Technology

From phony package delivery notices, to fake requests from banks for personal information, to supposed COVID-19 contact tracers looking for a photo of your vaccine card — text message scams are on the rise in the U.S., costing Americans millions of dollars.

Even as the federal government has worked to crack down on robocalls, scam texts have boomed in recent years, and that has captured growing attention inside the Federal Communications Commission.

Bones or no bones?

No, it's not a Halloween thing. It's a forecast of the day's vibe, as predicted by a 13-year-old pug named Noodle and endorsed by his growing legion of TikTok devotees.

Noodle and his owner, New York City-based Jonathan Graziano, have won over the internet with their near-daily videos of a game called "no bones." They're are mostly posted to TikTok, but also shared on Noodle's Instagram account.

LONDON (AP) — Facebook said it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform that promises to connect people virtually but could raise concerns about privacy and the social platform gaining more control over people's online lives.

New Yorker Charlie Freyre's sinuses had been bothering him for weeks last winter, during a COVID-19 surge in the city. It was before vaccines became widely available.

"I was just trying to stay in my apartment as much as possible," Freyre says, so checking in with his doctor via an online appointment "just seemed like a more convenient option. And you know, it was very straightforward and very easy."

Five members of a congressional committee say Jeff Bezos and other Amazon executives misled lawmakers and may have lied under oath, according to a Monday letter to Andy Jassy, who succeeded Bezos as CEO in July.

When Texas enacted a controversial ban on most abortions in September, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff sent a message to his staff in the state, punctuated with a heart emoji.

"Ohana if you want to move we'll help you exit TX. Your choice," Benioff wrote in a tweet, using the Hawaiian word for family.

Netflix has fired an unnamed employee connected to the brewing internal blowback the company is facing over Dave Chappelle's most recent comedy special The Closer. First reported by The Verge, the news is coming as Netflix employees plan a walkout on Wednesday over transphobic comments made in the special.

Apple has fired a lead organizer of the #AppleToo movement, as the company investigates multiple employees suspected of leaking internal documents to the media.

Janneke Parrish, a program manager who had been with the company for more than five years, told NPR that she was fired on Thursday. Apple claimed she had deleted files and apps from her company phone amid an investigation into how details of a company meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook leaked to the press, Parrish said.

As Tamu Shatallah walked past the inauguration stage draped in gold, his thoughts were on the deadly civil war that has plagued Ethiopia for nearly a year.

It's a war "between brothers, between sisters," Tamu said. A war that, as far as he can tell, has done nothing for his country.

That stage in Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa was where Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sat last week as he watched a procession of military bands, having just been elected to a second five-year term last week. Behind him, written in large letters was a message: "A new beginning."

Facebook will expand its current harassment policies to further protect users from abuse and harmful content on the platform.

On Wednesday, the company announced it would ban content that degrades or sexualizes public figures, such as elected officials, celebrities, activists, and journalists. This builds on the company's current policies that exist to protect ordinary users in the same way.

Blue Origin's second human spaceflight has returned to Earth after taking a brief flight to the edge of space Wednesday morning.

Among the four passengers on board — there is no pilot — was William Shatner, the actor who first played the space-traveling Captain Kirk in the Star Trek franchise.

Now you can fly and take into account the environmental cost of your trip a little easier.

Starting Wednesday, search results on Google Flights will show users what the carbon emissions of their prospective trips will be so that a buyer can consider their environmental footprint in the same way they would price and duration, Google explained in announcing the new feature.

The popular game streaming service Twitch has confirmed it suffered what appears to be a major data breach.

The Amazon-owned company, which has more than 7 million creators streaming every month, made the announcement in a statement Wednesday on Twitter.

Black residents in the rural South are nearly twice as likely as their white counterparts to lack home internet access, according to a new study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

On Tuesday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before a Senate panel. The hearing's focus was advertised as "protecting kids online."