Technology

Amazon is taking the Pentagon to court. The company is alleging "unmistakable bias" on the government's part in awarding a massive military tech contract to rival Microsoft.

This begins a new chapter in the protracted and contentious battle over the biggest cloud-computing contract in U.S. history — called JEDI, for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure — worth up to $10 billion over 10 years.

About 26.2 percent of American households have a smart speaker.

It can play NPR and tell you the weather. It can even read your kids a bedtime story.

When the Ferguson family decided they wanted to live in the Seattle suburb of Black Diamond they weren't in the market for a smart home. But they wound up with one, a house packed with Internet-connected devices.

Like seriously, if you post something to the 'gram and not one of your followers hits "like," is it even worth sharing?

Beginning next week, some U.S. users of Instagram will be able to test this theory as the social media platform will begin hiding the "likes" counter that appears underneath a posted photo or video.

"Right now, we're testing making like counts private, so you'll be able to see how many people liked a given photo of yours or a video of yours, but no one else will," Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram announced Friday.

The self-driving Uber SUV involved in a crash that killed a Tempe, Ariz., woman last year did not recognize her as a jaywalking pedestrian and its braking system was not designed to avoid an imminent collision, according to a federal report released this week.

The conclusions by the National Transportation Safety Board were published ahead of a Nov. 19 meeting in Washington, D.C., called to discuss the cause of the crash and safety recommendations.

Gen-Z is mobilizing. The weapon of choice? TikTok videos.

The lip-syncing app birthed a viral meme that has become a rallying cry for young people around the country: “ok boomer.” As in, ok, Baby Boomer.

As Taylor Lorenz writes for The New York Times:

For decades, the cybersecurity community has had a consistent message: Mixing the Internet and voting is a horrendous idea.

"I believe that's about the worst thing you can do in terms of election security in America, short of putting American ballot boxes on a Moscow street," howled Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on the Senate floor this year.

Two former employees of Twitter were charged with spying for Saudi Arabia by snooping into thousands of private accounts seeking personal information about critics of the Riyadh government, according to court documents filed Wednesday in San Francisco.

Chinese officials are cracking down on youth online gaming, which they say negatively affects the health and learning of minors. Official guidelines released Tuesday outline a new curfew and time restrictions for gamers under 18.

Updated at 4:20 p.m. ET Wednesday

California's attorney general is seeking a court order to force Facebook to give up information about how the company handled user data.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Facebook has resisted and even ignored California's attempts to get information from the company as part of an investigation launched by his office over whether the company misused data. He said Facebook has not responded to the subpoena his office has issued.

Fazila Begum grinned as she lifted up her hem to reveal a fading patch of scaly skin around her ankle.

"Who knew this one little cream would work so fast?" she says.

Fazila, 34, has been dealing with eczema for the past five years but never got it treated. The nearest hospital is an hour away, by boat and rickshaw, and her skin condition didn't seem serious enough to make the trek, so she ignored it — until a new technology brought the doctor to her.

Wherever you tried one for whatever reason, an investigation from The New York Times reveals that breathalyzers are often unreliable.

And with a million Americans per year arrested for drunk driving, faulty determinations of an individual’s blood alcohol content could have real consequences.

From The Times’ investigation about these tools:

Open up Instagram, and there's a big chance you'll come across a post about an influencer's experience with a new lotion or a fancy restaurant. At the very bottom of the post, there's a hashtag, #ad, to divulge that you just read a paid endorsement.

That's not enough, the Federal Trade Commission says, in a publication released Tuesday.

The first U.S. census to allow all households to participate online is facing another unprecedented challenge — the looming threat of disinformation through social media.

As 2020 draws closer, federal officials fear foreign governments and internet trolls could use Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to spread rumors and propaganda to derail the constitutionally mandated count with at least 10 years' worth of implications on elections around the country.

Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality headset. The “Veronica Mars” movie. Beloved video game “Undertale.” What do all these things have in common? They were crowdfunded into existence.

While the practice of crowdfunding actually began in the ‘90s, it didn’t truly pick up steam until the foundings of its two largest modern vehicles: Kickstarter and GoFundMe.