Free Republic

two concerned parents created the group Smartphone Free Childhood. what do the pioneering minority of smartphone-free children make of all this? Annabel, 13 I’m the only person I know who doesn’t have a smartphone. I know they’re quite addictive. Some of my friends are on Snapchat a lot – one of them has 3hr screen-time limit on her phone and she uses up the whole thing with Snapchat. Some of my other friends, when we’re together, scroll on TikTok or YouTube, and I feel quite left out. Sometimes my friends communicate with people they haven’t met before from a different...

Despite parental warnings, modern kids can’t seem to keep away from cell phones As we know smartphones are incredibly versatile devices with a wide range of uses that make them indispensable in modern life but the impact of mobile phone usage on children is a topic of increasing concern among parents, educators and several health professionals. Today, mobile devices allow instant communication through calls, text messages, emails and various messaging apps while keeping the people at large connected regardless of their location. This enables easy communication with friends, family, colleagues and businesses. Browsing websites, searching information, accessing news, watching videos...

Popular smartphone apps used to track people’s location and provide weather reports may hand over driving data to a firm that sells the information to insurance companies for the purposes of setting rates for unsuspecting motorists... apps Life360, MyRadar and Gas Buddy are providing user data to an Allstate-owned company, Arity, which computes the numbers to create a “driving score” that takes into account any risky behavior behind the wheel... That information is then sold to other insurance firms — with user consent — which set rates for their customers ... Life360, which is used by parents to keep track...

Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling for a ban on kids using smartphones in school — the latest in a campaign against technology she feels is harming children in New York. The proposal would only allow kids to carry simple “dumb” phones in schools that can send texts but can’t access the internet, the governor told The Guardian in an interview published Thursday. The call for the smartphone ban comes as the self-professed “first mom governor” of New York is pushing for a ban on “addictive” social media algorithms that she says target kids. “Our kids are being pulled into a...

The 9th Circuit determined that forcibly mashing a suspect's thumb into his phone to unlock it was akin to fingerprinting him at the police station. JOE LANCASTER | 4.19.2024 12:50 PM As we keep more and more personal data on our phones, iPhone and Android devices now have some of the most advanced encryption technology in existence to keep that information safe from prying eyes. The easiest way around that, of course, is for someone to gain access to your phone. This week, a federal court decided that police officers can make you unlock your phone, even by physically forcing...

Apple’s weak China sales performance may have shocked investors, but customers and analysts have been noting the rising challenges the company faces in its third-largest market. Intensifying competition from domestic rivals, coupled with longer upgrade cycles as consumers spend more cautiously amid an economic slowdown, have stunted Apple’s China growth, with sales there nosediving by 13 per cent in the quarter ending in December to $20.8-billion and missing estimates of $23.5-billion. Shares of the company dipped about 3 per cent in early trading on Friday, following the disappointing China sales. “Apple’s sales decline in China is not surprising given the...

**SNIP** 1. Using out-of-date software Keiran told MailOnline that one of the first things he and other hackers look for when preparing an attack is out-of-date software. 'Out-of-date software is a really big issue because, if the software has been updated, it's probably because there is a security issue', he explained. Software, whether it is the operating system of your iPhone or the control system for a factory, often has some sort of vulnerability. While these can quickly fixed by developers, they are also often shared online through forums and hacker communities. If you haven't updated your software to include...

Elon Musk took to Twitter and declared Tesla is making its own smartphone. He didn’t explicitly announce it, saying they “should” do it, but if we’ve learned anything about Elon Musk over the last couple of years it’s that he doesn’t hint at anything unless it’s already happening. Tesla should create its own smartphone. Your information will never be collected. Would you use it? This came from his “parody” account, but it’s actually his account. And to answer his question, yes, people would use it… but he already knew that. The cult-like following of Tesla and Musk is similar to...

Washington, DC – The New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) in federal court for coordinating with Google to automatically install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents, without their knowledge or consent, in a misguided effort to combat Covid-19. A newly-released video details how DPH’s actions have violated fundamental constitutional rights. ... Thousands of people do not know DPH’s Covid-19 tracking app is on their phone, as it does not appear on their home screens like other apps. NCLA client Robert Wright, who commutes to Massachusetts for work, was...

Five semis, a car and a truck were all hit. Two people in the Honda Accord were pinned inside the car for about five hours and were pronounced dead at the scene, an OHP report said. Court documents identified one of the victims as Conrad Rodgers. The other victim's identity hasn't been released. Tony Aghaji was charged with causing the crash. At the time, he was taken to a Texas hospital, where he was treated and released. The 38-year-old from West Palm Beach, Florida was arrested after his release. According to an affidavit, Aghaji was talking to a delivery driver...

Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, has signed an executive order prohibiting government employees, agencies and contractors from downloading and using TikTok on state-owned devices. In her office's announcement, Noem said she issued the order due to growing security concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been using the social media app to gather information from American users and leveraging it to manipulate them. The order is already in effect and also prohibits government personnel from visiting the TikTok website on browsers. "South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us,"...

There is no official information on the release date. And since this is Tesla’s first-ever smartphone, we cannot make any speculations based on past releases. However, as per various news outlets (Mashbable India), the Tesla Pi Phone will likely launch in December 2022. If not in December 2022, we can expect the launch in January 2023. We will update you as more information on the same becomes available.

Tens of millions of US citizens were given a “COVID-19 decree violation” score as a result of a data harvesting program conducted during the first lockdown by voter analytics firm PredictWise.“These Covid-19 decree violation scores were calculated by analyzing nearly two billion global positioning system (GPS) pings to get “real-time, ultra-granular locations patterns.” People who were “on the go more often than their neighbors” were given a high Covid-19 decree violation score while those who mostly or always stayed at home were given a low Covid-19 decree violation score,” writes Reclaim the Net’s Tom Parker.The data collected was then used...

Corning stock fell more than 4% on Tuesday after the company reported a weaker-than-expected outlook for the current quarter. “We now expect smartphones to be down about 12% for the year, and we expect notebook and tablet demand to decline 15%,” said Wendell Weeks, Corning CEO.

It is a very modern dilemma. Should you hand your child a smartphone, or keep them away from the devices as long as possible? As a parent, you'd be forgiven for thinking of a smartphone as a sort of Pandora's box with the ability to unleash all the world's evils on your child's wholesome life. The bewildering array of headlines relating to the possible impact of children's phone and social media use are enough to make anyone want to opt out. Apparently, even celebrities are not immune to this modern parenting problem: Madonna has said that she regretted giving her...

It is widely regarded as the world’s most potent spyware, capable of reliably cracking the encrypted communications of iPhone and Android smartphones. The yearlong investigation, by Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti, also reports that the FBI bought and tested NSO software for years with plans to use it for domestic surveillance until the agency finally decided last year not to deploy the tools. The Times found that sales of Pegasus played a critical role in securing the support of Arab nations in Israel’s campaign against Iran and negotiating the Abraham Accords, the 2020 diplomatic agreements, signed at a Trump White...

Starting Jan. 4, 2022, only vaccine receipts with QR codes will be accepted at businesses where vaccine passports are required. As of Jan. 4, 2022, Ontarians will need to have enhanced COVID-19 vaccine certificates with a scannable QR code if they want to eat inside restaurants, go to movie theatres, gyms, concert venues, and other non-essential businesses that require proof of vaccination. Currently, vaccine passports are only required for those aged 12 and older. The old versions of vaccine certificates without a scannable QR code will no longer be accepted. Those who have a medical exemption will also need a...

If you have a smartphone, you probably use its front-facing camera for selfies and the occasional video call. Perhaps, if you’re lucky, you’ll shoot the next viral TikTok masterpiece. You might use your next smartphone’s front camera for the same things, but there’s a chance that camera won’t completely turn off once you’re done with it. This week, chipmaker Qualcomm revealed its latest Snapdragon processor, which will power many of the high-end Android smartphones you’ll see in stores in 2022, including models from Motorola, Sony, OnePlus. And a new feature built into that chip could allow smartphone makers to keep...

Smartphone developers are gearing up for a world where users can store their Covid vaccination proof in their phones’ digital wallets, making it easy to simply tap their phones when they enter new buildings. The development, which concerns some privacy advocates, comes as the delta variant of the coronavirus surges through the U.S. and some cities plan to require people to prove they’ve been vaccinated to enter places like gyms, restaurants and bars. Google, Apple and Samsung have all recently announced plans to offer a feature that readily calls up a QR code that can be scanned to quickly verify...

On Sunday, the Senate released the final text of the so-called bipartisan (but really liberal) infrastructure bill — all 2,702 pages. According to Breitbart, the huge bill was written in secret for months outside the normal legislative process. Buried in the measure is a pilot program for a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee (MBUF) which is basically a long-term plan to make it too expensive to drive a car. One of the “fun” parts of the supposed bipartisan bill (fun for believers of the climate change hypothesis) can be found on page 511 of the measure, which you can...