Internet

The "titanium Apple Card" is a physical object to which Apple has affixed its name - as such, it's subject to Apple's industrial design scrutiny. Apple's history with design suggests the company almost always takes care to scrutinize every detail in any product they sell - from the hardware to the software to the packaging and the in-store experience. With the Apple Card, it would seem that lengths to which Apple went to create a top-notch experience got a little... funny.

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Today we're taking another look at the Reddit Public Access Network, or RPAN, also known as R/PAN. Yesterday we took a brief look at RPAN using what details were available at the time - today we're going a little bit more in-depth thanks to some assistance from an official Reddit company spokesperson who reached out to SlashGear to provide deeper insight. This begins with the most important piece of the puzzle: It's not just ANYONE who can stream videos right now. The RPAN network has a few guidelines, the lot of which are still not entirely public.

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Having connected bulbs and thermostats can be convenient and almost harmless when things go wrong. When you take the Internet of Things to stoves and ovens, however, you are taking things to a whole new level, especially when it comes to safety. Some homeowners might be a bit wary of such hi-tech cooking equipment and three cases of June Ovens turning on in the middle of the night are doing nothing to assuage their fears. June's response, however, is also classic.

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As one of the most controversial Big Tech companies, it seems that Facebook doesn't want to get left behind but not in a good way. Google, Amazon, and even Apple have all been exposed sending audio clips taken from AI assistants to human listeners to review and tag those to improve the service. Facebook, however, doesn't have such a smart assistant but is now reported to have also done the same to its users without the knowledge that some human might be privy to their intimate voice chats.

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Over the years, Google has been improving search results to give users less reason to navigate away from Google just to find simple answers to their questions. Those range from snippets presented in answer boxes to even video clip previews. On Android, it may even present more information or more controls that remove the need to switch an app. Now Google is doing the same for podcasts by letting users not only search for relevant podcasts but even start listening to them right then and there within the search results page.

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Google has announced that it is bringing gigabit Internet service to Austin, Texas. The launch will involve Webpass, a company acquired by Google Fiber in 2016 after having been founded in 2003. Though Webpass is already available in a handful of other cities, Google says this upcoming launch is notable -- Austin will be the first city where both Webpass and Google Fiber are available.

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Google has updated its Image Search tab with a new design that enables users to easily compare images. Unlike the previous design, which was somewhat slow and opened a large info box around the image directly in search, the new design opens the image in a static sidebar that remains in place while the rest of the image search results are scrollable.

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For a number of years now, Comcast has been offering low-cost internet service through its Internet Essentials program. Today, the company is expanding the program to cover "all qualified low-income households in its service area." All told, this expansion will cover a further three million households throughout the United States, which indeed is no small number.

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Let me let you in on a program that's going on right now that puts an important twist on every 'deal' article you've ever read. There's a reason why so many blogs write articles about new "deals" on Amazon and with Amazon products - they get cash to do so. If you've never heard of the program called "Amazon Associates," now's the time for a crash course.

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While smartphone makers and network carriers are all hyping 5G, some of those are also pushing for advancements in Wi-Fi technology. Wi-Fi 6 is the battle cry of that industry but it seems that some tech companies are rallying behind a subset of that new spectrum. They're calling it VLP 6GHz short for Very Low Power 6 GHz Wi-Fi and it could be the kind of wireless connection that portable devices and services will need to truly thrive.

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There are a few websites that seem to be designed, whether by design or not, to get users hooked into them. Social networks are the prime example but so are the likes of Wikipedia and Pinterest. Given how much people spend on these sites, there always comes a time when some users will go there searching for something to ease their stress or anxiety. Rather than leave it to chance or some algorithm, Pinterest is now introducing a series of well-being activities to help relieve stress or even hopefully save lives.

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Given the growing number of young users on the Internet, that has also been a rise in apps that cater specifically to this young audience. Those range from educational or entertainment apps to parental control apps. Those, of course, have to take great care in making sure the young ones don't get exposed to harmful content. Unfortunately, just like in any other piece of software, those apps can have bugs and one found in Facebook's Messenger Kids app practically bypassed all the protection that the app promised.

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