Microsoft today asked the U.S. government to create a mechanism for granting exemptions to last week’s executive order on immigration that would meet “the pressing needs of real people,” including scores of company employees and their families. In the letter to the heads of the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security, Brad Smith,…
DetailsMajor American companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, have drafted an open letter to Donald Trump that is now being passed around Washington D.C. The letter, obtained by Recode, takes a positive yet cautious approach to addressing Trump’s immigration restrictions. “Our nation’s compassion is a part of what makes it exceptional, and we…
DetailsThe Federal Communications Commission has taken the first step toward the eventual roll-out of over-the-air terrestrial 4K television broadcasting in the U.S. On Thursday, the agency published a proposed regulation that would allow TV stations to begin broadcasts using the ATSC3.0 format, a newer version of the digital transmission format used today. ATSC 3.0 uses…
DetailsAT&T will launch its first 5G wireless service in Indianapolis and Austin later this year, offering theoretical top speeds of 400Mbps or higher, the company said. Current 4G LTE networks used by customers may be far less, often no higher than 30Mbps on downloads, from the nation’s major wireless carriers, according to various field tests…
DetailsCisco Systems has fixed a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to take over servers used by telecommunications providers to remotely manage customer equipment such as routers. The vulnerability affects Cisco Prime Home, an automated configuration server (ACS) that communicates with subscriber devices using the TR-069 protocol. In addition to remotely managing customer equipment, it…
DetailsCisco this week issued a notice that faulty clock timing chips in some of its switches, routers and security appliances could fail after about 18 months of service – causing those devices to crash and not recover. The notice includes some of the company’s most widely deployed products, from certain models of its Series 4000…
DetailsUsers of Microsoft’s Outlook app for iPhone and iPad can now get work done quicker using third-party integrations. As of Thursday, Outlook for iOS supports add-ins, which let software companies build extensions to their own products that interact with emails in Outlook on a user’s smartphone and tablet. At launch, the app supports add-ins from…
DetailsEuropean Union antitrust authorities are concerned that some video game publishers aren’t playing by the rules of the EU’s single market, charging customers in different countries different prices for access to what is essentially the same game. The European Commission opened investigations into five companies distributing their games online through the Steam network operated by…
DetailsMicrosoft just rolled out the latest Windows Insider build in the run-up to this spring’s Windows 10 Creators Update. This time around the new preview version of Windows includes some important updates for the visually impaired, and improvements for Windows addicts looking for some visual relief at night. Further reading: The Windows 10 Creators Update’s best…
DetailsU.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to channel populist anger to stem immigration, but tech companies want him to know that hiring immigrants is necessary for the country’s economy and boosts overall employment. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are said to be writing Trump a letter expressing their concern about the order on immigration…
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