Google Fiber has switched on its fastest service ever, with 2 Gig downloads promising double the speed of the ISP's already-potent connection. A work-in-progress since Google's internet provider arm announced it would be testing 2 Gig back in August, the good news is that it's not extortionately priced. The bad news, though, is that availability is very limited.
YouTube is back with another update on its effort to reduce hate speech on the platform, revealing that users will soon see a prompt before commenting that reminds them to be respectful. The warning will appear if YouTube's system detects that you may be about to publish a hateful comment, the idea being that you'll have a chance to rethink your commentary.
The political landscape in the US hasn't yet stabilized almost a month after one of the most important elections in its recent history. It is perhaps because of that state of flux that government officials under the current administration are moving quickly to wrap things up while they can. Last month saw Google formally sued for monopolistic business practices and TikTok's fate could very well be decided this Friday. Next week will see yet another high-profile legal drama when the US government slaps Facebook with an antitrust lawsuit of its own.
While many praise and thank Google for making information and news available to the masses on the Internet, others, especially publishers, hate it for almost the same reason. Some have even sued Google for putting directly in Search results content that should otherwise be viewed on the content owner's website. And then there's paywalled content that effectively blocks users from accessing those without paying a fee. In order to better promote its News platform, Google is negotiating with publishers in order to provide some locked content to readers for absolutely no charge at all.
It's no secret that Google has had very little luck with anything that comes close to being a social platform. It is perhaps less known that it also has had very little luck when it came to 3D content. While SketchUp briefly became a buzzword in the 3D modeling space, Google eventually relinquished its hold on the product just after six years of acquiring it. Now another one of its 3D-related products will be joining its notorious graveyard, once again raising concerns about its commitment to VR and AR technologies.
If you've spent this year working from home, there's a good chance you use video conferencing software like Zoom. As tends to be the case in a home full of people, there's also a good chance that someone, at some point, has streamed movies or downloaded games at the same time, causing the video conference quality to drop drastically. Nest WiFi router owners now have a direct solution to this problem.
This morning Ajit Pai announced he'd be leaving the FCC for good on January 20, 2021. Pai was first appointed as a Commissioner to the FCC in 2012, then made Chairman of the FCC in 2017. Pai made this announcement via the FCC (dot gov) as of November 30, 2020 with the statement title "Chairman Pai Announces his Intent to Depart FCC."
Some might presume that recent political changes in the US government might weaken the campaign against certain US companies but it is far too early to count those eggs. The current government still holds the power and, as far as the Trump administration is concerned, nothing has really changed. Huawei is still on its entity list and TikTok still risks getting banned next month. And according to a recent FCC order, ZTE remains a national security threat because of its potential to be used for state-sanctioned espionage.
Almost like some of the smooth dance moves you can see on the social network, TikTok has again narrowly dodged what could be the fatal deadline that would end it, at least in the US. As the new November 27 deadline approaches, owner ByteDance was given another week to convince the US government not to ban it outright. That remains a quest of Herculean proportions as the Chinese company's multiple proposals have been repeatedly rejected already.
Comcast is going to increase prices for its Internet and television services nationwide starting on January 1, an announcement that has come to light days after the service provider revealed that it will expand its Internet data cap. The price increase will impact both monthly subscription prices and some fees.
Google has another experimental tool that anyone can access and it's called 'Verse by Verse.' The new tool enables anyone to generate poems in the style of famous poets with the help of artificial intelligence. Verse by Verse involves input from both human and machine to make the final poem, one that may be less than sensical depending on how heavily you rely on the AI's suggestions.
Twitter will begin its public verifying program again, having hit pause on the controversial process three years ago amid confusion around what the blue check actually means. Currently, some Twitter users are tagged with a blue check-mark badge, which the social network uses to flag those accounts that are authentic.