Technology

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With presidential elections looming in the United States, and the Iowa caucuses due to be held next week, YouTube and its parent company Google has announced a policy that will remove videos uploaded to the platform that can be classified as having been manipulatively edited in some way or attempt to misinform users about voting and census issues.

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that he will be banning cars powered by diesel or petrol by 2035, five years earlier than the date that was previously given. This ban is part of a larger plan to tackle climate change and air pollution. These dates are just his targets, it is currently unknown if the government will manage to meet them.

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The latest update to the world's most popular messaging app, Facebook-owned Whatsapp will prevent the app from working on older phones, which developers say is necessary to ensure user security. The app also does not function on Windows phones as of last December, and most users should be able to update their phone to ensure Whatsapp remains compatible with their devices.

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The European Union has dropped the idea of banning the use of facial recognition technology in public areas. They revealed this in a new draft of a proposal that intends to regulate the use of AI technology in the future. The new AI regulations have mostly to do with high-risk areas such as transport and healthcare.

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The European Union has decisively voted to eliminate all variations in smartphone charger cables to reduce waste and improve the customer experience. The new regulation will go into effect in July and Apple will now have to revise its plans to remove the charging port from the iPhone entirely.

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A report by the Associated Press has revealed that the United Nations' offices in Geneva and Vienna were targeted in a cyber attack in an espionage operation, but top officials attempted to bury information related to the leak. Staff members were not made aware of the attack, which is thought to have been backed by certain state actors.

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Billionaire inventor Elon Musk's Boring Company started work in November 2019 on a tunnel under the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is supposed to be almost a mile long and will shorten a 15-minute walk to a 1-minute commute via specially modified Tesla electric vehicles, which will provide seating and standing space for up to 16 passengers. The tunnel is reported to be half-finished and will soon be operational.

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For the fourth quarter of 2019, South Korean smartphone giant Samsung reported strong smartphone sales, but blamed a 57 percent decrease in operating profits of displays and semiconductors for a sharp decline in profits. The company conceded to Apple's commanding lead this quarter, with 70.7 million sales compared to Samsung's 68.8 million.

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Billionaire inventor Elon Musk's SpaceX has successfully placed another batch of 60 Starlink satellites into Earth's orbit using its Falcon 9 rocket, marking the fourth batch in many more to come. SpaceX's Starlink project aims to provide global broadband connectivity using a mega-constellation of 42,000 satellites, with 242 already in place.

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Scotland has announced that it will be switching to using 100% renewable energy before the end of the year, just in time to host the 2020 climate summit. The country is shutting down all of its fossil fuel power plants and is putting much more focus on wind power and some other renewable sources.

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In a move that is alarming privacy activists, more than 40 US schools are piloting a location tracking app called SpotterEDU for ensuring attendance in classes. While the app only uses Bluetooth tracking instead of GPS and currently schools are making installation of the app on smartphones optional for students, privacy advocates believe it might be increasingly harder for students to opt-out of such programs.

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US smartphone manufacturer Apple has announced a record Christmas sales period, driven by high demand for the iPhone 11, marking an increase of 8 percent to reach 91.8 billion USD, a fourth quarter record for the company. Demand for Apple's wearable devices such as AirPods also experienced a record surge, increasing by 44 percent in 2019, to the point that it created manufacturing shortages.

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Police in London has announced that the city will be deploying facial recognition technology all over the city to help officers locate persons of interest if they ever show up in security camera footage. The police also said that the technology would be used safely and transparently.

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Scientists in China have found a revolutionary new technique that allows them to create Hydrogen with much more efficiency. To use Hydrogen fuel cells as an alternative energy source, the cells need to have a constant and steady supply of the gas, this was very difficult and expensive before this discovery was made.

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Facebook has managed to train a complex AI to be able to efficiently navigate an environment using just a camera, depth data, a GPS and a compass. Although some companies were able to train AI to navigate, none have been able to train it to do so efficiently and without constant backtracking.

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NASA has commissioned Axiom Space, a tech startup, to build the first-ever commercial habitable pod for the International Space Station. This pod could be used to house experiments and even commercial tourists just visiting space. Both organizations have not worked out a schedule for the construction and operation of the pod as of yet.

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The Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account for 15 National Football League teams were hacked in an attack claimed by hacking group OurMine, which said its purpose in targeting the teams was to demonstrate that internet security was still lacking for many organizations and needed improvements. The compromised accounts included those of the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, who will be competing in the Super Bowl Championship.

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Apple has announced that it will soon be launching "Apple Watch Connected," a new program that will partner with a number of different gyms to allow users to gain benefits and rewards by working out with their Apple Watch. Each gym will release its own Apple Watch app that will allow users to track their progress and will provide rewards to those who meet specific goals.

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Tinder has announced that it will be adding an optional new panic button feature. The button will allow users to call the authorities to their location in case something goes wrong. The app will track the movements and location of the user as they go about their date. Tinder has said that the location data will not be used for advertising purposes.

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Amid rising financial difficulties and regulations stemming from Boeing's 737 MAX crisis, the plane manufacturer has successfully tested the 777X, the largest twin-engine plane in the world. The 777X completed its first flight from Paine Field in Washington to the Boeing Field in Seattle in about 4 hours, and after going through more rounds of testing and certification, executives hope it will see service in UAE's Emirates Airlines by 2021.

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Luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce has announced that it will be constructing modular nuclear reactors in the UK that could be active by the year 2029. These reactors will provide power to the public although it is currently unknown just how efficient they will be. The company has said that the modular reactors will be cheaper than standard nuclear reactors.

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Google has changed its search results page so that the ads and the actual search results now look almost the same. The company has been receiving large amounts of criticism because of this but instead of changing, it doubled down and has made them almost indistinguishable. They are doing this to prevent their ad revenue from slowing down.

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Dom Hoffman, co-creator of the popular, now-defunct short-form video-sharing app Vine, promised dismayed users that he would release a replacement for Vine when it officially shut down in 2017, following which he has released an app called Byte on the iOS and Android platforms which functions in exactly the same way. Byte's main competitor is the Chinese app TikTok, which currently boasts over 1.5 billion downloads.

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A group of age verification companies, namely AVSecure, VeriMe, AgeChecked and AVYourself, are have challenged the UK government in court after a government-sponsored program to introduce age verification on pornography websites was stopped due to an outcry from privacy advocacy groups. The companies are claiming 3 million GBP in damages, stating that they abide by national privacy standards and do not retain user data.

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Conservative UK prime minister Boris Johnson's administration has announced that after the country officially leaves the European Union, they will no longer be implementing the EU Copyright Directive, which requires big tech firms to remove copyrighted content uploaded to their websites, applying a heavy penalty should they fail to do so.

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