Tech

Wildfire evacuation alert for all of Los Angeles was sent by mistake

After two days of dealing with wildfires that have burned thousands of acres, residents across Los Angeles County received a wildfire evacuation alert on Thursday afternoon that was a mistake. Shortly after, officials sent a follow-up alert saying that the notice was intended only for people near the Kenneth Fire in Woodland Hills. Los Angeles County shared a message on …

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Microlino’s ‘anti-pickup truck’ is designed for Americans

Micro — maker of those electric bubble cars found in some European cities — has a new Microlino especially for Americans. The all-electric Microlino Spider is dubbed the “anti-pickup truck” and is meant to be a golf cart replacement. No, not for use on fairways, but at expansive resorts and so-called golf cart communities where well-heeled urbanites can retire in …

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Google launches a ‘neutral’ Chromium development fund

Google launched Chromium alongside its Chrome web browser in 2008. It’s the open-source infrastructure that powers Chrome and many other browsers built on it, including Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Brave. In addition to Google, there are already several notable companies on board with the initiative, including Meta, Microsoft, and Opera. Microsoft said joining will help “provide clear and open governance …

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X launches Grok’s iPhone app in the US

xAI has released an iOS app in the US for its Grok chatbot, as spotted earlier by TechCrunch. The standalone app version of the chatbot, which xAI calls a beta, can perform the same functions as the one built into X, as it can field real-time information, answer questions, and generate images. xAI started testing Grok’s standalone iOS app in …

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Google and Microsoft donate $1 million apiece to Trump’s inauguration

Google and Microsoft are the latest tech companies to donate to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Each company contributed $1 million to the fund — the same amount pledged by Meta, Amazon, Sam Altman, and Tim Cook. In a statement to CNBC, Karan Bhatia, Google’s global head of government affairs and public policy, said the company is supporting the inauguration “with …

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Amazon is selling the tech behind its $50 billion ad business to other retailers

The company’s new Retail Ad Service beta will let other online stores “Deliver contextually relevant ads by leveraging Amazon’s two decades of ad tech expertise, driven by machine learning models trained on trillions of shopping signals” across their product, search, and browsing pages. It also plugs the retailers into Amazon’s existing advertising customers, as brands already using Amazon’s ad system …

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The touchless smart locks are here

Smart lock companies have spent 2024 crafting nifty ways for you to gain entry into your home, including iPhone-tapping Home Key options from Aqara, a palm scanner from Philips, keypad and fingerprint smart locks from August, and even a Face ID-style one from Lockly. These all sound pretty futuristic already… but do they feel like magic? I’m talking magic like …

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