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DOJ may present its antitrust case against Google later this month

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A report by the New York Times suggests that the Justice Department is close to presenting its antitrust case against Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The report also mentions that there’s disagreement among the team, as attorney general William Barr is described as wanting to announce the case in September to make it an an example of action taken by the Trump administration.

That push seems like an “arbitrary” decision that overrides the advice of career lawyers who think rushing things will strengthen Google’s case. Google, through a spokesman, is quoted saying it will continue to “engage” with the investigations, which have focused on its dominance in online search and advertising, and reportedly uncovered “powerful” evidence of anticompetitive behavior. A report in the Washington Post backed up the NYT findings, and mentioned that some state AGs are targeting Android as well.

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Alphabet’s Loon balloons are helping scientists study gravity waves

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In between beaming internet to people in developing countries and sometimes passing for UFOs, Alphabet’s Loon balloons have been busy helping scientists study how our planet works. A team led by Stanford professor Aditi Sheshadri recently published a report on gravity waves, ripples created by gravity when it pushes down on air forced up into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. 

To compile their report, professor Sheshadri and her team used data that Alphabet’s Loon balloons collected over 6,811 separate 48-hour periods between 2014 and 2018. “This was just a very lucky thing because they weren’t collecting data for any scientific mission. But, incidentally, they happened to be measuring position and temperature and pressure,” the researcher told Stanford News. 

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Pinterest users won’t see ads when they search for election-related content

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Today’s policies build on the company’s decision to ban political advertising from its platform in 2018. As before, you won’t see political ads on Pinterest, nor will the company show any ads when you search for general election terms like “polling place.” The same goes for when and if you decide to search for pins related to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. “We believe that’s a better and more inspiring experience for everyone,” Pinterest said.

Users aren’t the only ones who will benefit from Pinterest’s new policies. The company will give its more than 2,200 employees eight hours of paid time off to use toward civic engagement. They can take advantage of that time to do things like vote and work at a polling station. The move follows similar initiatives from other tech companies like Apple and Twitter.

“We believe participating in the democratic process can be inspiring, and we want Pinterest to be a place where people can find credible information that inspires them to participate fully in their communities,” the company said.

More so than some other online platforms, Pinterest has historically done a good job of combating misinformation on its platform. When the coronavirus pandemic first hit, the company was quick to put credible information, from sources like the World Health Organization, in front of users.

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Instagram replaces Explore with Reels in India

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Facebook is making its newest TikTok rival even more prominent in India. Instagram’s app in India now has a dedicated tab for Reels, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri. 

With the change, the Reels section appears where “Explore” used to be, and the Explore section has moved to the top right corner of the app next to the inbox. An Instagram spokesperson told Engadget the change is also being tested in Germany, France and Brazil.  



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Facebook didn’t actually take down the event page for Wisconsin militia

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Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company told BuzzFeed News that its initial statement was an “error.” 

Facebook had said at the time that it removed both the group and the event page. The company has been widely criticized for not taking action against the Kenosha Guard group and its event prior to the shooting, despite reports from hundreds of users. Facebook responded to those reports by saying the event didn’t violate its rules. Facebook later admitted that it did.

Mark Zuckerberg told employees it was an “operational mistake, and suggested that the error was because the reports went to reviewers who didn’t have the appropriate training. Facebook had only recently implemented a new rule that banned militia groups from discussing violence.

“It is largely an operational mistake,” Zuckerberg said. “The team that enforces our policy against dangerous orgs is a specialized team… the contractors and reviewers who the initial complaints were funneled to didn’t pick this up.”

BuzzFeed News reports that the event page contained multiple disturbing and violent comments, including one person who said “I fully plan to kill looters and rioters tonight.” Some of these comments were also reported by users.

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Apple pushes iOS 14’s updated ad anti-tracking feature to 2021

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“We are committed to ensuring users can choose whether or not they allow an app to track them,” the company said in a developer update it posted on Thursday. “To give developers time to make necessary changes, apps will be required to obtain permission to track users starting early next year.”

While the policy is likely to be a major benefit to users, it has been controversial among some developers and advertisers. In particular, Facebook has warned it could have dire effects on its ad network. In testing, the company said it saw a 50 percent decline in Audience Network publisher revenue when ad personalization wasn’t available as an option. The company went on to say the anti-tracking feature could make it so that it might not make sense for Facebook to offer the tool in iOS 14.

Apple also provided an update on another privacy-related feature. By the end of the year, developers will need to include a privacy information section on their App Store listings that detail how their software collects and stores user data. By the end of October, Apple will start accepting this information from developers.

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GIF search, voice typing and more are coming to Windows 10

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Voice typing is introduced as a “new and improved” version of Windows dictation. The new version has been optimized for use with touch keyboards, has auto-punctuation and back end updates that should make voice typing faster and more responsive. You can also use voice commands to stop or pause voice typing and to delete or select certain words.

The voice typing feature has a button on the touch keyboard for easy access. The touch keyboard has been updated in other ways, including new key press animations and sounds, emoji and GIF search and small tweaks to key sizes and layouts.

An exact timeline for when those of us who aren’t beta testers will get these new features is unclear, but if you want to try them now you can simply sign up for the Windows Insider program. There are also a handful of developer-focused changes that you can read about at the Windows Blog.

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Facebook slaps new label on Trump post about mail-in ballots

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Facebook's latest label for Trump's post about mail-in ballots.

Facebook

Previously, Facebook had labeled Trump’s post with a message encouraging users to visit the company’s voting information center. But that label, which is similar to ones the company has added to other voting-related posts, had been criticized for not taking a stronger stance on the president’s claims.

Facebook’s new label comes after Mark Zuckerberg announced new steps the social network would take to prevent voter fraud and misinformation. The company will expand its voter suppression policy to “include implicit misrepresentations about voting… because it might mislead you about what you need to do to get a ballot, even if that wouldn’t necessarily invalidate your vote by itself,” Zuckerberg said.

Facebook will also ban new political ads in the days leading up to the election, and add labels to posts that try “to delegitimize the outcome of the election” or declare victory before the results are final. The company will also limit message forwarding in its Messenger app. 

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NVIDIA shows off ‘Doom Eternal’ running on the GeForce RTX 3080

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When it revealed its first 3000-series graphics cards earlier this week, NVIDIA said the $699 GeForce RTX 3080 runs twice as fast as the 2080. To showcase its latest tech, the company released a gameplay video of Doom Eternal running on the 3080, which includes side-by-side comparisons with the 2080 Ti (a souped-up version of the 2080).

You’ll need a display that’s capable of showing off 4K visuals at 60 frames per second for the optimal effect here — YouTube doesn’t support higher FPS rates than that yet. Still, Doom Eternal runs very smoothly here on what I’d imagine are fairly high graphics settings. There’s an FPS counter in the top right corner all the way through, and it rarely dips below 100 FPS despite all the gnarly, fast-paced action.

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Amazon’s new Blink cameras can run for up to four years

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There are a few helpful tricks to make note of here: For one, if you’ve placed one of these Blink cameras in high-traffic areas, you can designate them as such in the companion app so your phone doesn’t drown in motion detection notifications. Since this is Amazon we’re talking about, you’ll get full control over settings and routines through Alexa. And you now have your choice of video storage options, too: You can pay $3/month per camera (or $10/month for unlimited cameras) to save videos to Amazon’s cloud, or use USB flash drives and the included Blink Sync Modules to keep all that footage local.

Like most prior Blink models, both the Indoor and Outdoor run on two AA batteries, which Amazon says is enough to power them for a full two years. If that still somehow isn’t enough, Amazon has confirmed it will start selling an extended battery pack for Blink cameras that house four AA batteries instead of the usual two, which should work out to four years of total runtime. That might be overkill for some (especially since the extended battery packs are $30 each), but the extra longevity could come in handy for people who have placed their Blinks well out of the way.

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