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To prevent its robotaxi fleet from passing stopped school buses, Waymo is issuing another software recall in 2025. While it's not a traditional recall that pulls vehicles from the road, Waymo is voluntarily updating software for its autonomous fleet in response to an investigation from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to Waymo, the recall will be filed with the federal agency early next week.
Mauricio Peña, Waymo's chief safety officer, said in a statement that Waymo sees far fewer crashes involving pedestrians than human drivers, but that the company knows when "our behavior should be better."
"As a result, we have made the decision to file a voluntary software recall with NHTSA related to appropriately slowing and stopping in these scenarios," Peña said in a statement to multiple news outlets. "We will continue analyzing our vehicles' performance and making necessary fixes as part of our commitment to continuous improvement."
According to the NHTSA investigation, some Waymo autonomous vehicles were seen failing to stop for school buses that had their stop signs and flashing lights deployed. The federal agency said in the report that there were instances of Waymo cars driving past stopped school buses in Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
Earlier this year, Waymo issued another software recall
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If you go on vacation or a business trip, chances are you're going to need a data cable for your phone anyway, and an extra can't hurt. But a power-only cable is a handy way of securing your phone no matter what out-of-the-way, dodgy hotel or airport you end up in.
Some people call these "USB condoms," usually referring to a dongle that you can buy that blocks data from being transferred over the USB connection. In this case, "data" equals malware. Is a foreign government or hacker group building in standalone devices to push malware to your phone? Do credit-card skimmers exist? Okay then. If a malicious cable can be used to conceal malware, the wall port sure can.
I recently returned from a pair of trips to Arizona and Hawaii, and had planned to invest in a data-only USB-C cable anyway. As it turned out, Plugable alerted me about its entrance into the market, and asked if I'd like to try one out. The company offers a few cables of different lengths, and I think that Plugable's $15.95 6-foot-cable works best, if only because it accommodates awkwardly placed outlets in airports, airplanes, and hotels. (There are also cheaper, shorter options.)
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"The Federal Trade Commission is sending refunds totaling more than $126 million to players of the popular video game Fortnite."
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AI services like Perplexity or OpenAI's SearchGPT could be search engine options in a future version of Safari, Bloomberg reports. The tentative plans were shared by Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, while on the stand for Google's ongoing search antitrust case. Cue was called to testify because of the deal Google and Apple have to keep Google Search as the default search engine on the iPhone.
Cue claims Apple has discussed a possible Safari-integration with Perplexity, but didn't share any definitive plans during his testimony. It's clear that he believes AI assistants will inevitably supplant traditional search engines, though. "Prior to AI, my feeling around this was, none of the others were valid choices," Cue said. "I think today there is much greater potential because there are new entrants attacking the problem in a different way."
Whatever AI search Apple ultimately adds likely won't be the default at first, according to Cue, but "there's enough money now, enough large players, that I don't see how it doesn't happen." There's some evidence to back up the idea that things are changing, too.
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The first two third-party European app stores to be announced offer different takes on how these stores might work: the first is a white-label service for enterprise app distribution, the second is an all-you-can-eat subscription deal.
The stores are on the cusp of being introduced now that Apple has been forced to open up to third party app stores and payment systems. It seems likely more such stores will soon open, and it's interesting these two seem willing to explore new app distribution business models.
For the enterprise: Mobivention
Initially available in Germany, the Mobivention App Marketplace wants to become a safe place from which to download apps for company employees, partners, and customers.
To read this article in full, please click here
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The Windows 11 2023 Update has been released, but behind the scenes, Microsoft is constantly working to improve the newest version of Windows. The company frequently rolls out public preview builds to members of its Windows Insider Program, allowing them to test out — and even help shape — upcoming features.
Skip to the builds
The Windows Insider program is divided into four channels:
The Canary Channel is where platform changes (such as major updates to the Windows kernel and new APIs) are previewed. These changes are not tied to a particular Windows release and may never ship at all. Little documentation is provided, and builds are likely to be very unstable. This channel is best for highly technical users.
The Dev Channel is where new features are introduced for initial testing, regardless of which Windows release they'll eventually end up in. This channel is best for technical users and developers and builds in it may be unstable and buggy.
In the Beta Channel, you'll get more polished features that will be deployed in the next major Windows release. This channel is best for early adopters, and Microsoft says your feedback in this channel will have the most impact.
The Release Preview Channel typically doesn't see action until shortly before a new feature update is rolled out. It's meant for final testing of an upcoming release and is best for those who want the most stable builds.
The Beta and Release Preview Channels also receive bug-fix builds for the currently shipping version of Windows 11. See "How to preview and deploy Windows 10 and 11 updates" for more details about the four channels and how to switch to a different channel.
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