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Keyword: smartphones

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  • Not As Smart as We Think We Are

    07/15/2025 6:47:29 AM PDT · by Rev M. Bresciani · 6 replies
    New American Prophet ^ | July 15, 2025 | Rob Pue
    I have no doubt that God’s Word gives us all the information we need to know, and nothing is hidden from us that we, as Christ followers, must understand. But the Bible is also filled with information that is not yet for us all to understand. This is especially true when it comes to Bible prophecy. There are certain things we can only speculate upon. Even as we see current world events lining up with Scripture references, there are some things we’re not ready to fully understand, and God knows that. Indeed, if we knew with absolute certainty the dates,...
  • Chaos unfolds in downtown Los Angeles as large mob vandalizes police car, train, businesses

    05/25/2025 5:08:03 PM PDT · by artichokegrower · 104 replies
    KTLA ^ | May 25, 2025 | : Will Conybeare
    Officers had to form a skirmish line to clear a large mob that vandalized a Metro train, a police car and several businesses in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night.
  • Smartphones Are Listening to You, Here Is How to Stop Them

    05/14/2025 11:14:51 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 41 replies
    Euroweekly News ^ | 14 May 2025 | Olivier Acuña Barba
    Have you ever just had a family dinner conversation over a group holiday or spoken with friends about going to Ibiza to party, and minutes later, relevant ads appear on Facebook or other applications or websites? More than likely you answered yes, and that’s simply because all smart devices are permanently listening in on everything you say and keep track of everything you do. They are constantly gathering behavioural data, mostly for commercial and marketing purposes. In the case of vehicles with built-in smart devices, including sensors, they build complete profiles of the drivers and their passengers. They map their...
  • This former influencer gave up her smartphone. She says you should, too

    04/09/2025 1:34:57 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 64 replies
    npr ^ | 04/07/2025 | Anandita Bhalerao , Andrew Mambo
    It's hard to imagine going a day without the reassuring weight of a phone in our pockets. A Harvard Business Review study on phone addiction found we're interrupted by our phones about every 13 minutes of our time awake. Research has found that even a short break from smartphones can significantly boost your mood. As more people hope to take back control of their time and attention, digital detox clubs – groups of people meeting up without phones to reconnect with nature, practice hobbies or just talk – are meeting across the world, from New York City to Seoul. Some...
  • FBI seizes Polymarket CEO’s phone, electronics after betting platform predicts Trump win: source

    11/13/2024 1:20:29 PM PST · by DFG · 78 replies
    NY Post ^ | 11/13/2024 | Taylor Herzlich
    The FBI seized Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan’s phone and electronics early Wednesday morning — just a week after the election-betting platform successfully predicted President-elect Donald Trump’s win, The Post has learned. The 26-year-old entrepreneur was woken up at 6:00 a.m. in his Soho home by law US enforcement officers who demanded his phone and electronics, a source close to the matter told The Post. It’s “grand political theater at its worst,” the source told The Post. “They could have asked his lawyer for any of these things. Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the...
  • Prepare yourself for the AI smartphone wars: Apple vs Samsung vs Google

    07/05/2024 8:20:11 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 18 replies
    Yahoo Finance ^ | 07/05/24 | Daniel Howley: Technology Editor
    Smartphone innovation has largely slowed to a crawl over the last few years. We’re long past the days when each successive generation of phones offered up features that drove waves of excitement among consumers, who would then wait outside the Apple Store. But that might be about to change thanks to artificial intelligence. At least, that’s what smartphone makers hope. Yes, we’re about to enter a new phase of smartphone sales spin. Prepare yourselves for the great AI smartphone war. To be fair, smartphone makers have been adding AI and machine learning capabilities to their devices for years — for...
  • Car insurance companies secretly collecting driver data with the help of phone apps: report

    06/11/2024 7:16:13 AM PDT · by george76 · 44 replies
    New York Post ^ | June 10, 2024 | Ariel Zilber
    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...
  • If Apple declines, the West declines: China is turning from a supplier to western companies into a direct competitor

    04/16/2024 7:45:00 PM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 18 replies
    The Spectator ^ | 04/16/2024 | Matthew Lynn
    It has been a long time since the West dominated shipbuilding or steel making. We are already aware that we are losing ground in consumer goods, as well as in finance and transport. Add it all up, and we no longer expect the US, Europe or its allies to control the global market in most major industries. Still, even as other industries lost ground there was one thing most economists and industrial experts would have felt sure we could rely on: Apple. Whatever else happened, nothing would knock its world-beating iPhone — without question the world’s most profitable product —...
  • Nigerian brothers plead guilty to sexual extortion after suicide death of Mich. teen

    04/13/2024 11:37:45 AM PDT · by heartwood · 16 replies
    New York Post ^ | Yaron Steinbuch
    Two brothers from Nigeria pleaded guilty Wednesday in connection with an international sextortion ring, in which they threatened to release a nude photo of a 17-year-old Michigan boy, driving him to commit suicide inside his home. Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and Samson Ogoshi, 20, each pleaded guilty to conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys, US Attorney Mark Totten said in a statement. The Ogoshi brothers await sentencing later this year, and we are still pursuing the extradition of the third defendant, Ezekiel Robert,” Totten added. DeMay, 17, was found dead in his home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound March 25, 2022,...
  • Apple has kept an illegal monopoly over smartphones in US, Justice Department says in antitrust suit

    03/21/2024 8:33:24 AM PDT · by bitt · 132 replies
    https://apnews.com ^ | 3/21/2024 | MICHAEL LIEDTKE, LINDSAY WHITEHURST AND MIKE BALSAMO
    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors and stifles innovation. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and uses its control over the iPhone to “engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct.” The lawsuit — which was also filed with 16 state attorneys general — is the latest example of the Justice Department’s approach to aggressive enforcement of federal antitrust law that...
  • Smart Phone Smuggling: Mexican Cartels Use Apps to Sneak Immigrants into U.S.

    01/04/2024 11:38:39 AM PST · by MikelTackNailer · 3 replies
    The Tennessee Star ^ | January 1, 2024 | Charlotte Hazard
    As migrants pour into the U.S. illegally, Mexican cartels are using smartphones to facilitate their smuggling, making payments to drivers and manipulating the Customs and Border Protection app to get more people in. The CBP One app allows entrants to the United States to schedule appointments to appear at U.S. ports of entry. Ostensibly, its users must be in northern Mexico to schedule an appointment, though reporting from the Washington Examiner suggested that users have turned to virtual private networks (VPN) to evade the geographic requirements. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., confirmed to the outlet...
  • Smartphones Are Spying Devices Used by Governments Against Dissidents

    12/07/2023 9:40:39 AM PST · by davikkm · 7 replies
    They haven’t used them for many purposes that we’ve seen yet, but presumably they are planning to. January 6 was a big deal on this front, as we learned that it was possible and apparently legal for the government to demand location data and identify people as being in a place based on that location data.
  • This Person Documented Their Unplugged Appliances Before Taking a Trip and It's Kind of Genius

    10/21/2023 9:32:00 AM PDT · by where's_the_Outrage? · 72 replies
    Distractify ^ | Oct 20, 2023 | CALLIE (CARLOS) CADORNIGA
    This person on TikTok posted a video documenting their unplugged appliances before taking a trip and honestly, it's kind of ingenious. Among all the intrusive thoughts I deal with on a regular basis, one of them involves trying to remember whether or not I did the most important things I should do before leaving the house. Namely, I ask myself if I locked the door, turned the stove off, or performed any other security tasks before stepping out. And even if I check all of those things off and officially leave, alarms will start going off in asking me if...
  • Watch: Government Spyware on Your Phone? Unfortunately, There’s an App for That

    07/10/2023 5:08:49 AM PDT · by george76 · 43 replies
    NCLA ^ | July 9, 2023 | NCLA
    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...
  • Travelers Beware: 'Juice Jacking' Scam Targeting Data Through Phone Charging Stations

    06/12/2023 7:57:42 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 20 replies
    The Daily Voice ^ | 06/12/2023 | Michael Mashburn
    In a warning issued this week, the New York Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection encouraged travelers to protect themselves against so-called “juice jacking” on public charging stations. Officials said thieves can place hidden skimming devices inside USB ports on public cell phone charging kiosks at airports, hotels, and other public locations. “Unfortunately, nefarious scammers are always at work finding new ways to target unsuspecting consumers and steal their personal information,” New York Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez said in a statement. If you need to charge your phone or any device while traveling, it’s important to pay attention...
  • Smartphone addiction linked with lower cognitive abilities, less self-control, and worse psychological well-being

    11/28/2022 12:27:05 PM PST · by ShadowAce · 26 replies
    PsyPost ^ | 27 November 2022 | Rachel Schepke
    Published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers found that problematic smartphone use is linked with low self-esteem as well as negative cognitive outcomes.The majority of people who live in industrialized countries have smartphones. The fear of being without one’s smartphones is known as “nomophobia” and has become a social problem. Research shows that people who have smartphone addiction tend to report more loneliness and experience self-regulation deficits..adsslot_t0TixwWES7{ width:468px !important; height:60px !important; } @media (max-width:1199px) { .adsslot_t0TixwWES7{ width:468px !important; height:60px !important; } } @media (max-width:767px) { .adsslot_t0TixwWES7{ width:300px !important; height:250px !important; } }Furthermore, people who have...
  • THOUSANDS of Americans have had ‘stalkware’ planted on their Android devices

    10/28/2022 10:47:39 AM PDT · by george76 · 15 replies
    DAILY MAIL ^ | 26 October 2022 | STACY LIBERATORE
    TheTruthSpy app has been downloaded to thousands of smartphones in America without the owner of the device knowing.. The Android app markets itself as a way for customers to monitor their spouses communications on the device.. A new report from TechCrunch reveals the app is also collecting and storing personal information from devices.. This includes 1.2 million text messages and 4.42 million call logs, along with 278,861 location data points from Americans over the course of six weeks.. ... Thousands of Americans have fallen victim to stalkware planted on their smartphones by someone they know - and an Android app...
  • The FBI is investigating allegations that senior officials broke security rules with smartphones at Washington headquarters

    09/12/2022 5:01:18 PM PDT · by bitt · 27 replies
    Washington Times ^ | 9/12/2022 | Kerry Pickett
    <p>More FBI whistleblowers have come to Congress and accused senior bureau officials of smuggling unauthorized smartphones into top-secret facilities, a security breach that can expose classified documents.</p><p>The alleged security breaches occurred at a Sensitive Compartmented Information Center or SCIF set up for the executive offices on the 7th floor of the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover Building, according to the whistleblower.</p>
  • This Army general wants leaders to stop texting their soldiers so damn much

    06/10/2022 4:08:26 AM PDT · by where's_the_Outrage? · 19 replies
    Task & Purpose ^ | June 9, 2022 | Paul Szoldra
    The commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division wants late-night texts from leaders to subordinates to stop. “The overuse and reliance on cell phones causes unforeseen stress on soldiers and families,” reads a policy letter recently shared on Twitter by Gen. Milford H. Beagle Jr., who said it was the official cell phone policy for the division and was designed to “prevent soldiers from being led by text.” “Change is a constant around us, but not all change needs to be communicated via text, chat groups, or other messaging applications,” Beagle wrote in the letter he posted Tuesday. “The constant...
  • US zoo fears teen gorilla’s exposure to phones is behind anti-social behavior

    04/08/2022 1:30:49 PM PDT · by SJackson · 17 replies
    Visitors to the Chicago zoo showing the 415lb Amare pictures and videos through the glass wall has made him dismissive to other male gorillas A teenage gorilla in a Chicago zoo has been getting too much screen time, according to zoo officials. Amare, a 415-pound gorilla at Chicago’s Lincoln Park zoo, has been staring a little too frequently at the screens of cellphones from visitors who show him pictures and videos through the glass wall – including selfies, family photos, pet videos and even footage of Amare himself. He has apparently become so distracted as a result that last week,...