China Ramps Up Crackdown on American Tech

Over the past few months, China has escalated its efforts to exert control over American technology companies by implementing new requirements, bans and restrictions.

The Chinese government is clamping down on American technology companies by throttling their already limited access to the country’s massive economy, according to new requirements, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The country has also challenged American technology dominance by developing rivals to the latest smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as announcing export limits to key metals in July.

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Apple Will Scan All U.S. iPhones for Illegal Child Abuse Imagery, Prompting Privacy Concerns

Apple plans to scan all iPhone in the U.S. for potential child abuse imagery.

The move announced Thursday generated shock waves among security experts who say it could allow the company to surveil many millions of phones for reasons unrelated to images of child abuse.

“This sort of tool can be a boon for finding child pornography in people’s phones. But image what it could do in the hands of an authoritarian government,” tweeted Johns Hopkins professor and cryptographer Matthew Green.

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Tennessee Among States That Settle iPhone Speed Throttling Lawsuit with Apple, Meaning Customers May Qualify for Portion of Proceeds

Tennessee is one of more than 30 states to reach a $113 million settlement with Apple Inc. over the so-called “Batterygate,” or secret throttling of iPhone speeds, meaning some residents may qualify for a share of the lawsuit’s proceeds.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Tennessee’s attorney general, announced the agreement last week.

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Facebook’s Software Kit to Blame for Popular Apps Crashing

Friday’s widespread crashes of popular apps running on the iPhone’s iOS operating system — including Tinder, Spotify and Pinterest — serve as a reminder that Facebook is still tracking you through your phone using sophisticated software, even if you’re not browsing the social network.

Early Friday, users of the apps reported crashes when they tried to open them up. Facebook attributed the problem, which was quickly fixed, to a bug in its software development kit, or SDK, a tool developers use to integrate their apps with Facebook.

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Smartphone Market Seeing Steady Growth, as Bigger Screens Dominate

Smartphones

The global smartphone market is expected to see steady if unspectacular growth in the next few years, as consumers turn increasingly to large-screen handsets known as “phablets,” a market tracker said Wednesday. A report by the research firm IDC said phablets — with displays larger than 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) — will account for some 40 percent of the 1.5 billion smartphones sold in 2017, and that the phablet share will rise to more than half by 2019. …

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