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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It sounds like a great idea: Forget passwords, and instead lock your phone or computer with your fingerprint. It's a convenient form of security — though it's also perhaps not as safe as you'd think. In their rush to do away with problematic passwords, Apple, Microsoft and other tech companies are nudging consumers to use their own fingerprints, faces and eyes as digital keys. Smartphones and other devices increasingly feature scanners that can verify your identity via these "biometric" signatures in order to unlock a gad...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Some Facebook users received an unsettling shock Friday, when an unexplained glitch caused the social networking service to post a notice that implied they were dead. A number of Facebook users reported that their profile page on the social network was topped with a message that referred to them by name — as if they were gone — while linking to a feature that "memorializes" the page of someone who has died. The message said Facebook hoped the users' loved ones would find comfort in seeing posts that others shared about...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In another black eye for one of the world's leading consumer brands, U.S. authorities announced a recall Friday of nearly 3 million Samsung washing machines following several reports of injuries — including a broken jaw — due to "excessive vibration." The recall comes a month after the South Korean manufacturer recalled millions of its Galaxy Note 7smartphones from consumers around the world, because of a mysterious problem that caused the phones' batteries to overheat and catch fire. Since then, the company stopped produ...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Violent gunmen still menace pick-and-shovel miners in eastern Congo, a new report finds, despite years of efforts to loosen their grip by local reformers, Western activists and companies like Apple and Intel that use minerals from the African region in their products. Conditions are improving for miners who dig the ore that's processed into tin, tungsten and tantalum for smartphones and other electronics, though some still face interference from armed groups. But slumping demand and depressed prices for those minerals have...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google's parent company is halting operations and laying off staff in a number of cities where it once hoped to bring high-speed internet access by installing new fiber-optic networks. The company also announced that Craig Barratt, a veteran tech executive who led the ambitious — and expensive — Google Fiber program, is stepping down as CEO of Access, the division of Google corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., that operates the 5-year-old program. In a statement, Barratt said Google Fiber will continue to provide service in a...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP, posted Sept. 23, 2016) — If a foreign government is behind the massive computer attack that compromised a half billion user accounts at Yahoo, as the company says, the breach could be part of a long-term strategy that's aimed at gathering intelligence rather than getting rich. Yahoo says the breach involved users' email addresses, passwords and other information — including birthdates — but not payment card or bank account numbers. Although the stolen data could still be used in financial crimes, such as identity theft...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Apple shows off its latest iPhone on Wednesday, it will answer a question it hasn't had to address in years: "What's it putting in the box?" (Besides the iPhone itself, that is.) The iPhone has traditionally shipped with a pair of Apple's iconic earbuds, made famous in early advertising for the iPod music player. But tech analysts and industry bloggers, citing leaks from Apple's Asian suppliers, say it looks like the tech giant has decided to do away with the analog headphone jack in the next iPhone. That means the e...
