Coronavirus outbreak: List of sporting events affected throughout the world due to epidemic

At the time of writing, the death toll from Coronavirus, named COVID-19 by WHO, has crossed 2,900 and the number of cases has gone beyond 86,000.

The post Coronavirus outbreak: List of sporting events affected throughout the world due to epidemic appeared first on Firstpost.

Americans love Apple, Europeans Samsung, and rest of the world these phone brands

Spotify’s first year in India: 365 days of legal disputes, listenership growth and lingering questions

The top five most streamed acts on Spotify since launch are all Bollywood biggies who occasionally or regularly dabble in pop: Arijit Singh, Tanishk Bagchi, Neha Kakkar, Badshah and Shreya Ghoshal.

The post Spotify’s first year in India: 365 days of legal disputes, listenership growth and lingering questions appeared first on Firstpost.

LaLiga: El Clasico more important for Real Madrid than Barcelona, says Barca manager Quique Setien

Barcelona coach Quique Setien believes Real Madrid are under greater pressure than his side heading into “Clasico”, which could go a long way in determining who wins the league

The post LaLiga: El Clasico more important for Real Madrid than Barcelona, says Barca manager Quique Setien appeared first on Firstpost.

Dubai Tennis Championships: World No 1 Novak Djokovic beats Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to win title for fifth time

After saving match points to reach the final, top-ranked Novak Djokovic was scarcely troubled as he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday to win the Dubai Championships for the fifth time.

The post Dubai Tennis Championships: World No 1 Novak Djokovic beats Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to win title for fifth time appeared first on Firstpost.

Premier League expected to use pitchside monitors next season for VAR decisions, says IFAB technical director David Elleray

The Premier League is expected to switch next season to regular use of the pitchside monitor for VAR decisions, world football’s referee supremo David Elleray said

The post Premier League expected to use pitchside monitors next season for VAR decisions, says IFAB technical director David Elleray appeared first on Firstpost.

Indian law invisibilises, discriminates against queer people; one project reimagines legislation to make it more inclusive

A project titled Queering The Law, by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, looks at the ways in which queer people can have better legal representation, in order to be able to better access the law and other civic institutions. It identifies laws that patently discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, as well as ones that operate on the male-female binary, thereby invisibilising anyone whose identity does not fall within this binary

The post Indian law invisibilises, discriminates against queer people; one project reimagines legislation to make it more inclusive appeared first on Firstpost.

South Africa vs Australia: Heinrich Klaasen scores century as Proteas clinch first ODI by 74 runs

Heinrich Klaasen's first one-day international century successfully set up South Africa for a 74-run win as Australia was bowled out for 217 while chasing 292 in the series-opener

The post South Africa vs Australia: Heinrich Klaasen scores century as Proteas clinch first ODI by 74 runs appeared first on Firstpost.

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The hottest movies that streaming fans can’t get enough of right now

It's been a few weeks now since the foreign-language blockbuster Parasite stunned Hollywood by taking home a handful of major awards at this year's Oscars ceremony -- including a Best Picture win for the critically acclaimed film, the first time a foreign title has done so in the 92-year history of the awards. And the buzz surrounding the movie, which will have an exclusive streaming home soon, has yet to die down. In fact, it may even be continuing to grow.

To coincide with the one-year anniversary of Parasite premiering at the prestigious Cannes film festival, Grand Central Publishing is planning to soon release director Bong Joon Ho's storyboards for the film in the form of a 304-page graphic novel. Set for a May 19 publication date (and available for pre-order here), it will include a forward that's penned by the director, and the dialogue and camera directions will be translated into English. Meanwhile, not only will the book no doubt prove something of a hot commodity among the film's legion of fans in the US -- Hulu has announced that it will stream the movie starting on April 8. To say nothing of the fact that there are still plenty of viewers who don't want to wait that long, and who've already taken advantage of movie rental services like Amazon and iTunes to make Parasite the top streaming movie once again this week.

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1. More PS5 specs accidentally confirmed by major accessory maker
2. Newly revealed ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ deleted scene would’ve been crazy, but it can’t happen now
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The hottest movies that streaming fans can’t get enough of right now originally appeared on BGR.com on Sat, 29 Feb 2020 at 22:20:04 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich crush Hoffenheim 6-0 after game interrupted over banner

Bayern Munich fired in three goals in opening 15 minutes en route to a 6-0 demolition of Hoffenheim in a game interrupted for 20 minutes over an offensive banner unfurled by visiting fans

The post Bundesliga: Bayern Munich crush Hoffenheim 6-0 after game interrupted over banner appeared first on Firstpost.

From Ye Maaya Chesave To Jaanu, tracing Samantha Akkineni’s decade long journey in Telugu cinema

Samantha Akkineni has, in recent times, dropped plenty of hints that she wants to take a break from films to focus on her family, and one can only wonder what her final film is going to be.

The post From Ye Maaya Chesave To Jaanu, tracing Samantha Akkineni’s decade long journey in Telugu cinema appeared first on Firstpost.

Premier League: Liverpool’s unbeaten dream run ends in shock 3-0 thrashing at Watford

Liverpool’s unbeaten run of success in this season’s Premier League was ended in unfathomable fashion on Saturday as struggling Watford hammered the European champions 3-0

The post Premier League: Liverpool’s unbeaten dream run ends in shock 3-0 thrashing at Watford appeared first on Firstpost.

OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T receive OxygenOS 1032 with February 2020 security patch

OnePlus has generally pushed software updates out to its devices in a timely fashion. In the latest instance of this positive trend, the Chinese electronics manufacturer is rolling out the latest OxygenOS 10.3.2 software as an over-the-air update to the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. The update, which contains the latest security patch for Android, is currently being rolled out in a staged manner. If you own either of the models, you can expect to see the notification update pop up anytime now.

According to OnePlus Global Product Operations Manager Manu J, the new OxygenOS 10.3.2 update carries the latest February 2020 security patch for Android. In addition, it comes with a fix for a previously reported bug that causes the screen to flicker when the user is swiping up from the lock screen to unlock the device. Lastly, the update contains fixes for some ‘general bugs’ and improves the overall system stability. Read the changelog published by OnePlus here.

According to some of the OnePlus Community members, the new update indeed fixes the screen flickering issue in the lock screen but fails to bring a solution for a notch-related complaint that began with Android 10. According to many users on the forum, Android 10 does not ‘hide’ (blacken) the status bar around the display notch the way Android 9 Pie did. Instead it pushes the entire status bar below the notch, thus wasting some essential screen space.

The OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T received their last software update to OxygenOS 10.3.1 exactly one month ago, which contained a long list of system-level bug fixes. Apart from carrying the December 2019 security patch for Android, the OxygenOS 10.3.1 update fixed a critical camera crash issue and optimised the image preview time in Pro mode. It also fixed a disconnection issue many users reportedly faced while using 5GHz Wi-Fi hotspot. You can read more about the fixes in the previous software update here.

Best Android tablets for 2020 - CNET

10 best baseball apps and MLB apps for Android!

Baseball is one of the most popular sports around the world. It’s also the oldest active professional sport in the United States. It has a rich history with plenty of lore and a ton of amazing players from all over the world. Believe it or not, baseball is kind of in a renaissance period and the sport is actually gaining in popularity. Part of that is because of all the ways you can interact with the game now, including MLB’s outstanding (and surprisingly inexpensive) live game streaming. We can help you find some excellent apps to enjoy the game more. Here are the best baseball apps for Android!

Two types of baseball apps

There are two different types of baseball apps. The first are for people trying to experience the game from an entertainment perspective. This includes news sites, blogs, live streaming, radio, social media, and things like that. These types of apps give people a greater ability to enjoy the game in ways they definitely couldn’t 20 years ago. Baseball is surprisingly good with its streaming rights and you can find baseball games on most major streaming services as well as an official MLB streaming experience that is vastly better than most other major sports.

The second type of baseball app are for people who actually play the game. These include score-keeping apps, stat apps, fantasy baseball apps, and other such things. These apps aid people in enjoying the game of baseball on a more active level and, in some cases, can be better than the old paper and pencil methods from years ago. We have both types of baseball apps on this list so let’s get started.

Here are some more baseball apps you might find helpful!

10 best fantasy sports apps for football, baseball, basketball, and hockey

10 best sports news apps for Android!

ESPN

Price: Free / $4.99 per month

ESPN is kind of an easy choice for baseball fans. It covers the sport with decent coverage, analysis, and highlight videos. You also get trade rumors, stats, schedules, scores, and the usual stuff. It even has some live streaming capabilities if you already have cable. ESPN also supplies ESPN+, a $4.99 per month streaming service with a bunch of extra on-demand and live streaming sporting events. It covers quite a bit of baseball, even some minor league stuff, the Little League World Series, and other baseball-related events. It’s definitely a lot better than it used to be in terms of app stability. The opinion pieces can be a little preachy, though.

Google Assistant and Search

Price: Free

Google Assistant is great for sports fans. In fact, it was one of the first things Google added to the app before it was called Google Assistant. A simple question gets you scores, schedules, news, and various other information. It’s also good for checking the weather before heading out to the game. The Google Feed section automatically populates with stuff you care about. Over time, the app will just give you scores, updates, and news without you asking for it. You can also set what teams you care about in the settings if you want to. It’s a worthy pick if you like baseball or any sports for that matter.

Feedly

Price: Free

Feedly is an RSS reader. People can populate it with whatever news sites that they want. This makes it one of the better baseball apps for news. You add blogs and news sites that you like. Feedly shows you the latest articles from all of them when opened. This is a great way to keep track of multiple sites at once through one app. It also features cross-platform support with PC, IFTTT, Twitter, Facebook, and others. That makes it easy to follow baseball personalities and other stuff too.

iScore Baseball

Price: Free / $19.99

iScore is another baseball scorecard app. It has functionality for both baseball and softball although the scoring isn’t really any different between them. The app lets you create rosters and leagues, score full games, export games for sharing, and more. It’s another app for people like coaches, little leagues, and super fans who want their own stat sheets. It’s definitely one of the better baseball apps for amateur players and pick-up games as well. The app’s pro version goes for $19.99. That’s fairly steep but the free version seems to work pretty well.

MLB At Bat

Price: Free / $2.99 per month / $19.99 per year

MLB At Bat is one of the essential baseball apps. The app lets fans watch any out-of-market baseball game. That includes 60fps video. The app also includes radio broadcasts, a video archive, stats, news, schedules, rosters, and support for Spanish. The live baseball is quite good and boasts 60fps playback, rewinding live games, closed captioning, and more. The full subscription goes for $19.99 per year, but that’s a whole lot less than other sports charge for their similar services. MLB should be constantly lauded for how good this app is at streaming sports.

We have some more app lists you might find helpful for baseball stuff!

10 best podcast apps for Android!

10 best radio apps for Android!

SofaScore

Price: Free / Up to $2.99

SofaScore is one of the best score apps for any sport and that includes baseball. The app gives you up-to-the-minute scores across virtually every sport you know and several you might not know. The app’s UI is clean, colorful, and easy to use. You shouldn’t have any major problems setting up the leagues you want to keep track of and switching between them. This one is a bit overkill if you want to only follow baseball scores since it is designed to follow a ton of different sports. Otherwise, it’s a solid app with very few complaints from us or, well, anyone else.

theScore

Price: Free

theScore is a sports news app. They cover many sports, including NFL, NHL, NBA, soccer, the Olympics, and baseball. The app has a clean UI. It also lets you pick your favorite teams and only shows news about those teams. The app includes scores, schedules, stats, news, and highlight videos when available. Basically, it’s a rock solid alternative to larger, usually more bloated baseball apps like ESPN or Yahoo sports. The app has the occasional bug but the developers usually do a fairly decent job of squashing them. Otherwise, this is a solid sports app.

Twitter

Price: Free

Twitter is a surprisingly good spot for sports. Most baseball personalities, players, journalists, and teams have individual accounts. They provide a near constant stream of updates, news, highlights, live scores, and discussion. You can usually find stuff like short highlight clips moments after they happen versus waiting for the big blogs to post about it. The app itself is functional if not overly inspiring. You log in, follow the baseball accounts, and then scroll through the Tweets. We’re big fans of the Cleveland Indians Twitter page, but all of the teams do a fairly good job. Just avoid the politics because Twitter politics are the literal worst.

Yahoo Sports

Price: Free

Yahoo Sports and its fantasy sports platform, Yahoo Fantasy Sports, are excellent options for baseball fans. They both compete directly with ESPN and its fantasy sports platform as the top two sports news sites on the Internet. Yahoo sports gives you the usual stuff, including scores, news, rumors, the schedule, injuries, and other such things. The fantasy sports app is probably just as good as ESPN’s, but we like the simplicity of Yahoo’s just a little bit more. ESPN does a little bit better with live streaming MLB games as Yahoo tends to focus a little more on football. However, both are above average when it comes to news, scores, standings, and all of that stuff.

Live TV apps

Price: Free trial / varies

Live TV apps are great baseball apps. They let you stream live television from a bunch of different channels. All of the major services support local channels and that usually includes local sports channels like Fox Sports another such stations. Most of them also support cloud DVR, remember your favorite channels, and other useful features. This is about the only way to stream in-market games since MLB’s official streaming service usually doesn’t let you watch home games. YouTube TV, DirecTV Now, Sling TV, Hulu TV, and Fubo TV are the big players in this space right now. They all support local channels and local sports channels most of the time.

10 best baseball games for Android!

10 best sports apps for Android!

If we missed any great baseball apps, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists!

Slovak opposition party OLANO takes lead in election – partial results

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak opposition party Ordinary People (OLANO) took the lead in the EU country's parliamentary election, results from one third of voting districts showed on Sunday. The partial results showed the anti-corruption movement OLANO winning 23.7% of the vote, followed by the ruling centre-left Smer party with 20.6%. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Tomas Mrva; Editing by Leslie Adler)

The post Slovak opposition party OLANO takes lead in election – partial results appeared first on Firstpost.

New lion, size of house cat, with bone-crushing teeth, is found in fossil form - CNET

Xiaomi Black Shark 3 triple main camera shines through in a new drawing and a live photo

Xiaomi is expected to take the wrapping off of its new Black Shark 3 gaming handset in just a few days, on March 3 and naturally, the leaks have been intensifying accordingly. While cameras are understandably not going of be the main focus of this device, it is still good to get at least part of the scoop early. A new rough drawing of the phone has surfaced online, offering a better look at its back design, including what is a rather particular arrangement of a triple-camera setup. #Xiaomi #blackshark3 #blackshark3pro This is what the new gaming smartphone will look like. The render of the...

Vivo Apex 2020 concept phone hides a camera under its screen - CNET

Slovak opposition party OLANO takes wide lead in election – exit poll

By tomas mrva and Jan Lopatka BRATISLAVA - Slovak opposition movement Ordinary People (OLANO) took a strong lead in the EU country's parliamentary election, an exit poll released by TV Markiza showed on Saturday. The poll was in line with forecasts that voters in the central European country were poised to oust the ruling centre-left Smer party, which has dominated Slovakia's political landscape for more than a decade, amid growing anger over high-level graft and the murder of an investigative journalist. The poll by the Focus agency showed OLANO winning 25.8% of the vote, followed by Smer with 14.9%

The post Slovak opposition party OLANO takes wide lead in election – exit poll appeared first on Firstpost.

Oh my god, just wash your hands

Please wash your damn hands. 

It's 2020 and yes, full grown adults still need to hear it. 

Health officials in Washington confirmed the first death from the new coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, on Saturday. The virus is highly contagious, and as of Saturday, has infected 85,641 people worldwide and is responsible for 2,933 deaths. Symptoms include fever, cough, and difficulty breathing.

As panic around the virus rises, preventative supplies like face masks and hand sanitizer are becoming increasingly difficult to buy. They're out of stock in most drugstores and big box stores like Walmart and Target. On Amazon, brands like Purell and Germ-X are only available through third party sellers at high mark-upsFrustrated shoppers on social media warned others of the hand sanitizer shortage, crowdsourcing lists of stores that still had an inventory.  Read more...

Wall Street in coronavirus contingency mode with staff, visitors, regulators

By Michelle Price and Imani Moise WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Big U.S. banks have been rolling out contingency plans to respond to the global coronavirus outbreak - requiring some staff to work from home, implementing travel restrictions, and talking to regulators about potential stresses.

The post Wall Street in coronavirus contingency mode with staff, visitors, regulators appeared first on Firstpost.

PS5 might get an amazing controller feature that the Xbox Series X can’t match

Sony is under a lot of pressure to unveil the PlayStation 5, or at least some new details about the upcoming console, as Microsoft is already way ahead. The Xbox Series X name and design were revealed in mid-December, and the company just shared many of the console’s next-gen specs this week. Both were complete surprises, as Microsoft hijacked an awards show to reveal the console’s design last December, and then suddenly dropped a blog post that featured a deep dive into the Xbox Series X’s hardware this week.

While we wait for Sony’s moves, which will likely be affected by the coronavirus outbreak that prompted the cancelation of several major events, with Sony itself pulling out of at least three trade shows so far, we do have more exciting PlayStation news for you. Unlike Microsoft, which has controlled the narrative, Sony’s innovations have leaked at a steady pace. And the newest finding is more exciting than any of the previous ones, as it details a controller feature that would give the new PlayStation a huge advantage over the Series X.

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Today's Top Deals

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2. Today’s top deals: $120 AirPods with wireless charging, huge Anker sale, $8 charging pad, $33 dome cam, Fire TV blowout, more
3. Galaxy S20 release is in 1 week, and Amazon has preorder deals you can’t get anywhere else

Trending Right Now:

1. I can’t stop staring at this video of a foldable ‘iPhone 12 Flip’
2. Newly revealed ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ deleted scene would’ve been crazy, but it can’t happen now
3. More PS5 specs accidentally confirmed by major accessory maker

PS5 might get an amazing controller feature that the Xbox Series X can’t match originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 28 Feb 2020 at 20:15:30 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wall St. bounce too little, too late as world stocks post shock weekly decline

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coronavirus panic sent world stock markets tumbling again on Friday, with an index of global stocks setting its largest weekly fall since the 2008 global financial crisis, and over $5 trillion wiped from global market value this week. U.S

The post Wall St. bounce too little, too late as world stocks post shock weekly decline appeared first on Firstpost.

Wall St. bounce to little, to late as world stocks post shock weekly decline

By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coronavirus panic sent world stock markets tumbling again on Friday, with an index of global stocks setting its largest weekly fall since the 2008 global financial crisis, and over $5 trillion wiped from global market value this week. U.S. stocks shaved most of the day's losses late in the New York session but only the Nasdaq eked out a positive close

The post Wall St. bounce to little, to late as world stocks post shock weekly decline appeared first on Firstpost.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management added to stocks portfolio as markets tumbled

By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall (Reuters) - Portfolio managers at Goldman Sachs Asset Management have used the recent selloff in global stocks caused by the coronavirus as an opportunity to take positions in a range of companies focusing on everything from concerts to cosmetics. As stocks tumbled to their worst weekly performance since the financial crisis, the firm's $60 billion portfolios bought shares of Japanese cosmetics-maker Shiseido Co Ltd and events promoter Live Nation Entertainment , as well as companies in the travel and hotel sector, Katie Koch, Goldman Sachs' global co-head of equities for its asset management business, said in an interview with Reuters. "We recognize the seriousness (of the coronavirus concerns), and we would never celebrate a sell off of this magnitude," she said

The post Goldman Sachs Asset Management added to stocks portfolio as markets tumbled appeared first on Firstpost.

Coronavirus outbreak rains on dealmakers’ M&A parade

By Joshua Franklin and Krystal Hu NEW YORK (Reuters) - The steep market drop triggered by the global coronavirus outbreak has led many companies to hit the 'pause' button on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), sabotaging the hopes of corporate advisers who expected a dealmaking bonanza this year. While M&A volumes have not yet registered the effect of this week's market volatility, dealmakers say some clients are stepping back from signing deals after the S&P 500 Index dropped 11.5% from its all-time high in the last five days

The post Coronavirus outbreak rains on dealmakers’ M&A parade appeared first on Firstpost.

USTR vows to push for trade deals with Britain, EU; seeks broader reset at WTO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday said it would focus on concluding trade agreements with Britain, the European Union and Kenya over the coming year, while strictly enforcing trade laws and pushing for a broader reset of the World Trade Organization.

The post USTR vows to push for trade deals with Britain, EU; seeks broader reset at WTO appeared first on Firstpost.

GDC 2020 has been canceled

Well, after what I’m sure was a hectic few days for the folks planning the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the team announced today that they have officially decided to cancel the event happening this March, saying in a blog post that they hoped they would be able to reschedule an event for “later in the summer.”

In recent days, nearly all of the event’s top corporate sponsors announced that they would not be sending employees to the event due to concerns surrounding coronavirus. Microsoft, Unity, Epic, Amazon, Facebook and Sony had all bowed out of the event. GDC’s statement did not reference the virus.

The company behind GDC detailed that they will be refunding conference and expo attendees in full, though a blog post details that the group hopes to host a GDC event later in the summer, noting, “We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.”

GDC is just the latest tech conference to be shuttered in the wake of worldwide concern surrounding the outbreak of coronavirus. Yesterday, Facebook announced it would be canceling the in-person component of its F8 conference and we have already seen the cancellation of GSMA‘s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Redmi Note 8 Pro Android 10 update escapes China

The Redmi Note 8 Pro has been running the latest MIUI 11 for a while now, and yet everywhere across the world except China it's still been based on the rather ancient Android 9 Pie. An update to Android 10 has been in the works for months for global Redmi Note 8 Pro models, but for some reason it took this long to actually start rolling out. Don't get the champagne out yet, though. For now, a new update for the Redmi Note 8 Pro bringing Android 10 to the immensely popular mid-range device, is only going out in Pakistan, seemingly. It's unclear how long it will take for us to see it in...

Reddit CEO calls TikTok ‘parasitic,’ sparking a truly insane discussion on – where else – Reddit

It strikes me as a little ironic that, just one day after Reddit CEO Steve Huffman's broadside about TikTok being "fundamentally parasitic," it sparked at least one massive Reddit thread so intense and even packed with criticism of Huffman's leadership that said thread is now locked and closed-off to new comments.

Huffman, who's also a co-founder of Reddit, was at a public event Wednesday night when he leveled his criticism onstage at TikTok, an upstart, massively popular new social network that's owned by a Chinese parent company. "I look at that app as so fundamentally parasitic, that it’s always listening, the fingerprinting technology they use is truly terrifying, and I could not bring myself to install an app like that on my phone," Huffman said from the stage. “I actively tell people, ‘Don’t install that spyware on your phone." Naturally, Reddit has pretty much exploded with discussion threads around this news -- almost two dozen such discussions, last time I checked.

Continue reading...

Today's Top Deals

1. Today’s best deals: Anker wireless chargers, $120 AirPods 2, $8 LED smart bulbs, 75″ 4K Roku TV, $6 Alexa smart plugs, more
2. Today’s top deals: $120 AirPods with wireless charging, huge Anker sale, $8 charging pad, $33 dome cam, Fire TV blowout, more
3. Galaxy S20 release is in 1 week, and Amazon has preorder deals you can’t get anywhere else

Trending Right Now:

1. More PS5 specs accidentally confirmed by major accessory maker
2. I can’t stop staring at this video of a foldable ‘iPhone 12 Flip’
3. Newly revealed ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ deleted scene would’ve been crazy, but it can’t happen now

Reddit CEO calls TikTok ‘parasitic,’ sparking a truly insane discussion on – where else – Reddit originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 28 Feb 2020 at 19:12:24 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez on Netflix will stay with me a long time - CNET

Save $231 on Bowers & Wilkins PX wireless noise-canceling headphones - CNET

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Lyft ramps up self-driving program

A year ago, Lyft submitted a report to the California Department of Motor Vehicles that summed up its 2018 autonomous vehicle testing activity in a single, short paragraph.

“Lyft Inc. did not operate any vehicles in autonomous mode on California public roads during the reporting period,” the letter read. “As such, Lyft Inc. has no autonomous mode disengagements to report.”

The 2019 data tells a different story. Lyft had 19 autonomous vehicles testing on public roads in California in 2019, according to data released earlier this week by the CA DMV. Those 19 vehicles, which operated during the reporting period of December 2018 to November 2019, drove nearly 43,000 miles in autonomous mode.

The report is the latest sign that Lyft is trying to ramp up its self-driving vehicle program known as Level 5. 

The CA DMV, the agency that regulates autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in the state, requires companies to submit an annual report that includes data such as total AV miles driven and number of vehicles. It also requires companies to report “disengagements,” a term that describes each time a self-driving vehicle disengages out of autonomous mode either because its technology failed or a human safety driver took manual control for safety reasons.

That’s still far below established AV developers such as Cruise and Waymo, which accumulated 831,000 and 1.45 million autonomous miles, respectively. And it makes up just a tiny sliver of the total autonomous miles racked up by the 36 companies that tested on public roads in 2019.

The total number of autonomous miles driven in 2019 rose 40%, to more than 2.87 million, thanks largely to a notable uptick in public on-road testing by Baidu, Cruise, Pony.ai, Waymo and Zoox. While the number of companies with testing permits grew to 60 in 2019, the percentage of companies actually testing on public roads fell to about 58%. In 2018, about 62% of the 48 companies that held permits tested on public roads.

Still, the report shows Lyft is doing more than partnering with autonomous vehicle companies like Aptiv. Lyft and Aptiv launched a robotaxi pilot in January 2018 in Las Vegas. The program, which puts Aptiv vehicles on Lyft’s ride-hailing network, surpassed 100,000 rides this month. Human safety drivers are always behind the wheel and the vehicles do not drive autonomously in parking lots and hotel lobby areas.

Lyft’s Level 5 program — a nod to the SAE automated driving level that means the vehicle handles all driving in all conditions — was launched in July 2017. Today, Level 5 employs more than 400 employees in the U.S., Munich and London.

Exclusive: U.S. postpones summit with ASEAN leaders amid coronavirus fears – sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will postpone a meeting with leaders of Southeast Asian countries it planned to host on March 14 amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Friday. U.S

The post Exclusive: U.S. postpones summit with ASEAN leaders amid coronavirus fears – sources appeared first on Firstpost.

Slovaks poised to oust ruling Smer party in election clouded by graft

By tomas mrva BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Voters look poised to oust the centre-left Smer party that has dominated Slovakia's political landscape for more than a decade in a national election on Saturday overshadowed by anger over high-level graft. Opinion polls ahead of a two-week moratorium before the ballot pointed to a rapid rise for anti-corruption movement Ordinary People (OLANO), increasing chances it may form a centre-right majority with smaller conservative and liberal parties to outmanoeuvre Smer

The post Slovaks poised to oust ruling Smer party in election clouded by graft appeared first on Firstpost.

Tenth coronavirus case confirmed in California – county health officials

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A tenth case of coronavirus has been confirmed in California, health officials from Santa Clara County said on Friday.The county's top health official said she would provide further information at a news conference later on Friday afternoon. It was the third confirmed case of coronavirus in the county, which includes the Silicon Valley tech hub. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)

The post Tenth coronavirus case confirmed in California – county health officials appeared first on Firstpost.

Trump says nominating congressman Ratcliffe to be national intelligence director

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was nominating Republican Representative John Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence. It is the second time Trump has nominated Ratcliffe to be the U.S.

The post Trump says nominating congressman Ratcliffe to be national intelligence director appeared first on Firstpost.

Guinea delays disputed referendum that could extend veteran Conde’s rule

By Saliou Samb CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's President Alpha Conde has delayed Sunday's constitutional referendum and legislative polls for two weeks because of concerns raised by international observers about the electoral roll, he told state television late on Friday. Earlier this week, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an organisation of French-speaking governments, withdrew its poll-monitoring mission, citing the presence of 2.49 million "problematic" entries on the electoral register. The claim increased pressure on Conde, 81, who many fear is holding a referendum on the constitution just so he can extend his rule for 12 more years, despite the risk of mass unrest and a major dent in the health of Guinea's mining economy.

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Trump willing to meet leaders of Russia, China, Britain, France on arms control

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is willing to meet the leaders of Russia, China, Britain and France with the aim of discussing arms control, a senior administration official said on Friday. Trump wants to use such a meeting of the U.N

The post Trump willing to meet leaders of Russia, China, Britain, France on arms control appeared first on Firstpost.

Pandemic fears send investors running as Wall St. confirms correction

By Sinéad Carew New York (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes plunged on Thursday for the sixth straight session, with the S&P 500 confirming its fastest correction in history as the rapid global spread of coronavirus intensified worries about economic growth. The S&P 500 finished 12% below its Feb. 19 record close, marking its fastest correction ever in just six trading days.

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Confidence returning for UK consumers and companies – surveys

LONDON (Reuters) - Confidence among British consumers hit its highest level in 18 months in February, and there were fresh signs that companies have also become more positive since December's election, surveys showed. Market research firm GfK's index of consumer confidence rose to -7 in February from -9 in January, its strongest since August 2018 and a touch higher than the median forecast of -8 in a Reuters poll of economists. A measure of how willing people are to make major purchases such as a car rose sharply

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Global shares head for worst week since 2008 financial crisis

By Hideyuki Sano TOKYO (Reuters) - Global share prices headed for the worst week since the darkest days of the world financial crisis in 2008 as investors braced for the coronavirus to become a pandemic and rapidly spread around the world. Hopes that the epidemic that started in China would be over in a few months and economic activity would return to normal have been shattered, as new infections reported around the world now surpass those in China

The post Global shares head for worst week since 2008 financial crisis appeared first on Firstpost.

Facebook cancels developer conference as tech companies respond to virus

By Katie Paul and Stephen Nellis (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Thursday it would cancel its annual developer conference due to fears over the coronavirus, as growing concerns about the economic impact of the global outbreak drove Wall Street to tumble for a sixth straight day. Facebook's F8 conference, which attracted 5,000 people from around the world last year, was scheduled to be held May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California. Microsoft Corp on Thursday said it still plans to hold its own developer conference in Seattle later in May but withdrew from a gaming conference scheduled for next month in San Francisco, joining a host of multinationals in calling off corporate events and grounding employees from travel as a result of the outbreak

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Europe looking for positive signal from U.S. on trade – EU lawmaker

By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The European Union hopes to de-escalate trade tensions with the United States but wants Washington to lower steel tariffs or make another goodwill gesture after a series of concessions by Brussels in recent years, a top EU lawmaker said Thursday. European lawmakers were stung when Washington this month expanded steel tariffs just as the two economic powers were trying to resume trade negotiations, Bernd Lange, who chairs the European Parliament's trade committee, told reporters. Lange, who led a delegation of European lawmakers who met with senior U.S.

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Clearview said its facial recognition app was only for law enforcement as it courted private companies

After claiming that it would only sell its controversial facial recognition software to law enforcement agencies, a new report suggests that Clearview AI is less than discerning about its client base. According to BuzzFeed News, the small, secretive company looks to have shopped its technology far and wide. While Clearview counts ICE, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the retail giant Macy’s among its paying customers, many more private companies are testing the technology through 30-day free trials. Non-law enforcement entities that appeared on Clearview’s client list include Walmart, Eventbrite, the NBA, Coinbase, Equinox and many others.

According to the report, even if a company or organization has no formal relationship with Clearview, its individual employees might be testing the software. “In some cases… officials at a number of those places initially had no idea their employees were using the software or denied ever trying the facial recognition tool,” BuzzFeed News reports.

In one example, the NYPD denied a relationship with Clearview, even as as many as 30 officers within the department conducted 11,000 searches through the software, according to internal logs.

A week ago, Clearview’s CEO Hoan Ton-That was quoted on Fox Business stating that his company’s technology is “strictly for law enforcement” — a claim the company’s budding client list appears to contradict.

“This list, if confirmed, is a privacy, security, and civil liberties nightmare,” ACLU staff attorney Nathan Freed Wessler said of the revelations. “Government agents should not be running our faces against a shadily assembled database of billions of our photos in secret and with no safeguards against abuse.”

On top of its reputation as an invasive technology, critics argue that facial recognition tech isn’t accurate enough to be used in the high-consequence settings it’s often touted for. Facial recognition software has notoriously struggled to accurately identify non-white, non-male faces, a phenomenon that undergirds arguments that biased data has the potential to create devastating real-world consequences.

Little is known about the technology that powers Clearview’s own algorithms and accuracy beyond that the company scrapes public images from many online sources, aggregates that data and allows users to search it for matches. In light of Clearview’s reliance on photos from social networks, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have all issued the company cease-and-desist letters for violating their terms of use.

Clearview’s small pool of early investors includes the private equity firm Kirenaga Partners and famed investor and influential tech conservative Peter Thiel. Thiel, who sits on the board of Facebook, also co-founded Palantir, a data analytics company that’s become a favorite of law enforcement.

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Uber’s latest update makes it easier than ever to find your driver

Uber never waits long between updates, and on Thursday, the company announced two new features that should make life easier for both riders and drivers alike. I was actually surprised that the first wasn't already part of the app, but Uber is preparing a translation tool that will allow you and your driver to instantly translate either a pre-generated phrase or a custom message from one another with a single tap in the chat.

Previously, if a driver sent a message to a rider, it would appear in the driver's preferred language, no matter what the rider's preferred language on the app happened to be. Once the update rolls out, both parties will have the option to hit the "Translate" button to see the message in their language of choice.

Continue reading...

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Uber’s latest update makes it easier than ever to find your driver originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 27 Feb 2020 at 19:05:23 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

U.S. wireless carriers face $200 million in FCC fines for mishandling customer data

Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T can definitely hear the FCC now. 

The nation's largest mobile providers are facing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in fines after the Federal Communications Commission determined the companies didn't adequately protect customers' location data. At issue was the practice of selling customers' real-time location data to third parties — data which then ended up in the hands of bounty hunters, debt collectors, and other questionable parties. 

The news, reported by the Wall Street Journal, follows a Jan. 31 announcement by the FCC that at least one phone carrier had violated federal privacy protectionsAccording to Reuters, the FCC is set to propose fines of $200 million in total for the four mobile carriers tomorrow.  Read more...

Virgin Media is giving the West Midlands a huge broadband update

Virgin Media is boosting internet speeds in the West Midlands by switching on gigabit broadband.

The company is planning to deliver speeds of 1104Mbps to over a million homes around Birmingham, Coventry and surrounding areas.

According to Ofcom, Birmingham’s median download speed is 52.8Mbps. Virgin Media are claiming that the new Gig1 Fibre Broadband has a download speed of 1104Mbps and an upload speed of 52Mbps. However, it comes with a hefty price tag. It’s currently £62 a month!

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, visited Virgin Media’s national apprenticeship centre in Birmingham ahead of the switch-on.

“Connectivity like this has the potential to make life easier for people here in the West Midlands and is sure to help our businesses and economy grow,” said Street. “I’ve spoken frequently on the need for good, reliable connectivity in the region and Virgin Media’s investment here in network expansion is an important step towards making the West Midlands one of the best connected places in the country.”

Related: Virgin Media is doubling some users’ broadband speeds with free upgrade

Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden, also attended the facility ahead of the switch-on. The MP for Hertsmere was keen to argue that the Broadband speed-up was part of the Conservative Party’s plan to boost British connectivity.

He said: “Today’s announcement means we’re a million homes closer in delivering our plans to deliver gigabit broadband to everyone in the UK. We’re working closely with companies like Virgin Media and investing £5 billion to ensure the hardest to reach areas aren’t left behind – so that every part of the country can enjoy the benefits of a world class internet connection.”

Faster speeds will better allow internet users in the area to multi-task in the home, allowing streaming, gaming and more to run smoothly at the same time, without tiresome lag, buffering and delays.

Jeff Dodds, Chief Operating Officer at Virgin Media, said: “Virgin Media is delivering on its promises, putting its money where its mouth is and bringing next-generation broadband to its entire network. Switching on gigabit speeds for more than a million homes in the West Midlands, the UK’s largest gigabit roll-out to date, will be a leap forward for the region and a big step for the Government’s gigabit broadband ambition.

Related: Best Router 2020 – 6 of the best for speed, range and stability

So, it sounds like Virgin Media is speeding up its broadband offering, but the prices are pretty hefty, for now. Take a look at their packages below.

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