk of heart and lung attacks. Add rumors of further features, like sleep tracking, and it may be more a question of when Apple adds more health functions than “if.”

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New York power plant mines Bitcoin using excess energy

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The facility and its mining partner, Atlas Holdings, characterized this as a win for both the plant and the community. In theory, this helps the facility turn a profit while creating more jobs and tax revenue. It’s a logical fit, at least, as cryptocurrency mining often depends on large amounts of energy — something that won’t be a problem at a power plant.

There are limitations. This mining may work for natural gas, but it might not be a great idea for renewable energy systems where it’d make more sense to store the energy for later. Long-term viability might be an issue, too. Greenidge’s mining may be profitable right now, but it could lose much of its allure as demand at the plant grows. There’s also the nature of Bitcoin itself to consider. It gets more and more difficult to generate bitcoin over time, so the windfalls you see today might not be possible in the years ahead. If this proves successful enough, though, you might see other natural gas plants follow suit.

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Coronavirus home testing kits are coming to Seattle

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The test will let people stay at home and reduce the chances of spreading the virus. At the same time, it could also improve the turnaround by processing large numbers of tests in a relatively short space of time. The Gates Foundation’s Scott Dowell estimated that the lab will handle about 400 tests per day to start, but should eventually handle “thousands” per day.

The test is the offshoot of a University of Washington initiative that was originally meant to track infectious diseases like the flu.

As TechCrunch pointed out, this might not be the only home test kit in the pipeline. Health entrepreneur Jonathan Rothberg is in talks with a manufacturer to develop a low-cost home testing kit that could use a swab, freeze-dried reagents (to amplify DNA) and a colorimetric readout through a mobile app. However, the Gates-backed tech could already go a long way toward measuring the scale of the coronavirus outbreak and, ideally, preventing its spread.



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Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra is surprisingly sturdy

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PhoneBuff, meanwhile, conducted a drop test showing that the S20 Ultra’s front and rear glass survived multiple falls with less damage than an iPhone 11 Pro Max, although Apple’s hardware fared better with side impacts (owing to the use of stainless steel versus the S20 Ultra’s aluminum) and maintaining functionality under heavy abuse.

These are synthetic tests, and you won’t mistake this phone for a rugged device like Samsung’s own Xcover Pro. You’ll still have to treat it with respect. Nonetheless, it’s good to know that you don’t have to baby your very expensive phone to keep it looking good and working well — just don’t tempt fate by being reckless.

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Apple reduces capacity at store events to deal with coronavirus outbreak

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The company is also implementing a number of behind-the-scenes changes. Cook encouraged office employees in areas with the “greatest density of infections” (including Apple’s home in the Santa Clara Valley area, Italy and South Korea) to work from home when possible for the week starting March 9th. He also promised that hourly workers would continue to receive their regular pay at those offices where their work might suddenly be less necessary, echoing policies at rivals like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

It’s not completely surprising that Apple would go this route. Its modern stores are designed to serve as community spaces. That’s great in normal circumstances, but slightly terrifying when an easily transmitted virus is spreading. If it reduces the chance of contact, it reduces the possibility of contributing to the outbreak. At the same time, it’s clear that Apple wants to avoid closing retail stores (beyond the temporary closures in China) when possible.

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Google location data led police to investigate an innocent cyclist

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The initial data had been anonymized like Google said it would in the past, but police had asked Google to provide information about McCoy’s account after noticing the unusual activity. Google notified McCoy of the request on January 14th of this year, but he had just a week to ask a court to block the request before many details of his account became public. His lawyer objected to the warrant on constitutional grounds, arguing that it was an indiscriminate search rather than a focus on a person they already suspected. Police then withdrew the request with claims that there were details in the motion that led them to think McCoy wasn’t the culprit, though they didn’t say what those were.

While McCoy has since been cleared, the incident draws attention to the problems with geofence warrants. They’ve led to arrests and convictions (something police point out when defending the practice), but they also carry the risk of sweeping up innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not everyone has the luxury of hiring a lawyer to block requests, either. Moreover, many people (such as McCoy, until this year) aren’t even aware that the apps they use are sharing as much info as they do. That’s getting better with improved privacy controls in platforms like Android 10 and iOS 13, but it may take a long while before people are truly conscious of where their location data is going.

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Pixel 4a photo leaks hint at a no-frills budget phone

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The snapshots don’t reveal too much more about what’s inside the phone, although a capture of the available storage hints that you might still have to be content with 64GB of non-expandable storage. It’s expected to carry a 5.7- or 5.8-inch screen and use a mid-tier Snapdragon processor (likely from the 600 or 700 series) to both keep costs down and wring out extra battery life.

It’s not certain when the Pixel 4a might arrive, especially in light of the coronavirus outbreak affecting production for numerous companies. Google certainly isn’t tied to a specific launch window now that I/O is cancelled. However, it’s hard to imagine Google waiting long. The Pixel 3a served not only as an entry point for Google’s smartphone line, but as a way to keep the series fresh and in the public spotlight while the main Pixel was still mid-cycle.

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Uber, Lyft will compensate drivers affected by coronavirus outbreak

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A Lyft spokesperson also told Engadget that it had “decided to provide funds to drivers infected or quarantined by a public health authority.”

There may be broader industry plans afoot, however. Wall Street Journal sources say Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates are among those discussing a fund to compensate drivers affected by the virus. The details of how it would work aren’t clear, but the group is reportedly poised to make a decision in the “coming days.”

While this could be good news for drivers worried that they might get sick, the payouts won’t fully address concerns about pay. Ridesharing drivers and couriers typically don’t make much money from their work, making them particularly sensitive to even brief interruptions — compensating them after the fact could still lead to financial hardship. They may be tempted to keep working even when they show symptoms of a possible infection. And of course, compensation for infections won’t offset lost business from declines in tourism and other customers staying home due to coronavirus concerns.

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After Math: Anything worth doing is worth overdoing

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2020 is shaping up to be the year without conventions. Google I/O, Facebook F8, GDC, OMG, and MWC have already been called off, with exhibitors jumping ship from SXSW by the handful and Computex and E3 likely next on the chopping block. But these are…

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